Come Holy Spirit! (2 days late)

20 March 2012

Today, the team, with 4-5 other churches who were visiting the Refuge for 'The Church 2012' gathering went out into the city to clean and pray.

Human/Sex Trafficking is an injustice that has been receiving a lot of attention all over the world.  Prostitution is beginning to be seen as an injustice as well, because more an more people are discovering that women do NOT want this kind of lifestyle...they have been manipulated, drugged, or socially dependent of this "lifestyle."  This would be a long blog to fully describe this horrific injustice; I encourage you to research and learn more about this and pray, give, and raise awareness.  For more information go to: exoduscry.com.  This organization also has a documentary called: Nefarious; This is an excellent documentary that accurately depicts this injustice and the hope that rests in Christ.

Human trafficking IS in the United States.  I-35 and I-40 intersect here in OKC.  This intersection is the biggest intersection in the U.S. where trafficking occurs.  All of went to 3 big truck stops, picked up trash and prayed over the truck stops asking the Lord to end trafficking in this area.

Later that night, all 80+ of us had a big cookout down in the hood and fellowshipped together.  We then joined together in worship and prayer.  The Holy Spirit fell on the place.  One of the leaders opened up a time for people to receive prayer.  Before we know it, everyone is praying for something.  God spoke prophetically through a few people and many people were really encouraged by the Lord.

It was a wonderful night! The Lord is so good!  The Holy Spirit was in the room and His presence was very noticeable.

Many of us made new friends as well.  We all have been learning many things that have been challenging our way of thinking.  We have a lot to think about and meditate on.

Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Love ya,
OKC Team

Abandoned I-40

By the way, here is an awesome picture of the abandoned part of I-40 that we walked on two days ago.

Click on the picture for full size.

Rain Rain Go Away

Yesterday was wet, rainy, and cold, but it was probably the best day yet. Yesterday was supposed to be a day full of service, but a lot of what we were going to do involved things you can't do in the rain like scraping and painting houses. So, working with the weather that we had, we threw on some ponchos and headed out to clean up the streets. 

The people at The Refuge believe that, cleaning and caring for the streets in their neighborhood is an important part in bringing hope and restoration to the area.  By showing that you care about an area and taking the time to fix it up, it helps give the residents something to be proud of and continue taking care of. 

So many of the streets down here have such a hopeless feel to them. There is trash, graffiti, overgrown lawns & sidewalks, etc. that goes completely unchecked and unfixed. The people here believe that this invites all kinds of sin and oppression into the area. So we spent several hours yesterday cleaning one block by unclogging drains, uncovering sidewalks, and cleaning curbs. (Did we mention it was very cold and pouring rain while we were at it?)

When we finished up we all came back, grabbed some lunch, showered, and relaxed. The rest of the evening was filled with the events already "scheduled" for the Church 2012 retreat.

We ended the day with an amazing time of group interaction.  We spent a few hours discussing God's Will in our lives, the power of God's Word, and the heart that Jesus has for us and our lives.  

After a fun game of the Bible version of Apples to Apples (yes that does exist and can be extremely entertaining), we all checked out for the night and prepared ourselves for another day of work and learning.

Another post about today coming soon!

Serving Him,

The OKC Team

Early Mornings and Late Nights

We are having an early morning on this rainy Monday as we help set up breakfast to all the students here for the Church 2012 retreat.  We've been up since about 6:30ish and we didn't go to bed until after midnight, so there may be some naps in order for later today.

Yesterday consisted of a lot of trying to figure out where and what to help with because there really wasn't a whole lot to do as the students began showing up.  Angie helped with the check-in process as the rest of us set up chairs and moved stuff around.  Once the students got here, we had a orientation meeting and then went to eat dinner at the City Rescue Mission.

Once dinner was over, we all went on a prayer walk along the old abandoned I-40 for about a mile long stretch.  It was a very eerie experience to walk along a highway with no cars.  I guess they have made a brand new stretch of highway that is part of I-40 and they are going to destroy the old section as part of a plan to renovate the downtown area.  Quick fact: some Hollywood company bought the old stretch of highway and is going to blow it up for a movie in the next year or two!

After the prayer walk, we had a gathering (a worship service without the music) and then split up into small groups.  Our Kerusso Dayz team used this time to really share with each other where we came from, why we're here, and where we are in life right now.  God was really moving in each of us last night as we opened up and really shared honestly about our lives and we are all much closer as a team because of it.

Well, we were just informed that breakfast wont start until 9:00 now, so I'm going to find a couch and get a little bit more sleep!

Serving Him,
The OKC Team

We're here!

Sorry this post is so late, things have been so crazy these past 48 hours.  We left Manhattan at about 2:00 pm on Friday and made it to OKC at about 9:30 after a nice trip to a local diner in Wellington and a couple of detours through about five tollbooths because of a big wreck on I-35.

When we got here, the leader of the Refuge (Tim Ulrich) showed us where we will be staying for the week.  The girls are staying in the Refuge building itself with about 40 other Christian missionaries and the guys are staying a few blocks down in a house that is right next to a former drug lord's house!  But don't worry, it burned down a few months ago.

The goal of the Refuge ministry itself is to move further and further into the worst parts of the city and be a light to everyone around them and build a positive community.  The house that the guys are staying in is the FIRST one that they have moved into and everyone here is extremely excited.

However, for the next three days, the Refuge is hosting a college retreat called The Church 2012 where about 100 students from around the nation come together to learn about the Kingdom and what God wants from the Church.  We are going to be helping out with a lot of key rolls these next few days by running errands, running small groups, registration, etc.

We will update more later, but we have to go get something to eat!  To bricktown we go!

Serving Him,
The OKC Team

The countdown begins...

Hey all,

We just wanted to update you and let you know where we are with our trip.  And guess what...?
We are leaving for Oklahoma City in FIVE days!

We are having our last group meeting tonight to go over the last few details.  We want to thank everyone for their contributions for the trip, we have raised our full amount and beyond.  Praise the Lord!

We'll be updating here again on Friday before we leave.  See you then!

Serving Him,
The OKC Team

"I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send?  And who will go for us?'  And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'"    - Isaiah 6:8

The Team

This is the team! From left to right we have Cameron, Michael, Angela, Tiffany, Preston, Christian, and Joe. We are all very excited about our upcoming trip to the Refuge in Oklahoma City, OK. 

Be looking forward to some pre-trip updates and prayer requests.