Santo santo santo Dios todopoderoso

Well we will start off with talking about a beautiful day at the beach. We hopped out of bed only to turn our swag off so the Holy Spirit could come and fill us up. Now this was a difficult task for Mason because he was still hyped up on getting to go to The University of Miami, which whom invented swag. The drive to the beach was amazing. Filled with excitement and anticipation everyone was really giddy and happy. We arrive at our destination to find a white sand beach with practically nobody on it. Can you say “PTL” this is going to be a blast. We through our towels down and rushed into the water. Us boys decided to do some rock climbing only to be shot down by the leader of the Wolf Pack. I’m not sure what the girls were doing at this time because; uhh nobody knows what girls do. We got together on the beach to reflect on what God had taught us while we were here in Miami and for me personally it was that Jesus is much BIGGER than your fears and failures.  That if you completely trust in him everything will be perfect.  There are no magic words that you can say to someone, you don’t need to have the right body language, and God will use you to how he wants. There is nothing that you or I can do to have someone let Jesus enter their heart, it’s all God. Jesus certainly humbled our hearts this week and what an amazing experience it was.
                We dispersed form our group to go to the secret place, just to spend some alone time with God. Some lay on the beach reading the word and others dipped their toes in the water. I laid in the water and just the tide pull me out and push me back in. Submerged in the water I just thought about how God created the Ocean and why we all were called to Miami. There were some clouds in the sky and they would cover the sun making me chilly, and this thought came into my head; “Even when its dark and cold you are still in My Love.” At first I didn’t understand and clouds would pass and the sun would be shining bright again. Then it dawned on my; no matter the season, how you are feeling, or what you are going through God still loves you. His love is greater than the ocean, deeper than the deepest sea. For us thirteen to be called to Miami to build his kingdom and to be used is such a blessing. God knitted our group together absolutely perfectly. Each person brought strength to the group that supported the others.  What a blessing to be used to spread the word.
                Rest of the day we swam, built sand castles, and got burnt. We went to a fancy restaurant that everyone liked, but one person.  It was sad to leave Miami, we were a little family there and it’s a trip that I will remember for the rest of my life.

We are currently all back in Minnesota….blahh. I don’t know what else to say I hope this kind of sums up or last day, but Jesus is good and I am greatly blessed.




(note sorry for misuse of words and or grammar, I mean I couldn’t even spell mirror)

A Powerful Week

We spent our day at FIU again.  It was a fun and challenging day for all of us.  There were encounters with people of many backgrounds, including Judaism, atheism, and different Christian traditions.  We went to the CRU meeting later in the afternoon and then ate dinner with a lot of students that are involved with CRU.

This evening we tallied up all of the work God did through us this week.  137 spiritual conversations  the Gospel was shared 64 times and 10 people gave their life to Jesus! We feel so blessed to have had this opportunity to share the love of Jesus in Miami

Open Hearts

Wow! Yesterday God did amazing things!!! In the morning, we traveled to Miami Dade College, where we got to pray for the campus, participate in a CRU Bible study with Miami Dade students, and go around sharing the Gospel with students on campus. Afterwards we got together at Chelsea Brady's apartment to talk about the conversations we got to have with Miami Dade students. It was soooo sweet to hear what God had done! Yesterday we used something called Perspective cards to start up conversations and see where people are at spiritually. Matthew Berquist and I were led to speak with two different guys who were hungry to hear the truth. The first was Luiz, who said he used to believe in Jesus Christ, but was now agnostic and not sure about the truth. But God completely opened his heart to hear the Gospel as we were sharing with him and he chose to receive Christ!!!  Matt and I were also led to speak with a guy named Gabriel, who was also agnostic but desired to know the truth. As we shared the Gospel with him, he was so open to hearing and decided to trust Christ as well!! God is sooooo good!!

Other people in our group also said that people at Miami Dade were so open to talking about God. I am so thankful for the opportunity that we had to share the Gospel at Miami Dade and for all that God is going to do today as we share at FIU.

It is picture time! Wednesday

This is a photo of our team with the CRU group at Dade Community College. What an encouragement they were to our team! Friendships were formed quickly God is so great!

It is picture time! Monday

This is a photo of our group serving at Christ Fellowship church on Monday! Sharon and Steven were a huge blessing to work with.

A Day at Dade

We spent our day at Miami- Dade community college at the Kendall campus. We challenged and blessed. Some of us visited with people who with atheist, agnostic, and mixed feelings about religion and Jesus. A few more became part of the body of Christ! Many seeds were planted and God is beginning a sweet movement on this campus. Tomorrow we are back at FIU to share the Gospel and go to their weekly CRU meeting. Oh, I forgot to mention that we went to Dade's weekly CRU meeting this afternoon. It was super encouraging to see these believers on campus who are super on fire for the Lord. If anything, pray for the hearts on Miami-Dade. There are many lost students who need Jesus. He is sitting at the door of their heart waiting for them to answer. This is a need that we all really realized today and long to see changed Thanks again for prayers and support. The Lord has been overwhelmingly faithful to our group as we continued to be united in Spirit and in Truth.

