Take Off Was Good

Yesterday, at 9:40 AM, Epic Church officially launched! Words cannot express how amazing it is to be sitting here right now writing this blog. I am honestly in awe of Epic's first "harvest." Over the summer, while working for Epic, I would pray continually for launch--launch was always "on the mind." There were times when, in prayer, I would feel so barren and honestly sometimes, I felt like things were never going to reach a harvest point. Launch was almost incomprehensible to me. I soon realized that, with churchplanting, you just never know. You do everything wandering if you're doing stuff right and then you realize that church planting is more a test of trust than anything else.

Yesterday morning while I was in my own little theatre waiting on my children, I was wondering how things were going, it was sooo hard for me not to leave my theatre and go into the big theatre at the Warren where the actual worship service was held. Even at 9:40 I had NO kids. I was really starting to freak-out a little bit. Then, at about 9:42 here come ten kids all at once into the elementary room. Nine boys and one girl. I was suuuuper excited to have ten kids--which was perfect for me. La Shawn, Da Shawn, La Shayla, Mason, Shay, Eli, Jacob, Ethan, Rylan, and Andrew--you're my first kids EVER. We worshipped and danced, then we watched our video curriculum "Kidmo" where we learned about how BIG God is. After that we talked about God and who He is...and then, my favorite part...we prayed together. I had one student volunteer to pray for us, listening to him almost made my cry just sitting there. He thanked God for Epic church and prayed for some other student's prayer requests and then he thanked God for freedom and our soldiers fighting overseas (where this came from, I don't know, I'm guessing home!). We ended our time with a game of Simon says, which actually turned into "Mason says, La Shawn says, Da Shawn says, La Shayla says..."

So, officially, Epic launched out with 180 people total. I'm guessing the rough break down of that is 30 volunteers, about 20 children in the children's ministry, and 130 people at service. What a GREAT day! Not to mention there were about 15 more kids in the actual service that didn't participate in the children's ministry...that's exciting for me!

We ended the day with a Brisket feed at the Smokes house...yummy!! I can't wait to see how God is going to provide in the coming months--even this morning I was looking at a bulletin from the main service that one of my friends brought home and I just couldn't believe it...we are actually a church! It's such a surreal feeling. God is good--I don't say that casually, He really is good. I'd ask that you'd continue to pray for the development of the Epic community God has formulated and still is formulating. For those who have been a part of Epic Church in prayer--thank you, seriously prayer has been the driving force. Now I'm just rambling...but I am SOOO very excited. These are exciting days indeed!

La-La-La-La LAUNCH!!! Prayer.

This Sunday, September 13, 2009 the church plant I work with, Epic, will be launching out for the first time in Andover. Now's the time to assemble, prayer warriors! I want to ask that you'd PRAY, PRAY, PRAY like crazy for launch this Sunday!! I am so excited to see how God is going to work in and through Epic Church and this Sunday is the official start of it all. Would you pray with me!!!!!??

I'll update after Sunday, until then...cheers to prayer!

Things are off...

Summer is practically over and I am back in Winfield at college. I would have to say, it's good to be back at SC. I've been as busy as ever, and thought I better write a blog to catch a few of you up ;). Move in was last Saturday. My wonderful parents drove up to Winfield to help me move in and then they enjoyed a little R & R themselves out at a bed in breakfast owned by a couple of professors here on campus. I think they enjoyed their time in Winfield. I moved in to an apartment type of dorm with Jessica S. my new roommate for the year. She is one of my best friends at college! I am so excited to spend the year with her. We've decorated our room in red, black, and white. We finished as of last night and things look pretty schnazzy. I will have to try to upload some photos later when I have the time.

