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Hey Supporting Cast,
Your probably asking yourself "why is Friday just getting posted?". Well just as we were posting Thursday's edition a VERY large dust devil blew through part of town knocking out power to the church. Luckily no one was hurt and we had power restored by the time we got in that night, but the internet was never the same.
Friday was our last full day in Whitehall. With the Sports camp in the rear view mirror, Pastor Bill decided to our group along with a few kids from the camp and teens from town on a hike. We drove up to a little mining town called Pony, and from there trekked along a dirt road up about a mile to a man-made lake. The scenery was so beautiful and the lake was very cold! A few of us braved the freezing water and swam for a few minutes. After some lunch, we walked around the lake to a creek, then back around to look at an old abandoned mine. Unfortunately the mine was pretty muddy so we only got as a far as the entrance.
After the hike, we took in Frontier Days. This is one of the biggest weekends in Whitehall and includes lots of booths for eating and shopping along with a rodeo, car show, talent show, and dances. Our group went out to scope all the booths and one student even braved a mechanical bull ride!
The evening consisted of our biggest outreach of the week, a bbq and bon fire at a house outside of town. After dropping off a majority of our group, I drove back into town to grab students from the community. I was amazed to find a second van full of students waiting at the park. God has been so faithful this week! We got everyone out to the house and the bbq began. After a while of hanging out and shooting off some fireworks, we got a roaring fire going. We got everyone around the fire and had Cody share his testimony. He did an amazing job of weaving in the GOSPEL into his personal testimony. We closed out his story with a simple altar call right there around the fire. I was amazed to see five students raise their hands to receive salvation! After we prayed, it was so cool to see our team immediately swarm to those individuals students to encourage them and pray for them. That moment made all the fundraising, sweat, and driving worth it!
The conversations and fun continued until 10:30pm when we started the shuttle for taking people back into town. When our team got back to the church, we decided to go check out the under 21 dance. It was so funny watching our "city slicker" kids become the life of the party and teach the students there different dance moves. During the dance, a few of us snuck away to visit one particular student who couldn't make the bon fire. We were able to spend a few minutes talking and Cody gave him one of his Bibles.
Once the dance ended, the party moved back to the church. We had at least 10 students come back with us to hang out and talk. I'm amazed at how many students we have been able to influence this week. In fact, I woke up Saturday morning to see one student who came at 7am to talk with Andrew as he packed!
Now that we are home, I'm anxious to see how this last week will impact our youth ministry as a whole. Our students were able to make a huge impact on the lives of students they only just met in one weeks time. Imagine what they could so with students who they have built relationship with over this next year? Our group grew from 13 to 30 by the end of one week, imagine what our youth ministry could look like in 3 months? My greatest hope and prayer is that students realize they have what it takes to share the gospel and will choose to be used by God here and now. That they can make a difference, they can walk someone through the GOSPEL...that it's not just the pastor or leaders job.
Here are some prayer requests now that we're home:
1. That the fire of the Holy Spirit would continue to ignite the hearts of our students. That they would gain a passion for this community as they had for Whitehall, MT.
2. That their boldness would be contagious to the rest of Frontline Youth Ministry. That other students would gain the bringer mentality and would reach out to their friends who don't know Christ!
3. That God would continue to give me vision on how to challenge and push these students in their faith. So that this past week would be more than just great memories, but would be a template of how they can live every week!
Thank you so much for your prayers and support over the past 6 months. We couldn't have seen the impact we did without your support, both financially and spiritually. Feel free to own what God did in Whitehall because you were with us in Spirit!
God Bless,
Pastor Mark
Hey Guys! This is Keturah!
Just blogging on here today about all of the AMAZING & AWESOME things that God did yesterday! In the morning we had our final day of kids sports camp, we had a leader from each team share their testimony, played kickball & at the end of camp I came up and shared the G.O.S.P.E.L. message. When I asked kids who would like a relationship with Jesus to raise their hands, almost EVERY KID raised their hand!
