When I was called out into the hall today, THIS is what I found!

I tell everyone that working at The Chapel at Elmwood is a new adventure every day! Here's proof! I thought I'd take a moment, amongst our busyness of getting Renovation Church ready, to share 10 fun facts you may or may not know about your fearless leaders...

1. Joshua is the biggest eater of the group. I have tried to contend, only to fail once due to a piece of cake.

2. Sean's the most organized of the group. I wish I could be like him.

3. I take more pictures than Nick, our media guy.

4. Earl is the biggest kid of the group. I saw him dressed up like an elf last week. Wow.

5. Brek is the one who picked out all the furniture in Renovation House, which looks awesome!

6. Despite my fears, the guys have never forced me to make them lunch in our kitchen, which is below our new offices.

7. Joshua and Brek live closest to church out of all of us.

8. The guys think I'll go into labor if I walk in the caravan Sunday.

9. My weakness is iced carmel lattes.

10. Earl is the healthiest eater of the group. Oh to be him!

Enjoy! Here's to a great week and a half before we open the doors to Renovation Church!

You know all those warm, friendly faces you see each Sunday morning greeting you at the doors and handing you a worship folder? Well, the Host Team got together for a little hospitality of their own! They're such a fun group,I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make the "meeting" into an social event! Last night they started their Progressive Dinner at Mary's with some great selections of snacks and then traveled to Carm & Joe's for some crazy-good Italian food and then we ended the night at Renovation Church looking at all the progress and talking about our new stations. Even though our location is changing, our first Sunday there you'll see still those familiar faces who try to make Sunday the best day of your week!

If you have not been over to help at Renovation yet, you are missing out on some huge blessings! Vince and Mark and Sue and their teams have been leading us in a phenomenal way! Bob and his team have been over crankin out the work and painting in the auditorium. I can't believe how different it can look with just paint! Truly, I can't imagine where we'd be without the leadership of these individuals!

I just had to post a picture of Sue, in case you've never met her. She was there last night getting the meals together as I was working late and she had an amazing team of women who brought 5 different soups! I can't believe how much of the culinary arts I've seen over the last couple months! (I stick to baking, myself.) I kinda think of Sue as our house mother over these past couple months because she's led the way taking care of the Transition Team members and feeding their stomachs, making sure all of our many volunteers are cared for.

So, here's my shout - out to Sue!

Folks, the countdown is ON! We are rockin' and rollin' around here and if you haven't joined a team, NOW is the time! I'd love to get you plugged in to First Impressions and I'm sure Nick and Earl would love to have the help with Tech and Renovation Station, too! If you are even thinking about getting invovled, know that we have some upcoming meetings scheduled to talk about the new building and our transition. If you have any questions, call your team Captain and they can get you information.

HOST TEAM
Progressive Dinner
Thursday, November 20
6:00 pm Appetizers at Mary Dowd's home
6:30 pm Main Course at Joe & Carm Riggio's home
7:00 pm Desserts and coffee at Renovation House; walk-through, meeting about new stations
See Gail Conklin or Mary Dowd

RENOVATION CAFE
Sunday, November 23
11:00 am
Lunch meeting at Renovation House; walk-through, meeting; review new product
See Michelle Stockton

PRAYER TEAM
Tuesday, November 25
6:00-7:00 pm
7:00-? work where needed
Dinner meeting at Renovation House; walk-through, meeting; prayer time
See Mike Cassell

RESOURCE/GUEST CENTRAL TEAM
Tuesday, December 2
6:30 pm
Dinner meeting at Renovation House; walk-through, meeting, prep new visitor gifts
See Dev Santucci

SEE YOU THERE!!

"Surprise!!!"
..."for what?" I asked.
Yes, that is really what I said! I couldn't believe I didn't have a clue about the surprise baby shower! We had a great time with some of the Renovation leadership at Vince's home tonight. I still am in shock that I never clued in. The funniest part is that I was just there two months ago for someone else's surprise party. I should have known! But pregnancy does these strange things to your brain and apprarently it makes me air-headed. (I'll accept comments on that later.)

