Graceworks Overview and a Plea for Help

Shalom,

I apologize for taking so long for a new post but as you know we had to do a lot of traveling and there has been a lot going on in our life.  Now to what is most important, which is our work for the Lord here in Anchorage.

We are in our last week of Graceworks.  Last week First Baptist Canton, TX. was here.  We had a great time with the kids and met a new young man that surrendered his life to Christ. While Canton was here we had a great time with the mission team helping us at the Church as well as a moose watching trip that was extremely successful seeing a very large bull within 30 feet.

 Last week on Sunday we had Church at Sand Lake.  We had 25 people there and a good time was had by all.  There were people from 5 different families there not including mine. Our last group this week is from Washington state. We have about 20 kids that want to come each week now. We are scrambling to figure out how to have children's ministry and do everything else involved, to say we are stretched thin is an understatement.

This is a very slow process and we pray for laborers to this harvest everyday. This place is ripe for harvest but the laborers are truly few.  Please pray with us for laborers for this huge harvest here. Just to give some demographics, Sand Lake is almost 40k people, Jewell Lake is also 40k people.  Our target area is less than 4 miles square and has 80K people in it!  

Pray that God will lay it on the heart of some people equipped to help us and that they would have the wisdom to hear His call and the courage and strength to obey and go.  We still need a committed praise and worship leader also. 

At some point we all have to stand before Him and give account of everything we have done and have not done. When we stand before the Master, are our excuses acceptable to Him, the One  who paid it all. 

Please also be in prayer for our Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel.

Shalom aleichem (may you be well),

David & Kristi Gamble    
Anchorage, Alaska
dvdgamble@yahoo.com 
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Mission Alaska Update

Hey Y'all,

It just feels good to say that, We kind of miss hearing it! Well we are off to the races, Tabernacle sponsored a trip from Shorter Univ. and they did a basketball clinic. They attended our worship service and a good time was had by all, very encouraging time for us.  Graceworks and our daily Bible camp started at our new place last week. The first couple of days were slow, but we are in week two and we had 19 kids the other day! Right now we have a youth team from Mississippi helping do the camp. Every Wednesday night we have a bounce house and "family invited" party for the kids. We have been able to make some good contacts so far, most of the people live in walking distance to the Church. Last Sunday we had four new people and three of them were from our outside the walls outreach at Mc Donald's, it is the best place I have found to reach them. I have a few pictures  attached so you can get an idea of what we have been up to.

Please  pray for this outreach ministry, that we would be effective sharing The Gospel with the ones He draws to us.  Pray for us some help, a solid couple or two that can lead Bible study or Sunday school/ small group & youth pastor.  Buck (our P&W leader) had to take a rotation job, 2 and 2, down on the Kenai so Jessica has stepped up and done a great job.  We are still are looking for  a van or two, they don't have to be in great shape as we have a mechanic on staff ( ME ).  Also tomorrow is Love Alaska festival with Luis Palau. We are a follow up Church and will be at the park from 2-11 p.m. This is the largest evangelism event ever in Alaska. There are four bands here which include Toby Mac, Kutless, Lincoln Brewster and Thousand foot crutch along with countless events for the families. Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and support and thank you for letting us share what is going on here in Anchorage. 

David & Kristi Gamble   
Anchorage, Alaska
dvdgamble@yahoo.com 
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

More Volunteers being sent by God

A mission team from Hannibal  Missouri is coming Sunday afternoon to prayer walk and pass out flyers.  Frameworks starts again Monday - Friday (2-4 Alaska time).  Graceworks holds childrens' Bible study and games.  Food will be supplied for the kids with absolutely no cost to the Church.  Pray for God to bless these volunteers.  On Wednesday night they will host a party for the entire family.  This will provide a time for us to meet the parents. Please PRAY for a good turnout!

David & Kristi Gamble 
Anchorage, Alaska
dvdgamble@yahoo.com 
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Graceworks

Graceworks folks are coming!  Canton First Baptist will be here in July.  More information will be provided as available.

David & Kristi Gamble 
Anchorage, Alaska
dvdgamble@yahoo.com 
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Prayer Request

Recently I received a bit of disturbing news.  As you know my first job is church planting; however, I also need to maintain secondary employment to pay expenses.  Honeywell has graciously allowed me to work for them while allowing me the freedom to accomplish church planting tasks.  Recently I received a bit of disturbing news in that the work I was doing for Honeywell will no longer be required.   There is a possibility that I may be able to switch groups within Honeywell but this remains to be seen.  I am asking you to please pray that God will help open new doors and still allow us to continue planting Sand Lake Fellowship.  I know that if we do our part, God will do His.  God is Good!

David & Kristi Gamble  
Anchorage Alaska  
dvdgamble@yahoo.com   
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Protected by the Blood of Christ

We had a good service tonight. The basketball team was here, they just arrived back  to Anchorage from Tok; look that one up on the map.  Tomorrow night at 6 they have another basketball clinic.  