We continued our day by having some down time, all of our boys played in a pool tournament against a few of the locals, we got to hangout & get to know tons of local teens but during our canvasing time before dinner the team and I overheard some of the teens talking about a friend who had committed suicide that morning. His name was Blake, I don't believe that he was saved, he was a cousin to a boy we've briefly met a time or two while we've been here. This news hit the teens hard, it hit us hard too. Although this wasn't God's plan for Blake & God deeply mourns the loss of His son more than we ever could, I know without a doubt that God used (and is still using) this tragedy to change the lives of not only our team but the teens who live in Whitehall.
Evidence of this started in prayer when I could just feel the drive and passion stirring up in our team & continued through our evening hangout where Mollie, David, and myself were given the oppurtunity to share our testimonies. God used the drive that our team had along with the hurt some of the kids were experiencing & we ended having more kids attend our hangout than we've had all week, they all listened & were impacted by our stories. I know that I personally got the chance to talk with multiple teens after sharing my testimony.
We also had more people come back to hangout at the church than we've had the rest of the week. And during that time I was given the oppurtunity to have some deep spiritual conversations with a couple of teens. These two kids that have impacted me quite a bit are Lily & Dustin. Along with many other locals, I have really enjoyed getting to know the people here in Whitehall, Montana and I hope that these relationships will last longer than just this week.
Thank you so much for your prayers & interest of the sucess of this trip, if you could just pray for salvation and victory in the lives of people here in Whitehall, it would be a great blessing. (:
Hey Supporting Cast,
Today I'm going to have Andrew be a guest blogger to share about his experience this week and specifically what happened Wednesday.
Hello, I'm Andrew Travis,
So far, I've really enjoyed this missions trip. It has been so awesome and I wish it could be like this back home. But what I'll be talking about right now is what we did on Wednesday.
So, on Wednesday, we played this game called noodle hockey in the kids sports camp and all the kids had lots of fun doing that.
During the afternoon, we spent time cleaning the church and helping out their lone custodian, Linda (she's from the Philippines).
That night a lot of people showed up to hang out with our team and hear DJ Kedziorski, Nigel Nair, and Caitlyn Wind's stories shared. We also played a big game of ultimate frisbee and everyone got involved and had lots of fun. Again some of the guys played football including me.
It was also awesome that some of the kids who were with us at the park came over to the church to hang out afterwards. We ate a ton of junk food and played a new game called Ghost in the Graveyard.
So, on this trip I was hoping that I would at least impact one person and like really relate to them. I am so glad I did! I met a guy named Dustin Woody, and he went through the same stuff that I went through in the past. He was so impacted when he heard my testimony on Monday night. So I was really happy that I fulfilled my goal during this trip. I feel now that I'm very very glad I went on this trip or else I never would've fulfilled my goal. But now that I have, I can keep this going at home, and do this to all my friends that I know and can help them become believers as well. I wish every Christian could have this experience of going to some random town for a week and reach out to those who are there and get to know them and just ministering. So yeah, that's my thoughts of this trip. I hope you enjoy hearing about us and how we've been doing here in Whitehall, Montana!
It's Pastor Mark again, I thought I would relay one more happening of the day that Andrew didn't mention.
After the outreach at the park and before students arrived at the church, we spent an hour as a team doing our usual family time. Except this time it wasn't so normal. We began with a few worship songs and what normally would take 10 minutes, went for an hour and 10 minutes. The Holy Spirit fell on us in a powerful way and students began praying for each other, specifically for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. I don't believe any received it for the first time, but it was so good to see our students hungry for God and enjoying His presence.
That's all we'll share for now, but Keturah Wagner will be the guest blogger for Thursday and we saw God do some amazing things!!!
Until next time,
Pastor Mark
Hey Supporting,
Today has been another amazing day in Whitehall. Two of our highlights from this week would have to be:
1. The residents of Whitehall. Most of the people we've encountered in this town have been inviting and friendly. It's not unusual while being out and about to receive a wave or smile. Furthermore, nobody looks their doors!!! I thought that was only true in movies, but it's reality here. I don't think I've locked the van (and it wouldn't matter as the windows are normally left down). I've got a key to lock up the church but we haven't yet. It's such a relief to know you are secure and that people around you can be trusted...so different than in SeaTac :)
2. The great Montana weather. The sun has been out everyday and I'm sure we will all come back with a tan. What we haven't had weather wise in Seattle we're making up for here! The only downside to warm weather is the students usually don't venture out until later at night.
