#iheartanchor

[Oaks] - Oaks of Righteousness - Sean Masopust - 9-8-21

2021-09-13T13:06:00.005-07:00

Pastor Sean begins our new series "Oaks" talking about what it looks like to be an oak of righteousness out of Isaiah 61.

Tribal Hype Finale feat. Elijah Lamb - 9-1-21

2021-09-03T10:28:00.001-07:00

Elijah Lamb shares the Gospel as he talks about what death does and where life is found.

[Yummy] - Relationship Month Q&A - Sean Masopust - 2-26-20

2020-02-28T09:40:00.000-08:00

Pastor Sean Masopust finishes our relationship series by answering questions about dating, relationships, marriage, sex, and more. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Yummy] - Marriage and More - Corey and Kris Hart - 2-19-20

2020-02-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

Corey and Kris Hart talk about how successful relationships and marriages stem from God being the focus and helping us grow. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Yummy] - Dating and Relationships - Leif and Faith Nomeland - 2-12-20

2020-02-20T13:35:00.001-08:00

Leif and Faith Nomeland share their own stories of their journey through dating and relationships and how God has to remain the focus through it all. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Yummy] - The Problem With Porn - Felicia Perryman - 2-05-20

2020-02-06T13:45:00.000-08:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust begins our relationship series "Yummy" by examining how porn destroys lives, our culture, and our relationship with God. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Brand New] - Which Choice Will You Make - Adam Perryman - 1-29-20

2020-01-30T10:31:00.001-08:00

Adam Perryman finishes our series "Brand New" by examining Saul/Paul and challenging us to choose who we live like. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Brand New] - Even If - Felicia Masopust - 1-22-20

2020-01-23T10:55:00.001-08:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust continues our series "Brand New" by talking about . If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Brand New] - A Fresh Start - Sean Masopust - 1-15-20

2020-01-17T10:36:00.002-08:00

Pastor Sean Masopust continues our series "Brand New" by taking a look at how God gives us a fresh start. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Brand New] - How The World Is Changed - Felicia Masopust - 1-8-20

2020-01-09T12:33:00.001-08:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust begins our first series of 2020 "Brand New" talking about what it looks like to make decisions that can change everything. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[A Sold Out Christmas] -The Insignificance of Being Sold Out - Sean Masopust - 12-11-19

2019-12-12T10:30:00.001-08:00

Pastor Sean Masopust continues our Christmas series "A Sold Out Christmas" by talking about what it looks like to continue being sold out despite circumstances. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[A Sold Out Christmas] -The Importance of Christmas - Felicia Masopust - 12-4-19

2019-12-05T10:17:00.001-08:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust begins our Christmas series "A Sold Out Christmas". If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Beyond] - Beyond Ourselves - Sean Masopust - 11-20-19

2019-11-21T12:20:00.000-08:00

Pastor Sean Masopust continues our series "Beyond" by what it looks like to live beyond yourself. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Beyond] - Beyond the Mask - Felicia Masopust - 11-13-19

2019-11-14T10:06:00.003-08:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust continues our series "Beyond" by talking about how community takes us beyond the mask. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Beyond] - Beyond Disappointment - Sean Masopust - 11-06-19

2019-11-07T10:06:00.000-08:00

Pastor Sean Masopust begins our series "Beyond" by talking about how disappointment affects our walk with Christ. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Legendary] - Transformational Moments - Felicia Masopust - 10-30-19

2019-10-31T12:18:00.001-07:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust finishes our series "Legendary" by examining how transformational moments help us and remind us of things in our own lives that keep us directed towards God. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Legendary] - Keeping A Hunger - Adam Perryman - 10-23-19

2019-10-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

Adam Perryman continues our series "Legendary" by examining the life of Elijah and focusing on how to continue to hunger for God after incredible experiences. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Legendary] - Legendary Faith - Sean Masopust - 10-09-19

2019-10-10T09:41:00.001-07:00

Pastor Sean Masopust continues our series "Legendary" with a look at what makes legendary faith. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Legendary] - Legends in the Making - Felicia Masopust - 10-02-19

