Day 7 - A Marvelous Day Indeed!

Today was a glorious climax to a wonderful week! The team was eager to worship the Savior with the brothers and sisters at Gospel Grace Church. After serving the Lord all week with many of these believers, we were eager to participate in their corporate worship gathering! We were not disappointed. We arrived at 9:00AM for a  sweet time of prayer. We prayed for those around the city that heard the gospel this week and for those who were invited to Gospel Grace. GCC is a praying church. They realize that unless the Spirit moves in the hearts of people, their efforts are useless. We have prayed much throughout this week, and we have seen God answer prayer! 

At 10:30 the corporate worship gathering started. There were 7 or 8 different family units (families & singles) who came because they were invited this week through  gospel conversation, the carnival, kids club, and door hangers! Can you believe it! We praised God for His kindness to hear and answer our prayer! Worshiping with the saints at GCC was delightful! Worshiping the Savior in song with these believers was a taste of heaven. We have a few new songs to introduce to GBC when we return :) Lukus Counterman then preached from Isaiah 55 on whoever is thirsty, come! Truly a Christ exalting time! The Lord has given Lukus a unique ability to preach great truth in a very graspable manner. Our hearts were richly encouraged. It was a delightful morning indeed. 

We then went to a little amphitheater kind of thing at Ensign Park and ate lunch. After lunch we shared testimonies from the week. It was neat to hear the students share how the Lord has taught them throughout the week! We also sang together, which was very sweet. Our joy in Christ has abounded all the more this week and we praise Him. 

This afternoon we did a little souvenir shopping and walking around a lovely outdoor mall. We had our final team dinner together at Noodles & Company with the Kopp family. They are precious servants of Christ whom we have grown to love over the past week. Pray for them. Pray for Christ to be exalted in their lives and in their community through them. It was delightful to fellowship with them tonight. 

The final picture needs a little explanation (as we don't typically post hot tub pictures). Just to show you the heart of these young men and women, the team was enjoying some time in the hotel pool together. Phillip and Andrew began to witness to a stranger in the hot tub. They talked to him about Jesus for almost an hour! This opportunity was unprovoked and unplanned. We were not out "evangelizing." However, they have grown to love sharing the gospel this week! This is what it is all about - living as "ministers of reconciliation" and "ambassadors of the gospel!" Pray for us. Pray that as we return to Fair Oaks tomorrow we will continue to live out the implications of the gospel in our lives, both in practical holiness and proclamation! Short-term mission trips are not intended to be mountain top experiences followed by spiritual depression. Short-term mission trips should heighten our awareness to live for Christ in a world that is rejecting Him, and short-term mission trips should remind us of the need to proclaim the gospel wherever God has placed us! This is our desire and we trust God has done this in our lives. 

Thank you for praying for us. Please pray that we will have a safe drive home tomorrow. Pray that we will have gospel opportunities when we stop along the way. Pray that Christ will be exalted in our conversations and that we will build one another up to love Christ more and to live for His glory. 

Thank you for partnering with us! Thank you for holding the rope. Thank you for sending us! 

Justin - for the SLC Short-Term Mission Team 2013

Gospel Grace Church Building (on the campus of Univ. of Utah)

 Church in a Box! 

 The team doing the "Joel Face"

 Infront of Gospel Grace Church 

 The guys with Eli Counterman :) 

 The Capitol Building 

 Most of the team at Ensign Peak 

Justin & Jon Kopp 

 Sharing the good news in the hot tub! 

Day 6 - A good day indeed!

The first part of today was spent sleeping in a little (we've been running on minimal sleep this week :)  When I say sleeping a little, I mean that three guys slept through breakfast, even though we tried to wake them before 10AM. In all seriousness though, we have been pushing 14-18 hour days since we arrived so the extra sleep was received with great joy! We then went up to Park City (home of the 2002 Winter Olympics) for a few hours. It was beautiful up there, and we had a sweet time together.

