Mississippi Team Day 5

This will be my final blog on the awesome week we had with the Mississippi folk. Sorry it's taken me so long to post about! I guess this news is almost 2 weeks old now, but I wanted to share some more stories of what God did through this group of people surrendered to his will. I pray that as you read this blog and the others from the Mississippi team's stay in the bay you too will be challenged to go out and share your faith as you live life wherever you are. (And of course if you want to come take a trip to share in the Bay we would be happy to host you!)

We began the day bright and early and headed south of the city to a place called Daly City. Our plan was to work with habitat for humanity to minister to both our fellow volunteers and supervisors while giving us the chance to pray for those who will be receiving the home we worked on. This particular sight was a condo complex with 32 homes. Each future resident must put in 500 hours of work as their down payment and then commits to giving 1/3rd of their income as their monthly rent. This allows people to continue to make their payments even if times are hard.

Upon arrivals we were asked to volunteer for jobs. Our group split up into three of the 5 offered jobs. I ended up on the insulation team. (I think the sucker the people who have never done any house building before into doing this job... not knowing all of what it involved I happily chose it because it needed the most people to help.) I will say I enjoyed the people I got to know... the insulating not so much. I was blowing blue jean out of my nose for the next three days! Once again I had some great chances to share so it was totally worth it! I'm sorry to say I can't remember his name now (I can picture his face but that doesn't help any of you) but I was able to speak to a gentlemen there to gain experience about Christianity before I even arrived at my insulating sight. He had just been to a Catholic church last week for the first time ever. He told me he was searching out what he believed and thought he would give it a try. I got to explain why I chose a Baptist church and I think it gave him a few things to think about. Please pray that he would hear the truth of the Gospel and find salvation!

Once we had received instructions I got to work with a small group of high school seniors from LA. None as far as I could tell were Christians. I got to talk to one boy Johnny an international student from China about his beliefs more in depth. He said he didn't believe there was anything so I was able to ask what he thought would happen after he died. (Thank you Evangelism 101 with Dr. Pate!) He said he thought he would go to heaven. I found this a little humorous (on the inside of course) but I was able to share with him my thoughts on life after death. Please pray specifically for Johnny to pass the Toffel (sp?) an entrance test international students must pass to enter college in the United States. Please also pray for a campus ministry to find him and minister to him next year.

My final good conversation at habitat was with a girl named Audrey. She was a pleasure to work with. She had some social problems but she figured out quickly that I was a trustworthy person. She would come to me and ask what needed to be done next. After a while we were able to get into some spiritual conversation. Knowing that she would be going back to LA the next week I suggested that she try out a Baptist church. She told me she would (and based on our short time together I think she will) Please pray for Audrey that she is welcomed into whatever church she tries and that the Holy Spirit would prepare her heart.

Some people got more fun jobs than insulation :)

After a long day at habitat we headed over to FBC San Francisco for their Wednesday night dinner. We were able to spread out to meet different people who showed up off the streets for a meal and try and be an encouragement to them. I was so impressed with this ministry! They offered a free hot meal bathrooms to clean  up in and as one man told me an environment where he felt like he could catch his breath for a few minutes. It's amazing how easy it is to take 4 walls and a roof for granted. I was able to meet a great new friend that night named Francis. We talked about sports for about 30 minutes and he could name every big player who had come out of Mississippi even though he was originally from New York. I asked if he was going to stay for the bible study later and he said he hadn't really thought about it. I told him I was going and that I would love him to join me. He said ok and I prayed he really meant it. He found me about 30 minutes later after he finished his meal and we headed over to the small group forming in the corner. He listen as we sang and didn't say a word through the entire lesson just listened. I took a few peaks at him and noticed he had found himself to the book of John and read through the first 10 or so chapters. After it was all said and done I was able to get him a Bible to keep and ask him what he thought. He said he heard some things he had never heard before and that he liked it. Please pray for people to follow up well with Francis. Please also pray that he comes back again for the weeks to come. Selfishly I would finally ask you to pray for me that I will see Francis again to follow up with him myself since we hit it off so well.

Thank you to everyone who lifted this Mississippi team up in prayer. Please know that God was moving in powerful ways as a result of it. I am so glad I got to be a part of it and am thankful for boldness the Holy Spirit gave me to speak the words He wanted me to say. We will miss this group dearly. One final way you can pray for us that we also shared with this team is for more workers to be sent here. As you can tell from even this one blog people are willing and ready to hear the good news they just need someone to tell them! We can't depend on them finding there own way into a church we need to meet them right where they are. So Please pray for San Francisco and the people God is calling to come and share the good news here!