2019-10-03T12:00:00.001-07:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust begins our series "Legendary" with a guide to what makes legendary followers of Jesus. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Sold Out] - Sold Out to Circumstance - Sean Masopust - 09-25-19

2019-09-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

Pastor Sean Masopust continues our series "Sold Out" with stories of people who faced similar circumstances and made very different choices and how our focus is important in being sold out. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Sold Out] - Sold Out in a Catfish World - Felicia Masopust - 09-18-19

2019-09-19T11:55:00.001-07:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust continues our series "Sold Out" talking about the details of a sold out life!. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Sold Out] - Two Things You Need To Know - Sean Masopust - 09-11-19

2019-09-13T12:14:00.003-07:00

Pastor Sean Masopust begins our new Anchor SZN with a start to our series "Sold Out"!. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

Lithuania AIM trip 2019! - Day 9

2019-07-01T18:35:00.001-07:00

Day 9

The last blog! :( Today was our free day and it was absolutely amazing, so hard to articulate how this trip has impacted us. Lithuania is incredible, i cannot recommend it enough going and doing a missions trip with the McKinley’s. They’re heart for Lithuania is seen in everything they do, and it bled into our team- and I can honestly I’m changed forever by this trip and love people so much more because of the experience I had on this trip!

It was our free day where we got to tour fun parts of Lithuania! We went to Trakai castle and the beach. Trakai was super pretty and it was awesome to walk around and get to learn different history lessons of the country. Carly and I kept falling over every 10 seconds, but at least we got some cute photos 😂 We all went shopping at the cute shops around the castle and got some cool trinkets and amber jewelry (what they’re famous for). Amber is really big in Baltics. After everyone was done with the castle we went swimming with some of the teens we met at the VBS kids camp. The water was really cold and too deep for me, but it was still fun to splash around and get to know the other Lithuanian teens a bit more (they translated for us at the kids day camp!). The changing stalls in Lithuania are really weird too (European culture is still something I need to get use to, ha!). They are just out in the open! We then said goodbye to our new friends and left to Luke and Tanya's to eat a whole lot of Italian food and have one last big group debrief. Tomorrow is going to be a very early morning (3am!) and a very sad send off, but we will not forget what God has done in our hearts here. Thanks for reading these blogs. I hope you had as much fun reading them as I did writing them!

-Kayla

Lithuania AIM trip 2019! - Day 8

2019-07-01T05:22:00.002-07:00

Day 8

Today was a pretty laid back day. We got to attend one of the soft launch Journey church services. The Duluth team did a worship set and Felicia and I got to speak a little bit about the kids camp we did. The service was a lot of fun and it was cool to meet some of Luke and Tanyas close friends (Luke did an incredible job sharing his heart for this city with Journey church!).

Side note. Carly and Erin also got stuck on the 5th floor of the building the church was in. It took us around an hour and 30 minuets to find them...it was rough. We all thought they were setting up for church, working really hard- till we noticed we hadn’t seen them in a very long time (and couldn’t remember our last encounters with them). Carly cried & screamed. Wasn’t a pretty sight, but in a few days it’ll all be laugh worthy. Erin was the calm one. Oof.

After church we went to the mall food court and all got something to eat. I ate some super good tacos! Luke and Tanya let us walk around the mall for a while and look at some of the stores. Their daughter Morgan told us about this really cool store called Revolve and it was AWESOME. I probably got a little too much there (sorry mom, didn’t just use my card for ‘emergencies’ 😬). As soon as we were done shopping it was nap time (we are still feeling big side effects of jet leg, were 8hrs ahead from home!).

We all met for dinner at this INCREDIBLE traditional Lithuanian restaurant. We had a fantastic 3 course meal (potato soup, then pork & potatoes with sour Kraut... the pork was the best thing I’ve ever eaten, literally melted in your mouth, then finished off with this dessert that tasted like honey graham crackers with sweet cream 😍). 2 men came and sang us Lithuanian songs, even had us participate with musical instruments! It was super fun!

