Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to our friends and family across the country!

We are so thankful for how God is continuing to provide for us in new ways and we could not be more thankful for the wonderful friends and family He has given us.

This year we are celebrating Christmas in Idaho! Benj's parents arrived this past week and will be with us and Nathanael, Shannon and the babies through January! So, needless to say, its a full house and we are loving it. We are missing my family very much, especially this time of year, but I am excited that I will get to see my sister and her family in February as I will get to travel to Dallas to see them and my parents too! God is so good and I am so thankful that He has already provided so much so that I could go see them!

As an early Christmas present, Nathanael and Shannon sent us away this past weekend! We were able to get away for a couple of nights up in the mountains in McCall, ID. It was so beautiful and even though there wasn't much snow to play in or go skiing, we took a long hike in the snow around the most amazing lake and loved the time together! Here are a few pictures and we are looking forward to posting more pictures of what we know will be a wonderful Christmas!

Praying you have a very Merry Christmas,
Steph (and Benj)

More Great Books.....

I just wanted to post some more of the books we are reading! I would encourage you all to get a hold of these and let us know your thoughts too! We are continuing to learn more and more about Missional Communities and church planting and want to take the opportunity to share with you what we are learning from!

Building a Discipling Culture--Mike Breen and Steve Cockram


Covenant and Kingdom--Mike Breen



...and yes, I'm still reading Faith of Leap--Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch! With school still going (and thankfully almost done, it's been hard to finish it but so far is an excellent read for anyone who calls themselves a Christ-Follower!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

We are missing much of our family during this time but also so thankful to be around people we love! We are staying put in Idaho for the holidays and we could not be more thankful to be spending it with Nat, Shan and the kidos! It's been nice having a couple of days off together and really looking forward to some great food tomorrow!

We want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and thanking God for how He constantly provides! We are seeing every step of the way that He has orchestrated all the details in us being here to learn and grow and prepare for what He has for us in our family and ministry. Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers and we pray that God blesses you and your family as well!

Have a great Turkey day!
Benj and Steph

Time to Explore...

We did some exploring on Sunday after church!
We went up to Bogus Basin, but didn't quite make it. The roads started to get bad so we decided to drive as far as we could then headed back down.







We had a little bit of snow at home, but nothing to stick. The snow right now is all in the mountains and we were glad to see the beautiful sights!

The Cold Has Arrived!

Happy November Everyone!

Sorry we haven't posted in a while! We are in full swing with our jobs and life in the Litter home. Benj returned home last Monday from being on the road for a few weeks with work, and is home this week as well! It is such a blessing as we remember and are in awe of how God provided such amazing jobs for us and the ability to do those jobs well. We continue to love being around Nathanael, Shannon, and the kids, and are blessed by having them in our lives to grow with and bless as we live here with them. We are so thankful to be able to get rid of so much of our school debt and save too!

Along with getting used to work and our new lives here in Idaho, we are also adjusting to the cold! The frost is beginning to show up on our cars each morning and we are in full use of our warmer clothing! We are still trying to build our winter wardrobe as most of our clothes in Florida would just not cut it! While we loved the warm weather, there's just something about feeling and seeing the seasons change. We love seeing the mountains on our way to work every day and love seeing the changing leaves and we are amazed at how beautiful God's creation is each new day. Here's a picture when we were driving into downtown Boise!



We will do our best to post some more pictures soon and we will also be sending out our newsletter and prayer calendar this evening! Please email us at thelitters@gmail.com if you would like to be added to our mailing list or if you have anything we can be praying about for you and your families.

Here's one of the airports Benj was based in. It's exciting that he gets to see different parts of the country through his job!

Risk and Adventure Article

Risk and Adventure Article by Alex Absalom

Home Sweet Home

We are officially in our new home for the next year! We are still settling in and unpacking but we both had a safe trip here and God provided each step of the way! For those of you who don't know we are so blessed to be living with Benj's brother and sister-in-law and their 3 kids! We are also so thankful for Mark, Benj's dad, and Neil, a family friend because they so willingly drove our car across the country for us!

As we left Florida on Sept. 11th, we arrived in Ohio for a visit with family and friends. Though Benj had a short visit of only 5 days, I was so thankful to be able to stay a full 3 weeks! He started work as soon as he got to Idaho. As I traveled this past Thursday, flights were changed around and delayed, but God showed up in so many ways that day! God had some great people for me to talk to on my first flight and smooth flying for the following flights after that!

