Friday Departure: Brothers' and Sisters' Encouragement in Advance and on the Road

TODAY'S REPORT:

Tonight is my first daily blog update for friends, brothers, sisters who have committed to pray for our family as we share the gospel with the good people on the south side of Chicago, in and around James Ward Elementary School. Much good has happened since we and the Elliotts helped with last year's Chicago mission from Second Baptist Church (If you are feeling nostalgic or just want a refresher on that, check out our entries on this blog from July 2009 by clicking here. I actually quite enjoyed reviewing it in preparation for our return this week). City South Church now has a home. Each Sunday at 10am they hold services in that same elementary school where last year we taught Vacation Bible School.

This year's mission will include renovations to that school's cafeteria, ministry to the men and women living in the surrounding area, games for the kids each night, and nightly devotionals and Bible teaching. Rachael, Annie, Alex and I will arrive in Chicago tomorrow, a day ahead of the rest of the group. We look forward to joining City South for their Sunday AM services with our old friends Eric Arnall, Van Bates and others.

As soon as I got home from work tonight, we were on the road, destination Springfield, IL, where we are settled into our beds at the Holiday Inn Express tonight. Free breakfast in the morning and everything!

So, here's a really neat bit of encouragement God provided us tonight as we were on our way. We made it to the outskirts of St. Louis just a bit before 10pm and the kids were tired and we needed to get out of the car. So we stopped at the Quicktrip just west of St. Louis to use bathrooms, put the kids' PJs on, etc. Guess who rolls in at the exact same moment? Our buddy Shane Schoeller. Shane had been in the area helping out some candidates for open seats in the Missouri legislature, and providentially stopped at the same QT at the same moment. It was great to visit with him before he headed home and we headed to the "other" Springfield. Shane was kind enough to pray with us before we parted ways. And of course we snapped a self-shot photo for the blog:

Of course, we already had received such encouragement from so many of our brothers and sisters from the ABF before our departure that seeing Shane somehow didn't even seem that out of the ordinary. Jeff and Naomi Kallenberger packed goodie and entertainment bags for the kids to occupy their time for the ride. David and Amanda Booth provided us with a prayer & mission journal (which is SO right up Rachael's alley) to help us prepare for our mission for weeks before we left. Kevin McCall is cheerfully picking up the slack by teaching this week (be good to him Sunday) in a week when he truthfully doesn't have the time! And so many encouraging words and prayers of support already are felt and appreciated so greatly. God is so good to us to provide such ongoing encouragement.

Tomorrow we are going to take it kind of easy on our way to Chicago. As history buffs, Rachael and I are looking forward to spending a little time here in the Land of Lincoln tomorrow taking in a couple of museums and historical sites with the kids. Then, of course, soon... Pizza. 

PRAYER NEEDS:

Perhaps the most important reason for sharing this blog daily is because we are counting on your prayers to support and strengthen our mission. Please continue to pray for us daily! There are many challenges facing this effort and it is only through God's grace that any success will come. So, each day I will share a few specific items that we would ask you to pray over for us. Thank you in advance for your commitment.

As we prepare and travel, please pray for:

• Safe Travel & Focused Purpose. As we and others travel the distance, many roads are under construction, traffic is congested, etc. And while we are driving our own vehicle, some Sunday will be in church vans and trucks hauling trailers. Please pray that God will protect the workers He has sent. And, as our work gets nearer, please pray that distractions will fade and we will all focus on the purpose for which we are here: to share God's saving gospel with people who desperately need it. 

• Pray for one another. In particular, I am so grateful for Kevin's servant's heart in covering for me this week by teaching our class. God has been so generous to us to grant us someone of his talents and gifts who is so willing to serve when we need him. And, I know from experience, it is in many ways harder to fill in than to just do it every week. So give him a pat on the back, a thank you, and most importantly, your prayers. And, of course, please remember each other's specific needs in prayer. You can see Reggie's most recent summary of prayer requests here.

Please feel free to share these posts with others you know who will pray along with all of us for a succesful mission trip. We so desire 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. Or, for those of you who are facebook people (or if this is just the nudge you needed to take that plunge, the blog updates also will be available via our class's facebook group (didja even know we had one? You should join it. There are pictures of the guys shooting things on there!).

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