Saturday Outreach

We woke up tired from a long week. Several members of our team were battling sickness as we ate breakfast for the last time. I remember feeling a sense of finality and I just wanted to keep eating JB’s cooking.

Prayer followed that morning and we were encouraged by a sermon. Then it was time to set up for the block party. All of the canvassing and preparation was about to come to a head. The skit team collected all their props to prepare to any skit if called upon. James drove the “Black Truck” in and we began to help him set it up. Meanwhile others assisted inflating the Moon Bounce and Moon Bounce obstacle course. We could tell the kids were going to enjoy themselves by the stares of longing we saw on kids faces as they leaned on the fence. Soon the sound was up, VFCC students were trained in how to operate the equipment and the event began.

The sizzling of hotdogs on a grill was drowned out by the rappers Pastor Brian Bolt brought in from Pittsburg City Outreach. They spoke words of life and truth out into the crowd. Kids were buzzing with excitement over the attractions and we even had a face painting table for kids as well. Brittany surveyed the scene helping out in every way and photographing Fun. Joy was being infused into the community and we had the pleasure of doing it.  As the festivities continued Jenny and Steve roamed the crowd offering to pray for people and hopefully establish a connection or sow seeds of Christ into their lives. Meanwhile, I was trying to stand up on the obstacle course shouting, “Ready—Set—Go!!!!” My voice was becoming horse. Then the moment came—VFCC was called upon to do our last skit.

Throughout the week we had had the most success with “Everything” and so everyone dawned their costumes. We prayed.  The music began and the skit flowed smoothly into cheers as Jesus defeated all of the worldly vices—saving his child. Pastor Brian then followed up with an appeal for salvation. Pastor Angelo rounded them up and began to describe the Christian life, giving vital definition to what they were doing and committing to. We were so thankful for his tremendous leadership on the trip. Before we left, we presented Pastor Angelo, Pastor Brian, and Pastor Kathy with a thank you card and we also gave one to JB, Parker, and “Cupcake” John—the men of the local home in Reading, who cooked, cleaned, prepared, and ministered with us each day. Again, we were so impressed with all of them.

As the parking lot emptied out and balloons deflated, and last of the hot dogs were being given away—it was time to say goodbye. Adios mis amigos…we will miss you Pittsburg and Reading men and women. The trip was blessed and well worth it, but the impact will not be quickly forgotten. 2 Students felt a call to stay and work with the children’s ministry and a group even returned the next Sunday, taking time to personally visit those who they connected with.  The church attendance was bolstered by the events and we are excited to see what will happen next as Reading City Outreach takes its first steps into existence. 

<div><embed src="http://goodwidgets.com/widgets/stack.swf" name="gw315865" FlashVars="gW=315865&bC=f2f2e8&aC=d20039&v=1.2" quality="best" wmode="transparent" allowScriptAccess="always" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" height="300"></embed><br/><a style="color:#d20039; text-decoration:none; font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:9px;" href="http://www.goodwidgets.com" target="_blank">Powered by GoodWidgets.com</a></div>

Friday- "Keep the main thing the main thing: JESUS"

“Keep the main thing the main thing: Jesus”

On Friday morning we began the day with breakfast, as usual. Then we had a time of worship and devotion. Pastor Kathy taught about “the 5 keys”. Pastor Kathy is the director/ pastor of the women’s home from Pittsburgh.  Her sermon started the day well, even though the team wasn’t fully awake, how many know that the Holy Spirit doesn’t sleep? One of her phrases was, “keep the main thing the main thing, Jesus”. After the encouraging sermon, we went out into the neighborhood canvassing. There were four teams and 1 whole new section of the city.  Today the teams worked best together! It was our last day of canvassing and we knocked out the entire new section of the city. While the teams were out canvassing, Danielle painted a beautiful mural in the nursery (which is displayed in the picture section of the blog).

            After a long days work, the team grouped back at the church for lunch. After lunch, we broke up into groups. Some people cleaned the parking lot, while others continued canvassing. I was apart of the group who cleaned the parking lot. I believe that the parking lot was a symbol for Reading. Broken beer bottles, cigar wrappers, trash, and broken toys were throughout the parking lot. Some people would look at that parking lot as a “dump” or useless, unable to produce, but we took the time to see the vision, see the value, and clean it up, so the very next day there could be games, food, and fun. On Friday, the parking lot was full of trash, on Saturday the parking lot was full of families, moon bounces, candy, hot dogs, music, and dancing. Some people walked by and thanked us for cleaning their town; we had a sense of pride and hope in a place where the people have lost all hope.

            After there was clean up, the Pittsburgh team and ours had our final dinner together, and then there was service. I personally love when people use their God given gifts to further the kingdom, and tonight there were plenty of gifts being used. First Danielle sang a beautiful song that she wrote, and then Ashley gave her testimony of how God healed her. Some people participated in a funny skit called “Way to get to heaven”, the skit emphasized that Jesus is the only way to get to heaven, not good works or friends. This set the stage for Pastor Angelo’s sermon called “Fugheddaboutit”. He talked about faith and God working and forgetting about the past. Then, there was an altar call for those who want to accept Jesus and others who have never been baptized in tongues. You could feel the Holy Spirit in that church that night, just thinking about it gives me goose bumps. About five people got baptized in the Holy Spirit and three accepted God as their personal Savior.

