Youth Mission NewsYouth Mission News
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Day 1
Thank you for praying for us today. We have seen God’s hand already. The trip over was great. The traffic flowed around the cities and we found the church we are staying at without any problems. There were a few quick braking actions from the male drivers. Sue doesn’t tailgate and is a safe driver. She is also a driver around the cities this week and the males are not!!! Yea, women!
Great news the ladies have the comfiest room here, We all have sofas to sleep on, and a refrigerator in our room and an air hockey table the boys are drooling over. We are truly the daughters of the Lord and his princesses!!!
We have all been assigned crews to work in around the city, approximately 5 to 6 people per crew. We are assigned various jobs, schools, elderly care, painting homes, sorting and pricing at a good will type store, etc. We stay with our crews all week. We are all with other people, except for PJ and Stephanie are in the same crew and Jason and Jason are in the same crew.
We are praying for the Music Man people to arrive safely and get the rest they need.
We are looking forward to a marvelous week serving the Lord and sharing his love in this community and getting to know other Christians in our crews.
Thank you all for loving us and caring for us and praying to our Lord that we represent HIM WELL here.
Sue Kawatski
Alex Sternot
Becky Krzmarcik
Monday, July 28th
Day 2
Dear Everyone,
Everything went awesomely today at our Week of Hope camp in the Twin Cities! God was all around us as we left for our first official day of the mission. We each were put into a crew of about 6 people. Each crew was assigned a work project, which varied from working with the homeless, working with children, or replenishing the “Hope for the City” warehouse. These were just a couple of the things we did to serve this community. All is well in Richfield, Minnesota .
Ta- Ta for now!!
Gavin R Quella
Ryan J Dunk(alicious)
P.S. by P.J:
The group is really coming together. I have been so impressed with the way they have served with such open and gracious hearts! Last night we were given the duty of cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping, and vacuuming. You would have enjoyed seeing our youth step up and just do all the tasks they have been asked to do. Ryan Dunk vacuumed a huge section of the facility, going above and beyond the requirements. Jason DeLange mopped a rather “odiferous” men’s bathroom. Others did all that was needed.
In the evening, our worship team led the group in worship. It was clear that the Holy Spirit was moving-the entire camp here acknowledged God with voices as loud as they could get! We are so blessed to have the students we have.
The staff here has told us several times how great our kids have been. It is a special experience to see the group come together, serving faithfully.
Prayer requests:
1. The heat gives me concern for dehydration. No one is, and we keep challenging the students to drink all the time. Pray they would be disciplined in drinking their water.
For this we have Jesus.
Pastor Joe
Tuesday, July 29th
Day 3
Dear Praying Church Members,
As you already know, we were each divided into different groups. Here is a little bit of about what’s been happening in two of our groups:
In Chris’s group, he had the opportunity to be a witness to 1st graders by helping with school work. He has been growing close to one of the students by the name of Tommy. Tommy is a bright individual but due to A.D.D. needs special attention. Jason has the opportunity to work at Hope for the City. Hope for the City is an organization that takes food, toys, and medical supplies which would otherwise be sent to the dump and gives them away to people in the community. Today, were able to give away 20,000 lbs of food to 15 different organizations. It was amazing to see all the work behind this nonprofit organization, in helping the homeless.
Well, tonight, we had time off from our group, so we headed off to Tam Tam, an African restaurant. It was definitely a change from what we were used to and even though we weren’t crazy about all of it, we all had our favorites. We went to the science museum where some watched the special affects video of Star Wars while the rest roamed around looking at all the cool items around the museum. Then we ended the night at Ben and Jerry’s, the best ice cream place in town.
Until a later time,
Chris Damerell and Jason Kloth
P.S. from P.J.
The week has taken its toll on the crew here as far as rest. You start a mission like this with a lot of energy, but as you go on, it gets harder to keep on going.
Last night our girls had a GREAT time in study together. Sue Kawatski, our young at heart youth leader led devotions. After a full day of mission, and then going out for some fun, the ladies had a study that led to very open communication with each other, and prayer. I am very grateful for Sue’s faithful service here.
Prayer requests:
For this we have Jesus.
Pastor Joe
Wednesday, July 30th -
Hey Good New Church Family!
Greetings from the good ‘ol’ “Twin Cities!” Tonight the writers of this informational update are Stephanie and Erin!
Today was another day full of interesting and exciting experiences. We all went to our usual work sites, and did what was asked as we served through intense ‘child labor’! J
Today Stephanie had a great devotion with her work crew that lasted aver two hours! She did her usual sorting of clothes and other items at Arc’s Value Village, a place where mentally disabled children are helped to be educated and where their families receive financial assistance through the prophets made at the thrift store. They had loads of fun going through some of the donated items and playing a very fashionable round of dress up! Don’t worry, we have plenty of pictures!
Erin’s day consisted of LOTS of staples, paper, and the use of the world famous alphabetical order system! She had to sort lots of Pre and Post Math and Reading tests for the Kindergarten through fourth grade classes at Centennial Elementary. It was a long and tedious job that was filled with frustration, but in the end, it was well worth it. On a lighter note, she also got to make two trips to Caribou Coffee to get some yummy treats during her down time this morning before breakfast and after she got done at her work site.
This evening during session, we had an incredibly powerful experience, the theme being forgiveness. We each had a small rock, representing our sin that we were told to give up to the cross and lay down to the Lord. The lights were down, the acoustic music low, and the hearts wide open. The entire thing is indescribable, and unforgettable. There wasn’t a dry eye among any of the more than 100 people there. The spirit ran through all of us.
Well, its way after lights out, and Sue’s out cold, so we better hit the sack too!
