Welcome back blog enthusiasts! Ben here. When last we left you we were expecting a team from the Calvary Chapel Bible College in York, England. I’m here to report to you everything that went down during our time with the team so buckle up because you’re in for a long bumpy ride!
The team arrived by train on Saturday March 29th and were here for 9 days. Two of the team members, Aaron and Tess, are gifted in leading worship so they took over worship for Sunday morning while two other team members, Brooklynn and Taylor helped me with Sunday School for the little kids. Having 6 extra people around gave us a big opportunity to do a lot of practical ministry. On Monday we took the team to the Corbett Centre where we have our Sunday morning services and we put them to work on a section of the garden that had been previously untouched. The amount of work completed in that day alone would have taken Nate and I at least 3-4 days of work by ourselves, so that was a huge blessing. We spent Monday night packing up bible gift packs that we then distributed in the areas surrounding the Corbett Centre on Tuesday. We were able to give away almost 500 bibles as well as promote our kids movie night and kids club events for the weekend.
On Wednesday we packed up a rented 16 passenger van and hit the road. Having already had 3 teams up from the bible college, it has become tradition for Leo to take the team on the grand tour of Inverness, and the Northern parts of Scotland. The day was a sweet time of fellowship and sightseeing. I was particularly struck by God’s awesome creation and how you can see His beauty everywhere you look. It was a time of refreshing and rejuvenating for me personally.
We jumped right back into the practical ministry on Thursday when we took the team down to the CYC for a complete cosmetic makeover of the interior of the building. Nate and I also got to have a break from teaching the youth bible study. The night started out with some testimonies from Robbie and Tess and then Pam shared out of John 10 about how Jesus is the good shepherd. The youth were completely gripped and completely attentive to the study. It really was amazing to see them focused on God’s word like that. But the biggest blessing for us was having the girls from the team interacting with the girls in the youth group. We don’t have any female leaders in the youth group so often times we find it hard to connect with the girls, so having the girls on the team there really made the night awesome.
Friday and Saturday were our biggest ministry events of the week by far. On Friday we had a free movie night for the kids in the area surrounding our church. This was the half of a big outreach to the children in the community. We showed The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. After the movie we each sat down at a table with some of the kids and explained the gospel to them using the examples set forth in the movie. As it turns out, a lot of the kids knew about how Aslan represents Jesus. We were faithful to give the gospel and a response time. There wasn’t a response, but a seed was planted. The next day we had our kids club outreach to the same community. This involved a craft time, a bible lesson, game time and concluded with activities like face painting, balloon animals, and a bouncy castle. It was such an amazing two hours. Of that time, forty five minutes was spent in the bible lesson. At the end of the lesson the gospel was given and we saw an overwhelming response of forty children! Praise the Lord! God is so faithful.
We really were abundantly blessed to have the York team with us. The work that was done, the ministry that we shared in and the friendships that we developed will forever live on in our hearts. Please check out the photo album for a plethora of pictures over the past 9 days.
This is BP signing off.
P.S. We love you York team!
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