IMPACT Butler 2010 Connect

I just want to let you know how much I appreciate you! The fact that you are at this website means that you care and want to support our student ministries in this life-changing conference. The purpose of this site is to keep you up-to-date on our everyday happenings. Click on the photos to see us! Listen to the voicenotes to hear what God is doing. Most importantly…PRAY! God bless you and don’t forget to come out on Sunday, July 25th (9:00 a.m.) to hear our students share about the trip! It will be held in the student ministries facility.

In Christ,
Pastor Paul

This was our last full day here. It was an excellent day of ministry and worship. All the students had the opportunity to attend their last ministry sites. Each site went really well.

We also hosted our last kids club at the park. We rented a bounce house for the kids and brought out all the carnival games. Our students enjoyed their last day of loving on these kids. There were some tears as we left.

Tonight we held our last worship service. God’s presence fell on this place again and our students worshiped God with all their hearts. We ended the evening with communion and worship. It was a wonderful conclusion to our day. Thank you for all your prayers this week. Tomorrow morning, we will be praying for God to direct us on what we will be doing to conclude our time here.

What a beautiful and hot day! I am so thankful for the walk-in freezer at the salvation army.

The challenge we had in devotions this morning was an awesome start to the day. We began the day by asking God to lead us and tell us what to do. We also challenged the kids to tell God that they were willing to do whatever He asked them to do. This can be a difficult thing to do!

The team on the prayer walk had some amazing experiences in listening and following God’s leading. They were able to pray for people and hand out Bible’s during that time. The other ministry sites were awesome as well. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Today was the best day for kids club. The kids were very excited to be there and the water games worked out really well. The lesson time was the most important. Our kids spread out and sat down with the kids club kids. They spent time working on a wordless gospel necklace with each kid. Our students explained each color to the kids and several of them led them to Christ. We believe that around 15 kids received Christ.

We ended the night at the “brown house” where Fishbone Ministries ministers to the community. We spent time in worship and prayer at the house. Tom Bowser then sat down with the kids and shared his passion for the community and the road that God has taken him on. It was a powerful time and God spoke to many of our students.

Keep praying for us as we wrap up this week together. Tomorrow is our last full day of ministry. Pray that kids club goes well and that our students are able to say good-bye.

The days of ministry just keep on improving through out the week. I am very proud of our students. They have been so bold and so willing to serve. The prayer walk group had several opportunities to pray for people they walked by on the street. The group at the senior center spoke with and interacted well with the seniors. They also played guitar and the piano for them. There were good conversations at the salvation army.
Kids club was interesting but it went really well. It started to rain so we moved down the street to the “brown house” which is owned by Fish Bone Ministries. All the kids came down and many of them listened really well to the message today, even though it was pouring down rain.
The evening activity was really fun tonight. We went cosmic bowling and then came back to “the Net” and enjoyed some banana splits! The best part of the day was the worship service tonight. God’s presence really fell on this place. We had a great time singing and praying!
Please pray for tomorrow. We are half way through our trip and it will go fast. Pray that the students would continue to bond with one another and especially with their Savior.

It was a wonderful day of ministry today. The morning ministry sites were awesome. Many of the students did a great job interacting at the senior life center and at the salvation army. They are experiencing a whole new world that they did not know existed in Butler!
This afternoon we had kids club at the park. It was good and the students interacted really well with the community kids and families. Please pray that we can come up with a new plan for the next couple of days. We see the need to change all our plans because of the location and type of kids attending.
Please pray that the students will be able to process and understand many of the experiences. We are praying that during this week our students would experience the love of God in amazing ways and that they would be able to share that love with the people they meet.
Oh yeah … Dairy Queen was awesome tonight!
Tomorrow … the groups are switching up sites and heading to the same places other groups attended today!

Well, we made it down here safely and with no problems. We had a packed schedule once we arrived. We unloaded the uhaul and then had a quick debrief with our ministry site leader. When we were done with the debrief we split up in to four teams and began going door to door and inviting people to our free cookout at the park. This was difficult and intimidating for the kids but they stepped it up and did a great job!
The cookout went very well! We cooked up and served about 120 hot dogs. It was well attended. I was amazed to see how quickly the teenagers began to socialize and play with the kids at the park. They met many kids and they are already looking forward to kids club tomorrow at the park.
We ended the night with sharing, worship and the Word. We are tired and we are praying for a good night’s sleep. Keep us in your prayers tomorrow. It will be a busy day with much to learn!
Starting at 10 a.m. we will be splitting in to our teams. One team will be serving lunch at the salvation army, another team will be interacting at the senior living center, another will be serving here at The Net and the last team will be prayer walking and painting a mural at the Fish Bones Ministry house. VBS will start at 2 and go to 4 p.m. Pray for us during that time! Good night!