Week 6 - Ocean City, MD

(Picture Above: Chesapeake Bay Bridges - heading towards Ocean City, MD) On Monday, my family came to OC to watch the team preach. Adam, Micah, Tim, Matt, and I got to do the drama. Afterwards, my 4 year old cousin came up to me and said that she was scared and thought Micah was actually trying to hurt me. The next day she went to my aunt and she explained to my cousin that it was just an illustration of what God did for us so that we could be with Him in heaven. She said that she believed in God and that she was going to heaven. It was amazing to see how the drama not only affects nonbelievers but it also makes people who are supposedly Christians think about what they believe. It is a great example of the bondage that sin can make you feel and God’s love that sets you free. (Julie)

(Picture Above: Micah & Shauna performing "Set Free" to open for preaching) So far this last week on MP has been quite different from our 5 weeks in California. In San Francisco, people had some really interesting beliefs and some of them were so passionate that they would yell at us. In Ocean City however, people will walk by and yell something ignorant, just for the sake of being funny. Most of the people that watch the messages are Christians. We still get people who stay for the messages, but people here are not nearly as convicted as the people in SF were. A lot of teenagers think it's a joke and a lot of adults simply don't care, but sometimes we have conversations with people who truly are interested in the Gospel. An example of the primer: this guy walked away from Paul's message, so I gave him a tract and got into a conversation with him. He said that he was just going to enjoy life as much as he possibly could and on judgment day he would "accept" Christ. I asked him, judgment day aside, if he knew exactly when he would die. He said, "Well no one knows that!" I said, "Then wouldn't you want to be ready for that moment?" He knows that Christ died for his sins and that he needs to repent. I told him that those who have been given much, much will be expected. A lot of people on the boardwalk think that we are too much trouble to talk to, but I had a conversation with this teen, who said he believes that God is a ridiculous thing to believe in. I asked him what he believed and he said he believed in the big bang theory... one of the most ridiculous things to believe! What's ridiculous about all other beliefs is that they exist just to make people feel good about themselves. I had a long conversation with him and I left him with these words: "The big bang theory can't be correct because something cannot come out of nothing, which means that either the universe has always existed, or God has always existed. Neither can be fully comprehended because they are infinite, so eventually you have to put faith in one. I put my faith in God because through God all things have an explanation. However, the universe does not and cannot account for all things!" I pray that that the Holy Spirit will work through our conversation and convict his heart. (Adam)

(Picture Above: Julie following up the message by talking with some people near her) From the start of this trip my eyes have been opened wide to how real spiritual warfare is. The very first day we went to Powell and Market Streets in San Francisco, Kelly and Carmina pointed out the distractions that occurred while Paul was sharing the gospel with Derek, a security guard. At first, I didn’t really think anything of it, until I realized the police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks driving by with their sirens blasting as soon as we started preaching. Over the weeks in San Francisco I couldn’t help but notice how the Devil showed up everyday to keep us from preaching, but only through God were we able to block out Satan, draw crowds in, have many great conversations, and even lead someone to Christ. Coming to OC I didn’t think the warfare would be as bad as California…but I thought wrong. The last few nights there have been fireworks going off in the middle of messages, people walking by cursing at us, and someone even tripping in front of the crowd as soon as Paul mentioned Jesus. Again, by praying I can see how God has once again blocked out Satan and led many people to come hear the most important message of their lives. (Jianna)

(Picture Above: Matt preaching) This trip has been a growing experience. I've learned to seek first the Kingdom of God and He will take care of the rest. God has been working through us especially in our preaching. There have been numerous occasions where I would be nervous and I would start to preach and the words would just flow. The other night I was extremely nervous to preach a new message that I made up. The group was all trying to encourage me and said I would be great but I still was nervous. I started to preach and I was going through it and was feeling a little anxious. Then when I got to the Gospel, the words were just flowing through me and that was God. The Holy Spirit moved me and I got in to it. I would like to thank you all for your support. (Tim)

