A new Mayward is among us!

Early this morning (Monday July 13th) Copeland Michael Mayward was born! Congratulations to Joel and Katie and welcome to our family Copeland. We love you already. Check out "The Mayward Blog" for pictures and more updates.

- Mark

With Alcatraz in the distance we got to shop, eat and wait in really long lines for the trolley, but had a great time anyway! The process of leaving home has begun. Pray for us tonight as we all share the Hard Things God has laid on our hearts for the coming year. There has been some amazing conversations happening the last few days. A few, I've been a part of, and a few I've just listened "from a distance" and it's been amazing. Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

- Mark

It's Friday...but Sunday's coming!

What a week of work! Our kids were amazing. We got up at 7:00 everyday and were moving every minute until about 11:00 and then did it all over again. We got to spend the evening at the beach last night...can you say really windy and weather in the 40's for 40 people from Arizona. Good thing there was a big bonfire!

Too many pictures and stories to write about tonight. Tomorrow we'll be spending the day together as a team. Doing some un-winding and sight-seeing as well as talking and praying about all that God did in our lives this week and what it means for us once we get home. Pray that we don't stop loving each other until we get home. Pray for the drive home, for emotional, spiritual and physical safety. I am heading to Seattle to perform a funeral, so pray for me as I head north and for the team as they head home without me, I'll be missing them! Pray for the staff and their families back home, right about now they are all ready to be re-united.

Most of all, pray that God "cements" what He has been doing all week in the hearts and minds of all of us who were able to be here this week. It's been amazing...

Catching up...Thursday!

Pictured above: (top left) one of the racquetball courts at the Elks Lodge; (top right) sitting/waiting in our meeting room/bedroom/worship room, you get the idea!; (Bottom left) Brittany, Dan and Wes after demolishing a wall; (bottom right) Allison actually eating a deep fried octopus, you have to know how picky she is when it comes to food to actually appreciate the courage it took for her to eat it...the whole thing.

(From Kirsten) The last 24 hours have really flown by. We had a worship/prayer service last night with the staff at the Rescue Mission. A few of our students shared some of what God has been teaching them on this trip. The real firecracker that shared, and shocked us all, was Jacob Tune. That boy had the crowd rolling with his wit and we were proud to hear all that God's doing in his life right now!

After the service our students had the choice to go to The Elks Lodge (a near by hotel that allows us to take showers and use their sports facilities while we're here helping at the mission). Most of the students went and enjoyed clean, warm showers and a hardcore basketball game between The Mission staff and RMCC but a few decided to just hang back for some chill time and of course Starbucks. It was a great time for everyone to just recharge and enjoy getting to know each other a little better. A much needed break mid-week!

This morning Kindal gave her "Preachamony" and did an amazing job! She jumped in last minute for another student and didn't let it trip her up in the least. The rest of the students put on a slow motion bowling skit that always thrills(one of those you'd just have to see)! Our students are amazing!

We're heading to the beach tonight for some bonfire worship complete w/ s'mores! We'll post some more video ASAP!

We've now past the mid-way point!

So it's Wednesday late, and the students are all in bed again...to be followed by me shortly! You can tell it's the middle of the week. We haven't had a moments time alone and you can tell. I was talking with one student about how hard it is for them to always be around people and never rest. God is stretching us all in different ways!

Forgive me for not calling the parent prayer meeting in time. We were in a service that was supposed to be over at 7:00 and didn't get over until 7:45. I had a message waiting from Jim McDonald and called back but didn't get through in time. Keep praying for stamina!

Alex Bramhall was able to "preach" this evening at the 4:00 service/meal and did a great job. It's intimidating speaking in front of any crowd, but try 60 hungry homeless men! During the skit today, Wes Hillman was playing the role of Jesus and when he jumped in front of the bad influences/spirits attacking Whitney Chapman and fought them off...the crowd literally started cheering and clapping and urging him on. It's amazing to see what God uses when we give Him our best! Here's a couple pictures from the day and some thoughts from Jenny Lindstrom, one of our other staff ladies:

Having too much fun, doing so much work!

Emily washing one of the many daily dishes!

