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We are praising God for His wonderful work in our community this week. Last night was an awesome night of fellowship, fun, and new beginnings! First off, we played a game called Crows Vs. Cranes. If you like running, this is a game for you!
We had testimonies shared by Mari, Angie, and Moriah - thanks gals and great job!
Then we went back to the church for pizza - 22 Little Ceasar's pizzas proved to be the perfect amount!
The worship team played a great set and many of the teens there had never experienced worship music before. It was great to watch them observing...then eventually many of them singing!
We played a video about the song "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan then the band played the song. The teens really connected with the back story of the song and it touched us all. You can check out the video here.
Then we set up what Brian Aaby calls a "fishbowl. It's a discussion group/game that is long to explain but we had the front of the stage set up like a living room and there were five people at a time getting into a conversation about love, and what real love is. It was very good and a great follow up to "How He Loves" and a great lead in for the Gospel message.
Brian - thanks so much for letting me steal your idea.....Fishbowl is amazing bro!
After the message I asked if anyone would like to receive Christ or recommit to Christ. We had 3 of each! Praise God! The team came back up and did the song again and those who made commitments went to another room to be prayed for. We had two others who went back for prayer and they seem to be searching for truth and I would say they are "on the verge" as far as a real relationship with Christ. Please pray for all of them!
I will also update sometime after church. Several teens we hung out with this week said they were going to come to church so we're looking forward to an awesome Sunday!
Thanks to all of you who prayed for this week! And praise to our awesome God!!!
Last night at the park there was a whole lotta BARFing going on! In case you haven't heard- BARF stands for Bring A Real Friend. We had the usual 55-60 teens, and I noticed that there have been new ones every night and many haven't come every night. This means that throughout this week total I'd guess we have had over 70! Praise God for that!
It would be awesome if everyone came tonight! We are going to the church after the park tonight till 10pm. Our worship band will be playing, and we'll be sharing a Gospel message. Please pray like crazy for tonight!!!!
Last night Aaron, James, and Rebecca shared and did a great job. There were many deeper spiritual conversations and it is obvious God is preparing hearts! Glory to Him!!
We had a great night tonight at the park. We played two large games - One was a game we (I mean I) just decided to start calling "hippie ball" because we had a kickball that was tie dye....It was pretty far out.
Hippie Ball is basically kickball with many twists, of course. You have to run the bases in the opposite order - starting with third, then second, then first, then home. You can also have as many players on a single base as you want. It was pretty sweet!
We also closed with Rabbit Sticks, obviously! But because we had another group of 50 or 60, we split the field four ways and had four different teams. They were pretty wiped out after, but it was a blast!
I want to thank Kelly and Mikala for sharing tonight. They both shared about some pretty tough things they've been through and I feel like it connected with some of the ones there. The greatest thing about it - they both mentioned how God can do anything and he can help us to overcome! Amen to that! Thanks you too for being willing!
We have two more nights and the week had flown by. We talked again at family time tonight about the lighthearted, kickback mood. Please pray for God to work on the hearts of these teens here in PV and for the message of Christ to be clear to them!
Just finished another great BARF night with almost 60 in attendance. I wanted to give a shout out to Courtney (hope I spelled it right) in Bangor, CA. She taught us some cool games while we were there and tonight we opened with "The Captain is Coming". We had a blast! Thanks Coutney!
We also played another favorite - The Blob. It was also quite enjoyable.
Matt shared his story tonight along with Ben - thanks guys! I have observed that our students' stories are getting deeper, their also sharing the Gospel very clearly in their stories. Our prayer is that these stories will relate to the teens coming to the park, and that there will be opportunities throughout the night for us to get into some spiritual conversations.
There have already been some spiritual conversations, but we've also noticed that our outreach here at home has been very different than Bangor. In Bangor, the kids seemed to open up to us right away and share some really deep things. It was obvious God had been preparing their hearts beforehand, just like we prayed for!
I believe God prepared hearts here too, but these first couple nights have been much more "chill" than Bangor. It has been somewhat kickback, and it's not bad or anything, it's just a change from our trip. I think it's a good thing, because we really are establishing long term friendships with these teens, and they are feeling more and more comfortable with us. I also see the next couple of nights getting more serious as we lead up to our final night.