That was basically the end of our day and tomorrow begins the last day in Lithuania. It’s bitter sweet, but tomorrow is going to be a super fun free/sight see day!

-Kayla

Lithuania AIM trip 2019! - Day 7

2019-06-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

Day 7

Today was a big walking day (more than 8 miles according to our health app). Early this morning they treated our team to donuts at this place called ‘Holy Donuts’, kinda like Voodoo Donuts. Absolutely delicious!

After Donuts we went to Luke and Tanya’s to help set up for tomorrow’s church service. They’re a portable church so we hauled everything from their house to vans and loaded them all up (it’s like a jig-saw puzzle trying to get everything to fit perfectly in the van!). The Hermantown team had worship practice, we continued to clean, organize, and put things away from the kids camp we just did all week.

After Luke and Tanya took us on some more prayer walks and we got to see many beautiful views of the city. We prayed for the city and that the people would come to the Lord and that revival would break out. It was a super cool experience. We also climbed around 1,000 stairs today...it was wild. We got to eat at a bunch of cool places today too. It felt like being an infant again, food every two hours. After dinner we all walked up to see a part of a castle in Vilnius. It was a super fun day and tomorrow we have church!

-Kayla

Lithuania AIM trip 2019! - Day 6

2019-06-28T19:53:00.001-07:00

Day 6

Today was our final day at VBS/bible camp. We got to set up the room with a bunch of different fun banners and we even got to set up a photo booth, we wanted to make it extra special and memorable for the students last day! There was also a fun bouncy castle for us and the kids (only 4 kids were allowed inside at a time and just try to imagine how it was to have crazy excited kids being told in English to wait their turn 😂). The bouncy house was one of the best parts! It was really sad to leave the kids today (we got to make friendship bracelets with all the kids and a little girl made me a BFF bracelet), but we all hope that we made a little bit of an impact on their lives.

After camp was done we all got changed and ate at a cool food truck area that literally had 20+ food trucks to choose from where we got to pick what truck to eat at. We had some awesome chicken Quesadillas (us white girls eating quesadillas in Lithuania). After this we separated into church groups and went on two different prayer walks and started praying for the city (one of the most incredible things we’ve done- got to pray and sight see beautiful Lithuania). We prayed for the University in Lithuania and for a Chi Alpha to be placed their. We prayed for different aspects of the city and churches. The University in Vilnius is one of the oldest in Europe. We all met up on an awesome overlook of the city and prayed for Vilnius. It was an awesome day today and tomorrow only brings more awesomeness!

-Kayla

Lithuania AIM trip 2019! - Day 5

2019-06-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

Day 5

Our second full day camp with the kids! Today was filled with a lot of fun and a good amount of rain. The weather here is kind of like Minnesota, but a lot less humid. Today was actually kind of chilly. Some of us got sent outside to do a scavenger hunt with the kids and got down poured on (happened in a blink of an eye!). So today we had to stay inside with the kids and played a lot of different games with them. We made a prayer journal craft, played basketball, played red light green light, and danced to some fun worship songs (were getting pretty in shape with all the dancing and jumping around we’ve been doing during kids worship!). The girls also loved putting stickers all over my face...and then making me eat them. We made the day fun by just hanging out and loving on kids! Even if we don’t know the language, we just go up to a kid whose by themselves or join in on a game- and kinda just put ourselves right next to them 😂 We love it and I’m sure they love it too! Hanging out with kids these last two days have been absolutely incredible!(even if the weather wasn’t the best). Our Owatonna team’s goal this whole trip is to say ‘what can I help you with’ in whatever we do, so we can serve the missionary! We wanna be stretched in serving on this trip!

While we were at the day camp with the kids, Alexis and another guy named Adam went with Luke and did some demolition work on the church their planting in October! Alexis is one of the most hard working people you’ll ever meet (Luke and Adam were incredibly impressed with her!). Alexis worked that sledge hammer and got so much work done at the church! They were absolutely surprised with how much they got cleaned up today!

