Portland Update 2

Hey friends and family! A few incredible days here in Portland. We've been walking through the Story of God, a narrative that walks from Genesis to Revelation to explore who God is and who we are in light of that. We've talked a lot about the Gospel and what it means for the Christian today. It is not just the A, B, C's of faith, but the A to Z of faith. We've examined our own hearts for idols that get in the way of Jesus, and asked the soul-piercing question, "Do we trust Jesus to be our Savior in all things?" It's been a growing week for all of us.

We've also been able to serve the bread & wine community by prayer walking neighborhoods and serving people in the community with basic needs to build bridges for the gospel. Thanks for your prayers.

blessings,
Nick and the portland team

Guatemala Update 2

i was able to hold true to my promise by getting in a blog in by thursday!  even if it was by 11;30 guatemala time.  by the way...if some of the words come across funny, guatemala makes their keyboards different from ours.  i still can't find the capitalizing button...hahaha.  our time in the mountains was fantastic.  truly was a blessing from God to see the students do their thing. who ever thought there would be or could be a justin bieber dance party in the middle of nowhere...leave it to us to pull off though. so fun.  we spent each morning planting lemon, orange, and avacodoe trees for families with great spiritual potential and that have growing relatiohsips with hugo and susannah, our missionary partners.  this was an ongoing illustration also of planting seeds of the gospel and seeing the ongoing fruit that it prayerfully would produce. we would pray for each family during and after the planting of the trees. it was very special.  we would then use the afternoons to play with kids through games, crafts, skits, and pinatas.  i can't wait to show you the pictures and videos.  major props to our students for boldly sharing their testimonies, bible stories, and the gospel many times in front of many kids.  highlight of my time personally was being with 3 potential church planters as pastor chip drew out the triad of discipleship and church multiplication literally on the dirt floor of one of their houses. so cool

we left this morning and got into the city where we met up with pastor daniel bran of fellowship guatemala.  what a great man!  we spent the afternoon going to houses of needy and hurting people, praying with families and sharing the love of jesus.  erika and bonnie got to lead 3 people to the lord during this time!  one of the men who prayed to receive christ was a very hard and difficult man, and has been prayed for for months by the church.  who new 2 white girls from arkansas would be the knock out punch of truth and love!!!!  we then attanded an outreach service tonight at pastor daniels church.  they asked us 30 minutes before if we would like to have some of our kids play in a band for them, and if our students would share their testimonies with the church. by the way, there was 200 people there.  so cool when our students without blinking an eye volunteered fearlessly to do both.  the band was made up of luke on drums, brianna on piano, alex on violin, erika and matt singing, with matt playing bass.  it went great!  reid also shared his testimony using strength as his theme and illustration...quoting then 'i can do all things through christ who gives me strength'.  he killed it...so proud.

well...i am absolutely sueno...translated...sleepy.  i will be able to post again tomorrow night.  pray as tomorrow we put on a kids program, pray with more families, and talk more church planting strategy in guatemala

we love you all...we are safe and sound. nobody sick, everybody pretty well rested.  God is certainly good
mateo, marta, and faithful/passionate/humble student team

Memphis Update 5

Thursday was a very full and emotional day. We spent the morning finishing up a couple of projects and the afternoon at our respective gyms. It was very hard to say goodbye to our new friends. We worshiped with FSM again tonight and had a great experience with the Lord. The students have had an incredible week. Parents, please talk to your students about their week. My guess is they will tell you about a life-changing experience. Thanks again so much for all the prayers. We can't wait to come back next year! We will see you in Northwest Arkansas on Friday.

(Carol Holmstrom has been providing these updates each day. Big thanks to Carol - Nick)

Memphis Update 4

Today was another great day. We spent the morning scrubbing floors and working on a landscape project. We got to spend some good time with the kids this afternoon. Tonight the students were treated to an Arkansas/Memphis baseball game in Redbird Stadium. Some of the kids from MAM joined us and had a great time! The students are displaying incredible servant hearts and we couldn't be more proud of them.

Memphis Update 3

Tuesday was a very full day. After breakfast and our morning devo/quiet time (we are studying 1 Peter), we cleaned one of the gyms in the morning and then split into our groups again and got to love on the kids in 2 locations. Some great relationships are being formed. The students are being impacted in a huge way. We then went to Central BBQ and then had worship with Fellowship's Sunday Morning students who are also here this week. It was incredible to see 200 students from NWA worshiping together here. It was a sweet night. Thank you so much for praying for these students this week. God is moving here in Memphis!

Portland Update 1

Hey guys,
Incredible first day. Travel went smoothly (well kinda. we had a bit of a bumpy flight). Upon landing in Portland, we took a train and then a bus downtown before meeting up with the bread & wine team at the Urban Grind, a really cool coffee house in NE Portland. We heard a little bit about the church and then started "the Story of God," a narrative that presents the story of the entire Bible. We did a quick cleanup of the Urban Grind and then headed off to our hosthomes. Good first day. Excited to see how God will grow us and encourage the church here.

blessins,
nick and team

Memphis Update 2

What a great day! This morning the team spent some time cleaning the gym to help out MAM. After lunch, we split into 2 groups. One group went to another gym and the other group stayed at the Grizz gym. We had a great time playing with the kids and building relationships. Some of our students had an opportunity to share their story that they worked on last night with the kids. They all did such a great job! Looking forward to seeing some of the same kids tomorrow to continue to develop relationships and love on them.