On the Road – Days 4 & 5
Jul 13, 2009 Mission Northwest 2009
Posted by
Edde
Sunday July 12, 2009:
Ok.. This is my second attempt at this post today. Somehow the original post I wrote early this morning was deleted and lost in cyberspace, never to be found again. When I got back from church, I went to post it and it was gone, gone, gone. Needless to say, I wanted to cry. So, I went and took a 10 minute nap instead…
Yesterday was exciting. As I mentioned in my last post, we split the students up into three groups. The first group went with Kelly to do all the laundry and shop for food. Pastor Gary took the second group over to two widow’s houses to do work projects and I stayed with the last group as they performed an outreach at Moore Park here in Klamath Falls.
Helping those in need…
The second group was all boys and they were eager to do whatever they could help. As the boys were weed eating and doing general clean up, two of our young adult leaders, Tucker and Jesse, spent the better part of an hour and half sharing with the lady and ministering to her. When Gary went to pick them up, the lady approached him very emotional and could not stop saying how thankful she was for all the help. She was also thankful for the time spent talking with her as she had just lost her husband a year ago and had been extremely lonely. She is a Catholic, however, we do not know if she truly has Jesus in her heart.
The other house that was visited was a widow who had just lost her husband to cancer two years ago. She is a believer and a personal friend of Gary’s. She has been praying for us since our trip started. Our guys were able minister to both her and her son who is in his mid-forties and has been having a hard time since his father died. Our boys did some weed eating and clean up around the property and they did it with joy. Both mother and son were blessed and did not hesitate to express it. They both could not believe that young people could be so eager to help and said that the guys just glowed…
Reaching out to a dying world…
At Moore Park we spent the better part of the afternoon talking to people, performing the dramas and face painting with kids. When we first arrived, one of our freshman girls started talking to a young lady about her same age. As they were talking the rest of the students started going their separate ways. Chelsea, Katie and I stayed at a centrally located picnic table that allowed us to keep an eye on the whole group. As our girl was talking to this young lady, we saw that she had pulled out her sharing bible and was going through some verses with the other girl.
Then we prayed…
Within a couple of minutes, we saw the two girls praying and we prayed for them some more. When they were done, we got to meet this young lady and welcome her “into the family”. As it turned out, she was raised Jehovah’s Witness and had stopped believing a while ago. We wanted to get her information, but she was reluctant to give it out (being so young, I completely understand) and she told us that she was actually from another town a couple of hours away. So we gave her as much literature and info as we could before sending her off. She also wanted to meet some of our other students and talk with them. When she left, she was happy and hugged everyone. Please pray for this young lady that the seed that was planted, was planted on fertile soil and that the enemy will not steal it away…
While all this was going on, the some of other students split up and did their dramas and talked to other people. Others met up with a group of moms and kids at a playground and did face-painting for the children and played with them. It was amazing to see them reach out and share. Some of those that were sharing also experienced some hard and hostile rejections. Relativism is becoming and epidemic in our culture and we are trying to encourage the students to not be discouraged by the rejection of the absolute truth.
Ready in season and out…
When we were finished at Moore Park, Pastor Gary came back over to help us cart some of our students back to camp. On a whim, he took us over to another park called Veteran’s Park to scout it out for an outreach later that evening.
As we pulled up, we saw a group of skaters hanging out and messing around on their boards. As soon as I saw them, I felt a tug from the Lord to do the outreach right then and just postpone dinner. So, I pointed them out to the kids in my van and asked if they wanted to postpone dinner to share the gospel. I got a fervent YES! I radioed back to Gary to see if he and his van were game, and in five minutes we were out of the vans and setting up for another skit.
Gary then sent two of our young adult leaders, Jake and Jesse to invite the skater boys to the skit. The four skaters seemed interested until one of them asked what the skit was about. When Jesse told them it was about Jesus, three of the four boys mocked him and started to leave. Only one of them was interested. As we started the skit, all of the boys stopped skating and sat down and watched. Other people started coming out of the woodwork to see what was happening as well.
Jake and Jesse ended speaking to the one skater who wanted to stick around and watch. When asked about receiving Jesus, he declined, saying that he was just not ready. He also went on to mention that his son was just recently taken from him and how screwed up his life has been, but he would not see his need for Jesus. Please pray for this young man…
On their own initiative…
When the drama was over, the students broke into small groups to talk to people all around. If they did not have anyone to talk to, they would stand in a circle and pray for the others. When the others were done talking, they would start their own prayer group and those that were praying would find people to talk to. It was amazing to see the kids working and praying in tandem. The best part is that they did this with no immediate direction from us. It was of their own initiative… We spent over two and a half hours at the park…
Today….
After a few days of travel and ministry, we decided to give the kids a little free time this afternoon. New Horizon Fellowship was kind enough to feed us lunch after church and let us hang out for a bit, play soccer on the grass and unwind. This evening, we regrouped and came together for intercessory prayer. The students have been keeping a list of everyone they come in contact with, believers or not. Last night we interceded for everyone on that list. Also, an old friend of Gary’s, named Leo, who just recently came back from the Bible College and serving three years in the Philippines as a missionary, came and shared an encouraging word with us.
I am now finishing up this post after having a lengthy conversation with a couple of Jehovah’s WItnesses staying here at the KOA. Earlier a couple of students decided to go around and share with folks around the camp before we packed up and left in the morning. I swear these kids are becoming evangelistic beasts! They ended up getting caught in a conversation with this family of JW’s and when one of them came and asked me for a full version of the bible I knew that it may have been one of the JW’s who was asking for it, so I decided to join the conversation. This was hard, because they were really attacking our kids hard in their faith, and I had to really die to the flesh and yield to the Spirit to keep from firing back both guns blazing… Please pray for this family that the Holy Spirit would remove the scales from their eyes…
Next stop…
We are leaving in the morning for Sisters, Oregon. I am excited to see friends living there, but I am told Sister is a spiritually dark place and we will need a lot of prayer… Also, please continue to pray for health, safety, unity and strength for the group. Our little infantigo problem seems to be clearing up, but we are still acting with extreme caution…
Below are a bunch of videos of outreach, worship time in the camp and us just having a good ‘ol time.
Enjoy…
Below is an excerpt of worship while at the KOA. I love how uninhibited we have become in praising God in such a public place..
who says you can’t have fun on a missions trip????
© 2009, Edde. All rights reserved.
Tags: Mission Northwest, Youth Missions
