Day 7: HBC - Day 3 & A Soccer Match

Colossians 4:2-6
2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; 
3 Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: 
4 That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. 
5 Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. 
6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

Today was another great day of Bible Club... Our dismissal went great, and we had 132 children at HBC; 60+ alone in the 5-7 year old class! We had the great opportunity to talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ today, along with a very powerful memory verse...

1 Timothy 2:5, "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"

It was the turning point in our curriculum as we challenged each child that Jesus Christ alone can save us from our sins. It has nothing to do with our own works to earn grace or favor with God (Eph. 2:8-9; Tts. 3:5). Please pray that the gospel seeds would be firmly planted into good soil! Tomorrow is our last day of HBC, and then we will be preparing for the Sunday morning HBC parent service. Please be praying that everything will go smooth and that many parents will attend this Sunday.

Tonight we also had a great time at a soccer match... Earlier in the week we found out that one of the teens that came to the teen camp had a soccer match on Friday night at 7pm. We told him we would be there, and we went. While we were there, Jeremy Martin and I were reconnected with Rowan, a teenager from Mallow that we played basketball with one day last year after HBC. He and his friends quickly joined us in conversation for the entire match. We had a hilarious time together, and we also had a good small window of time to talk about some spiritual matters. Many of the people here ages 15-30 have walked away from the Roman Catholic Church and almost become agnostic or atheist, and this is exactly what we found with the group of older teens we talked with tonight. They were very surprised to find that we were born-again believers. I definitely got the impression that they have never been able to have such fun conversation and talk so freely with bible-believing Christians... Praise the Lord! We made sure to invite them to a small teen get together we are attending Sunday night at 6pm, so we are hoping to continue building relationships with them before we head home. Please pray for this open door!

In Christ alone,
-Stephen

Day 6: HBC - Day 2

1 Thessalonians 2:4, "But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts."

After just getting back to the Annabella B&B from hearing some traditional Irish music, it is good to reflect over the day we had today...

At Holiday Bible Club we had a total of 134 today, and that was with at least 20+ children from yesterday that could not attend today (so we might have our hands full in the coming days!). Having 50+ children in two of our classes and almost 30 in the oldest class has been a stretch, but our team is working hard and doing a fantastic job! We haven't had any major issues thus far, and the weather has held out enough for us to do outdoor activities... pray that this would continue!

Over the last couple years, the dismissal of the children has always been the most difficult and chaotic, so this area has had the most attention and focus. We want to make sure the parents can completely trust us to get their children to them properly and orderly. The Mallow Bible Fellowship leaders have done a great job strategizing in this area, and now we are just working out the plan and making adjustments and tweaks together. This is extremely important, so please be praying with us about this area!

As expected, we've seen God working as well as the enemy working in our midst. We have had more opportunities to explain the gospel than ever before, and the enemy doesn't like this at all. Please pray that our team would continue to be humble, selfless servants toward the children and each other and 100% united in our common mission of speaking and living out the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the children. We need to make sure each of us has the mindset of Philippians 2:3-8:

"3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

All for His glory!
-Stephen