…we’ve moved.

You have not heard from me in a while!  Basically, we had vacation at the end of August and most of our September has been full of finishing what we can downstairs in the house we’re moving into as a ministry and packing and moving out of the center we’ve set up base for more than three years.  We’ve also tried to keep up with our regular ministry as much as possible. Whew!  What a month!  Its very much an ending of one season and entering into a new season kind of time.  I thought I would share this article we put in the Cairo newspaper recently.  We’ve had a lot of chuckles over the years over how the community tries to understand who we are and what we do.  We have a hard enough time putting it into words ourselves!  We know this move will take a while for people to get used to here…this is why this article was written.

Two Rivers Ministries Are Moving to 321 26th Street. Open House on October 4, 2008.

by: Stacy Ciha

During the last couple of weeks in August we heard that there were rumors floating around about us in Cairo. We have little spies that heard them (I am just kidding of course!). These rumors were around the fact that we, all those ladies and one gentleman that hang around the old St. Joe building, moved. Well, we didn’t actually move then. We were visiting our families who have given us up for most of the months of the year. We are now back. We are not moving out of Cairo, but we are moving to another location. We will not be moving to the old junior high school, but our computer lab will be. The computer lab should be reopening mid October and you can expect to hear more about that in the coming weeks. We will be moving to a house that we have been fixing up for the last three years. This house is at 321 26th Street and although it will not be completely done, this will be where you can find us coming October 1st. September 30th will be our last day at 421 Cross Street.

Who exactly are “we”? Well, that does seem to be a popular question! That is a question that we often ask ourselves and when people ask me I am often not sure which “me” you will identify with. We know that you wonder about us. What should you call us? Over the years we have been called “the people at the old St. Joe school”, Kid’s Club, Youthworks, the youth group, Two Rivers, foster children (although many of us look really young we are all over the age of 25) Youth Enterprise, Youthworkers, Tribe of Judah, Tillmans and gang and those people that walk and pray. Whew, that was a mouthful! People have also thought that we lived at the center. To clear that misconception up, we have never lived at the center. We actually live together between two different houses in town. We have had many groups stay at the center when they visit so this is probably where this misunderstanding could have been created. We don’t blame you for thinking this because many people have come in and out of that brick building over the years! We will also not be living at this new house that we are moving into, this house will be for you as much as it is for us.

Seriously now, we are simply a group of people that love the Lord and are trying to be obedient to Him. God told us to come to Cairo, so we came. He has told us to stay, so we’ve stayed. “Officially” you can call us prayer missionaries. We would even rather have you call us friends. Over the last couple of years we have changed from an organization to more of a family, with prayer always being at our core. We started throwing the word family around and really that is the best word to describe us. As a family it even seems fitting that now we are moving to this house. Slowly, people have been added to our numbers and we count them each as family where we desire to live in community like the early church in Acts. We are a work in progress. We don’t take offense at the confusion over what to call us. We care less that you know our name and more that you know the name of Jesus. It is His name that we want to exalt and not our own. In our new location we are simply calling it the Cairo House of Prayer. It is a house. We will be praying in it. It is for all of you and not just us. We are not exclusive because Jesus was not exclusive. It is a place where we hope you can come to meet with and worship your Father. One such time is on Fridays at 6:30 p.m. when we have a time of prayer and worship each week.

 

We thank you for the many names that you’ve given us over the years. We just thank you that you have welcomed us no matter what you’ve called us. I do hope the mystery of who we are is solved. If not, it is okay.

 

J We are okay being nameless as long as we point you to Jesus. Please do come and visit us.