So I had a prayer request for everyone. We will be hosting our first preview service in January with preceding preview services in February and March. All this is in preparation for our big launch April 20 2014. We have been praying for a location to host our preview services as well as to call home for Swerve Church come April.

I've always had on my (Danny) heart to do church in a school...for a couple of reasons.

• Schools are located in communities where people live as opposed to more industrial or commercial areas.
• Most schools are easily accessible by public transportation. Many are close to a train or bus stop.
• They're big. Especially our city schools. They have many rooms and huge auditorium space.
• Because of the abundance of space, we can really focus on having an awesome and fun kids experience for the children of Swerve.
• I think an unchurched person would feel less intimidated to attend an experience at a school as opposed to the tradition church setting. There's something about a school not having any religion tied to it that I think unarms them.
• Being portable gives lots of opportunities for people to help and serve in the set-up and tear down process. We couldn't have church without those people!
  
  

These are just a few reasons why we would like to host our Swerve Church experiences at a school. With all that said, this is where you come in! Would you help us pray:

• That God would provide the funds necessary to get in to the location he would want us in.
• For I.S. 291 - we're really interested in this school. It's in a great location only a few stops from the L and M Myrtle-Wycoff stop in Bushwick. Pray that God would give us favor with the head custodial engineer.
• Pray for a cheap rent! 
• Pray for the students, parents, teachers and staff of I.S. 291.
• Pray for the community of Bushwick which it is in.

Thank you all for your prayers and loving support for this new church plant. Please continue to pray for Swerve and the location He would want us in. His will be done!

join us was made as always. But that night would be different. We experienced a coldness and rejection of our invitation like never before.

          Now, we always get the "heckler", the "ignorer", the "roll-my-eyes-er", the "I'll come back later", etc. But this night no one wanted to come. No one responded to the invitation. In fact, the opposite happened. We were mocked for making the invitation as the got up from their seats and walked past us. "It's not mandatory for you guys to come, but you're more than welcome to stay and enjoy the snacks and soda after". Nothing.

But we've always had someone come. Whether 3 or 30, there was always a group that showed up. So what about this time? 

We were faced with the decision of either staying and waiting or counting it as a loss and heading home. The latter seemed easier to do. After all, God saw the effort. He knew we tried our best. I guess it just wasn't our night.

But we didn't leave. We opted to stay and preach to the seats. "Tell the seats whatever you were going to tell the youth" I told Danny Martinez. "We're going to run it like we always do and maybe someone passing by will hear something".

So we began to pray. We prayed for the youth at Covenant House. We prayed for soft hearts. We prayed for direction and clarity. Then Martinez began to share his story. He spoke about how he met Jesus at Covenant House. He was once addicted to heroin and crack. He was living on the street. His family didn't want to know anything about him. But God miraculously saves him in a way only God can.

Half way through talking, as he's reading a passage, a group of youth come in. They quietly and reverentially entered the room and sat in the once-empty seats. I was overjoyed. What if we would have left? What if we would have called it a night? What if we would not have preached to those empty seats?

God taught me a lesson that day. My faith was stretched. How has your faith been stretched lately?