OneEightyOne Student Ministries

Well, we made it home safe and sound. On our return trip we enjoyed a stop at the Creation Museum. It was a fun and relaxing way to close out our trip.

Thanks for the many ways you supported us – especially through prayer!

Here are a bunch of yet unposted pictures from the week. Enjoy!

What an amazing and fulfilling week. I’m excited to report that we finished up all of our projects this morning. This 48,000 square foot ministry facility hasn’t looked this good in a long time. It’s much more inviting for their daily and weekly outreach ministries as well as for their weekly church services.

One of the morning highlights was delivering thousands of hygiene and school supplies to the adjacent elementary school. They were overwhelmed and blessed. It’s exciting to see KIDS Inc’s growing partnership with this school.

During lunch we got to hear Rhonda’s faith story. She’s one of the ladies in the community who have trusted Christ out of some very painful circumstances. We had the opportunity to help her around her property earlier in the week.

After lunch our team had some much needed down time as we prepped for a long afternoon, evening, and night. We finished up our VBS. The teens did an excellent job presenting the gospel to the kids each day.

Immediately following VBS we hosted a hot food meal for the community. Many families from the community attended. They enjoyed dinner, worship music from our team, faith stories from our youth, and a gospel presentation.

Immediately following this meal we hosted a 2 hour teen hang time for community youth. We served them dinner and got to play tons of games and hang out. Two other youth shared their faith stories, and we presented the gospel with an opportunity to respond.

We’re just about done. We have some final packing and cleaning to do in the morning before we head out. Before we come home, we’re taking the team to the Creation Museum. I’m sure they’ll have an awesome time if they can stay awake.

It’s a real joy to watch God work in and through our youth. This week has been a spiritual growth spurt for many of us. It’s exciting to see them stretch ministry muscles that they never knew they had.

Highlights from today:
1. Blessing two widows connected to this ministry with property upkeep.
2. Watching our students run a VBS nearly on their own.
3. Hearing from Jake from KIDS Inc. about how our work this week is helping them with their long term and sustainable ministry goals.
4. Enjoying dinner out on the town at a local restaurant.
5. Laughing together – a great sign of unity.

God’s doing great things. As usual, please keep this team in your prayers.

Tonight’s post will be brief for three reasons:

1. We’ve been busy, and I simply haven’t had time to upload photos yet
2. We’ve been busy, and I’m tired
3. We’ve been busy, but our ministry today was nearly identical to yesterday’s

So here are a few highlights:

• God held off the predicted rain so that we could have a very successful VBS and move our outdoor projects ahead significantly
• The team’s morale and spirits are high
• After dinner we enjoyed a walking tour of downtown. Similar to downtown Cleveland, they have a circle, not a square
• We all had some very delicious ice cream
• We closed our time downtown with a powerful impromptu time of worship right on public circle

Tomorrow we will divide and conquer again. Two of our teams will be offsite at homes in the community helping several widows with their homes.

Until then – we appreciate your prayers!