Mission M I A M I

Next week will be a new experience for many of our High School students.

For the past two years, we've focused our mission trip energy in Mississippi. Honestly, our students love it there. The hard physical labor and the relationships that have been built have impacted our students in a huge way. Our last 5 mission trips (outside of leaving the country) have been to Bay St. Louis, MS.

Our students will spend next week at our Downtown campus in Miami. We'll be spending the night at the campus and ministering in various ways Downtown and in other parts of Miami Dade County.

Here's a couple of the ways we'll be showing the love of Jesus next week:

Breakfast at Brickell and South Beach-we'll be giving away coffee/donuts/bagels to people who live Downtown and walk to work. The idea is to share the love of Jesus and invite them to check out CF.

Sports Camp: We'll be hosting a sports camp at a church that is on the border of Overtown and Allapattah. There will be 60 elementary school students that will learn different sports and hear about Jesus each day.

Light construction: Our team will also do light construction work on our Downtown, Redland and the public school campus where our Homestead campus meets.

Beach/park outreach: In the late afternoons we'll spend time in parks and at the beach playing pick up volleyball, frisbee and other games with students that are hanging around. We'll also give out free water.

Pray for our team this week. We are really excited about the possibilities and expecting God to move in our team and in the people that we minister to!

All things considered...

I love student ministry.

Every week there is expectation that God is going to show up and do some amazing things in the lives of students. There is the hope that the light will come "on" and a teenager will really understand God's love and pursue Him. Watching students grow in their relationship with God is unlike any other experience.

Ironically, student ministry seemingly has the highest of highs and lowest of lows, if that makes sense. Last week seemed to encompass both ends of the spectrum.

Last Saturday night after our service, Jorge, Sammy, Pete, and I attended a funeral for a 19 yr. old student. Funerals stink, but funerals for teenagers seem especially out of place. Praise God...the student knew Jesus, but so many students who attended the funeral did not. As great as it is to see students grow in their faith, the reciprocal is to see the lack of hope in the eyes of lost students. A couple of those students attended CF adult services the next day and gave their lives to Christ. Amazing. Hopelessness to hope...that truly is awesome.

Sunday was a great day in student ministry...a couple of things happened that struck me as amazing.

Alex, one of our girls who is a junior this year, serves as a greeter in front of our adult worship center to inform students of our service for students. Last weekend, while greeting with Alex, three teenagers were going into the adult service that I had not seen before. They were dressed in camoflage and goth outfits, complete with piercings and the typical dress. How they dress doesn't matter...we are stoked to see any student who is willing to come to church.

Here's my point. Most students shy away from students that look or dress that differently than they do. Even student greeters. I thought for sure I would have to coax a greeter to take them to the student area and show them around.

I was wrong.

Just as I was greeting our guests, Alex showed up with a smile and said "you have to check out the student service!". She took them quickly to the student area and showed them around. They stayed for the service and two of them invited Jesus into their lives. Amazing. Eight students made decisions for Christ over the weekend, which blows me away every time. When God moves in the lives of students it's fun to be part of it.

Here's a big shout out to Alex!

Clearly, the highs of student ministry are preferred. But I am thankful for the difficult times that remind us of our mission: we can never be comfortable or just "hope" we are effective. We must pray like crazy, plan effectively, and disciple intentionally.
Our mission is great...let's do this!

Back in the M I A

Saturday afternoon the El Salvador team arrived back home in Miami.

The week in Central America was amazing on many levels. Here is a brief description of the different types of ministry that took place.

1. Our medical team: a medical clinic was set up in a small town each day. The location was significant because each town we set up in is where a mission is located by our partner church in San Salvador. Each person that came to the clinic received medical attention and heard the Gospel. Those who made a decision for Christ are being followed up on by the mission that already exists in that town. Our team ministered to over 1200 patients during the week. Each patient was also given some sugar, beans, and rice.

2. Public schools open the door for our students while we are there...the school refer to the opportunity as an 'intercultural exchange', we call it an opportunity to share Jesus. When our students weren't sharing the Gospel in the medical clinic, they were in 7 different schools during the week, visiting for more than 30 mins. in multiple classes at each school. One school was called "Pro-Lingua", a college type of school that only teaches English. Students enjoyed sharing openly without the use of a translator.

