Epic Launch!

Epic Church successfully launched last Sunday and we are feeling a combination of the following: grateful, thrilled, overwhelmed, inspired, encouraged, humbled and a little bit tired - if I'm honest :) So here are some things I wanted to share about February 13th:

• 196 San Franciscans showed up! We could not have been more excited about this!
• Over 45 local adults served before, during and after the service! We also had 2 mission teams from TX and FL as well as help from two churches in the bay area.
• There were 65 first time guest who shared their information with us on the communication card.
• 7 people indicated they would like to become a followers of Jesus!! And 10 people indicated they would like to volunteer during the next service!

The response was truly overwhelming. Needless to say we have been following up with people since early Monday morning. Here are some of my favorite moments from Sunday:

• About 45 minutes before the service started we had a 5 minute meeting with all of our volunteers. It was so neat to see this HUGE circle of people who have decided to be a part of Epic.
• I met with all my Epic Kids workers and was moved to tears by their sacrifice and service. You see, when someone serves in Epic Kids, they miss the entire worship service. I looked around the table to see 10 people willing to miss the Grand Opening so that kids can experience God's love and hear his truth in an age appropriate setting - their example of selflessness was inspiring.
• To actually be able to hear the crowd singing "Our God is Greater" was something I will never forget. It's the first time I've heard our crowd overwhelming sing in any of the services. For a moment, I realized where we were and what God was doing and again overwhelmed, tears..:)
• Ben Pilgreen challenged people to spend the next four weeks seeking God with us on Sunday mornings and throughout the week to see what they find. I know of several people who said they would take this challenge. Praying for God to continue to reveal himself to us and these people.
• After the service I got to briefly speak with a woman. She held my hand and with tears in her eyes, she told me that she had a story. I told her I would love to hear it. She told me that it's time for a new beginning in her life and since Epic is just beginning too maybe she could start her new beginning with Epic. I told her I would love for her to. We are getting lunch later this week. I can't wait to hear more.

I could go on for days :) Each of you are a significant part of this journey with us. Thank you for your endless prayers and support. We could not be doing this in the way we are without you. It's so weird because we have waited and prayed for this day for over two years. Now that this day has come and gone, we realize this is only the beginning. We continue to pray for God to create a movement in San Francisco - that his love might be known among people here and that many would spend the rest of their lives following Jesus.

Here are a couple pictures from the day :)

*Part of the Launch Team that helped make Sunday possible

*Ben Pilgreen teaching

*The crowd being dismissed

*Can you sense our excitement from the day?!

With so much love,
Lindsey

A prayer...

I read this prayer this week from a devotion book I use and I wanted to share it with you today and with myself five years from now. While I mainly write this blog to share our day to day life with family and friends, it also serves as sort of a life scrapbook for Ben and I. This is just something I wanted to remember from this week:

O God, you are our refuge.

When we are exhausted by life's efforts;

When we are bewildered by life's problems;

When we are wounded by life's sorrows:

We come for refuge to you.

O God, you are our strength.

When our tasks are beyond our powers;

When our temptations are too strong for us;

When duty calls for more than we have to give to it:

We come for strength to you.

O God, it is from you that all goodness comes.

It is from you that our ideals come;

It is from you that there come to us the spur

of high desire and the restraint of conscience.

It is from you that there has come the strength

to resist any temptation,

and to do any good thing.

And now as we pray to you,

Help us to believe in your love,

so that we may be certain

that you will hear our prayer;

Help us to believe in your power,

so that we may be certain

that you are able to do for us

above all that we ask or think;

Help us to believe in your wisdom,

so that we may be certain

that you will answer,

not as our ignorance asks,

but as your perfect wisdom knows best.

All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

- from Prayers for the Christian Year by William Barclay

How the griddle changed our life...

Ben has asked for a griddle for quite some time. We bought a kitchen table at Christmas so we decided not to give each other any gifts. Of course, I didn't stick to those rules :) Macy's was having a HUGE sale so I decided to surprise Ben with a griddle for Christmas!!

It has really changed the way we cook - in such a great way! I used to do the cooking 95% of the time, now we cook together (or Ben does the cooking)!! We usually have breakfast for dinner at least once a week and now we make pancakes on Saturday mornings! We have also attempted twice to cook chicken and fried rice hibachi style - this may be the biggest win for us food wise!

Here are some pics of our new toy in action!

If you don't have a griddle, I highly recommend getting one!

While we are on the topic of food...haha! I made a new sauce for hot wings a couple of weeks ago and wanted to share. I love Honey BQQ hot wings but haven't found any place to get them here so I decided to try them at home.

Sauce:

1/4 cup of butter

5 tablespoons of Louisiana Hot Sauce

A couple of squeezes of Honey BBQ Sauce (to taste)

Ben Lee plans the best birthdays ever!!

So here are some pictures from my birthday I have been meaning to post. Ben did an amazing job planning a special birthday dinner for me this year and I just HAD to show off his work...

*Dinner with an AMAZING view of sunset!

*Potato Soup and Crab Cakes

*Filet and Short Ribs

*Smores with Chocolate Fondue for dessert!!

*Balloons from my parents and sister!

*Flowers from my best friend :)

*And the sweetest husband who planned the best date ever!

would you pray with us?

We are less than 2 weeks away from the grand opening of Epic Church...can you believe it?!?! We are so looking forward to launching weekly services on February 13th! We are asking people to pray for 30 minute increments the 48 hours leading up to the service. Would you sign up to pray with and for us?

You simply click on the link below, put in the information below and then write your name into a 30 minute block of time. Click “edit” and place your name where it says “Open Slot”. I put my name in as an example for you to follow. If you use gmail, simply log out of your account and put in the info below.

Follow this link: http://www.google.com/calendar

Email: EpicChurchPrayer

Password: prayforepic

Thanks so much! I'm hoping to update soon about the last preview service!