Here are the lyrics to one of the songs we sang with the children during Vacation Bible School - may it be a desire in all of our hearts...
"I wanna live my life with courage,
I wanna live with confidence,
I wanna live with Your hope within me,
And a joy that never ends.
No doubt, no fear.
No wondering if You are here.
Change my heart, oh God, open up my eyes.
I wanna see Your glory shining like a light.
Change my heart, oh God, stir me up inside.
I wanna feel Your Spirit moving in my life.
I wanna life my life with passion,
I wanna live out on the edge.
I wanna have the faith to trust You
With everything and nothing less..."
This past week we had a mission team from Judson Baptist, my home church in Nashville, out to help with Vacation Bible School at Kirkwood for the third year in a row. It is always such a huge blessing and encouragement to have them in town! We also had about 20 workers from Kirkwood serving this year which has been such an answered prayer to bring people in from here in Bozeman!
The week kicked off with a Block Party where we doubled our enrollment that evening for VBS. Throughout the week we had 68 children registered and our enrollment was pushing 100 when we included all the workers. God was present throughout the week and working in the lives of many. Through music, crafts, recreation, missions and Bible Study, the kids were taught to face their fears and trust God. In 2 Timothy 1:7 it says, "God did not give us a Spirit of fear, but one of power, love and sound judgment." We had five children surrender their lives to Jesus Christ throughout the week and also had great conversations with many parents as they came to pick up their children each night. We also had a Family Day after the week ended where many of the kids and their parents came to worship with us on Sunday as the children led the motions to the songs they had learned throughout the week.
Many of the children that came throughout the week come from very tough situations. Some started coming at the beginning of the week because they knew they would be fed dinner, and that was the first time they had eaten a meal all day. What started as meeting a physical need led to them seeing their spiritual need for a Savior. A boy of another family who lives out of state and had an extremely tough year with his family situation came up to me the first day and instead of asking what rec games we were playing or what was on the menu for dinner, simply wanted to know where the pastor was who gave him a Bible last year. God is working in the lives of these kids and we pray often for the chance to reach their parents as well. We had the opportunity to take follow up visits to some of their homes to drop off goodie bags and God opened the door for conversations and continued relationships during that time as well. He is faithful.
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| Gearing up for Block Party and VBS week! |
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| Block Party |
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| Block Party |
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| VBS Dinner |
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| VBS |
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| VBS |
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| VBS |
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| Ready for Recreation at VBS |
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| With the Judson team at Hyalite |
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| Palisade Falls, Hyalite Canyon |
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| With Misty, Muranda, Ethan, Cassie, Alex and Tyler at Bridger Creek |
In the two weeks leading up to VBS we had mission teams from Mt Rachel Baptist in Dalton, Georgia and a team from Stewart County, Tennessee come in to assist with Vacation Bible School preparation, Block Parties, getting the word out about upcoming events, intentional evangelism around town, surveys about how Kirkwood can better serve the surrounding community and prayer walking. God used both teams as they served humbly and joyfully while they were here, as they were always willing to step in and help with many of the little tasks.
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| With the Mt Rachel Baptist (Dalton, GA) team |
The upcoming weeks will be busy as well. Myself, along with some other Kirkwood members are headed to Provo, Utah to assist First Baptist Provo with a Backyard Bible Club and some things around the church July 9-13 while our Youth Pastor, Andrew, is headed to Russia to share the love of Christ in an orphanage there for two weeks. We have sports camp at Kirkwood July 15-19 and a couple upcoming Block Parties as well. Please pray for God to be glorified and Christ to be revealed in unmistakable ways in the coming weeks. Please also pray for me to be a light each day and to rely on His strength as I juggle responsibilities at Kirkwood, getting ready to take on the athletic director position at Heritage Christian School this fall and while I am also working at a local golf course.
Hope you all have a great 4th of July! I am headed up to Whitefish, MT for a few days near Glacier National Park so hopefully some sweet pictures will be coming soon! Love you all!
