Hooray for Friday!

What a beautiful day! All of squads were able to complete their worksites by mid-afternoon which left them more time for showers and hanging out with friends. This week twelve squads took on 14 sites. The squads busted it out today and we are proud of them! These squads have worked with passion and servant hearts. We are so blessed by our good, good Father!

To wrap up the week, we had closing ceremony. We are so appreciative to everyone in a leadership position for taking time out of their busy schedules to serve with us this week. We’d especially love to thank the band, volunteers, lodging facility, speaker and project coordinator.

Rusty gave his final message tonight about how to keep our passion for God alive as we travel back home. He reminded us about how preaching the gospel with our lives can speak mountains over how we speak of God’s love with our words. However, in order for God to guide our lives, we must trust in Him fully. This lead Rusty to his next point of ‘Let Go and Let God’. Rusty used this point to reiterate that we need to trust in God to not only guide us, but also autocorrect our lives. While we need to let our Lord work in our lives daily, the things we do through Him should be passionate. Rusty reminded us that it is common to forget the fire we have for Jesus once we leave our Christian community, but in order to keep the passion of our Savior, we must keep that flame even after the emotion is gone.

Not only is this the last Friday of the Huntsville project, but also, it is the last Friday of the 2018 Mission Serve projects. On behalf of Sam and I, I would like to say thank you to everyone who was involved this summer. It has been incredible to visit projects around the United States and witness God’s continual love through each of them. Thank you for a incredible summer and an opportunity for us to get to meet your participants and/or loved one. Even though we are sad to see everyone leave tomorrow, we pray for everyone’s safe travels home. We pray that the relationships made this week continue and the faith that has started this week continues to grow.

Signing Off,
Lauren and Sam
Mission Serve Summer Staff

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We are here in Huntsville whipping into a terrific Thursday!

Today was stellar! We had multiple squads finish their projects today so tomorrow, it will be all hands on deck to help other groups. God is continuously blessing us with blossoming friendship, beautiful weather and the presence of the Holy Ghost at the worksites!

Our speaker Rusty reminded us that we have always been loved. Even before we were an idea or thought of our parents, we are loved by Him. This gives peace to our minds. When we feel a lack of His presence, it is us that is moving away from Him, becuase God’s continuous and unconditional love for us above everything. One of the things Rusty stressed to the participants is God can reroute His will. If we place God as our priority, we will always be in God’s plan for our life. Seeking Him in everything we do is not only leading us towards Him and the blessings He has planned, but also gives us a true idea of what it means allow our love for our God shape our life.

Tonight, a glorious and moving event took place – card board testimonies. During Rusty’s message, He had multiple volunteers come up and share their testimony. However, to convey the message, a struggle or difficulty that the volunteer is currently going through or has dealt with in the past is written on the front of a piece of card board. The board is then flipped over to reveal how they are dealing with their struggle or how God blessed them while they were going through previous experiences. This was an extremely moving experience to all involved.

We ask you to pray for not only the participants tonight, but also those who shared their testimonies. We understand their struggles can be very difficult share to one person let alone a crowd of over 100 people. We pray sharing these testimonies not only gives rest to the volunteers, but also their loved ones.

Please continue praying for the safety of all participants and do not forget to send last minute ServeMail.

God Bless,
Lauren and Sam

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Howdy from Huntsville on this wonder filled Wednesday!

We had a great day on the worksites! God has blessed us with cloud cover and low temperature. Despite only having a half day on the site, some of our groups finished or got close to done. We are so proud of them and their accomplishments!

Churches departed for fun activities around the Huntsville area such as the mall, bowling, tours of the veteran’s museum and laser tag. Tonight, all groups returned to the project rested, relaxed and eager to get back to their worksites tomorrow morning.

We did not have worship tonight, but we will pick right back up tomorrow night with another powerful message and card board testimonies.

Please continue to pray for strength and perseverance for our students and adults as they finish strong. Remember your students, friends and loved-ones would love to hear directly from you, so make sure to send them some ServeMail!