All that to say Tuesday was a great day.
We had a higher turnout for the kids sports camp and if I remember right, the two older groups had upwards of ten kids each! So it's great to see that the word is getting out and we are impacting these children in such a way that they want to come back!! After our opening rally and worship songs, we took the kids again to the elementary school to play kickball! The only problem was, when we reached the elementary school the sprinklers were on. So we had to think a bit on our feet and after switching some things around in the schedule, we were finally able to play at the high school football field a ways up the street. You can tell the children feel loved and they are gaining something from the lessons. One boy in particular, Sam (he's in my group so I'm allowed to brag on him), was able to recite not only the key point for that day but also the one from Monday!
Our afternoon schedule ended up being jam packed. After a quick hour of downtime, we joined with a lady in the church to pull weeds along the main street in town. There is a big parade and rodeo this weekend called Frontier Days. This weekend people from all over the county will come to Whitehall to take in the festivities. So we were able to make an impact on the community by helping spruce the town up for this big event! Those who walked/drove by were really grateful we were taking on this much needed project. One gal who runs one of the bars in town invited us in after we finished working for a free soda.
After dinner, we spent fifteen minutes praying and preparing for the park outreach. What was really surprising to me was seeing students from the community coming to the church early and joining us in prayer! The night went a lot smoother than our first attempt Monday and from the start we had new faces joining in the games. Some of the older students who joined us for football on Monday (we played football after the outreach last night and a few older guys came and played) came earlier and were able to hear our students share their testimonies. We had Manny and Sarah share their stories and they did an amazing job! It's so cool to watch our students being bold in their faith and sharing from their heart.
When we finished at the park, we came back to the church for family time. Essentially, this is a time where we come together as a team for worship, teaching, and talking through the day. What has been encouraging to me is how the Holy Spirit has been evident both nights. I know He has great things in store not only for the people of Whitehall, but also for us too!
Here are some prayer requests:
1. Students won't admit it, but they are tired. Pray that God would give them (and us leaders) supernatural strength to continue the work we have come here to do.
2. Now that we are a few days in, I've challenged the students to begin intiating spiritual conversations with the students they are connecting with. My greatest fear is we would give students some great memories this week and neglect to share the Gospel with them.
3. Finally, pray against the attacks of the enemy. Satan is the master of divide and conquer. I want us to be unified as a team in both our love for each other and our motivation to reach this town for Jesus.
Thanks for your prayer and support!
Pastor Mark
Hey Supporting Cast,
I'm sure you're all dieing to know what we've been up to the last two days. Well as you can imagine we've going literally from sun up to sun down...which unfortunately left me no time for a blog post yesterday. So let me fill you in on what God has been doing in us and through us. I will be joined in this post by Nick Naidu, who will share about our experience at the park last night.
We began the day by kicking off our Sports Camp. This is something we will be doing every morning from 9am-12pm for children grades K-6. We have been preparing for weeks for this camp and it's so exciting to see it all come together! We had at least 15 children on the first day, which I'm told is a pretty good first day. Since that was a bit lower than what we expected, we combined all grades together and did some fun games at the elementary school. We played four corners for the first sports session and steal the bacon for the second session.
The children we are working with are a lot of fun. We've got children ranging from 3 years old all the way to 11! So as you can imagine, they have a lot of energy. Along with the games, we are taking them through a curriculum called "Going the Distance." The theme for the first day was "change is necessary to improve our game" and the key point was that "God can change us in an instant." Mutiple people on the team are leading different aspects of the teaching. We have students leading the registration, opening rally, worship, coach huddles, snacks, object lesson, and bible story. You should be so proud of our group, they are doing an amazing job not only leading these activities, but loving on these children.
