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Today after breakfast our leaders decided that because this was our last day, we should go to a comedy/musical called “Vaudeville extravaganza”. At the theater we went to amazingly was the oldest running theater in Montana!!! It was a very funny and enjoyable. After that we went around canvassing, we didn’t see Justin (he was probably hiding from us) but we had a good time walking around and hanging out together. One thing that I think God did was changing the weather for us, the weather said thunder storms all week but we had a short one today in the afternoon. We couldn’t even see the Lightning. Even though it rained…Alex, Sawyer, and Sean still showed up for our marshmallow roast along with Elijah (Alex’s friend) and Rachel who was here before. Something cool from this trip was that a girl named Christine’s attitude changed about chores because of Mattias talked about our service projects as being a way to serve God. Our family time went well as we worshiped. Rachel was able to stay through the singing before she had to leave but Alex was able to stay the whole time and after that we had cookies!!! We shoved down two boxes of Oreos and some brownies. A few of us were able to talk with Alex about God before he left and encourage him to pursue God. It sounded like he was interested in starting a bible study or going to youth group with his brothers! This was a huge answer to prayers in that we know we made a difference in his life. (Please continue to pray for him.) We will be heading out for Spokane tomorrow. We hope you still pray for everyone and thank pastor Del for letting us use his shower and church to live here for a week.
Stefan and Connor
Dear Fellow Prayer Supporters,
Thank you for all your prayer support throughout the week.
The first half of our day provided us with the following activities. This morning we woke up bright and early to the sounds of moths chomping away at our clothes and faces. After a rude awakening, we headed down the stairs for some yummy breakfast. Since we recently ran out of bowls we were forced to resort to coffee mugs to hold our bite size cereal meal, and loved every minute of it. Then some clean up took place in the kitchen and we all scurried back upstairs for some devotional time. This went well, we were challenged to not talk to anybody, so everybody grabbed their phones and hid under their sleeping bags, only kidding of course. We actually did quite well with this challenge. Followed by devotional time was Jess’s “Sanctuary Surprise,” which was, to our surprise, not a casserole. Instead of discussing casserole recipes we grouped together to discuss our faith and why we were completely convinced with our beliefs. Lunch time also didn’t bring casseroles, but included some gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches prepared by Sara and Matthias. We did a marvelous job, and were overwhelmed with compliments.
Now for the second portion of this adventurous day. We immediately headed for the P-burg Town Park to make rootbeer floats and share them with whoever in town wanted one. Unfortunately, only three kids took us up on our offer. The three boys were Alex and his two brothers Sean and Sawyer, who have been hanging out with us all week. After a few glasses of rootbeer and melted ice cream and multiple games of battleship, an ice war broke out. We all had blocks of ice in hand and were ready to fire at a moment’s notice, actually we weren’t supposed to be throwing ice at each other. Instead, we had surprise attacks where the ice was secretly thrown down one another’s backs. It all ended in a surprise find of no cooler of ice to be found, the leaders had planned a great way to end this war by putting the cooler in the van. We had been shut down. We quickly exited the park and made a grand entrance when we returned to the church in all our glory. When we got back we had free time, where some of us napped and saved money at the thrift store. Throughout the week every kid on the team bought a nifty hat at the thrift store to add to our cool kid look, which we succeeded in. Then park time came along and Alex, Sean, and Sawyer were already there when we pulled in. Such awesome kids! During this time we had the chance to talk to them more in depth about what they believe and who they are. It was an great day, now ending with this amazing blog. J
Your Missionary Comedians,
Sara Lien and Callie Gioneta
Hello from Connor and Matthias, this is the blog for Wednesday. A lot happened today! We had hot dogs, chips, and soda at the park! We had about seven kids show up and eat with us. After lunch we met with Jess, the new senior pastor at Living Hope Christian Fellowship, and former youth pastor at Snohomish Free Methodist Church. We enjoyed his company yesterday! We ate dinner with Jess and then went to the park. Sean and Saywer were there hanging with us. Mark got to spend some time with Sean. It was a great time of fellowship. When we got back to the church we had the most amazing "family time" yet. Jess led us in Worship and in our talk. It was a great time of worship for everyone, and the conversation flowed well! It was a great time with us and God. We decided that we aren't going to focus too much on reaching the kids, but rather reach the community by talking to not only teens but adults. We have a rootbeer float time ahead of us and I am really excited! Please remember to preay for these kids Sean, Sawer, Alex, Christa,Tyler, Barrett, Bigs, Blad, Ben, Jackie, Deveyn, Justin, Rachel, Thomas, Troy, Jacob, Airy, Dawson, Andrew Isaac, Taylor, and Anna.
Connor and Matthias
[Sorry, I edited some spelling and now this blog is out of order! - Carl]
After many hours of travel, some sleepless nights, and much time without internet, we are finally in Philipsburg, Montana!
Friday we (Living Hope and Snohomish) met up in North Bend and made our way to Spokane. Everyone was excited and very energetic, despite getting in at 9:30. The Launch went well, we played a couple games, had worship time and prayer/devotion time. Yesterday after some more worship and preparation, we headed out from Spokane around noon and got in around 9PM. We took a couple stops and mixed up who was riding with who so we could all start getting to know each other a bit more. Everyone was tired when we arrived and as soon as they (the students) got outside, they got very hyper!
We had great family time last night with worship and sharing testimonies. Connor, Rachel and Callie shared; we had a great time and we are all starting to warm up to each other very well! Josiah and I played guitar for worship (and then for fun later) and we can tell we will be best of friends!
As for internet, I have found one spot right outside the door where I have a strong enough connection to blog! (See the picture.)
