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I know that it is absolutely terrible that we are not on this blog all day long updating, but I think that it may be understandable that wifi is not readily available in a town of 600, and the team is working like crazy and gets tired. I appologize for not updating as often as possible, but here's what we've got.
Wednesday,
we had VBS. Spencer got taken to minor emergency only to find out that he has a severely sprained ankle, and some infamed tendons, which put him is a walking cast type of shoe for the next few days.
VBS went well on Wednesday as I shared with the kids about the Ethipian Treasurer, The kids made bracelets to remind them that they have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
We did some great service projects for the city of Kendrick and had an excellent time in the park playing 21, bump, and other basketball games. Then the whole team joined us and we played a really great game of kickball with close to 30 other people hanging in the park with us.
People have started to tell us that they don't know what they are going to do when we're gone, and they have started to eat dinner in the park so that their kids can be there to play with us.
We definitely went into this thinking that in the evenings we would minister to teens, but it has proven to be children, teens, and parents. It has been a crazy adventure.
Today was Libby's day of VBS, and from what I heard, she rocked it. ( I took Hannah to the doctor because she was still coughing, and her chest hurt. SHe is all better now, and things are looking great for her though) Libby did the story, and the craft today. Then we split.
One group went to work for the city of Kendrick again, and the other group went to the park. Some of the leaders and students had become comfortable being in one place or the other, so we gave them the old switch and it proved to be a pretty great day.
We then did our outreach, and the kids in town were worn out from playing games, so we just did a lot of hanging out. While the kids were hanging, Brian and I went to the local hardware store, and right as the owner was closing down, he let us back in to pick out some hooks that we went and installed in the boys locker room, at the pool, where we had been showering.
When we came back, Acacia had some kids sitting around a couple of picnic tables, and she was sharing her testimony with them.
We hung for a little bit, and then headed back to the church, but we ended up bringing three friends with us who enjoyed dinner, conversation, and games with our group.
Then we hit the showers and the kids are resting for tomorrows day of work.
Hope all is going well on the homefront. See you all soon! Miss YOU
Today, VBS was great. Bailey lead an amazing lesson, we had a great time with the kids, and there were 4 new kids today!!
Then we ate lunch, headed to the park, and the craziness began.
The first day at the park, we had some teens come hang out and that was cool, but today Bailey started up some fruit basket, and the teens came out from everywhere. At one point, there were twenty other teens playing with us, and kids sitting around watching and hanging out. We had a blessed day at the park, and then when our whole group got together, we played some ultimate frisbee and Spencer shared a deeper version of his testimony than he ever had before.
The thing that blew my mind, again today was Bailey. She shared with us this evening that she had always wanted God to talk to her, but that she realized that she had never asked Him. Two days ago she asked Him, and she said she has been hearing Him so clearly since then. She has been hearing Him tell her to let everything go, and talk to everyone, and she has been doing just that.
In fact, tonight when we were all talking, she said, there was one boy that she didn't talk to, and she was kind of sad. She described him and he had hung out with us the day before. The thing is that she went way out of her comfort zone and would run out to the sidewalk to make sure that she talked to everyone. She even went into a group of kindergarten parents who were having a before school picninc, and made sure to ask them all if they would bring their kids to VBS.
Thank you God for Bailey and all of these kids with the amazing things that they are doing.
This is the story that Libby had to share today.
There have been two times that I have been pegged in the face with a blackberry bush. Once, I was messing around in my backyard. The second time, I was cleaning a 53-year-old woman's backyard. One thing I noticed about the second time was that it didn't really hurt.
There are some things that you have to experience in order to understand, like how painful the crown of thorns must have been. Every Easter I look at the crown of thorns that we have, and I fail to comprehend what a big deal it is, but when a bramble wraps around your ankle or smacks you across the back, you begin to understand the pain of a crucificixion. But I'm not complaining, I loved it. I dove in with a pair of hand clippers and stayed in that bush until I couldn't clip anymore, unless I had wanted to fall off of a cliff.
While on your hands and knees in a blackberry bush, you have a lot of time to think. Such as, when you are doing something for someone who can't do it for themselves, nothing else matters. You don't care that you are only wearing a t-shirt and shorts, or that your gloves don't fit, and the truth be told, I began to understand Jesus, just a little bit. He died for someone else, everyon else. because while you do something for someone else, nothing except the look on their face when they limp out of their run-down house to see what you have done in their yard. Or the excitement in their voice as they repeatedly tell the dog, "Look Sam, no chain, no chain!" again and again because you helped her build a fence.