After visiting Park City, we went straight to Liberty Park for a free carnival for children and their families from 2PM-5PM. Again, our team did a wonderful job! I wish you could see them in action. They led carnival type games (as you'll see in the pictures). They painted faces for hours (it was a big hit). And they made balloon animals until they ran out! Many families were invited to Gospel Grace Church and the gospel was shared as well! It was really exciting to reach out to children and build bridges for the gospel. We trust God will use these efforts by His grace and for His glory. 

Tonight we got Chipotle, came back to the hotel and ate together. We truly love just "hanging out" together as a team. We then played in the pool together for a while...something we had not had time to do until this evening. 

We are VERY excited to worship with the believers at Gospel Grace Church tomorrow. It has been a great delight to serve alongside these dear brothers and sisters this week, and so it will be delightful to worship Christ with them tomorrow. Please pray that those who have heard the gospel and have been invited to Gospel Grace Church! Pray that they will come tomorrow and that they will respond to the gospel! 

Enjoy the pictures - I will explain some of them...but some of them need no explanation :) 

Thankful for the great group of students I am privileged to serve with - 

Justin - for the SLC STM team

 Phil was pretty proud of himself for making this hat :) 

 Lets just say that when your friends do your face paint, they don't always draw what they say they are drawing :) 

Brianna and the Moose at Park City :)

Day 5 - Picture Recap

Friday was another great day. We enjoyed studying Colossians 3 together; hiked up Ensign Peak; and heard a great sermon from Lukus Counterman on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Most of our serving today was distributing more flyers about Gospel Grace Church. 

The update from Friday is in the form of pictures, enjoy :) The pics of "guy/girl" teams have been their teams all week for flyer distribution and gospel conversations in the park. You can ask them later about the names they gave themselves :) 

Service in Liberty Park! It was pretty wonderful to worship the Lord in the park. Several people we had invitied to the children's club and Gospel Grace Church came to the service in the park for the first time! Again - we are praising God for how He has answered prayer. 

I think we stole someone's phone... 

The girls think Jon Kopp looks like some guy on TV 

The ladies at Ensign Peak above SLC 

 Phillip has provide much comedic relief this week...without evening trying :) 

SLC from Ensign Peak

Pray for us today. We will spend the afternoon doing a carnival in Liberty Park and having gospel conversations! Pray for opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have a few hours this morning so we are heading up to Park City! 

Justin - for the team 

Day 4 - A Day of Growth & Service

Today we exercised the gift of serving! This morning we enjoyed studying Colossians together. Then one of the pastors of Gospel Grace,  Jonathan Albright, taught on the need to understand the culture in which you are serving and proclaiming the gospel. He did a great job, and he made it very clear that regardless of cultural differences, the message does not change. The need of all people is the gospel of grace! These workshops have been very, very helpful. The entire team has been greatly encouraged, strengthened, and equipped through these workshops! We are very grateful for the leaders of Gospel Grace and their investment in our lives.

After lunch, our team split up and we served in different venues. Six of us went to the Kopp's house and painted a detached garage, fence, and scrapped the side of their house (preparing to paint it later). There are a few pictures of this project for you to enjoy below. The rest of the group, led by Abbi Gregory, cleaned a church facility that Gospel Grace Church is using this summer. They deep cleaned this facility for over 3 hours! I will get some pictures to post tomorrow...the progress was pretty amazing! By God's grace, I believe that our teams serving the brothers out here was a great encouragement today. Again, everyone served with joy and eagerness. There was no complaining but just an eager desire to serve. It is such a joy to serve with these young men and women!

Tonight, we went up to a Mill Creek Canyon just outside of SLC. We worshiped around a campfire, had some s'mores, enjoyed one another, and heard a great sermon from Lucus Counterman from Ecclesiastes 12. He challenged us on the brevity of life and the necessity of passionately pursuing God NOW! Lucus is a dear brother. It has been a true joy to get to know him and the other brothers out here. He has an evident love for Christ, for the city, and for the students who have come here to serve. I praise God for these brothers.

