Wow! What an awesome first week it has been. We arrived in Oregon late on Saturday night, and we were greeted by some of the church staff and a mission team that was here for the week. They gave us such a sweet welcome by clapping and cheering for us! At church on Sunday, my team and I met many sweet, kind people from the church. I am so excited to serve with Living Hope Church this Summer!
Monday is our Sabbath day. We recovered from our travel day, and we were getting acclimated to living in Oregon. Monday night we were able to join a mission team from Mississippi. We went to an area that is filled with homeless people. There is a woman who used to be homeless herself, and now she has her own place! She wanted to serve the homeless people in the city, so three times a week she prepares a meal and feeds them. Not only were we able to fill the homeless people’s bellies, but we were also able to tell them about the only thing that will truly meet all their needs, a relationship with Jesus! Many of the people we talked to were high, smoking, and going through many hard situations. We met a lot of broken people who needed the Lord. We met a homeless lady who was eight months pregnant, and she was struggling with getting clean. She is scared for her baby’s future, and there are not many resources/ministries around the area to send her too because she cannot stop doing drugs. She has had another child, but now that child is across the country. It broke my heart to see her care about her baby, but it also showed me how things of this world can have such a hold on us. Even though none of the people we met accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, the good news of Jesus was shared. This ministry opportunity challenged me and took me outside of my comfort zone. The mission team we were working with was so kind and invited us to have dinner with them. We are college students from the south, so we love free food! We were able to be a part of their bible study and worship with them.
On Tuesday, my team and I had orientation, so we learned more of what we will be doing this summer. Orientation made me so excited to see how the Lord is going to work in my life and in the lives of the people we will be working with! That night we were able to go on a hike. The view once we got to the top was beautiful. We could see the entire valley, and the mountains surrounding the valley. We were able to catch the sunset at the end of the hike. The sunset over the mountains was very beautiful. The weather here is also very amazing because of the no humidity. On Wednesday, we were able to help the church by cleaning out several closets and reorganizing them. We should have taken before and after pictures because after they were cleaned it looked so different! The rooms really needed to be cleaned. That night we went to the youth service and got to meet a lot of the students. Currently the youth service does not include worship, and that is something that we are going to start next week! Every week they play games, and the youth pastor preaches a sermon, so I am excited for them to be able to worship too on Wednesdays! I got to have some awesome conversations with the students, so I can’t wait to get to know them more!
On Thursday we were able to attend a college ministry in the area who are not a part of the church we attend. We were able to meet a bunch of new people and see how the ministry functioned. We played four square, gaga ball, and a bunch of card games. We were able to talk about forgiveness and how hard it is, but how important and necessary it is! On Friday, several people from the church, including my team, went to a nearby park and served free cotton candy and snow cones. Our goal with this was to invite people to our upcoming outreach program, Christmas in July. This outreach program is several kid’s camps including their version of Vacation Bible School. We met a lot of kids who were so excited about free sugar!
On Saturday, my team was able to go to Northern California to learn about replanting dying churches. Living Hope Church has sent a couple to Yreka, California to replant this local Southern Baptist church. We were able to help organize some cabinets in the church and attend a festival in the area to meet some of the people. There are not many churches in the area, and the out of the few churches in the area, only a couple of them are healthy churches. The people there need to have an opportunity to hear the gospel. A big thing in the Pacific Northwest area is spiritualism. People worship other gods and believe that other things besides God will heal them. There are a lot of broken people who need to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We have met so many awesome and God-fearing people just in one week. I can’t wait to see who else the Lord brings into our path!
What you can specifically pray for:
· The Christians in South Oregon will become leaders and share the gospel with others.
· The homeless people we met will receive the gift of salvation.
· The lady doing the homeless feeding ministry will continue to be a light in the people’s dark situations.
· During Christmas in July many kids will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
· Christmas in July will also bring many families to attend church.
· The youth will respond well to having worship in their Wednesday night services.
· The replanting of the church in Yreka, California and that the Lord would grow this church.
· The church I am working for will continue to be a blessing to the community.
· The college ministry on Thursday nights will cultivate leaders for the gospel.
· Something that Living Hope Church really cultivates is truly taking a Sabbath day of rest. Rest is something that I struggle with, so please pray that I can take the time and learn how to rest in the Lord.
I am so excited to see how God is going to work in this upcoming week! Thank yall for encouraging, supporting, and praying for me!
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