We are finally home

Today was quite an adventure. Mark was supposed to preach at the morning service but wasn’t able to because he was sick. Our group enjoyed Sunday school and their church service.Their senior pastor preached. Someone from their congregation showed a DVD slideshow from the week of VBS.

The team had lunch after the service and packed up the vehicles. We made it all the way to Federal Way, WA when the van just wouldn’t go. We used the other vehicle to shuttle people to a nearby Walmart while Jake waited for a tow truck. Two men from Immanuel drove down to Federal Way to pick us up. Most of the team and our luggage went back to Bellingham with them. The rest of the team followed the tow truck to the repair shop. Our entire team was back at the church by 11:00 p.m. Our plan was to be back no later than 8:00 p.m. There will probably be some major engine/transmission work that will need to be done on our beloved van. That can wait for tomorrow when we start to recover from the trip.

We’re headed home

We had a great day today. The guys woke up bright and early and made breakfast for the group. The ladies were very surprised.

We took the Max train from Gresham to downtown Portland. We went to the Portland Saturday Market. It turned out to be a great adventure and a cross cultural experience.

We are finally going home tomorrow. It will be nice to sleep in our own beds. We plan to arrive at IBC at 8:00 p.m. if you want to be there when we return.

Thursday

All of our sick team members made it back to VBS. It was refreshing to have them back.

We gave the team a few options for the afternoon. Some of our team needed to get some sleep. For the others who had lots of energy, we had a group painting and a group putting up signs in Gresham for the Luis Palau CityFest.

Our plan for the evening was a quick dinner and swimming at the Mt Hood Community College aquatic center. We thought it would be a normal pool. When we jumped in, we realized that the shallow end of the pool was over 6 feet deep. We all became better at treading water.

The focus of our team meetings has been “Being a servant of God.” It has been great to see how God has taught us about service and provided opportunities to try it out. When we spend a week working and living with other people, God does a great job of revealing our selfishness.

Please continue to pray that God would help us become less selfish and more like a servant. You can also pray that we stay healthy and have the energy for the rest of the trip.

VBS pictures

Wednesday

Our team had a lot of fun with the kids at VBS. The team had to make a few adjustments to fill in for the people who stayed home. Jake had the privilege of leading the kids in singing “12 Men Went to spy on Canaan.” We never knew he was so talented.

We scheduled an uneventful afternoon so our team could rest. The ambitious ones went to a park on the Sandy River to go swimming. At 5:00, we all had a BBQ at the house where the girls are staying. We were all blessed by Corbett hospitality. They even made home-made ice cream.

Our evening work projects were painting the Jr High room at the church and sweeping the parking lot. The ceiling of the Jr High room was dark blue. I (Pastor Mark) remember spending hours painting that ceiling blue sometime in 1997. It was somewhat ironic that I would be part of painting it white again.

Our plan for Thursday afternoon is to  finishing the painting project and put up some more signs advertising for the CityFest event. Keep praying for the team to stay healthy for the rest of the trip and for opportunities to share the gospel.

VBS Pictures

Wednesday breakfast pictures

Tuesday

We started the day with a delicious breakfast cooked by members of Corbett Community Church. They cook breakfast for the VBS leaders and kids. On Monday, they served quiche. On Tuesday, the big hit was the blueberry pancakes. Since it is Wednesday morning, I can tell you that we just finished eating biscuits and gravy. It is a lot of extra work to cook for so many people and run a VBS program. Our team has made sure that the cooks feel appreciated.

We spent Tuesday afternoon driving to Beaverton to the Luis Palau Association headquarters. They loaded up our van with 200 yard signs promoting their CityFest event. They also gave us some magnetic signs to put on our van. We drove to the Llyod center part of Portland and began sticking yard signs in the ground. We also had stacks of flyers that look like tickets to promote the event. We plan on putting up signs in Gresham and Corbett later this week.

After 2 hours in the hot sun, we made our way to the Lloyd Center mall for some dinner and shopping. We returned to Corbett around 8:30 p.m.

Please pray for a few of our team members and a few of the Corbett volunteers because they are not weeling well. Three of our team members decided to stay home today. The team has a pretty uneventful afternoon today so we can have time to rest.

Multnomah Falls

Monday

Today was a great day. We arrived at the church bright and early to start VBS. Students from our team were primarily responsible for different groups of kids as they went through the various elements of the VBS program. I was pleasantly surprised by all the talented people the Lord has brought to Corbett Community Church. Our students had a great time playing with the kids and getting to know them. Please pray for opportunities for members of our team to talk with kids about God.

This afternoon, our team hiked Multnomah falls. The trail goes up about 300 feet over one mile of trail. This hike is the kind that reveals your level of physical fitness. After the hike, we drove to Cascade Locks, OR to eat at Char Burger and play at the park.

Tomorrow afternoon, we are planning to do some work for the Luis Palau Association (palau.org). We will help them spread the word about an event they are having in Portland in August called CityFest. Luis Palau will have an opportunity to preach the gospel to over 250,000 people each night of the festival.

We appreciate your constant prayer for this week. If you are in the Bellingham area and would like to pray for the trip, you can come to an evening prayer meeting at Immanuel Bible Church. The meetings will start at 6:00 p.m. and will happen on Sunday through Thursday nights.