A Rising Light

 "Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord  will be your rear guard."

                                                          ~Isaiah 58:8

  Monday our team went to Christansted and performed a drama about God restoring our hearts after they have been broken from different things of this world. Like alcohol, and drugs, and broken relationships. We performed it twice and talked and prayed with people afterward. It was a really great time of ministering to the people on the streets.

Hanna stealing Jared away from Mindy. Leaving behind a broken heart

Minday and Malene talking with some local homeless

  Later that day we listened to a sermon from Josh's home church in California. The teaching was one section of a series on different lies the devil loves to tell us. The one we listened to was how the devil will feed us the lie that "the bible can't be trusted", then the pastor gave reasons why we could. He described how the bible is texturally accurate, archeologically accurate, and historically accurate. It was a wonderful teaching that our team enjoyed listening too! It really emphasized that God never contradicts himself and treating the bible for what it is, Gods living word.
 
Here is a link to the website if you are interested in listening yourself! We highly encourage it! :)
<a href='http://www.searchablesermons.com/?VideoID=1520'>http://www.searchablesermons.com/?VideoID=1520</a>

  Tuesday we went to the Lighthouse Mission in the morning. We spent the rest of our afternoon helping clean the ywam base and preparing rooms for other people that arrived later in the week. It was a great time of fellowshiping and helping out the long term staff here. Before coming here we felt like God had been telling us that we would be doing some sort of rebuilding for the base here. And cleaning is just one way we have been able to help out and build it up!!

  Wednesday we were surprised with a day off to go boating and see Buck Island!! A family in the St. Croix Christian Church lent our team their boat for the day to bless us for sharing our testimonies and helping teach Sunday School. We were blown away by the generosity! So our team was able to spend the day on a beautiful catamaran with perfect sunny weather. We were also able to snorkel off the side of the Island at the only underwater state park!

The team posing for a picture on the 'Kindred Spirit'

  Thursday we Felt the Lord was leading us to do prayer walks in Christensted. So we were sent out in pairs of two and walked out in faith. We were able to pray with the people sitting outside, walking around, waiting for taxis, and setting up booths. We had a great time just asking the Lord for guidance and seeing where he took us with our obedience. We discovered that some people are very receptive to us, and others are not quite as much. But we never let that discourage us. We have confidence that God was moving and know that even if we cannot see what he is doing, that doesn't mean nothing is going to happen.  Later that day we went to the afterschool program that the Lighthouse Mission runs. We played games for the first half our got to know the kids. We were then able to help with their homework. We will be going to the afterschool program about twce a week. The teachers who are there every day were very greatful to have us there. They were also very excited about the  kids response to us being there! Our team is looking forward to building relationships with the kids and continuing our ministry with the Lighthoues Mission!!

  Friday we went to the lighthouse in the morning. This week Jared preached! He talked on being thankful and the golden rule of loving your neighbor as yourelf. He talked about how when you love eachother the world around you becomes a better place. A message much needed to hear by the homeless in this community. We have observed that there is some hostility between the homeless, even inside the lighthouse. And they took the message to heart. After it was finished they thanked the pastor and the long term volunteers who are there every morning cooking for them. It was great to see the immdeiate response they gave to the message! We were very encouraged. 





                   Jared preaching the word, Mindy being excited, Hanna listening intently...  

  During all of this we  had a group of people stay on base to keep our 24 hour prayer day continuing. We started thursday night at 10 p.m. and ended 10 p.m. Friday. We had a time of worship, prayed into the education circle, gave encouraging words, had a time of personal devotion, went on a treasure hunt, had a time of thankfulness, washed our leaders feet, and ended with some worship. It was a wonderful 4th 24 hour prayer day!
  We had a wonderful week full of listening to the Lords voice for guidance, and walking out in faith the things he showed us!  

Overall team feeling of this week:
" We are now at the halfway point of our outreach and things are begining to pick up! The holidays are over and more ministries have opened up. We have more set plans and are becoming organized. God has been teaching us alot about being patient and waiting on him. Next week we are going to be starting a mini DTS for the children  at the Lighthouse afterschool program and the children at the Kennedy project. We cannot wait to see what God does in the next part of outreach!!"
                                                                                 -St. Croix team

                                           
                                                 Bringing Joy to St.Croix!!