 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
Yesterday we had a surprise for the kids coming to the field. We had a water balloon fight during the middle of a game of link tag! Once the kids got over their initial confusion they started grabbing and throwing water balloons at each other! Two minutes later every kid on the field was wet from the balloons, and everyone had so much fun. After worship some the kids wanted to know if we’d be on the field this weekend so that they could come back to play games. They were a bit disappointed to find out that we would be leaving Saturday morning.
Today we decided that we needed to relax a bit so we went to Lake Como as a way to cool off from the hot weather. As an extra surprise, some of the Corvallis kids joined us for the trip to the lake. We jumped out of the vans and dropped off our towels before splitting into two groups. One group stayed at the beach and the second group decided to take the three mile walk to the waterfalls on the other side of the lake. The scenery was beautiful and when we arrived at the falls most of us decided it would be a good idea to take a dip in the refreshing water. After we got back from the falls, we all ate lunch and took a quick dip in the water before heading back to Corvallis. We just finished our last dinner, and we are so thankful for all of the delicious meals that were brought to the church this week. We are just about to leave for the fields, and we know that we are spending the last few hours with this amazing community in the best way possible. The kids here have been so much fun to hang out with and we all know that leaving tomorrow will be very hard to do. We have made many new friendships, and we are very thankful for the chance to help this community.
God Bless
Justin
I have posted pictures of some of our service work and play. We have been busy! Look at the picture with the pile of Thistles! We helped a couple whose husband has severe arthritus and hasn't been able to clear his fields. Hard work, Romans 5:3-5 comes to mind. These teenagers stuck it out and finished the job! Claudia and Andy were so greatful, she makes very good chocolate chip cookies. The next job was replacing a deck for a single woman whose life went on "overwhelm" the last couple of weeks. So, she prayed and asked God for help. Little did she know we were coming to help, God had it under control all long! Duh! Third job was sanding and staining and painting a deck! The last job was inserting a air-conditioning unit. It's been hot!
But our work is reaching out to the teenagers in this community. We go to town and to the river to invite them to come and play games at the park. After a game of soccer, or ultimate frisbee or link tag, we then try to be relational with the kids. IF we can share our faith with our new friends we try. Our treats after all this running is ice cream and then someone shares their testimony. This is inspirational! How and why they have faith in the Lord.
So this Corvallis Community Church has come alongside us with meals and showers every night!!! God is so good to us.
Please pray for our team. We hope many will come and join us at the soccer field so that we can be bold in sharing our faith. Through our daily devotion, we have touched on humilty, perseverance and the love of Christ.
Blessings, to be continued off to dinner. Berit
We are definitely excited to be here. It's a great priviledge to be able to share the word of God and worship with the people of Corvallis. Bradley, a youth from Corvallis Community Church has joined our team and is spreading the word of God with us, and to his peers. We had a great turnout of people last night come and join us in worshipping God at the field. Tomorrow we will do our first service project and we are excited to serve the people of Corvallis along with serving God. Continue praying for the people of Corvallis as we are doing the same. Written by Sara Skinner....
Hello! We deffinetly miss you all. God is deffinetly with us and we feel his presence everyday. Besides Bradley (15), we also have gotten close to his sister Brittany (who is 18), who hasn't yet spent the night with us but she is with us everyday, doing what we do
. Corvallis is certainly one of the most beautiful places I have every visited and everyone has been overly gracious to us, which we are forever thankful. We also have a younger boy named Zack (11) who is getting much more comfortable around us, I think our love for God is shining through and getting to him
. We all have our own collection of bug bites that we are tending to. Yesterday we went to a bridge and jumped off of it into a river. I was to chicken but everyone else except for two others jumped. We all had an amazing time doing that. With everything that's going on, God is with us and we are sharing his gospel with everyone who is willing to listen. Everyone is excited for tomorrow, for when we start our service projects. Please pray for us and for all the kids we meet, as are we. We hope that we can reach more hearts and spread the faith that we are all waiting to share.With Love, Maddi Belmondo.
P.S. I love you Mom, Dad, and Colton. Miss you all and see you in a week(:
We had an awesome day! It started with Youth Group with the kids at Corvallis Community Church and then an 11 am service with the rest of the congregation. We were given a potluck lunch! Fabulous food and fellowship. Hospitality is incredible. We walked to the river and most of us jumped off the bridge into the river. After a dinner of hot dogs and smores, organized by Pastor Matt and his wife Pam (thank you) we went to the soccer field and played. Many kids came to play with us, some that we met at the river, some from youth group! Wow, we are in awe of how our prayers are being answered. Kids came, one conversation led to sharing the Gospel! Pray that we keep praying and relying on God. We know that this is His work and we are learning to be His instruments. As we are in the body of Christ, in unity, so we pray that our group of Zion and Grace will be in unity too. Our devotion today was on Faith, Hebrews 11:1,3,4 and 2 Cor 4:8-9 and 16-18. Check it out!
Everything is going smoothly and according to plan. Pray that we build relationships within our own group and this community! More tomorrow with pictures. God provides abundantly! More tomorrow, we are all safe and sound. Thanks to Youthmark, Brian great job today! We can't wait to see God working! Blessings!
We hit the road today at 1:45! Here is a picture of our group.
Please pray that we finish our study of Acts and that we have time to work on our individual faith stories before we launch. Please pray that God highlights all the details needed to have accomplished way before departure. Praying for a smooth departure on Friday. Berit
I understand why Youthmark does retreats! We are blessed to go with Grace Church to Montana this summer! So great to meet Nathan and Megan and some of their kids that will be coming alongside us! Just want to communicate that as we go along this road, we shall be "winsome" witnesses!