Thank you all for praying for us! We ask you continue to pray for our boldness and the Spirit to move through us to help us share with one another and with people in the community. Also, painting the fire station fell through due to a lack of supplies so we are going to be looking for some service projects to get involved in here in the community. You can pray God opens something up for us!
PS As for my dad, his surgery went well on Tuesday and he is well on the way to recovery. He has been staying at the hospital learning to breath and slowly walking again and regaining his mental vigor (he was a little silly at first but he sounds normal again over the phone). He is hoping to be able to go home today. (It is my parents 24th anniversary today, so that would be a nice present for them both!)
Until next time (which should be tonight)!
Mark
August 19
Today's devotional for the mission trip was from the latter part of Acts 8.
Phillip leads the truth-seeker through the gospel up to and through the point of physical baptism. This is actually part of the Great Commission. Won't it be nice to use our new church baptistry -to see new born Christians acknowledge their decisions to put on the new life by the act of baptism. Remember our work as we return to the home mission fields.
P.S. Are there some among the mission team who've never been baptised following their own decision?
Greetings from B and Josiah! Tonight we hit the town with full force and got a whopping four kids to come to the park!!! But what a lovely four they were, B had a chance to talk to a 12 year old 7th grader named Christa, B got the opportunity to talk to her one on one and learned her story, She joined us for family time after the park. In which we did worship, We shared about what God spoke to us in our devotionals, and we ended the night with a very fun group skit activity! There were three boys at the park also, Sawyer who was 8 years old, Shawn whom was 10 years old, and Alex who was 14 and entering 8th grade. I (Josiah) had the chance to talk to him tonight, I learned he attends youthgroup but does not have a strong faith. I then asked him if he had accepted god as his savior, He proceeded to tell me "no, i dont even know what that means". So there was my chance, and I explained to him exactly what it means to give you life to God. This was my second opportunity this week to share my testimony with a kid. God has been working through me especially since we have had very little kids show up to the park! Please pray for these kids. They really need the support from someone. Many kids heere grow up with hard lifestyles, so people praying for them can make a huge impact. Besides B being shot down by a kid named justin in the candy store, this was a great day!!! God Bless, Josiah and B
August 18
Isn't it exciting to be on the prayer base at home!!
Exciting things are happening on the front.
Kathy and I are mending at home and studying the devotions through Youthmark.
Carl
P.S. If you see these postings from the field, they're just using my username - I'm not there.
Our morning got off to a great start when Pastor Del came down and prayed over our team. We then partnered up and did a prayer walk around the town, asking for God’s direction. Our service project today was volunteer work at a local thrift shop – labeling, sorting and taking about eight loads to the laundry to wash, dry and put on hangers. Barb, Mike, Callie, Kate and Mathias went to the high school and talked to the coaches and had the opportunity to invite the football and volleyball team to a pancake breakfast tomorrow morning (Tuesday). Please keep that in your prayers!
We canvassed the town in the afternoon and met a handful of teens, made a few contacts and invited them to the park in the evening. The kids did a great job in reaching out. The dilemma we’re facing is that the football and volleyball teams are training in the evenings. This evening, we had three kids from the church join us. We will need to tailor our schedule to match when more kids are available.
We were blessed by a wonderful lady from the church who brought all the ingredients and helped the kids make their own pizzas! A great time (and great pizza) was had by all!
Thanks for your support and prayers!
What an incredible time we had yesterday. Church was amazing. Thank you to Callie and B for the incredible testimonies during the morning service. The Holy Spirit just blanketed the congregation. The students joined the Youth Group for Sunday school and had great discussion and input. Sarah, Rachel and Conner stepped up and helped teach the 3rd grade class (one little girl named Sarah) with very little prep. We’re ready to serve wherever God leads. We drove up to Granite (an old mining ghost town) for some group time. The old dirt road up to the town was an interesting adventure by itself.
God was definitely at work during our family time last night and there was a great time of sharing. Mark and Josiah are doing a great job leading worship singing and Mark is leading our discussion time (what an awesome leader !).
Today we plan on serving the community today by helping in the hospital’s thrift store. Then later, we hope to connect with the football team (that’s practicing twice a day now) and invite them for a pancake breakfast tomorrow morning. We will be doing some canvassing this afternoon with plans to meet in the park after supper. WE SERVE AN AWESOME GOD!!!!!
Our group has come so far in becoming a unified force. We are learning what each of our strengths are and we are praying God will make it clear where He wants us to be ministering. We know that there will be amazing things happening today.
Please pray for us today for boldness, wisdom and that the Holy Spirit will be working through us as we go out into the community.
Barb
This is Mark Cotton writing my first blog! I am excited to announce that Barb Warner and I are getting prepared to lead the trip to Philipsburg, Montana! At this point it looks like Mike Warner will also be joining us. He heard there might be good fishing spots in the area so he couldn’t say no.
Here is a video from YouTube that has nothing to do with the trip except to get us excited! (I mostly just wanted to test posting a video, I hope it works.)
Enjoy!
February 22
Today was youth Sunday with the teens ushering, taking the offering, making the announcements, doing a skit and providing special music.
We made our first mention of a mission "to western Montana" but have yet to give any specifics. If you know nothing, please be sure that we will be doing our best to witness to other teens and, in some small way, fulfill our Great Commission.
One more missionary joined our ranks, Kate Parker and there's hope for another student at Rainier Christian High as well as some from a sister church.
From March 9 - 11 we will be completing our first checkpoints, reviewing drafts of our prayer support letters and sharing how our PODs are coming together. Please pray for these missionaries by name.
We've got some fundraising possibilites coming as ∏ day (3.14) approaches and we'll tell you more as things develope.
Don't foget to bookmark this page. Or merely use the link on the youth page of the church website.
Carl
P.S. See Snohomish Free Methodist's blog for an earlier Montana mission.