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The paint is drying and the shingles are up; today is the last day of World Changers in Chicago. This week has been an awesome and challenging experience for everyone involved. A few of the staff members had the opportunity to spend the morning roofing and painting along side four crews. The last few houses are being finished with extra help from the few crews who have already completed their work. Lots of goodbyes to homeowners will be said this afternoon, but there is still a celebration to look forward to tonight. Closing Celebration will be held tonight as well as our last night of Worship. The totals for this week are:
Presentations of the Gospel: 377
Questions about Relationship with Christ: 58
Salvations: 11
Recommitments: 1
Requests for More Information: 99
Requests for Prayer: 69
Tracts Passed Out: 438
This has been a great week; we have been extremely blessed to see what God has done in the lives of the students and adults. Please be sure to ask your students what they learned this week in Chicago!
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” – 1 Peter 1:24
For His Glory,
The Middle East Team
We only have one more day left here in Chicago and crews are working hard to finish the work on the houses and in the lives of the neighbors. This week we have already had 11 salvations in the community. Students continue to reach out to the people of Chicago more and more every day and share the love of Jesus Christ.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” – Matthew 9:37
Our main focus today is missions. All week long the students have been presented with different missions opportunities and challenged to pray and ask God to lay their call to missions on their hearts. We have even raised $2,451.72 for the missions offering and we will be collecting more tonight at the staff auction. It is World Changers goal to see each participant commit one semester or summer to missions before they graduate college. Tonight the students will have an opportunity to explore these options at the missions round table. This is a time of discussion and discovery about your own personal call to missions. Please be in prayer that the students will attend the missions round table and come eager with questions.
Just a reminder today is the last day for e-couragrams so if you wish to send an e-courgram please do so by 11:00pm.
For His Glory,
The Middle East Team
“So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” 1 Corinthians 15:58
Today is the second day and students are already on their sites working hard. We acquired a few new work sites today and the participants eagerly moved on to these new sites while others continue to work on the sites they started yesterday. God is truly moving here in Chicago, yesterday was an eventful day, but everyone overcame the difficulties.
Tonight, during the Concert of Prayer students will be given the opportunity to place their sins at the cross and spend the entire service giving thanks and adoration to God. This will be an awesome chance for everyone to concentrate on giving glory to Him. We are at a loss for words on what Christ is doing in and through us this week. Please keep all the students and adults in your prayers today as they work hard this week. Also be in prayer that God will strength them to do the things he has planned for them to do!
For His Glory,
The Middle East Team
Bright and early this morning all 30 crews strapped on their boots, grabbed their paintbrushes, hammers, safety goggles, and headed out to the Great Send Off. The students started off the first day of work with a few verses of the World Changers song and excitedly headed out to their job sites!
As the morning continued students were able to spend lots of time evangelizing and cleaning up the streets in the community of Chicago. Today we had six salvations and a few presentations of the gospel. We as a staff are excited to see what else God has in store for us this week. Please remember to pray for the students as they work hard and worship tonight. The speaker will be challenging the students to put their sins aside so they concentrate on glorifying God this week.
For his Glory,
The Middle East Team
It’s the first full day at World Changers here in Chicago! Today everyone split off into their crews and had some time to chat. All 30 crews took some to get to know each other and then we squeezed in to the gym to take a quick group picture. Worship was held this morning in the Worship Center led by our speaker Chad Meeks. Followed by Why We’re Here training, where students had a chance to share their testimonies. Later this afternoon, the students will go through position training to prepare them for this week.
We are confident that this will be a fantastic week! Everyone is excited and ready to get to work! Please be in prayer that the students will be able to share their story with someone from the community of Chicago and maybe even someone on their crew.
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ”Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here Am I. Send me!” – Isaiah 6:8
For His Glory,
The Middle East Team
The fireworks here in Chicago are quite a spectacular show, but they are not the only exciting activity happening on this 4th of July. Today, all 15 churches arrived at East Chicago Central High School pumped and ready to work! These churches are from all over the United States and they are:
Brand New Church
Cedar Heights Baptist
Christ Baptist
Crossroads Baptist
First Baptist Church
Forest Baptist Church
Grace Baptist
Grandview Baptist
Graves Memorial Baptist
Greenview Baptist
Hanson Baptist
Life Connection Church
New Castle First Baptist
Union Hill Baptist
West Colonial Hills Baptist
All 15 of these churches combine to give us a total of approximately 350 participants. After the churches arrived and unloaded we had Welcome Celebration. During Welcome Celebration, we played exciting games like Name that Tune and Air Rock Band. After Welcome Celebration, the students headed to dinner and then moved on to worship. During Worship, the speaker Chad Meeks challenged the students to be Set Apart this week and reach out to the people of Chicago. After seeing how the first day went we cannot wait to see what God has in store for this week.
In His Glory,
The Middle East Team
Trailers and vans will be loaded with luggage, tools, students, and adults tomorrow morning, all on their way to Chicago, but not just to visit the Sears Tower or the Navy Pier. These adults and students are coming to Chicago with a much greater purpose in mind. They are on their way to spend the week serving the Lord through construction and evangelism. Throughout the week, students will be working on houses in the community and serving the community in any way they can. These 350 students/adults are from Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, and Missouri.
Our summer staff has been anxiously awaiting everyone’s arrival and cannot wait to see what God has in store for all of us this week. The Office Manager/Team Leader this week is Sam Jennings; he is from North Carolina and will be in charge of all the paper work for the week. Courtney Haveman is the Missions Communications Specialist and is from Texas, if you have any questions about the offering or different mission opportunities she will gladly answer them. Worship will be lead all week by Music Leader Jordan Price, who is from Georgia, and all sound/video will be controlled by our A/V Tech Lexi Berryhill who is also from the great state of Texas.
Please keep all of the staff, students, and adults in your prayers this week as they go out and serve the community of Chicago.
In His Glory,
The Middle East Team