I loved that.
I believe that this woman had lost her faith, and she needed help. Linda and her husband are both elderly, ill, and barely scraping by, living in a house with four dogs and a cat that smelled on the inside of something between a litter box and a chicken coop. Her furniture was chewn up and ratty, and her shoes were also the dogs toys. Her husband works fourteen hour days on top of the newspaper route starting at one in the morning and with her dogs constantly getting out, Linda can hardly keep up.
After a point, she came outside and asked us to stop working. We didn't know if we were to take her seriously, we were far from done! But we stopped, and prayed for her and this is what she said, " Next time I feel sorry for myself, I can kick myself in the butt, and keep on going. Every time I look out here will be a reminder that there is something good in the world."
Today we were able to bless a woman whose only dream was to be a grandmother. I think this is the only time that I will ever be called silent and sweet :-)
As Libbly shared her story I thought about the prayers that we prayed before our two team split. We prayed that plans would fall through so that we could hear God and just follow.
This morning, pastor Larry told us that work had fallen through and we were going to need to figure something out for the day. I said, "give us a lawnmower and we will just see who needs a lawn mowed then."
He went out to open the equipment shed and this woman was out trying to weed whack her jungle of a yard. He told her to stop and that we would do it, and our whole group has been blessed even though half of us were not there!
Hey,
In Juliaetta, there are 600 people, so there are no starbucks to sit at and get internet. The library here has wireless, so I am outside on the sidewalk using their free internet from the library.
As I sat here and typed the last blog, there were three little kids who came over to hang out and talk to me and see what I was doing. In a completely honest way, they were dirty, from head to toe, but having a great time playing outside .
The littleist girl asked me why I was here and I told her about our group and the camp we're running. She wanted to come so she ran in and grabbed her mom to ask if she could come. Her mom said sure, if I come get her. Which was funny to me because I can see the church from the library and mom was not willing to walk her there.
It was cool, so her friend and brother may also join us tomorrow.
Earlier today, when I was in the pool, kind of alone just hanging out cause the water was cold, a little girl came and sat down on the edge next to where I was. She started talking to me, and I talked back until the lifeguard told her that she wasn't allowed near the deep end, so she left me. Later when we were in the park though, I got to play on the teeter totter with her, Piper, and another little girl.
The connections have been easily made and the little kids just seem to find me wherever I am. I see God delivering them to me so that it is easier for me to say what I need to.
Hey blog readers, family, friends and supporters,
This trip has been so mind boggling so far. We had an excellent evening Friday night in Coeur d' Alene and a Saturday morning of prayer. We left each other blessed, prepared, and excited to get their "cocoa puff" prayers (thanks pastor Scott).
Our team arrived here in Juliaetta on Saturday afternoon and we found a gas station with ice cream, we found the "river" which was more of a creek, but most of our group got in because it was super hot on our drive and when we got into town.
We have a member of our team who got into town with a cold and a slight fever, so we've been letting her rest, but we would love prayer because we would love her to be able to interact with the kids and teens that we are ministering to.
Sunday morning we went to church, finished the last details of our VBS and had a delicious potluck that the church members provided for us. We worshipped with them, ate with them, and had some wonderful time getting to know about the town. That evening we went through our road grip book and discussed together what God was doing and what we needed to do to let Him work. We ended with some prayer and then went to bed.
This morning, Monday, we woke up in full gear, ready to go because we had kids coming and a camp to do. David, Dakota, Helen and Kara shared music an motions with the kids, Kara shared the bible story and discussed the memory verse while most of the kids acted out her story. We then moved to a time of games, snack and craft where we showed the kids that Jesus changes things, just like He changed Zaccheus in the story we had read. We had 9 kids today, so we closed with songs and sent them on their way.
Our team then split up and some of us went to do some yard work for the community, some went to the local park where they swam with kids from the community and made connections to invite people to come to VBS, or for teens to come and play games with us in the park. Hannah stayed at the church in hopes that she would feel better and be able to join us tomorrow.
Then our whole team came together at the park. We played kickball, wallball, a few different basketball games, then we spent time talking to people as they came into the park in the early evening.