Please pray for all the new potential members we met the other night.  We also met a couple of families that live near the Church.  God is Good! 

God bless everyone, 
 
David & Kristi Gamble  
Anchorage Alaska  
dvdgamble@yahoo.com   
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Sand Lake Fellowship - The Picture Says It All

The picture is worth a thousand words.  The picture is below - Please pray for us and our growth!

David & Kristi Gamble  
Anchorage Alaska  
dvdgamble@yahoo.com   
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Pray for the Mission Team from Georgia

Shorter University Ladies Basketball Team was at our church this afternoon.we passed out flyers for the one day basketball camp tomorrow afternoon.  We walked the neighborhoods around the church.There are about 15 people here on the mission team from Georgia.  Hopefully as we engaged folks here close by they Will respond.  I have been working 7 days a week for the last few weeks but  done tomorrow.  We had a dinner and game night at our house Saturday night.

Please pray that this effort will achieve its intended purpose and attract the youth and their parents in the area. 

David & Kristi Gamble
Anchorage Alaska
dvdgamble@yahoo.com 
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Please pray for laborers to help us.

David & Kristi Gamble
Anchorage Alaska
dvdgamble@yahoo.com 
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Car Wash at Church

We had a car wash today at the church. Dusty and Kristi held signs that said free car wash!   We were able to meet some people from our target area.

David & Kristi Gamble
Anchorage Alaska
dvdgamble@yahoo.com 
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

McDonald's Bible Study - OTW

David & Kristi Gamble
Anchorage Alaska
dvdgamble@yahoo.com 
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Ministry Needs for Sand Lake Fellowship

Ministry needs for Sand Lake Fellowship are a Youth Leader/Pastor and a base guitar player.  We have an urgent need for at least one 15 passenger van.  It would be great to get the word out about this in case God lays it on someone's heart.

 

On the field,

David & Kristi Gamble
Anchorage Alaska
dvdgamble@yahoo.com 
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Sunday Evening Service - Prayer Requests

Sunday evening we had the same group as last week.  Check out my Facebook for a short video.  We had a great time of Praise and worship. Our leader is all in with us now, he comes from a sister church in our association that has plenty of talent and people to pick from. He feels called to work with us on this "Church plant."

We went from 5-9.  We had music/singing, prayer time, more music, then we visited until everyone left, I still got home before dark!

Tuesday night "Outside the Walls" (OTW) went really great.  Outside the Walls is now what we call any function not held at the church. Right now this is being held at McDonald's on Tuesday evening.  At OTW this time, we talked with a bunch of people and prayed with a several. The interest seems to be building with those we approach.  Please keep praying for God to move in great ways and help us get close to these kids.  

Another prayer request is to pray for God to help us in a mighty way with a van to transport these kids.  I just found out the van I was going to get from Texas is no longer available. God will provide!

Please also be in prayer for these two things: youth pastor/leader - church planter intern (an NAMB position). Also as already mentioned, be in prayer for transportation for the youth ....van.....

Thank you all so much for your prayers.

On the field,

David & Kristi Gamble
Anchorage Alaska
dvdgamble@yahoo.com 
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Updated Overview

April 6th Sand Lake Fellowship Church Plant started services at 3340 Raspberry Road. The Filipino Bible Church has graciously allowed us to meet in their facility at 6 p.m. on Sundays. Our first night we had four in our praise and worship team and they did a great job!  If anyone is looking for a place to serve using their musical/vocals talent for praise and worship we meet at 5 p.m. for practice.  Right now we still need another acoustic or electric guitar and a violin.  Our service is contemporary. 
 

On Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. you can find us at the Mc Donald's on the corner of Dimond and Jewell Lake Road for "Outside The Walls"  This is our midweek service.  We all meet at the restaurant and have a devotional or Bible study and pray and talk about life application of scripture in our everyday walk. This is growing and we want to add some P&W songs with acoustic guitar to it.  Pray that this will happen!  My idea here is that most people don't go to Church, so we will take the Church to them, we'll keep you posted.

Love you, 

David & Kristi Gamble
Anchorage Alaska
dvdgamble@yahoo.com 
http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

First Night at Filipino Bible Church

We have to share this. Tonight was our first night at FBC.  We gained a keyboard/piano player today. They are playing and beginning to sound pretty good practicing before Church.   We have about as many praises on our list as we do prayer requests.  I call out all the praises then #1 on the prayer request list is a base player for the band which I have prayed for.  There is a young lady and her mom who has just showed up.  When she heard this she says My daughter plays all instruments and God just told me to come here tonight!  Oh yeah and she sings exceptionally.  Check out the picture below, from left to right, KC, Dusty, Buck and Jessica.  Also, check out the video following the still photo.

