Would you like some pine with those needles...?

So tonight, Emily, Stephanie and I went out to Fenchtown to help a couple from our church rake up pine needles and pinecones from their yard as a fundraiser for Denver. It was cloudy and looking like it might rain, but we had already canceled and rescheduled the job so we decided to go for it.
The drive out there was pretty exciting, we definitely got lost several times over and by the time we found their house (in the middle of nowhere) I think we had seen every single part of Frenchtown that there is to see.
The part of their yard that we were supposed to rake was only a ½ an acre, so we were done in about thirty minutes. Just kidding. It took us a good couple of hours to rake up all the pine needles and cones; I’ve never seen so many in a pile before! It was crazy. I think my muscles are already bigger than they were before. And I’m pretty confident in my raking skills right about now too.
So about an hour and half into the job, Joe (the guy we were working for) says, “Keys are in the truck if you want to back it up here to load the needles.”
I assumed he was talking to his wife but I looked up and saw him looking at me.
“Uh…me?”
“Yeah go ahead.”
This truck was a brand new Dodge Ram. I couldn’t believe he wanted me to drive it.
“You can drive an automatic right?”
“Yes…?”
Before I knew it was driving this brand new truck over, under, around and through trees backwards to load up pine needles! As we were getting ready to back it down into their backyard to drop the needles I passed the job of driver off to his wife, despite her saying, “You can practice I don’t mind.” Yeah, practice my driving in the woods with their brand new truck. Very trusting people. I mean I’m confident in my driving skills but there is a limit.
Eight pick up loads later we were finished with the job, but the fun was just beginning. We went inside and had dinner with them, and they showed us around and talked about the 8 different foreign exchange students they’ve had come through their house, along with three kids.
Then Joe showed us his hobby, a room full of history. Autographs from every athlete, every celebrity, every president and music artist you can think of! Not only that, but personal letters and pictures from tons of them! I can’t even begin to describe what that room held, except to say that any collector of anything would appreciate the greatness of what that room possessed.
As we left, I was struck with the thought of how nice these people were. I loved them, and they went to our church even though I had never seen them before. It opened my eyes to the size of our church, and all the people it holds. There are amazing people out there everywhere, and so much closer than we ever expect. Brothers and sisters in Christ are all around us, and I think of the possibilities of unity and fellowship we often miss out on because we just don’t know. I think it’s an awesome thing to meet people who I share such a connection with.
Tonight was a lot of fun, and I hope just the beginning of great things to happen for our team this year.

A little more information

A little more information on the trip. We have three main goals as we go to Denver this summer.

1.) Connect with God

Mark 1:35-38
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!"
Jesus replied, "Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come."

2.) Connect with our team

Romans 12:4-6
Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.

3.) Connect with others

Matthew 28:18-20
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

With these goals in mind our ultimate objective is to glorify God in everything we do.
We leave on Friday, June 19th directly after the end of Summer Adventure Week at our church. So quickly afterwards in fact, that we don’t even get to help clean up. I think we’re all pretty disappointed about that. But we’ll suffer for Christ and skip the clean up.
We have the fortunate opportunity to drive to Denver in two days instead of one. God is good. However we will still have to log some heavy hours in the church van.
Once in Denver we will be staying at Confluence Ministries. This is their mission’s statement:

“Our mission is to bring together the diverse streams of the Body of Christ, with their talents and resources, to serve our local and global communities with the love of Jesus. Through strategic City Impact, practical Community Development, and compassionate World Outreach, we endeavor to see God glorified and lives changed. The role of Confluence Ministries is to be a catalyst to facilitate and support these efforts through networking, collaboration, hands-on training and experience.”

We will work in Denver for five full days before beginning our trip back. During these five days our schedule will be very full. We will have morning and afternoon ministries, (not sure what these will be yet) and then host a neighborhood Vacation Bible School (VBS) during the night. We will also have much prayer and worship, and continuous ways to set our focus on God.
Some of the ministry ideas could include, free car washes, serving coffee and doughnuts at bus stops in the morning, (sounds great to me), children’s ministries in the nearby park, VBS, homeless assistance, outreach through music events, clothing and food distribution, prayer walking and sports outreach, (hopefully basketball or something I’m halfway decent at). We will also be serving at The Joshua Station which is a place set up to help families make the transformation from homelessness to a healthy, stable living environment.
One of the things I’m looking forward to the most on this trip is listening to God. AIM has set up times for us that are free, such as an afternoon, where we will pray and listen to God and do whatever he directs us to do that afternoon. More on this later.
All in all I’m very excited for the chance to see what God will do through us in Denver. I firmly believe he has special opportunities already prepared for us on this trip, and I can’t wait to see what they are.
I know that it will be outside of everyone’s comfort zone, and am bracing myself and trusting God for strength in that.
Isaiah 40:31
“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

'Fun' Raising

I just finished raising the rest of my money for the Denver trip this summer. It feels great to be done. Although I shouldn’t say I raised it, because God did all of it. I’m not going to lie, it was a struggle for me. I’ve never had any problems raising money, (of course I’ve never had to raise this much before) so when the money didn’t come as easily as I had expected it was hard.
Last summer for our missions trip to Havre Montana, I quickly and easily raised almost double the money needed. I definitely expected to able to do that again. That was my problem, I expected to be able to raise the money, I didn’t trust God to raise it for me. I thought that with my great ability to write an awesome support letter would bring in all the money I needed and then more. I was already preparing to share the excess amount of money I’d have with everyone else going on the trip, one problem, God didn’t like my pride.
I didn’t realize that pride is what I was feeling. When the money raising didn’t start as strong as expected I just thought it would pick up and be fine. I told myself I was trusting God by not worrying about the money, but in reality I was still trusting myself, and my skill and my desire.
I became so prideful in this, that I didn’t even want to take the jobs provided for the team to earn money. I still assumed that I would get all the money I needed, because of me. Well it didn’t happen. I started to realized that I needed to get money from somewhere. I accepted a job to go and do some work for somebody, and I remember coming home from youth group that night and just being angry. I didn’t know it at that moment, but I was mad at God for not providing me the money when I thought I had been trusting him.
That night was a long night. As I was telling my parents about my frustrations my dad finally told me that I was mad at God, and rather than talk to them about it I should deal with God. That night I wrestled with God. I bet you can guess who won. I poured out my feelings, and finally admitted to God that I was mad at him. I confessed and decided to actually put my trust in God and not in myself any longer.
Guess what? A week and half later I had all the money I needed for the trip and even more! God is good. He is faithful…of course you have to trust him first. Something I should have done from the beginning.
I’m glad now that this happened to me. I’ve learned (or at least started to learn) about the importance of trusting God, and the ugliness that pride can take. I’m definitely happy to be able to focus on the trip now and not worry about the money. I also am glad to know that I’m doing something that Satan obviously doesn’t want done. I know that this trip to Denver is the right thing, and something God wants me to do…and now I can’t wait. I’m putting this trip on God’s hands now, after all, whose hands are better suited to guide us than Gods?