Classes started last Wednesday. I am currently enrolled in: Old Testament, Introduction to the Church, Discipleship, Critical Issues in Health, and Logic. I was supposed to take Greek, but they couldn't find a teacher for it so it got cancelled at the last minute. However, God has really opened some doors for me in place of Greek. Over the summer, when I was at the Desperation Conference in Colorado Springs, a man named Pete Greig spoke. He is the founder of the 24/7 prayer movement in Britian and around Europe and he also is one of the founders of an organization called CampusAmerica. It just recently started and strives to start prayer movements on college campuses in America. When Greek was cancelled Jessica (my roomie) and I talked with our campus minister and discipleship coordinator about taking an indepedent study on prayer in place of Greek. She was quick to catch our vision and agreed to look over what an independent study on prayer would look like for us. Here are a few of the goals for our independent study:

• We really want to work on starting and eventually start a prayer room on campus, available to students at anytime
• We would like to do a campus-wide 48 hours of prayer event
• We are thinking about participating in a night of Desperation in Winfield (where some leaders from TheFurnace (a prayer house in Colorado Springs) come and lead a night of prayer/worship in our community)
• We are trying to decide books to read for our class...Here are some are thinking about: "Deep Unto Deep" by Dana Candler, "Red Moon Rising" by Pete Greig, "24/7 Prayer Manual" by Pete Greig, "Too Busy Not to Pray" by Bill Hybels, and "Prayer" by Richard Foster
• We want to visit some prayer houses and talk with some prayer leaders! Luckily for us, there is a prayer house in El Dorado! We are also thinking about visiting IHOP (International House of Prayer in Kansas City) or TheFurnace (In Colorado Springs)

All in all, things are going GREAT! I am so excited to see what God has in store for this semester. I am also continuing my work at Epic this semester, working with the children's ministry. Today was another preview service. Things went AWESOME! They're starting to come together. God's a-movin--that's for sure. Although blogs won't be as prominent this semester as they were this summer, I will still try to keep you all posted! Now onto homework...

An Epic Disaster Area + A Week in Pictures

WOW! We've been up to our ears in the to-do's lately. Last week Trista and I spent the majority of our week organizing everything for the children's ministry into tubs and loading the trailer. Talk about A LOT of work. We were running around all over the place. Kent and Jenni's basement looked like a disaster area. It was indeed an "Epic" disaster. Tuesday we continued on doing our summer fun days at the Andover Library and then we also participated in "National Night Out" Tuesday night. It was a fun night hosted by the Andover Police Department for the community. Thursday we had our first training meeting for all of our volunteers, which went REALLY well. WE had around 22 people there. It was a great time. Trista and I printed up around 700 peices of paper and made them into packets, etc. for training and other necessities for our children's ministry. Kent attended a conference on Thursday and Friday and then I went to see my good man, Kyle, in Mulvane on Friday/Saturday. Kyle finally got back from Project Transformation, an urban ministry in the Dallas, TX area that he had been working with all summer. It was soo good to catch up with one another and talk about how God moved during the summer! Kyle showed me probably 9834759876039 pictures from his time in Dallas. We went through each picture and he named every child in each picture. Talk about a guy with a good memory :), and talk about a guy who truly, truly loved his kids and God this summer. Kyle Just...I enjoyed seeing your heart come alive this summer, and I know those kids will miss having "Mr. Kyle" around. Cheers to PT.

On another note, we had our first "Trial Run" for our church plant on Sunday. There were a few hitches here and there, but altogether things went amazingly well. Honestly, we couldn't have asked for better volunteers. Everyone worked together SO well. I can't explain what it feels like to see what you've been working on become real...