We discussed this briefly tonight at family time back at the church. We are praying for a continued great comfort level, but also for more opportunity to get into more serious sharing.
God is working, please continue to pray!!!!
Tonight we started our outreach week right here at home - the Pine Valley Park. What an awesome first night we had! What an awesome God we have! We had about 55 in attendance and it was a great time!
We played a massive game of knockout, our traditional opening game of our outreach weeks, played ultimate frisbee and of course....rabbit sticks!
Josh gave a welcome and shared a bit about what we're doing for the rest of the week, and testimonies were shared by Michelle and Caroline, thanks gals! After the park, we went over to Frosty Burger, they were closed, but we got to hang out for about an hour or so just getting to know each other.
A cool thing that I noticed - tonight we had probably 8-10 kids at the park that I have never met before. Usually, the first night of park nights, it's teens who are from the church, or who at least casually come to our special events. Tonight was great just being able to meet new teens. There was one family there, 3 siblings, who recently moved to the area and haven't made a lot of connections yet. This week is a great opportunity! Pray for them and everyone else this week!
More updates to come!
Wow! I can't post this till about 7am or so but I'm writing it now, at 12:30 am just as we're all finally going to bed. I want this to be fresh.............
First off, thanks to everyone so much for their prayers, thoughts, comments and encouragements. I cannot fully express how much they've meant to us. We felt so connected with you all back home. You played a huge part in this venture.
Thanks to Brian, Buzz, Alon, and Youthmark. We are looking forward to many years of ministry together. Brian, thanks so much for your influence on my life and the lives of my students. You mean a lot to all of us.
Thanks to Pastor Bruce and Audrey Chikalla, and Youth Pastor Shannon and Tina Whitehead and each of their families. Thanks to Bangor Community Church. Thank you for your hospitality, encouragement, support, accommodations, meals, love, example......the list goes on. We enjoyed partnering with you in this ministry. You are in our prayers.
Thanks to this team. Thanks for becoming a family, for seeing others through God's eyes, for praying, for sharing, for loving. I'm proud of each and every one of you.
Thanks to Pastor Joe and Jenny for investing in the lives of these students. Thanks for your influence on my family's life. Love you both.
Thanks to my amazing wife Nicole and my two daughters, Maci and Ellie. Cole, your support and love means the world to me, you are my best friend and I love you tons. Maci and Ellie thanks for being the cutest, sweetest missionaries ever! I look forward to you sharing your testimonies up front one day!
And finally, and most importantly, we thank Almighty God. The God who orchestrated this venture, this mission. The God who put this team together. The God who chose for us to come here to Bangor. The God who loves like a hurricane. The God who is greater, stronger, and higher. The one true God. The God who allowed us to plant seeds in so many throughout this week. The God who spoke through our students. The God who shared the gospel message through Josh tonight and allowed at least 10 commitments or recommitments to Christ tonight. The God who called brothers Dylan and Brandon to Himself this week as they committed their lives to him for the very first time. The God who caused Justin to ask God back into his life. The God who worked in Alex's heart at sports camp to have her ask Him into her life.
God, you are amazing, truly awesome in the greatest sense of the word. We couldn‘t have done this or anything else without you. May we continue to follow you, to come home and live out Mission 51, reaching our own community for you.
Please continue to stay tuned to this blog as we go about our own Pine Valley venture and sports camp.
We had a BBQ after this morning's sports camp with kids and parents. It was an opportunity to minister to parents and allowed Pastor Bruce the opportunity to share with those in attendance. He invited people to church and thanked us. Pray for this church to continue to reach the community in awesome ways!
At the BBQ, Jeff (Bday boy!), Aaron, and Allison shared their stories. It really fit for this event, thanks to you three for volunteering to share! I think that parents and teens got a lot out of what each of them said.
Obviously, the meal was great and the fellowship was awesome. We are looking forward to our final night. Please pray about what God will do!
I'd also like to ask for prayer for Josh Murrell. Normally at the end of the final night, I give a gospel presentation. I felt compelled the other day to ask Josh to do it this year. He accepted the challenge and I know God will use him. He has grown so much, and is a great leader in this group. Pray for this time tonight!
