We MAde it BACK!

WOW...it was good to sleep in my own bed last night! We pulled into Moline at about 6pm and our 9 day trip came to an end. On Sunday night we stayed at Bethel Church in North Platte again and we were able to spend time talking with each other on what God taught us throughout the time we spent in Denver. It was good to hear from one another on what we each could take away from this experience.

I believe we have probably over 1,000 pictures between everyone from this trip, so it may be hard to make a video presentation that is less than 30 minutes...just kidding. July 11th we will be sharing our experience with First Free at 6:00pm.

Here are a few more pictures of the 1,000 or so we have...

White Water Rafting & Camping

Today we drove to Buena Vista and went White Water Rafting at Noah's Ark...it was a blast! No one fell in and we made it in a couple of hours. We are camping at a nearby camp ground and will be leaving in the morning for North Platte, NE again.

The drive over here from Denver was awesome and we are looking forward to driving towards Colorado Springs tomorrow and visiting Garden of the Gods. Pray for our travels and our time at North Platte tomorrow as we spend the evening at a lake.

Here are some pictures from White Water Rafting...

Saturday Morning - Day 6 at BUMP

It is Saturday morning and our ministry at BUMP has been completed. It has been a good week serving here in Denver with the other churches that were here...a total of 85 of us. Last night and this morning we will say our good-byes to our fellow team members from Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska (although we will be seeing the North Platters on Sunday).

Yesterday our Sports Camp went down to 3 kids but another new one that came for the 1st time. We also used our devotional time to share the Gospel with our Good News wristband and had different students explain each color. At the end we gave an invitation and Solomon made a decision to accept Christ! The other 2 said that they already had done that but continue to pray for Dominick and Raul. Also pray for Brandon who had been there all week, but couldn't come yesterday because he got grounded.

The VBS had another 40+ kids for the last day. Over the week there were about 8 kids who prayed to recieve Christ and many more seeds planted. The Service Project team finished up their jobs and said their good-byes to those they met around the church.

Yeterday's experience with Poverty Day really opened the eyes of our students as to the reality of those who struggle with this each day. We will share more about this on our report night on July 11th.

Here are some more pictures. I will also include a picture of Solomon. He is the one with the Grey and Blue Shirt...

Friday Morning - Day 5 at BUMP

Today is our last day of ministry here at BUMP. It has been a good week of growing together as a team and meeting the needs of the communities we have been working with in Denver. Yesterday our Sports Camp doubled to 4 kids that came and the VBS had 40 kids! It has been good to get to know these kids and try to show Jesus through our actions. Matt shared the devotional yesterday about self-control and also did a great job.

Today is also "Poverty Day" which means that we will be given a Quarter each for lunch. Then put in teams of 6 and experience what it is like to try to eat on a Quarter for lunch.

Thursday Morning - Day 4 at BUMP

It seems that each morning it takes a little longer to get moving and going in the morning.

Yesterday at the VBS and Sports Camp it was almost to 100 degrees by the time we got started. Water coolers and many drink breaks were planned. The first day for Sports Camp we had 2 kids come and yesterday we stayed the same except one of the 2 kids was a new kid! At VBS the first day they had 28 and yesterday they had 24 kids come but new ones too! The Service Project Team worked on staining a deck, painting and weeding a flower garden. Kirk worked with a couple of middle school kids on the garden and even got help from a homeless man. Josh led our devotion at Sports Camp on standing up for what is right and did a great job.

Tonight is our FREE night which means we can explore Denver area for dinner, etc. We are going to go to a place called Casa Bonita where they have caves, jugglers, cliff divers and traveling mariachi band.

Prayer needs...
Continue to pray for strength, rest and unity for our team. Especially as we get tired and maybe cranky.
Pray for the VBS, Sports Camps and Service Projects.
Pray for us on Friday as we experience "Poverty Day". I will share more about that later.

Again here are some pictures of our trip...

Wednesday Morning - Day 3 at BUMP

Yesterday was our first day with VBS, Sports Camp and Service Projects. At VBS by the end we had about 20 kids and at Sports Camp we had 2 Middle School students. Even though the numbers were low the teams kept their enthusiasm up and didn't show discouragement. Today we are praying that more students will show up as these kids bring friends or tell their friends about the VBS and Sports Camp. Yesterday Aaron Johnson shared the devotions during Sports Camp and did a great job talking about sacrifice and how Jesus made the sacrifice for us!

The Service Project team did many different jobs around the church and helped out some neighborhood people. They kept busy the entire day and did some prayer walking as well.

We are half-way done already...wow! Pray for strength the rest of this week and enough rest for each day. Also pray ofr the RED van as we noticed a transmission leak that we just took in to be looked at this morning.

Here are some pictures from yesterday...

Tuesday Morning - Day 2 at BUMP

Well, today is when we start our Sports Camps and VBS along with Service Projects working with Open Door Fellowship Church.

Yesterday, our group worked with the church and their Youth Director - Matt to get ready for their basketball and cook-out event. It turns out that Matt actually grew up in Genesco, IL and attended Wildwood Baptist Church...what a small world!

Our day began with walking the neighborhood surrounding the church and handing out flyers for the event in the evening. Then after some down time in the afternoon, we set up the parking lot with tables and chairs and prepared the food for the event. In the afternoon we had a few chances to help people from the church out by painting a wall in the youth room, moving some suitcases for an elderly woman in the neighborhood, and providing child care during a women's meeting before our cook out.

Today and for the next few days we need your prayers as we work woth the Sports Camps and VBS that God would direct us to the kids He wants at these events. Pray also for relationships to be built with these kids and that they would come back each day and even bring some of their friends.

Here are a few more pictures from our trip...

Monday Morning - Day 1 at Bump

Everyone has gotten up this morning on time and ready to get started for our 1st Ministry Day in Denver. We are waiting for our morning briefing and then heading to our 2 Ministry Sites.

Pray for us as we prepare for this evenings Block Party in each site and for relationships we build with those in our neighborhoods. Tonight is when we will be inviting the kids to the VBS and Sports Camp at the Aurora Outreach Center.

I will hopefully update later tonight with some pictures, etc.

We Made It To Denver!

Well we made it here in Denver after a couple of exciting days on the road through Iowa and Nebraska, who knew there would be such great scenery!

Here are a couple of pictrues as we stopped by the Welcome Center in Colorado and the Pony Express Trail.

We arrived in Denver at about 3:00pm and finally found the college about a 30 minute sight seeing tour:)

We went to the church that we will be working with the rest of the week for their Sunday evening service and then came back to Colorado Christian University for dinner and orientation.

We will try to update with pictures, etc as well as you can leave posts on this site or send an e-mail.