Mississippi Team Day 4

Day four was a lot of hard but rewarding work. We got up early and drove about 45 minutes to south San Francisco. Our goal was to reach out to people working along side us at the San Francisco Food Bank. We wanted the community to know that we as Christians are concerned with helping others. Many people in SF see Christians as uncaring and judgmental. We wanted to help break that stereotype by bringing a holistic gospel to them. One that meets needs while bringing the good news of Jesus. There were about 40 other volunteers working with and around us. We had the chance to engage in good conversation with several of them. The other volunteers were there for various reasons: community service hours for school, court appointed hours, filling up time while looking for a paying job, wanting to make a difference... Bringing up this topic was an easy inroad to learning about them. It also gave them the chance to ask us why we were there serving.

The food bank where we served distributes food to all the other food banks around SF. There are over 400 food banks around SF. This food bank is like a warehouse. They send out over a million pounds of food every day. It was an impressive operation to say the least. While there we had two jobs. The first was to repackage rice from 100 pound bags into 1 pound bags. The second was to go through crates of oranges and pick out rotten ones After that we repackaged the good ones into small boxes. Together with the other volunteers we were able to package over 11,000 pounds of rice! That rice averages out to about 33,000 meals! We were shocked to find out that we packaged 25,000 pounds of oranges! We learned that they along with all the produce there will find there way into someone's hand within a maximum of 72 hours! All along the way we made it a point to pray for the many people who would receive this food. Steve and I hope to bring our youth group out to do this again because we had such a fun time and it was such a great ministry opportunity!

Please pray for all the people who have recieved and will continue to recive the food we packaged. Please also pray for the many people we had conversation with like Rebecca, George, and Vladimir.

Packaging Oranges

Some of the team working  hard making rice bags.

After the food bank we headed off to do a little sight seeing. Our first stop was Lombard Street. The steepest street in America. While our dreams of driving down it were crushed (no cars with more that 8 seats are permitted) we did get to get out a look at it.

The van parked on Lombard Street while the team got out to take pictures. I admit was was nervous to get back in for fear of it tipping

Our next stop was China Town for some souvenir shopping. After driving around for a while we finally found a cheep spot that would accommodate our 15 passenger van. (We give God the glory for this spot because we were almost at the point of giving up!)

Picture of China Town

Molly and Will showing off some of their purchases.

We ended the night with a great cookout and hangout time put on by Brett and Allison. It was a true blessing for us to get to know everyone more and refresh after a long day.

Mississippi Team Day 3

Day three of the Mississippi Mission team was possibly the most challenging for me as well as my favorite. We began the day bright and early in the Tenderloin. For those of you who don't know this area got it's name because the cops who worked this area had to be paid extra as an incentive because the area and crime were so bad. Therefore those cops could afford a more tender piece of meat. Hence the tenderloin got it's name. Today the Tenderloin is still one of the roughest parts of SF. Many of the city's poorest live here including homeless as well as many drug dealers and prostitutes. These are the people we spent most of or day ministering too.

The group in down town SF.

Because Justice Matter's is an offshoot ministry of YWAM and is located in the tenderloin. their primary focus is ministering to those who have been sex trafficked to work in massage parlors and Salons. We teamed with them in the morning to pray for those all around us being held as prisoners to do this work. They gave us an orientation on their ministry where my heart was just broken for the girls it affects. Many times pimps look for girls in the wrong place at the wrong time who are essentially courted into this lifestyle. They give them gifts and then guilt them into paying them back for the things they have been given. Other girls who are brought from other countries are promised a better life. Over 40% of all trafficked people coming to America come through the Bay Area! Once they arrive they are then told that the government is corrupt and will hurt them if they are caught. These images and lack of self worth are enough to keep many girls from reaching out for help. Another huge problem that leads to the high percentage of sex trafficking going on in SF is there is only one health inspector. On top of that he has to have three warning signs of illegal activity before a business can be shut down. BJM asked us to pray for stronger laws that will make sex trafficking much more difficult. Another prayer request they shared was for the women's minds to stay clear and not be infiltrated by false information.

After a few things to look for we then ventured out into the Tenderloin to find massage parlors and salons to pray for. It was sickening how many we easily spotted that illegal activity was likely taking place. Being that this is the second most organized crime after illegal weapons we did not enter any but we know that regardless our prayers were powerful.

After lunch we then shifted our ministry to the needy of the Tenderloin. Two of our friends Spencer and Carlena helped lead the group in this because they are a part of a weekly ministry to the homeless in this area. Each of the 4 groups we split into were able able to share the gospel with about 4-8 people. We also helped to meet physical needs with giving them socks, water, and fliers of where to find a free meal. 

My team was made up of Spencer, Lindsay and myself. We met two Davids, George, Mary, Denis, and Larry. I was super impressed with both Lindsay and Spencer's boldness to share and was blessed to have them with me.

Here is a picture of our whole group with the first David we met. He's a Christian and a Veteran. He asked us to pray for his foot which was hurt. Please lift up David along with us and the many other's that we met.

After a long day of ministry we headed to the Pier for a treat of Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. It was a great way to end a great day!

Anna and Ashley at Bubba Gump.

Lauren, Molly, and Sarah at the Lefty's store.

Trying to stay warm in cold San Francisco.