Directions

To New City Fellowship (from 95S or 95N)

Take exit 130A (toward Fredericksburg/ 3 East)
Continue straight on 3 east, toward Fredericksburg
Take Left onto Lafayette Blvd.
Take Right onto Charles Street (you'll see sign for routes 2/17)
Take first Right onto Frederick Street
Left onto Prince Edward Street
Pass front of church
Take Right onto Dunmore
Take Right into back church parking lot

200 Prince Edward Street
Fredericksburg, VA 22401

To Reception Hall (from New City Fellowship)

Take Left out of back parking lot onto Dunmore Street
Take Right onto Charles Street
Stay straight on Charles Street
Charles Street turns into Dixon St./US-17/VA-2 (2 miles)
Turn Left into Fredericksburg Elks Lodge #875

11309 Tidewater Trail
Fredericksburg, VA 22408

Hotels

We've blocked off rooms at the following hotels:

Courtyard Marriott $$$ 3 min. from church, historic district
620 Caroline Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401
540-373-8300
(Mention New City Fellowship for discount)

Towneplace Suites $$ 15 min. from church
4700 Market Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22408
540-891-0775
(Reference the Shaw-Becker Wedding)

Country Inn and Suites $$ 15 min. from church
5327 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Fredericksburg, VA 22408
540-898-1800
(Shaw-Becker Wedding)

Days Inn $ 15 min. from church
5316 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Fredericksburg, VA 22408
540-898-6800
(Shaw-Becker Wedding)

Email us for a complete list of area hotels.

Where We're Headed:

Advance Memphis, the small Christian non-profit where I was employed for a year before moving out west, has enthusiastically invited Gretchen and me to actively be a part of what the Lord is doing through both the economic development organization and the church in Memphis, TN. I will be moving to Memphis in July to begin work and Gretchen will join me after our wedding.

For almost 12 years Advance Memphis has faithfully served Memphis’ inner-city by providing excellent programs and pursuing meaningful relationships with adults in and around the city’s last remaining government housing project. Advance exists to share the powerful news of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection through classes, programs, and relationships designed to allow individuals to fully experience their purpose as children of the God who created them. The knowledge, resources, and skills learned and developed through Advance’s activities and programs not only move people off of government aid and back to work and productivity, but more importantly restore dignity to the lives of individuals entangled in poverty.

Advance’s primary program, the six-week long Bible-based Jobs for Life class is designed to encourage unemployed and underemployed adults to realize their worth as individuals created in God’s image to work hard and to be productive. The class seeks not to simply help participants find a job, but to build a career with which they can consistently provide for themselves and their families. Other programs include a matched savings account geared toward asset building, a warehouse training course, a GED class, men’s and women’s Bible studies, a computer class, an immediate in-house work program, and access to Advance Memphis’ staffing service, as well as regular meals and activities with the community.

Besides recognition for its services in multiple local media outlets, Advance has also been featured in the nationwide evangelical publications Prism and World magazines, where it was honored with the latter’s Hope Award for Effective Compassion, and in the books Linking Arms, Linking Lives and When Helping Hurts. Advance is also recognized by the Presbyterian Church in America’s stateside missions organization Mission to North America and was highlighted recently in their quarterly newsletter.

While my work with Advance will focus primarily on connecting graduates with local employers and businesses, as well as teaching various sections of the Jobs for Life class, I am excited to once again live and work in the Advance community, this time with my wife, learning from and with people in the projects about how better to love and serve our Lord Jesus Christ together.

It is our goal to raise $32,000 to allow for me to have full employment and for Gretchen and me to enjoy full health benefits as we seek to make Memphis our home. Please consider giving to Advance Memphis by following the link at http://www.advancememphis.org/, or by sending a check made out to Advance Memphis indicating me and Gretchen as the recipients of the funds to the address below. If you would like additional information or clarification on what the Lord is doing through Advance and what Gretchen and me’s role will be in this work, please contact us.

For a short video about Advance please follow this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsyaAZSa_QI

Gift Registries

We are registered at the following locations:

(registry #11631418)

(registry ID: 013135300000299)

(www.advancememphis.org)

In lieu of a gift a donation can be made to Advance Memphis, an economic development organization in the inner-city of Memphis, TN committed to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in word and in deed.

Our Story

She said:


I first met Michael at Covenant College, and got to know him when I came out to work with Sacred Road Ministries on the Yakama reservation for the first time my Junior year. We continued to build a friendship throughout the last 2 years of college and after graduation. We both considered a longer commitment to Sacred Road around the same time but I ended up there in March of 2009 while Michael lived and worked in Memphis, TN for an organization called Advance Memphis. He came out to Yakama in August of 2009. Though I had a long admiration for the guy, we didn't start dating until late last fall. Because we've had a long friendship and knew each other well, we knew marriage was in the near future. Mike proposed February 13th, and guess what..I said yes!


He said:

Gretchen and I graduated together from Covenant College in 2008. We first met through her roomate, Heather, who worked with me in Yakama the summer after our sophomore years. Gretchen came to Yakama during the spring of our junior years for a week-long missions trip that I was leading. I got to know Gretchen better over the next few years at Covenant around campus, during dinners at her apartment or my house, soccer games she would watch, going to see her in the spring musical, buggin her at the library while she worked, another trip to Yakama together, and just hanging out with mutual friends around Chattanooga. I met her family when they came to visit her at Covenant, at my graduation party, and again when they came to St. Louis for a family vacation.

I fell in love with Gretchen in Yakama where we had been working together for almost 9 months. I fell in love with the way she loves Jesus and the way she loves people, with her beautiful voice and joyful deneanor. We were enganged on Saturday, February 13th, after the short realization that I knew everthing about her that I needed to know- even if we had only been officially dating for 4 months. And here we are.