We are back in the big city! Last Sunday we got back into Juneau, which is definitely my favorite place in Alaska. It's just enough of the city without being too busy. It's great. And, there's Wal-Mart. So I have been pretty excited about this week. We did Bible School at Glacier Valley Baptist Church which is the biggest Baptist church in Juneau. We have been staying at the sweetest house we have been to all summer. We definitely have it made this week. The best part is that we are staying with one of the most awesome people that we have met this summer, Angie. She's awesome and has been such a huge encouragement to us. She's such a Godly woman and definitely a praying woman with a ton of passion. It's been great to be around her and hear her stories. She's also been our VBS director. Speaking of VBS, we had about 80 kids all week, which I was pretty stoked about, especially considering we had 12 the week before. So me and Turner got to teach Music all week. As I've said before, this is something that I wouldn't have done this time last year. Praise the Lord that He has helped me to do it. Even though we have been teaching Music, we have been able to pick apart the songs and tell the kids the awesome God stuff that they say. From Day 1, we made sure we told them about the ABC's of becoming a Christian, since we didn't get to teach them Bible study. There were actually a lot of kids that had never really heard about the plan of salvation. I asked all of the kids the first day what they thought had to happen to become a Christian. A ton of them talked about how their parents were Christians, so they must be and about how they were good people so that meant they were a Christian. So we got to tell them all about how we all have sinned and Jesus is the only one that can forgive us from those sins when we ask him to and we get to be friends with him forever. I was pretty amazed at how many kids were glued to those words. It was awesome! On Wednesday (which is always my favorite day every week, because it's the big ABC/Plan of Salvation day) we were talking about becoming a Christian some more and one of our girls, Neoma, kept asking all sorts of questions of becoming a Christian. She kept saying that she really wanted to go to Heaven and wanted to know how to do that. So I got to talk to her for a little bit and told her again about how to become a Christian. She told me she would think about it and said she might pray and ask God to come into her life. I told her to let me know when she did pray. About an hour and a half later, she came back into my room and told me that she prayed! I was so dang excited. Praise Jesus! Angie also got to talk to Neoma and help her understand some more and gave her a Bible. She was estatic about getting that Bible. Jesus is so awesome! The rest of our week has been fantastic. We have met a lot of great people and had what I would say was the best VBS of the summer.
On a more personal note, God has really been working in my life this week. He has been speaking and making me fall even more in love with him. Last week I God showed me some stuff that I needed to get rid of in my life that had been there on and off for a while. I finally surrendured it to him and realized how much it grieved God for me to hold on to it. Ever since then, God has been renewing me and revealing more and more of himself. The joy that I have felt since last week has been indescribable. He has also been saying a lot to me. One of my big burdens is the Appalachian State campus. If you don't know, there are 16,000 students and only 1,000 of them are involved in church or a campus ministry. This year I am the Missions leader for BCM, so it's my job to head up the missions efforts for our group, and also help to establish and improve our relationships with different churches in the area. The past few weeks I've been thinking very heavily and praying about the direction God wants us to go in. Last week I had the pastor of the church in Petersburg pray about my campus and my position too, and he and his wife said they would continue to pray about it. So this week, God started answering those prayers. Several times this week, God has been talking to me about what he wants to happen with the position he has given me. It has been an exciting time to hear God speaking so much. It is pretty addicting, actually. To have God speaking, and speaking often is one of the sweetest things ever. I love it.
Next week is our last week. We thought that we were going to be staying in Juneau for out last week, but we found out a different story this week. Instead, we are going to a small native town called Hoonah. At first, I was a little peeved that they sprung this on us all of a sudden. I came to terms with it though, and realized there is a ton of stuff for us to do there in the name of Jesus. There isn't actually a church that we are helping out, because there isn't a Baptist one there. There are 2 missionaries there, but thats about as far as the Christian influence goes. We are going to be doing a Backyard Bible Club, and we are going to have to go looking for kids to come to it. We aren't going to set a very strict schedule, because we might end up having to change strategies if the one we have doesn't work out. We are just going to listen to God and see what he wants to go on. There are a lot of opportunites in the area since it is a Native Village , because they have all sorts of native beliefs that are not Christianity. So there is definitely a potential for a lot of great stuff to happen.
Well I want to thank everybody once again for their prayers. Please continue to as we are finishing our summer up. Here are some prayer requests:
-Safe travels to Hoonah
-That we would be able to reach tons of people in Hoonah
-That we would finish our last week strong
-Energy, patience, endurance
-Appalachian State's Campus
-ASU Baptist Campus Ministry
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Time to Finish Strong!
Another week is coming to a close. This week, we have been in Petersburg, which is definitely the prettiest place we have been. We have been doing VBS at FBC Petersburg all week, and it went quite well. I got to teach 5 & 6 graders, Turner did her thing with the Crafts, Jake taught the younger kids, and Aaron did Recreation. Turner and I stayed with a young couple, Jim and Louise, and their two kids, Henry and Wyatt. We were pretty excited to get to stay with some young folks...not that staying with older people is bad...it's just nice to have some variety. So back to VBS...it was great. We only had about 12 kids total all week, but it's not always about the numbers! We started at 9 in the morning and did the whole schedule like we usually do. Me and my host mom did Bible Study together and I got the distinguished role of dressing up as Simon Peter the whole week and telling the Bible story. By the end of the week, I had a nice Crayola Marker Beard going on. I think I can now say I have done almost everything there is to do in ministry. Anyway, my favorite day of most weeks is Wednesday, because it's the day we get to share the plan of salvation. So this past Wednesday, (minus the Peter getup, because I wanted to actually be taken seriously), I got to do just that. One of the guys was really curious and asked tons of questions after I had told them the story of Jesus. That in itself was pretty exciting to me. I also found out that he didn't really go to church, so it really seemed like this was the first time he had heard much at all about Jesus. After Bible study I pulled Aaron aside and asked him to talk to this guy, because I felt like he would have rather talked to another male. So Aaron got to talk to him for a while after VBS was over that day, and lo and behold, the boy asked Jesus into his life! That was so exciting! It is always a priviledge to get to see someone come to know Jesus as their Savior. I am so excited that God has given us that priviledge several times this summer. Another one of my favorite moments of the week was on Saturday with the pastor and his wife. They are both around 78, but you wouldn't know it by the way they act. The pastor went out to recreation everyday and played harder than the kids. Anyway, they fed us lunch everyday, and after we ate Saturday, the pastor wanted us to have a prayer time. He told us that we could pray however we wanted to...if we wanted to all pray out loud at the same time, we could, if we wanted to pray several times we could...whatever God led us to do. He asked us all about specific things that we wanted to be prayed for and we all gave him our special requests. We then got to praying, and it was one of the most God-filled times of prayer that I've ever been in. We just prayed what was on our hearts and praised God.
A really awesome thing that we got to do this week was go
out on a boat tour to a glacier. The people that Jake and Aaron were staying with run the buisiness and usually charge $300 for one of these tours. They were nice enough to do it for us for free! So we went out on this boat and glided through bright blue icebergs that were 3 times as big as the boat. We 
actually had to go through a lot of the really small ones and other little chunks of ice. We got really close to the glacier too. It was absolutely the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen. I hate that I can't describe it better, but here are a few pictures.
So Saturday night, well more like early Sunday morning, we got on our last ferry ride of the summer. We headed back to Juneau and got back at 8pm tonight (Sunday). We are doing VBS this week at Glacier Valley Baptist Church. We are all 4 staying together at a woman's house, well more like MANSION! This house is awesome. I feel like I am cheating by getting to stay here. Turner and I have a king size bed, our own bathroom with a jacuzzi style bathtub, and a shower so massive I could practically run laps in it. There's also a pool table and a fooseball table. It's ridiculous. We are very, very thankful for it.
We will be staying at this church for our last 2 weeks. We aren't sure what's going on the 2nd week though. It's so strange to think that this is almost over. It's very bittersweet. I miss so much from home, but I'm going to miss Alaska and my teammates so much when I'm gone. It doesn't even seem like it has been that long. All I know is that God has richly blessed our time here and has turned our meager service into much, much more. I know that what has happened this summer is so much bigger than me, and that God has worked so many miracles. I feel honored that he let me be a part of this.
I thank you for the prayers that I know are still going up. Please continue to pray for:
-VBS at Glacier Valley Baptist Church
-Energy, endurance, patience
-Finishing strong!
-That all of my fellow missionaries will finish their missions strong and will have safe travels back home.
-VBS at my home church this week.
