Home Again

We made it back- on time even! Since everyone probably stopped reading this when we got back no one will get to celebrate this with me, but I do have something really cool to share. When we were leaving World Impact a few of the girls from our group came to talk to me. One of the girls was not a Christian and wanted to know more about it (since she'd been hearing us tell others about Jesus all week). I had her explain what she knew to me, which was everything she'd been hearing. Then I asked if she believed that, and what she wanted to do. She confidently said she believed it for a fact and wanted a relationship with God, through Jesus, and for the barrier of her sins to be removed. We prayed. We celebrated. We came home with a new family member!

Completion

We have finally finished the last day of ministry. We are planning on pulling out by 10am Saturday morning, which should put us at the church at Noon. The week was very successful and quite full of unexpected twists and turns along the way. Most of our best laid plans ended up falling through, leading to new plans on the fly. The crazy thing is that most of the last minute plans were the best things we did!
Tonight's outreach was gigantic. There were at least 300 people there (that's a conservative estimate). We quickly realized that we were not even going to have enough food for the people that came, much less our own team. We told all our people that we weren't going to eat there and ended up picking up a couple dozen pizzas instead. We got no complaints on that one! It was great to end with a bang, though, and the students had a great time. All of them have been amazing this week.
One of the activities we had each of the students engage in was writing a letter to their parents, which they are going to give you when they get home. Should they forget to do that, you can remind them now that you know about it. I really encourage each parent to set aside a couple hours, maybe take them to In n Out or something, and ask them to walk you through each day of the trip, what they did, and what God taught them. It will help solidify some things for them and get you in on it so you can help them along the way. Also, as many of them experienced more extreme poverty than they have before, it will help if you can process those emotions and responses with them.
Thanks so much for everyone's prayers. God was at work, and it was very evident. Please pray for safety as we drive back. We look forward to seeing you all again soon!

Serve

We have been provided with a lot of different ways to serve the community here in Fresno. Some of our teams have gone to local missionaries' homes and serve them by cleaning, painting & doing yard work. Others have gone to the Poverella house & helped prepared meals for the homeless. All of our teams have been able to spend a day at the Construction site working on a building which will be a World Impact office/tutoring center/coffee house in the neighborhood, as well as house a missionary family upstairs. We are also going to the Tent Cities here in Fresno to serve food & reach out to the homeless. All of these activites have been amazing eye-openers for the students and staff. It has really made the need to serve others quite clear to all of us and I believe many of us are coming home with a new World Perspective. Please ask your child to tell you more about these activites and how they were personally impacted by the ability to serve.
Today went very well, with all these service opportunities plus an outreach in the afternoon. We are looking forward to our last day of service tomorrow, though it's definitely bitter-sweet. Thank you all for your prayers. Our team is healthy, and everyone was able to join thier groups again today. One of our team members who went home sick is even returning tomorrow morning after an amazingly swift recovery. One day left...pray we finish well.

Night of Freedom

Tonight we did not go on an outreach. Instead we stayed at the World Impact center and had an extended time of worship, teaching, response, and most of all- freedom! God did some incredible things tonight in our students and staff. There was a lot of freedom from sin, distractions, unforgiveness, hurts, broken relationships, doubts, and a lot more. If you are a parent, please ask your kids to tell you about tonight and what God did in their lives. Many of them expressed a desire to talk to you about it already, but may need some extra help from you to make that happen.
Thanks so much for everyone's prayers. Tonight was a testament to what God can do when his people are praying. Go God!

Going Great!

Things are going great down here. Sorry I didn't get a blog post yesterday. We have had two outreaches at this point, one at Lowell and one at Kings View. Both went very well. The missionaries that we're serving have said that the outreaches are one of the best things they've seen any groups do, as far as helping them get the word out about what they're doing and actually serving the communities goes. That was encouraging.
The students are doing great, with great attitudes and hearts. Our speaker, Paul, has really been challenging them to know Truth, not as an object or commodity, but as the person of Jesus Christ. Knowing Truth means knowing Jesus in an intimate personal relationship. A lot of students have been really challenged in their walk with God, which has been phenominal.
Tonight we are not doing an outreach. Instead, we're going to have a longer chapel time with an opportunity to share what God's doing in your life, and get rid of some baggage that's been holding you back. I'm really looking forward to it and know that God's going to do some incredible things. Please be praying for the students as they let down thier walls and let God into the scary places and for the staff as they do follow up and counseling. We're trusting God to bring freedom tonight!
A couple of our team members are sick right now- Megan Countryman and Brittney Miller. Tiffany Miller already went home sick. Please continue to pray for safety and health for our team.
All the projects are going well. Teams have been working on our construction project, which is finishing an apartment and tutoring center that World Impact is hoping to open soon. We've also had teams at the food bank, homeless shelter, going through donations at the thrift store, doing service projects in neighborhoods and helping the missionaries with projects. There's a lot going on!
Thanks for all your prayers. Please continue. We need them!

We're Here!

Well, we all made it here safely, settled in nicely, got aquainted with things quickly, and got right down to business. After only being here a few hours, we set out on our first outreach. It went very well. The students did great, and the response was amazing. All the sites are doing it a little differently, because the missionaries who are in those neighborhoods are helping with how things go at their place. Tonight a former gang member shared his testimony, then wrapped up by asking people to come up and talk to him about Jesus. Many people talked to him afterwards, and even more got info and gave their phone numbers to the World Impact staff to be contacted later. We are planting Kingdom Seeds!
Please be praying that tomorrow goes well, for continued safety, and for the health of our team. Many of our team members were taken out before we even started- a few that we didn't even know about until this morning! Tiffany Miller is with us, but not feeling very well. Please pray for healing and health for her.
Everyone else is doing well- excited for the rest of the week, and what God's got planned. Please keep praying that everyone is listening to the voice of God and what he wants to teach each of us this week. Thanks!

Safe Travels

Yay! We are finally leaving...

Please pray for safe travels as we embark on this exciting missions trip.
Please pray for a few of our students & staff who are too sick to leave with us today. Pray that they would get better quickly so that they can join us tomorrow!
Please pray for 3 of our team members who will be having surgery this week & are no longer able to come on the trip. Pray that they would have a quick recovery, that the surgery would heal them properly to 100% & that the surgeons would be guided by the Lord.

Thank you for all your prayers...