The team is doing well. Each day we come back spent and ready to sleep. But each day there is a genuine desire to love Christ, to exalt Christ, to grow more in Christ, and to serve Christ tirelessly. Please continue to pray for unity, genuine love for one another, and opportunities to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. It seems like each day God is giving us opportunities to spread the gospel! The Lord is kind to hear and answer prayer, so please continue to intercede for us!

Enjoy the pictures - thank you for praying - we are eager to see what the Lord is going to do in the next few days!

Justin - for the SLC team

 Ruth & Kaitlyn Painting 

 Joel & Karis having fun together :) 

 Justin & Katy at Mill Creek Canyon

 The project at the Kopp's House

 Ben & Dan "deep cleaned" the baptistery!

 Brianna cleaned the pews

 The crazy cleaning crew! 

 Destroying a really sketchy dog house at the Kopp's house

 Lucus Counterman preaching to us at Liberty Park

The crew painting the back of a shed

Worshiping at Mill Creek Canyon...it was a might chilly :) 

Day 3 - Full of Gospel Opportunities

The recap of today will be somewhat brief, as it is already after 11PM. However, I do want to share some very wonderful things from today.

We began our day with studying Colossians 3:5-11. There were excellent discussions after this study about dying to sin and living for Christ. Praise God for His living Word. After the Colossians study we heard from Jon Kopp, and he defined the gospel. It was a fantastic sermon on what the gospel is and what it is not. It also helped reinforce how we must proclaim the gospel and what we must include when we proclaim the gospel. We are all very grateful for how the pastoral leaders of Gospel Grace are intentionally investing in us as we serve alongside of them!

We then ate lunch at a great local establishment (pictured below). Let me tell ya, it wasn't much to look at but it was fantastic! The team was a little bit unsure at first about this "taco truck" (which was really more like a mini taco trailer), but the food was amazing! Ryan and I even tried "cabeza" tacos (brain tacos). It definitely was an experience...we are telling ourselves that we are now smarter or something like that :)

The afternoon was spent passing out flyers about Gospel Grace Church in the neighborhoods. We have helped GCC pass out literally thousands of fliers. As the students have been hanging fliers on doors, they have had many opportunities to talk with people about Gospel Grace and Christ. Please pray that people will come to Gospel Grace this Sunday! We are asking God to do great things - please pray with us!

We ate dinner in the food court of City Creek Mall. The unique thing about City Creek Mall is that it is directly across from the Temple Square. So, the majority of people you interact with there are LDS. After dinner we did "gospel surveys" in this outdoor mall. All of the students went out in groups of two and approached total strangers, asking them for a few minutes of their time to do a survey. Many of them had clear opportunities to share the gospel! After about thirty minutes we were kicked out of the outdoor mall, but we praised God for the opportunities that we had.

Before the evening session, we went to "Beans & Brews," a coffee shop in SLC, for a team meeting. It was so precious to hear the team share about how they have grown in their love for Christ and their zeal to share the gospel. I wish you all could have been there! My heart was bursting with joy as I listened to them. Not only are they growing, but it is showing in their lives! Each one of them have had opportunities in the last few days to talk to unsaved people about Christ. Not only that, but they have loved it! They are praising Christ for the opportunities to share the gospel and they are eager for the next opportunity to talk about the Savior!

This eagerness was demonstrated by Philip upon leaving the coffee shop. As we were heading to the cars, he approached a middle age man who had been obviously watching our team. Philip told this man who we were and what we were doing, about that time I walked up. Philip and I ended up talking with this man for the next hour and forty-five minutes about the Bible and Jesus. Please pray for this man to come to Christ as Lord & Savior. He did not repent, but "how shall they hear without a preacher!" It was a sweet time to share the gospel with Philip!

There are not many pictures today - sorry. I will try to do better tomorrow. Most of our active ministry today was spent walking up and down streets. The students are being spent for Christ. They come back each night exhausted but overflowing with joy! Seriously, i
t is a wonderful thing to be a part of. Each day they wake up and ready to do it all over again.