3. Ministry Conference: Eric Geiger led a Simple Church conference on Thursday afternoon at our partner church. Pastors showed up from all over in the pouring rain to attend.
Various breakouts were offered on Thursday and Friday night. JR Lovins, Richard Aspenwall, Carlos Lollett and Abiel Mir led a breakout on worship which included band performance and technological tips. Lauren Aguilera led a children's ministry breakout session and I led a student ministry breakout session with help from Tommy Parke.

Much happened in 7 days, but we are grateful for what God is doing both in El Salvador and how He changes us each trip. I'm posting a couple of more pictures to check out. Thanks for praying for us.

Update with pictures

Yesterday was another great day.

Our medical team treated close to 300 people and our evangelism team visited 4 schools. It was our most tiring day yet, but very rewarding.

Jorge and I are impressed with the team that has come. They are hard working people and eager to give God the glory for what they are experiencing. Mission trips are so much more fulfilling when the team is unified in purpose and spirit.

As I was thinking about the team and CF in particular, it would only make sense that teams in the future would become even more mission minded. Since CF places a heavy emphasis on reaching out to those around us and to the community, the lifestyle of living missionally affects every area of our lives. Mission trips won't seem like such a stretch for so many because the idea of serving and loving others is already practiced.

I'm thankful for a church that is serious about winning the lost to Christ...whether in Miami or Central America.

Zacamil

I've literally only got a couple of minutes before we head out again, so here's a brief update.

Sunday began with church services at 7:30am here at Zacamil Baptist Church. (and we thought our 9am was early on the PB campus!) We didn't participate in the service but met up with the translation team and mapped out some details for the week.

After services, we went to a hospital and threw a party for the children that were staying there. Our high school and college students ministered room to room to teenagers encouraging them, praying for them and delivering cake! This particular experience was an eye opener for many students. The conditions of the patients combined with the conditions of the hospital are a new reality for many students.

Monday was spent in the village of Las Palmeras, where we set up a medical clinic. We saw roughly 300 people yesterday, every single one of them heard the Gospel and many accepted Christ. The 'evangelism' arm of the team went to an English speaking school consisting of college students and got to share for 2 hours in classrooms. This was a phenomenal experience. Students shared their faith openly and engaged in some great conversations.

A couple of people from our team also went to a local tv station and were interviewed about our time here and the upcoming conference we are holding at the end of this week.

Last night we were in a park...we set up music, performed skits and shared the Gospel both personally and corporately. Quite a few people made decisions for Christ at the park also.

We are two hours behind the U.S. here...so we are now boarding the bus for an hour to a village outside of San Salvador to do it all again today. God is doing some great things here...I'm pretty excited about the week.

Thanks for reading! Pray for the team!

El Salvador

A group from CF leaves for El Salvador this afternoon; our partnership there has produced some great fruit.

This year, we will offer medical aid in four villages. The team consists of nurses and emt's from our church that will treat patients in the villages where our partnering church can follow up. Our evangelism team will share Jesus with every person who is treated at the clinic, usually at least a couple of hundred per day. When not at the clinic, the evangelism team will be in public schools and visiting a children's hospital.

Next Thursday, CF will host a conference for ministry leaders in San Salvador. We are looking forward to meeting those who lead ministry in San Salvador.

Pray for the team this week. It will be an awesome experience!

Middle School Mission Camp

The Middle School ministry of Christ Fellowship spent the last five days doing mission work in Miami Dade county.

Middle School students from First Baptist Church of Oviedo, FL joined forces with CF totaling over 150 students and leaders ministering in various ways to the people of Miami. The team stayed the nights at our Downtown Campus and during the day traveled out to the areas surrounding our five CF campuses.

Once at their locations, teams performed a variety of missions. Some groups ran a sports camp, worked at a women's shelter, passed out cold water, worked with Touching Miami with Love, performed manual labor at a couple of the campuses, and some promoted campuses by passing out door hangers.

One powerful aspect of the week was the evening worship services. Each night Berchman Paul, the Homestead campus worship leader, led worship and a message was shared by a student pastor/director from one of the campuses. Incredible worship experiences and great teaching made the nights a highly anticipated time.

At different times during the week, I caught up with leaders and students from our different campuses and got to hear how much they were enjoying the trip. God was working in their lives and they were loving it. Sweaty and tired, it was easy to see they were enjoying what they were doing.

I'm thankful for Todd and the team who worked so hard to put the trip together to give students the opportunity to live out their faith right here in our city. Our Middle School students will continue to benefit from the experience for years to come and the city of Miami will benefit as well!

Great job everyone!