Good Stuff

Fieldside @ PK Park

Blog post #3 has arrived and there is no way it could hold all the awesome things that have happened over the last few days! God is showing me some amazing stuff and helping me grow at the same time! Friday is generally our day off in the office but we had so much stuff to do for VBS that me and Pastor Dan came in to get some stuff done. We went out and ran some errands and when we finished we went by Autzen Stadium, PK Park, Heyward Field, and Matt Knight Arena. The University of Oregon has some pretty impressive facilities. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go inside all of them before the end of the summer. We made it into PK Park pretty easy but got turned away at Autzen... so close.

Sunday morning was my first time teaching children's church at Westside. Its so awesome to tell a Bible story and watch the kids' faces when they're really getting into it. They were so intense as David and Abishai tiptoed through the pitch black and past sleeping soldiers to get to the bedside of King Saul. The kids were great and I had a blast!

Monday afternoon we went through neighborhoods trying to spread the word about Vacation Bible School. I didn't get much positive feedback for VBS but I did have a couple of great visits! I met one family with a couple of teens who are looking for a church with a good youth group and that she had heard good things about Westside. I assured her that Westside had a great youth group and that now it was even better than before for one reason... ME! I think my sarcastically confident sales pitch worked... she said they'll be visiting soon. The second good visit I had was with a man in his 50's. I didn't think it was going to go anywhere at first but a comment led to a short conversation and he eventually revealed that he and his wife had been casually looking for a church and hadn't been in a while. He told be they would be dropping by soon to check it out. Just a couple more chances to share the gospel and help people grow! Awesome stuff!

Tonight was an incredible experience! I went on a visit with Pastor Nathan to visit a couple who have been visiting the church. The whole point of the visit was to discuss church membership and discipleship with an elderly couple who had just begun their new life in Christ. Just sitting through that kind of meeting alone would have been such a great experience for me but God had bigger plans. The man was unsure of his salvation so he bowed his head and asked God to forgive him and thanked Jesus for his sacrifice. He didn't use church language and he wasn't eloquent but he sent goosebumps down my arms. It was from the heart. I'll never forget that moment and feeling that I could reach out and touch the Holy Spirit.  I'm so thankful God allowed me to be there. I'm going to work on sharing the gospel more so experiences like that will never be lacking in the future!