August 2020 Metro Missions Update

Greetings from beautiful Kansas City! God is doing great things here and we are so grateful for your partnership. There are far too many things to communicate in this newsletter, but we will hit a few of the highlights.

Church Update

Before we arrived on site we anticipated being a portable church for a lengthy period of time. However, in November, I felt like the Lord was directing us to lease a space that we could use 24/7. Although I was hesitant, I knew we were burning out the few volunteers that we had. In the middle of praying about what to do I felt like God spoke a word that we needed to move. With that word, and with affirmation of godly counsel, we moved forward and leased a building. On the first Sunday in January we began meeting in our new space. That has turned out to be a blessing in a multitude of ways. From the beginning there was a significant change in the worship of our people and in the post-service fellowship. We of course had no idea that COVID-19 would shut down churches and meetings across the country. We were not exempt from that, but because of the space that we had we were able to continue to live stream our services from our location during our eight-week shutdown. Had we continued to be meeting in a school we would have had to live stream from home and then would not have had a place to hold service after we were able to resume meeting in person.

 

We had numerous partners who donated money and labor to enhance our space and make it presentable. Because of all their efforts, we were able to host the Kansas youth convention in our building the first week of March. A special thank you to the following people and churches:

  • Brad Robinson - Heart and Soul Church - Raymore, MO
  • Michael Menendez - Heart and Soul Church - Raymore, MO
  • Jonathan Hanney - First Faith Church - Overland Park, KS
  • Greg Hooker - The Life Church of Kansas City - KC, MO
  • Terry Bennett - The Life Church of Kansas City - KC, MO
  • James Moore - The Life Church of Kansas City - KC, MO
  • Jim Havner - The Life Church of Kansas City - KC, MO
  • Gabriel Goff - Cornerstone Apostolic Church - Kansas City, KS
  • Marcus Robinson - GraceLife Pentecostal Church Memphis TN
  • GraceLife Pentecostal Church - Memphis TN

 

Even during the shutdown God was at work. At the end of one of our live stream services, we baptized four members of a family that I had been teaching a Bible study to just before the shutdown. On August 30, three members of that family were filled with the Holy Ghost. Additionally, back in July, we baptized two other members of that family who, after an online Bible study, traveled from Iowa to Olathe to be baptized in Jesus’ name. We are so grateful for all our partners who are making possible what God is doing in Olathe and in other parts of our nation.

Gassmann Family

Family Update

On the family front Anthony graduated from high school in May. He graduated with 18 college credits, but of his own volition he felt it was needful to stay here a while longer to help out with the church plant before he goes off to college. He is currently working full time in order to save some additional tuition money he will need for college. Anna finished the fifth grade in May. Two weeks ago she began her sixth grade year. This will mark her third year home schooling and thus far it is the best one yet. Please keep that in prayer. 

 Prayer Needs

We continue to have ongoing needs for Apostolic team members. Our worship leader, who was graciously loaned to us from Brother Gleason’s church, is in the process of moving to Saint Louis . In addition to a worship leader, we need ongoing help with youth, as well as, the continued need for a Spanish speaking team member. We are convinced that God has a great Spanish work in Olathe waiting to be birthed as soon as we're able to get someone to help us communicate better with the myriad of hungry contacts that we have. 

For The Kingdom!