Spencer had a bit of a mishap and his foot is injured. We are planning to take him to a doctor on Tuesday morning early, so be in prayer that when we show up they don't even know why we're there because there is nothing wrong.
As the evening went on, we went to the store, got popsicles for everyone and Bailey shared her testimony and why she is here on this trip doing what she is doing. I was so proud of her as the day went on I was more in love with my students and what Jesus was doing in their lives. Bailey held back nothing when approaching people in the pool about bringing their kids to VBS, or approaching teens to see if they would come and hang out. Then with no sense of nervousness, she sat down and shared with complete strangers, who she was and why she needs Jesus. It's hard to hold back the tears when you can so clearly see Jesus working through the people that you love, and seeing them be completely open to what it is that He wants to do through them.
We ended our evening with some delicious food from one of the church members who had some great connections to David, myself, Kendrah, and some of the kids. It has been amaxing to see how God is working here already and to know that this is just the beginning.
Please be in prayer for our protection and safety as a group and that Satan would be far from us in this venture.
Hey there wonderful supporters from Exodus, Living Hope and beyond! We are gearing up for the final push over the next couple of weeks and are getting really excited for God has in store for all of us. A couple prayer requests that we would love to have you partner with us on are:
· Preperation for the trips themselves as we continue to learn how to engage in spiritual conversations with our family, friends, neighbors and anyone else we come in contact with.
· Fernwood and Juliaetta, ID. That we all would partner together for the sake of furthering God’s Kingdom.
· Finances. Both teams are still short of their mark of $500/person and we would love and be honored to have you pray with us that this bench mark would be reached!
Thank you all so much, these trips would not be possible without your loving support and most of all your prayers. You are truly a part of our teams and we cannot thank you enough.
Living Hope
Hey wonderful supporters!
First things first, it would really be great if you guys who are reading would be commenting, throwing some wise scriptures at us, pieces of advice or encouragement are always more than welcome.
That being said, things are going so amazingly. We have nailed down some major details on our trip. Our Julietta team will be running a VBS for four days of our trip, as well as getting some great opportunity to do small local service projects, which are both things that our students and staff are going to be excited to be a part of!
We have not gotten ahold of a church in the Coeur d' Alene area to stay at, but my father lives in the area and is more than excited to let us stay in his back yard. He has plenty of room, a great fire pit, and many adventurous stories to share I'm sure! So that is our backfall at this point.
Our Exodus group has added a summer intern to the group of traveling ministers, so that is exciting.
Please be in prayer for our teams as we get closure to our venture!!!
Please be praying for the teams as we continue to train and prepare for the mission trip itself. But also be praying that we have the opportunity to share the gospel here at home well before we go to Idaho.
Living Hope has officially added two members to the original list. We would like to welcome Crystal Nybo and Brian Wallace to our team. We are very excited to have them come with us and to be a part of our overall family while on the trip.
Another prayer request is that we have not officially nailed down a location to do another training with both churches going yet and we are getting down to the wire. We may be able to stay with a church in Burien but we don’t know for sure yet. This is only a one night training time but it would be great to have that confirmed as soon as possible so we can move forward with planning for that time.
We also need to nail down a launch and landing place for when we actually go to Idaho. We have a lead on a church in Coeur D'Alene but do not have that confirmed yet either. Please be praying that these simple details work out soon so that our team can have an even better idea of what we are going to be doing while on the trip.
One final request is that each of our team members is still waiting for all the funds to come in for their trip. Some of those who are farther along are about half way to the $500 while others are much shorter. We know that God is faithful and that He will provide and simply ask that you would join us in prayer for this as we continue to rely upon His provision.
Thank you so much for your support and prayers. You truly make these opportunities possible for all of us.
Living Hope
We ask that God would continue to give us the confidence to share and to remember that He is all powerful. That we are able to rely upon His strength and that we are not required to do it alone.
Joshua reminds us to look at Isaiah 40:8 “the grass withers, the flower fades but the word of our God shall stand forever.”
Living Hope; we be talking!
Be praying for Fernwood and Juliaetta Idaho. These are the two towns that we will be working with this summer. We are all getting very excited to go and even more so now that we have our final destination set!
Thank you all so much for your prayers!
Living Hope and Exodus