Caleb is really having fun...just not fun waiting for elevators!

"Hey guys! This is Jenny checking in to let you know that God is working in amazing ways in the lives of the students and the people that we are ministering to! Every student has stepped up in big ways from leading worship, performing skits, writing addresses on tons of envelopes, delivering hot meals to apartments (and climbing tons of stairs), passing out chips and presenting the Gospel to people out on the streets, and taking time out of their day to genuinely pray for this city and the people who live here. I could tell wonderful stories about every single one of the students here. Josh, Tyler, Michael, Dan, Justin and Alex all woke up early this morning and cooked breakfast for the entire team and it tasted absolutely fantastic, Charlie Meo and some of the girls gave up their evening after dinner to stay and wash the dishes, and it has been so encouraging watching Kindal strike up conversations with everyone she meets! Even though there have only been two toilets and one shower for the entire team to share, I have been blessed by the good attitudes that these students have continually maintained. Because we have to sleep on the church floor and pack up our gear every single day for the church services, the gentlemen have been very good about helping the girls carry their suitcases up and down the stairs to the storage area on a daily basis. As we have been talking in our devotional times each evening, the students have shared how that even though they have been so tired, they are just so content. They are feeling happy and energized by serving God and others. People on the streets have come up to our group and just thanked us with tears in their eyes as we pray for them. God is working through this group of high schoolers in a way that is so neat to watch. I am personally very inspired by them and am honored that God has allowed me to take part in the awesome work that is happening here."

Wednesday Morning

This is just a sweet picture of a building here in San Francisco that someone has painted the word truth on ! Such a cool, bold statement for this city!

Wow! What an amazing week so far! I got to join the "mission" group this morning for coffee, pastries (donated from Starbucks of course...only the best around these parts!) and a completely student led service. What an incredible experience to watch our students work. Ryan Lucus gave an amazing "preachamony"; he seemed so comfortable up there and did a great job. The rest of the students led worship and did a skit that the audience really responded to.

All of our students have been working so hard with such servant's hearts, it's been such a testimony to me and the other staff alike. We are all learning that little things really matter to this ministry and that it doesn't take a major act to serve God! Weather it be Kelsey handing out flyers with gusto on the street; Ali, Hannah, Josh and Alex stapling paper bags to food drive flyers (for literally hours....we needed 2000 of them!) or Ryan learning how to take it easy on an injured ankle that he refuses to let hold him back...we are constantly reminded that these little things are furthering our Lord's work in this community!

Gotta love hours and hours of stapling for the Lord! :)


Please continue to pray for us through out the week. Specifically for patience and grace toward each other as we are living in VERY close quarters, for God to continue to use us in the community and of course that God would continue to provide the energy for the long days we have still ahead of us! We are so blessed to be sharing this awesome experience with such a great team of students!

In His love,
Kirsten

Day Two

The day started off the same today. Except there wasn't as much nervousness as we approached the day. We got our assignments at 9 and some of the highlights were:
1. We were able to perform one of our skits (Decision Time) for the morning meal. (The clip below is un-edited so forgive us).
2. Alexis shared her preach-imony and did an amazing job.
3. We got to tear down a wall - smashing things is always fun, way to go Wes, Danny and Brittany!
4. We cooked and delivered several hundred (400 I think) meals the last 2 days and distributed dozens of flyers promoting their upcoming Sports camp to dozens of buildings in the area (can you say hiking/running (they walk so FAST here!) up 5 flights of stairs...several times.
5. We went out on the streets tonight again, but to pass out some chips and pray with people. Dylan was sharing during our team time tonight (my favorite time of the day, personally) that it was so interesting going to two different situations to see the reactions of the people. The first person they approached was so thankful for the chips and shared some struggles and wanted prayer. He even commented how he recently had been crying because he missed God - neat how God sends little reminders that He's still there...to all of us! The second person started off super nice, BUT, when he didn't get more than one bag of chips he gave the first one back and stormed off because he wasn't loved enough. God is teaching us so many lessons.

