What a busy and awesome week this has been! I have seen the Lord work in conversations, in the servants heart of mission teams, in His creation, and in the small moments!
Monday is our Sabbath day, so I rested a lot which was so nice! I got to see more of God's beautiful creation that night as we watched the sunset over the mountains. He is so intentional with His creation. If He made this earth we call home so beautiful then how much beautiful are we to Him! On Tuesday we planned some upcoming events for the youth that I am very excited about! I am hoping that these events will be a way for some of the youth to become more involved. That night we went with some of our church family to a local hiking spot! We had an awesome view of Medford, of the mountain range, and of one of the bigger mountains.
On Wednesday we got an early start to help the mission team here from Mississippi. We went to a local woman's house to help clean up her yard. Miah and I were able to talk to the lady while everyone else was working outside. She is a button collector and puts her buttons in competitions all over the state. She had so many beautiful buttons of all different kinds: some were made from bone, some she designed herself, some from pearl, and there were many more. The woman had cancer years ago but has been in remission for the past several years. A few months ago she was diagnosed with cancer again. She just started her first round of chemo. Miah and I got to have a little gospel conversation with her, but not as much as we wanted to. She may be a Christian, but she did not plainly tell us that she was a Christian. I am hoping that we will be able to go and visit her again to have a deeper conversation about the gospel with her. After cleaning her yard we went to a local park to give out free snow cones to tell families and children about our upcoming outreach, Christmas in July, which is four different kids camps. The Lord is so good and His timing is so perfect! Wednesday, we were able to have for the first time ever worship at youth. It went way better than I could have ever imagined! I was expecting mostly adults to be singing because a lot of these students do not come to church on Sunday morning. Most of these kids are coming to youth on Wednesday night because there is free food. There were about twenty five adults there because the mission team from Mississippi joined us for youth. There were only a handful of the students not singing too much. It was so awesome to see some of these students worship the Lord through song for the first time! The youth is going through a series about relationships and our relationship with the Lord. We sang Firm Foundation and Build My Life which are songs that talk about our relationship with Christ and two songs that really explain the gospel so well!
On Thursday we went with the mission team from Mississippi to see some of the Redwoods and the California Coast. It was absolutely beautiful and stunning. The trees in the Redwoods were so extremely tall and big. The Northwest coast is so much different than the Gulf. The water is freezing, it is cold on the beach, and very windy. I was not expecting it to be that cold on a beach. That night we went to a local college ministry where we played games, ate dinner together, and had a Bible study. These students come from many different backgrounds and homelives. They asked many deep questions.
On Friday Miah, Leah, Kennedy, and I met one of our friends at a local coffee shop! Our friend is not Christian. Recently she said that she was muslim, but now she says that she is a student of many religions. She is very fascinated by psychology, persuasion, and rhetoric. She told us that she is not a faithful person, and she describes herself as more logical. She does not believe in truth, and she thinks that we have no real way of knowing truth. In our conversations with her we got to tell her the entire metanarrative of Scripture. We were able to tell her about the different ways to share the gospel with different people groups, and how the good news is for everybody around the world! We asked her a lot of questions and she asked us a lot of questions. Leah did a lot of the deep question answering (and she did so good and explained it so well). I realized that it is so important to understand the person you are talking to when sharing the gospel. We met our friend through people from Living Hope, and people have shared the gospel with her many times. By asking her questions and wanting to know more of how she thinks through things we were able to explain things about the gospel that she understood. Then we went to the same local park we went to on Wednesday, and we gave out free cotton candy and snow cones. We have seen by giving out free snow cones and cotton candy we are able to bless families and kids even if they do not want to come to the kids camps we offer. Also it's funny because whenever we come to the park the icecream truck and Kona Ice will leave because they know they cannot compete with free snow cones and ice cream!! Then we went back to the church for our weekly development meeting. It was my turn to speak this week about a leadership characteristic. I chose to talk about influence. We all have influence on the people around us even if we don't think we do. There are so many people who had influence in the Bible. For example David as he led the nation of Israel, John the Baptist as he prepared the way for the coming Messiah, Deborah who was a powerful judge, and many others. Not to mention Jesus who has an influence on the entire WORLD as the son of God! Without Jesus's influence on this earth then we wouldn't know the perfect way to live. He is our example and who we strive to be more like every day. A question I asked my group and I want you to ask yourself is How do you steward the influence that you have? After the meeting Miah and I were able to meet with the girl we are discipling and who I am teaching the piano to. It has been so fun to get to know her better through this and youth! That night my roomies (Miah, Leah, and Kennedy) threw a birthday party for me and invited some of our friends over for dinner and games! It was so much fun and made me feel loved even while I was so far from home.
On Saturday the BSU interns (Miah, Collin, Silas, and I) went to Yreka, California to the replant. Living Hope Church is the first successful church replant in the Pacific Northwest. Also, Engage, the college ministry at Southern Oregon University, through Living Hope is the first successful college ministry in the state of Oregon. It is such a privilege to be able to learn from people who have seen success in an area that is hard to reach with the gospel. We were able to help one of the attendees of the church. He recently had to move his rv to a new location, so we helped him get all of his pipes where they need to be and straight. Then we went back to the church and took inventory of everything that the church has. After we went through many rooms and even the attic we drove around the town. We got to see the churches (which are few), schools, some of the houses and the stores. Our purpose of that was to see the community to think of ideas that will be good to reach out to the community. Yreka is a small town in California. There are about 10,000 people who live there and only about 2 to 3 healthy churches in the area. The people there need to know the Lord! That night I got to have a Chickfila peach milkshake and I was so excited!
On Sunday I was able to be apart of Living Hope's worship team and play the violin! Pastor Shawn's message about how to refuel ourselves by experiencing God was just what I needed! It is so easy for me to think about things that are not right in front of me. To often I focus on what has happened in the past, what is possibly going to happen in the future, or what is happening somewhere that I am not at. He challenged us to be present, pleasant, and prayerful. He also reminded us that today could be our last day, so we should live each day like it's the best day and our last day! That night I was able to go watch the sunset over the mountains again with some friends!
What you can specifically pray for:
The youth events coming up this summer! These events will hopefully help them build relationships with some of the youth leaders, and help them become more involved with the youth.
The Lady who we cleaned her yard. Pray for her as she goes through her battle with cancer and as strength as she goes through chemo. We are not sure that she has a relationship with the Lord, so pray that she will come to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior if she does not already.
Christmas in July as it is approaching in two weeks. There are many children who are going to hear about Jesus for the first time, so pray that children and possibly some adults will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Also there will be three mission teams coming to help us with Christmas in July. Pray for their safety and wisdom as they interact with the people of Medford.
The college groups students on Thursday nights. There are many different types of people who attend this groups from all different kinds of walks of life! Pray that the Lord will grow this ministry, and that students will continue to come to have a relationship with Jesus!
Our friend that we have met for coffee. Pray that the blinders will be taken off of her eyes, and that she will realize that she needs a relationship with Jesus! Pray that she will have the faith to make that decision.
Clarity for me in my call to ministry. I am still not sure where God has me to be in the future in ministry, so I am thankful that here at Living Hope I am getting the opportunity to see so many different sides of ministry
The church in Yreka will be able to share the gospel to people in the community and will be leaders in their community
God has been so kind to give me the opportunity to serve and learn here at Living Hope Church. As always thank yall for encouraging, supporting, and praying for me!
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