After this we ran some errands with Tanya to buy prizes for tomorrow’s final day at camp. We came back to the hotel to FIND OUR LUGGAGE! We were all so happy it was finally here (I can finally have different clothes after 5 days 😬). We all got to change and then we went and ate some dinner at an outside mall in the city. It was super yummy! To end our day we all debriefed and talked about our days. It has been a wonderful trip so far!

-Kayla

Lithuania AIM trip 2019! - Day 4

2019-06-26T21:12:00.001-07:00

Day 4

We are ALL finally in Lithuania! We all met the missionaries Luke and Tanya after we got off of the plane. They are super awesome and have helped us through all of the issues we’ve ran into. They are our toothbrush saviors and we’re so sweet and took those of us who lost our luggage to H&M and paid for a few things for us to wear.

We woke up around 7am and went down and ate breakfast at the hotel. Europeans love their bread, and so do we. We even got some yummy bagged ice cream for breakfast! After this we all got into the vans and made our way to the school to start camp (similar to VBS). Some of us made some lunches while the others set up. When the kids started to arrive we got to play with them and just talk with them. These kids are awesome. Some know about 3 languages, which was super impressive. Working through language barriers can be difficult, but when you all can relate on liking each others clothing and dance moves everything is okay. We had worship, crafts, games, and a bible story. The kids all left around 2pm and then we went and visited the church location that the missionaries are remodeling. They plan to plant ‘Journey church’ in the fall & have it ready by October. After this we got some groceries (but no peanut butter- very hard to find peanut butter in Lithuania 😔). Everyone met up at Luke and Tanya's later that night and we had a wonderful meal of tacos and brownies. We all talked about our day and what we feel God wants from us on this trip. It was a wonderful first day in Lithuania and we all cannot wait for the days to come!

Also probably pray that our bags come back or I will be wearing the same clothes for 7 more days lol.

-Kayla

Lithuania AIM trip 2019! - Days 1-3

2019-06-25T18:55:00.002-07:00

Days 1 and 2
Sometimes things do not go as planned, but one thing I’ve always learned on missions trips is how to remain flexible. We arrived at MSP Sunday night and met up with everyone else going on the trip. The others that we are joining are from a church in Duluth and they are fearlessly lead by Josiah Tonder (he’s pretty awesome). We all got reacquainted with each other, got some coffee, and then boarded our delayed flight to Chicago. Or so we thought. We ended up being delayed a bit more than we thought. Around 2 hours delayed. Good thing I brought an ample supply of friendship bracelet thread...all of us girls started making them. The flight attendant was very amused. We finally started flying and we all began to realize that we had a very small chance of making our connecting flight to Frankfurt, Germany. We got off of the plane as fast as we could and ran to the other gate (well...some of us ran...some power walked....some just walked). Sadly, we were about 5 minutes too late to that plane. This brings us to sleepover in the Chicago O’Hare airport.

We all decided to fuel up on some McDonalds and started getting comfortable in the chairs. Josiah went to go and figure out ticketing situations with Felicia, while the rest of us tried to sleep. Not only was this airport a bit chilly, but two birds had decided to join our sleepover. I hope those birds are doing okay right now. Josiah ends up getting us the same exact flight the next day. We would be leaving for Germany at 10:45 pm Monday...a bit behind schedule. We all woke up in the morning as rested as we could be and got more coffee and breakfast. The airport was starting to drive us a little stir crazy and we had a good amount of time to kill so we all hopped on a train and did the most tourist thing you can do in Chicago, visit the bean! The bean was wonderful and even more bean-y than it was when I first saw it. We all walked around Millennium Park for a bit and then made our way back to O’Hare. This is where the story gets interesting again. Our tickets got a bit wonky again, but Josiah did a wonderful job with getting everything worked out but we ended up getting split up into two groups on two different planes. At this point we were all just excited that we would finally be in Germany. Half of us had to run for our lives to the gate, but we made our flight! These last two days may have gone a bit different than planned, but we know that God has us in his hands. Soon we will finally be in Lithuania and we all cannot wait! Until next time on the wonderful travel blog!
-Kayla