A really awesome thing that we got to do this week was go
out on a boat tour to a glacier. The people that Jake and Aaron were staying with run the buisiness and usually charge $300 for one of these tours. They were nice enough to do it for us for free! So we went out on this boat and glided through bright blue icebergs that were 3 times as big as the boat. We 
actually had to go through a lot of the really small ones and other little chunks of ice. We got really close to the glacier too. It was absolutely the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen. I hate that I can't describe it better, but here are a few pictures.So Saturday night, well more like early Sunday morning, we got on our last ferry ride of the summer. We headed back to Juneau and got back at 8pm tonight (Sunday). We are doing VBS this week at Glacier Valley Baptist Church. We are all 4 staying together at a woman's house, well more like MANSION! This house is awesome. I feel like I am cheating by getting to stay here. Turner and I have a king size bed, our own bathroom with a jacuzzi style bathtub, and a shower so massive I could practically run laps in it. There's also a pool table and a fooseball table. It's ridiculous. We are very, very thankful for it.
We will be staying at this church for our last 2 weeks. We aren't sure what's going on the 2nd week though. It's so strange to think that this is almost over. It's very bittersweet. I miss so much from home, but I'm going to miss Alaska and my teammates so much when I'm gone. It doesn't even seem like it has been that long. All I know is that God has richly blessed our time here and has turned our meager service into much, much more. I know that what has happened this summer is so much bigger than me, and that God has worked so many miracles. I feel honored that he let me be a part of this.
I thank you for the prayers that I know are still going up. Please continue to pray for:
-VBS at Glacier Valley Baptist Church
-Energy, endurance, patience
-Finishing strong!
-That all of my fellow missionaries will finish their missions strong and will have safe travels back home.
-VBS at my home church this week.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
He Continues to Amaze
I'm just going to cut to the chase...God is amazing. I'm in Sitka this week and boy, has God blessed this VBS. We have been doing Bible School at night this week. Our schedule has been inflatables for a while, family dinner, Worship Rally with all the VBS songs, crafts, Bible Study, and Recreation. About those inflatables...they are amazing. I sure do hate putting them up and taking them down, but God uses those in awesome ways to draw kids in. The really extra super cool thing is that they draw kids in that don't go to church. I am always incredibly excited to have unchurched kids come. So the first night after inflatables, we had these 6 middle school boys. They sat against the wall waiting for dinner and asked me, "What religion is this?" I answered to them, "This is Christianity." Then one of the boys said, "Well I'm Catholic and so are 3 more of us. The other two are Muslims." Man, I got excited then! I told Jake about them and he went and sat with them during dinner and struck up a conversation about Jesus. He told them all about how you don't have to do anything to have a relationship with Jesus and to get to Heaven. You just have to believe and have faith. They were so interested in that. They were amazed that you don't have to work to be saved or do a bunch of stuff, like they had been taught by their religions. Jake and the rest of us were really pumped about that conversation. Unfortunately, they left after dinner. The same thing happened the next night. They came for the inflatables and dinner, then bolted. Well we had definitely been noticing this and we were praying that they would at least stay for part of the VBS. Well with God being awesome and everything, that happened last night. Much to our excitement, all 6 guys decided for some reason to stay for the Worship Rally last night. Now if you haven't heard these VBS songs, they are pretty great. I know I write about them a lot, but I have just seen God use those so much this summer. Most of them are straight up reciting scripture and one of them explains the ABCs of becoming a Christian. Well these 6 boys got into the Worship time, and I was scared they would think it was stupid. Little did I know that God had it all worked out. From the beginning of the first song to the last, these boys sang every single word and did every single motion. These Catholic and Muslim boys were singing about only worshipping the one true God and giving up their sin to follow Him. That was hands down my favorite moment of this trip. After the ABC song, I felt God leading me to say something, because I wasn't sure if these boys were going to stay for Bible Study. So God layed it on my heart to share the plan of salvation and to share about Jesus and why He came. I don't take credit for that. It was totally a God thing. I'm so glad He told me to do that because the boys did end up leaving after the Worship time. But that was ok! They got to hear about Jesus and how He could save them. I am totally amazed at how God worked that out. We may never know what happens to those boys, but I firmly believe a seed was planted. God can use that and do mighty things with it. As I said in my last post, words cannot fully express how much God has blessed things and how He has intricately worked out the details of everything to go just the right way. God keeps showing me how big, how able, how strong, how loving, and how incredible He is. I am so glad that He is allowing me to be a part of the plans that He has. If all I get to do for Him is to sing a few kids' songs everyday about Jesus, then I am more than okay with that. God can use anything. I think that is pretty much the story of my summer. He can use the smallest, most ridiculous, most seemingly insignificant things to bring people to Him and to make Himself known. I am so priviledged and honored to be able to serve a God like that.
I hope that whoever you are that is reading this realizes that you can be used by God too. You don't have to travel thousands of miles to do it, you can do it right where you are. Like I said, God can use anyone and anything, no matter how big or how small. All you have to do is have your heart right with Him and be willing. This summer, me, Aaron, Turner, and Jake have had the big title of "Missionary" tacked on to us. I've realized that a lot of people really respect that term and put a lot of store in it. In some places we have practically been rockstars because we are the "missionaries." I'm not going to lie and say that hasn't been great, because it has been. It has made me think though. That term "missionary" shouldn't just be reserved for people who are doing what we are doing. If you are a Christian, you are called to live as a missionary. That can be right where you are, in another country, across the street from you...anywhere. That might not entail you giving up your job or quitting school to travel and do Vacation Bible Schools all the time, but it does entail making Jesus known. Just remember, God can use the smallest of things, just like He used those VBS songs with us. Just take the time to listen to God and to what He wants you to do. That will look different to each person. I'm not saying everybody is called to evangelize and be career missionaries. Like I said, you can do this right where you are, doing whatever you do everyday. Just listen to Him. He'll talk you through it.
I want to thank you all for the continued prayers. They help! Please continue to be in prayer for:
-Our last night of VBS tomorrow
-The continued ministry of FBC Sitka
-The 6 boys that came and their salvation, as well as their family's salvation
-Safe travels on the ferry this Saturday to Petersburg
-VBS in FBC Petersburg
-Strong finishes by all of my fellow summer missionaries in their mission fields
Love and Peace,
Lyndsey
I hope that whoever you are that is reading this realizes that you can be used by God too. You don't have to travel thousands of miles to do it, you can do it right where you are. Like I said, God can use anyone and anything, no matter how big or how small. All you have to do is have your heart right with Him and be willing. This summer, me, Aaron, Turner, and Jake have had the big title of "Missionary" tacked on to us. I've realized that a lot of people really respect that term and put a lot of store in it. In some places we have practically been rockstars because we are the "missionaries." I'm not going to lie and say that hasn't been great, because it has been. It has made me think though. That term "missionary" shouldn't just be reserved for people who are doing what we are doing. If you are a Christian, you are called to live as a missionary. That can be right where you are, in another country, across the street from you...anywhere. That might not entail you giving up your job or quitting school to travel and do Vacation Bible Schools all the time, but it does entail making Jesus known. Just remember, God can use the smallest of things, just like He used those VBS songs with us. Just take the time to listen to God and to what He wants you to do. That will look different to each person. I'm not saying everybody is called to evangelize and be career missionaries. Like I said, you can do this right where you are, doing whatever you do everyday. Just listen to Him. He'll talk you through it.
I want to thank you all for the continued prayers. They help! Please continue to be in prayer for:
-Our last night of VBS tomorrow
-The continued ministry of FBC Sitka
-The 6 boys that came and their salvation, as well as their family's salvation
-Safe travels on the ferry this Saturday to Petersburg
-VBS in FBC Petersburg
-Strong finishes by all of my fellow summer missionaries in their mission fields
Love and Peace,
Lyndsey
Friday, July 10, 2009
God Is Good. Enough Said.
It seems that it has been a while since I last posted. Sorry about that. Internet service has been sparse over the past week. This past week we went to Orton Ranch Christian Camp, which is put on by FBC Ketchikan. That means that we got to work with a lot of people and kids that we had already met a few weeks ago. That was really cool, because we had already established relationships and connections with some of the kids, so we didn't have to spend as much time doing that. So before we went to camp, I was not excited at all about going. We were told that we weren't going to be able to go, so I think the big problem for me was that I didn't have enough time to mentally prepare for camp. I had several people specifically praying for me that God would change my attitude towards that. And so He did. We eventually got to camp after a two hour boat ride and a nice little hour hike in. Throughout the whole traveling process I got to talk to the kids and was immediately dubbed "Lyndsey Lohan." So the way the whole camp worked was that we got up, gathered around a flag pole and did a little lesson about US history and did the pledge and sang the National Anthem. Then we did breakfast, a Bible Study from VBS material, free time, lunch, another Bible Study, more free time, dinner, Worship Time with VBS songs, a sermon, Missions Time, even more free time, then off to the bunk houses. As you can see, we were pretty dang busy. For the Bible study time, all four of us missionaries took one a piece. I got to do the plan of salvation using the ABC's. I'm always excited to get to do that. The free time that we had in the afternoons included swimming and tubing down this river that we were right beside. Yes, they swim in Alaska. And it was every bit as cold as you would expect a river in Alaska to be. Despite that, they loved it! I braved the frigid water myself.
