So Long...Farewell...

After 44 days of training, equipping and ministry, Operation Barnabas 2009 is officially winding down.  For the next two days, ob students will spend time with their teams reflecting over the work that God has done in and through their lives this summer and preparing to return home.  It has been one incredible journey and words can not express the immense gratitude and overwhelming joy we have for our God and Savior.  We stand in awe at the magnitude of His unconditional love and faithful provision for us that was continuously evident as we served Him this summer.

For one last time, all three ob 09 teams joined together to worship along side the Worthington Grace Church on Sunday morning.  During the Sunday School hour, Keystone did a program for the children’s ministry complete with puppets, dancing and stories.  Team Central used pantomimes and skits to lead discussion groups in Jr. High while Tri-State did the same in High School.  As pastors and guests from all over the country were pouring into the church for the start of Equip 2009, ob students were quick to mingle and interact with everyone.  They have learned this summer that Barnabas was a greeter and it is clear that they have begun to develop this character trait in their own lives.  

For the combined Sunday Worship Service, the choir sang a plethora of songs in worship to the Lord...and it sounded absolutely beautiful!  When 90 voices are singing in harmony, worshipping at the foot of the cross and responding to the Almighty God...there is nothing quite like it...it is absolutely beautiful.  Students from each team shared the testimony of how God is refining their lives and guiding them to be more like Jesus.  We rejoiced with the congregation at the lives saved as a result of God working through the ob ministry around the country.  During one of the testimony times, Tri-State student Luke C. shared how God has been teaching him that he needs to be 100% reliant on the Lord in every aspect of his life...even when things get tough.  At Momentum, we were all in fervent prayer for his mom who was undergoing an operation.  In an answer to prayer, she was able to return home that same day and we rejoiced in that.  However, yesterday Luke discovered that she was back in the hospital battling the illness and he once again was reminded that God is sovereign and the only source of our peace, hope and healing.  All of the students gathered around Luke as prayers were lifted up asking that God heal Mrs. C. and bring her quickly home to her family.  May God be glorified...      

It was evident that God was moving in that place...His presence was felt and hearts were changed.  Many people committed to living their lives as a daily sacrifice to the Lord and stood to make that public profession as the ob choir sang “I Give You Me.”  We pray that the students will continue to give the entirety of who they are to the Lord even as they return home...all that they have, all that they are and all that they will become.  We pray that they will continue to seek out opportunities to love God and love others through servanthood.  We pray that they will never stop becoming more like Christ; developing a heart for God, a heart for the lost, a heart for encouraging believers and a heart for full time vocational ministry.  

The debriefing process is now underway...TK taught on the pitfalls of returning home and warned the students of obstacles they will likely face.  He encouraged them to remain steadfast in the word and fervent in prayer on a daily basis and to actively seek an older believer to be mentored by.  Teams will now continue meeting and debriefing and hanging out together before goodbyes on Wednesday morning.  

It’s hard to believe...but this will be the final blog for the Operation Barnabas 2009 tours.  From the bottom of our hearts we thank you, faithful blog readers, for supporting our ministry and being diligent prayer warriors.  We have experienced God’s answers to your prayers and we would not have been nearly as effective without your support.  Please continue to pray for the ob students as they travel home and jump back into their daily lives with a deeper passion for the Lord.

From Sara, Phil, Eric and all of our guest blog writers...thank you...thank you...thank you...and adios!

Last day.

Clowning around!!



Crazy dancing!



Luke playing with the kiddos!




Kaitlyn talking it out!

Devon sharing with a little girl!

Seth working the popcorn stand!

Elizabeth chilling

Stephanie sharing her heart.

Morgan and Devon getting to know a member of Clear View Church.

Tomatoes performing their execution skit

A Clearview of CLeArViEw!!!

Taylor clowning it up.



Claire in deep conversation.



Tyler and Kaitlyn crushing some ice.




Stephanie making friends.

The disciples in the boat with Jesus.

Keegan sharing with Silas and Seth.

Luke connecting with a family.

Gina making her own ministry:) That girl is unstoppable.

Seth talking it out.

A day in the life of Morgan Ricciardi

Tri-State’s day started a little late today, as we all enjoyed an extra 2 ½ hours of sleep. Thank you leaders! We were all happy to wake up and see that Kaitlyn had returned safe and sound early this morning (1:00 a.m.!). It was cool to hear her stories, and she reassured us that it is going to be difficult returning home and maintaining a ministry-minded lifestyle. After devos, we were given the opportunity to ask our leaders any questions we wanted to over “gray areas.” That means anything we have questions about, from tattoos, to drinking, to martyrdom, to pre-destination. They took all of their responses straight out of the Bible, and it was really neat to be reminded of how much the Bible does have the answers for our daily struggles. Everything applies to us now as much as it did when it was written.

