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2018, Bay City, Short Term Missions:

Bay City – Thursday!

Good evening!

The first day of our Bay City trip is drawing to a close. We appreciate all of your prayers for us thus far, and ask that you keep praying all the more as we head into our first day of relational and service oriented ministry tomorrow.

Our agenda for this first day of the trip was twofold: 1) to bond together as a team while familiarizing ourselves with Bay City and enjoying some of its unique attractions, and 2) to spend a portion of our time around the city doing prayer walks to ask Jesus to work in specific ways through our service and outreach in subsequent days.

We began our time together at 10:15am to pray over our team, asking Christ to fill us with His Spirit, grow us in the ways that are necessary, and to prepare the way for us in Bay City by working in hearts and ordaining gospel conversations.

After a quick game of human tetris – trying to fit all eight of us, our luggage, and additional supplies into one suburban! – we were off!

We enjoyed a smooth trip together, sharing several of our life stories in order to get to know one another better and listening to music.

Once we had checked into our hotel, we drove to downtown Bay City to spend some time praying for the city and the weekend’s ministry.

After our time in prayer on the beautiful Riverwalk along the Saginaw River, we drove a short distance to Buoy 18 to enjoy some time together as a team playing mini-golf and eating ice cream before dinner.

Our next item on the agenda was another prayer walk, this time down Midland street, which runs past both Buoy 18 and Cops & Doughnuts. No, parents, we didn’t feed our students on ice cream and donuts…doing a prayer walk past this local favorite for coffee and donuts had another purpose; Cops & Doughnuts is the first location in Bay City where we will be doing intentional outreach.

Tomorrow morning, at 9am, we’ll be handing out free donuts and looking for God ordained Gospel conversations as we clearly express to those who come that we’re there because Jesus (and Radiant Church) loves them! Marco’s Facebook post advertising our presence there to the city has already received a lot of likes and shares, and we are eager to see what the Lord will do!

As we walked by Cops & Doughnuts, students asked the Lord to show up in some very specific ways. We would love for you to join us in praying that:

1) The Spirit would allow us to be a powerful light through our actions and conversations, pointing others to God.

2) That those who come would feel genuinely loved, and that they would know the true source of that Love.

3) That God would bring to us people who are not only physically hungry, but who are also spiritually hungry.

4) That Jesus would prepare the way for us and ordain Gospel conversations with those who come for donuts.

After dinner, we gathered students for one last bit of preparation for the next three mornings. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, students will be leading our morning devotions and discussions after breakfast and before heading out to serve. Students spent time in pairs (or in a trio for one of the guys’ groups) praying together and preparing their respective devotions.

Then, we did what you do when staying at a hotel. Pool. Hanging out. Enjoying games together. Sleep!

Thanks for taking the time to catch up on the latest from our Bay City team. Please join us in the work we are doing through prayer, which is the most essential and important part of the work our team is doing this weekend as well.

Please pray the four points above over our time at Cops & Doughnuts Friday morning.

Pray as well that the Lord would speak clearly to us through student devotions, through time in His Word, and through concerted prayer.

Finally, pray for wisdom, discernment, flexibility, and eyes of faith as we move from task to task this weekend and trust the Lord to make the most out of every activity we engage in.

Thanks, and God bless!

-Josh Karhan