Two words: It was an AWESOME Day! June 28

Our first Sunday flying solo as Team Central...we can't even believe it. It seems like SO much longer than one week ago that we left our friends on Keystone and Tri-State and headed off to Chicago. God has been at work in the the lives of Team Central students and has been using them as vessels to further His Kingdom this past week. It's been absolutely crazy...true story.

Today, the students experienced what a typical ob Sunday morning looks like...super early arrival time, orange and teal shirts, lots of khaki, dress rehearsals, moving stages, setting up puppets, making last minute adjustments on sermons and meeting a plethora of new people...all in a VERY short period of time. Team Central did both of the Marysville Grace services this morning with awesome energy and excitement. They mingled with the congregation and sang their choir songs with gusto. Both Joel and Cody had the opportunity to share the sermon they had prepared and both did a superb job preaching the Word of God. During the second service, the Spirit of God moved in a way that was evident by all in attendance. After a pantomime called "Embracing Accusations", depicting a girl bound in chains by her sin before being redeemed by the blood of Jesus, Matt W. and the pastor both felt the need to clearly share the Gospel and have an open invitation to join the family of God. As a result of the Spirit moving through the ob team, five people made the decision to commit their life to the Lord and ask for the forgiveness of their sins. It was neat to see that God definitely IS using Team Central for His glory and encouraging to see His hand in our program. A few dozen young adults from the Detention Center across the street came to the second service to see what Operation Barnabas is all about.

The mom of one of our students leads a Bible Study at the detention center and those she brought with her this morning have all professed to be believers. They travel around to high schools and share the love of Jesus through a series of pantomimes called "Turnaround". They use their past experiences with addiction to share their testimonies and show what God has done in and through them. We were thrilled to have them join us this morning and the ob students really took the initiative to meet them and pray with them. Several of those young adults even made commitments to the Lord. For that, there is rejoicing both here and in Heaven...

Two ob alum and their families provided lunch for us before we hit the road to our next church...Upper Arlington, Ohio. Sundays are especially hard because the morning is long and tiring...and then we travel to a new church and start ministry all over again. After such a frantic morning, the students (and leaders) all needed some time to reconnect and take a breather before jumping full force into ob mode at UA Grace...so the 40 minute bus ride was used to pray for the seeds that were planted this morning and that the people who accepted the Lord will continue to grow and learn. The rest of the trip was dedicated to their devotions and personal time with God in order to be rejuvenated for the afternoon...

We have only been in Upper Arlington for about 10 hours and we can already tell that they are going to take INCREDIBLY good care of us! There were ice cold Popsicle, an air conditioned room and friendly people here waiting to great us. We spent some time this afternoon in our Discipleship Groups discussing our goals for the summer and sharing what God has been teaching us. It was a refreshing time to connect and brainstorm ways to encourage each other throughout the summer. Several groups took the extra time to read through a passage of Scripture together.

The congregation and host homes had a fabulous BBQ for us tonight...and by FABULOUS, I mean that it was probably the best burger any of us have had in a very long time. No joke...it was delicious! With our tummies full and our energy up, the students had one more program to go tonight! Jade and Jordan both shared what God has been doing in their life and we were astonished at the amount of energy and excitement Team Central was able to gather up...no doubt a result of the mass amounts of prayer that have been poured over these students. They were running up and down the aisles and dancing with every child in attendance. They are in love with Jesus and bubbling with the excitement of sharing that love with everyone they meet...

Today was a joyful, long, crazy day...lives were changed, hearts were softened and lots of food was eaten. The students are all in their new host homes and we are confident that they are going to have incredible stories and relationships with the families caring for them. After meeting them during the potluck tonight, it was evident that this church is made up of amazing people who love the Lord and love to serve.

After such a long week, we are praying expectantly for energy, rejuvenation, rest and health. We continue to pray that God will go before us and soften the hearts of those we will reach this coming week...that He will guide our path and light our way. We know that He is capable of a mighty work here in Ohio and we are excited to see what else He has in store for us. If this first week was any indication, boy oh boy will it be an incredible summer!

From Upper Arlington, Ohio...Goodnight!