Iowa Trip Unwind..

Wow, what a week. My journey began July 22nd (Friday) flying from Knoxville to Memphis then to St. Louis. I met my church/youth group there and traveled to Iowa for a week of ministry. I saw God move in some great ways. This church/community is tucked in around corn and soy bean fields. If you close your eyes for a minute you would have passed through this community. We arrived Saturday in Iowa and the people were ready for us. On Sunday, this church typically averages around 15-20 (that’s a rough guess give or take a few). That Sunday morning there 40-50+ people. Our first ministry opportunity came in the form of a marriage conference. We wondered how many people would show up b/c there weren’t that many couples in the church to begin with. There were 11 couples that showed up! Several couples do not even go to church and they showed up which was huge!

The Youth Revival kicked off and was awesome! This group averages around 15-20 normally. We packed the place out with 75 people…and that was our average for the revival. One night we saw 90 people there. This place is small but God showed up. I had the privilege of leading worship for this group. I could tell they were hungry for music. They were hungry for God. There was no movement until the third night which is when it typically happens in situations like this. I could literally see people holding on to pews not wanting to move forward. Teenagers flooded the alter this night. One girl finally moved that the church had been praying for. Our church had been praying for her. That night, that girl found hope. She found a Savior to place her trust in. As the service ended, people began to leave…another girl who sat beside the one who had just been saved was still seated and was emotional. Our pastor approached her and asked if she needed to talk to someone and she said yes. My girlfriend began talking with her. The girl said that, “that night was the first time she had been in church in three years”. That night, the second girl found hope. Both girls came empty and searching and didn’t really know what they were searching for but they found a Savior. How AWESOME!

VBS for the week went great as well. Our teams in both communities worked really hard. We averaged 45 kids for our efforts. To see so many kids there was awesome. These kids remembered us from last year. They just needed to be loved on for the week and we did just that. Our group grew together (which we needed) and our group grew in the Lord (which we needed). I was thankful to be apart of this trip.

A crazy way God moved on this trip. There is a man in the church in Iowa who is a pig farmer. He’s an older man. He came to us on Wednesday night and said, “God has told me to tell you to check your fluids before you leave” SO, first thought was…alright…then GREAT, something is gonna happen. This was on Wednesday. On Thursday around noon another man in the church noticed our van was leaking some sort of fluid. Come to find out, it was the water pump and we took it to a shop and it took the mechanics 2 extra hours on Thursday to stay after work and get this fixed (we left the next morning!). This was nothing but a God thing!

My schedule should slow down but it doesn’t. If some cool news I’ll be sharing in a week or two. My schedule will be picking up. This is good but just makes juggling life a little harder. I’m excited about what God is doing. He is moving and working in my life. I’m just hoping I don’t screw it up.
Peace out