 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
Today is the last day for us participating in our normally scheduled programming. We are winding down with VBS, the painting has begun and sprinklers have been installed. Most of us are functioining on caffeine and sugar as the end of the week has left us drained, in a beautiful and rewarding way. We have poured ourselves into each other as a team and into the Fort Jones Community.
Yesterday's outreach yielded some new faces and we were introduced to a new game, Scooby Ball. Rachael from WBC and Lucas from WPC shared their stories and we had the most clear presentation of what it meant to be a Christian last night. It was exciting stuff.
Two things that I heard last night that warmed my heart were the number of Fort Jones students who told us that they would miss us when we were gone and the other came from a set of parents who loved the Recreation at the Park idea so much that they hope to continue it on a weekly basis once we leave. These are the types of comments that get me excited about what God is doing in the Valley and how our teams have been used as a catalyst for long term success.
We are so close to being done! Many of our students have started to focus on the transition back into "real life", but not without knocking it out of the park today with our final projects. Our biggest prayer today is that we finish well, leaving a good impression on this place.
Here are som photos from yesterday:
Yesterday was awesome! We had a great VBS, got a lot done towards the sprinklers and painting and canvassed both towns quite well. It must be humorous for the locals to see a large white van stop on the side of the road and watch 3-4 teens hop out to go speak to some one on the street, but our kids are hungry to connect with every young person they see, and it paid off.
We had over 40 people at our Outreach last night and we had a beautiful night in which to play. Rabbit Sticks and the local favorite, Link Tag, were the games of choice. Christian from Warren Baptist and Christina Cruickshank did a great job sharing their stories and I truly believe that God was using these students to share the Gospel last night. We saw several new faces and many of them told us that they would invite everyone else they know to come join us tonight. We will see what happens!
But, the major highlight of the day was our family time last night. David and I had been told to possibly take a break from family time in the middle of the week to give our students more time to sleep, but the students weren't having it. Once they heard that there wasn't going to be family time, the mutinied and told us that they absolutely wanted to still meet. So we did, and ended up having a 2 1/2 hour time of worship, prayer and recounting the Acts account. It was amazing to watch students pray with each other, sing with each other, embrace each other and to keep doing it even after the "programming" was done. The presence of God was palpable last night, know that God is doing major work in the hearts of these students.
Prayer Requests:
As we begin to transition out of Fort Jones, that the relationships that have been built with students during outreaches will continue with Brett and his Youth Ministry
That the students who heard the Gospel last night will continue to be hungry and invite those who need to hear this Great News as well.
Pray for the students serving that this will not be a "mountain top" experience, but a moment of transition and transformation in their relationship with Christ. Pray that they will bring this attitude and hunger to worship God home with them.
Pray for the final two days of VBS and that the Fort Jones Community Church to realize that they are totally capable of running a program like this next year without an outside group
Pray for the other parents of this trip as we have now reached a week of your students being away from home. Things are going well, but I know the separation can be taxing.
It rained most of yesterday, which threw a huge wrench into our plans. We were not able to canvass or do our Outreach Recreation and so we were a little bummed. But, we still got all of the trenches dug for the sprinklers (thanks to Lucas' masterful work with the Trencher) and had a great day of VBS.
Instead, we had a day mostly to rest. We caught up on sleep, made sure to go to Dave's Place for Lunch (a must stop Fort Jones locaiton) and helped with odd jobs around the church. The highlight for me last night was our Family Time. We have been intentional about spending time in prayer for Scott Valley, while continuing to get to know Warren Baptist better as well. Last night we broke into prayer groups and had those groups share encouraging words with each other and then pray together. After, we had a wonderful time of singing and the emotions ran high. We can definitely say that the Holy Spirit was with us in that time last night. If you haven't listened to the song "How He Loves", I encourage you to go and listen to it. We have been singing the David Crowder Version and it is quickly becoming our theme song.
Your students are doing well, they are working hard and have been a blessing to this community thus far. We are all getting enough sleep and have gotten into a rhythm of spending so much time together. We have already been together longer than any other Youth Group Trip, and we still have several more days together. That is a big prayer request for us, that we can remain civil with each other and continue to be encouraging and a functioning team.
