Thursday pics

Friday pics

Friday was our day off.  We hung out around the historical areas of Philly – visiting monuments and eventually ending up at South Street where we hung out, ate Water Ice and Philly Cheese Steaks (at Jim’s), and wandered around. 

Six of us wandered into a bookstore (a small bookstore with a clear liberal bias) and started to look at the religion section – all 20 books.  As John Sullivan started reading off the list of titles and commenting on how none of them were about Jesus, out of the corner came the comment,

“Jesus was a pimp, but it didn’t work out for him so he became a prophet.”

That began a long (1.5hr) conversation with “Stoch” – a very well-read man in his late twenties eager to talk about philosophy and religion.  We left recommending that he read Tim Keller’s “Reason For God”, as he’s very into reading, and reading about religion and religious ideas.  Pray that he would follow through!

Tonight was a Good Friday service at Pastor Frank’s son’s church, followed by debriefing and evaluations.  A number of us took internship applications – pray for wisdom and God-given desires as we pray and seek God about whether to intern this summer.

Yesterday (Thursday) was our last day of VBS, last day of construction, and last day of street outreach.  In the morning we finished up hauling debris out of the building across the street (that will eventually house summer missions teams – pray that this building gets built out in the next few months, in time for the summer teams.)  The other team finished painting the entire apartment they were working on.

Our VBS numbers dwindled as some of our kids were away, some were occupied by a basketball league, and some just didn’t show up, though many did.  Our skit was about the Healing At The Pool from John 5 – explaining how Jesus heals physically but also heals spiritually – giving us freedom from sin and freedom to spend eternity with Him in heaven.  For the craft, we confessed our sin by writing them on keys and gluing them to crosses.  Pray that little hearts would understand sin and understand salvation and be saved!

We reluctantly travel home tomorrow morning – we all want to stay, but alas our trip is over.  Pray that Paul and I would stay awake. 

-Ben

Lots of pictures, fewer words:

This morning we made good progress on our two projects – painting the apartment and gutting the second floor of the mission building.  The dumpster arrived a bit late, but was quickly filled.  Evgeni was our second nail-in-foot casualty (Tom was the first, yesterday) – by God’s grace there is a free clinic down the road that can clean them up and give them tetanus shots.

After lunch, we had our third day of VBS.  Rain put a damper on our outdoor activities (soccer, basketball, frisbee, playground, etc.), but kids still came out and we got to play Monopoly, Checkers, Connect 4, Dominos, and other indoor games with them.  The theme for today was compassion, illustrated by a modern-day version of the Good Samaritan – set in the streets of Philly, with an Eagles fan getting hit by a car, and a Giants fan coming to the rescue (after he is passed by by several other Eagles fans).  The craft was origami hearts – to be given to those to whom we wanted to show compassion.  Many of the boys ended up making hearts, decorating them, and really enjoying them – quite a surprise.

Dinner tonight was slow-cooked turkey.  Quite good – you should have your kids cook for Thanksgiving next year (if we can get Pastor Frank to give us the recipe!).  After dinner, Pastor Frank’s son Julius came and shared with us, encouraging us to encourage each other (as he had us go around the circle and say something encouraging to someone else), pointing each other to God as we remind each other of God’s grace in our lives. 

Tomorrow is more work and more VBS.  It’ll be our last day with these kids – pray that they meet Jesus!

-Ben

We went out last Saturday doing street evangelism with a group called RAVEN – “Restoring a Vision & Evangelizing Nations”.  It’s a national organization that was founded out of a group of men and women who began doing street evangelism each year at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  Now there are teams across the US (and some outside the US) that go out regularly to do contact evangelism in some of the toughest areas in some of the toughest cities.  Here’s a quote from their national website:

How did Jesus “see it”, and what did he do?

Why?  Because hell is real, the Father’s wrath is real, Jesus knew that one day soon He would suffer the Father’s wrath – and he didn’t want the same for them.  But also heaven is real and God is real, Jesus had spent eternity in perfect fellowship with the Father, loving and enjoying the Father, and he desired such joy for them – eternity in God’s presence.  And so He has compassion, and He weeps, because He SEES the reality of the impending destruction and the enormity of the potential joy.

Paul saw it too:

What does he do?  He preaches:

Pray for us.  Pray that we would see the lost and weep and have compassion.  Pray that we would be broken, yet hopeful – seeing spiritual need – seeing it seriously and urgently – and knowing that God is a God who saves His sheep.  Pray that we would proclaim the gospel clearly, that seeds would be planted, and the Holy Spirit would open eyes and save people!

-Ben

Dear brothers and sisters who have been supporting us through prayer and by following along with our observations of God’s wondrous works here in Kensington. We are humbled by messages of support from so many of you and thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to partake in this ministry–we need your prayers.

