Tuesday, July 12, 2011

More updates of Post-IMPACT...

Dan Weiss, one of our fearless leaders, is still posting regarding our recent trip to the Dominican Republic. If you would like to hear his perspective on happenings of the trip, please check it out here.

Hope all are well! Parents, thanks for letting us spend an amazing 10 days with your kids in the DR! It was a true pleasure and very refreshing for Ali and I.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Videos

It seems that I run across a lot of videos throughout a week that really resonate with me. I wish I could share them more often, but I don't have a good way to do that. I share a few on the Transformation website, but not all relate to the urban ministry we are doing in Keller Park. I have decided to post them on my blog as I run across videos that challenge, enlighten, sharpen, or encourage me. I am a visual person so videos speak loudly to me.

Hope you enjoy!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Keep pushing!







It's our 5th day in Moca and God has blessed our activities, adventures and fellowship more than we could have ever imagined!

We wrapped up VBS in all three towns (Guanabano, Hoya Grande and Naranjal) yesterday with the salvation story and salvation bracelets. Several hundred children heard what Jesus did for them on the cross and how He wants to live in each of their hearts. Please pray that those seeds will be watered by the church leaders in the DR and God will make them grow into a lifelong relationship with his son, Jesus Christ.

The continuing theme of God's love is still strong throughout each day. We are gaining new perspective of the love He lavishes on us each day, each hour. Pray that the people of the DR will see and feel that love coming through us!

We've been part of church services that past two nights. Thursday night at Naranjal the students presented two dramas and two testimonies. All were incredibly powerful and those in the church were fully engaged. The night ended with a powerful celebration that included dancing, clapping, sweat and smiles. It was a beautiful time!

Friday night the team split up to two locations. Most of the team went to a church service at Hoya Grande. The students again presented dramas, worship, testimonies and even the sermon. God is using these students to do incredible things - things they probably didn't think they could do just a few days ago! Praise the Lord! A small group went to a basketball facility in Guanabano to play an organized game against a team from the town. It gives me great pleasure to report that the American team won the game, but even greater than that the students were very intentional following the game about striking up conversations with people from Guanabano and sharing their faith. God has used so many of our abilities to plant seeds, share our faith and glorify His name!

Please continue to pray for your students and all of the leaders. Now that VBS is over, there could be a temptation to turn off the ministry switch and coast through the rest of the trip. BUT, the ministry isn't done here. Today we've got a great opportunit to spend time in the park in Guanabano interacting with the people there. Please pray that God would speak through us and season all of our conversations with His spirit. We don't want to just spend a day playing at the park. We want to spend a day playing at the park and bringing people closer to Jesus!

Please pray also for the health of the team. Through God's grace, we have experienced very little sickness, no injuries and even very little fatigue despite the long days in the heat. So, lift us up and plead with God to continue blessing us with good health and safety so that we can be effective in serving Him.

We love you all. God loves you all. His love is greater than anything in the world. Please don't ever pass up the chance to share that love with the people you know and the new people you meet.

More to come later!