Thursday, May 29, 2014

A couple of words before leaving for Boston

Today, Lori and I begin our journey up to Boston.  I can’t believe the time has come for us to leave.  As we head out, I wanted to share two words that have continued to surface.

First Word – Encouragement
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”  1 Thessalonians 5:11

We have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of encouragement we have received from friends, family and our church family.  We cannot thank everyone enough for your many prayers, kind words and financially investing into our endeavor.   

Second Word – Confirmation
because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 1:5-7

This process has been a long time of preparation and waiting.  If you know anything about me, waiting is not something in which I have been gifted.  Thankfully the Lord, in His sovereignty, has balanced me out with a wonderful wife who models this so well.  God has been so faithful through this whole process and has only continued to confirm this trip.  Not only has He met our financial needs, but He did it in an astounding way.  People have given sacrificially for Lori and I to go to Boston to serve.  God has also allowed me to have a boss who is willing to hold my job for 8 weeks, so I can go serve in Boston.   

So as we put Atlanta in our rear view mirror, thank you for joining us in this process and helping us get to Boston.  When I think about our friends, this verse comes to my mind:


For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”   Ephesians 1:15-16

Monday, May 19, 2014

How you can pray for us

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”  Matthew 7:7-8

Lori and I leave for Boston in 10 days.  Over the past weeks we have been trying to squeeze time in to see as many friends before we leave.  As we gather with friends, the resounding question that comes up is “How can we be praying for you?”  Unfortunately, we won’t be able to see all our friends before we leave, so I wanted to share how you can be specifically be praying for Lori and I. 

1.    Safe travel – We will be leaving on Thursday, May 29th to head up to Boston.  We will be driving one of our vehicles, so that we can have it on the field.  The trek is 1,100 miles.  Thankfully we will be able to break up the trip into a couple of days and see family along the way.   

2.    To stay healthy – as we get closer to leaving, we continue to burn the candle at both ends.  Between Lori finishing up school, trying to make connections in Boston, squeezing in time with friends before we leave and finalizing details, we are not getting the rest we should.  We don’t want to start our time of serving with being sick.

3.    Continue to make connections with church planters.  One of our main tasks this summer is to come alongside church planters.  We have begun to reach out and connect with pastors before going up to Boston.  However we have only had about half respond.  Please pray for connections, especially with the ethnic churches.  These have been much harder to reach into as language can be a barrier. 

4.    Visiting Summer Mission teams.  Lori and I will also be working with several different mission teams that are coming to Boston to serve this summer.  Pray for their projects, as well final details to come together.  We will be helping with logistics with the teams – lodging, travel, community connection, etc.

5.    Housing for one week while we are up there.  We are thankful that the Lord has provided housing for the 7 out of the 8 weeks.  However we still need to find inexpensive housing for one of our weeks. 


6.    Clarity for Lori and I.  During our time in Boston, we are looking for the Lord to confirm whether we are to move up to Boston next year or to stay in Atlanta.  Please pray that God will make this clear for us.   

We want to say huge thank you for all of our friends and their encouragement and prayers during this journey.  It has been a huge blessing for us.  God has truly bless us with great friends who continue to encourage us and lift us up.  This process has been exciting and we look forward to sharing with you about what God does this summer. 

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Does Boston Really Need 42 Church Plants

That was the question that came to mind when I first heard that Boston had 42 church plants, under 5 years old.  I thought, “surely there are enough churches currently.”  However as I have learned more about Boston I have come to realize that Boston actually needs many more than 42 church plants.  Here are some reasons for the great need.

1       Population growth has far outpaced the church growth.  Although Boston continues to explode with an influx of people moving into the area, a majority of the churches are either stagnant or declining.  Church plants are needed to keep up with ever increasing demand.

    There are over 80 colleges and universities with students from over 140 different countries.  Boston desperately needs more ethnic pastors to reach into these ethnic populations.  Thankfully Boston has seen several Brazilian, Nepalese, Hispanic, Korea and Chinese church planting pastors.  However there are so many more people groups without a church in their native language.

    Boston has a “towny” culture in which church planters must figure out how to reach into.  Although, Boston proper has 600,000 people, the Metro Boston area has nearly 5 million people.  This area is actually made of little towns.  These town range in sizes, from as small as 11,000 to over 60,000 each. Within these towns, their inhabitants stay primarily in their area for shopping, school, sports, and entertainment.  Most towns have their own schools, police department and fire department.  So to reach Boston, you have to reach the towns.  Currently North American Mission Board is focusing on 24 pivotal towns. 



Please continue to pray for Boston and for more church planting pastors to stand in the gap.  Lori and I are excited to go this summer to come alongside these pastors.  Please contact me if you are interested in coming to Boston to serve or would like to help support our efforts this summer.  Here is the link to our website http://msc.kintera.org/jablonskis