So at night, me and Turner stayed in the bunk house with 12 girls...no other adults or anything. They were all between ages 7-12. The were a few behavior problems, but nothing too major. I really enjoyed getting to hang out with the girls. One of my favorite parts of the day was right before we all went to sleep. Some of the girls asked to do a Bible Study (which I thought was an awesome request from 10 year olds), so I obliged. The first night I read them Romans 8:35, which talks about how we can't be separated from God's love, no matter what. The next night I decided to switch it up a little bit and tell them a story. So with half of the girls huddled up on my bunk with me and the other half on Turner's bunk, I told them the story of Queen Esther. The last night, I told them about Balaam and the talking donkey. I thought it was really cool how the girls hung on to every word of the stories. I really think they got something out of them too. So the last day we had at camp was probably one of my top 3 favorite days that I've had the entire trip. That morning, one of my girls decided to give her life to Jesus. That made this entire trip worth it for me. Later that day we got to hang out with the kids more and play in the river for a long time. I feel like the fellowship with each other that day was really special. A cool thing that happened during that time was that this little 7 year old girl named Christian that hadn't talked practically the entire time started opening up to Turner. I had tried to get through to her earlier in the week, but for whatever reason, she didn't want to talk to me. The first night we were there, we were told that her parents are going through a divorce and things are pretty bad in her home right now. Having known that, we were really eager to love on her. So her opening up and having fun with Turner was a pretty big blessing and a pretty big answered prayer. It also showed me how God has formed this team so well. All four of us on the team each have our own different gifts. It's pretty awesome how God has a person that seems to excel in a certain ministry area everywhere we go. I think that is pretty exciting. So back to the last day of camp. Before our sermon that night, we did a worship time with all of the VBS songs and motions. If you have read any of my past posts from my first week here, you'll know that in the past I have realy hated VBS songs. That night, I made up my mind that I will never knock those songs ever again. That night, with those songs, we truely worshipped God. I'm not sure if I have every seen kids that young really worship God, but they sure did that night. God's presence was thick in that place. Just to hear those 19 kids singing those songs to God at the top of their lungs was one most heavenly things I've ever experienced. After that, we had our sermon from our camp pastor for the week, and at the end, he called us four missionaries up to the front. He told the kids to come up to any of us if they wanted and we would pray for them. So they time came, and almost every kid came up and was prayed with. I got to pray with several of my girls. I can easily say that was one of the biggest God moments of this trip for me. There was something so special about getting to pray specifically for each one of those kids. By that time we had gotten to know each kid fairly well and knew what to pray for with each of them. At the end of the night, as we were about to go to bed, the pastor told us that the kids had something they wanted to do before bed. They had made each of us our own poster that they had all signed that said, "Thank you so much for teaching us God's Word." The pastor also told us that doing that was all their idea. That was definitely a humbling experience. We got to see just how much influence we had on them. It reminded me big time of the responsibilty that God has given me this summer. I felt kind of small and very blessed that God can use little ol' me from Tar Heel, North Carolina to teach kids about Him and show them His love. Every couple of days I get that feeling...that I can't believe God is using me to do this. I keep thinking about how this time last year I had no idea I would be in Alaska this summer. It is still pretty unreal to me. This experience is so much bigger than me and it reminds me of how I can't do any of this by myself. I'm pretty in awe of God right now. I can't fully describe to you how amazing He is and how He has worked everything out so perfectly. I think about all of the people we have come in contact with already...and we still have 4 weeks to go. We were all talking the other day about how we will have come in contact with literally hundreds of people by the end of the summer. Who knows how God has used those encounters. Who knows how many seeds have been planted. It is so amazing how God has worked all of this out.
So at the current time, I am sitting in a Waffle bar in Juneau waiting to get on a ferry to Sitka. It's about a 10 hour ride I think. Sitka is supposed to be gorgeous...everyone we have talked to said it is the most beautiful place in all of Southeast. We are pretty sure that we are doing Bible School. I'm excited about that.
So I want to thank everybody for their prayers. I appreciate them so much and I know for a fact that they have made a difference. Please continue to pray for:
-The people of FBC Sitka
-Opportunities to share Jesus outside of VBS
-Energy
-Boldness
-Team unity
-Health and Safety
-Opportunities for my fellow summer missionaries all over the world
Grace and Peace
Lyns
So at night, me and Turner stayed in the bunk house with 12 girls...no other adults or anything. They were all between ages 7-12. The were a few behavior problems, but nothing too major. I really enjoyed getting to hang out with the girls. One of my favorite parts of the day was right before we all went to sleep. Some of the girls asked to do a Bible Study (which I thought was an awesome request from 10 year olds), so I obliged. The first night I read them Romans 8:35, which talks about how we can't be separated from God's love, no matter what. The next night I decided to switch it up a little bit and tell them a story. So with half of the girls huddled up on my bunk with me and the other half on Turner's bunk, I told them the story of Queen Esther. The last night, I told them about Balaam and the talking donkey. I thought it was really cool how the girls hung on to every word of the stories. I really think they got something out of them too. So the last day we had at camp was probably one of my top 3 favorite days that I've had the entire trip. That morning, one of my girls decided to give her life to Jesus. That made this entire trip worth it for me. Later that day we got to hang out with the kids more and play in the river for a long time. I feel like the fellowship with each other that day was really special. A cool thing that happened during that time was that this little 7 year old girl named Christian that hadn't talked practically the entire time started opening up to Turner. I had tried to get through to her earlier in the week, but for whatever reason, she didn't want to talk to me. The first night we were there, we were told that her parents are going through a divorce and things are pretty bad in her home right now. Having known that, we were really eager to love on her. So her opening up and having fun with Turner was a pretty big blessing and a pretty big answered prayer. It also showed me how God has formed this team so well. All four of us on the team each have our own different gifts. It's pretty awesome how God has a person that seems to excel in a certain ministry area everywhere we go. I think that is pretty exciting. So back to the last day of camp. Before our sermon that night, we did a worship time with all of the VBS songs and motions. If you have read any of my past posts from my first week here, you'll know that in the past I have realy hated VBS songs. That night, I made up my mind that I will never knock those songs ever again. That night, with those songs, we truely worshipped God. I'm not sure if I have every seen kids that young really worship God, but they sure did that night. God's presence was thick in that place. Just to hear those 19 kids singing those songs to God at the top of their lungs was one most heavenly things I've ever experienced. After that, we had our sermon from our camp pastor for the week, and at the end, he called us four missionaries up to the front. He told the kids to come up to any of us if they wanted and we would pray for them. So they time came, and almost every kid came up and was prayed with. I got to pray with several of my girls. I can easily say that was one of the biggest God moments of this trip for me. There was something so special about getting to pray specifically for each one of those kids. By that time we had gotten to know each kid fairly well and knew what to pray for with each of them. At the end of the night, as we were about to go to bed, the pastor told us that the kids had something they wanted to do before bed. They had made each of us our own poster that they had all signed that said, "Thank you so much for teaching us God's Word." The pastor also told us that doing that was all their idea. That was definitely a humbling experience. We got to see just how much influence we had on them. It reminded me big time of the responsibilty that God has given me this summer. I felt kind of small and very blessed that God can use little ol' me from Tar Heel, North Carolina to teach kids about Him and show them His love. Every couple of days I get that feeling...that I can't believe God is using me to do this. I keep thinking about how this time last year I had no idea I would be in Alaska this summer. It is still pretty unreal to me. This experience is so much bigger than me and it reminds me of how I can't do any of this by myself. I'm pretty in awe of God right now. I can't fully describe to you how amazing He is and how He has worked everything out so perfectly. I think about all of the people we have come in contact with already...and we still have 4 weeks to go. We were all talking the other day about how we will have come in contact with literally hundreds of people by the end of the summer. Who knows how God has used those encounters. Who knows how many seeds have been planted. It is so amazing how God has worked all of this out.
So at the current time, I am sitting in a Waffle bar in Juneau waiting to get on a ferry to Sitka. It's about a 10 hour ride I think. Sitka is supposed to be gorgeous...everyone we have talked to said it is the most beautiful place in all of Southeast. We are pretty sure that we are doing Bible School. I'm excited about that.
