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

Week 3

In the heart of San Francisco there seems to be a heaviness as people walk past us. Our eyes have been opened as we have noticed that this area is very much different to back home. Yes, we can look around and see that the landscape is different with the golden roller-coaster hills and mountains; yes, some of the buildings and homes look different with their terra cotta roofs; even some men look different as they dress up in their brightly colored froo froo ladies clothes, but more than any of those things there is a darkness hovering over this place.  We have had many encounters with people that are hostile to this message of Gospel. Not that we don't have any hostile people on the east coast, because we do, but this is very different. Everywhere we go it seems as though we are living the Gospel of Luke, where people with unclean spirits cry out "Jesus Christ", throw themselves to the ground in a fetal position, or squirm before we even get to the Gospel part of the presentation.

Praise the Lord that He uses teens to share and reach the lost with the Gospel.  They are going forth, putting on the full armour of God and proclaiming the greatest message ever.  They are going out, blazing the outer circle and seeing what draws in.  Please continue to pray for the poor lost souls in this area, our protection, that doors will be opened, and that the Lord will break open these strong holds.

On Sunday we traveled an hour and a half to San Martin to work with West Hills Community Church to train them in sketch-board evangelism, sharing the Gospel one on one, illusion tricks and puppets. We worked with them for three days and also went out as a church body sharing the Good News of the Gospel.

Then, we got up really early Thursday morning to travel to Vallejo to train and work with Vallejo Bible Church for four days. It is so encouraging to see the that church body has so much enthusiasm to want to reach out to their community and surrounding area, and are so appreciative to us for coming and training them. We have gone from rags to riches, as we are being very much pampered with food and making sure that we well taken care of. We just have to make sure that we keep our minds and hearts in check that we do not become pridefull. To God be the glory! Carmina

On the way to San Martin

For the first half of this week we taught a group of people from outside of San Franciso how to preach the Gospel and how to use the paintboard.  We would meet in the morning and Paul would give some basics on Christianity.  Then we teens would help them with painting up messages and showing them how to paint letters and landscapes.  Today we went to a city, Santa Cruz, and some of the people we taught were able to preach.  Micah

Kids out reach in San Martin

Our God is greater; our God is stronger; He is higher than any other; our God is healer, awesome in power; our God is God. Our powerful God has shown Himself in our lives many times in the past 3 weeks. Before we left home, we were praying the accommodations for us. Our church/house was more than equipped for us with a shower, crock pots, rice cooker, refrigerator, microwave, and sleeping accommodations. We were praying for protection all the time and we're all safe and healthy with no stitches or anything.  We pray that hecklers will either draw crowds, go away, or quiet down and listen - whichever will bring glory to God and we've seen him do great works. God has even blessed us and answered prayers we didn't pray.
The main answer to prayer that I wanted to share is that we've been praying since before we left that if it be God's will, that He raise up an evangelist in the Bay area to join OAC. When we arrived at City View on our first day, we were greeted by Larry, the head of SOS Ministries, and Eddie, a young evangelist from SOS ministries. Eddie became saved 2 years ago as a young adult and hasn't stopped sharing the Gospel since (much like Paul when he was a new Christian). He was very excited at the prospect of learning how to share the Gospel using the sketchboard. Paul recognized his teachable spirit and thought he might be the one we were praying for, so he invited Eddie, pictured above and below, to come with us this week to do training in San Martin. Yesterday at the end of training, Eddie was outside praying that if God wants him to do OAC when his time with SOS is done, that He would give him a sign. He walks back inside and Paul gives him his own sketchboard, paint kit, and paper to have. Paul was planning on giving those to Eddie at the end of the week, but felt led to do it then. Wow! Talk about an answer to prayer! Praise Jesus! Hallelujah! Kelly

Adult out reach in Santa Cruz

Training at Vallejo Bible Church

For devotions this year, we are going through the book of Luke. The way we study the bible has helped me to dig so much deeper into the passages. One of my goals this summer was to take time and understand devotions and try to apply it more in my life. It's so cool to see how much closer we've grown to both God and each other through our discussions. Personally, I've grown to understand my time in the bible a whole lot more than I thought I would.  There have been many times when our conversations with people on the street have tied into our devo's and have helped me better to prove who Jesus Christ really is.  Jianna

Kids out reach in Vallejo