See you all soon!
Love lots,
Stephanie, Erin, and the Good News Mission Team
P.S. from P.J.
I was on Stephanie’s crew, and was part of her 2-hour devotion. In the morning I prayed that God would allow me to share the hope that was in, and I know many in Mosinee were lifting us up. At devotion time, we went way off the described track, and the members of the crew, 6 of us, shared what we believed. Then I shared from the Bible what God says. It was incredible! That night, at the evening chapel (which our worship team rocked at, as usual), the agnostic, uncertain member of my crew broke, and offered his life to Christ! I am very excited to have one more devotion with the crew today to further help these young ones along the way.
What to pray for: 1. Energy to the end. 2. Continued opportunity to share the gospel. 3. Shelter from the storm-there is a large storm bearing down on us. 4. A great last day at our sites!
July 31st (Last Full Day on Mission)
THURSDAY!!! What a day we had! Our alarms sang us good morning songs as we prepared to serve whole-heartedly on our last day. With a few showers and a routine trip to Caribou Coffee, we were on our way to our work sights. The sky warned us with dark clouds and a morning rain, but God was bigger and cleared our worries and the sky around noontime. Despite the gloomy sky, we mostly managed to keep sunny faces! J
Some had a more challenging day than others. By Thursday, sleep was running low, patience was wearing thin, and encouragement and prayer were in large demand. Some were sore from the labor they had done painting, sorting, or building; some were sore from numerous piggyback rides, dodge ball and tag games. Nevertheless, we were all aching inside from what we would soon have to be leaving behind.
The most difficult thing was seeing the sad faces as we left. Faces of children whom we had formed genuine bonds with tugged at our hearts, unable to be certain of their futures. The appreciative faces on the elderly some spent time with were a reassurance of the lives we touched this week. Just spending time with these people meant so much to them; showing them the love we had towards them and our Savoir was enough to show them the love our Savior has for them. Some were sad to be leaving their physical work sights, unsatisfied that they were not able to spend more time finishing that one last project or perfecting it. No matter what the case, it was apparent that God had definitely worked through us in so many more ways than we could have guessed this week.
Back at the church, we prepared for worship and a true God Sighting occurred. Lindsay Brandenburg was able to connect with Mark, a man without a home who had stopped near her outside to rest a while. He told her about his life, and she was able to talk to him and even share God with him. Mark seemed to have known everything about God, who He is and what He does, but Lindsay was unsure of whether or not he was saved. This was an amazing God happening (Lindsay has been praying and praying for an opportunity to share the Gospel with someone, and this week was a definite start), if you would like to know more, she can certainly tell the story much better than I.
After dinner was our final Chapel. L No Chapel would be properly started without busting out our moves to “Get Down.’ Our worship team was extremely blessed to have been able to praise with such a wonderful group of people. Singing with them was such a powerful experience. We could tell that they weren’t focusing on us but rather singing WITH us to our Prince, which was our ultimate goal. Their energy was so wonderful and we gained a whole new perspective on how worship could be when all the people were in the exact same mindset. After rocking out hard, we learned about how loving out loud “lasts.” At the end of the program, we exchanged our LOVE OUT LOUD cross with another church. We are bringing home with us a cross from Woodbury to place in a spot in our youth room.
After the program we gathered into our crews one last time to affirm one another. We took turns going around the circle describing ways we saw God working through each person during the week. This took much longer than the fifteen minutes we were expected to be finished in. We all received rocks with the phrase “Love Out Loud” etched in it as a reminder of what we experienced these past six days. Our crews gave their final hugs and we split into our youth group devotion time.
Youth group devotion time was one of my favorite parts of the night, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone. Thursday night we talked about things we wanted to remember most about this trip and take home with us. Some of the things we wanted to try hard not to forget were: the closeness of our group and our willingness to be so open and trusting with each other, the ability to spend so much time with our Lord and so easily experience His presence, the courage of stepping out of our comfort zone and form bonds with other Christians we didn’t know, forgiveness (forgiving others, and the undeserving forgiveness we have received), the way God lengthened our patience and the commitments we made to Him and each other this week, the way we shared so many God sightings all week, and the list goes on and on and on.
A big thing we noticed as a group was how serving God does not have to be hard and boring or exhausting. As we discovered, serving can be fun, joyful, and even easy. It’s easy to train yourself to believe that you aren’t serving unless you are getting blisters on your hands. This week God showed us that serving Him is something we can do with every breath we take, and we can do it while smiling and laughing with Him!
Saying goodbye to the new friends we made was hard. We didn’t want to let go of the new relationships, but it was reassuring to know that someday we would all be together again serving our Lord in Heaven. It’s times like that when we realize how thankful we are for the friends we have now within the youth group. Now that we are heading home, we understand how blessed we are to have each other, and we are clinging onto our current friendships a lot harder; losing one group of friends for an uncertain amount of time was challenging enough in itself.
There is so much more to report and share, but speaking personally about these experiences is much more meaningful. I’m sure I speak for the whole group when I say that returning home is bittersweet. We may have missed the convenience of a shower located within our building, but we will definitely miss the convenience of having 90 other Christians our age to worship with. So . . . many prayers were answered, numerous hearts were opened, and countless lives were changed. Whoever we served (may it have been supper to our fellow Week of Hope-ers or the people from the community), we did it with joy, willingness, and most of all love. We are ready to return home and show Mosinee what it is like to be loved, and Love Out Loud.
Serving in His name,
Emily Luedtke
With moral support and ideas from:
Lindsay Brandenburg
Additional topic ideas contributed by:
David Busts-A-Move-With-the-Tamboreen-Kawatski