Fresno Update #1

Well, we have now been in Fresno for a little over 24 hours and the team has gotten off to a great start. It's amazing to see their hearts to serve others while here on this outreach. As always, the parents of these kids would be so proud to see how hard they are working (and with great attitudes).

We started off the day with a team headed to the Poverello House to serve and prepare meals for the local homeless. They must have had a great time because when I picked them up they just kept talking about all the fun they had while serving at that ministry. We also had some teams doing work projects throughout the first half of the day. We had a yard work crew detail a couple of the missionary homes here in Fresno, and we had a group working for the World Impact Thrift shop. There were some other miscellaneous work projects (building a picnic table, fixing plumbing,etc...) that took up part of the morning. In fact, Jamie Warner and Jason Pahler are out fixing a plumbing problem at one of the missionary homes now so that they can have water tonight. They probably won't be back until about 10:00pm.

As soon as we finished lunch we headed out into 3 different neighborhoods to do a "Bible Club" with children. All 3 locations had a good turnout and our students did a fantastic job of leading games, crafts, teaching, dramas, puppets, music etc... I was personally encouraged to see one team interacting so well with the children. The love of Christ was shining through our students in a powerful way.

1 Corinthians 15:58 promises us that our labor for the Lord is not in vain. I can confidently look back on the last 24 hours and say that we have not wasted our time. Every student who came on this trip did not come in vain. God has a plan and purpose for them being here and He is shaping each of them as we speak. We had a sharing time tonight and it was beautiful to already hear the testimonies of what God is doing in the hearts of the team.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We can truly feel them. Please continue to pray for health and safety. We are headed to churches in the morning and then to put on a big carnival in the afternoon. We would love your prayers for tomorrow. Pray for the leaders as well...that God would continue to give each of us the energy and stamina to give our all throughout the whole trip.

God bless,

Adam (on behalf of the 2012 Fresno Team)