Day 3
We didn’t know airport life could be so draining, as we forgot what day it was exactly 😂 Like Kayla originally said, our team was split into two groups. The minors needed to go with Josiah (I thought I did Carly a favor and sent her with Kayla to keep her comfortable 😬). While they got on an earlier flight to Germany we left about 6 hrs later only to have our flight delayed....AGAIN.... as we arrived later than anticipated in Germany, we then found out we had missed our connecting flight to Lithuania (Josiah had messaged us while we were in the air saying he had taken care of it and rebooked us all on another/later flight). Once we were off the flight- we went to the ticket counter to get our new boarding passes only to find out they couldn't find us in any system. Eventually after going on an hour of jumping through different hoops/ walking from one ticket counter to another- they got all 7 of us on a flight to LITHUANIA 🇱🇹

We landed here around midnight (4pm MN time), found our luggage (the ones that split up from us haven’t gotten their luggage yet 😭) & headed back to the hotel we’re staying at. Ready for showering, changing out of our 3 day old clothes, and a good night's rest to get up and go tomorrow! Can’t wait to see what’s in store for us! Thanks for praying!
-Felicia

[The Holy Spirit] - Gifts and Things - Sean Masopust - 5-9-18

2018-05-16T10:33:00.003-07:00

Pastor Sean Masopust continues our series on "The Holy Spirit" by talking about what we refer to as gifts of the Holy Spirit and what that really means in our lives and walk with Christ. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[The Holy Spirit] - Who Is The Holy Spirit - Felicia Masopust - 5-2-18

2018-05-16T10:31:00.003-07:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust begins our series on "The Holy Spirit" by talking about who the Holy Spirit is to us and in our lives. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[What Keep You Up At Night] - Worrying About The Future - Felicia Masopust - 1-31-18

2018-02-13T12:41:00.004-08:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust finishes our series "What Keeps You Up At Night" talking about the worrying about our future. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[What Keep You Up At Night] - Why Would God? - Sean Masopust - 1-24-18

2018-01-29T13:45:00.002-08:00

Pastor Sean Masopust continues our series "What Keeps You Up At Night" talking about the question why God would allow bad things to happen to us and in the world. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[What Keeps You Up At Night] - Racism - Sean Masopust - 1-10-18

2018-01-22T10:30:00.000-08:00

Pastor Sean Masopust kicks off our "What Keeps You Up At Night" talking about racism and why as followers of Christ, there's a deeper root and a deeper solution for our way of living and treating people. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[A Very Tacky Christmas] - Week 2 - Felicia Masopust - 12-13-17

2018-01-12T09:19:00.001-08:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust finishes off our Christmas series "A Very Tacky Christmas" by looking at how the setting of the first Christmas relates to our own relationship with God and who He is. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[A Very Tacky Christmas] - Week 1 - Sean Masopust - 12-6-17

2018-01-12T09:17:00.000-08:00

Pastor Sean Masopust kicks off our Christmas series "A Very Tacky Christmas" by looking at the first Christmas was indeed "tacky" by definition. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Unqualified] - The life of Paul - Felicia Masopust - 11-29-17

2018-01-11T12:23:00.000-08:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust finishes our series called "Unqualified" by looking at the life of Paul. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Unqualified] - The life of Peter - Sean Masopust - 11-15-17

2018-01-11T12:17:00.002-08:00

Pastor Sean Masopust continues our series called "Unqualified" by looking at the life of Peter, who at many times seemed unqualified to be who God called him to be. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Unqualified] - The life of Gideon - Felicia Masopust - 11-1-17

2018-01-11T11:43:00.000-08:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust begins our series called "Unqualified" by looking at the life of Gideon. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[SQUAD] - Marked By God - Sean Masopust - 10-25-17