After lunch, we did some canvassing. Basically, that is sending our students out into the community in groups and looking for teens to hang out with. What we've found is, students tend to be out later in the afternoon and they are mostly indoors with the warm weather we're having. The prime spot we found students at, was ironically the library :) They don't actually hang out in the library, but rather in the basement. The town has put together a teen center in the basement of the library stocked with a pool table, xbox, and laptops. We met a few students and invited them to join us in the park for some games at 6:30pm.
I'm going to hand off the rest of the blog to Nick and have him share his experience last night:
Hey guys, so last night was a lot of fun. We showed up at the park and there was barely any kids there. We thought more would show up since we spent 2 hrs going around town trying to invite teens to come play Ultimate Frisbee at the park. But we just prayed that kids would show up later on if we just started playing Ultimate Frisbee and our prayers were answered. Griffin, one of the local teens that we got close to was there riding his bike. We invited him over and he brought his friends over as well and it was just great opportunity to get to know the teens and just have fun.
After Ultimate Frisbee, we all sat down for ice cream sandwiches and water. Thats when Pastor Mark asked Andrew Travis and I to share our testimonys. We did and it went very well because one of the teens there, Dustin, really connected to Andrew because they had both gone through the samethings. It was just God working through Andrew and it was really amazing.
Then after our group split up, some played football where more teens came and some of us went to the skatepark and talked to people there. We made a lot of connections, like John, who works at the Teen Center in the library. Which is a lot of help because he would let the students that showed up there know that our youth group was in town and that we would have activities at 6:30 every night. Its been an amazing trip so far and I cant wait for what God has planned for us the rest of this week :)
Thank you for all your support and prayers
Mark Miller & Nick Naidu
Hey Supporting Cast,
Our first full day in Whitehall has been a blast. Our team has already fell in love with the town and the people. I can tell it's going to be a great week and Saturday will come all too soon.
This morning began at 8:30am with breakfast and loading equipment for service. We were given the opportunity to lead a church service in park! What really made this service unique was it congregants...a combination of four local churches!!! That's something you rarely see, churches coming together to worship the Lord.
Once everything was set up, we were given the green light to start with worship. Our worship team did a fantastic job leading in worship. There were a few hang ups, but that didin't stop people from entering in.
Afterwards, the pastor of the church we're working with, Bill Lanes, stunned us by taking up an offering for our team. Here we are coming to serve this community and they bless us with an offering. What he doesn't know is we're planning on investing the money back into this community!
We then went forward introducing the team, then I preached a sermon entitled "Fan or Follower." The challenge of choosing to follow Jesus rather than just be a fan was received very well. We got the opportunity to pray with people following the message.
The service ended with a giant combined potluck in the park. It was great getting to know people from all these churches and hear their heart for the Lord. They were very encouraging to our team!
What I think most surprised our team was how many students were in the park. One student in particular immediately latched on to our guitar players, Manny and Nick. He invinted the over to his house this afternoon to jam with a few buddies. So we are already seeing God open doors for our team to build friendships with students in this community.
Here are some prayer requests:
1. Although we found a missing cell phone yesterday, we have lost another one. Please pray that it shows up soon.
2. One of our students has had some pain and swelling on her left foot. She's not sure how it happened, but it casuing her some pain. Please pray that God would heal her foot so she can be 100% this week and not hindered in any way.
3. Tonight we are preparing for the sports camp we will be running all week. I truly believe this camp will be a huge vehicle for seeing children come to Chirst. Pray as we prep tonight that everything comes together and that we have a large turnout tomorrow.
4. Finally, pray that God would continue to bring opportunities for our students to make connections with young people here. Pray they would have boldness to share their faith and speak life into broken hearts.
Thanks for all your prayers! You truly are a huge part of the success of this trip.
Pastor Mark
Hey Supporting Cast,
As I write this post we are roughly one hour away from Whitehall. Don't worry, I'm not driving while I write this :) The trip has been so much fun so far and the team is very anxious to reach our destination!! Here's a couple of things to be praying for:
1. One of our students misplaced his cellphone last night and we haven't been able to find it yet. I know it sounds like a simple request, but we believe God answers our prayers!
2. Pray for continued safety as we drive the last 60 miles. Our vehicle and trailer have held up well, and we don't want to waste any time that could be spent in ministry.