What a blessing to see so many friends who love us and are supporting our family. I have said time and time again I am so happy to be in a place where we can raise our family to know and love God. I'm so thrilled about the quality of the Renovation Station volunteers and teachers who will invest in our children's lives and teach them about how God wants to be their very best friend. These are amazing people!

Here are some great pictures from the night, and yes, me in sweat pants. Scott said he thought if he said anything it would give it away! I didn't get a picture of my favorite gift, a compilation from many creative people who put together a scrapbook for baby Sophia. I already feel ahead of the game! Even thought there WERE guys here at this co-ed bash, I am not including any pictures to protect their anonimity.

Thank you, everybody, for such an amazing night!!

Today was an exciting day as we had everyone through the auditorium for a prayer walk-through. So many wrote names of people they hope to see come through those doors one day, others wrote and prayed scripture and wishes for their family and future families. What a special time in the life of our church!

Our November Adventures took us no further than my house for pie baking! It was great to have my neighbor join our group as we mixed up fillings for pumpkin and apple pies! I'm so glad to have the time with this moms group to just hang out, pray for our kids and get a jump-start on the holiday baking! I'm down to 7 wks and I'm getting started on anything and everything EARLY! Here's a shot of us baking away...

...December is our cookie exchange! CAN'T WAIT!

You would not believe what I just ordered especially for Christmas at Renovation Cafe! Land of 1,000 Hills Coffee has some cool NEW stuff that I can't wait for you to see! I am getting so excited for Christmas!

The countdown is on for December 7 and the staff is busy making preparations. It will truly be here before we know it. Stay tuned for our Thanksgiving and Christmas initiatives.

If you haven't gotten involved, yet, NOW is the time to jump-in! Most teams have a 2x/month rotation and are already planning meetings for November to talk about the new things to come at Renvoation, so you'll want to get in on all that! Especially, Makeover Team....where will you volunteer next? Call me at the office: 819-4100 and I'll help you get plugged in!

Today was my first day at my new job! Well, sort of. WE ARE IN! We are in the new offices! I was in awe as I drove up to Renovation Church today. I just still couldn't believe that this place was ours...God is so amazing!

Sean Cronin is the new employee of the month, for several reasons. But today he was a great help to me setting up my computer. The CrossPoint IT team was over to "our place" setting up our phones, internet connection, and our network. The place was buzzing! Joshua got started priming his office and had the music jamming. Even though we all have TONS of boxes in the centers of our offices I did manage to find my all-important boxes of files and figure out how to check the messages on our phone. So now, if you DO call, we are in business! We also did manage to have our FIRST staff meeting, albeit breif. Gloria came by today giving a tour - if you've never been over to Renovation Church, you need to stop by! Things are changing every day! You can find me in my OWN (Southwest) wing of the house. I told Sean that since I have my own bathroom, that it officially makes my office a SUITE. Now how many people can say that about their jobs?

Praising God for all his blessings...

How many of you enjoy moving day? Well, if you do, then you're crazy! I think it can be so laborious and I'm fortunate our family hasn't had to move too many times over the years. Tranistion is always hard for me and I'm not sure why. I think I'm overly nostalgic and relish the past too much. Well, tomorrow we are packing up the offices and HEADED INTO THE FUTURE of RENOVATION CHURCH! Then Saturday at 8:30 am, we are moving the boxes over to 567 Hertel Avenue. Our phones and internet will be off, so I'm sorry we'll be a little hard to reach until Sunday.

Here's our updated information:

Renovation Church
567 Hertel Avenue
Buffalo, NY 14207
phone: 716-819-4100 (same)
fax: 716-819-4101 (same)

Many of you have been praying for Dennis Rose who got in an accident while he was on his motorcyle over the weekend and he and Marty came to visit the office today! They were at another dr apt and stopped to get an Rx and came by to fax a few things all over creation. It was so good to see Denny - praising God for the ways that He is taking care of them. He has a lot of healing to do for his broken tibia, but it sure was good to see him all in one piece!

If you don't know Dennis & Marty, Denny is one of the guys who gets up at 6:00 am to drive the truck from CrossPoint to the theater on Sunday. In the summer it might seem manageable, but the guys even do it in the SNOW! Marty, his lovely wife is the co-captain of our prayer team.

