Thank YOU!

I wanted to write a quick note to all you parents/families for your love, support and prayers over this past week!  This truly was our best mission trip to date for FBC Middle School.

You all should be very proud of your students.  They were the hands and feet of Jesus!

I will be working on a picture slideshow and some video to help you try and get a feel for just how incredible this week was!!!

Hope to see you tomorrow!  

-Tish

Good Morning! It is 7:17am and the sun is out after a thunderstorm that knocked out power for awhile last night. 

It was a loooooooong day yesterday. For most of us we went from around 8am until 2am last night.  During the morning session we heard interviews from Destiny's Rescue, an organization that helps free children from the child sex traffic ring in countries around the world.  We also had a live skype interview with an executive from Toms Shoes.  You may have heard of Toms Shoes.  For every pair of shoes you buy, Toms commits to give a pair of shoes away to children who have no shoes.  We learned that if the world consisted of 100 people, 40 would not have shoes - 40!  There are so many who need our love, prayer, and support!!!!

Outreach yesterday, was stretch day.  We participated in E2!  We spent from 11am - 12:30pm learning how to listen to God to encourage each other and see where He wanted us to care for people that day through different group exercises.  Can you believe it?  An hour and a half of listening to God and encouraging each other with what they heard and what He wanted us to do?!  Awesome!  Then after lunch, we headed out onto our buses to go to locations of where we heard God wanted us to go.  I don't have time or room on the blog to share the stories, but many of our kids saw God really move and answer prayer for both them and the people they connected with!!!!

But wait, THERE'S MORE!  We got back from walking around Cincinnati in 98 degree weather, to party with over 500 adults with special needs (I misspoke yesterday - about kids vs. adults).  There was a dance party room, there was Name that Tune, hosted by Joe Boyd who came to FBC as one of our interim pastors, and outside games with, of course, LIMBO!

Our students were hosts for these amazing guests!  Our kids sat outside, screaming and cheering for each guest as they arrived for the party, each waiting to be paired with their guest (some of our kids were out there well over an hour and never stopped cheering!)  We leaders rotated around to each area to help in any way, but they didn't need us!  They danced and sang and laughed and smiled all night long!  Again, as yesterday, you should swell up with parental pride to know how much all of these kids showed the love of Jesus to so many people for over 10 hours yesterday (11-9pm)!

Today, we do water giveaway and Habitat for Humanity home building.  Our guys are pumped up to run all over the place to give away as much water as possible in a couple of hours.  They will be flying around everywhere today.  Then, tonight we have three students being baptized - Carly Greenway, Austin Loeser, and Jeff Gaetjins!  Be praying for all of them as they make that amazing public commitment to Jesus.

Alright, I am tired, but fired up for our last day!  I will try to log on tomorrow right before we leave to let you know if we will be on time.  Thanks for praying!  See you SOOON!

-Tish

Then, after 

Good Morning!  It is 7:20 am on Thursday, June 25th.  Yesterday was a busy day.  We saw hundreds of kids and families come to a carnival-style block party in Lincoln Heights.  If you don't know about Lincoln Heights, it is an extremely impoverished area just 20 minutes from where we are from the church.

You would be SO EXTREMELY PROUD of your kids.  They worked on a VERY HOT day, where there was no shade, from 11:15am until 2:3opm.  We played games, served hot dogs/popcorn, gave out balloons, etc.  There were prayer teams that took prayer walks around the community and also walked around the party praying for people.  

One of our kids was talking to a little boy and asked, "do you like living here?"  He replied, "No there are too many shootings - my dad was just killed."  Come to find out he was shot down only THREE days ago!!!  The student saw his mom standing behind him, crying.  It was an amazing day of loving kids and the community of Lincoln Heights!

Today, we are doing the E2 experiment.  This is where our groups will spend the first half of our outreach in a prayer experience, where they are lead to seek what God wants them to do.  They sit in silence and wait on God to share maybe a particular color, or word, or picture.  The students may not know what it means, they simply need to stay open and listen.  Then they all share what God put on their hearts, and the prayer facilitators take all the ideas the kids heard or saw and the group then prays and decides on their own outreach that God has designed.  

It is hard to explain in detail.  Please pray that our students stay open to the process.  This is something very new to them.  I do believe, however, that it is going to be amazing!  Our students are excited to see how they can make a difference!  

Lastly, SOS has a surprise for the kids after our E2.  From 4:30-6:30pm tonight, the Special Needs ministry at Vineyard is hosting a Luau.  Over 500 special needs kids/young adults are coming to have a party with us and we are here to play, laugh, and love on these very, very very special children of God!!!  Please pray that our kids can see Jesus in them and have a BLAST at this party with them.  It is such a fantastic opportunity for us to love others as Christ loves us!

I will check in and let you know how it goes as soon as I can!  Peace, Hope, and LOVE!

Tish

We are here and all is going WELL.  Today is Tuesday.  We had our first outreach today, where we stayed onsite at Cincinnati Vineyard.  We participated in an activity called "Be the Difference," which is very similar to the "Challenge Day" the eighth graders at Kenston did this year.  

We all learned to "go below the waterline," get real, and learn more about each other.  Today was really more of an "INREACH" instead of an Outreach, but we all agree it was completely coordinated by God to prepare us for the rest of this week!

Tomorrow is BL

OCK PARTY day.  We will go out to a low income area of the city and put on an amazing carnival type party for all the kids and their families in that neighborhood.  There will be face-painting, balloon giveaways, hot dogs and popcorn, lots of carnival games and prizes, bounce houses, and it wouldn't be a party without music.  All of our kids will set up, run the party, love on hundreds of kids, and clean up when we leave.  It is going to be around 90 degrees tom

orrow.  Pray we stay hydr

ated and healthy to really show God's love in a practical way!  

We already have a ton of fun pictures too. Here are a couple of the group having some fun.

Thanks for praying, we can totally feel it!

Tish