3. We are leading the Sunday service tomorrow morning. That means were in charge of worship and the word. This is a big step for our team...and I'm thrilled to share what I feel is a timely word for this church body. Pray that we decrease and that Christ increases! That God pierces hearts as we wrestler with being a "fan or follower" of Jesus.
Thanks for the amazing support and check back tomorrow for another update.
Pastor Mark
Hey Missions team and Supporting cast,
The week has finally arrived. We ship out for Whitehall this Friday @ 5am! I know that sounds crazy, but the motivation for the early start is a full day at Silverwood!
The biggest things left as we prepare to leave are finazling our Sports Camp and polishing testimonies. All of the students will be required to share their testimony at one of our nightly outreaches,
As far as money goes, we have completed our final fundraiser, a car wash. Although the weather didn't cooperate, we were able to raise $350! Which brings our total raised to over $1700!
In this final week of preparation, here are some of the prayer requests:
1. Please continue to pray for a ripe harvest in Whitehall. We recognize all the planning in the world cannot compare to the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit convicting hearts!
2. One of our greatest tasks on this trip will be running a week long Sports Camp for grades K-6. This is the first children's camp we have ever planned, so please pray for us as we put the final touches on our activities and Bible stories!
3. Another biggy is traveling mercies. We are taking a church van loaded with 13 bodies and luggage/equipment. Furthermore, we are traveling over 623 miles over two days. We would love to get there in one piece and with all of our equipment!
4. Finally, pray for our students as they work on their testimonies and prepare their hearts to minister. Pray they would have boldness, favor, and authority in sharing the Gospel.
I'll continue to update this blog and will provide daily updates while we are in Whitehall. I'll have guest bloggers share their stories and update you on what God is doing in us and through us!
Thanks for all your prayer and support!
Pastor Mark
Hey missions team and supporting cast,
I thought it would be good to update you on the planning/prep for our venture to Whitehall, MT.
As I'm writing this, we are wrapping up the last few houses of our Flamingo Fundraiser. I'm proud to report we have raised close to $1,300 between this fundraiser and a churchwide BBQ. Please continue to pray as we raise funds and get things in order for the trip.
The middle of May saw us off to Oregon for our Spring Retreat. This retreat was all about spiritually wrapping our minds around this trip and doing some practical excerises in sharing the Gospel. This was a huge win for our team! I feel we grew closer collectively and began to envision what God could do in Whitehall! We came back recharged and ready for Mission 51!
As we enter the final month of prep before the trip, here are some things to keep in prayer:
1. Finances: our fundraisers are helping students raise money, but there is more need than we will be able to collectively raise. Pray that God will come through in miraculous ways that will point all the glory to Him! Also, that students faith will be strengthened through this process.
2. Preparation: right now students are working through their Mission Prep Workbooks. These books will prepare them spiritually to be a force in Whitehall. Pray for wise time management and discipline to complete this important part of our trip.
3. Whitehall: there are students who need to hear the Gospel. Pray for the hearts of those we will come in contact with and for the church we will be serving. I've had some contact with Pastor Bill from Whitehall Assembly of God and we both want to see God do something amazing during our week there.
Thanks for all your support and prayers!
Pastor Mark
Hey missions team and supporting cast,
I have two major prayer requests for this week:
1. Sunday we began our biggest fundraiser of the year, Flamingo Flocking. For those who haven't heard, we have 36 pink lawn flamingos that we plant in people's yards for $20. We also offer protection/insurance for $25 which almost guarantess you won't be flocked.
Last year we raised $800 during this event and we're hoping to reach $1000 this year! That would equal out to $100 of money raised for each student (1/5 of the trip)!
Please pray we get lot's of orders and a few generous donations in the process :)
2. This weekend we're going on the Mission 51 Retreat. This is a planning/spiritual charging trip to prepare us for reaching Whitehall, MT.
Please pray that the Holy Spirit gets a hold of our hearts and begans to equip us for those we will reach in Montana!
Thanks for your support! You don't know how much your prayers and financial backing mean to our team!
Pastor Mark