Wednesday: VBS Opening Day & Prayer Walk

TODAY'S REPORT:

We started the day with a group Bible Study / devotional about of 2 Kings 5 (the story of Namaan, who was healed of leprosy by Elisha). Then we spent the morning prayer walking the streets of south Chicago, followed by opening day of Vacation Bible School at James Ward Elementary.

We had planned for a max turnout of about 70 kids, and were excited to see approximately 135 on our first day. That is a wonderful blessing, but it brought with it a fair amount of logistical and planning challenges. All in all it was a fairly exhausting day, but God was certainly in the center of it. Today's Bible story was on the resurrection of Jesus, and children were led through not only the dramatic story, but why Jesus made such a sacrifice. When given the opportunity, eighteen children marked down that they were interested in learning more about how to make Jesus their personal savior.

PRAYER NEEDS:

Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement. Today especially, new opportunities for prayer support became clear. As you continue to pray for our efforts, today please pray especially for:

• Unity in Christ. Our team is diverse. The group that has travelled from Second Baptist represents pretty much every stage of life. And those helping us from other churches are from far more different backgrounds than most of us from Second. But it is so critical that we all remember that we are here for ONE purpose, God's purpose. An important lesson in the Bible study from 2 Kings is that God's answer to our prayer may not always look like we expect it to look - but that doesn't mean God isn't answering that prayer in His own, better way. Pray that we will have unity of purpose as one in the Body of Christ.
• Physical Endurance. This is one that was shared with me by one of our fellow workers. Her concern was for the physical endurance and strength to get through some pretty long days on her feet with the kids, after prayer walking all morning. But the need is for all of us. The Elliots and Morrows have small children with them that are overtired. That kind of makes their parents overtired, too... you know the domino effect of that. Pray for rest and phyiscal endurance.
• God's blessing on His children. For Jim, Heather, Rachael and I, this is our first real mission trip (at least as adults). All of us desire deeply to see the face of God in the work we are doing here. Pray that the work we are doing here will not simply be work, but that -through the work we are doing here - we will see attributes in the character of God that we had not before had opportunity to encounter. Pray also for affirmation that the work we are doing here makes a meaningful impact for our mighty and glorious God.

Once again, please share these posts with others you know who will pray along with all of us for a succesful mission trip. We want to lift God's name and to share Him with those who do not yet know Him. Sign up at http://ourabfclass.blogspot.com (upper right hand corner) to receive this blog via email. You can also share it on facebook, twitter, or just by plain old e-mail via the links that appear at the bottom of this (and every) post on this blog.

We love you and are so thankful for you. Please know that you all remain in our prayers daily as well.

God's Blessings,

Matt