Today was another awesome day in ATL. We began our day with some delicious chicken biscuits and learned more about the difference in works-based religion versus Christianity being a faith, grace, and relationship based religion! The students all week are being armed with knowledge to defend their faith and show others how a relationship with Christ is the only path that leads to fulfillment and eternity with God.

Into the afternoon we headed out to our mission sites. This has been the highlight of the week here in Atlanta. Every site has been full of kids eager to have fun and hear about the Good news of the Gospel. Some sites kids were literally waiting and cheered when the bus pulled up. The students have done and INCREDIBLE job taking the lead on the ministry sites and many have gotten lead children to Christ for the very first time. We closed an epic day with a huge block party at one of the apartment complexes. From soccer to facepaint to sidewalk chalk to the students leading worship, it was a night to remember. We are so thankful to be apart of what God is doing here in Atlanta.

• Pray tomorrow for endurance for the team as we take on our third full day of ministry!
• Pray that students would continue to be bold in sharing the Gospel!

https://vimeo.com/273622011

– Paxton Brittle

Today was our first day in action!

We started with a session led by the Whirlwind Missions director, Tim, and his daughter, Ashley. They taught us worship songs in a few different languages and gave us some information on  the demographics of Doraville. The sites where were are serving this week include apartment complexes that are up to 90% unchurched. Over 700 different languages are spoken just in this one city and needless to say, there is a huge need for the love of Jesus in this community. Tim and Ashley then took us to an International Market where we got to try foods from around the world. This market was so cool! Each aisle was like visiting a different country where we tried kiwi gummies, marshmallow chocolates, coconut crackers, and some kids even kissed a frozen pig for good luck (don’t worry, the pig was wrapped in plastic)!

After lunch, 7 teams went out to their two sites playing games, painting faces, painting nails, telling the Parable of the Lost Sheep, and sharing a snack. Our time at the sites is student led, and it has been so amazing seeing God work through our students. Just today, several kids from the apartments accepted Jesus Christ as their savior for the first time – praise the Lord!!! Our teams had a blast, and it is just day one! We are so excited to see what the Lord does the rest of this week as we continue to make relationships with the kids and adults in the area!

Ways to pray for us for Tuesday:

• God would be glorified in all that we do.
• Students and adults would continue to have boldness as they share the bible stories and engage in the community.
• Energy to serve the people of Doraville.
• We would rest in the fact that the Lord is completely in control of each day.

Thank you for your prayers! Keep those encouragement messages coming, we love hearing from you guys! To send a message, just go to the events tab on the FBCO Students website (fbcostudents.com). We will see you tomorrow!!

– Cathy Rush (Girls Intern)

We may have had an unexpected delay to our ATL Mission Trip, but today’s “Day 1” was nothing short than fun!

Our original departure time was supposed to be Saturday at 1:30pm, but due to severe weather in ATL, our hotel lost power! *Less than ideal*

We rescheduled our departure for this morning, and were commissioned by our church family in the 8:30 worship service at FBCO! We loaded buses and headed straight to Suntrust Park to catch the Braves vs. Nationals game.. thankfully our seats were in the shade 😉 it was such a fun game considering the Braves won at the bottom of the 9th inning! We checked into our hotel (which now has power), got settled, then headed to our host church for the week and had dinner! While the students ate dinner, we honored our grads with the annual senior dinner at a (super yummy and authentic) local Mexican restaurant.

The ministry we are partnering with (Whirlwind Missions) have a great relationship with First Baptist Doraville, which will be where we have most of our meals, worship, team times and briefings.

Tim and Ashley (our ministry hosts through Whirlwind Missions) are a father-daughter duo who are passionate about making Jesus famous in Doraville and connecting with people from all ethnicities and religions. Tim and Ashley will lead us each morning in a briefing and teach us about religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism, etc. and remind us of the Truth of the Gospel and why we believe what we believe. I’m excited for our students to not only be educated but equipped and encouraged to share their faith with confidence! These morning briefings will set us up for our afternoon ministries in apartment complex parks. (We will be ministering to a total of 14 parks throughout Doraville!)

Ways to pray for us on Monday:

– Pray for opportunity! Pray that God opens doors to spiritual conversations and reveals Himself to fbcostudents and the people of Doraville.

– Pray that Satan wouldn’t have any foothold on our team and we wouldn’t be distracted from the purpose we are here.

We have an incredible team of adults serving with us this week. We are so thankful! If you’d like to send a note of encouragement to a team member, go to fbcostudents.com/events and submit a message! We deliver them to students nightly.

– Taylor McQueen