Now I know we haven't been doing a lot of posting for this missions trip. Mainly because we have been home every night, but I thought it might be profitable to give everyody an update.
We are safely in our lodging for the second week if this trip. Our home is Fox Valley Baptist Church in East Dundee, IL. Great Commission Baptist Church (the church plant we are working with) had not yet received its building permit, so our host pastor, Paastor Scott Greening, to the necessary steps to make a last minute change to this church. Here we have showers (1 for guys, 1 for girls) and a gymnasium to work with. (and, as you can see, internet access)
Tonight we helped clean up and set up for church/Bible Study/construction/cleanup in the building GCBC will be calling home. We also had GIORDANO'S PIZZA which was a first for most of our crew! After that, we received a tour of the surrounding area that GCBC is reaching. The surrounding couple miles has apppx 125,000+ people! These are the people to which we will be spreading the Word about GCBC and their new facilities all week, in a number of different and unique ways.
As for last week, our team really was stretched. In Cleveland we toured the ministry of City View Baptist Church and the apartment complexes that Pastors Taylor and Dockery are reaching into. We served a meal and shared in music, and a Bible Study on Thursday. On Friday, we held their first ever VBS-style One-Day-Bible-Club. Everybody had a great time, and there were four new adults who had never been into the place of worship for City View. There was also a brand new mother and son, who had a great time and had some great conversation with the pastors.
Our VBS in Warren really pushed us, and the church we were assisting. As we expected 40 to maybe 50 kids for VBS, we ended up with numbers that went from the 40s to the 60s and finally 80s! We had a total of 110 different children and teens in Bethel Baptist Church last week. We also saw three professions of faith, and many, many families came by before and after to see what was going on. The church was truly blown away, and so were we. The team learned to deal with difficult disciplinary actions, and facilitated different structure in the opening, Bible, game, craft, and closing times. We had so much fun with the puppets, songs, and Becky the Brain versus Spacey Gracey!
God has truly been blessing our efforts, and we have been striving to give Him the glory. We have been having daily devotions in Proverbs, and sharing the verses that we feel God would have us apply on a daily basis. Proverbs 18 was LOADED for us on the trip to Chicago today. Hearing each of the teens pick 1)a verse that they saw fulfilled last week and 2)a verse that they wanted to apply today was a such a blessing to this old youth pastor's heart.
Tomorrow, our team will be complete, as Kevin Quick will be coming in via Amtrak. Pray as we serve and reach.
I know, I know, where are the photos...I left my camera in Ohio, and Kevin is bringing it here. Hopefully, I can do some uploading tomorrow.
Tanks for all the prayer FBC ELyria!!
Pastor Dave, and the STEM Team