Beyond Great Day

God blessed us in so many amazing ways today. The Holy Spirit's presence was overwhelming everywhere we were. First of all, God saved one of our cars from getting in a potentially dangerous car accident. Dara was driving and a car nearly drive into the drivers side of the car. The Lord placed His hands and feet over her body and turned the car and brought it to a stop in the middle of an interstate exit.

We all spent a few hours sharing the Gospel and talking with FIU students the weather was absolutely wonderful today! It was sunny And about 83 degrees. This evening we took "stats" of what the Lord did through us today. These are our totals (remember that our team is only 14 people). 54 spiritual conversations. 26 times the Gospel was presented. 4 individuals joined in the family of God.

Brett and Dara were really blessed to meet a super prophetic student. They visited with him and his friend for about 45 minutes. They walked away edified and encourage. We met as. Whole group after 2 hours of sharing. The group laughed a lot this evening during "highs and lows" because apparently Brett and Dara were super filled with the Holy Spirit-to the point that they looked high! It was great to see and feel God working in all of us and the students we visited with his afternoon.

God has been (as He always is) so faithful to our group. We are beyond unified in Christ and treat each other like brothers and sisters. It has been a lot of fun hanging out and living our God's kingdom as a unified group the last few days. Please continue to pray for us and we share at Miami-Dade tomorrow morning and afternoon.

May the Lord bless you and encourage you! Thanks again for any and all support! The Lord has blessed us greatly and we pray that He is blessing you as well.

Serving!

This morning we served at Christ Fellowship church in downtown Miami. We felt so blessed to be able to bless the workers and leaders of the church. We painted rooms for children, put tables together, and a few of us cleaned some bathrooms. These bathrooms are used to serve homeless people. Ty, Nathan, and I (Dara) all felt really blessed to be able to clean that area, knowing it was serving the church and the community.

This afternoon, we took a boat tour around the Keys. There are many wealthy people that live on these islands. God gave us a special gift on this tour: DOLPHINS! It was so special and sweet to see this great part of God's creation.

We ate supper at Bubba Gumps. The server shared a small part of his testimony with us. It was another sweet blessing from the Lord.

Today we definitely experienced more of Miami's culture. We are excited to begin sharing and talking with students at FIU tomorrow.

Orientation

We are ready to take on our second full day and our first day serving in Miami! We had an orientation last night from the wonderful Chelsea Brady who gave us some facts to get an idea of the city in general:

Miami
-5th largest US city (5.5 million people)
-home to headquarters of 1,400 multination corporations
-160 countries and 140 languages represented here
-least churches city in the nation
-considered capital of Latin America
-56% Hispanic
-Political and Law Enforcement corruption prevalent (Look up recent story of 2 drunken police officers)
-Individuals "baggage" or background is so complex it can be difficult knowing where to begin spiritually
-Highest in abortions per capita in the Nation (available in places such as cosmetic surgery centers)
-36% of population living at or below poverty line yet it is considered the 5th richest city in the world

Along with all this, Miami is related to metaphorically a prostitute; people come to play, enjoy her, and take all they can from her, but do not intend to ever give back or pour into her.

All these make Miami a strategic place for ministry, reaching not only the city but the world.

You guys, we're in MIAMI

Hey, yo! We've made it here alive! Whoopee!

Praise God we made it here without a hitch really. We had some minor issues with the car rental place from what I understand--nothing major though--and we missed an exit getting to our hotel, but that's the beauty of GPS on phones. :)

Otherwise, we did things like see the cutest and most well-behaved baby we've ever seen, laugh our heads off at everything thanks to our giddiness, jam out to worship music in the parking lot, have a dog-eat-dog game of inflight trivia on the little TV screens on the plane, etc. We did so much in the last 24 hours, and I wish I could give you a minute-by-minute recap of everything. Unfortunately, I can't. :( Even so, keep praising Jesus that we've had such an amazing experience already, and the trip has only barely begun! Everyone is is here and safe and so, incredibly excited. I don't know if it's completely hit us yet.

But seriously, you guys. We're in MIAMI.

Almost There

The girls are at Kaitie's house and the guys are at Ty's house. I'm not sure about the guys, but I know that the girls are getting VERY anxious to be on the plane this evening!

Please pray for a safe flight there and for a safe drive to the hotel late tonight.  It's hard to believe that this week is finally here!  Tomorrow we will be in Miami beginning an exciting adventure!

Happiness Part II

Okay, that last title was kind of kidding, but we'll stick with it. ;)

But wait--it's spring break already?? I/We've been looking forward to this trip for SO LONG that it feels kind of not real in a way. It's funny how things like this creep up on you. But for real: T-minus 30ish minutes, and most of us are leaving to the Cities!!! And we're boarding the plane TOMORROW.

SO. HAPPY.

SO. EXCITED.

SO. LEGIT.

PRAISE. JESUS.

Peace out, Cord--see ya in a week! :)

Happiness

The title was created by Holly B.

We are still in Moorhead, patiently (or not so patiently) waiting for Saturday evening to come so that we can board the plane to Miami.  We are all really excited to see what the Lord is going to do in and through us in Miami.

This blog is going to be updated often during the trip.  Please "favorite" this site so that you can see how to specifically pray for us and to be encouraged by what the Lord is doing.