After a much-appreciated lunch, we met up with Andy and Trisha (both former OBers) from Clear View Church. They started the church plant from scratch, and now have around a 50-person congregation that’s meets in a YMCA. Their energy and excitement for outreaching to the community was really catching. We were able to canvas multiple neighborhoods in Gahanna to spread the word about our park program later on in the evening. There ended up being a great turnout, with over 100 people. Only 15 of those people were already connected with Clear View, so it was awesome to see how God worked in bringing people in from the community. The program went great, and many people came up to us at the end, saying how much they enjoyed it. Some so much that they’re coming back to our program tomorrow night! From listening to my teammates, it sounds like there was some pretty cool spiritual conversations going on. I was able to talk to a lady who doesn’t attend a church, but she seemed really interested in starting. Hopefully we were able to make connections with some of these people and challenge them in their walk with Christ.

Later, when we got back to Powell, we were able to continue our discussion from the morning. Overall, today was a great day of outreach and now it is time to rest up for whatever is in store for us tomorrow!

HAPPY HEARTS!!!

Morgan playing some b-ball.



Luke chatting with a camp organizer.



Katie developing her fishing skills.



Steph sharing the gospel.

Devon hanging with a little lady.

Paul with a buddy for the day, Garrett.

ob's first program ever in a horse barn.

Lauren petting Poka-Dots the horse.

Cailyn scratching the cat.

Happy Hearts & Horses!

After a wonderful day at Cedar Point yesterday we drove back to Powell to sleep and gear up for another day of ministry. So this morning we awoke and jumped on the bus to work with a ministry of the Grace Church of Powell called “Happy Hearts.” This camp is a one-day event that’s held each July for any child or teen with a special medical or functional need. Our team fully embraced their various responsibilities and thoroughly loved spending time with these children and their families. Jon and Ben gave their best efforts in helping with the crafts making spider webs.

Todd Shoemaker led the fishing group and didn’t catch a single fish while several of the camp children caught multiple fish. One boy even caught 12 fish, thus showing up all of the ob students! Most of the team rotated from crafts to fishing to horse rides to rides on the tractor. It was a very stretching day seeing our students stepping out of their comfort zones on so many levels. Taylor and Claire were able to have a very encouraging conversation with a man who worked at the camp and were able to very clearly present the gospel to him. Many of people heard the good news of Christ today through these students and everyone was invited to come Sunday morning to worship with us at the Grace Church at Polaris.

After leaving Happy Hearts, it was back to the church to clean up and head off for dinner. We decided to give them an opportunity to have some time together as a team without the leaders around and so we took them to the grocery store and gave the team $14.50 to spend on dinner. (In case you’re doing that math, that’s $.50 per student … and yes we are missing one … Kaitlyn will be back from CA tonight! AND YES! We have missed her greatly as she adds so much excitement and joy to this team!) SO since we had the team do dinner on a dollar at the beginning of the summer, we figured that we’d give them a more difficult challenge. After we dropped them off at the grocery store, they came back in 5 minutes with food for everyone AND they had $.83 in change! Which means they spent $.47 per person. The guys insisted on doing all the cooking, cleaning and preparation. They also stole 17 flowers from the flower beds at the church and gave them to each of the ladies as they entered for dinner … awww how sweet right?! :) Sorry Delaware Grace Brethren Church for the missing flowers!

Now Dani is leading in a teaching time, Amy and Todd are following along closely while I type up this amazingly descriptive blog post for you all to read! It’s been another great day and I’m sad to say that we only have a few days left.

Tri-State's day off in the eyes of Paul Moak

On Wednesday morning we woke up and our leaders told us to get clothes on that would be good for walking around a lot in. So we kind of thought we were going to be canvassing. Then we loaded up in the bus and did our quiet time and devotions for like an hour. After we’d been on the bus for a while, Eric told us to listen and then announced that it was our free day. We ate breakfast and drove some more before we were told that our free day was going to be at Cedar Point. The bus erupted with screams and shrieks of joy, but our leaders reminded us that even though it was our “free day” there were still many people in the park that needed to hear what Jesus has done for us.

Following the leaders saying this we prayed in groups that we would stay focused on telling people about Jesus during the day. We all knew where our focus should be and what we needed to be doing, it was just a matter of doing it. Before giving everything we have to Him, and just getting our hearts in the right place. Then we arrived at the park ready to have a great day of ministry and fun.

The day was very overcast and it started raining not long after we got there. The rain was actually a blessing in disguise because it opened up so many opportunities to talk to people in line. One guy I was able to talk to was not a Christian and he didn’t really have any belief. So I asked him what he thought would happen to him if there was a heaven and if there was how would you get there. He replied that he hoped so and he thought that as long as you were a good person you would go. Then he asked what I believed and was able to share the gospel with him and confront him with the fact that you can’t get to heaven by good works. Then he kind of lost interest and turned away from me, but God gave mean opportunity to plant a seed and I did.

Throughout the day many people on our team were able to have spiritual conversations with the people around them in line. When we got back to the bus all we could talk about was our amazing day of doing ministry. During the day we had fun going on the coasters and spending time with each other. But we did God’s will while we were at the park, which was the best thing we could do. Knowing that we did what Jesus would have wanted. Today was an amazing feeling and something we all want to take back to our churches!