Coming Soon!

We plan to have each team member share some thoughts from the trip, along with how they saw God at work. So watch over the next few days for those to be posted on the blog.

Our Ministry Week is Already Over!

We are all having a hard time believing the week is already over. We were all amazed at how fast the week went by. We all had a great time seeing how God used each one of our team members in His own special way.

Friday was a bit different that what we were used to. We started the day out in the community picking up trash and talking with people we came in touch with. We were amazed at how much we accomplished in only a couple hours. Many people had conversations with many of the people in the community. What was encouraging to us, was how many of them said “Thank You” to us.

Friday afternoon we went to our Challenge Circle sites and saw many of children for the last time. It was a great week to show the love of Christ to all the children through our example and the truth of the gospel that we shared verbally. We pray that our team and future teams will continue to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ to bring hope to a community that desperately needs it.

Friday evening we had our last supper at Café Reconcile as a group and then headed over to the Church for what we called the “Say So.” This was time for people to share how that saw God work this week. We had a time of sharing, singing and a slideshow of our week.

We left Saturday at 7:15 AM and traveled 650 Miles to Festus, Missouri (South of St. Louis) and arrived at 6:30 PM. We plan to leave at 7:30 AM Sunday and hope to return to First Free by 8 PM or earlier.

Thank you all for your encouraging comments and prayers. We truly felt the presence of God with us all week and we know that is because of your prayers.

A Tour of the City and More!

Thursday was bit of a different day for us. We have so appreciated Urban Impact Ministries and CastleRock Church's efforts to help us understand the community and history of New Orleans. This has been helpful for the us as we work with the children, teens and adults in the area.

Today we took a tour a large area of New Orleans (not Downtown or French Quarter). We visited the Garden District (St. Charles Avenue), Central City, 17th Street Canal Levee (middle class neighborhood that was devastated by flooding), and also some of the local schools. We were encouraged to hear that a number of great charter schools are coming into the area that should really help build a solid education foundation for the area. Urban Impact is starting this fall a high school charter school of 10 students. We stood outside one of the new charter schools and prayed for all schools, teachers, school board, Louisana Education Board and the students and families.

The weather has warmed up again, but we haven't had rain. The amazing thing about that is it rains in buckets in New Orleans regularly. We will be near 90 at 6PM tonight with only 65% humidity, so it really only feels like 95 degrees. Keep praying, we fully believe it is the result of your faithful prayer.

The Challenge Circle Update: What can we say the students have been doing a fantastic job. They are "hyped" (excited) to be working with the children even though many shoulders and backs are a bit sore from all the rides, but the smiles and laughter are abundant. We end each night with a water balloon launch, which seems to be a favorite amongst the children and our team. What's better than getting a water balloon in the face and have the water splash all over you?

Prayer Items: 1) Pray that we would finish strong. 2) Pray for us as we meet up with other groups and do a community clean-up activity called "Super Friday". 3) Pray as we say goodbye to all our new friends from the community and the other groups. 4) Pray for continued good health and weather.

Another Amazing Day!

It is always nice to know what to expect, so Wednesday was great. We pretty much did what we did on Tuesday. Gutting houses, afternoon chapel and Challenge Circle. Keep praying the weather has been great for all our activities.

We are very excited about how much we were able to accomplish at all four work sites. Some of the things we ran into while on the sites, dead rat, large pet cockroaches, contents of homes that have not been touched for nearly two years. We were all a bit sobered to see the amount of things people lost. It was really sad to see family heirlooms that weren't salvagable. Our team worked very hard and is doing well with their health. We had a couple of team members from the other churches that are not feeling well.

Challenge Circle went well again, we had a great turn out of children. The children and the student leaders have really gotten a hang of the games and sayings we use. We are not sure who is having a better time, the children or our team members.

Prayer Items: 1) For weather that allows us to minister effectively. 2) For our tour of New Orleans to get a big picture of what New Orleans is all about. 3) Pray that we would finish well, we have one Challenge Circle night left. 4) That our teams will be bold in sharing Jesus Christ with the children and other people that are around.

Let The Work Projects Begin!

Thanks for your prayers! It was a wonderful day in the high 80's today and medium humidity. We will pray for you in the midwest and your hot weather. After our breakfast we met as a team and had a short bible study on "Peace" as well as prayed for our fellow students that are serving with Royal Servants this summer.

In the morning we separated into 4 work teams and headed out. We had 3 teams gutting and removing contents from homes, while another group helped a local organization with some landscaping and curb appeal. All the teams did an amazing job and came back excited about how much was accomplished. We will have another day of projects on Wednesday.

We had an afternoon session with Michael Robinson, Community Development Director about racial reconciliation, it challenged us and helped us see the bigger picture,

We just returned from the Melph and Callio Projects and doing the Challenge Circle. The turn out at both was way up from Monday. The ground was dry and the kids were very excited to see us and we were very excited to see them. We ended the night with a water balloon launch where the student missionaries and children try to smash the water balloons as they fall from the sky.

We ended the night with a trip to the local Ice Cream shop, sorry no pictures of this.

Prayer/ Praise Items: 1) Praise God for the perfect weather for our projects and circle time. 2_ Pray for a good night sleep as many of our bodies are getting a bit tired and run down. 3) Pray for opportunites to share Jesus Christ boldly with those we meet on our projects and at the circles.

Let The Challenge Circle Begin!

We weren't sure if the Challenge Circle was going to happen because of the rain and lightening in the area. After a delicious dinner, we traveled to two project sites to do the Challenge Circle. We divided up and went the Melph and the Callio. It was so encouraging to arrive and see the children come out as soon as we arrived. Our team along with the other performed great and it was great to actually put in action all the things we have been in training for.

