That saying "the calm before the storm", has been my life for the last couple of weeks. After the work at "Works" was finished, I had a lot more down time than I'm used to. I have streamlined my teachings so my study time needed is a lot less than it used to be. At first I wanted to start looking for new projects but knew that soon the calm would give way, and now I'm seeing that happen.
Starting this past Saturday we thought we would have a killer time for the Easter weekend. We began with watching the Passion and having communion. Our church had almost the whole youth group watching with tears in their eyes as they recognized what Christ did for them and His love for them. After the movie, we had a time of communion and one kid came back to give his life to Christ, it was pretty awesome! Then we headed out to the area of Works to do a youth outreach. It was a beautiful evening and it was definitely a time where it was all God. I had a great team helping me out, including some of my student leaders, and a lot of people heard about how God loved them and calls them to follow Him with all they have.
Yesterday, we celebrated Easter with over 200 people coming to celebrate the fact that Jesus is alive!
Then today we set out for an outreach to another local "slummish" area. At 7:30 a friend came and helped me make 45 PB&J sandwiches for our students. After a flat tire and literally our whole youth group of 45 students coming to serve with a visiting youth team, we headed out to the area. It was crazy as we had over 300 kids at our first location and trying to help the kids stay organized while they took part in all the different activities possibly took years off my life. One of which was face painting, and I learned the hard way what happens when you allow your students and your friends to get a hold of paintbrushes and some paint. We took our que from Jesus in His feeding of the 5,000 and got the students in circles of about 10-15 students as we handed out juice and cookies. Afterwards the sugar I think got to them and they were getting a little on the rowdy side, to try and get them away from the vehicles, some of my guys started running to the other side of the field. I will honestly never forget that scene as Richard and Davis (both rather tall) were sprinting and acting crazy with seriously 300 kids following them. We came back to the church for lunch and get ready for the next location. Our next location was smaller and so it went a lot more smoothly. By the end of the day over 500 people heard the Gospel, and I am yet again in awe of both my students and the team of leaders I get to serve alongside and even more in awe of the God we serve answering a whole lot of prayers and allowing us to be a part of what He's wanting to do in the lives of those students.
This is just the beginning. Next Saturday, we're going to have a huge sport's day in the same area for the older kids. So that's going to be another doozy but awesome opportunity. Then the next week the school holiday begins and with that comes more outreaches, but this time to other villages. We will begin with the closer village of Iguluibi for the first two days, then to another area called Bugiri where we'll actually stay the night, and then the next week to an area near Pallisa where again we'll get some nice village accommodations :) And then that will be followed by a youth conference here in Jinja. It will be a rather intense time but I'm so stoked for all that God seems to be bringing about already and doors that have been opening.
Needless to say, the storm that's beginning to rear it's head is a doozy, but it's super exciting and we are in serious need of prayers in these next few weeks as these outreaches take place. First and foremost we ask that He would be our focus and our goal, and that in ALL things we would be walking in His Spirit and glorifying Him.
Showing posts with label outreach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outreach. Show all posts
Monday, April 9, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
The story of ministry
Ministry is not easy, anyone who tells you otherwise is obviously not in ministry. You invest sleepless nights, money, time, energy, and tears into various people and projects and many times you find yourself briefly asking the question "What on earth am I doing this for?" Sometimes it's rhetorical, sometimes you don't know, and sometimes God gives you a glimpse as to why He gave you that opportunity.
This past week has been one very long week, and I'm walking around today in a somewhat comatose state after we had the grand finale of kind of phase one and two of the fire relief. We spent every night feeding 60+ people, greeting them (sometimes being bouncers) washing dishes, filling drinking cups, and getting to work as the Body of Christ as people from different organizations and churches joined in to help. Seeing just how hungry these people were and hearing their sincerity as they said thank you made all of it worth it.
Yesterday was a very LONG day. We began the day sorting the donations of goods people gave and then shopping for everything else we felt were "needs" with the money people donated as well. It was definitely an adventure as while we were in the market, the people started to beat up the Mayor... yeah long story. My friend Jen, and two of my students ended up filling the back of Jen's SUV with sigiri stoves, basins, sauce pans, cooking oil, paraffin, soap, and mingling spoons. Heading back to the church in 2 hours we tackled sorting out everything so that it was evenly distributed amongst the 26 families who lost their homes. At the end of the sorting, I was smelling of paraffin, was covered in oil, sunburned, dehydrated, and exhausted and it was time for youth group.
Youth group went amazingly well! I'm so blessed by those students each and every week. We are getting a lot of new students these days and I'm just excited to see what God has in store. I had them all make a logo for themselves as we began our journey through the book of John. It was a blast, yet with a rather heavy theological punch. God totally blessed our time together and although it was "work" it gave me a new burst of energy for the rest of the evening.