            This is just the beginning of the City Outreach Church, and we are so excited to see how God is going to work through it! So many people were accepting of what we had to say, and many came to the church during the nights. Continue to pray, not only for the church, but for the hearts of the people in Reading. After hearing the stories of the people, the things they live through day by day, the worthlessness and lack of love they feel, the one thing that can heal their hearts and heal their land is JESUS.

Pictures of the week

Wednesday

God is in Reading

If there were one image that could capture how we are feeling it’s the Valley of Dry Bones from Ezekiel 37, “He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD…I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life” (Ezekiel 37:3-5).  

We woke up early to grab a quick bite to eat and to pray. JB, our cook, made some delicious Cheerios and Raisin Bran…can’t beat the classics. Prayer was powerful because everyone in the room, from Pittsburg to Braddock, to VFCC were all united under one desire—to prepare for our ministry today on the streets and tonight. Two VFCC students Daniele and Stacey partnered with the Pittsburg City Outreach worship to lead us and set the tone for the next hour seeking God. The Focus was on Christ and the people of the city. By the end of the hour we believed that the Lord heard us.  

He did.  Groups of people fanned out through Reading praying for streets and people, canvassing the city in prayer.  In my group, we stopped in front of schools and met numerous people on the streets who responded to out message, who recognized that we genuinely cared, and that Jesus did too.

Lunch was cold cuts and the buzz from the morning was still feeding the energy of the room. Little did we know that the schedule was about to shift and right after lunch, immediately, we would be racing the rain trying to hand out flyers. The rains never came, but we spoke with a variety of people from a really diverse background. We were another witness advertising our Block party on Saturday and sharing the gospel and praying with all who were wiling.

Evening rolled around, ushered in by painful skit practice. Again and again ‘Jesus,’ played by Steve, upper cut me, the demon, with his sword. Again and again I leapt backwards into the audience—crashing and crumpling into the floor. This was an illustration of what was going to happen in a few hours when the people filled the church for our first outreach service.

Dinner, prayer, and here they come. We recognized some faces from the street as the local community turned out to see what was going on here…through the service the Lord used a skit, Jenny gave her testimony, and Pastor Brian spoke about really who Jesus Is…

The response was positive and we all gathered together after service for Pizza downstairs. My little buddy Carlos was given his first Bible and there was an sense of happiness in the room. At that point, another person who hadn’t been to church in a long time wandered in and we began to minister to him. If Carolos and that man were dry bones, they now do live and we are confident that God will continue to move in this Valley. Amen. 

Tuesday's Outreach

Yesterday the Pittsburgh team joined us. There are about twenty guys from the men’s home and 5 females from the women’s home. This morning we had breakfast, while the Pittsburgh team did devotions. Then, we had a service with Pastor Allen, the associate pastor here at the City Reach church. God began to move this morning and unite the two groups through prayer and worship. It is amazing how God can use two groups of people from all sorts of backgrounds and unite them with a mission to further the kingdom.

After the service we split into groups and some of us cleaned the streets, and others painted the nursery downstairs.  In our mission to clean up the streets we had to pick up garbage, and because of this we showed the people that the church cares. It is amazing how doing something to clean up the community, opens up doors to conversations about Christ. People were very interested and excited about how we were helping in their community. After much work, we ate lunch.

There are about three schools within five blocks of this church. At 3 p.m you may find many children, from elementary level to middle school level, and their parents walking the streets from the schools. At this time we decided to go out into the community and form relationships with the people. We broke out into groups and continued to hand out flyers and tell people about the church. So many people here are so broken, and so wiling to hear about Christ, they are also open about the church and how it’s working in the community. There are many testimonies from the groups of how God is moving and working through them. Relationships are being formed, prayer is being given, and the truth is being received.

Tonight we had a prayer meeting for the teams and for the city of Reading. We prayed that “chains would be broken” that there would be emotional, physical, and spiritual healing in the city. God is moving in the city and it’s amazing to see it right before our very own eyes. We are all excited to see what He will do next! 

"Supernatural Sunday"- night service

Power. Prayer. Providing.

On the schedule we received it mentioned, "Supernatural Sunday" and it was truly a prophetic word. We had prayer before the service and we prayed for people to come from the streets, we prayed for the church, for the testimony, for the human video. Before the church service even started, before the people came into the building, God was moving.

When the service began Pastor Angelo said some words, then Stacey gave her testimony, which was amazing! After that some of the team did the “Everything” human video. It was amazing to see how many people were touched by the testimony and human video. A girl next to me even pointed out that apart of the human video “was her life”.

Sowing and reaping.

Pastor Mark preached Sunday night about sowing and reaping. You plant the seed and reap the harvest. One of the points that Pastor Mark said was that sometimes you sow a seed and then others reap the harvest. In Reading one of our main goals is to plant the seeds in the lives of people and plant the seeds for the beginning of the church in order for the kingdom of God to farther and so that the church in Reading may reap the harvest.

Sunday night after the service two people came to Christ. Pastor Angelo referred to this as the “first fruits of the harvest.” There was a single mother and a fourteen-year-old boy that we led to Christ last night. Many people were prayed over and many people showed up in response to the flyers we passed out. We are praying and believing that these are the first of many of the harvest of Reading, PA.