So I want to thank everybody for their prayers. I appreciate them so much and I know for a fact that they have made a difference. Please continue to pray for:
-The people of FBC Sitka
-Opportunities to share Jesus outside of VBS
-Energy
-Boldness
-Team unity
-Health and Safety
-Opportunities for my fellow summer missionaries all over the world
Grace and Peace
Lyns
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
We are now in a little town called Coffman Cove, home of around 200 people. It's a very isolated place. It took a 3 hour ferry ride then a two hour drive through the middle of nowhere to get here. I've never seen any place like this. There is a "gas station", which is a little shed with an old time-y gas pump. There's one store called the Riggin Shack, pictured here. Me and Turner are staying in the church and the guys are staying with the Pastor and his wife. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is no cell service out here. That's a little bit of a bummer, but I'm living. We have wireless internet, so I can't complain too much. This week got off to a rocky start when all 4 of us got sick with a stomach bug that was ridiculously unp
leasant, but it has definitely taken a turn for the better. Our job this week is right up our alley. The past two weeks we have been sort of taking a back seat and doing random things that needed to be done. While that's been nice and all, we get to do a lot of hands on stuff here. We start our mornings at the school gym doing a few hours of inflatables with any kids that want to come. We thought that about 4 or 5 kids would come, seeing that it's such a small population. Boy, were we wrong, and glad of it! We've had about 20 kids each day. Now I know we shouldn't get too caught up in numbers, but I'm pretty excited because that's 1/10 of the population of the town. Not too shabby. After a few hours running around like crazy in the gym, we take the kids over to the church and give them a sn
ack and do a Bible Study. I've actually been in charge of snack this week. As in, I have been baking brownies and making Kool-Aid for these kids. That's usually not the role I take. For whatever reason, I got offered that role, so I've done it. I've enjoyed it. Anyway, all four of us have taken a day to do a Bible study with the kids. Yesterday Aaron took the kids through what Jesus did for us on the cross and his resurrection. Today Turner took them through the ABCs of becoming a Christian. Tomorrow Jake is taking them through what it means to live like Jesus wants us to, and Friday I'm doing why it is important to tell others about Jesus. It's a very broad span of topics, but we wanted to hit on all of the important stuff with them while we can. Since this is a community wide thing and not just a church thing, there are plenty of non-churched kids. We are aware of that and want to make the most of this opportunity we have with them.Today I had a pretty cool opportunity. The school that we are doing the inflatables at only has one teacher, and he opens up for us. He's a Mormon. He brings all 5 of his kids to play and his wife comes too. Sadly, he won't let his kids come with us when we do Bible study because they only want what they teach to be heard. They are super nice people though. I had been praying yesterday and this morning that God would somehow give us an opportunity to talk to one of them and God opened up the chance for me to talk to his wife pretty extensively today about her beliefs. She was incredibly open and super nice about all of my questions. I got to ask her all about what she thinks salvation is, how she thinks it is attained, how the Mormon church works, the importance and origin of the Book of Mormon, what Jesus means to the Mormon faith, and tons of other questions. I got to share with her what I believe and how it differs from what she believes. We ended up talking well over an hour. The conversation was really good, but quite frustrating by the time I was done. I don't mean that in the sense that we were arguing about beliefs or anything, but instead that there are tons of similarities between Christianity and Mormonism, so I'm pretty sure she thinks they are basically the same. They are definitely not, because there are some major key differences, the biggest being that they believe works are necessary to obtain salvation. There are some other things she talked about that I'm unsure of, so tonight I'm planning on doing some studying and digging to find out what the deal is. They have a big belief in some priesthood stuff. Not sure what all that is about quite yet. Hopefully I can figure some of it out and have another chance to talk to her. Please pray that I get that opportunity and that her heart will be open to God's Way.
As for what we do around here at night, we are hanging out with youth. There are 4 that show up, and we do a Bible Study/Discussion with them and play a game or watch a movie. We figured we would take a different approach with them as far as Bible Study is concerned. We found out that they are all Christians, so we are each taking a night and teaching them and discussing how to live out the Christian life. Last night Jake taught on 1 Timothy 4:12-13 and the importance of using our spiritual gifts to make a difference for Jesus. We also got into a really great discussion about worship and the different ways people do it.
On a side note, we have a sweet ride for the week! Here's a picture:
I've been really excited to get to drive this week.
Prayer Requests:
-As of now, we have nothing to do next week. We were supposed to go out to a kid's camp, but we aren't able to because of some ferry scheduling. Please pray that God will open up an opportunity for us for next week.
-More opportunities to talk to the Mormon family, and that they will let their kids come to our Bible Study
-Energy
-Team Unity and Good attitudes (We've seen each other everyday for 4 weeks...but we still love each other!)
-Good health
-Opportunites for my fellow summer missionaries
Thanks for all the prayers!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Ministry Sometimes Means Inflating Slides
So today marks the end of our week at FBC Ketchikan. It has been an incredibly productive week. Just to give you a run down, we have painted a Sunday School room, the church sanctuary, cleaned out and organized the church office and multiple storage rooms, baked 20 dozen cookies for camp, knocked out a wall, and put on 2 Block Parties complete with 2 18 ft. inflatables that we set up and took down (at 300 lbs each). The purpose of these block parties was to draw in kids so that we could tell them about a youth camp and children's camp that will be going on in the next two weeks. The church here actually owns a camp called Orton Ranch, which we will help lead the week after next. The Block party yesterday went really well. There were tons of kids and we handed out all of the pamphlets for camp and had several sign up on the spot. So that was exciting. We were actually supposed to go out to this camp yesterday to take groceries for the youth camp that they are having next week, but we weren't able to for various reasons. By the way, it's a couple hour drive out to the camp, then a 2 mile hike in...and a difficult hike at that. I must say, God knew what he was doing, because I definitely didn't have the energy to make that trek to camp. Doing the Block party the day before was quite physically draining. So we got to chill all yesterday morning and sleep a little bit before doing our 2nd Block Party. Let me tell you, yesterday was a true Alaskan day! It was cold, rainy, and windy...but we still managed to do the party. It was a good time.
Today we are moving out to Coffman Cove. It's on Prince of Wales Island, which is the 4th largest island in the U.S. This town only has about 200 people. There is one small grocery store and a gas station. Sounds like Tar Heel! That will definitely be an interesting experience. We also hear that there isn't any cell phone service and I don't have high hopes for much Internet. But I will live! We aren't completely sure what we will be doing yet. The schedule says Youth ministry. That could mean anything.
So this week has been pretty great. As I've said in my previous post, we have learned the meaning of flexibility in missions this week. I'm actually glad we got to do all the work that we did. I liked the feeling of productivity and we really helped the church out a lot. One of the things I've learned this week is that doing God's work may not necessarily always mean coming in direct contact with lost people. This sounds a little crazy a first, I know. Let me explain. This week, we have been helping out a church by doing some manual labor. Well I honestly believe it helped make a difference. By us getting all of that stuff done, we are allowing other members of the church to go out and share Jesus because they are not having to spend time inside of the church doing what we did. This all goes back to 1 Corinthians 12 when it talks about us having many parts of the body, but we are all part of the body, nonetheless. I think us being behind the scenes this week has shown us yet another part of ministry. A lot of times we don't have appreciation for the people that do the more menial tasks, but they are necessary. Now this isn't to say that we are always supposed to be behind the scenes. I firmly believe God will ask us to do bold things in order to reach people for Him. My point is, the behind the scenes stuff and the out front center stage stuff is all necessary and important. This week we got to experience the behind the scenes stuff, which I'm grateful for. I think it's really cool how we thought we would just be teaching VBS, but God has given us different and unique assignments each week. I feel like we are getting a very well rounded missions experience. I'm very grateful that God is showing me all these different aspects of ministry. I never thought I'd learn so much on a trip where I was supposed to be the teacher!
Prayer Requests:
-Safe trip to Coffman Cove
-Ministry at Coffman Cove Baptist Church
-ENERGY!
-Team Unity
-Ministry opportunities for all of my fellow summer missionaries
Today we are moving out to Coffman Cove. It's on Prince of Wales Island, which is the 4th largest island in the U.S. This town only has about 200 people. There is one small grocery store and a gas station. Sounds like Tar Heel! That will definitely be an interesting experience. We also hear that there isn't any cell phone service and I don't have high hopes for much Internet. But I will live! We aren't completely sure what we will be doing yet. The schedule says Youth ministry. That could mean anything.
So this week has been pretty great. As I've said in my previous post, we have learned the meaning of flexibility in missions this week. I'm actually glad we got to do all the work that we did. I liked the feeling of productivity and we really helped the church out a lot. One of the things I've learned this week is that doing God's work may not necessarily always mean coming in direct contact with lost people. This sounds a little crazy a first, I know. Let me explain. This week, we have been helping out a church by doing some manual labor. Well I honestly believe it helped make a difference. By us getting all of that stuff done, we are allowing other members of the church to go out and share Jesus because they are not having to spend time inside of the church doing what we did. This all goes back to 1 Corinthians 12 when it talks about us having many parts of the body, but we are all part of the body, nonetheless. I think us being behind the scenes this week has shown us yet another part of ministry. A lot of times we don't have appreciation for the people that do the more menial tasks, but they are necessary. Now this isn't to say that we are always supposed to be behind the scenes. I firmly believe God will ask us to do bold things in order to reach people for Him. My point is, the behind the scenes stuff and the out front center stage stuff is all necessary and important. This week we got to experience the behind the scenes stuff, which I'm grateful for. I think it's really cool how we thought we would just be teaching VBS, but God has given us different and unique assignments each week. I feel like we are getting a very well rounded missions experience. I'm very grateful that God is showing me all these different aspects of ministry. I never thought I'd learn so much on a trip where I was supposed to be the teacher!
Prayer Requests:
-Safe trip to Coffman Cove
-Ministry at Coffman Cove Baptist Church
-ENERGY!