Moses is My Friend: Thoughts on Prayer Lately

One of the things that I've been studying lately is prayer. If you know me, you know I love prayer--passionate prayer. I never used to be extremely into prayer until about a year or so ago. I had an experience where Jesus just touched me in a way through prayer that I never have forgotten. This past year, my prayer life has accelerated. I've had so many experiences
(just in the past year!!) where God will speak--where God will move. I've seen people healed, I've seen prayers answered, I've had God speak to me, and I've been surprised by God over and over again. I am currently doing my devotion time through the Psalms. The other night I was studying and praying Psalm 90. One of the most interesting things that stuck out to me about Pslam 90 is that it is a prayer of Moses. The first verse states "Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations." That is a verse that totally caught me, and really made me think. Biblical Moses was born (scholars say) between 1300 and 1150 BCE. Zoom all the way back into the book of Exodus and you will soon figure out that Moses is an old guy. Over three thousand years ago Moses was praying the same prayer I prayed--being taken care of by the same guy who's hearing all my church-planting prayers (and my Moses prayer verbatim). What a comfort it is to know that the place where Moses (an EXTREMELY powerful man of God) dwelled is the same place we go to dwell, where we go to hide. Just like our ancestors and those who have gone before us, we all have one common dwelling place. It says from generation to generation comfort is found there.
I've been learning a lot about prayer. One of the things God has been speaking to me lately is that prayer = persistence. You'll find parables about persistence in the Gospels. Luke 11 is a good one. One day I was praying for Andover and Epic and I just started to wonder if God ever got tired of hearing the same thing over and over again, so I asked Him. He gave me this image...I saw a child who really wanted a specific Christmas present. The child kept asking her parents for it everyday, she dreamed of it, she thought of it, she wanted it. She was persistent in her thoughts and her desires. Eventually, because of her persistence and her patient heart, she woke up Christmas morning to her present underneath the tree, her parents smiling in the background. It was then that I realized that God wants us to desire what we ask for, he wants us to be persistent in our asking. He wants us to fight for the good. We are only persistent for things that really mean a lot to us. For me, that has been Epic. It's good, it's true. I want, I desire to see people know Jesus. I trust God sees that obedience and hears that prayer.
To end on a good note, I finished going through Pslam 90, learning a lot and being very encouraged by Moses' note at the very end. His prayer, and a new one of mine is this:

"May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us--yes establish the work of our hands." (Pslam 90:17)

• (Addendum to Moses' Prayer by Molly: "Teach us to be persistent!" Someone, somewhere is putting that into the Bible. Jk of course ;))

Anyway, Good one, Moses. I like.

It's beginning to look a lot like LAUNCH...

This past week was a full one. Sunday we observed at Aviator Church (another church plant that launched a year ago in Derby, KS). We left Andover at about 6:40 AM to observe their set-up at 7:00. An early morning, but it was a great time of learning and observation. Monday we had our first official staff meeting, which went excellent. We spent some time catching one another up in our personal areas and we also spent time just praying for the community of Andover and for launch. Tuesday we hosted yet another "Summer Fun Day" at the Andover Library. The library group is starting to become a bit more consistent, so it's nice to meet new people as well as catch up with mom's and kiddos we've met before. Many are starting to really show a great interest in launch. Wednesday, I got to spend most of my day planning for children's ministry. I started planning Sunday's out and worked on reviewing our children's ministry curriculum, Kidmo. Whoo!! So wonderful. Thursday, we hosted another "Summer Fun Day" at the Library, and rested Friday. Saturday, the real excitement started. Central Christian Church, another church in East Wichita is partnering with Epic and supporting us by allowing us to come into their Saturday night Service, 5:33, and ask for volunteers on Sunday morning to help us get Epic up and running. We were officially introduced this past Saturday night during service. Central has such a heart for church planting. After service we were able to connect with some potential volunteers. It was an AWESOME time for us. God really showed us himself that night. Each person that we talked with fit in places where we need people to fit! It was so exciting. This morning, Kent, Jory, Damion and I headed out at about 10:00 AM and did some door-to-door advertising and this evening we met with our launch team for a worship service and a time of fellowship at a local park! The days are busy but good. Keep praying, harder now than ever! God is GOOD.

The Adventure Continues...

And the adventure continues. So much has been going on the past couple of weeks, I can't believe it's already mid-July and summer's closing up! Well I have done lots of traveling in the past few weeks. I went from Colorado Springs to Dallas to Joplin. I was the camp missionary at Cyokamo Camp about a week and a half ago. That was a wonderful time! I got to hang out with kids (400 or so to be exact) and talk a little bit about church planting with them. They were a pretty awesome bunch. They raised over $1,500 for Epic Missions. Such a blessing! Then, last Sunday, we partnered with the YMCA in Andover to do, what we call, "Summer Countdowns." Epic comes in and we set up our moonbounces, have free-throw contests, prizes, and homemade Italian Creme Sodas (My Personal fav). Yum, Yum! On Tuesday we hosted "Summer Fun Days" at the Andover Library and that was a wonderful time as well. Again, we set up our moonbounces, handed out free popsicles, blew bubbles, drew with sidewalk chalk and hung out with kids. We sat up to meet the kids and their moms right after story hour concluded. One of the coolest things about church planting has been getting out into the community and just meeting families. Jory, our brand new worship pastor also came on Tuesday. Our staff is now up to 5...woo! He's here for good and is preparing for launch. Wednesday night we had a "Welcome" BBQ for him and a bunch of people came over to our house for that. Also on Wednesday night, Trista and I attended our first midnight premier--yes, we went to see Harry Potter (nerds, I know)! We also went bulk shopping for our children's ministry. That was AWESOME. I can't wait to start up and meet the kiddos! As we are getting closer please be praying for this stuff:

