During this series we are discussing WORSHIP.

Week #1: What is Worship? (April 25)

Week #2: Worship in Spirit and Truth with special guest Sam Montijo (May 2)

Week #3: Worship as Art (May 9)

Week #4: A Worship-filled Life (May 16)

Don’t forget that tomorrow is Elevate Sunday in both services at Laurel Nazarene.  We will be sharing stories and God Moments from MRT 18, leading worship, and in charge of the entire service.  Don’t forget to wear your MRT 18 shirt or an Elevate shirt.  If you don’t have either we will have one for you when you arrive.  Check in with Sarah when you arrive for job assignments and to answer any questions that you may have.

ELEVATE PARENTS. We are serving at God’s Table on Friday, April 20th. From 5:30-7:30. Of course we need some help with our menu. I’m ordering chicken from Shore Stop. You can contribute money for chicken or help with the following menu. 
4 Crockpot or pan of baked Mac n cheese-serves 10-12

2 Industrial size applesauce(104 oz) or enough to serve 40 l(serving size 1/2 cup)

40 dinner rolls

80 Cookies (serving size 2 per person)

Please let me know what you are willing to help with. Thank you. 

Barb Hudson

Today our students got to be college students for a day as we had a campus visit at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. We got to eat in the cafeteria, we got a campus tour, met with some college students to ask questions, and got to hang out on campus for a while. We also got to hang out with Caitie again (last summer’s intern) since she is a student here.

After dinner we went to our last service project called “Feed the Vern”. Feed the Vern is a non-profit that gives out food bags to elementary school kids on Fridays at schools so that they will have food over the weekend. These kids get meals throughout the week at school, but don’t have food for the weekends. This ministry helps make it possible for kids to have food all weekend as well. Our group packed over 400 bags which is enough for the rest of the school year.

Every night of the trip we have group time where we share stories and God Moments from the day, and then the students spend some quiet time journaling about their experiences. Tonight we had an extended time as we shared about the entire week, and ways that we can “Continue the Adventure” when we get home. I (Pastor Derek) encourage all parents to ask their teenagers about their experiences this week (although you may want to wait a day or two for them to rest before you barrage them with questions).

Tomorrow is a travel day, and so this will be the last daily recap. I (Pastor Derek) want to say before I wrap up that you should be very proud of our students. They all had such a sweet attitude and worked hard all week. This has been one of the best groups that I have ever had the privilege to lead on a Missions Road Trip.

We will be heading out early tomorrow morning and we plan on arriving back at LNC by 6:30pm.

Here are a few other pictures from today:

Every morning of this trip we start our day with reciting the “Prayer of St. Patrick”. This beautiful prayer is a commitment and a hope that Christ would be evident in every part of our lives and our day. It is the prayer that the song “Christ Be All Around Me” is based on. And throughout this week it has been amazing to see how our students have taken that prayer to heart and have been used by God to be examples of Christ’s love and attitude of service.

Today we once again worked at LifeCare Alliance. We delivered food to people’s homes, collected groceries for cancer patients, worked in the cafe serving hot food, and wrapped silverware for their catering business (this catering business helps keep their lights on as each year they get less and less grant money).

In the evening we worshipped with the Mount Vernon First Church of the Nazarene’s youth group, “Catalyst”. It was such a cool experience joining with their youth group and hearing some teaching from Pastor Brian on ways to share the gospel that actually works. The highlight was getting to see Caitie who was our summer intern last year.

We kicked off our rainy Tuesday today by serving at LifeCare Alliance in Columbus, OH. This non-profit organization focuses as serving the elderly in the greater Columbus area by delivering food with Meals on Wheels, an on-site cafe, food pantry, and varied medical assistance. This is a big operation that sends out 5,000 meals every day! It was such a great experience for our students to minister to the elderly and be an example for Christ to the workers and fellow volunteers. A few of our students went with Pastor Derek to deliver meals to people in their homes around Columbus. The other students worked with Lora back at the main building organizing food supplies, serving food at the cafe, preparing food, and folding silverware. The students worked hard and had such a positive and fun attitude all day. One of the people who help run LifeCare made a point to come up to Pastor Derek to say that she was VERY impressed with our students in how hard they worked and just how they acted while they were there. She went on to tell how that is often not the case with other groups who come to serve. We are so proud of our students!

After lunch we went to Franklinton Farms which is a network of urban gardens in the middle of the city of Columbus. These types of gardens help residents have access to fresh fruits and vegetables in parts of the inter city where access to these things are slim due to it being a “food desert” (food desert is a term for places in cities where there are no grocery stores or access to fresh foods). Our group had a tour of the farms, and then we helped pull woods in different green houses. It was a neat experience to work on a “farm” while surrounded by an urban environment. One of the gardens was built in what used to be a parking lot by taking a jackhammer to concrete to get to the earth below.

In the evening we went to Easton Mall for the students to get dinner and have some fun time out. Afterwards we ended our day as we always do on MRT’s with group time where we shared stories from the day, and God moments. Then the students had quiet time to journal about their day and experiences.

Here are some other pictures from today:

It has arrived: Missions Road Trip 2018!

Our theme for our trip this year is “Adventure Awaits”, and our theme verse comes from Romans 8:14-15 (THE MESSAGE):

God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?

We know that God has so much in store for our students on this Missions Road Trip, and we all going into this week with a holy expectation of what God wants to do in us and though us.

Day 1 of MRT 18 has been a day of travel. We traveled through 5 different states (Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio) on our trip today and after close to 12 hours of travel (including stops) we have arrived in Mount Vernon, Ohio at the church we are staying at for the week safe and sound. We have such a great group of students who are already bonding with each on the ride, and were all such good troopers on this lengthy trip. We took time to stop throughout the trip for us to eat and stretch our legs. One of those stops included some time at Cabela’s. You can see some of the fun pictures of that below. It is so cool to already see so many students stepping up to help and be leaders on this trip. Please be in prayer for us this week, and be sure to check back daily to read daily updates on the trip. Blessings!

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