MANual Labor

To summarize the expectations from Monday, the themes were
to be changed, grow in compassion, take these lessons home, and break out of
the comfort zone. To a group that was anticipating construction and manual
labor it was a bit intimidating to jump right into street evangelism and
homeless ministry.  Expecting
things from God sounds presumptuous to most and down right scary for others,
but this week we experienced a little bit of God showing off His ability to do
more than we could ever ask or imagine!

Here are some testimonies of the things that happened this
week:

“This week has been beyond my expectations.  This week I was thinking that we would
just do some projects and meet 1 or 2 people.  I probably met 50 or 60 people and helped them come closer to
Jesus.  It has been awesome.”  Gordy

 “In the Amzies group, during the First pres church mission
trip, we took on the evangelism task at the Library.  It was filled with homeless people and poverty.  We went and gave out sandwiches and
water and Merritt Rae Phillips and I went to go talk to a woman named
Cissy.  She testified for us and
her story was amazing in a way that showed us how bad her life is and where she
is now.  Cissy never met her dad
and lost her mom at 13 years old. 
She was adopted and beaten by her new parents.  They would throw bricks at her and she was molested.  She ended up with AIDS and started
getting into prostitution.  She
said, “I was standing on the side of the road all dressed up and God spoke to
me and I was saved right there.” 
She has been sober from drugs, alcohol, and prostitution for 11
months.  Cissy met her 4 children;
the youngest was 20, with a new attitude set in mind.  She gave in to God and turned her life around.  Cissy really inspired us and made me
think about the way she was able to turn everything around with God.  We prayed for her and hope that we will
be able to see her again to give her our shoes and clothes.  Cissy was an amazing person who I will
remember forever.”  Jeni Erickson

“On Thursday, we did some ministry work called Ask the Lord
(ATL).  ATL is when each person
goes off and asks the Lord to help them find a person to help; then writes
whatever God lays on their heart. 
Then we split into groups and tried to put all the seemingly meaningless
details into a coherent meaning. 
Our group had an idea about a Hispanic man outside Walmart, wearing
yellow.  We spent about an hour
looking for this man, but we weren’t strictly limited to helping that one
man.  We prayed for several others
and bought water for the Hispanic workers outside the strip mall.  We didn’t find our Hispanic man, but we
did help many others in our quest to find him.  You have to realize that none of us can read God’s mind, so
maybe we were meant to help those workers and God just didn’t want to make it
easy for us.”  Robert Moser

The students thought they were on a trip to help someone
out, but found themselves on a journey toward God’s heart for themselves.  They didn’t get anything they asked
for, but received everything they hoped for.  He tested their faith, challenged their strengths, and
worked through their weaknesses. 
They came expecting to build houses, but built relationships
instead.  They came expecting to
see brokenness, but found themselves broken so God could build them up.  They came expecting and they left
satisfied.