Dear Friends and Family,
We are so excited to be able to tell you about the Transition that God has us in. Let us just start out by saying this; we have never been more excited about what God is doing at Lakeshore church! We believe that Lakeshore is on the verge of a new season of ministry like never before! We have never loved a local church like we love the people of Lakeshore. God has and is doing something unique and it has been amazing to be a part of it. We have never loved a group of teenagers more than we love the students of Paradigm! Whether you were part of paradigm in the past or the present, it has been an amazing journey to see what God has done in the past 7 years as we have served as youth pastors to some of the most amazing students on the planet!
In saying all of that, we want to share with you that God is transitioning us out of Lakeshore Church. It all began 11 months ago when we felt God preparing us for transition. We received a call from Pastors Carey and Meghan Robinson asking us if we would pray about joining them on the journey of building a church from the ground up! Initially, we thought it was crazy and didn’t give it much thought but God began to speak to us and work on our hearts. The more we prayed about it and the more we tried to get away from the idea. But God kept bringing it back up in our spirits. The more we tried to run from the idea the more it was brought up in our hearts. It was in late August that we sat down and had a conversation that we both knew this is what God was preparing for us. We took the next month to pray, seek counsel, talk with our Pastors (who had been praying with us regarding this decision for the past 9 months) and hear from the Lord. The decision to transition out of Lakeshore has been a difficult one! But we are excited to be on this new assignment from God!
We are being obedient to the call of God and transitioning to Southern California to help plant The Movement Church. Orange County is 90 % unchurched and there is a great need for more churches to reach out into their communities to be the tangible expressions of Jesus . Up to this point there are 25 other people moving their lives and their family to help plant this church. To get to know more about the heart and vision of The Movement Church go to http://www.facebook.com/theocmovement
God has done a great work in our heart to get us to this point and we are excited and looking forward to this great adventure building His church! Transition is never easy but we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that being in the center of His perfect will is the best place to be and it is the only place we want to be.
The Plan Moving Forward
Pastor Brad and Denise have been more than gracious throughout this entire process and we are so thankful for leaders that care more about people than the process! We couldn’t have asked for a better church or better pastors these past 7 years. We are committed to finishing these next few months strong at Lakeshore ensuring that the student ministry doesn’t skip a beat and moves forward stronger than ever.
We are taking a giant leap of faith trusting God and we know He is faithful and that He is going to take care of our every need. We are leaving everything we have come to know and love to follow His call on our life. Initially we won’t receive a salary until the church is able to bring us on full time; so we will be raising support and we plan on getting a job to make up the difference to cover our living expenses.
Three areas we need support in are prayer, finances and encouragement! Please consider supporting us as we embark on this journey!
Here is a brief timeline moving forward for the Dekold family
Jan – Stay focused on student ministry at Lakeshore / Fundraising
Feb – Transition and Training new Youth Pastors
Feb 28th – Dekold Baby #3 Due Date
March 1st – Final Day on Staff at Lakeshore
March – Making arrangements to move, Packing up the house
April - Loading up Truck / Moving to California
Once again, a huge thank you to Lakeshore and Pastor Brad! We will always call this place home! Thank you to all the families that have taken us in over the years. And a huge thank you to Paradigm leaders and students! Ya’ll are so amazing! We will miss every single one of you!
Nick, Liz, Gavin, Emory & Baby #3