-Team Unity
-Ministry opportunities for all of my fellow summer missionaries
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Flexibility Includes Painting and Cookies
So this week has gotten off to a great start! We are now in Ketchikan at the First Baptist Church. As you probably know, it took a 36 hour ferry ride to get here. It was actually really great. I didn't expect to like it at all. We camped out on the top deck of the ferry in lawn chairs and sleeping bags. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. Most of the time we were weaving in an out of these little narrow bays that were enclosed by snow capped mountains. We even got to see some whales! So we got off of the ferry at 6am...not so fun...and got to our host home, then went to church services. The highlight of my day was finding out that they have a drumset...and to make things even better, they don't have a drummer, so I got to play with the band during Worship. With no practice, by the way. It was awesome! I hadn't played drums in about a month and a half. Talk about withdrawels! A big surprise came when we found out that VBS here got canceled. This was were the "flexibility" part of the summer came in the we have been hearing about so much. We found out instead that we would be helping the church out with some different stuff and hosting a Block Party geared towards kids, and complete with bounce houses. On Monday, we went to the local high school with the pastor (who is also the Culinary Arts teacher at the school) and baked about 20 dozen cookies for a youth camp they are doing next week. That was fun stuff. Last night we went to an older couple's house for dinner. And boy, it was a real Alaskan meal! We had grilled silver salmon and homemade frenchfries. A-MAZING! Then we played this amazing game with dominoes called Mexican Train. It was a blast. The man had us playing a million rounds. He was quite the competitor. By the way, I won. Them being an older couple, I didn't expect it to be such a good time, but they were awesome. It might sound superficial, but the people in this church are a lot of fun! Today we painted the sanctuary of the church and catalogued the Director of Missions library. It's been a pretty good day. Tonight we had prayer meeting. It was great. We song some worship songs and just straight up prayed for 30 minutes. It was good stuff. To back track a little bit, a woman from the church took us out to eat Chinese food for lunch, then the pastor's oldest son took us out for Mexican food for dinner. So exciting. I love me some Mexican food! It was really nice to fellowship with some people from the church. They really have a heart for lost people and they are definitely a praying church. They are also very welcoming and want to do everything they can for us. So for the rest of the week, we are doing some odd jobs around the church...filing a lot of papers, maybe some more painting, pulling up blueberry bushes...and then there is the Block Party on Thursday. Hopefully it will be great.
So something that God has been showing me over the past 3 weeks is that there are so many people that have gone through so much stuff in their lives, but they are still faithful and close to God. I've had many conversations with people from several different churches while I've been in Alaska, and so many of them have so much pain and hurt in their lives. In many cases, these people are some of the most predominant leaders in the church. I've talked to people about their painful divorces, difficult loses in their family, and many other things. It's amazing to see that despite all of the bad that they have gone through, they still choose to follow Jesus. A lot of people tend to blame God for the bad things that happen in their life, or stray away from Him to find quick fixes, but there are so many people that depend so heavily on God instead. That just amazes me. I have a hard time not letting things get in the way of me and God, and I haven't had any huge tragedies in my life. But these people that I talk to have had some of the worst things imaginable happen to them, and they are rock solid in their faith. I definitely look up to these people a lot. This summer is definitely as much a learning experience as it is a mission experience. I feel like God has taught me a lot already, and he still has 7 weeks to teach me a lot more. My friend, Maria, wrote a blog talking about "seeing and being" Jesus...meaning that we should try to see Jesus in other people in order to know how to be Jesus to others. I feel like that's what has been happening with me. I have been surrounded by some of the most Godly people I have ever met, and I have learned so much from them about how to shine the light of Jesus. I suppose that this week, even though we aren't doing a whole lot of hands on evangelism, I think God still has some cool stuff in store for the week. I'm sure He has a lot to teach me this week too.
Prayer Requests:
-Block Party on Thursday
-Energy (We are doing 7 AM mornings again)
-Opportunities to share Jesus
So something that God has been showing me over the past 3 weeks is that there are so many people that have gone through so much stuff in their lives, but they are still faithful and close to God. I've had many conversations with people from several different churches while I've been in Alaska, and so many of them have so much pain and hurt in their lives. In many cases, these people are some of the most predominant leaders in the church. I've talked to people about their painful divorces, difficult loses in their family, and many other things. It's amazing to see that despite all of the bad that they have gone through, they still choose to follow Jesus. A lot of people tend to blame God for the bad things that happen in their life, or stray away from Him to find quick fixes, but there are so many people that depend so heavily on God instead. That just amazes me. I have a hard time not letting things get in the way of me and God, and I haven't had any huge tragedies in my life. But these people that I talk to have had some of the worst things imaginable happen to them, and they are rock solid in their faith. I definitely look up to these people a lot. This summer is definitely as much a learning experience as it is a mission experience. I feel like God has taught me a lot already, and he still has 7 weeks to teach me a lot more. My friend, Maria, wrote a blog talking about "seeing and being" Jesus...meaning that we should try to see Jesus in other people in order to know how to be Jesus to others. I feel like that's what has been happening with me. I have been surrounded by some of the most Godly people I have ever met, and I have learned so much from them about how to shine the light of Jesus. I suppose that this week, even though we aren't doing a whole lot of hands on evangelism, I think God still has some cool stuff in store for the week. I'm sure He has a lot to teach me this week too.
Prayer Requests:
-Block Party on Thursday
-Energy (We are doing 7 AM mornings again)
-Opportunities to share Jesus
Friday, June 19, 2009
I'm On A Boat!...For 36 Hours.
So this week is winding down. We are going to be leaving Emmanuel Baptist Church and heading to FBC Ketchikan, in Ketchikan today. Did I mention that Ketchikan is a 36- HOUR ferry ride? Crazy! We get to camp out on the deck with our sleeping bags. It's going to be an experience, for sure. From what we hear, we should be able to see some cool stuff along the way. I'm really hoping for some whale sightings. Anyway, I'm pretty excited about going to a new town. I love it here in Juneau, but I'm ready to check out a new place. I originally thought this whole trip was going to be based completely in Ketchikan, so I did a ton of research on the area before I found out I was going to be traveling all over Southeast. It seems like a pretty cool place.
So yesterday, I got to do one of the coolest things I've ever done. A lady in the church, who's extra apartment me and Turner are also staying in, invited us out to her l
odge. This place is out in the middle of nowhere and it is GORGEOUS. There's massive mountains with huge amounts of snow on them that sit on the shore of the ocean. The boys went out with the lady's husband and they took a little bass boat up to a river and
they were jumping huge beaver dams and logs. Us girls had a more tame experience, though awesome, nonetheless. The lady, who's name is Naomi, took us out on her jet ski to this island that has huge sea lions on it. I'm not talking 3 or 4 of them. I'm talking like 40 sea lions all beached up on this cliff. The ride to the island was about 15 minutes and it was the most gorgeous scenery I have ever laid eyes on. I was speechless riding through everything. I kept thinking that God did a phenomenal job when He made everything I saw yesterday. I have some pictures...but they still don't do it justice.
We've continued to do VBS this week. It's been good. We've had about 15 kids total all week. I've had all girls except for one boy. They are all so sweet. Love them. I have a very well behaved group. That has definitely been nice. They're also very inquisitive. They love to ask some questions! We went through the 10 commandments this week and of course, we got asked what adultry is. Try explaining that to 5-7 year olds. Ha. They have been asking a lot of good questions though. What is sin? What is repentance? What is worship? It's cool that their minds are wondering all this.
So today, we got to do something pretty exciting. The people that took care of us so much last week, Breehia and JK, had a little baby boy a few days ago, and we got to go see him. His name is Tell Carver Mitchell. Fun name, huh? Very Alaskan-y. They called us up this morning and invited us to come see them. It was great to get to visit with Breehia. She's really awesome. It was just really great to see some people from last week. We were pretty stoked that they thought enough of us to call us over. Speaking of people from last week, they are still being so awesome to us, even though we're not at their church anymore. JK got us all these amazing rainboots to borrow while we're in Southeast AK. We're definitely going to need them. Also, another lady, Stacie, from last week as been a huge encouragement to me this week. If you read the last post, you'll know that this week has not been easy. Well Stacie has been sending me notes of encouragement on Facebook. They definitely meant a lot. Two other women from last week, MeLissa and Susil, have also been big encouragements to me this week too. I just can't say enough good things about the people at FBC Juneau. That's not to say that the people this week weren't great to us too. They definitely have been.
Thanks to everybody that has been praying for me and my team! I appreciate it a ton.
Prayer Requests:
-A safe ferry ride to Ketchikan
-VBS at FBC Ketchikan
-Good attitudes
-Energy and focus
-Good relationships with FBC Ketchikan
-That God will give us opportunities outside of VBS to minister to people.
-My mom-She found out this week that she has fluid on her heart.
