My wife Julie, our Pastor of Goof Darin, his wife Deborah and I went to Ashtabula, OH  yesterday to do some exploring for the first church plant of Bridge Church. We had breakfast in a local eatery and talked to a waitress who shared there were no churches in the area getting it done and the greatest need was something for kids and teenagers.  We then drove through some neighborhoods..  There are poor neighborhoods with churches offering lunch programs during the summer for kids – these are kids who are on the school lunch program, but during the summer they may nor eat lunch if it weren't for programs at churches etc…  We also drove through nice well kept neighborhoods, then some upper class neighborhoods as well. 

Kent State has a campus in Ashtabula and we drove around it.  We then went to the Chamber of Commerce and talked to the Executive Director who is the football coach at St Johns and Paul High School. He said he believe the greatest need in the area is literacy, both in kids and adults. He was very receptive and also said that not many churches were doing a good job of reaching out.

We did see lots of open retail space on the west side of town. On the east side of town is the mall, Lowes, Best Buy, retail eating places etc…

There is a new high school that is as nice if not nicer than Perry High School called Lakeside on the west side of town.  They closed two high schools and combined into one.

Population of the county is 105,000. Ashtabula is 45,000. Saybrook on the west side has 15,000 and Plymouth on the south side has 8,000.

This area is a strong possibility for a new church plant.  Pray about this with us