2018-01-11T09:14:00.001-08:00

Pastor Sean Masopust finishes our series called "Squad" by looking at how being marked by God changes our actions as friends. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[SQUAD] - Week 2 - Felicia Masopust - 10-11-17

2018-01-11T09:09:00.002-08:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust continues our series called "Squad" by looking at our friendships and how they point to Christ. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Old School] - Shaped By God - Felicia Masopust - 9-27-17

2017-10-06T09:01:00.003-07:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust finishes our series "Old School" talking about our desire to be shaped by God. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Old School] - Ready Player One - Sean Masopust - 9-20-17

2017-10-04T09:06:00.002-07:00

Pastor Sean Masopust continues our series called "Old School" talking what to do when you're ready to start your journey of faith. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

[Old School] - Back To The Basics - Felicia Masopust - 9-13-17

2017-10-04T08:58:00.002-07:00

Pastor Felicia Masopust kicks off our new season of Anchor with a series called "Old School" talking about going back to the basics of Christianity. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element.

Boston Trip Day 6

2017-06-25T19:23:00.001-07:00

Day 6 It's our last full day of serving here in Lynn. We helped out the church with moving tools, wood, and heavy shelves down to their basement. I discovered just how much sweat my body could produce in 2 hours. Let's just say I sweat so much that at the end of the day my hair was still soaking wet. Metro Kids was so fun! Jacob, Stacey, and I led the dance songs for the kids. Nothing brought me greater joy than to see the glowing smiles of the kids as they smiled singing "Jesus...you're the only one that I could live for!" Roy took us to Marblehead neck where we had a time to reflect on what God had done in our lives this week. Here is a summary of what God spoke to the three of us. Amy- During this week at MetroKids I felt God confirm my calling for working with kids. I felt this before but I never got the officially calling. Feeling this and knowing that it was from God was amazing! Noah-God showed me how to serve this week in Lynn. I also feel like he wants me to come back to the city of Lynn. I was not expecting to feel this way. God totally changed my perspective. I am so thankful for this team and all the people I met this week. Sami-God has shown me that I have been missing out on life. I've been so comfortable in Owatonna that I didn't see the broken people who had no hope. This trip showed me that I can serve the Lord and bring hope to this world in any place. Today we will be serving/worshipping at the church and flying home tonight. Pray for safe travels and rest. See you all soon!

Boston Trip - Day 5

2017-06-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

Day 5!! Today was a busy busy day but so much fun. We started off the day with half of our group doing the "Jesus board" (the ones who haven't done it yet) and the rest of our team stayed back to start the Night of Hope set up. The Night of Hope is the church's way of thanking everyone who has volunteered and the pastors. The theme was carnival! We set up games and all the food. We made giant jenga pieces. We put up all decorations and balloons. It looked amazing!! After setting up we went straight to MetroKids! When we got there, the flyer team went out and I helped set up with some others. We were close to being done and it started to storm. So we pulled the electrics to the trailer and prayed for the rain, lighting, and thunder to go away. We were going to wait till 2:30 to call it or keep it. At 2:30 the storm had stopped and it was all sunshine! It was awesome. Jesus provides! We finished setting up and got everyone registered and did MetroKids. After MetroKids we went back to church and got ready for Night of Hope. The set up looked even better than before. Upstairs they had games, popcorn and cotton candy for all the kids. Downstairs there were games and yummy food! Our team served as the "classy carneys", serving food and mingling with all the people we met. After it was over we started to tear down and reorganize the sanctuary. Like I said today was a busy day. Keep praying for good weather for MetroKids! Also for the team to keep in step with the Spirit and have perseverance. Thanks for taking time to catch up with us in Boston! -Amy