So yesterday, I got to do one of the coolest things I've ever done. A lady in the church, who's extra apartment me and Turner are also staying in, invited us out to her l
odge. This place is out in the middle of nowhere and it is GORGEOUS. There's massive mountains with huge amounts of snow on them that sit on the shore of the ocean. The boys went out with the lady's husband and they took a little bass boat up to a river andthey were jumping huge beaver dams and logs. Us girls had a more tame experience, though awesome, nonetheless. The lady, who's name is Naomi, took us out on her jet ski to this island that has huge sea lions on it. I'm not talking 3 or 4 of them. I'm talking like 40 sea lions all beached up on this cliff. The ride to the island was about 15 minutes and it was the most gorgeous scenery I have ever laid eyes on. I was speechless riding through everything. I kept thinking that God did a phenomenal job when He made everything I saw yesterday. I have some pictures...but they still don't do it justice.
We've continued to do VBS this week. It's been good. We've had about 15 kids total all week. I've had all girls except for one boy. They are all so sweet. Love them. I have a very well behaved group. That has definitely been nice. They're also very inquisitive. They love to ask some questions! We went through the 10 commandments this week and of course, we got asked what adultry is. Try explaining that to 5-7 year olds. Ha. They have been asking a lot of good questions though. What is sin? What is repentance? What is worship? It's cool that their minds are wondering all this.
So today, we got to do something pretty exciting. The people that took care of us so much last week, Breehia and JK, had a little baby boy a few days ago, and we got to go see him. His name is Tell Carver Mitchell. Fun name, huh? Very Alaskan-y. They called us up this morning and invited us to come see them. It was great to get to visit with Breehia. She's really awesome. It was just really great to see some people from last week. We were pretty stoked that they thought enough of us to call us over. Speaking of people from last week, they are still being so awesome to us, even though we're not at their church anymore. JK got us all these amazing rainboots to borrow while we're in Southeast AK. We're definitely going to need them. Also, another lady, Stacie, from last week as been a huge encouragement to me this week. If you read the last post, you'll know that this week has not been easy. Well Stacie has been sending me notes of encouragement on Facebook. They definitely meant a lot. Two other women from last week, MeLissa and Susil, have also been big encouragements to me this week too. I just can't say enough good things about the people at FBC Juneau. That's not to say that the people this week weren't great to us too. They definitely have been.
Thanks to everybody that has been praying for me and my team! I appreciate it a ton.
Prayer Requests:
-A safe ferry ride to Ketchikan
-VBS at FBC Ketchikan
-Good attitudes
-Energy and focus
-Good relationships with FBC Ketchikan
-That God will give us opportunities outside of VBS to minister to people.
-My mom-She found out this week that she has fluid on her heart.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Challenge
So this week so far has been...interesting. We moved to a new church on Saturday that is about 7 miles down the road from where we were last week. Me and Turner got to move into a sweet apartment that has wireless internet!!! Jake and Aaron are staying with a family a few streets down from us. We also were given a car for the week. That has definitely been nice so we don't have to depend on other people to get around. We've also got to go a lot more places this week. So anyway, this week has definitely been a challenge. We quickly found out that the philosophy this church has about outreach is definitely a lot different than what I am used to and what I would personally use. This has prompted a lot of thinking and meditation on my part. I have one of those personalities that tends to think I'm right all the time. I have to fight against that...a LOT. This is most definitely one of those instances. I have this instinct sometimes to think that because something isn't done my way, then it isn't right. I know that when I sit and think about, that's not usually the case. I'm just a really strong willed person and I have to keep that in check, especially when dealing with delicate situations like church relations. So the past few days, I've been weighing out a lot of stuff, praying, reading a lot of scripture, etc. so that I can better understand why it is that this church is doing stuff this way. I'm having to learn to go against my nature with this. I still have this huge voice inside of me screaming that I want things to be done my way, but I'm having to make myself pipe down and recognize that the people in this church have the same passion and desire that I have, and that is to reach lost people. There's a verse in 1 Corithians 15:58 that has been rolling around in my head the whole week that says, "So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless." I have to keep reminding myself of this. Even though I don't prefer to use the methods that this church does, it is still useful to God. I mean, they aren't saying anything that goes against the Bible, they are just emphasizing some points that I wouldn't necessarily emphasize when trying to tell somebody about Jesus. God is showing me that it's ok though.
Another thing that God is showing me through this is that ministry isn't always sunshine and rainbows. There are going to be difficult times. There are going to be sticky situations. There are going to be times when I just don't feel like getting out there and doing what I need to do. All of this stuff today sort of culminated a few minutes before we were going to start VBS tonight. I starting thinking so negatively about everything and was almost to the point of bitterness. I didn't want to go to VBS tonight. I just didn't feel like being around people, much less a bunch of screaming kids. So I did not have the best attitude in the world driving over to the church this afternoon. As we were getting out of the car, I threw up a prayer asking God to take away my negativity and help me get excited about what we were doing. God chose to answer that in a pretty cool, yet unexpected way. I was still feeling sort of annoyed with everything during the first few minutes. During the first song, though, I look over at the door and there is standing this new kid that hadn't been there last night...and low and behold, it was this little 9 year old girl that I had in my group last week that had been one of my favorites. She is also one of the girls I wrote about earlier who asked me about witnessing to her friend. I all but ran over to her and she ended up being in my group for this week. I know this probably sounds strange, but having this little girl show up tonight did me a lot of good. Maybe it was the familiarity of having somebody I knew from last week, or maybe something else, but my entire attitude changed when she showed up. She was such a huge encouragement to me. So the night ended up being pretty good. Go God!
So I suppose this week is just all about God teaching me some hard lessons about ministry. I think I'm getting a more realistic view of ministry. There are going to be ups and downs, just like anything else. And there's nothing wrong with that. This is by far the longest mission trip I've ever been on, and it's ridiculous for me to expect it all to be peachy. It might not be the most pleasant thing for God to have to teach me this stuff, but the more I think about it, the more I know it's quite necessary...especially since my whole life is going to be doing ministry stuff. So I guess the bottom line is, even though this week isn't the best one I've ever had, God is still using it for a lot of good...and hey, I still get to tell kids about Jesus! That's always something to be grateful for!
Prayer Requests:
-VBS at Emmanual Baptist Church this week
-That the 36-hour ferry ride to Ketchikan this weekend goes well
-VBS at FBC Ketchikan next week
-Team unity
-Good attitudes
-Energy, patience, preserverence, enthusiasm
Thanks for all the encouragement and prayers!
Lyndsey
Another thing that God is showing me through this is that ministry isn't always sunshine and rainbows. There are going to be difficult times. There are going to be sticky situations. There are going to be times when I just don't feel like getting out there and doing what I need to do. All of this stuff today sort of culminated a few minutes before we were going to start VBS tonight. I starting thinking so negatively about everything and was almost to the point of bitterness. I didn't want to go to VBS tonight. I just didn't feel like being around people, much less a bunch of screaming kids. So I did not have the best attitude in the world driving over to the church this afternoon. As we were getting out of the car, I threw up a prayer asking God to take away my negativity and help me get excited about what we were doing. God chose to answer that in a pretty cool, yet unexpected way. I was still feeling sort of annoyed with everything during the first few minutes. During the first song, though, I look over at the door and there is standing this new kid that hadn't been there last night...and low and behold, it was this little 9 year old girl that I had in my group last week that had been one of my favorites. She is also one of the girls I wrote about earlier who asked me about witnessing to her friend. I all but ran over to her and she ended up being in my group for this week. I know this probably sounds strange, but having this little girl show up tonight did me a lot of good. Maybe it was the familiarity of having somebody I knew from last week, or maybe something else, but my entire attitude changed when she showed up. She was such a huge encouragement to me. So the night ended up being pretty good. Go God!
So I suppose this week is just all about God teaching me some hard lessons about ministry. I think I'm getting a more realistic view of ministry. There are going to be ups and downs, just like anything else. And there's nothing wrong with that. This is by far the longest mission trip I've ever been on, and it's ridiculous for me to expect it all to be peachy. It might not be the most pleasant thing for God to have to teach me this stuff, but the more I think about it, the more I know it's quite necessary...especially since my whole life is going to be doing ministry stuff. So I guess the bottom line is, even though this week isn't the best one I've ever had, God is still using it for a lot of good...and hey, I still get to tell kids about Jesus! That's always something to be grateful for!
Prayer Requests:
-VBS at Emmanual Baptist Church this week
-That the 36-hour ferry ride to Ketchikan this weekend goes well
-VBS at FBC Ketchikan next week
-Team unity
-Good attitudes
-Energy, patience, preserverence, enthusiasm
Thanks for all the encouragement and prayers!
