The Epic Blog

I’m so bad at this blogging thing haha. It’s definitely been three weeks since my last blog, and due to the Lord doing amazing things in these three weeks well I don’t really know where to start LOL:) Week two in Illinois was pretty jam packed with figuring things out and getting our bearings in the suburbs of Naperville and Plano. Naperville and Plano really couldn’t be much more polar opposite. Naperville is extremely up and coming with lots of things to do while Plano on the other hand is a farm centered community that doesn’t even have a Mickey D’s haha. It’s great though being able to work in such different areas. Psalm 86:9 was really laid upon my heart that past week. It says, “All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name.” While neither Plano nor Naperville are nations, they are cities that the Lord has made filled with people that the Lord created and one day they shall worship and glorify the Lord. We have been using these things called Solarium cards to meet people that are out and about. Pretty much you give the person you are interviewing a stack of about 50 random pictures. Then you ask the person to find 3 pictures that describe their life now, 3 pictures they wish their life was like, followed by one picture they believe describes God, and lastly one picture that describes their spiritual journey so far. They are a great tool for starting conversations as well as just seeing where the person is spiritually. We are a generation that loves pictures, and things seem a lot less intimidating when someone has something to look at when they are answering questions. The Lord allowed the team to make some great contacts through the solarium cards. One girl in particular you can be in prayer for is Jackie. Donovan and I met this girl on the North Central College Campus. She talked about how she had been possessed before but overcame it with her inner will and strength. I was actually worried that Jackie wouldn’t stay connected with us, but she returned a message I left her this past week and wants to hang out. Pray for the Lord to be at work in her heart to realize her own strength is not enough and to give me guidance as we talk. We also did surveys this past week which made it both easier and faster to find people open to growing in the Lord and hearing the gospel. The Lord allowed us to meet a lot of people through them. The team was able to have their first Bible study this week in Naperville. We split up the guys and girls Bible studies. The girls was on Wednesday in the Barnes and Noble Starbucks and well a tornado came through that night. We were going up the escalators to stake out a spot for everyone and then were rushed to storage closets in the store. Haha no worries friends back at home…life is still throwing me funny weird curve balls haha. Due to the storm, we only had one girl come, and she was fellow friend. However, it was an extremely encouraging night, and I know God works all things for His purposes:) The guys actually had quite a few people show up for their Bible study and play ultimate Frisbee with them afterwards. Please pray for the girls Bible study that the Lord would allow us to continue to make contacts that are interested in learning about the Lord and also for both the guys and girls Bible studies to start forming a core group of regular attenders. As we prayed about what to do in Plano, we felt led to put on a block party. The Lord has truly shown His sovereignty in this matter. We have met with the mayor and he was excited about the idea and is willing to support our endeavor. We are in the middle of figuring the permits we will need and how best to put on this event. We also will be attending a city council meeting this coming Monday to propose the idea, and it will be voted in or out July 12th. Please be in prayer for this even and for the city leaders of Plano to see fit to support us in this. I was so encouraged this week because I had the chance to see the church act as the church should act. Myself and two of the guys on our team Aaron and Brian attended a local Baptist Association meeting in hopes to get financial support for a a bar-b-que the team wants to be put on in Naperville on July 9th. During our talk, we had someone interrupt us to tell us he would cover all the hot dog and hamburger buns we need. After the meeting we had several pastors come to give us money we needed and a church told us they would cover all the meat we needed. By the next day we had emails from all over the association and all our needs for the bar-b-que had been met. It was so encouraging to see the church be the church! Well if you made it this far in my blog kudos to you! Sorry it was so long. I could totally make it longer though because the Lord has done such great things in and around us. Please pray for the Lord to continue to renew our strength and direct our paths. Thanks for all your support:)

Week One:)

Hey Everyone:) Well it’s been a week since I’ve been in the Chicago area, and despite the lack of sweet tea and southern drawls I’m still alive LOL:) We spent our first weekend at Streator Baptist Camp having orientation with everyone that is serving in Illinois this summer with the North American Mission Board. It was really encouraging to hear about the other teams that will be across the state serving the Lord in all their different capacities. We headed to our places of service on Monday and had the day off. My team and I are staying in the suburb of Joliet, but we are targeting the suburbs of Naperville and Plano. We actually have 9 people that are called the parachute team. No worries…no parachutes are involved haha! It means that we are going into areas that are in need of church plants and finding people of peace (prominent leaders in the community that are open to the gospel), evangelism opportunities, and what type of church plant and church planter would be most effective for the area. We will not really have supervisors for this project. Instead we will have almost coaches. In other words, we do not have people that are giving us a schedule on a day to day basis. We have people that will check in on our progress weekly and give us encouragement and advice. Because of our lack of supervision we had additional orientation this past week. Our group consists of 6 guys and 3 girls. 4 of the guys and one the girls are from the Chicago land area and attend Northern Illinois University. There is a guy and girl that are both from North Carolina and both attend Liberty University although they had not met before coming here. There is also a guy from California. And then there’s me haha, the Alabamian. The guy from North Carolina, Scott, and the guy from California, Mike, are doing a separate project in the Albany Park area concentrating on internationals. We all did orientation together though so we had 9 team members and a supervisor all living in our mission house together for a couple of days…it felt a bit like the Brady bunch especially at meal time haha:) Now there’s 7 of us and a supervisor in the house and I suppose it feels more like the Walton’s LOL! We have the adventure of going grocery shopping for, cooking for, and transporting that many people. To say the least….there’s not too many dull moments. I’m SO excited to see what the Lord has in store for this summer, and I truly hate I will only be here for 8 more weeks. We were able to visit and see the suburbs of Naperville and Plano this past week and pray over them. We’ll be making a game plan this weekend and then hitting the pavement.
Please pray for our team to have a unity that would reflect the body of Christ and for us to seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance in how to reach these communities for Him. Pray that we would be emboldened to proclaim the gospel in all that we say and do. Thanks SO much for your prayer and support…ya’ll are awesome:) Have a great week!