Boston Trip Day 4

2017-06-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a great day for the team. We started off our morning with Jesus Board. Each group had a white board with a word on it. We walked around the park and asked people what word popped into their head. My group had 'Jesus is _____'. As you'll see in some of the pictures, our board had a smorgasbord of words, including Spanish words. It was really neat to have spoken Spanish to a lot of the people we encountered. There was a woman, Elizabeth, who had a special touch from God today. She spoke no English but the Lord provided a bilingual woman to bridge the gap. Turns out she needed healing in her hand as it was smashed the day before. Our group gathered around as I led the prayer. I didn't know this at the time but a lady walked by and made a comment to one of the girls in our group saying 'wow that is so beautiful'. When I had finished praying, i looked up to see Elizabeth with tears streaming down her face. God had spoken to her heart in a way that no human language could do on its own. I hugged her and invited her to Sunday service. She told me with enthusiasm "Yo voy/I'm going!" Pray for Elizabeth and all of the people we encounter on this trip to see them come to church this Sunday. Other events of the day: Metro kids is continually growing and parents are joining in the celebration/activities. It's a really neat experience. Part of our free day was traveling to the historical town of Boston. There we are at Quincy Market, ate some out-of-this-world cannoli' sat Mike's Pastries, and walked through the New England Holocaust Museum. Our team has truly been blessed by the people here at East Coast International Church. They are so passionate about what they do; it's contagious! Tomorrow we will be serving the town with "Night of Hope". Not sure what that is in its entirety yet but it will be an opportunity to serve a bless others! Thank you for taking the time to read this blog through to the end. Enjoy the pictures! -Sami

Boston Trip Day 3

2017-06-22T20:12:00.002-07:00

Welcome to Day 3 of our Journey in Boston! In case you haven't noticed, Boston and Lynn are interchangeable on our trip bc they mean the same thing. It's like how we refer to Minneapolis and twin cities as the same place. If this confuses you, I'm sorry. Today was Noah's Birthday and Pastor Roy bought us a coffee roll from Kane's donuts. Yay for Noah being born! After enjoying our delicious snack we headed to Revere (yes as in Paul Revere), where the team split to flyer and help a church out by cleaning up the place. We started our second day of Metro Kids with over 100 kids! The cool part of that number is one of the pastors kids, Wesley, prayed that 100 kids would come. It was a really neat moment for him to see God answer his prayer. Metro Kids is a summer outreach program for the kids in the town of Lynn. They can get their face painted, hear about stories in the Bible, and win some real cool prizes. It's one of the best feelings when you see children enjoying themselves. Later in the evening we had a chance to serve at their Wednesday evening program. Amy and Noah helped with Kidz 2.0. They played games and taught bible stories together. It was fantastic! Upstairs the youth group enjoyed sharing how they use toilet paper: Crinkle or Fold, as well as poop deck. Are you sensing a theme? I was amazed at how the Lord spoke through me to the teenagers tonight. As well as seeing the other team members share their testimonies and connect with the students. We are nearing the longest day physically and emotionally tomorrow. Prayers for motivation and to keep our focus on why we are here would be awesome! Thank you for reading these posts. We hope they are an encouragement to you! Sami

Boston Trip Day 2

2017-06-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

Hey guys!! I'm so excited to be sharing our second day adventures with you - by the way, it's Noah!

So our day started with waking up bright and early - 7am. We took our showers and I, of course, worked on my hair for 20 minutes. Than, we all gathered together to do some morning devotions led by Matt, the floodwood leader. He spoke about what we expect God to do in our lives here, and how we can impact the broken city of Lynn.

We then proceeded to eat some gourmet breakfast - Cereal!!! Here's the catch though - our director from Lynn, Pastor Roy, had forgotten to buy paper bowls from the store. So, we ate out cereal out of plastic cups, and it was amazing.

Now, we went to our work sites. Half of our group went around the city giving out flyers to come to ECIC (the church we are staying at) on Sunday morning for service! The other half, including me, went to the old church site (a worn down home) to work on refinishing the porch and paint. Now let me fill you in on something, I LOVE house working shows. I love seeing people work on old homes and make them new again. So this was my type of party. Kera and the intern Erica started scraping off the white paint from the porch wood, while I did something daring and risky - using the power hose. It was amazing, i cleaned the siding and deck and everything looks new. Our group will be back Thursday to finish - I'll let you know how it goes.

