Saturday, July 11, 2015

Hallelujah! by Sam Kim

As we sat around the fire and listened to a young man who was one of the most reluctant to participate at the beginning of the week rap about Christ, while his mom who a few days ago seemed critical toward us sat with us with joy and love toward her son and us, I kept thanking and praising God. It is truly He, and not us, who redeems all things, and make them new and good. What an amazing blessing and privilege that He'd do such things through His people!  As we gazed into the bright stars above us our hearts sang out "Hallelujah! You are so amazing!"


Praising Jesus, Sam 

Praise God for a faith-filled Vacation Bible School! Our lessons focused on God's plan of salvation, and the Holy Spirit was present each day! It has been an honor to teach the Good News of Jesus to these precious children and teens! Thank you for praying for us and for them. Pray that God continues to help them understand His enduring love for them found in Jesus!








Exploring God's glorious creation in Window Rock, Arizona and Navajo, NM!




'What an amazing time this has been' by Dawn Jorgensen

Ya at eeh abini. (Navajo morning greeting, unfortunately without punctuation!) Blessings and greetings from New Mexico on this last day of our vacation Bible school. What an amazing time this has been! The Lord has truly come before us; our fears of not having anyone come to the church for the programs and fellowship have been blown away by the ever-present desert wind. We have been amazed at the types of “challenges” that we faced: scrambling to make more food, find more chairs and provide more supplies! Our God has been working mightily, and the people here are hungry for nourishment of many sorts. They are often waiting for us when we arrive, even though the meals aren’t to start for a half hour. They are reluctant to leave, asking if they can help just to be able to stay at the church with us. They are sharing their time, their expertise in crafts and cooking, their very lives with us, and we are so blessed. We have had an average of 30 children these last 3 days, and most have some type of familial relationship with the other participants. 

Each day different adults come and stay, perhaps thinking they will just drop off their children, but God has other plans. They converse with us, do the crafts that the children do, learn about Jesus and usually eat!  We are so grateful to be developing relationships with the folks here, and are eager to see how the Lord grows us all as we continue on this spiritual journey together. We have a bonfire tonight and, if the weather holds, a wonderful time of star gazing and exploration with Mr. Frank. Tomorrow consists of service projects at the church and some home visitation with Pastor Tim before some free time for sight-seeing. Sunday we’ll worship with our new friends at Shepherd of the Valley, and pray for their own VBS which starts Monday! We’re all so grateful for your prayers; thank you for sending us with full hearts, open arms and lots of supplies! We are ever aware of our OSLC family constantly praying for us, interceding, blessing. We are so thankful to have you all with us in spirit. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all of the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12) 

Blessed to be in Christ with you,

Dawn

Campfire praises to the Lord! S'mores and marshmallows were a huge hit, but none could compare to Mr. Frank's presentation under the stars on the church campus! Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth!



Each child received two Children's books at the VBS. They both proclaim the awesome love of Jesus!