• Perseverance, perseverance, perseverance and strength!!
• Our launch team and our new worship pastor, Jory
• The Epic community God is formulating...
• ANDOVER (seriously this is huge)
• Our mass advertising day on August 29th and youth groups/small groups to help us out
• LAUNCH on September 13, 2009 (Can't wait, I'm so antsy!)

An Ode to the Dads!

Crazy days in the life of church planting, crazy days, my friends! All last week we spent A LOT of time gearing up for Dad Fest, a celebration to honor all the dad's in the Andover/Wichita area. Trista and I ended up printing and canvasing around 1,700 flyers! Crazy! Office This (where we do printing) probably wasn't too excited about all of our flyers. We ran their black ink completely out of stock. Haha. Anyways, we had a lot planned for Dad Fest, including free hot dogs, root beer floats, prizes, and a moon bounce for the kids. We partnered with a local restaurant called Stooges, and planned on using their parking lot and stuff for our event...

Then, Saturday came. And Saturday came with RAIN. Woot, woot for weather. We ended up doing our event under an awning at Stooges and weren't able to use the moon bounce. However, everything else went pretty well, and despite the weather we had an awesome turn out. The launch team kids decided pretty early on that moon bounces were overrated anyway,and just went out and played in the rain. They had a puddle-jumping ministry of their own and most of the kids at Dad Fest ended up going out to play with them anyway. It was so fun to watch them. They were having a blast! Dad Fest wasn't exactly like we planned, but it was great to meet new people, and honor all of the dads in the area!

So, as Father's Day is upon us, and before I close, I wanted to take a minute to honor MY dad. My dad is Russell Leroy Komlofske. He's, hands down, the best dad around. He's an awesome provider, in every way, and is just a really big goof! He also makes the best pancakes and french toast in the whole world. Did I mention that he's an excellent griller? He's also a dreamer...he likes to make things happen, and he always has a positive attitude. What can I say, I just love my dad!

So here's to today, love on those dads!

Weekend, Worship and the Warren!

Greetings from our office at Panera :). This past weekend was a great time of fun and fellowship for all of us at Epic. Our potential worship candidate, Jory, came to visit from Kentucky. We got to hang with him for the weekend, so that was pretty sweeeeeeeeeeet! He was an all around awesome guy and seemed to fit in well with Epic. Please be praying for Jory and for Epic during this time. A lot of decisions will be made in the next couple of weeks concerning the worship position.

Trista and I were also able to chill with her family this weekend. They all came up for a wedding reception, so that was a blessing and a great time as well. Then, on Sunday morning, we went to Aviator Church in Derby. Aviator is a church plant that launched last August with the vision of reaching out to the Derby/Mulvane area. It was so inspiring to see God's provision in Aviator's progress. The church is headed by Joe and Michelle Boyd, Jenni's sister and brother-in-law. They are just moving right along. They meet in Derby High school and in the past few months have hired on a youth pastor and graphic designer to their team of a worship pastor and a few interns! Pretty awesome!

Also, we have been looking and trying to nail down a location for Epic to meet for services after the launch in September. Kent just informed us a few minutes ago that the location has been set. Anyone want to take a guess where Epic will be meeting? Warren Theatre!!!! Now THAT'S pretty sweet. Ha. It's been an answer to prayer for us! I believe we will have a main theatre for worship and two theatres for the children's ministry.

Please be praying for:

• Aviator Church - They are doing awesome things in Derby


• Epic, of course, and all of us here on the launch team


• That God would send His Spirit ahead of us in all that we do so that we may find and meet the people that He brought us here to reach!


• Jory and the worship position


• PRAISE: location in Warren Theatre!

SWEET!