By His grace, we have come to the end of another day. Today the team split into mini-teams in the morning to (a) do demolition work in some of Pastor Vegas’ buildings, (b) prepared the walls of rooms in a nearby church that are to be painted soon, and (c) spend time in fellowship and prayer. By noon, we were ready for lunch and ate Pastor Vega’s Secret Recipe Chili, Philly Cheese Steaks, and more. Soon thereafter, we took both Ben’s and Pastor Vega’s vans to the playground. When we showed up there, we saw many of the same kids as yesterday plus several fresh faces. We also saw a handful of parents sitting on benches on the sides of the playground. Only one parent had been there yesterday. The parents seemed like they were beginning to be interested in what we were doing. Perhaps God is calling them to come and hear the good news too (please pray for the kids and their parents).  Among the activities we engaged them in were basketball and soccer. A few aspiring gymnasts flexed their muscles on the jungle gym and  some more were engaged in perfecting their hand-eye coordination by playing patty-cake, patty-cake.

Next, we engaged the kids by bringing them in to the building at the north end of the playground for further activities. We started by singing several interactive songs (please pray that this helps the kids remember our message for today: forgiveness). We repeated a song and the associated motions which we had learned yesterday. Some kids even requested that we do the others we had learned yesterday! Yes, please pray that these simple songs of praise, about Christ and His love stay with the kids beyond the time that we spend with them. We are confident that God is planting seeds in their lives and in the lives of their families. (As Pastor Vega told us in his testimony yesterday, sometimes a person comes to Christ through the testimony of their kids.)

After the songs, we performed a skit attempting to illustrate the example of forgiveness illustrated in Matthew 18 by translating this into something the kids would be able to relate to and could remember. We had a question and answer session following the  skit. The kids showed us that they paid attention by answering questions posed and participating in the ensuing discussion facilitated by JW Betts. It was amazing to see God touch the heart of a six-year old boy named Rafi. When asked what forgiveness means, he replied that it is letting someone off the hook even though they really don’t deserve it. JW made it a point to show the kids how important forgiveness in their lives.

After the skit, the kids made hand puppets for the kids that said, “I can forgive” while the back said “By his grace, Jesus has forgiven me though I did not deserve it”. They decorated them and drew faces on them. Some team members engaged the parents in conversation at this time. Once the decorations on the puppets ha d dried, we headed back to the mission center to prepare for a trip to the subway terminal. (Pray that through something even as small as a puppet these kids would be able to remember what it means to forgive and that God forgave them their sins.)

Upon returning to the mission center, we found  a wonderful dinner prepared by Pastor Vega awaiting us. After being strengthened physically, we left for the inner city subway terminal where we shared meals and the gospel with the homeless. (Pray for them that they would search for Christ.) 

-Evgeni

Some pics! 

A short update today: right now I’m sitting in our apartment watching Evgeni and Tom rehearse a scene from our skit for VBS tomorrow – we’ll be acting out the story of the King who forgives his servant’s debt from Matthew 18. It’s pretty hilarious – Evgeni makes an awesome landlord (you can see, we’re modernizing parables for some of our skits). Charlene and Theodora make amazing cops, throwing (physically) Tom into jail at the end.

Today consisted of construction (well, destruction) in the morning and VBS in the afternoon. For the morning, we split into two teams . One team worked cleaning out a few apartments for one of ICM’s partner ministries – throwing out ratty clothes, broken appliances and kitchen fixtures, and mattresses. Tomorrow we’ll scrape down, bleach, sand, and paint the place. The other team spent the morning breaking down (sledge hammers, crow bars, fists, feet) drywall in one of ICM’s building.

VBS in the afternoon was a bit smaller than anticipated, but still an encouragement and a blessing to both us and the children. We arrived at the playground and immediately dispersed to engage the kids in their own environment and interests – basketball, soccer, Frisbee, jungle gym, hanging out and talking, crafts, etc. And we began to build friendships, gain trust and respect, and both our team and the kids are looking forward to tomorrow!

In the evening, we ate dinner and then listened to Pastor Frank’s testimony. Long story short – he was a drug addict and dealer, got sent to jail, God saved him, changing his heart and desires and affections, and he got out of jail and went right into ministry, where he’s been for the last 2 decades. Amazing story of God’s grace in changing a hardened heart and making it soft and sensitive to His Word and His leading, and using this man to impact and change this community.

Pray for:

• For safety as we work
• That more kids would come to VBS
• That they would take verses and Bible stories home and tell them to their parents
• Boldness, humility, and clarity as we go out evangelizing tomorrow after dinner, and that God would save people

-Ben

Some pictures.