Best Blessings,
Lauren and Sam
Mission Serve Summer Staff

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Heyo! It’s a fine and mighty Tuesday in Huntsville!

We are all smiles today in Huntsville! With participants full of energy, you can feel the excitement of this week in the air.

Today, our participants went off on their second day of work with beautiful weather! Many squads got close to finishing today and hopefully tomorrow, multiple squads will finish their worksites! Whoop whoop! We are so blessed to have this group of servant hearted participants who are willing to obey God’s will for their lives.

Tonight’s worship was a little different than usual. Our service tonight was the concert of prayer and included the offering. This worship is self-lead and focuses on direct contact with our Lord through prayer. The participant can choose to worship our God in any way he or she chooses. This is often one of the student’s favorite nights of worship and an event that is looked forward to. The participants experienced the Holy Spirit as we worshiped Him.

While we were worshiping in His glory, we asked the participants bring up the offering. This offering will go to all hurricane relief including Hurricane Harvey relief in Houston, TX, Hurricane Matthew in Fairbluff, NC, and Hurricane Irma in Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico.

We ask that you continue to pray over our project and for the safety of everyone involved. Of course, ServeMail is a wonderful resource to spread your love for any and all people attending this week’s project.

Lots of Love from,
Lauren and Sam

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Hey Folks! What a miraculous Monday!

Today, we kicked off our morning and week of hard work with an energy-filled ‘Great Send Off’. Rusty, our, speaker, prayed that our participants reach out and spread the gospel to all corners of the community.

We were blessed with gorgeous weather while the participants were at the worksite – overcast, low eighty degree temperatures and a continuous breeze. All twelve squads were thrilled to get well under way on their projects! We are so excited to see them work faithfully all week and hear about the daily relationships they will build with the homeowner and neighbors. Regardless of the nice temperatures and cloud cover, please remind your loved one to hydrate!

Tonight’s service was powerful! Gosh where to start – Rusty spoke about our obedience to God. We, as a Christian community, need to realize that we cannot achieve grace, but only accept it. We cannot do anything to be more accepted or rejected by our great Lord. Rusty used the visual illustration of trapeze performers having a net below them when they perform. While the performers have the net to catch them in case they fall, they would never intentionally fall into the net simply because it is there to catch them. When we intentionally sin, we are worshipping ourselves rather than a divine plan we know God has set aside for us. Rather using grace to embrace us when we are a slave to our own sin, grace is used for God to restore us when we make mistakes. The bible does not set the commandments in place to hinder us from life, but rather, live abundantly in Him and the blessings only He can provide for us when he sees a fit. Commitment to our Lord should be the gateway to blessings, joy and peace rather than a roadblock.

As the participants and staff settle in, we ask you pray that everyone remains safe and healthy this week. As always, keep in contact with friends, family members, or even an acquaintance with encouraging ServeMail.

Toddles,
Lauren and Sam

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Greetings from Huntsville, Alabama on this blessed Sunday!

We are thrilled to host seven churches this week! They arrived today after long travels from South Carolina, North Carolina, Illinois, and Maryland. This week we will have over twelve squads. These groups will be working on siding, power washing, painting and roofing. We have full confidence our participants will work faithfully and remember to hydrate! Please keep the safety of all the participants in mind as you think about them working and disciplining in the Huntsville community.

Our project kicked off with our opening ceremony where the students participated in games such as a lip-sync battle. This was one of our most enthusatic kick-off ceremonies. We could not be more eager to see what this week has in store considering the volume of love these students have.

Our speaker, Rusty, talked to the participants about the comfort in their relationship with our Lord. He explained how our relationship with the Lord cannot be ‘snuggled’ because it is not always warm and fuzzy. When sin takes control of our life or mistakes are made, we find it difficult to sallow our own pride or guilt to see that we are restored in His eyes.

All of our participants are thrilled to head out for their first day of work tomorrow. We ask that you pray for everyone involved in this project! Don’t forget that you can send your friends and family a word of encouragement through ServeMail!

Warm Wishes,
Lauren and Sam

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