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Good Morning!
This mission has been such an eye opening experience. Cascade is a hard town to live in for sure. Many of the teens we've been hanging with have backgrounds riddled by alcoholism, drugs and families who are less than perfect. But Cascade is an awesome town. Everyone here is so determined, and strong work ethics are in no shbort supply among our group, or the town. And the area is stunning. Almost all of the teens i 've talked to have said that they woldnt live anywhere else, and love the outdoors.
And God has ben moving powerfully here. I got the chance to meet a kid named Tanner, who is very sensitive and quiet, despite having a stressful home life with a baby nephew and divorced parents. But God moved in this kid, and over the course of the week, he was hangin with us more, and during the day too. And then today he came up to me asking what it means to be a follower of christ and ended up givig his life to God. Itwas ground-shakingly cool.
God is freakin cool. Fo' Sho'
--Macon
I just got possibly the best news ever from two girls I love with all my heart (and Brandon would like me to say with a passion, which is true). Rozita and Victoria called me today to tell me that Rozita got baptized!! I am still crying for joy right now!! God is so amazing!! Charity and Abby also got baptized which just made the news that much greater!! Not much else I can say but...I LOVE YOU GOD!!
Hey all!
I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday so here I am today and I might blog again tonight if I get the chance.
Well yesterday we got to go to Nancy's dad's house. And I had the best burger I have ever had. They were large and delicious....most likely because they live in cow town so it was fresh. Wow, I'm looking forward to living on a cattle ranch, the food will be good.
Patty and Brandon both came with us and he seems to open up alot. Kyle and I feel as though today is the day that his life will change. Please pray hard for him. If we all pray, he doesn't stand a chance. Also please pray for Patty she is having a difficult time right now due to several situations.
I need to go do my roadgrip. Love you all.
Merissa
Although I miss my own bed I wouldn’t trade it for the experience of this week even if I had to sleep on the ground for a thousand nights. All week the kids have been amazing, working hard with their hands in the mornings to serve in the community and working equally as hard in the evenings to build relationships with the teens here in Cascade. Today some kids got up really early to sweep the streets. Others loaded trailers full of limbs and logs. And others helped weed the overgrown garden of a sweet lady named Mims.
I’m grateful that Derek invited us to bring kids from our church (Cornerstone) along on this trip. I wish all of our kids could have been here for this week. I have had the privilege of watching from the sidelines as students have taken up the lion’s share of the responsibility to do the work of the ministry. And they’ve done it with passion and great love. I’m so proud of all of them – our students and LSCC’s students equally. There has been so much prayer and so much great attitude form the kids all week. And it has been beautiful to hear each of the unique stories as our kids have shared in public how Jesus has made a difference in their lives.
My heart goes out to all of the students who live here in Cascade who need the Lord and His Church. Please pray for Andy, the youth pastor of Cascade Community Church and for the other churches here who have been and continue to work so hard to reach these kids. There are so many broken homes and so much pain here. Yesterday we divided up into teams of three and four and spent an hour walking the town praying for it. I was deeply moved by the prayer time and I know that so much goes on in the homes here that breaks God’s heart. Please pray that the people of Cascade would be rescued from the sin that is hurting them and their kids.
On Tuesday, after we came back to the church after outreach we hung out with kids and shared time in worship and a third testimony; then Merissa shared the story of Jesus in the boat with his disciples when they were overtaken by a storm. Then Wednesday Colby shared the story of Jesus talking with the woman at the well. And tonight Macon shared the story of Jesus’ trial, crucifixion and resurrection. Please pray that on Friday, our last day, all of our students would have the chance to talk one-on-one with a student from Cascade and ask them about their relationship with Jesus. The kids on our team have been doing a great job of intentionally working to go deeper in their conversations with the kids here. Please pray that doors would be opened and that the Holy Spirit would open up the eyes and hearts of the lost students here as our kids share the gospel with them. Please pray especially for Brandon and Craig. And pray for the kids who live here in Cascade who may be believers but who have a surface-level faith that they would answer the call to go deeper.
Thank you for all of your support, for your prayers and for your love. God is really with us. And thank you to all of the other leaders who have been so awesome all week. Tracy, Mac and Kyle – you rock. And Happy Birthday, Kyle!