Three out of five cars got a bit lost (Evgeni’s car, driven by Paul, kept stalling on the highway and kept losing its power steering), but we all arrived (lunch-less) in time to participate in ICM’s RAVEN program – “Recovering A Vision and Evangelizing Nations.” We moved into our apartment right when we got here – a rather spacious three bedroom apartment on the second floor of the building across the street from ICM’s office. Three bedrooms, a kitchen, a common room, and ONE bathroom for 21 people!

After dropping off our bags, we went over to the ICM office – the rest of RAVEN was putting together sandwiches, which went into bags of food which we handed out on the street. We were introduced to each other – RAVEN consists of some pretty cool guys (and women, and girls), some with insanely intense testimonies (one guy was a death row inmate!) – and prayed together. Then we loaded into vans to drive down to one of Philly’s “hot spots”.

Philly has five “hot spots” – areas of intense drug dealing and prostitution. We went to the “number one hot spot” – a busy intersection in the heart of Kensington. The strategy: park a van with these bags of food right by the intersection, disperse ourselves around the intersection (on all 4 corners), and engage passersby and those hanging out and invite them to go over to the van to get food. The women manning the van would give them food and then get some of the others to pray for them.

In the middle of the afternoon, 10 of us left the hot spot to go to a church (that was in the process of being renovated) to help with some cleaning. The pews in the balcony were disgusting, so we systematically wiped them down with bleach water, while Sindri and Sam went around on a ladder dusting off a ledge at the bottom of the balcony.

We regrouped at the ICM office for dinner and a bit of relaxing – baked beans, hot dogs with onions, and Shepherd’s Pie. Pastor Frank’s wife, Carmen, entertained us with her stories and friendly banter with Pastor Frank (ask someone on the team about Pastor Frank’s new shoes). After dinner we hit the streets again with RAVEN, this time going down to Center City to hand out food to homeless people. We stopped first in a park, where a group of homeless guys (and a few women) were hanging out on some benches. They let us pray for all of them (really cool – we made a big circle around them and prayed over them), then we gave them food, clothes, and got to talk to them about Jesus. We then picked up and went to a subway station/mall hybrid, where a bunch of homeless people wandered about (and a bunch of St. Patrick’s Day revelers were waiting for a train.)

We got back to the office at around 9:30pm. With the chance to sleep in til 10am, many of us stayed up late to hangout, talk, sing (and play guitar and djembe). We’re beginning to adjust to life here – one bathroom, little hot water, 5 minute showers, etc. But God is good, he’s knitting us together as a team as we work together, pray together, and play together. Sunday is a bit of a day off – church is at 1pm, orientation is after dinner. The evening will be spent prepping for VBS – preparing skits, pre-making certain aspects of crafts, etc.

Pray for:

• Team unity
• A worshipful, restful Sunday, preparing us for a week of hard work
• VBS prep tonight

-Ben

We leave bright and early at 7am on Saturday morning.  Pray for us Saturday as we wake up early, drive all morning, and hit the ground running doing street evangelism in Kensington that afternoon!  Pray that the Gospel would be proclaimed clearly, that God would overcome our fear and pride, display his power in our weakness, and change lives.

Here’s our team, so you can pray for us by name:

• JW Betts
• Nic Brenner
• Kris Canlas
• Charlene Chan
• Amy Graziano
• Ben Hutton
• Minji Kang
• Evgeni Khabursky
• Chris Kim
• Sam Kim
• Sindri Kinnier
• Paul Liew
• Min Moon
• Christen Park
• Jorge Pereda
• Aubrey Ralph
• Tom Rho
• John Sullivan
• Blanca Valdovinos
• John Whang
• Theodora Wong

-Ben

Welcome friends and family!

Nine days from now we will be in Kensington!  Please keep checking back here for updates – we’ll try to update daily with what we’ve been up to, stories from different team members, pictures, and prayer requests.

For the last several weeks our team has been meeting together weekly to learn, pray, and prepare.  This Saturday is our last meeting -it will be one last time of pre-trip fellowship, food, prayer, VBS planning, and logistics.

How to pray:

• Pray for our meeting this Saturday – that our team would come together and be unified in Christ, excited about serving together bringing the love of Christ to Philadelphia.
• Pray for last minute logistics – VBS prep, transportation, etc.
• Pray for a safe trip down to Kensington – we’ll be leaving at 7am on Saturday, 3/15
• Pray that God would be real to us – that we would see God as holy and tremble before Him and be amazed
• Pray that our team would be unified in Christ, not simply superficially in our various other commonalities
• Pray that our trust would be in Christ alone, not relying on ourselves but coming to God in prayer
• Pray that our strength would be that which God provides, as He gives us joy in Him
• Pray that God would open our lips to faithfully preach the Gospel
• Pray that God would open the eyes and hearts of those who we come in contact with to receive the Word of God as Truth and believe and be saved

-Ben