We're praying for you guys!

Did you know....

...that the Elmwood Expressions team creates a new latte for each month? October is Smores Latte - it's delicious! Here I am trying it out on Sunday...and yes, it does have caffeine, and yes, my dr said I can have up to 3 cups a day...each dr is different...I have a good one who lets me push the limits!  I told my dr I have to be allowed to have it to keep up with Earl and Joshua's energy...

Stop by and try one out - they're already brainstorming for November...

The six of us spent a chunk of time over at the new campus today...so incredibly grateful to God for giving us this new place. It was only a short time ago that we walked around there, praying for God's direction for where our church needed to be. And to now see Him answer our prayers, it is humbling, overwhelming, amazing!

There's a lot to be done to make this happen. I am so thankful for a team who is so talented in so many areas and I'm confident that God has brought us together for such a time as this. We spent time walking around thinking through all sorts of logistical things, signage, parking, visitors, volunteers...we can never take people's presence with us lightly.  Do you know each week we have between 11-20 visitors? That averages out to be somewhere around 5% of our weekly attendance. That is incredibly high for most American churches! We've grown 100 people since June! We have something unique going on. It seems that the more we focus on our mission of reaching every man, woman and child, focus on building bridges with others, and focus less on ourselves, God brings us more and more people to love, encourage, inspire and introduce to Him. It's crazy math!

Come on over to work on Monday - do you have off for Columbus Day? Well, Monday is my dessert day over at the new campus and this Monday I'll have some unique goodies since so many people have off and it's October!!! YUM!

Today was one of those days where there was a little pick-me-up in the afternoon amidst our busy schedules of planning, dreaming, discussing and renovating...

The kids from Futures Academy PS #37 sent us a package! We ripped it open to find all sorts of homemade cards and thank you notes for the school supplies that we collected for them throughout August! You can read the letter Principal Stevenson wrote if you go to the Community Events page. It was so fun to be able to just take a moment to savor the kids' creations and the impact of our blessing - Principal Stevenson wants to continue partnering with us! I can remember as a kid the excitement of getting all those new school supplies, and what a shame when the crayons finally became dull! Maybe that's why I went into the field of teaching originally...the smell of sharpened pencils just overwhelmed me!

Seriously, though, let us not forget the impact we have on every little life! Most of these kids we will never meet, but what we do for the least of these, we do for Him. Thank you to all of you who made extra trips to the store, went shopping with your kids to pick out stuff, spent your own money or allowance to buy supplies, etc. You are appreciated by 600 kids and 60 teachers!

Sunday was a great day at Elmwood! If you missed it, we had 465 adults and kids and 23 visitors! It was a blessing to see two parent-child dedications, which I absolutely LOVE! That video makes me cry every time!

Be praying for our Parking Team Captain, Jim Dean and one of our Host Team Co-Captains, Gail Conklin as they leave on a missions trip tthis week to Mexico with a CrossPoint team! I am so proud of all of our First Impressions leadership. They are an amazing group of men and women who love God and LOVE serving others!

The Transition Team is at it! I heard they were having a chili supper tonight. It was my night for desserts, so I solicited Wegman's for their help! Maybe next time I'll bake. (Sorry, guys!) If you can help cook a meal, make sure to contact Sue Grinham. If you don't know her yet, you'll love her! Call or email me at the church office and I'll connect you. mstockton@thechapel.com or 819-4100.

This week is a full week in ministry for sure! Many meetings we would covet your prayers for. As the 8 weeks to St. Florian continues to dwindle, we all covet your prayers as we make decisions for all components of operational ministry.

Some of you have been praying for little Chase Giambra. His open-heart surgery was postponed until this Wednesday, October 1. His family is heading BACK to Rochester tomorrow morning, so please pray for safe travels for Geoff, Michelle, Jayden and Chase and that the drs would have wisdom, and of course that mom and dad would rest in Jesus's arms during this big life event. You may not know, but Michelle helps in the office twice a month and she is a huge help to all of us!

Have a great week! inVEST and inVITE!