Monday, July 13, 2015
Sunday's Post
Good evening OSLC,
I think I can speak for our whole team when I say that we have seen so much already in our second day here. We started the day off with church at Common Ground. This is a congregation that started one year ago and worships in Voice of Calvary's building. It is a multi-racial, multi-generational congregation that is run by young leaders in the community. We were so challenged by the sermon preached by friend Jason "Smiley" Abrams, and loved worshiping with this congregation. After that two hour service we headed home to have lunch, then back out to another church service at We Will Go. Everytime we listen to, and worship with, Amy and David Lancaster from We Will Go I am reminded of God's faithfulness to their ministry. Today's service was a celebration of their first ten years serving in downtown Jackson. It was filled with testimonies from people who have served and been served by WWG, but the most moving was from a man named Kevin. When the Lancasters moved into their first home downtown ten years ago Kevin was sleeping in the cemetery across the street, had been addicted to crack for 30 years, weighed 85 pounds, and was demon possessed. Against the advice of neighbors, police, and their own common sense, the Lancasters loved on Kevin despite his verbal and physical attacks on their family. Over time the Lord broke through to him and now he lives every day trying to make new disciples of Christ; it was truly a miraculous story to hear.
(David Lancaster praying for Kevin)
We are all looking forward to starting work tomorrow.
Thanks again for sending us and praying,
Joel
I think I can speak for our whole team when I say that we have seen so much already in our second day here. We started the day off with church at Common Ground. This is a congregation that started one year ago and worships in Voice of Calvary's building. It is a multi-racial, multi-generational congregation that is run by young leaders in the community. We were so challenged by the sermon preached by friend Jason "Smiley" Abrams, and loved worshiping with this congregation. After that two hour service we headed home to have lunch, then back out to another church service at We Will Go. Everytime we listen to, and worship with, Amy and David Lancaster from We Will Go I am reminded of God's faithfulness to their ministry. Today's service was a celebration of their first ten years serving in downtown Jackson. It was filled with testimonies from people who have served and been served by WWG, but the most moving was from a man named Kevin. When the Lancasters moved into their first home downtown ten years ago Kevin was sleeping in the cemetery across the street, had been addicted to crack for 30 years, weighed 85 pounds, and was demon possessed. Against the advice of neighbors, police, and their own common sense, the Lancasters loved on Kevin despite his verbal and physical attacks on their family. Over time the Lord broke through to him and now he lives every day trying to make new disciples of Christ; it was truly a miraculous story to hear.
(Common Ground)
After church at We Will Go, we got the chance to help a woman named Jamie Rasberry, who used to work with WWG and now has her own ministry working alongside the kids in her neighborhood. Despite no funds to do so, she bought an abandoned house and has been renovating it with the financial support of friends and family. This house will give the kids in her neighborhood a safe place to go and hang out and get away from the temptations and danger that surrounds them daily. After doing a little painting and demolition, we had dinner with her while we heard her testimony.
We are all looking forward to starting work tomorrow.
Thanks again for sending us and praying,
Joel
Belated Saturday Post
Due to a lack of Internet access, Saturday's blog is posted below:
Hi everybody,
This is Micah and Marcel coming at you from Jackson, Mississippi. Saturday was a very busy and fun day. We all rose early to go to We Will Go ministries to worship and work along side their missionaries and another youth group. We Will Go is a Christian organization in Jackson that provides food and other things to meet the needs for the people of the city. They do this all in the name of Jesus. We started out with an hour of prayer and music which was a new but great experience. Marcel, Matt, Joel and I (Micah) worked in the food pantry with three youth from the other group. We stocked shelves with food, made snack bags, and peeled a lot of potatoes. Anyone in the community who needs food can come by We Will Go and pick up a snack bag, which includes an evangelistic pamphlet. The potatoes were for We Will Go's community meal that anyone can come to. We ended the morning by heading up to the WWG youth center and had lunch.
Later that day we went to an all you can eat catfish restaurant, where we ate all that we could! After a filling dinner, we went to Mendenhall, where Dr. John Perkins started his ministry called Voice of Calvary. VOC is the organization we will be working with this week, and is a ministry that focuses on rebuilding the community through the Gospel and racial reconciliation. Mendenhall is divided by train tracks and one side is poor and predominantly black while the other is white and has nicer things. We also saw a pool that used to be whites only and got filled with cement because the state forced them to allow black people to swim in it. Saturday was a great start to the rest of our mission trip.
Till next time,
Marcel and Micah
Saturday, July 11, 2015
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