We are continuing to unpack and get settled, and as Benj continues to learn new things at his job, I will begin work Oct. 10th. I am looking forward to getting back to work and meeting my new coworkers and people from the community. We will also continue to update through newsletters so if you would like to receive our monthly email newsletters please email us at thelitters@gmail.com

We are so thankful for everyone's prayers and encouragement as we begin a new part in our adventure!
Blessings, Steph

Resting for the Journey

As we set out on the next part of our journey, we are recognizing that God has provided us with a little bit of a resting time. As we've said before, we are taking the next year or so to plan, prepare, and rest. We know that this up coming time will be valuable in our walk with God and He will teach us and prepare us for the work ahead. We must not settle in this time though, because God is blessing us with the strengthening that we will need to push on to the next place of ministry. We are excited for the work God has for us in Denver and we continue to have a burden on our hearts for that city.

As I, Stephanie, continue to read the book, "The Faith of Leap" it describes exactly what we must keep in mind during this time. It reads: "We are explicitly warned that there can be no final respite until we reach our final Sabbath rest (Heb 4:1-11), and although there will, thankfully, be wonderful resting places along the way, these we can never settle in for too long. We rest only to be strengthened for the journey." (The Faith of Leap, pg. 20).

We are thankful and also very aware that God has an important purpose for this time in our lives and we are praying that He keeps us obedient and reveals His purpose for us in Idaho (though we may never find out). Everywhere we go, there are opportunities. We are not just stopping ministry in waiting for Denver. On the contrary, our lives should constantly be about sharing Christ with others no matter what part of life we are going through. We don't know what God has in store for us in Idaho, but we are already seeing His hand upon us with provisions and affirmations each day that goes by. We are excited to be with family and use this upcoming time to prepare as best as we know how and be willing and ready for what God wants to teach us.

Books We are Reading...

Here are some books we have just started reading. We loved reading For the City (Matt Carter, Darrin Patrick) and would recommend it to everyone who is wanting to impact their community around them. As we begin these books we look forward to sharing our thoughts on what we learn and how we will apply it to our future plans and ministry as well as our everyday lives!

Saying Good-Bye...

Sunday, Sept. 11th, we said good-bye to our family in Florida. This past week was our last Sunday with Discover Church and what a blessing it was. I've seen good-byes be very bitter and hard in the past and this was nothing of the sort! Our church family sent us away with blessings and encouragement and yes, a lot of tears. We could not have asked for a better send off and are so thankful!





As it's only the first week, it doesn't quite seem real. We had a wonderful going away party Saturday night and Sunday morning they put together such a sweet video of us and had a powerful time of prayer over us at the end of the service. We are so thankful for Pastor Chip and his wife, Brittni's support and leadership as they have the most on their plate as we departed! We are praising God for the volunteers and staff that He raised up to take on our responsibilities in our ministry areas and have a peace, knowing that this is right!

Please continue to pray for us as we travel, visit family, and transition into a new phase in our lives. And most of all, please pray for our Discover Church family as they transition and grow into this new phase of the church's life! We were so blessed to be changed by what we experienced in Florida and we are asking God to strengthen His church there.


To see all that Discover Church is doing visit www.DiscoverChurchPBC.com and follow them on Twitter and Facebook

To follow all that we will be doing in this next phase of our journey, come here to read our blog and follow us on
Twitter @BenjLitter or @StephLitter
Facebook Benj Litter or Stephanie Litter

New Jobs...and Back to School!

We are excited to say that we officially have jobs waiting for us in Idaho! As we continue to plan, we are seeing God provide in just the right timing and in ways that we could never take credit for. Last week, Benj received an official job offer from the company his brother, Nathanael, works for! Benj had worked there several summers ago and is looking forward to be able to work alongside his brother for the next year!

Just today I received a call from my new manager at a Starbucks in Idaho! We are so thankful that I have a job to look forward to, and it's also the closest to where we'll be living! It's intimidating to think about starting over, meeting new people, and learning so many new things, but we know that God is already going before us and is providing everything we need and will need in this transition!

Not only has the Lord provided jobs, He has provided everything necessary for me to finish my last two classes for my degree! It's a miracle that I don't have more classes to take since I've been out of school for over two years, however, everything down to the last approval and dollar, went through in just the right timing and now I am working hard to do my best in this last semester!

As we transition, God is showing up in every way! We only have a little less than two weeks here in Florida and it is finally feeling real. The packing is getting done and we are making plans to leave now on the 11th after church. We originally thought we would leave in the middle of the week but Benj needs to be in Idaho the following weekend as he will be starting his job on September 19th. I will be starting my first week October 10, so I will be looking forward to a couple of weeks in Ohio with family and then will fly out toward the end of September.

We continue to thank God for all that He is providing and orchestrating through this transition and we give Him the glory for all that is happening! We look forward to posting some pictures soon and writing as we travel! For now, please pray as we finish strong in our last two weeks here in Florida and that God would guide us through saying good byes and packing up to leave!

Discover Church's New Location

Check out our promo video of the new location!