God bless,

David Gamble                   

Anchorage Alaska    

dvdgamble@yahoo.com 

http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

It will all happen as God wills

We went to the pool hall again Tuesday night. I was able to talk with a few folks and invited a half dozen or so to Church. We then went to our old standby McDonald’s across the street. There we were able to engage at least twelve people. 

I had the privilege of presenting The Truth to a late teen’s guy there. It was a really good one! I made a decision that we will stick with McDonald’s from now on for our midweek service. There are just way too many people in and out for us to do it anywhere else; also it is free to get into McDonald’s. 

The young man I was talking to? His eyes were welling up, I know The Lord was working there, we will see him again. He had a girl with him that was totally pulling him away, but he continued to listen and read the scripture from my Bible. She had to literally pull him away from us. There is a lot of irony there isn't there?  

We start at the FBC this Sunday night, please pray we will be ready and all will go well. Thank you so much for your prayers.  Came home yesterday and went to bed at 6 p.m. exhausted.  I have pastor classes tonight.

I got a bit of bad news from the battle front. True North Church plant downtown has closed; they are the group sponsored by Moberly out of Longview.  They were trying to reach the service workers downtown with a Monday night service but closed it after 12 months or so for lack of interest and combined back to the midtown place.

In the field with love for Jesus,

David & Kristi Gamble                   

Anchorage Alaska    

dvdgamble@yahoo.com 

http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Spreading Gospel at the Billiard Parlor

Last night we went to the Billiard Parlor and were able to talk to and invite 13 people to the "God's Not Dead" movie Friday night.  See photo below taken of us standing outside before we went into Beluga Billiards.  There were around 30 people inside at the time.  It was a great time and a  great place to meet young folks.  I met the owner and he is very receptive of us being there.  

On another note, the Filipino Bible Church (FBC) has a PA system, keyboard and projector available for our use so our biggest need until we get a building of our own is a couple of 15 passenger buses.  This would make a big difference in helping to grow our congregation.  See picture below that I took inside the FBC.

Thank you for your prayers! 

God bless,

David Gamble                   

Anchorage Alaska    

dvdgamble@yahoo.com 

http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

 

3-24-2014 Update and Plans

Kristi just finished disaster relief chaplain training.  She just has to finish some online classes and she can get endorsed by SBC to go on site. We had our service Last night at Commoner Park, seven were present. Buck dropped by last night and is all in for doing our praise and worship at the BC. We start meeting at the BC on April 6th. Tuesday night we are meeting at the billiards place (see photos below - "A" marks the spot) to share with and invite teens to movie night with us. We will be all going to see God's Not Dead on Friday night and want to give the teens a chance to see this movie.  Kristi and I were in Whittier Friday and Saturday and met with a church from Florida that is a sending Church. They are praying about sending an intern up for one year to help us with our praise and worship!  Thank you so Mich for your prayers and support. Please continue to pray for Chad and Amy Blanton.

Happy Birthday Brother Perry.  Enjoy your getaway to Colorado.

God bless,

David Gamble                   

Anchorage Alaska    

dvdgamble@yahoo.com 

http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/

Venue Le McDonalds

Last night we met at Mc Donald's on Dimond and Jewell Lake Rd. This Mc Donald's is right across the street from the only grocery store (CARRS CENTER, WHERE WE TRIED TO RENT THE FIRST BUILDING) in Sand Lake and is a popular hangout for folks. The photos below will help you better visualize the location.  Don't forget to click on any photo to make it easier to see and step through the photos.  Note the location of Sand Lake as compared to the previous satellite map of the Filipino Bible Church.

There is a large (12 seater) table there where we meet from time to time and have Bible study. We decided last night that our week night study/service will be in a public place in the Sand Lake area, this way we can reach out to more lost people. Last night we just had Jeremy and Jason along with us, but we had several opportunities to talk to people at the restaurant. We ALWAYS run across youth every time we are out and the ones last night were interested in coming to a youth service when we get it going! God really put the youth on my heart lately, there are so many of them here and no real outreach to them at all. Remember, there are almost 40,000 people in the Sand Lake area alone and the only Southern Baptist Church there is the "Filipino" Bible Church! Please pray we will be able to get our praise and worship team up and going. Pray also we can have a good solid youth leader as there are so may youth here with no guidance or direction. Please pray we will be able to have a van or two to get the youth and kids to Church, Almost no vans are used here to pick up kids and youth for services, which I think is crazy.

We find out this weekend when exactly we will be starting at FBC, shooting for April 6th. Please pray for Buck, Jeremy and Jason, these are the ones HE has sent us. Also pray for The Lord of the harvest to send more labors to help us and that they would be totally committed to this brand new Church plant. Thanks for all your prayers and support and thank you for letting us be your missionaries.

God bless,

David Gamble                   

Anchorage Alaska    

dvdgamble@yahoo.com 

http://www.sandlakefellowship.com/