We had another excellent night last night. We've been averaging between 50 and 60 total at the park and BARF Thursday was no different. We had a couple new faces that we hadn't seen yet so that was great. The kids keep BARFing!
Some great testimonies were shared by Angie, Emily, Caleb and Michelle. Our team is very open this year about things they've struggled with in thier lives and their walks with God. They are relating very well to the teens here. I'm proud of you all!
Caleb shared about God's love and presence in his life from a very young age and how God was pursuing him even in the midst of sin and shame. He brought his guitar and explained the song "How He Loves" and played it and we all sang with him. It was a great experience because the teens who don't go to discipleship haven't seen us do music, and the ones who have been coming to discipleship have been doing music every morning. This was a great "bridge" opportunity for everyone to see others worshipping and praising in song.
One of the coolest things about it was that Caleb asked his "family members" to come join him in singing if they wanted to and three of the ones that joined him are from Bangor. Two of the ones are new family members, the brothers Dylan and Brandon. It was an all around awesome experience!
We also played some tiring games, including "Crows Vs. Cranes". Many of you back in PV know this one!
This morning was another unbelievable time for our team and a big step for many in the community of Bangor. We had a great time in our discipleship studying reasons to believe in God, and how we can know He's really there. We talked again about his awesome creation and that so many things happen in our lives that point to God. I challenged the students again to make commitments or recommitments to Christ.
Sports camp went great too. Everyone was having a blast and Josh shared the gospel at the end. Pray for all those who heard this message, that God would work!
After the lesson, a teen came up to talk to me. He has been with us all week and he shared with me that he used to go to church when he was younger, but a lot of things have happened in his family and he has been bumped around to different foster homes since he was 8. He has been involved with gangs, drugs, violence and all sorts of things that I've never been near........and he's only 15.
He told me that he feels like God put us in his life this week for a reason. He said he wanted God back into his life! We prayed and he declared a recommitment to Christ! He said he doesn't want to be involved with that stuff anymore, and this new foster home he's in seems to be a good one. He will be going to an emancipation program at the end of the summer where they teach foster kids how to live on their own in the real world. Please pray for him to find good friends to influence him when he leaves!
Right after we were done praying, Kylie and Emily came sprinting towards Cannon and I and told us that a young girl in soccer prayed to receive Christ! Everyone was so excited for her, and she was beaming! A group of gals went over and prayed for her. Praise God!!
When we got back to the church, we were all talking about how incredible it is to see God work like this and the week isn't even over. We've had 4 commitments already! Please pray for each of these students and their walks with God. Pray for the people of Bangor Community Church to follow up with them and to continue relationships with them, and with all those who come to these events this week.
What an incredible day it has been! Let me tell you a bit about it.....
This morning at discipleship we had a great study about Adam and Eve and how this fits into the big picture of our lives. I challenged the students from Bangor Community Church to reach out to those in their community and share the gospel with them. I also challenged those who didn't have Christ to seriously thing about making a commitment to him.
We ended and were playing basketball at the school and Josiah, Pastor Bruce's son, wasn't there and neither was Dylan, a local teen that has been hanging out with us all week. We actually met Dylan and his twin brother Brandon at the park the day we did the yard work. We invited them to the park and they've been hanging out with us ever since.
Anyways, after a while Josiah and Dylan came walking up to me with huge smiles on their faces. Josiah said that Dylan had something to tell me and he looked at me and said "I'm a Christian!"
Wow, that was so awesome! He was so happy and it showed!! The thing that stuck out to me was that it is true that our team coming here made an impact on Dylan everyday, but how cool is it that a student from Bangor Church ultimately prayed with him to receive Christ?! This to me is a picture of the ministry going on here - we are partnering with Bangor Church in this venture! Way to go Josiah! We're all proud of your boldness in sharing the gospel!
The evening was no different. We had amazing testimonies by............
Mari
Moriah
Natalie
It is obvious that God is working in the hearts of the teens in this town! And to top it all off - at the end of the night Dylan's twin, Brandon, also prayed to receive Christ! So, here we are, only Wednesday, and two new believers! God is working through our students this week and it's really one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. We know that prayer is huge! Keep it up!!
Brandon - standing. Dylan - sitting. Josiah - the trekkie on the left - Josiah
Praise the Lord for all He is doing!!