Our mission project with Connection Church officially began today. Pastor Doug Hixson began our day with the story of his call to start the church and how God has blessed them in miraculous ways in 4 short years. They are now seeking to plant churches in more surrounding communities, and that is why we are serving here this week. We are very excited to partner with this evangelistic Southern Baptist congregation. Even at only 4 years old, they are sending mission teams around the world and starting new churches. It brings a great deal of confidence to know that your efforts are being leveraged by such a strong effort once you are gone.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week we are canvassing three different cities with two goals: introducing them to Connection Church, and inviting them to the five block parties we are hosting this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, we are dividing into two teams to staff two block parties. While we are singing this week, our most important function is to staff the jobs at the block parties including food service, inflatables, registration, and fun and games with children. While our mission team covers these tasks, it allows the staff and people from Connection Church to meet prospects and develop relationships in an effort to see people come to faith in Christ and into the church.

Today, we canvassed several neighborhoods in Sturgis from 10:30 am – 3 pm before the 6:00 pm block party. The students knocked on doors and invited people to attend tonight – and guess what? Several did! The students did an outstanding job carrying out their assignments today. We have talked a lot about the discipline required to set aside our own desire and agendas – our selfishness – to focus on serving others and accomplishing the goals Connection church has this week.

At this point, all the sightseeing and free time is over and we are focused on the mission and seeking to make the most of the opportunity. Pray for patience and good health. We’ve been blessed with good weather, but a couple of kids are getting ill and weary – which is typical – but pray that we will all be back to 100% soon.

Our students are outstanding! We’ve received wonderful, appreciative comments on their demeanor, hard work and music from the church, audience members, hotel guests – everywhere we’ve been. They are representing The Lord and our church very well. They are always on time and ready to take on the next challenge. We are blessed!

Here is a link to a brief video about Connection Church: