God helps us to trust...

The last 36 hours have been nothing like I ever in a thousand years would ever envision. No plans have been mine, nothing has been what we thought, and everything has been exactly what God wants for all of us. Yesterday we spent the day at the beach instead of today, due to the fact that the dreamcenter in Los Angles didnt need us Friday but did today. The day was spent enjoying the ocean and each other....dance parties and sunburns...

Today started off with working at the Dreamcenter once again. It was not what we had originally thought and we spent the morning and early afternoon doing an adopt a block program that we just didnt have enough time to complete.

But tonight God showed up in a big way. During our debrief God so many tears were shed and the power of God fell in an awesome way. A true community was built as student after student shared what God had done, was doing, and the thing that they were struggling with. It was amazing and left all of us impacted. To God be the glory as once again His ways werent are, and His thoughts not our.

Sorry for the lack of blog posts....we were without Internet for the past 36 hours and it has been better to let God do His thing than take away students to update...

This has been a crazy journey and I am excited to see God continue to lead this youth group.

Josh C

Abby Scheller California Blog

Wow.  It's hard to believe that our mission trip has passed the halfway point.  So far, it has been an unforgettable experience.  We were able to join with the California church during their Sunday service, and there it became clear that they were truly amazing people.  Doing VBS with them was a blast.  The children were excited to be there and the turn-outs for each day were great!  All of us now have the songs ingrained in our minds...Today was the last day of VBS.  I found myself maybe tearing up a little...okay, so maybe a lot, when I had to say goodbye to the kids for the last time.  And one of the little boys blew me away with his understanding of the conditions of the children in Uganda that we were raising money for.  He was squirming around as a video of the Uganda children began, and I automatically thought he was being goofy.  But really, he was desperate to see the video, and a stage prop was blocking his view.  I moved him to the other side of me where he could see better, and he was immediately intent on the video.  When it was over, he turned to me, a sad frown on his little face, and said, "That is too many people in one house."  All I could do was nod.  The entire VBS week was fantastic!  And during the outreach program that we did for a Hispanic community, the drama team of our church got the opportunity to perform- it was an experience that I'm sincerely glad we chose.  God really worked during that outreach.  The day before, we were discouraged by the lack of people we were able to invite, but around 30 showed up!  God also brought us to some amazing people while we were handing out lunches to the homeless.  Their stories were touching.  Also, yesterday, the car I was riding in got the opportunity to meet a woman who was really struggling in her circumstances.  All of these things made it so obvious that God is here.  With us.  I know He always is, but sometimes it is just so easy to forget that when I get discouraged, but I starting to realize that I should never have to feel like that.  Alone.  Because He is with us, all of us, every step of the way.  And He always will be.

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.

Wednesday

Hello everyone!

So far our trip to California has been amazing!  God has worked in so many ways and I can't wait for the way he is going to continue to work!

This morning we had another awesome day at VBS!  Seeing the joy and excitement in these kids during worship, crafts, games, etc. is just so inspiring and makes the whole thing worth it.  Throughout our time at VBS, I think all of our team has been reminded what it means to have a childlike faith, and to pursue Christ without holding anything back.  Today was especially awesome, because today at VBS around 40 kids asked Jesus to be their best friend!  That is just so amazing and only through the Lord working in these kids hearts could that have happened!

This evening we are holding a kind of community event where we have invited a Spanish-speaking community that lives on the mountain to come and enjoy free food, face painting, raffles and prizes, a drama that our senior high drama team is performing, and fellowship.  We are praying that we can witness to this community and share the love of Christ with them.  We have no idea how many people will show up, but we know that God has a plan for this event and that He is going to do something amazing.  Please pray for the people that come to the event -that they can see God's love for them and that there will be even just one person that accepts Him as their Lord and savior.

For me personally, I have felt God speak to me today more than any other day on this trip.  I was reminded in my devo this morning that our love for Christ is the most important thing, and that laying down our life and giving all that we are up to Him is worth more than anything in this world.  Luke 10:27 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind".  I just graduated and these last few months have been so busy and full of "stuff" that I think that I've really missed what's important and haven't given my whole heart, strength, and soul to the Lord.  This morning God just really spoke to me and really opened my eyes to what my focus before this trip has been on and that He wants all that I am (now, and when I get back home).  I just wanted to share this because it was something that God Has laid on my heart.

