Month: June 2014

Nashville Day 6 (Thursday)

Posted on by Dan Strickland

We wrapped up our final day of mission projects & VBS today. It’s been a great week.

Tonight we had a special concert to end the week. Chris August & About A Mile both performed a private concert for our team. It was a cool way to end our trip to the Music City. We celebrated five birthdays on the trip this week so we wrapped up the night with Bruster’s Ice Cream after the concert.

We’re headed to the Country Music Hall of Fame in the morning. After all, what’s a trip to Nashville without some country music? We’ll be headed home after we grab lunch on the road.

Our students will be singing in all three morning services this Sunday (6/15). Please plan to join us.

Thank you for your prayers & messages of encouragement. We had around 500 messages that were sent to team members this week. It’s so crucial to have prayer partners, and you have been very faithful to lift us up. God honored those prayers and guided our group this week.

Here’s our highlight video from today:

Nashville Day 5 (Wednesday)

Posted on by Dan Strickland

Wow. What a truly amazing evening we had tonight. Our students led the evening chapel service at the Nashville Rescue Mission. The Rescue Mission is the largest homeless shelter in Nashville and helps around 700 people (men, women, and children) daily. Tonight we were at the men’s shelter and there were ~300 men in attendance.

The presence of God was so evident tonight. There was an amazing outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the service. Our students weren’t singing to impress anyone (although they sounded great), but rather out of a heart of worship. There were a lot of men, arms raised, praising Jesus alongside of us. Everyone in the room was blessed by tonight, us included.

This is a group of students that desire to know Jesus and make him known. They are unashamed of their love for Jesus, and it’s a contagious thing. Parents, you’ve done a tremendous job of instilling in your teenagers a love for the Lord. They go boldly in to the world and make Jesus famous.

VBS Update: We started the week with 5 kids in VBS. Today we were up to 25 kids! God is bringing more kids each day. We wrap up our VBS tomorrow. God is at work: please keep praying!

Mission Projects Update: We have done a LOT of painting, cleaning, scraping, scrubbing, sorting, & packing this week all over the Nashville area. Our teenagers have worked really hard and kept a smile on their face the whole time. We’ll finish up tomorrow. There are several locations around the Nashville area that are more organized and visually appealing than before we got here. The students understand that as the body of Christ we have a great opportunity to meet physical needs and empower others to reach people with the Gospel. Every location that we’re working at is now better equipped to make a difference in the lives of others.

Here’s our highlight video from today:

You can send messages of encouragement to members of our team at:
http://www.fbcostudents.com/form.php?pageID=56

The final notes will be printed off Thursday night at 9 pm.

Here are some specific ways you can be praying for our team this week:

Pray for the people of Nashville that we will be working with.
Pray for Jay Watson (pastor of Life Community Church).
Pray for Dr. Kimbrough (pastor of First Street Missionary Baptist Church)
Pray for our time serving at the Nashville Rescue Mission.
Pray for our time serving at the Second Harvest Food Bank.
Pray for our time serving at the Christian Women’s Job Corp.
Pray for the Student & Music Ministry staff as they lead the trip.
Pray for the Student Choir & that our concerts would connect with people.
Pray for the safety for our group.
Pray that the Lord will fill our group with grace and humility while they serve.
Pray for unity within our group.
Pray that many kids will come to VBS and learn about Jesus.
Pray that we would be helpful as we paint & do other mission projects.
Pray that God would teach each team member so their faith in Him might grow.
Pray for boldness in conversations we will have to share the Gospel.

Nashville Day 4 (Tuesday)

Posted on by Dan Strickland

We had our second full day of ministry projects today. Our students & adults are doing a great job of serving with a positive attitude in all situations. Tonight we had a special dinner for our recently graduated seniors. This senior class have been outstanding leaders and have set the example for the younger students to follow. They will be greatly missed in the Student Ministry next year!

