Miracles Abound in Naples

Sitting in the Ft. Meyers, FL airport waiting to return to Pekin, IL, the most prominent thing that comes to mind is how many God miracles were experienced through this event in Naples, FL.  Once again, everything worked out and we can come home affirmed that God had all our concerns covered all along.  But backing up to just a few days prior to the event, sign ups were coming in very slowly, and we had our doubts about whether this new market was a good fit for Cache' Connections.  And then the day before we left, we heard from Jim Hill, the singles pastor of this beautiful mega church, that their ticket sales had more than doubled at the church. 

New markets are a scary adventure, as it is so difficult to go into a new state or city that has never heard of Cache' Connections.  And since we rely on the churches and Christian community for all marketing efforts, it is crucial that these campaigns are productive.  We are so thankful to Pastor Jim and his volunteers who rallied the past weekend to place over 500 personal phone calls to singles on their phone tree list.

Now for a few more of those everyday miracles that if we don't recognize them, can go unnoticed and unappreciated:

*we only had a 45 minute layover in Atlanta airport and everything went smoothly, including transfer of luggage.
*a friend had a condo nearby in Ft. Myers that was quite beautiful and accommodated us and the Drs. Rodgers quite comfortably... so much better than staying in a hotel room!
*Pastor Jim Hill and his wife graciously loaned us their car for the entirety of our stay.
*even though we had a scare with the technical person not being at the scheduled run-through and no one seemed to know his phone number, the guitar player showed up and contacted him and he was able to get to the church right away and very quickly took care of all our needs
*our photographer arrived on time!
*we had many walk-ins that were unexpected.
*the event was pretty much flawless and we heard so many positive comments (a big deal for a new market)
*even though it wasn't our largest crowd, we had a larger-than-normal amount of people sign up for the website services.
*the Saturday morning Leader's meeting with Drs. Rodgers went VERY well and we have some interest from other area churches in holding their own event.
*a CC member from Orlando drove down for the event, and was sporting a new, healthier look and attitude after taking proactive steps for a healthier lifestyle after attending my chats on physical fitness
*after picking up Chick-Fil-A and taking it back to the condo, we found Linda's sandwich wasn't included and we were too tired and pressed for time to go back. Then whalah!... we found the Drs. had left half a sandwich in the fridge, which worked just great.
*we had just enough time to pack up and get to the airport where we are right now.
*we learned some things about relationships and dealing with hurting people, along with everyone else there, from Drs. Tom and Beverly Rodgers.

So no complaints here from Kim and Linda... except maybe we would have liked to see the beach, but there's always next time.

Have a great rest of the weekend!
~Kim
Cache' Connections