Tonight during our team time, just before bed, we took turns sharing highlights from the day. Since we get split up throughout the day, it's good to hear what God does with all of us. I almost couldn't stop the sharing, but I managed to ask if anyone was served by anyone else on the team today, and if they would like to share how? (Our team devotional yesterday challenged them to pick one other team member to serve.) And they went on for 30 minutes. Great to see their perspectives changing so quickly in just 2 days.

The goal is to post twice tomorrow and have some of the staff help me with things they have been experiencing.

Keep praying for health (we are working hard and eating good).
Protection
Discomfort...funny thing to pray for, I know. But I don't want this to turn into a fun, work time. I want God to keep us leaning on Him, not on ourselves or each other.

Thanks for your support. Go to prayer night tomorrow at the McDonald's and we'll talk with you there!

We're Heeeerrrrrreeeeee!

After almost 15 1/2 hours, 13 stops, 775 miles we made it to our destination. OK it only seemed like 13 stops.

We quickly, and with wide eyes, unloaded into the kitchen/church/mission (where they serve meals)/bedroom! We crashed for the night (around 12:15) and woke up at 7:00 to get ready and re-pack all our stuff into a small office for the day that began at 8:15. Here's some video/pic's to show you a few of our first day experiences...

Pictures are worth a thousand words. But let me fill in a few of the blanks for you.

After breakfast we split up and spread out doing 10 different tasks, ranging from stuffing and addressing envelopes, to preparing and serving meals, to leading in worship and skits, a mini-sermon by Charlie Meo, sorting clothes and working in a second hand clothes store, visiting several apartment complexes to hand out hot meals and invite kids to a sports camp next week and several more. It was humbling realizing how vast the needs were and even with 40 extra helpers the task(s) seemed overwhelming.

It was great to see the students overcome their uneasiness and come outside of their comfort zones in many different ways. The awkwardness of the first night has faded quickly.

One of the highlights of the day was a prayer-walk through the Tenderloin to the steps of city hall where we spent some time singing and praying (video above). On the way we took advantage of several opportunities to stop and talk and pray with some of the people on the street. Kindal was the first one to jump in and invite people to services tomorrow and several others overcame their fears and talked and prayed with hurting people who often cried while they were prayed for.

We just finished our nightly ritual of sharing what we observed/learned the last 24 hours and 2 comments from the students stood out to me. One was from the devotional we did today from Phil. 2...where it says Jesus emptied himself and took the nature of a servant. This particular student made the connection with how we emptied ourselves today, to people who seem empty!

The other comment was from a student who said, "Before this trip I pretty much thought about doing things based on what I get. But today I got to deliver meals to people and as I was giving I felt better than anytime I get."

Keep praying, God is stirring our students to think about the world through the lens of God and His Word, not their own desires. Pray for continued safety. The rescue mission staff is amazing at keeping us in safe situations, but we are in a fallen world and it's obvious when you look around the streets of the Tenderloin. There are hurting and desperate people everywhere. Pray for continued unity. Sleeping on the floor and packing up your belongings everyday is a strain for everyone.

The parents are meeting Wed. night at Jim and Kimberly McDonald's to pray. I'll be calling with a "real time" update and it's a great time to connect with other parents who are in the same boat as you...parenting teenagers! Contact the church office for details.

- Mark

Transformers 2 for Junior High Youth Group

We don't have youth group this upcoming Wednesday, June 24, due to Summer Explosion. But that doesn't mean we're not still gonna hang out together as junior highers who love Jesus! Instead, we're going to gather to see Transformers 2 on Wednesday night! Here are the details:

What: See Transformers 2

Where: Harkins Superstition Springs Theater (Power and Superstition Springs Blvd)

When: The show starts at 6:50 PM. I'll be there at 6:15 PM, so come early if you want to grab good seats!

Why: Because hanging out together is awesome.

Parents, the movie is 2 hours 30 minutes, so we'll be done around 9:35ish. It is also rated PG-13 for (from the MPAA) sci-fi action violence, language, some crude material, and brief drug material.

See you at Harkins at 6:50 this Wednesday night!

Summer Camp Highlight Video

Junior High Summer Camp 2009 from Joel Mayward on Vimeo.