Lyndsey
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
So! I haven't been able to blog in a few days. We only get internet this week when we go to someone's house that has wireless. Thankfully tonight we got some Internet...I was about to have withdrawals. So anyway, this week has been amazing. We finished up our first week of VBS tonight with Parent Night. All of the kids parents came and watched their kids perform all of the songs and hand motions that they have learned all week. It was pretty great to see how much they learned. The Bible studies this week have been amazing. Wednesday I got to share the plan of salvation with my kids and gave them all decision cards. 10 of 12 said that they were already Christians, and I really believe that they are. The other 2 said they were interested in making a decison about Jesus. I got to talk to them and as of now, they have both decided that want some more time to think it through. But hey, I'm ok with that. I firmly believe that the seed has been planted and God is going to water that and harvest it all in His good time. Another really awesome thing that happened in my group this week was when these two girls pulled me aside after Bible study and started asking me about getting baptized. Both of them have been saved, but wanted to know why it was important to get baptized. So I got to talk to them a while all about that, and both have decided that they want to take that step. After that, they started telling me about a friend that they have that doesn't know Jesus and how they really want to tell her about him, but don't know how. So I got to tell them how they could go about doing that and I got to pray with them about all that. I don't know if that seems really simple to you, but to me, I thought it was pretty cool. Then today, a guy came up to me after Missions class and started telling me about this friend that he has that isn't a Christian and his parents won't let him go to church because they are of a different religion. Once again I got to talk to him about how he can tell his friend about Jesus. The huge thing that has been so awesome to me this week is that these 9,10, and 11 year old kids are so concerned about other people's salvation. Already at that age they feel the urgency to tell people about Jesus. So overall, I must say, it has been an awesome week.
On a more personal note, God has been running the verses from the Bible in my head about becoming, "even more undignififed that this...". This is mainly due to the fact that me and my team have had to lead the VBS songs and do the motions. For any of you that don't know how this stuff goes, the motions to these songs can seem a little ridiculous sometimes and are a bit embarrassing to do when you aren't 10. As a matter of fact, last summer I went to Hawaii and we were supposed to do these songs, and I basically refused to do them because I thought they were dumb. Well the first thing we hear when we get here is that we have to lead this stuff. So I immediately started asking God to take about that embarrassment and help me not have any inhibitions about these songs. And God did just that. God showed me that even though I might not love having to do those songs, they mean a lot to those kids. It is worship for them. He showed me that if I have to look absolutely ridiculous to reach kids and help them come closer to Jesus, it is completley worth it. Oddly enough, the music ended up being one of my favorite parts of the week. Go Jesus!
So tomorrow we move on to another church here in Juneau, about 7 miles down the road from where we are now. It should be great! Please be in prayer for Emmanuel Baptist Church and their VBS. Please pray that me and my team will have energy, patience, and endurance. I appreciate the prayers that I know have gone on already.
On a very random note, I got to see Sarah Palin's house this week. AWESOME!
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!
Grace and Peace,
Lyndsey
On a more personal note, God has been running the verses from the Bible in my head about becoming, "even more undignififed that this...". This is mainly due to the fact that me and my team have had to lead the VBS songs and do the motions. For any of you that don't know how this stuff goes, the motions to these songs can seem a little ridiculous sometimes and are a bit embarrassing to do when you aren't 10. As a matter of fact, last summer I went to Hawaii and we were supposed to do these songs, and I basically refused to do them because I thought they were dumb. Well the first thing we hear when we get here is that we have to lead this stuff. So I immediately started asking God to take about that embarrassment and help me not have any inhibitions about these songs. And God did just that. God showed me that even though I might not love having to do those songs, they mean a lot to those kids. It is worship for them. He showed me that if I have to look absolutely ridiculous to reach kids and help them come closer to Jesus, it is completley worth it. Oddly enough, the music ended up being one of my favorite parts of the week. Go Jesus!
So tomorrow we move on to another church here in Juneau, about 7 miles down the road from where we are now. It should be great! Please be in prayer for Emmanuel Baptist Church and their VBS. Please pray that me and my team will have energy, patience, and endurance. I appreciate the prayers that I know have gone on already.
On a very random note, I got to see Sarah Palin's house this week. AWESOME!
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!
Grace and Peace,
Lyndsey
Monday, June 8, 2009
So today is Day 5 in beautiful Alaska! I cannot even express how amazing this place is. The people are absolutely amazing. I'm actually sitting at a family's house right now, who is about to feed us dinner. They're also letting us mooch off their wireless! This family, the Mitchells, have really taken care of us this week. This is our second time at their house. The first time we came, they fed us and then took us to see this amazing glacier and also took us on this impromptu hike to this cliff that overlooks these huge snow-capped mountains and a bay. It was about a mile hike, with lots of intense jumps. The cool part is that the lady did all this will 8 months pregnant. She's a beast. Alaskan women are pretty dang tough! When we were out on the point, we got to see some seals. That was pretty sweet. Yesterday we got to go downtown, which is the tourist area and where all the government buildings are. Yes, that's where Sarah Palin works and lives part time, though I didn't actually get to see her house. Last night we went to a cookout with a bunch of church people, and the lady's house we had it at is a graduate of Appalachian State. I thought that was pretty awesome! We got to see mountain goats at last night too.
So today we had our first Vacation Bible School. It was pretty great! I had 9,10,and 11 year olds. I had 11 kids. I was in charge of Bible Study and took them to the rest of their classes. They were pretty good. I have about 6 11 year old boys, and they're just a bit rambuncious, but it's all good. We ended up having about 40 kids all together, which is amazing for the area. The population here isn't that big, so 40 kids for them is awesome. Tonight we get to do VBS for the youth. We're not too sure how many kids will be there, because this is the first year they have done youth VBS. It should be good though.
I must say, God is awesome. I can see Him all through the people in this church. It's really rare to see so many people that are on fire for Jesus and that are so passionate about telling other people about Him. It's really been a blessing to be able to hear about all the people here and the stories they have. We met one guy yesterday who works 3 jobs but in his spare time he prayer walks in a community that is known for being really rough and he stops and tells people about Jesus. I think that's pretty awesome. The church is full of stories like that.
Well it's officially dinner time. I'll write again soon.
Grace and Peace,
Lyndsey
So today we had our first Vacation Bible School. It was pretty great! I had 9,10,and 11 year olds. I had 11 kids. I was in charge of Bible Study and took them to the rest of their classes. They were pretty good. I have about 6 11 year old boys, and they're just a bit rambuncious, but it's all good. We ended up having about 40 kids all together, which is amazing for the area. The population here isn't that big, so 40 kids for them is awesome. Tonight we get to do VBS for the youth. We're not too sure how many kids will be there, because this is the first year they have done youth VBS. It should be good though.
I must say, God is awesome. I can see Him all through the people in this church. It's really rare to see so many people that are on fire for Jesus and that are so passionate about telling other people about Him. It's really been a blessing to be able to hear about all the people here and the stories they have. We met one guy yesterday who works 3 jobs but in his spare time he prayer walks in a community that is known for being really rough and he stops and tells people about Jesus. I think that's pretty awesome. The church is full of stories like that.
Well it's officially dinner time. I'll write again soon.
Grace and Peace,
Lyndsey
Friday, June 5, 2009
Well...I'm in Alaska!!! I got in last night around 10:30pm...and for all of you back home in NC, that's 2:30am your time. Needless to say I was TIRED! It was all good though. My flights went really well. Probably some of the best that I've ever been on. I got to meet up with the rest of my team in Seattle. They are Jake, Turner, and Aaron. They're pretty great. I feel really comfortable around them already. I was prepared to have a week long awkwardness between all of us. Thankfully we got to skip over that. Most definitely a result of lots of prayer. So back to last night. It stayed light outside until about 11:30ish. Crazy! Apparently the sun came back up around 4:30am. Lots of sunlight around here! It's really cool and definitely strange. Like right now it's 9:15pm and it looks like 3 in the afternoon. The scenery here is unbelievably gorgeous. There are mountains that meet with the water. And by the way, the mountains have snow on them, even though it's about 80 degrees outside. Absolutely beautiful. God did a pretty awesome job when He made all this.
So today we have been doing a lot of orientation stuff. This has included spiritual gift and personality assessments, travel plans for the rest of the summer, VBS material, learning the motions of VBS songs, and learning all about the culture. As far as travel plans go, we will be traveling to several different towns, 5 I think, by ferry. One ferry ride is from Juneau to Ketchikan and it will be 36 hours long. Oh boy. That comes up in about 3 weeks. Apparently you just sort of camp out on the decks of these ferrys with a sleeping bag. I must say, I'm pretty excited about that. It should be quite an adventure.
So tonight we helped set up for Bible School at First Baptist Church of Juneau. By the way, we are also staying there. Me and Turner have our own air mattresses in one room and Jake and Aaron have the same deal in another room. It's pretty cool. Anyway, we got to meet a lot of the church congregation tonight. They're really great people. They are all so happy to have us there, even though it's just for a week. They were very welcoming and very interested in all of us. We have actually been invited to dinner at one of the family's houses tomorrow night and they are going to show us around Juneau.
As of now, we haven't been able to see much of the area. Pretty much just the 3 mile stretch between the airport and the church. I have, however, already scoped out the local Wal-Mart and Starbucks. Tomorrow we should be able to have some free time to go venture around. I can't wait to see the whole place.