Each night this week we have a worship service for our team at Life Community Church. Our service is led by Brett Rutledge (music) & Jay Watson (teaching). Jay is preaching through Exodus and unpacking how the journey the Israelites experienced has a lot of parallels to our own lives. There are a lot of conversations stirring amongst our group over the messages each night. Understanding God’s calling on our lives, and our willingness to follow & obey is a huge deal for all of us. This trip is a prime example of students stepping out of their comfort zones and being obedient to God’s leading in their lives. It’s been really refreshing to have people pouring into our lives after a full day of serving others.

One final note: yesterday we had 5 kids show up to VBS. Our students & adults rejoiced over those 5 and had a great day of leading them in VBS. Today we had 17 kids show up! We’re excited to see these children learn about Jesus all week. Please be praying that the message of the Gospel penetrates their hearts!

Here’s our highlight video from today:

You can send messages of encouragement to members of our team at:
http://www.fbcostudents.com/form.php?pageID=56

Here are some specific ways you can be praying for our team this week:

Pray for the people of Nashville that we will be working with.
Pray for Jay Watson (pastor of Life Community Church).
Pray for Dr. Kimbrough (pastor of First Street Missionary Baptist Church)
Pray for our time serving at the Nashville Rescue Mission.
Pray for our time serving at the Second Harvest Food Bank.
Pray for our time serving at the Christian Women’s Job Corp.
Pray for the Student & Music Ministry staff as they lead the trip.
Pray for the Student Choir & that our concerts would connect with people.
Pray for the safety for our group.
Pray that the Lord will fill our group with grace and humility while they serve.
Pray for unity within our group.
Pray that many kids will come to VBS and learn about Jesus.
Pray that we would be helpful as we paint & do other mission projects.
Pray that God would teach each team member so their faith in Him might grow.
Pray for boldness in conversations we will have to share the Gospel.

Nashville Day 3 (Monday)

Posted on by Dan Strickland

Today we started our mission site rotations. Our students & adults are ministering at 5 different locations around Nashville.

  • Life Community Church: painting the outside of their newly acquired building (an old Dollar General). This is our home church where we are worshipping each night.
  • Nashville Rescue Mission: a homeless shelter. Our students are preparing meals & sorting clothes & food donations. We will be leading their chapel service on Wednesday evening.
  • Second Harvest Food Bank: this is the food bank that covers all of Central Tennessee. Today our students sorted & packaged 16,000 pounds of food! This will be used to feed over 13,000 people in 46 counties across Tennessee.
  • First Street Missionary Baptist Church: we are leading a VBS for kids. Our students & adults have done a great job preparing to teach these kids about Jesus!
  • Christian Women’s Job Corp: we are helping them paint some classrooms that they use for job training classes (a ministry of the WMU).

Each day we are rotating mission site locations, so each student will serve at each of the above locations. It’s a busy, but exciting week. Our team is being introduced to several different aspects of ministry. Thank you for your prayers!

Here is our highlight video from today:

You can send messages of encouragement to members of our team at:
http://www.fbcostudents.com/form.php?pageID=56

Here are some specific ways you can be praying for our team this week:

Pray for the people of Nashville that we will be working with.
Pray for Jay Watson (pastor of Life Community Church).
Pray for Dr. Kimbrough (pastor of First Street Missionary Baptist Church)
Pray for our time serving at the Nashville Rescue Mission.
Pray for our time serving at the Second Harvest Food Bank.
Pray for our time serving at the Christian Women’s Job Corp.
Pray for the Student & Music Ministry staff as they lead the trip.
Pray for the Student Choir & that our concerts would connect with people.
Pray for the safety for our group.
Pray that the Lord will fill our group with grace and humility while they serve.
Pray for unity within our group.
Pray that many kids will come to VBS and learn about Jesus.
Pray that we would be helpful as we paint & do other mission projects.
Pray that God would teach each team member so their faith in Him might grow.
Pray for boldness in conversations we will have to share the Gospel.