As always - please pray for us! Tomorrow we will be doing more "surveys" with people around the city and we long to share the gospel with them. Pray for receptive hearts and clear speech as we proclaim Christ. Pray for God to work in mighty ways, both in us and through us! Thank you for partnering with us for the sake of Christ and His Church as we serve Him.

Grateful for the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ -

 Justin - for the Salt Lake City STM team

Day 2 - Thankful for a God who Hears & Answers Prayer!

There was definitely much to rejoice in today! We began the day by meeting at Liberty Park and studying Colossians 3 together. Josh Roland, one of the brothers from Gospel Grace Church, is working us through Colossians 3 each day. This was a very encouraging and profitable time for sure.

Around 10AM we "kicked into gear" and started getting ready for the kids club at 10:30. Some of the guys went through the park making balloon animals. Lets just say, they were swarmed by children and invited them to the back yard Bible club as they made balloons. The rest of the crew helped get ready for the club in the Counterman's front yard, which is right across the street from the park!

The students did a wonderful job leading the club! It was such a joy to see them serve the Savior with exuberance and joy! Katy, Ruth, and Abbi led songs. Brianna, Jessie, Andrew, and Zach led games. Ben taught a very clear bible lesson on who God is and what the "big story" of the Bible is! He did a tremendous job and provided lots of good content for the small groups afterward. Elly, Ruth, and Kaitlyn led the craft time, which the children thoroughly enjoyed. Then many of the students presented a skit, which the kids thought was terrific! In the skit they presented the gospel using the wordless book. One of the most wonderful answers to prayer was we had four families come to the bible club that our students invited yesterday! We rejoiced as these families brought their children and they heard the gospel. Some of the parents even stayed and they also heard the gospel! After we finished we stood together and praised God for how He hears and answers prayer!

After lunch, Lukus Counterman shared with us why church planting is so essential in the proclamation of the gospel and the spread of God's glory among all peoples. He challenged the students to think about Christ's kingdom and the spread of the gospel when they leave home and pursue careers. So often we think about career choices first and the spread of the gospel second or third. Lukus clearly showed how we must be first and foremost about the gospel and Christ's glory. The spread of the gospel must be our highest aim, even when we are choosing our careers or making major life decisions. It was a very clear and timely challenge!

Around 2PM, we started putting door hanging flyers on homes in SLC. Gospel Grace Church wants to spread the word about the church plant, so we are helping them. Lord willing, we will distribute a few thousand fliers over the course of this week.

We treated the team to Applebees tonight. They served well and tirelessly today. It was nice to sit for a while and enjoy one another. We truly enjoy serving with one another, and we also just enjoy being together as a team. I praise God for this.

Tonight Jon Kopp, one of the leaders at Gospel Grace, challenged us from Acts 2. He showed us what the believers in the first century valued and challenged us to do the same. He challenged us to value the teaching of the Word, genuine fellowship, breaking bread together, and prayer more than the other secondary things that have crept into the church. He challenged us to be struck with the glory of God in such a way that it motivates us to live for Him. It has been really sweet how the brothers at Gospel Grace are investing in us as we serve alongside of them. The students have noticed it and are growing! Praise Christ!

Please continue to pray for us. Pray for us to imitate Christ in all things. Pray for us to practice humility and patience with one another. Pray for us to be bold with the gospel. Pray for us to have opportunities to proclaim the gospel.

Thank you for "holding the rope" as we have gone out to serve the Savior. We are seeing God answer prayers. Let us continue to ask great things of our great God, who delights to do great things for His glory!

Justin - for the Salt Lake City STM team

 The ladies leading songs!

 Elly leading the skit...she got out of wearing the M&M costume :) 

 Ben teaching the bible lesson!

 Craft time! 

 The M&M's were a big hit! 

One of the visiting parents interacting with a brother from GCC