(Picture Above: Tim preaching) This summer has been amazing! As a leader-in-training and a former Mission Possible teen, I am so excited to see the impact of the summer on the whole team - our teens as well as the leaders. We have seen God show up in many different situations throughout the summer. One way we saw Him taking care of everything was the pattern of the summer. We started the summer with 2 intense weeks of sharing the Gospel on the streets of San Francisco, being ignored or shouted at by many angry people (while still seeing God show up), but then we got one week of intense time with fellow Christians, being encouraged by sisters and brothers at West Hills Community Church and Vallejo Bible Church. This allowed us to be refreshed going into the next 2 weeks of intense conversations with hardened non-believers. We were again given an oasis in Sacramento, being encouraged by Youth for Christ staff, including Steven Schultheis – a Forcey missionary and former Mission Possible teen too. That week was full of times of oasis and still tough conversations too. We started out this week in Ocean City having conversations with many fellow believers – encouraging us and giving us another oasis. Wednesday night was again another night of intense ministry. We saw the Devil fighting against us. There were more multiple times, more than usual, where people would walk away at the mention of Jesus or distractions would show up right when we started sharing the Gospel. Yet, in the midst of all of this, we know that God is in control and His Word won’t return void (as it says in Isaiah 55:11). Our job isn’t to make sure that people listen to us, but to preach the Gospel faithfully. To God be the glory! (Kelly)

(Picture Above: People watching Jianna, Sam, Matt, & Tim perform "Set Free" from their hotel rooms)

(Picture Above: Adam preaching)

(Picture Above: Group devotional time back at the house)

(Picture Above: Sam preaching)

(Picture Above: Micah preaching)

Week 5

From San Francisco to Sacramento

On Saturday, we headed to Sacramento to work with Steve Schultheis, Youth for Christ, at a VBS.  On Saturday and Sunday evening we went to Old Town, Sacramento, (a 1848 Western town) to minister the Gospel to families and adults.

Before departing San Francisco on Saturday, we received word that the water main had burst in their new center where we were going to be working and staying.  So the new plan was that they were moving us to the youth group "barn" where we would stay, with the plans to go in to the center on Monday, help unpack and set the center up for operation to start VBS on Tuesday.  God changed those plans when we found out Monday morning that the youth center's water main was still not fixed and that it was not going to be fixed until next week.  We continued the ministry that we had started in Old Town, until God opened another door for us. Youth for Christ made some calls for us and so did we. God closed some doors, but clearly opened one, and that was to go back to San Fransico Wednesday night until our departure on Friday. We do not know the plans that God has for us, but know this had to happen for a reason.  We can rest assure that God is in control and even if it were just to reach one person in Sacramento, it was God that was at work and paving the way for us.

Carmiña

 

 

This past week has been an excessive learning experience for me and I think all the team as well.  For most of us we are home schooled, not including myself, so I’m not sure how much of the real world they get to experience.  However, going out and just seeing all the times God is rejected is not an usual thing. When out ministering you hear, you must be ready for it. People just don’t get that life is not all about their pleasure, but to please God.  For example, it was just last week I found myself in a disagreement with a man. I tried to explain to him that “all things are impossible without God”.  But in his exact words insisted in “self belief”. And by that he tried to tell me that anywhere your life is going it’s because of yourself rather than giving the glory to God. No matter what I said he just couldn’t get over the idea of the individual. He made a claim that “you’re born into this world alone and you die alone”.   The team has also spent a lot of time talking to a man on a street corner known as Powell and market he said marriage and any form of sex was immoral, which would actually mean that our very existence is a curse. And we all know that this is not what God made us for. We were made as His most favored creation. He just couldn’t grasp the fact that nothing happens within your own strength. And then there are those who will try to make an excuse for themselves. Such as when we went to the campus of Berkeley and I met a guy who just kept trying to say it’s too hard to come to Christ in faith because of the logic of the human brain and how it works. However, deep down Christ has engraved the knowledge into our minds and if you deny it, then it is said that Christ will deny you in front of God. The fact is just not a lot of people truly follow Christ. He is highly rejected and that’s why we need to share our faith now. You have been called and that call should not be ignored.  Matt Mallet