Prayer Requests:
For the Rain to stay away
For the combination of our Recreation Outreach and FJCC Youth Group tonight to bring students out who would not normally come to church
For our team to recognize the necessity of involvement of Fort Jones Community Church in everything that we do, as they will be the ones continuing the work that has been done here.
That our students would be open to the movement of God in their lives this week and that they won't turn away from it because it is "uncool" or "uncomfortable"
For the communication for our team to remain healthy and that we will be encouragers, not discouragers
Prayers for the students in Scott Valley who have not heard that Gospel, that they will have an opportunity this week and continue to have opportunities after we are gone.
Here are some highlight pictures from yesterday:
Ira was helping with the VBS craft/snack which involved Easy Cheese:
And Lucas rocking the Trencher:
Sorry for not getting a post up last night, it was late and we all needed more sleep. So, instead I am writing on a very rainy day as your students are helping to run VBS this morning.
Yesterday was a wonderful day. The first day of VBS was a big success! We have 17 students attending thus far and are praying for a few more, but in a town of 660, 17 is a great number.
We also got started on our work projects, power washing the church buildings to get the prep for painting underway. Several of our male students were clearing brush and operating power washers for the better part of the day.
In the evening we hosted our first Recreation Outreach where we played Capture the Flag and Rabbit Sticks at the local elementary school. A few of the youth from FJCC joined us as well as a couple from the community. The first day of our regularly schedule programming went extremely well and we look forward to more!
I personally am really enjoying getting to know the Fort Jones Community Church staff. Pastors Brett McMorris and Terry Munn are a blessing to this community and are blessing us daily with their wisdom and encouragement.
Prayer Requests: That the rain will go away and we will be able to keep doing our Recreation Outreaches. That our students will sleep more soundly as lack of sleep greatly affects their energy level the next day. Pray for more students to hear about our Outreaches so that can have a chance to hear the Great Storythat our students have to share. Prayer specifically for a young man, Emmit, who came to our outreach last night: prayer that the burden that is upon him physically and spiritually will be lifted. Prayer for Pastors Brett and Terry and the work that they will continue to do in this community after we are long gone.
Here is a picture from our Family Time last night. The students participated in a team building excercise involving paper plates and hot lava, needless to say it was quite the sight.
Looking forward to sharing more tonight after Day 2!
It was so good to go to church today. The congregation at Ft. Jones Community Church was so welcoming, the coffee was strong enough and we had a solid worship experience with this community. Our students loved the service that they didn't even notice that it went for an hour and 45 minutes. After church we were able to catch up on rest and eat a tasty lunch. Just so you know, we split your students up into breakfast and lunch teams. We gave them each a $ amount and they shopped for those meals and are in charge of making them as well. So far so good with a solid yogurt and granola breakfast this morning and delicious spaghetti for lunch today. Feel free to put this tactic into work when they get home...
The rest of the day was spent preparing for the week. We had a VBS meeting that provided the run down for the next 5 day adventure. The students have been split up into various teams and will be doing everything from leading songs to making the crafts. We also went into the towns of Fort Jones and Etna and prayed for the young people that we hope to meet there starting tomorrow. Over all, a great prep day. Tomorrow is the day when all previous training goes into effect, it is the time that we have been waiting for.
Biggest Prayer request for tomorrow: Courage to be ourselves as we tell our stories of God's redemption to the community. And also to remember that we are relying on the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of these students and that it isn't our work that will get them "saved". We are hanging outside of the comfort zone here and we need some encouragement.
Here are my favorite photos from today:
Jess and Christina making spaghetti lunch:
Juli getting ready for our Safari style VBS:
Lucas being...well, Lucas:
Here is a taste of our time together at the Launch at Westside Baptist Church in Redding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEfYhhop82g
After the Launch completed, we slowly made our wayt to Fort Jones. We needed some supplies, some groceries and some caffeine. Energy levels were running low and so was team morale. It was time to get to our destination.
We safely pulled into Fort Jones Community Church at 7pm and started to realize the landscape that were to survive in for the next week.