Please keep FBC Juneau in your prayers this upcoming week, as we will be doing kid's VBS in the morning and youth VBS at night. Pray the God will send a ton of kids and youth each day. I get to teach 9,10,and 11 year olds. All four of us have an age group we get to teach. I'm pretty excited about getting to teach. That's definitely one of my passions.
So that's about it for now. Internet access is limited this week, so I'll post again when I can.
Grace and Peace,
Lyndsey
So today we have been doing a lot of orientation stuff. This has included spiritual gift and personality assessments, travel plans for the rest of the summer, VBS material, learning the motions of VBS songs, and learning all about the culture. As far as travel plans go, we will be traveling to several different towns, 5 I think, by ferry. One ferry ride is from Juneau to Ketchikan and it will be 36 hours long. Oh boy. That comes up in about 3 weeks. Apparently you just sort of camp out on the decks of these ferrys with a sleeping bag. I must say, I'm pretty excited about that. It should be quite an adventure.
So tonight we helped set up for Bible School at First Baptist Church of Juneau. By the way, we are also staying there. Me and Turner have our own air mattresses in one room and Jake and Aaron have the same deal in another room. It's pretty cool. Anyway, we got to meet a lot of the church congregation tonight. They're really great people. They are all so happy to have us there, even though it's just for a week. They were very welcoming and very interested in all of us. We have actually been invited to dinner at one of the family's houses tomorrow night and they are going to show us around Juneau.
As of now, we haven't been able to see much of the area. Pretty much just the 3 mile stretch between the airport and the church. I have, however, already scoped out the local Wal-Mart and Starbucks. Tomorrow we should be able to have some free time to go venture around. I can't wait to see the whole place.
Please keep FBC Juneau in your prayers this upcoming week, as we will be doing kid's VBS in the morning and youth VBS at night. Pray the God will send a ton of kids and youth each day. I get to teach 9,10,and 11 year olds. All four of us have an age group we get to teach. I'm pretty excited about getting to teach. That's definitely one of my passions.
So that's about it for now. Internet access is limited this week, so I'll post again when I can.
Grace and Peace,
Lyndsey
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Just A Week Left...
As the title suggests, I am going to be in Alaska in a week! I am quite excited, to say the least. I still can't believe I get to do this. So yesterday I got back from a 3 and a half day orientation for this summer, along with everyone else who is doing summer missions. I have to confess, I didn't think I would like it very much, but thankfully, I was wrong. I actually had a blast. It was a pretty awesome thing to get about 40 people together who are trying to make an eternal difference this summer. It's a great feeling to know that everybody surrounding you loves God as much as you do and wants to share that love with people all over the world. It was also great to see where people's passions are. Some people are going as far away as South Africa and Wales, and some people are staying right here in North Carolina going to little ol' places like Thomasville and Sanford. It is really neat that God instilled all of us with a different passion for the summer, whether it is staying in NC or venturing over to another continent. Regardless of where these places are, there are still people in all of them that need Jesus. I couldn't help but have the feeling throughout the entire time that we are all a part of something so much bigger than ourselves...which is such a comforting thing. I know that if it's up to me, there won't be a whole lot getting accomplished. At first it might seem overwhelming that we are putting ourselves in situations that we can't handle, but I think it is just another opportunity for God to show off and do things way better than we ever could. I really like it when God does that.
Anyway, like I was saying, orientation was great. We were going hard. We went from about 7:30am to around 11pm doing all sorts of meetings, from how to prepare a Bible study, to the crowd favorite, handleing sexual harrassment in the workplace. It was all a ton of fun, and it was great getting to know people from other schools. It was pretty neat, because we had all seen each other at Interview Weekend and at Spring Conference. I must say, I'm looking forward to hanging out with all of those people in the future.
So back to Alaska. I don't really have anymore details, but thats alright. I just know that I am super excited and I expect big things from God during the summer. I hope that you will please pray for the people in Southeast Alaska and my team that's going up there. Also, please remember all the summer missionaries in prayer and pray they can help make an eternal difference this summer.
Grace and Peace,
Lyns
Anyway, like I was saying, orientation was great. We were going hard. We went from about 7:30am to around 11pm doing all sorts of meetings, from how to prepare a Bible study, to the crowd favorite, handleing sexual harrassment in the workplace. It was all a ton of fun, and it was great getting to know people from other schools. It was pretty neat, because we had all seen each other at Interview Weekend and at Spring Conference. I must say, I'm looking forward to hanging out with all of those people in the future.
So back to Alaska. I don't really have anymore details, but thats alright. I just know that I am super excited and I expect big things from God during the summer. I hope that you will please pray for the people in Southeast Alaska and my team that's going up there. Also, please remember all the summer missionaries in prayer and pray they can help make an eternal difference this summer.
Grace and Peace,
Lyns
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Getting Ready!
Hello folks! Well I decided to set up this nifty blog here so that I can write all about my summer mission trip to Alaska. I'll be moving to Alaska on June 4th for 10 weeks. I get to travel all over the Southeast part of AK and do Vacation Bible School at a lot of different churches. I also get to work at a kid's camp for a week. The way it looks now, I'll be in a different town every week. We are going to be traveling by ferries and possibly by little puddle-jumper planes. I get to do all of this with 3 other people: Aaron, from North Carolina, and Turner and Jake, from Alabama. I'm pretty dang excited!
As of now, I have no idea where I'll be sleeping or where I'll be eating...but I'm ok with that. I like how chill all of this seems to be right now. I think God can sometimes work the best when we don't have every little detail pinned down.
This is an enormous mission field, by the way. Alaska is one of the most non-religious states in the United States. But I have high hopes that this is going to change pretty soon. When I think about this trip, I get the overwhelming feeling that God is going to do some enormous stuff. This is definitely not because of anything me or my team will do, but because of God. I just hope that God can use us to help make an eternal difference in the time there. The truth is, however, that God is already working in AK, He's gonna work while we are there, and He's gonna keep working when we leave. That's just the way God works. All I hope to do is to be an instrument that He can use while I'm there.
Some prayer requests:
-Everyone in the towns of Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg, Ketchikan, and Coffman Cove come to know Jesus
-Safe travels
-My teammates: Aaron, Turner, and Jake
-Team unity
-Effectiveness
Also, I'd really appreciate it if you would keep the following people and the locations they will be serving in prayer. These are folks that are in Baptist Campus Ministries with me at App State that are doing summer missions this summer as well:
Lauren Allen- Boone, NC
Gwen Arsenault- Newfoundland, Canada
Bruce Bentley- Los Angeles, California
Andrew Blakeley-NC and Canada
Nathan Bost-Malaysia
Thomas Chavez-Los Angeles, California
Randall Dameron- All over NC
Mandy Henderson-Kenya
Maria Jarrell-Miami, Florida
Megan Keith-Sanford, NC
Josh Littlejohn-Los Angeles, California
Amanda Mitchell- NC and Canada
Kelsey Morris-Los Angeles, California
Storm Stewart- Los Angeles, California
Luke Summey-Los Angeles, California
Katherine Wiggins- Johannesburg, South Africa
I'll be writing more soon.
Grace and Peace,
Lyndsey
As of now, I have no idea where I'll be sleeping or where I'll be eating...but I'm ok with that. I like how chill all of this seems to be right now. I think God can sometimes work the best when we don't have every little detail pinned down.
This is an enormous mission field, by the way. Alaska is one of the most non-religious states in the United States. But I have high hopes that this is going to change pretty soon. When I think about this trip, I get the overwhelming feeling that God is going to do some enormous stuff. This is definitely not because of anything me or my team will do, but because of God. I just hope that God can use us to help make an eternal difference in the time there. The truth is, however, that God is already working in AK, He's gonna work while we are there, and He's gonna keep working when we leave. That's just the way God works. All I hope to do is to be an instrument that He can use while I'm there.
Some prayer requests:
-Everyone in the towns of Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg, Ketchikan, and Coffman Cove come to know Jesus
-Safe travels
-My teammates: Aaron, Turner, and Jake
-Team unity
-Effectiveness
Also, I'd really appreciate it if you would keep the following people and the locations they will be serving in prayer. These are folks that are in Baptist Campus Ministries with me at App State that are doing summer missions this summer as well:
Lauren Allen- Boone, NC
Gwen Arsenault- Newfoundland, Canada
Bruce Bentley- Los Angeles, California
Andrew Blakeley-NC and Canada
Nathan Bost-Malaysia
Thomas Chavez-Los Angeles, California
Randall Dameron- All over NC
Mandy Henderson-Kenya
Maria Jarrell-Miami, Florida
Megan Keith-Sanford, NC
Josh Littlejohn-Los Angeles, California
Amanda Mitchell- NC and Canada
Kelsey Morris-Los Angeles, California
Storm Stewart- Los Angeles, California
Luke Summey-Los Angeles, California
Katherine Wiggins- Johannesburg, South Africa
I'll be writing more soon.
Grace and Peace,
Lyndsey
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