Today was such an exciting day for Discover Church! As you know we now have 5 Sunday's left with Discover Church and what a blessing it was to be able to see the transition to our new location. Discover Church has moved to The Weiss School just a few blocks away from our previous location at the movie theater. The Weiss School is a private elementary and high school and is a great space for the church to grow! Not only has God provided this location with a great price, He has also provided a location that we can use more than just Sunday mornings. We will now have the ability to hold events here and have complete use of the space as opposed to sharing it with the public. It's clean, safe for kids, and a great place to serve families and the staff from the school!

The past few weeks we have also been transitioning for our move. God has provided some amazing leaders to take our areas to the next level. To give you an idea of how we are leading here, I have been responsible for all of the kids ministry of the church. Benj is the church's worship pastor (ordained in April 2011), and has also been overseeing media, web design, and volunteer teams for different areas. He has been building and leading the worship band and God has provided such a great group of volunteers who will do a wonderful job at continuing to lead the church in worshiping God! We are so thankful that God has provided just the right people for Discover Church and we have an amazing peace about what He is doing!

As we are so far away from family and haven't been able to see them for some time, God has overwhelmed us with the love from our "family" here in Florida. The people at Discover Church have become our family and we will miss them very much. As we are so excited for what God has for us next, we know that saying good-bye will be difficult! We dearly love everyone here but we know that God has exciting things in store for them and us in this vision He's given us!

We're Moving!

We are Moving!!!

When: We are leaving Florida September 15th

Where: Denver, Colorado

Why:

At the end of April we felt God’s call on us to plant more churches. We had the opportunity to attend a church planting conference in Orlando with our staff and volunteer team from Discover Church. Since January, we have been feeling a stirring in us for something but didn’t quite know what that was. We thought maybe we should try living in a new neighborhood, or even the possibility of starting the next church plant out of Discover Church in the next town in this county. We knew God was doing something in us, but until this conference we were unclear as to what that was.
The first full day of the conference, Benj went to an early morning Bible study with Rick Warren and really benefited from the things he was teaching. Benj felt as though God was speaking directly to him about planting churches and felt as though we must plant the Church not just a church. We must live out the Gospel and live our everyday lives with people that need Him in that city. Pastor Rick taught about how there is nothing wrong about having a small church, but there is something wrong about having a small vision. At this point Benj thought of Denver, Colorado and not knowing why, just wrote it down and began praying for direction from God.
All the while, God was speaking to me as well. That same morning, I was feeling God speak to me through a seminar I attended. Sitting there, I kept hearing God say “be prepared.” As I listened to the speaker, I was touched by the lesson in a way that made me listen to God’s voice saying that we were about to take a big step of faith and to be prepared for it.
The next evening, we were able to have some time to ourselves to talk and Benj was able to share what God had laid on his heart! It came as no surprise to me and since then we have been praying together that God would guide us as we make big changes in our lives.
Something that truly burdened our hearts at this conference were what they called Missional Communities. We learned a little bit about them and fell in love with the idea of doing church this way. Missional Communities are bigger than small groups and they do life together, serve and grow together. They are meant to provide a way of growing together while serving and loving on the city that you live in. They are similar to small groups in the way they meet and accomplish discipleship, however, with a vision and purpose in mind to listen to the community and then go and serve in those ways. Currently our favorite part of the week is when we get to have friends in our home, eating, learning, and spending time together! It has placed a love for hospitality and discipleship in our hearts that we look forward to doing more in the future.
Some of you may be wondering why we are leaving Florida! We love Discover Church and we love the people that have become family to us. We are sad to go, but excited that God calls His people to something not from something. We know that God has His hand on Discover Church and its people and we are so thankful that He is already putting people in place to take on our responsibilities and opportunities to serve. We know that if we were disobedient and didn’t leave, we would not only be ruining our own opportunities to follow God, but also keeping others that are here from their opportunity to serve in new ways! We know we would be holding back Discover Church if we were to stay. We love this church and will continue to pray for and support them because we know that God had us here for the right amount of time. We know that our plans for this next church came from the teaching and the values of what we are doing here. We feel as though this has been a training ground for what is to come in Denver!

Our Plans:

We are leaving Florida September 15th and will visit our home town in Ohio for a couple of weeks. After that, our plan is to live with Benj’s brother and his family in Idaho for a short while so that we can plan and prepare ourselves for what God wants us to do in Denver. We have the opportunity there to rest and to really ask God to prepare our hearts and to do some training. This will also give us the opportunity to work and pay down some school debt and have valuable time with family! We will be able to drive to Denver in the midst of this time and find a place to live, work, and be a part of the city. We are excited for this next step and ask that you would continue to pray for us as God leads on us this adventure! There are a lot of questions that we don’t quite have answers for yet, but we know that God is faithful and He will provide in every step of the way. We know that God is preparing us and others around us for new steps of faith and we pray that He gives us the strength to say “yes” to Him and follow Him as He leads!