Every now and again while we're sharing the Gospel on the street, we get to have conversations with Christians who have been walking by, seen what we were doing, and stopped by to encourage us.  On Sunday evening we were encouraging to and encouraged by 2 brothers who were from a Ukrainian Baptist church in Sacramento who spend their Sunday evenings after church in "Old Sac" (Old Town Sacramento) passing out tracts. They said it was really encouraging to see other Christians sharing the Gospel too. They've both been Christians for only a few months and yet were so excited to share the Gospel with whomever will listen. Their lives were transformed by Christ and they want everyone to know. The older brother (19 years old) had done drugs since 6th grade and was changed overnight when he gave his life to Christ. The younger brother (18 years old), Tony, was involved with heavier drugs than his brother, but was observing his 3 older brothers' lifestyles (full of drugs, etc.) and thought they would never be changed. However, shortly after the other brother got saved, the 2 older brothers got saved as well. All 3 of them were changed and kept encouraging Tony to change his life around. Since Tony was into harder drugs, he really didn't want to change and go through withdrawal (even though his brothers hadn't gone through withdrawal). One day, Tony was smoking in their bathroom and blowing the smoke out the window. His mom got a sense from God that she should go outside. She did and saw the smoke, so she went back inside and got his dad to go confront Tony. Since he had done 3 heavy drugs all in that same day, while his parents were heading upstairs to confront him, Tony started to overdose. He said that he got dizzy, started hearing voices talking in foreign tongues, and could feel his soul leaving his body. He thought to himself, "Lord is this it? Am I going to hell?" He knew how far gone he was and that he deserved to go to hell, but at that moment, his dad knocked on the door and told him that he knew what Tony was doing and that he needed to come out of the bathroom. He came outside and his dad told him, again, that he needed to change his life and repent. Tony dropped to his knees and did so. One of his older brothers, Demetre, got down with Tony, put his hand on Tony's shoulder, and began to pray for him. As he was praying, Demetre could feel something begin to choke him. Demetre backed away from Tony and couldn't get near him due to the evil spirits present. He began to read from the Bible from across the room and a huge picture frame in the room fell over. It was a crazy, awesome God-moment, but ever since that day, Tony has been so changed and had such a peace. He didn't even go through withdrawal. Praise God who is able to do all things and work in all kinds of circumstances for His glory!! Kelly

Home Church and Holy Communion in Sacramento

Forcey received a very nice card from Pastor Mike West in Vallejo, CA. A scan of his note is attached.

Grace to you,

Ken Wesche

July 2012

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

I want to thank the folks at Forcey Bible Church personally and on behalf of our church family for sending Mission Possible Team 2 out our way for some outreach training.  The whole team got involved with teaching and encouraging each and every one of us to be bold and unafraid of sharing this Good News in public venues. 

I would like to especially thank the parents of the teens for their step of faith in allowing their kids to minister so far from home.  We have nothing but good to report on the way your teens conducted themselves during their short stay here in Vallejo. 

May our great God continue to bless you as you serve Him for His glory!

For God’s Glory,

Mike West, Pastor

Back in San Francisco

We made sandwiches to give out to homeless people, as we encounter many homeless during our out reaches in the here of San Franciso

For our fifth week in California, we were in Sacramento.  We were going to do VBS, but since we weren't able to go to any of the vacation bible schools in that area, we did adult ministry and worked on our drama. We spent most of two afternoons fine tuning the drama. While we were disappointed that we weren't able to do kids ministry, the time we spent on drama was very productive.  I think we all learned a lot and the drama looks a lot better.  Sam

I can't believe Thursday is our last day in California!  These few weeks have zoomed by!  On Thursday we went to Market and Powell.  Sam and I  got to talk to a guy named Jim.  Jim had some really strange beliefs.  He believed that everything has a soul, everything is God, and people can be perfect.  He believed in some of the bible, but he also believed in some wacky book. After we finished our ministry in Market and Powell, we went to Alemany where we had a kids club.  I got to do my message for the first time and I was really scared, but God helped me get threw it. There were a lot less kids than normal and you could definitely see the spiritual battle. There weere so many distractions, but afterwords we got to talk to some of the kids and parents. We planted a lot of seeds and that's all that matters:)  Shauna

Fun Photos

Call Home Day

Pool next to where we were staying at the barn

When we got back home to San Francisco we had a major problem solving and team building activity created by a youth group that came in after us.  We had to figure out how to get into our basement to got to our refrigerator, when something behind the door was wedged stopping us from getting in.