Thank you for all the prayers that have already been lifted up to God on our behalf and we ask that you keep praying for our team and the people here that we are ministering to!


With love,

Bekah E.

water day

Hi im Alex N. and today we are doing the second to last day of vbs and im helping with games and today is water day day.  Last night we all filled up about 500 water ballons for games today we have water guns and everything so i am really excited for today.  After vbs today we are all going down to a spanish community and we are having a party with music games and food so I am excited to see how today is going to turn out

Hi everyone! I just want to say thank you for reading our blog and for all the prayers for us here in California. So far the trip has been absolutely amazing! The view here on top of the mountain is gorgeous.. I LOVE it! The team has already made many in side jokes and I feel like I've gotten to know everyone a lot better too! Starting Friday when we got there...we played games to get to know each other and had a good time. On Saturday as you all know, we missed our flight. But I think that was a blessing in disguise.. in some ways. It seemed like a blessing because once we found out we began to pray right away. We even did worship in the airport parking lot, how cool is that??! It was a really neat experience. Yesterday was the first day of VBS and that went really good. I could see the energy in the room especially towards the end of the day, the kids were having a blast and it was great to see them doing so while worshiping Christ! Later on yesterday we went to a few parks to hand out sandwiches. At first I was nervous... I was nervous yet excited at the same time. It turned out to be an amazing experience. People let us pray for them and were so friendly despite all that they have gone through. One of the groups of people my group prayed for requested prayers regarding not only their safety but the safety of everyone who sleeps at the park. I also heard many other awesome experiences other groups within our group had. Later on we did a quick lunch drop off by the library. I watched from the car window and saw how the man Josh was handing the lunches to looked (There were probably at least 10 homeless people hanging out in a group there). He just seemed so happy. He went around kindly distributing the lunches to everyone there, and then he squatted down next to some kids. That really got to me when I saw that their were kids there too. It was an awesome experience and is kind of hard to explain how I felt. Today we've started another great day of VBS and our next stop is to adopt a block and see what we can do to help out there. I'm really looking forward to it! Thank for reading, everyone! Please continue to pray for our safety, that we can share with many others, and that we can serve the Lord and glorify Him! - Cori K.

With some rays, IN-N-OUT, and God!

         Well today was the beginning of VBS! Starting off the morning with an early devo looking out around the sky line seeing fog and a beautiful silhouette of the mountains and hearing all the exotic birds filling this country with life! It is truly amazing to just sit back in my wheelchair and try to grasp the fact that God made all this for us! Then off to band practice for the crazy children songs, what a way to start the day! Once the room was filled with children the mood lifted to a time of great worship with all the kids yelling and screaming our ears off! VBS, was a blast just being a kid again myself and getting to talk with the guys about which Lego's are there favorites, or competing in who can sing the loudest! Amazed by how much the kids sell out and completely give it there all, such a humbling experience! After the time with the crazy kids we went down the mountain and get to experience an outreach at a few parks, where we walked around and gave bagged sandwiches to those that wanted one, but most importantly praying for and with people that were around the park! Listening to stories upon stories and just loving and being loved my the people of San Bernardino! Then a part of the night that was a different experience, the experience of eating and In-n-out burger's! All I can say is, WOW! Each bite got better and better, and before I knew it, it was gone! So I got another one! Through all the fun and excitement I have truly been stretched in the way of encouragement! Its amazing to see how more excited and uplifted people are when you make the effort to let them know how much they mean to you and how blessed you are to have them working along side you and being part of the trip! Crazy how some Cali air will form and change you..haha no it was all the help of God and his calling on my heart to be a encourager and uplifter! Thanks for all the prayer and it will be wild to see how God will continue to shape this trip! Please continue to pray and keep us in your thoughts! Day two tomorrow can't wait!

Drew B.