April 24, 2015 |
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Hello everyone!
We are officially underway on our support raising for our J-Walk 2015 Mission Trip. We recently had something called Change for Change at our church, First Presbyterian Church in Aurora. Change for Change is an event that our entire team participates in and we stand at the doors of the sanctuary as people are exiting the Worship Service and they are free to donate any change they have in their pocket. This change is then going to be used to change the lives of our team and the ministry we are partnering with. We are very blessed with all of the donations we received. This month the students also started to work on their Support letters. A support letter is a letter that the students write in order to inform their family and friends about this trip. The letter is not only for information but more importantly and invitation for prayer partnership and financial support. The students are also encouraged to give these to people that they would like to introduce to the Christian faith. As a student gives a letter like this to friends their age a lot of questions are asked. "Why are you taking a week of your summer to go work?" "It's going to be really hot, are you sure you want to go?" "You are going to spend a whole week with church people?" "Why are you paying money to go work? Shouldn't it be the other way around?" Our students then hopefully share about the attitude of serving a hurting community or organization and the need to go above and beyond to help them. This demonstrates the love of Christ in many ways, one is that Christ left the heavens and the Glory of the Father to be wrapped in flesh and died in agony for our sin. "28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many," Matthew 20:28. Further more, it challenges a teenagers world view. In today's society our teenagers feel entitled to many things and a mission trip is the exact opposite. Our students are not easily handed this opportunity to go on this mission trip, they know that they have to work hard to raise their support only to arrive at our site and work some more. Once there our beds are a sleeping bag on the floor so there is little comfort. A teenager that is not surrounded with the message of Christ can be shocked by the hearts and servant attitude of the students on this trip. Our hope is that our students can find a way to minister to their friends in their schools through this letter and begin conversations about their faith. The Bible verse that we will be focusing on throughout this trip is 1 Corinthians 9:22-23 (NIV), "22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings." This is the Bible verse that the Paradox Teen Center, whom we are partnering with, lives by. In order for us to begin to minister along side Bill Kucenski and his ministry we need to know where he is and this verse is a beginning glimpse of the culture of that ministry. Thank you for taking the time to read our updates and please continue to pray for us as we spend time meditating on God's word. In Him, Rigo Ortiz |
Rigo Ortiz
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