The Discovery Lab

June 12, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope this letter finds you well.  We think of you and your families often.  Nathan and I are writing this to share with you what God has been doing lately in our lives, and we would love to hear what He is doing in yours.

For the past few months, we have been spiritually lost and trying to figure out what direction God wants us to take. We finally came to the conclusion that we needed to stop whining about being lost and instead listen to God. 

            Soon after, the youth minister’s position became open in our church.  This got us thinking, and we began to seriously discuss and pray about going into the ministry.  We had a meeting with our pastor to discuss the youth position and the idea of going into the ministry. We all agreed that the position at our current church was not the right fit for us; really, we had no idea what the right fit might be.  Our minister suggested we spend some time trying to discover what type of ministry we were passionate about.  The next day our good friends, Josh and Jaime Fisher told us about the Discovery Lab, where young church leaders go to discover if they are interested in becoming church planters. 

The Discovery Lab is part of a national ministry called Mission Alive.  The purpose of Mission Alive is “to discover, equip, place, and nurture church planting leaders who will plant missional churches in suburbs, city centers, and poverty areas with unbelievers as the primary target.”  Once we found out about this ministry, we both were very excited.  Since then, we have had a phone conversation with the head of Mission Alive, Gailyn, and his wife Becky.  They are amazing people, and we are really excited to get to know them.

The first step in joining this ministry is to attend the four-day “Discovery Lab” to discover if this ministry is right for us.  Before we are able to attend however, we had to fill out a pretty intense application.  We both finished the application about two weeks ago; it was very cleansing in a way. This whole process has happened so fast, and our lab is in Connecticut from July 15-18 of this year!  We have about four weeks to raise money to go to the Discovery Lab.  We need to raise $950 for the Lab, and this covers our costs while attending the Lab as well as helping to cover the costs of the Mission Alive team. 

It is tempting to lean on our own abilities and resources to find a way to pay for the Lab.  However, the Mission Alive team has encouraged us to raise the money.  If we become church planting missionaries, we will have to learn how to raise money; and more importantly, we will have to be dependent upon God and His people for support.  This also gives us an opportunity to share with our family and friends what God is doing in our lives.  We are sorry this letter gives you short notice, and we are sorry that it comes in the form of an email rather than a more traditional letter.  However, this happened quickly, and we are excited God has given us this opportunity.  If you feel led to support us financially, we would obviously greatly appreciate it.  There are many other ways we would appreciate your support as well.  Please pray for us—pray for safe travel and that our hearts and minds are open to what God has to share with us.  Please ask us about Mission Alive and the amazing things God is doing through this ministry.  Even if we do not eventually become a part of this ministry, it is full of amazing, Godly people doing God’s work.  And, please let us serve you.  We have few talents, but we are willing.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact us.  You can follow us on Lana’s blog at www.lanamcbanana.blogspot.com as we discover this ministry and learn what God has ready for us. We will send an update when we have finished the Discovery Lab and let you know what our next steps will be.  You can also check out the Mission Alive website at www.missionalive.org. 

Much Love,

Lana and Nathan

Lana: (660) 233-2033 and lanamcbanana@gmail.com

Nathan: (660) 909-8501 and nfamiller@gmail.com