We had a great day three of Mission trip Philadelphia and we still have a ton of stuff to do tomorrow. Right now, the whole crew is back at Open Door Baptist Church getting ready to eat dinner...we are having homemade chicken quesadilias courtesy of Mitchell George and Peggy Bishop. Then after dinner, Pastor Mark is going to be preaching for the mid-week services at Open Door. VBS at Ezekiel Baptist and House of Prayer went great again today. We had about the same number of kids at Ezekiel as we had yesterday, but House of Prayer nearly doubled their numbers again from yesterday. Please pray that as we teach on Jesus' resurrection tomorrow and give the kids a chance to make a response to the Gospel message, the Holy Spirit will open their hearts and minds and draw them to accepting Christ. I'll have more later on our work today at House of Prayer with Pastor Yvonne Yates. The dinner bell is ringing!
(Written at 7:00 PM, 7/30/08)
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
A Day of Prayer...Walking
Well today was our second day of ministry for Mission Trip 08 in Philadelphia, PA, and it was another outstanding day! We doubled the number of kids we had in VBS today at Ezekiel Baptist and more than doubled at House of Prayer! At Ezekiel, Pastor Mark started teaching a class for older teenagers yesterday when we had several kids that were all over the age of 13 show up at VBS. It went over great and today, 19 year old Shanika accepted Christ and became a Believer! Please pray for all of us tomorrow as Wednesday is the Gosepl presentation as we talk about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. Pray that those teaching the lesson tomorrow will be crystal clear with Gospel message and that the children will have receptive hearts. After we finished VBS, we joined one of the other teams over at Open Door Baptist where the construction has been going on. Our crew started prayer walking the entire neighborhood around the church. We were able to pray personally with probably 15 to 20 people who were out in the neighborhood as we went by. We specifically prayed over the schools and parks in the area that they would be free of the influence of drugs and gangs. Later, we went across town and worked some more with Pastor Yvonne Yates at House of Prayer. We are helping renovate one of the upstairs rooms in their building for them to use as a neighborhood computer and literacy lab. It was another really busy day, and we need continued prayer as everyone starts to really get tired as the week goes on. Remember to pray for VBS tomorrow. Goodnight from Philly.
Monday, July 28, 2008
What an incredible day!
Incredible is the only way to describe this first day of mission trip! We had about 30 kids for VBS at Ezekiel Baptist today. Not quite the number we had hoped for but the group we had today were such incredible kids. We really think that tomorrow we will have double what we had today as the kids we had today goes home and tells there friends about VBS and they come with them tomorrow. We went door to door in several of the neighborhoods passing out more flyers and tomorrow they are running a shuttle van to pick up and deliver the kids. Then, we spent a couple of hours working the neighborhood at House of Prayer Church in another part of Philly. This is the church with the woman pastor who has completely changed her neighborhood. She sits on the front steps of her church and calls down the drug dealers, the pimps and the prostitutes as they congregate out on the street and pass by her church. Well we worked in her neighborhood today and passed out VBS flyers door to door, did prayer walks through the neighborhood, prayed with quite a number of individuals, and picked up trash all over a four block area. This woman is simply incredible! We are now back at our third church, Open Door Baptist Church getting ready to eat dinner and then unload a Home Depot delivery truck thats supposed to deliver a bunch of materials and supplies for our construction project at Open Door. It's been an awesome day and it promises to be an even better day tomorrow! Our kids are awesome and they are doing great! God is GOOD!
VBS @ Ezekiel Baptist Church
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Morning Train to Philly
Okay, we are all up at 4:00 AM after getting in bed at around 1:00 AM. We were running a bit late this morning so we had to literally run for the early train from NYC to Philly. We did make the train and are now on our way to Philly! Everything is going great, but everyone is really, really tired...working on about 6 hours sleep in the last 48 hours. Going to church this morning in Philly!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
NY City
We landed in NYC at 3:02 PM. Now it's on to the hostel and then some sightseeing...after baggage claim of course.
NYC here we come!
On the Plane
It's 6:50 AM and here we are sitting on the plane preparing to take off for Atlanta...the first leg of our flight. We had a very easy time clearing security...it was really amazing. We have quite a number of first time flyers on the trip, so there's a lot of excitement and a little apprehension, too. Next stop...Atlanta!
It's 3:30 AM...off to airport
Well, after a very luxurious nights sleep at the church, it was rise and shine at 2:30 AM to make coffee, start waking kids, and load the highly tricked out school bus that will ferry us to the airport. It's amazing how much traffic is in G-town even at 3:30 in the morning. Right now, it's about 4:00 AM and we are just passing through Benbrook. This day starts with alot of excitement - the plane ride...touring NYC...the sights...the sounds...the people. Ahh, the people...that's what it's all about, the people. People need God's love...that's our mission on this trip. More to come!
Friday, July 18, 2008
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