After youth group I invited the students to hang around as we served the fire victims one last time. Seeing my students out there serving these people was one of the coolest things! After the food was done, we handed out the donations to the people. I heard later that they were saying how it was like they never lost anything as some of them got things they never had before. While we were doing that Johnny and Jesse brought the projector and screen to the site of the fire and showed the Jesus film. Although we had some technical difficulties and were not able to finish the film, it was quite possibly one of my favorite times of ministry as my students were sitting at the truck watching the back side of the screen. Talking and laughing with them and then acting like a heater some of my girls who were freezing was a moment I wished I had a camera for but realize that it was too precious to capture.
By the end of the night, it was about 11:00 and everything was torn down. I couldn't help to feel so blessed even in the midst of my exhaustion. We were able to pour into a group of people who normally never set foot in a church. We served people who have been known to talk about us and not be our number one fans. And in doing so, we were able to show them the love of Christ in the biggest possible ways. We pray that they don't turn and thank us, but they thank Him as we were the ones who were merely the tools He used to care for them. We recognize that it was not an accident that the fire happened basically in our backyard and God challenged us to make the most of that opportunity. I just pray that lives were changed and people came to know Him through it.
At the beginning of this post I said how sometimes you ask "what am I doing this for?", and this morning as I looked and people came and sat in church wearing clothes I remember sorting. As our second service is currently in progress I know of several people who are there because of what God has done in this past week, and first service was the same. I praise Him for the opportunity, the provision, and the reaction of the people. TO HIM BE ALL THE HONOR, ALL THE GLORY, AND ALL THE PRAISE.
This past week has been one very long week, and I'm walking around today in a somewhat comatose state after we had the grand finale of kind of phase one and two of the fire relief. We spent every night feeding 60+ people, greeting them (sometimes being bouncers) washing dishes, filling drinking cups, and getting to work as the Body of Christ as people from different organizations and churches joined in to help. Seeing just how hungry these people were and hearing their sincerity as they said thank you made all of it worth it.
Yesterday was a very LONG day. We began the day sorting the donations of goods people gave and then shopping for everything else we felt were "needs" with the money people donated as well. It was definitely an adventure as while we were in the market, the people started to beat up the Mayor... yeah long story. My friend Jen, and two of my students ended up filling the back of Jen's SUV with sigiri stoves, basins, sauce pans, cooking oil, paraffin, soap, and mingling spoons. Heading back to the church in 2 hours we tackled sorting out everything so that it was evenly distributed amongst the 26 families who lost their homes. At the end of the sorting, I was smelling of paraffin, was covered in oil, sunburned, dehydrated, and exhausted and it was time for youth group.
Youth group went amazingly well! I'm so blessed by those students each and every week. We are getting a lot of new students these days and I'm just excited to see what God has in store. I had them all make a logo for themselves as we began our journey through the book of John. It was a blast, yet with a rather heavy theological punch. God totally blessed our time together and although it was "work" it gave me a new burst of energy for the rest of the evening.
After youth group I invited the students to hang around as we served the fire victims one last time. Seeing my students out there serving these people was one of the coolest things! After the food was done, we handed out the donations to the people. I heard later that they were saying how it was like they never lost anything as some of them got things they never had before. While we were doing that Johnny and Jesse brought the projector and screen to the site of the fire and showed the Jesus film. Although we had some technical difficulties and were not able to finish the film, it was quite possibly one of my favorite times of ministry as my students were sitting at the truck watching the back side of the screen. Talking and laughing with them and then acting like a heater some of my girls who were freezing was a moment I wished I had a camera for but realize that it was too precious to capture.
By the end of the night, it was about 11:00 and everything was torn down. I couldn't help to feel so blessed even in the midst of my exhaustion. We were able to pour into a group of people who normally never set foot in a church. We served people who have been known to talk about us and not be our number one fans. And in doing so, we were able to show them the love of Christ in the biggest possible ways. We pray that they don't turn and thank us, but they thank Him as we were the ones who were merely the tools He used to care for them. We recognize that it was not an accident that the fire happened basically in our backyard and God challenged us to make the most of that opportunity. I just pray that lives were changed and people came to know Him through it.
At the beginning of this post I said how sometimes you ask "what am I doing this for?", and this morning as I looked and people came and sat in church wearing clothes I remember sorting. As our second service is currently in progress I know of several people who are there because of what God has done in this past week, and first service was the same. I praise Him for the opportunity, the provision, and the reaction of the people. TO HIM BE ALL THE HONOR, ALL THE GLORY, AND ALL THE PRAISE.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
After the fire...
"The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ". - 1 Corinthians 12:12
After the initial reaction to fire, it was time to kick it in to another gear. Our church members gave of what little they had, some giving money, clothes, etc... to try and help the people who lost everything. We found out that it was a total of 26 homes that were lost.
Some fellow missionaries who also live in the area also got involved in trying to minister to these people. Combining our efforts, we are now working to try to feed the people a meal a day for the next few days. Last night having people from different groups working together to share the love of Christ was really just the coolest thing! Families with their kids came to hand out food and serve these people. And as the week continues we also continue to pray about the wisest ways to help these people get back on their feet. I'm so blessed to see our church, staff, and my fellow missionaries stepping up to meet this need. And honestly it is one of the most beautiful depictions of the body of Christ I've seen.
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