After our work sites we came back for lunch and ate some fluffer nutter sandwiches - peanut butter and marshmallow cream!! They were delicious.

Right after lunch, Pastor Roy asked me to come help him get the trailer to help set up MetroKids- and outreach program to help kids know Jesus. So we got the trailer, and we set everything up and we get going. Everything comes with something bad though- we started setting up the tents for the different stations and guess what. They started flying away from the wind. So we staked them down in hopes that they would stay, and guess what again. They didn't. So we decided to just use tables for registration and facepaint (which I was working) and everything went smooth from there.

After an amazing time at MetroKids, our group and some of Pastor Roys interns drove over to Salem to get some hotdogs and walk around the sites. Let me tell you something, I will be coming back here. It is absolutely fascinating, the memorial to the "witches" who were killed, and how the city of Salem has adopted this idea of the "Witch City." So we ate some AMAZING hot dogs (I had a hotdog with Mac & Cheese and Bacon on it) and we started walking around the sites of Salem. Near the end we went to the shore of the Atlantic, and we found this big open space of land and of course, we started playing Ultimate Frisbee. We had two teams, the bruisers (or the losers in my opinion) or the Thuglits (inside joke, I'm on this team.) Of course my team, the Thuglits, won.

After this we walked down the dock and sat on rocks and put our feet in the freezing cold water, and we sat and poured our hearts out to each other. I told my team and interns things that were on my heart and they accepted me for them. God is truly so good for blessing me with these people.

By this time it was pretty dark, so we made a couple pit stops (for coffee, and ice cream) but we made it back to the Boston Hot Dog Co (where we are, Pastor Roy is friends with the owner) and we sat and listened to Joe, the owner, tell us his testimony and how he gave everything to God later in life. Watch out guys, Boston Hot Dog Co. might be coming our way!!

We ended our night with some talking about tomorrow and finishing up some practice for MetroKids. Our team also gave some shoutouts to people who did good, and we gave some encouragement throughout the team. We truly have became so close, it's so amazing what God can do.

Thank you all for reading and going on this crazy adventure with me!! Tomorrow's gonna be amazing (especially since it's my birthday ) and we will fill you in on what happens tomorrow!!! Please keep us and the city of Lynn in your prayers!!!

Much love - Noah

Boston Trip Day 1

2017-06-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

Hello from Boston!

We left Owatonna at 330 this morning. Our trip truly started when Noah realized he forgot his wallet in Felicia's car. He then proceeded to sprint in hopes she hadn't driven too far. Looks like Noah had finished his cardio for the day.

Upon arriving in Boston, our leader for the week, Roy, welcomed us to the great state of Massachusetts and headed to Wendy's for lunch. This would be the only down time of our day. Roy gave us a tour of everything all in 3 hours time.

Tour

We made our way to different landmarks in the city like an architecture of the economy in the town we are serving at which is not Boston. It's called Lynn. A town of an estimated 120,000 people. This town is known for attracting immigrants in America's late 1800's who were looking for employment. The shoemaking business thrived in Lynn. More importantly, Roy taught us about the culture here. This city is not what any of us expected it to be. You forget you are in America after seeing how close the houses are, the poverty, and hopelessness on people's faces.

We can now see how we can be useful here: bring hope and love to these people. Our primary focus is to be practical in our evangelism. Meaning we are to get to know people by listening to them and understanding who they are.

On our tour, Roy had us pray over the people, businesses, and observations we could make driving through Lynn. He drove us through a cemetery and began to ask us 'What legacy are you going to leave?' He brought us to this cliff where we could oversee the town. There we found out people who come to that same place cast spells and curse the town. I just felt this heaviness come over me and I was so saddened for how dark this town has become.

Please be praying for the people in Lynn to have hearts to receive what our ministries are offering: hope. Pray for God to send revival. Pray for our attitudes to be kind and that of a servant. Thank you for reading these blogs. More to come tomorrow!

Sami