Gateway Fellowship

     I'm linking this to Kelly's Korner blog. It's a chance to let other people know how much you love your church! You know I don't miss an opportunity to talk about how awesome our church is. One of the obvious way it's different is that we meet in a movie theater. The church started about 3 years ago and has been growing ever since. It started meeting in someone's living room, then an elementary school cafeteria, now it takes up 5 movie theaters every Sunday morning. The word is spreading that it's fantastic. This church has brought us back to walking with the Lord. made San Antonio home for us, and brought us more blessings than I could ever name.
   The unofficial motto is "Love finds a need and meets it." When we first started going in 2008, gas prices were outrageous. So some members went to local gas stations and helped people fill up their tanks. We have done free car washes, picked up trash, cleaned up inner city streets, had food drives, met needs in our own church, adopted inner city families. ADOPTED ORPHANS (my personal fave :)), provided meals to homeless ministries, and the list could go on and on. The message you hear on Sunday morning is about taking the word of God, establishing a relationship with him, then GOING OUT and putting it into practice. Our church has already planted a Spanish speaking church and is working on one in the inner city, the poorest zip code in the state of Texas. It would be super easy to put that off until we have a building of our own, but that isn't the priortity. Missions and serving others is the priortity and the leadership lives that by making decisions aligned with the priorities of the Lord and not of men. The Lord is absolutely using this church to transform lives in our community and it's awesome to be a part of it.
     Tom and I were not very lovable when we started going to Gateway. We were overwhelmed, under energized, crabby (well, maybe that was just me), and a little rough around the edges. It didn't matter. We were shown the love of Jesus from the time we drove into the parking lot. It was such a change from the norm that it was a little hard to take. I thought the people were faking it. But we went back anyway. Tom SHOVED me out the door to go to a women's dinner that I didn't want to attend but ended up being glad I did. Little by little we got more involved. And I am so incredibly thankful that we did. We went to a fellowship team and saw what godly marriages and friendships looked like and those people loved on us too.

     Another thing I like about our church is that it's fun! Every month there's an outdoor, healthy, family activity. This month it was hiking Enchanted Rock. The fundraising things coming up are a 5k run and an off-road triathlon. That's more exciting than a pancake dinner. No offense. But it is.  And I haven't even mentioned the worship yet!. Oh my goodness, the worship is incredible. A few different people lead worship. One band won the Battle of the Bands in San Antonio last year and were featured on Great Day SA recently. They're awesome. Our asst. pastor also leads, plays several different instruments, sings, and makes it all look easy. They really know what it means to worship the Lord and how to lead others to do the same. I hate being late for church because I don't want to miss the opportunity they give to exalt our God.
     Tom and I LOVE our church family and are so thankful for them every single day. I love that they are the hands and feet of Christ. I love that they selflessly love others. And I love that they've embraced us and become our Texas family.

 Acts 2 :42-47
⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Here are some pics that show how we roll. Thank you to Veronica and Allison because I shamelessly stole every single one off their facebook pages!!


Planting a garden in Helotes



Climbing Enchanted Rock

Cleaning up the inner city

Dancing on girls night out.

Mountain Biking

Bringing sweet children home. This one makes me cry every time.

Disc Golf

Dedicating babies.