Hey everybody! I want to start by saying how much we appreciate all your prayer and support in our trip, it means so much to us to have so many people cheering us on!
I have been so blessed by this trip and everyone we have met. The people from Calvary Chapel Lake Arrowhead have been so awesome and so hospitable and have truly show God's love to us all. Yesterday was an amazing day and it is so cool to see how far God has been taking us!
Wednesday is the salvation day in VBS and we prayed so much for God to have His hand on all the kids that will come through the doors to hear about Jesus. we prayed for Him to soften their hearts and understand what it means to make Jesus their best friend. God showed up in a huge way! 39 kids asked Jesus to become their best friend and I know that He is already working in their lives to help others. One mother of a 5 year old sent the leaders a card at the end saying that she has already seen how much her little girl has impacted their family and how happy she is and shares about how Jesus is her best friend! I have been doing the crafts all week in VBS and I have loved getting to know all the kids and I ask them about what they are learning and how they are applying the teachings to their lives. God used VBS and it was definitely a major high in my life.
The other outreach we did on Wednesday was a block party type of outreach in a Hispanic community on the mountain. We had games, food, face painting, coloring, raffle tickets, and most important a drama with the gospel message. The kind of ironic thing about this outreach was that none of us were very excited about doing it. On Tuesday we had walked the whole neighborhood passing out papers to invite people and there was no one around to talk to. So we were all discouraged and were not looking forward to the next day for the event. But the amazing thing about God is that He still uses us even when we might not have the best attitude. We had SO many people show up at the event that everyone was always busy and talking to the people. The drama was one that is known well by Grace Fellowship, "Everything" by Lifehouse, and the drama team performed it in Spanish and was probably the most powerful showing I have seen! I could see God using us at that community and I know He got a hold of some people during the outreach. God used an event that we were not excited about and made it one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had. I learned to trust God in all situations and give Him my time, energy, attitude, and heart in any situation and He will perfect it.
After that experience we all met as a group and closed the night in worship to our creator, thanking Him for all He does.
I could go on and on and talk about what we did today on the last day of VBS, but we are working on service projects to bless CCLA right now and I want to show this awesome church how much I love them by painting and fixing!
Thanks again for reading and praying!
Emma G.