- Marc Kennedy
Hey All
Wow God is so good, He has been moving in our team and in this town. I have constantly been impressed by our teens and there love For God and their boldness in truth. You parents are raising some amazing teens. Outreach has been going really well and we have been averaging just under 40 kids, last night many of our students had challenged students from the town to go deeper in their faith. Please continue to pray for safety and energy for our team. Pray that our student continue to grow and that they continue to share Christ with students in the town. We have really fell in love with the church, the town and the teens that call cascade home and we can’t believe its already Thursday! This morning 10 of us got up at 6am and helped clean the streets for there 4th of July parade. Right now rest of our group is hard at work in town doing some yardwork. Today we will be going to lunch at Nancy fathers home which are whole group is really excited for and then head to outreach at 6. Thankyou for all the prayer and we will see you all in a few day
Kyle Serquinia
hi all its mac and well this is going to be bad. because my spelling is horable and as i have just found out the little red line that is everpresent in most every thing i type is gone so here goes
Re cap for today
well breakfast was good it was a little slower then yesterday where we had poptarts on fire but enjoyable all the same.
after that the other leaders and i spent some time praqying and thinking how we thought the day should flow. our team and the mix of the 2 churches has been great we have really formed 1 great team
Hey all!
Well, today was a good day. We went to Trinity Pines, which is a Nazarine camp. We moved beds and we got to ride in a really cool '49 Dodge 1 ton flatbed. Yep, I felt pretty country. Hahaha Then I played some bass to clear my head. Then had a great talk with Michael Taylor, he is a great Christian brother. Then took a 3 hour nap. And woke up feeling so good. God is good and answered my prayers for sleep.
Patty came again tonight but her boyfriend was missing, she didn't know where he was. That is a prayer request that he will come again and when he does that God will speak through the speakers to Brandon. Patty and I had a good talk. Praise the Lord.
God is doing really great things. He is really moving in our group and in the students in the town. He is good.
Thank you for all your prayers.
In Him,
Merissa
Dear People reading this,
This Mission Experience has been amazing so far, this town is pretty darn cool we went swimming and helped out a camp. Tonight I am sharing my testimony.
Love Tanner
Hey friends and family,
Today was an okay day. To start today off i was extremely tired. Last night an incident that freaked me out big time(you can read this in Merissa's Blog). So thatkept me up as well as the emergency lights since thepower went out. I got about 4 hours of sleep. Anyway, i got little sleep to start off the day.
During the day we had community service where i helped move branches from these trees that were in a guys yard. After that we had lunch and relaxed. I learned a new card game called "Speed" which i am now obsessed with. After that i went out and got coffee with Macon, Emily, and Michael.
After coffee i was getting really low on energy, which is sorta ironic. It was hard to walk around and i felt really sick and tired. When dinner came around, I had no appitite to eat. I was felling even worse. When outreach came by, I was feeling absolutely horrible. I could barely walk up the hill to the school, so Kyle and I came to the conclusion that i was dehydrated. He took me down to the church and i found a gallon of water that i had bought at a store earlier in the week. After that i went with Tracy to the field. I was drinking water and relaxing and i felt terrible.
Once i started feeling good again i decided to participate in Ultimate Frisbee. That tired me even more and i felt even worse. Ultimate Frisbee was a bad idea. I continued to drink water and take it easy after that. Later during the night during worship i started to feel even better. And now, I have quite a bit of energy :) Thank you to Tracy, Kyle, Jake, Merissa, Emily, and Victoria who encouraged me to drink water and helped me to feel better.
This trip is AWESOME! God is awesome!
Hey all,
Thank you for all your prayers, Patty came last night and she brought her boyfriend with her today. We had a really good chat about alot of things. I also spoke tonight. And for the ones that knew, thank you for your prayers. God took control of my tongue and I had little to no problems speaking and I had no fear, and I got all my thoughts out clearly. God is good.
Last night God taught us to trust Him as Anne got a mild concusion that scared us all to death. But the Lord is incredible and she was up today and even played the games, helped in the kitchen and sang. Due to Tracy being gone at the hospital I was put in charge and I really became aware of all the wonderful people God has put on my team. They all stepped up to help those that needed it. God is so good and I can see little bits of Him in my teammates that I have never seen before. For instance there is this one girl who talks alot, and I mean alot, but last night she was able to calm the girls, they even stopped crying and went to bed. I didn't know that God can use talking to bring about His peace, God must like talking.
But due to the little sleep I got last night I slept in this morning and did not due the service project. Which brings me to the prayer requests. Please pray that our leaders will be able to get enough sleep and will have the strength to lead us. We also need sleep and patience and focus to do His will. Also please pray for the salvation of Patty's boyfriend Brandon. Thank you.
In Him,
Merissa