Final Day of Ministry

Today was a great day. We prepared meals for lunch at Agsten Manor and supper at West Charleston Baptist Church. We presented concerts at both locations to tremendous crowds--better than expected. What a joy it was to work alongside these vital ministries and to share the love of Christ with so many this week. The senior adults were absolutely wonderful at pitching in and doing anything that was needed along the way. They worked very hard and were obviously committed to serving God every moment. Our group will return with renewed excitement about missions, a burden to pray for the ministry here in Charleston and the wonderful people we met here, and a desire to find new ways to serve God in our on community. Take a look at the photos and see our senior adults joyfully serving, and look at the faces of the people that got a glimpse of our Savior through their acts of kindness and proclamation of the gospel. To God be the glory for the great things He has done this week.

We begin our return trip around 8:30 tomorrow morning. Please continue to pray for us as we travel. We look forward to sharing our experiences with you. Thank you so much for your prayers that sustained us.

Day Three Goes Well

Another full day comes to a close. Our team was busy this morning. Several people baked raisin bread for distribution to the two places we are doing concerts and free food today and tomorrow. The kitchen staff was determined to increase the output from around 58 loaves yesterday to at least 100 this morning. They finished with almost 120 loaves!

Others on the team continued work projects around the church building--particularly repairing and painting a hallway. It looked great when they finished it up. Ten of us went to the elementary school to help Debbie's class with a math lesson. Great fun was had as we worked on fractions, decimals, and percentages! We worked with many kids that we see in the after school program at the church.

After lunch, we divided into four teams--one to cook the barbeque chicken dinner for the evening meal at Lee Terrace, one to continue construction work, and two to visit the locations of our ministry events tonight and tomorrow at lunch. The visitation teams took fresh loaves of bread to each resident and invited them to the outreach event. Lee Terrace is not just for senior adults, many handicapped younger people also live there.

The visitation teams returned to church and we worked with the after school kids, helping them with their homework. After a quick return to the hotel to change clothes and prepare for the evening, we returned to church to pick up the food and supplies for the event at Lee Terrace/ Attendance was really good, and God was lifted up in music and word. It was so great to come alongside an existing ministry there to offer encouragement and draw some new people in. We pray that seeds for the gospel were planted in many lives. Several people were prayed for as the night drew to a close.

The team is now back at the hotel after a pretty exhausting day. We are all eager to see what God has in store for tomorrow. That will be our last ministry day with two concerts planned. The final one will be at West Charleston Baptist Church. We covet your prayers. Please pray that God will use us as He sees fit to accomplish His purposes.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.

Day Two Comes to a Close

What a great day this has been. The group is exhausted from a very busy day of ministry. We began at 8:45 this morning, going to the church to pray and regroup for the day's ministry opportunities. For the morning, several folks baked 29 small loaves of raisin bread, which we took to residents at Jarrett Terrace in our afternoon visits. We also had some men who mowed and cleaned up a lady's yard who had recently lost her house by fire and had it rebuilt. Some men did maintenance projects around the church building. A large team went to the welfare department to offer coffee and doughnuts to the clients there and have an opportunity to share Christ's love with them. We had soup and sandwiches at the church for lunch, then began preparing for the afternoon visitation to the approximately 100 apartments at Jarrett Terrace. Each resident that came to the door was presented a fresh loaf of raisin bread and an invitation to come to our evening outreach event--free food and a choir concert. We had several opportunities to pray with the residents as well.

Meanwhile, back at the church, several people were preparing baked spaghetti, salad, bread, and beverages for the evening meal. As they continued the preparation, the rest of the team helped the after school kids with their homework. Some acquaintances from last time were reunited. Unfortunately, we had only 45 minutes with these precious children, because we had to return to the hotel for 30 minutes to get dressed and ready for the evening outreach.

We had a great turnout from the residents for the dinner and concert. The meal was wonderful, and the choir sang superbly! The people loved the evening. We were able to share that Jesus Christ is our reason for living, our hope for tomorrow, and our promise of eternity with God. We invited those that do not know Him to accept Him this evening.

The Jarrett Terrace ministry is the oldest ministry of the Cannadas. They have just been asked to start a church there at the building. God is at work!

I am so thankful for our senior adults on this trip. They worked really hard today without ever complaining. They exemplified the love of God in their lives. Please pray for us in all of our ministry efforts tomorrow. There will be more raisin bread cooked and construction work done. Many will go to the elementary school and help with the work in the classrooms. We will also work with Lee Terrace in a similar fashion as our work with Jarrett Terrace today.

Arrived Safely

Our senior adult missions team arrived safely without incident tonight. In commemoration of last year's journey with the bus engine blowing up, we made our first "pit stop" at the truck stop at which we were marooned last year. It was kind of like visiting our "ebenezer," reminding us of God's strong provision on our last trip. This time, however, was a very smooth journey.

We arrived at our hotel, checked in, had a bit to eat, then headed over to Wes Charleston Baptist Church to meet with the Cannadas to discuss their ministry and ways we will be plugging into that this week.

We have 18 members of this team. Fifteen will be making up our missions choir to present four concerts while we are here. We are also participating in lots of other ministry. Tomorrow morning, we will share God's love at the welfare office, prepare raisin cakes to take with us on visits to the three senior adult housing units we will be visiting in the next three days, and do some light construction jobs around the church and perhaps for people in the community.

Our team is excited about what God will do this week. Please lift us up in your prayers.