Here is a picture of the preschool section of the house that will be our housing for the next week:
The main point of this blog is not so much a detailed report, but a report of what needs prayer. We have three major areas that we have already recognized. 1) Energy: the travel days have taken their toll and no one has really gotten a good night's sleep. It is hard to spread the gospel when you are cranky and can't keep your eyes open...we were almost to that point today. 2) Emotions: This much time together causes every little thing to become a big thing and we need to tap into our reserve of patience, love and kindness. My prayer is that our students will be able to be a cohesive team as they work together this week for the kingdom. 3) The other team: We are fortunate to be serving with Warren Baptist this week, but putting two different styles together can have its challenges. We are praying that our teams will quickly gel and see that we are unified in a common goal. Thanks for all of the comments.
My morning started at 5:30am on a church floor. My air mattress had deflated and I didn't really know where I was. I knew that was going to be a good day. We quickly got packed up and headed to the Capitol Building. We were able to take a self guided tour, spend time in the Senate Gallery and take plenty of pictures. Here are a couple of those pictures.
We then rapidly finished the next leg of the journey, landing in Redding. We went to SunDial Bridge for lunch, tried to stay out of the heat and eventually ended up at the premiere of Cars 2. It is quite the movie...I highly suggest you take your kids to see it, especially if you like Mater. We were also able to celebrate with one of our trip donors (who also happen to be related to the Sanyals) with a dip in their pool and a BBQ. It was a nice respite after many hours in the car.
The final destination for the day was at Westside Church of Redding for the official Youthmark Launch where we got to interact with the churches who are serving in Northern California. We worshipped, we fellowshipped and are about the spend the night. The main point of our time together is to be encouraged as we enter our sites, to be reminded of our mission while we are there and the celebrate the work that we are doing together for the Kingdom.
Tomorrow, we will finally land in Fort Jones and our mission week will officially begin. Be praying for our final miles that we need to travel, that our students will be able to get enough rest so that they can have the energy to complete the tasks that have been put before us and that the community of Fort Jones is being cultivated for the work of the Holy Spirit this week. Hope to update tomorrow from our home for the week!
I forgot to mention in my blog last night that the other half of the team that will be serving with us in Ft. Jones, Warren Baptist Church will be leaving today to meet us in Redding tonight for the Launch. Will you please keep David P and his crew in your prayers as they make their journey down from Northern Oregon? You can follow their happenings by reading their Youthmark blog at http://youthmark.com/wb_warren/
We promptly met and left at 9am.....which is what I wished I had been able to say. But, as is typical for large groups and road trips, we left a few minutes late. But it only aided in our mission to avoid traffic, which was extremely successful. Only 40 minutes combined of traffic on the whole trip.
Our rented 2011 E Series 12 Passenger Van fit all of our stuff and all of our people quite well and steadily headed up the 5 corridor. We breezed passed Los Angeles and Orange County, made it in good time through the Grape Vine and were greeted with the wide openness and extreme heat of the Central Valley. We spent the next 6 ours climbing the Bread Basket of California. Some tunes here, some dancing there, conversations about church politics and the inevitable question of "Are we there yet?" made the time fly by. Before we knew it, we were driving into Sacramento.
We also enjoyed some Chik-Fil-A for dinner, one of the few times we will get to eat out this trip.
We are spending the night at Fremont Presbyterian Church, my family's stomping grounds for my 4th and 5th grade years. Pastor Jim would not be surprised that I have already seen people that I know, but this time it is surreal. But, we are provided with a wonderful place to call home for the night. Plenty of space to spread out, get some rest and even shower before we go. As I am typing, the students are running around playing Sardines, stretching their legs after our 10 hour journey. Tomorrow is an adventure up to Redding and a gathering of all of the Mission Venture teams in Northern California. I can't wait to have another meeting of all of these students who are serving the Kingdom so fervently. That is it for now, I hope to write more tomorrow.
I got the van today. Which was confirmation from God that this trip was actually happening. We had to travel to Temecula to get it, but it we have wheels to get to Scott Valley.
We also gathered tonight to pray as a group, drop our stuff off and take care of paperwork. We are so blessed by the families that are participating in this trip. They made sure to lay hands upon us and pray for us as a group. The shower of blessings from these parents was amazing and I feel prepared to leave in the morning.
So, 9am tomorrow we head to Sacramento and that will the next place I blog from. Stayed tuned...