I am so thankful to still be in the school system so I can experience the phenomenon known in America as Spring Break...even though it happens while it's technically winter...
This year I thought my time would be best served visiting the church in Arizona as I will be moving there this year. I wanted to see my friends Jen and Eddie, meet the saints there and get a general sense for the place. The exciting surprise, was that the Rock decided to go too.
So I spent my week with the college age saints from my own body...and that was a delight! Most of them had never been on a spring break trip with our movement before, and they were excited to run hard. I knew very few of them, but was so encouraged by their fresh faith and hearts to serve God in the hot sun. The Rock has got some amazing people that I am sad to have missed out on the pleasure of knowing, and am so grateful for the brief time running with them this week.
We ran a soccer camp, hosted a kid's carnival, and went door to door to see if we could serve anyone. Everyone was very encouraged by each of these events. We met a lot of people, shared the Gospel over and over and spent time being loved by the Arizona saints. There were lots of dinners together with the Arizona church and the fellowship was a blast. All in all, I think it was a very fruitful trip for all and I am excited to hear stories from this summer's infusion, and am sad I will be missing it.
I was able to meet most of the church body in Arizona and my goodness do these people understand hospitality! It is a very small church and most of the families in the church hosted us. One house had 10 girls and most of the other houses had 3-5 people (the Rock brought 30 people). It was amazing. They constantly had food for us, expressed their thankfulness for us and for those we had already sent to them. They love the Lord and each other and it is an amazing witness of Christ's love. Many of their teens we able to participate in our spring break trip and I was honored to serve and share with these young men and women.
One of the days we were there, we split up into groups to go and tell the Good News. My group went to a skate park with 2 youths from the Arizona church. Timo (16yrs old) jumped right in with the Gospel with these skaters, time and time again...and every one of the ones we handed a soda to (at least 24) sat and listened to the Gospel...It was amazing. They were receptive and though none of them accepted Christ, I know we made them think. One of the guys even cried when I explained justification...the very thing I myself have just come to understand.
God really blessed our time there and it was the most encouraging cold-turkey sharing experience I've ever had.
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On the other side, I am excited to dive in and give all I've got to my team here. Being in Arizona reminded me of how short a time I really have to give all I've got back here. God is really blessing this body and things are hopefully about to take off. I've been praying for more women to join my team for a few months now. 1 just did and 2-3 more are going to at the beginning of summer. God is really paving the way for me to move on and that is encouraging.
My whole ministry has been growing in unity, and that is delightful. I am very excited to see what God does with us this year. It's going to be glorious, because God's leading.
