Friends,

A quick update from the Joneses.

We are thrilled with daily life in the apartment complex that God has placed us in. Though this sounds too good to be true, we actually get paid to throw weekly parties in our apartment complex for our neighbors!  We are known as the party people, and are already seeing opportunities to point people to the best party thrower, Jesus.  More about this from Laurel and baby girl and me soon.

Beginning this Saturday, I’ve been asked to help serve at Soma School 201 in L.A.

Soma School is a week long holistic learning intensive for church planters that I told many of you we hosted in Tacoma not too long ago.

Soma School 201 is for Soma School alumni to help them with different leadership issues they’re experiencing as they lead their churches. We have 50 leaders coming from 27 different churches from around the U.S. and from Australia and the UK! It represents a lot of people that are under their care.

I will be helping with administrative needs during this week and get to sit in and learn from the stories of these pastors and the churches they serve at, as well as from the Soma leaders that will be equipping us.

Pray that this week would help these leaders and their people in making disciples of Jesus in their cities.  The Spirit of God must do this!

Three years ago I married my wife.

This captures the day.

Footage by Capillya Uptergrove

Photography by Gabriel and Debbie Mayes

Editing by Levi Miller

Music by Ray LaM. (Ray, this is just for our friends, please forgive us)

Thanks to all for being a part of this day and bettering our marriage since!

Friends, we have three very exciting things to tell you:

#1 | TOWARDS SLOVAKIA:  Via church planting residency in Tacoma, WA

Over the past few years, God has inspired us to join in His work in Slovakia and Eastern Europe in equipping His Church for church planting.  We are now beginning to network and to build relationships with Slovak church planters and pastors, forming a team with whom we will serve, and joining a mission organization that would empower and oversee us in our calling.   To help guide us through this process, we will begin a church-planting residency with Soma in Tacoma, WA, this July.  Soma is a family of churches that is committed to the continual planting of churches and to training the servant leaders needed to do so. They are already equipping church plants in four Eastern European contexts.  We are excited, but we will dearly miss our Summit family.

Links: http://wearesoma.com/

#2 | TOGETHER IN SLOVAKIA NOW:  Connecting and serving

We are currently in Slovakia and are here for two weeks.  We have not been here together since returning from our honeymoon!  We are connecting with over 20 pastors in over 10 cities across the country, who have either planted churches recently or have a calling to do so.  We are very thankful for our friend Peto Hrubo and TCKompas: ADVANCE for making many of these conversations possible.  We are also serving and teaching at KPM, a conference that annually trains more than 700 youth leaders from all over Slovakia. We want to invite you to help us with this trip financially.  For more information, please shoot us an email.

Links: http://tckompas.sk/sk/advance    http://kpm.tckompas.sk/

#3 | SUMMIT CHURCH CONWAY:  Launching gatherings on 4/20

Since we planted in September of 2013, The Summit Church has been living as a church family in Conway through our eGroups: communities of people who together experience the presence of God, are equipped for ministry, and engage the world around them.  On April 20^th, we will launch our first Sunday gatherings together!  As Laurel and I are preparing to leave, we could not be more excited to know that our Greenhouse college student family is an essential part of the Summit Church plant in Conway.

Link: http://thesummitchurch.org/conway/

CONTACT: Dawson and Laurel Jones // 1 (501) 499 5903 // dawsoncjones@gmail.com

PLEASE PRAY…

for an even deeper understanding of our Father’s love in this season.

for church leaders all over Slovakia who are serving faithfully.

that we might connect with future partners in the gospel these weeks.

that 700 youth workers would be encouraged by the KPM conference.

for our move to Tacoma in July.

that the Soma residency would equip us as we begin to work in SK.

that people would encounter Jesus in Conway because of the Summit.

Friends, here are a few exciting current happenings that are helping us take steps towards equipping and serving the Church in Eastern Europe. 

 Latvia and Estonia Visit

I am currently in North-eastern Europe visiting some churches and church planting teams in Latvia and Estonia, two countries with similar economic, political, and spiritual climates as Slovakia.  I am traveling with our friend Todd Morr, who spent years in the Czech Republic and Romania with Josiah Venture, and is now serving with Soma in Tacoma, Wa.  I hope to encourage and learn from the family of God in these countries.

 Church Plant In Conway, Arkansas!

For the past four years we have been discipling college students at The Greenhouse, a ministry of the Summit Church in Little Rock, a 25-mile drive from us.   We are excited that God has called the Summit to plant a new expression in our city, Conway, Arkansas!  I have the great privilege of serving alongside Kyle Reno and Blake Hudspeth, dear friends and highly gifted pastors who remind me daily of the Father’s costly grace I stand in. This transition of the Greenhouse into being a part of a fuller expression of the local body of Christ is a great answer to prayer as we finish our last year in Arkansas!

Church Planting Residency

Next fall, Laurel and I will begin a two-year Church-planting residency with Soma before we move to Europe.  We are in the final stages of deciding which city would best equip us for what God is calling us to.

PLEASE PRAY…

for an even deeper understanding of the gospel in this season.

for Summit Conway to bring good news to the city.

that we might equip and learn from the church in Latvia and Estonia.

for our decision and transition to the church planting residency.

for a couple that is considering joining us in this journey.

that Laurel would have an incredible nine days while I am away!

– – – – – – – – – –

Enjoying peace with God,

Dawson and Laurel

Friends,

It is with great excitement that Laurel and I write you to let you know that June 23^rd we will be heading to Tacoma, Washington for a week of training at Soma Immerse. 

Soma is a family of churches around the world who are committed to making disciples who make disciples to the glory of God.  Soma Immerse is a weeklong blend of classroom time and exposure to everyday life of the Soma church body.

As we finish up our last year serving the Greenhouse community of college students, we are praying that this equipping time at Soma Immerse will help us clarify and strengthen the Greenhouse vision so that the community as a whole can continue in even greater health once we are gone.  God has been so gracious to allow us to serve with the Summit Church in North Little Rock in this.

We also hope that this trip will equip and challenge us as we look towards moving to Eastern Europe within the next years to be a part of the multiplying church Jesus is building there. 

We are thankful that God has provided all of our funding for our trip through our closest community!  Our church family know they have been blessed to be a blessing!

After the training week we will enjoy a week of vacation and anniversary celebration at a friend’s house near San Francisco and the Red Woods!  We are looking forward to this first real getaway since we’ve been married!

God’s story is always adventurous and we’re glad he’s invited us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to be a part of it!

PLEASE PRAY FOR

• An even deeper understanding of the gospel through this week.
• A teachable spirit as we are being equipped to serve the Church.
• For this summer and our last year at The Greenhouse.
• That we would discern God’s direction for the next season of our life.
• For a restful and energizing time for our marriage while in California.

Dawson and Laurel

http://greenhouseuca.tumblr.com/

http://somatacoma.org/immerse/

http://wearesoma.com/