We found out later that we had major rainstorms not more than a mile from us. We praised God for the little sprinkles we had and holding off the rain in the area. We also had an evening with a temperature near 80, that was nice.

We begin work gutting houses tomorrow in the morning.

Prayer Items: 1) Continued prayer for the weather to provide us the opportunity to share Christ with the children. 2) Pray for safety at the work sites. 3) Pray for continued health of our team, all are currently doing well.

A New Orleans View of Katrina!

Today we started out with a tour of the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. This area would be the area you saw the most severe devastation. We did a walking tour and prayed for the city of New Orleans as well as meeting a few people that had returned. Most of were amazed that nearly two years later there are still houses that look like they haven't even been touched since the flood waters receeded. Also we were struck by all the areas where houses once stood and now it is just a grassy/ weedy area. It appears that only about 1-2 homes have been rebuilt per 3-4 blocks. Only a handful of people have returned to the 9th Ward, the water reached nearly 9 feet in many area. Many homes closest to the levee were moved from their foundations do to the water surge.




Our team also heard personal stories from those that survived the Hurricane and didn't evacuate. We had a time to ask questions and discuss what we had just observed.

Let the Training Begin!

Sunday, was quite a day. It felt as though we moved from one thing to the next with very little time in between, wait that that is exactly what happened. So what exactly did we do today? Well the list is long, so we will give you just the highlights.

Breakfast, Culture Training , Poverty Talk, Child Evangelism, Lunch Noon, Work Project House Gutting Training, Challenge (Awana) Circle Training, Dinner, Concert of Prayer & Lights out at 10:20PM.

We have been divided into four teams that represent each of the four colors of the circle. Green- God Loves Me, Blue- All People Are Sinful, Red- Jesus Dies For Me, Yellow- I Need Jesus to Be My Best Friend. Obviously there is more than that to them, but that gives you a glimpse. The Challenge Circle is our vehicle to sharing with the children. We will be traveling tot he Calliope Projects. Rain is predicted for the evening, so we are praying God will use us no matter what kind of weather comes.

We plan to tour the Lower the 9th Ward, the hardest hit area in New Orleans by Katrina. We will also hear testimonies from two people who survived the aftermath of Katrina.

Prayer Items: 1) Pray that our team members will stay healthy with such a demanding schedule. 2) Pray for the various projects and outreach opportunties we will have through out the Central City of New Orleans.

Movin' On In, Nawlins Style!

We had a bit of a delay in the morning do to a alarm clock malfunction (we won't say by who, unless you ask). We left Memphis and safely arrived in New Orleans at 2:45 PM. We went through a brief orientation with the Urban Impact interns. Then it was off to the RiverWalk and the historic French Quarter. We enjoyed some Beignets at Cafe Du Monde and stopped for a brief supper before meeting up with the other teams from Michigan & Colorado back at CastleRock Community Church.

Everyone is pretty excited! We met the all the interns and learned some of the new cheers that we will be doing. We will spend most of the day on Sunday in training.

Prayer Items: 1) Pray for the team to remember the things that learn at the training times and are able to put them into practice throughout the week. 2) Pray for a good amount of sleep, we will be early to bed 10 PM and early to rise 6 AM. 3) Pray for safety as we training and work on several projects through out the Central City of New Orleans.

Another Long Day On the Road!

We really don't have much to be complaining about. We had light rain the first three hours today, but the heavy stuff was behind us and an hour in front of us. The rest of the day was near perfect driving conditions. We arrived in Memphis, TN at about 8:15 PM. We have currently logged about 935 miles so far. The hotel had a pool so a number of the team went down to relax and unwind for a while, a nice end to a long day.

We crossed the Mississippi three times we think (Iowa/Illinois, Illinois/Missouri, Arkansas/Tennessee). We drove by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Our group watched the movie "The Second Chance" to help us get prepared for our work in New Orleans, we also did a bible study on the road about the "Fruit of the Spirit- Joy".

We plan to leave Memphis at 7 AM so we can get into New Orleans in the afternoon.

Please Pray: Pray for safety as we travel the last 400+ miles. Pray for us as we meet up with our other two youth teams we will be joining.

Safe and Sound in Cedar Rapids!

The team headed out at 6:15 PM on Thursday and arrived at 11:15 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was a rather uneventful drive, just the way Pastor Dave likes it. We seemed to miss any of the severe weather that was all around us.

We want to thank the nearly 30 family and friends that prayed with the team at First Free. We were also sent off by the Sports Camp cheerleaders, what a treat that was.

We plan to leave Cedar Rapids about 8 AM and arrive in Memphis Tennessee at about 6 PM.

Prayer Items: 1) Pray for team unity as we all get used to each other in the close quarters of the van. 2) Pray that we will have another day of safe travel.

Until next time. . .

On The Road- For a While!

Our team will cover nearly 2700 miles while they are away. We leave Thursday, June 21st at 6:15 PM. We will travel to Cedar Rapids, Iowa and stay overnight and then it is off to Memphis, Tennessee for our 2nd overnight. We plan to arrive in New Orleans around 3-4 PM, June 23rd. We will be joined by 2 other youth teams from Michigan and Colorado Springs.

If you would like our prayer handbook, you can download one at www.seeyouattheedge.com. Please check back each day and see our lastest postings, prayer requests, pictures and videos.

2007 Set Goal Of 150 Prayer Partners

We have a team of 14 going to New Orleans this summer. We have set a goal of about 10 prayer partners for each team member. We know that when we have that kind of support back at home, the Lord will provide, protect and work His will out as we serve. If you would like to be added to the prayer team and have a handbook mailed you, contact Brenda at bchermak@firstefc.org.

The team will also have a prayer time at 6PM on June 21st just prior to getting on the road to New Orleans. You are welcome to join us.