Corpus Mission Trip Day One

Young Professionals Mission Trip Thursday, July 4th I am definitely older than I have ever been! And this deep truth was never driven home more deeply than yesterday when I trying to keep up with this bunch. We have such a dedicated, enthusiastic and energetic group of YPs that although they can make you feel old...they also inspire everyone around them to be more for The Lord. Our day started yesterday with loading and loading and loading. It was clear this was a spiritual army deploying by the amount of hardware and equipment we were stowing. Food, children's games, a bouncy house, cups, plates, napkins, tracts, bridge to life boards, giant cross, power generator, sound system, publicity flyers, suitcases for 16 people and on and on it went until there was just room left for people to squeeze in. After an awesome season of prayer we were off. After settling in at our gracious host River Hills Church of Calallen, we loaded up and headed for the Bayfront of Corpus Christi. By 5p.m. the crowds were swelling and The Lord showed us an awesome place to park for free. We lugged all the necessary stuff across water street to the base camp and set up our pop up shelter. After setting up all our equipment and generator I realized we had left the box with our extension cords back at the church 20 miles away. I called my mom and dad and they immediately got some cords ready. I picked them up along with a homemade brisket sandwich to eat on the way and we got our sound system operational. We then got in our evangelism teams and took off handing out friendship bracelets to families who were sitting around relaxing with hours to kill before the fireworks display. I am still amazed that God uses such small and foolish things to do mighty works of glory. Every child wanted one of these beaded bracelets with each bead representing a truth of the gospel message. And- most of the parents wanted them too. After kneeling in the grass and tying these bracelets on we would offer to explain what the colors meant. Again, no one refused and our 5 teams shared the gospel over 100 times in the next couple of hours. We returned to base camp and started singing about an hour before sunset. We sang praise songs that the Corpus Christi wind carried to hundreds of onlookers but no one really gathered around us. They simply went on grilling and chilling with family as we sang over them. Then it happened. A few kids gathered and started listening so we got on the microphone and offered to let the kids come up "on stage" and sing with us. Within 60 seconds there were dozens of kids dancing and singing silly songs like The Fruit of the Spirit's not a Coconut! By the third silly song parents had come over to see their kids sing and the iphones had come out as they shot video of their kids singing and dancing in the park. This is what we prayed for- an audience to whom we could present the gospel. The Bridge to Life presentation was ready in the background and we quickly transitioned to this dramatic demonstration that shows the futility of trying to get to God through good works or religion. The kids were surprised when the bridges of good works and religion broke sending me crashing to the ground and they cheered right on cue when I made it across the valley of sin on the strong wooden cross! As I led in the sinners prayer at the end several children and adults prayed to receive Jesus. This was it...why we came...and Jesus honored our prayers...your prayers and already people have given their hearts to Jesus. We did stay and watch the fireworks but really, after seeing God move it was pretty anti climactic. Two great reports. One of our evangelism teams stopped to talk with two teenage boys (not the age we typically try to impress with a beaded bracelet). When we offered the bracelet one of the boys put his arm out but then drew it back and asked: "is this a religious thing?" At first the team took this as a negative but in reality he was glad. He shared that he had suffered a severe asthma attack and had just spent 5 days in the hospital. His spiritual interest was high and both he and his friend bowed their heads and prayed to receive Christ. Also, one of our teams shared with a guy that had been saved recently out of a life of severe addiction. And, as God would have it, one of the ladies on this evangelism team works with our Celebrate Recovery and was able to really encourage him along his path to healing in this area. Thank you again for your support and your prayers. Today we will be hitting the neighborhoods around the little church we are here to support. We will be handing out flyers for our block party tomorrow so please pray that each flyer will be anointed to draw families to River Hills at Oak Park church.