Colorado Springs Day 1

Hello friends and family. We had a great first day in Colorado Springs. Everyone started out pretty tired after icy roads but us in 2 hours later than expected, but our hosts were incredibly gracious. After a good night's sleep and a great breakfast with each of our host homes, we joined Converge for their Sunday morning worship gathering. Our students were great. They did the setup of the audio/visual system, set out the chairs, ran the kids program, and Taylor Holmstrom and Nick Jennings led worship (which Converge all said was a treat). They don't have a worship leader in their church yet. I was reminded of how abundantly blessed we are with leaders when a 17 year-old high schooler was able to lead a young church plant to worship in such an honest and glorifying way. When Derek asked if anyone of our students had ever served with kids before, I did a quick head count and realized that nearly every single student on the trip currently served in some form of kids ministry at Mosaic. Our students are actually able to model to the adults of Converge what it looks like to serve your local church.

Derek taught on 2 Corinthians 5 and how we are all called to be ministers of reconciliation wherever we are. He pointed out that God's plan for discipleship is actually shockingly simple: Love God, Love Others, Make Disciples. The problem is that we are often not faithful to that plan. Great word for our team.

After lunch at the Whites', we took off for the elementary school that the Whites' children attend. The kids served there picking up trash and completely cleaning our the garden boxes the school uses. The goal behind these service projects is to honestly love people well. It shows the city of Colorado Springs what happens when "the uncommon love of Jesus comes into the common places of the city.

We closed the day out with dinner at the Horns' house and a discussion of what discipleship looks like for a high school student.

Everyone is doing great. No altitude sickness yet, though we're all getting winded quicker than usual. We're keeping everyone hydrated. Today we start off with studying Philippians together before spending a day prayer walking neighborhoods, serving at the school and putting on a Winter Olympics event at the YMCA. Pray that Jesus would make his grace known to the people of Colorado Springs, the Converge team and our students.

grace and peace,
Nick and the CO Springs Team