Week 4

The first half of the week started out with adult and kid out reaches in San Francisco and the during the latter part, we were involved in training SOS ministries in how to use the sketch board, illusion tricks and other methods of how to attack a crowd. The hardest thing we had to do this week was to say goodbye to the kids at Potrero Hills, as we will be working with Steven Schultheis next week with Youth for Christ in Sacramento.  There were a few tears shed by both the Mission Possible team and the kids the day we said our goodbyes and watched them get smaller and smaller in our rear view window as they waved goodbye to us. We pray that the short time we had with these kids, will be life changing and that they will always remember the things they learned in these past few weeks and how special they are to God.

It is amazing that our time here now is short.  It really flew by so quickly, yet when we look back on everything we have done here in San Francisco, it feels as though we have been here three months or more. This foreign place has now become our home, and I think we can vouch for everyone, that it will be hard to leave this place; a place where people are in so much need of Christ in their lives.
Carmiña

At the beginning of our fourth week we started our day with adult ministry in Market and Powell (one of our favorite places to preach).  There, we did five paint board messages and we were able to complete the drama four times.  We all were able to engage in some awesome conversations with all kinds of people; some of them were receptive to the gospel, but some weren't.  After adult ministry we went to Potrero Homes and did our final day of kid outreach.  Right before we left, we talked to all the kids and made sure they understood the gospel.  Thankfully, the boys seemed to understand some of it already, but we explained everything to them again to make sure they fully understood the Gospel.  Please pray for these kids.  They are being brought up in a really rough neighborhood and don't have any Godly people to help them keep their faith in Christ.  I hope that some day I'll be able to come back and see these kids again. 

Micah

On Monday, we went out to Powell and Market street. While we were there we had many interesting conversations including one with Texas Rangers, Josh Hamilton.
It was so encouraging talking to someone with such strong faith. It was even more encouraging for someone pretty famous to tell us we were doing a great job and to know that he gives all his glory to God no matter how many home runs he gets.  Even with all this spiritual warfare going on The Lord still sends people to come and hear the most important message and to tell us that it's encouraging to see a group of teens from Maryland sharing the Gospel in one of the most needed cities in the U.S. for their whole summer.  Jianna

The much talked about Eddie Sheilds

This past week, we had our last kids club at Potrero Hills.  The boys at the club met with the guys from our team and the girls met with Shauna, Jianna, I.  I started asking them about their faith and whether or not they had accepted Christ as their Savior.  All of them said that they were Christians and they prayed often.  One girl, Rakel, started crying because a few family members had recently died.  She started talking about her uncle, who died long before his time, and her grandmother who dropped dead while blowing bubbles with her.  Then AJ, one of the other girls, started crying as well.  She talked about how her dad was now living with another family and wanted nothing to do with her or her mother.  She turned to Rakel, who is her best friend, and said that she looks at her life and how she can't ever have the perfect family that Rakel has.  Rakel started crying harder as she explained that her life and family is not nearly as perfect as it might seem.  It got quiet for a minute and then the third girl started crying.  She told us that her dad used to beat her mom and older sister.  He's been on the run so that the police can't catch him and they've been going to court to try to get a restraining order.  It was so touching to see how hard their lives are.  It definitely gave me a new perspective on the problems in my life.  Shauna and I were just talking about how the girls we talked to are so good at hiding the hurt and pain that they have.  I never would have guessed that they are dealing with so much. 
Julie

Muir Woods on our day off

Group Devotions at Sausalito, CA

It has been such a blessing seeing how many people have been encouraged by our team coming to California this summer as well as how they in return have encouraged us. Every group we work with has been encouraged in some way by seeing us come to California and being willing to preach the Gospel to people we don't even know. Last week we got the pleasure of training 2 different churches in how to use the sketchboard and do kids ministry. Both churches were so encouraging to us yet they both told us often how much of a blessing we had been to them. We had people from the ministries and churches tell us that they didn't want us to leave, that we're more than welcome to come back and stay with them anytime we want, that they don't want to see us go, and some have even cried when we had to leave. They were so encouraged seeing young people being willing to share their faith and encourage others to do the same so much so that we're willing to give up our summers to come to the cold Bay Area to share and teach others how to do the same. Seeing their hunger for these tools and practical experience sharing their faith has been such an encouragement to us. We have really enjoyed seeing others' faith and different ways of doing ministry. We have made many great friendships in Christ this summer and are sad to see our summer coming to a close, but have learned so much, seen God show up in our every day lives, and been so encouraged by our sisters and brothers here.
Kelly

Training SOS Ministries