Saturday, June 14, 2014

Arizona - Update #1

Last summer we took a group to El Nathan Christian Camp in Flagstaff, AZ.  We did a lot of work, mainly a lot of painting to help improve the facilities there.  We showed up shortly after the camp had experienced some damage from a flash flood so God's timing was perfect.  During our time there we built a strong relationship with the camp director.  He then introduced us to a Navajo family who invited us to the reservation to do the VBS we are set to do this week.  Jeff, the camp director informed us that this is a rare opportunity and was amazed at how quickly they trusted our group to come.

The journey to the Navajo Reservation began on Wednesday for a few but most of us were up and on the road early this morning.  There are a total of 23 people on this trip.  A group of 4 began driving out with a camper carrying our luggage, sound equipment, camping equipment, food, kitchen supplies, and all our VBS material on Wednesday. The rest of the group is flying into Phoenix then making the 4 hour drive to the reservation.

This weekend is the yearly camp meeting for Middle Mesa Bible Church.  From my understanding the camp meeting is like a yearly weekend revival/family reunion since most of the churches are family churches.  The families on the reservation are fairly large (think Amish) and most churches are small and consist mainly of extended family.  This often times presents a challenge when it comes to outreach but it has been encouraging to see their heart to share the gospel at Middle Mesa Bible Church.

Prayer Points
- Spiritual & Physical Strength: after a long day of traveling many of us will be physically wiped out and we will be entering a spiritually dark place.  Pray that we would be rooted and grounded in the word, praying continuously.
- Kids: for them to come to VBS and that their hearts would be open to the Gospel
- Team: that we would represent Christ in a way that demonstrates His power and His Spirit. That the people we encounter would know that we have been with Jesus.

Please pray for us! I want to share with you something for to meditate on.  It is from John Piper and was an encouragement to me reading this on the plane.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

God did not spare his own Son, because it was the only way he could spare us. The guilt of our transgressions, the punishment of our iniquities, the curse of our sin would have brought us inescapably to the destruction of hell. But God did not spare his own Son; he gave him up to be pierced for our transgressions, and crushed for our iniquities, and crucified for our sin.

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