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.