Month: March 2023

March 24, 2023 Shofar Missions Cebu

During the past few weeks, we’ve spent some time in the USA. Britt joined the Street Level missions trip to New Orleans during Spring Break, as well as a few weekly meetings, Campus Church, and joint service with Street Level Radio, Word on the Street, and Creative Team. Laura was able to teach an Exploring Creation Science lesson for the Homeschool Ministry, serve in the Blind Munchies Coffeehouse & join Creative Team to work on some future advertising items. We also visited Believers Church in Duluth for their Wednesday night dinner and men’s/women’s small group discussion. We’re thankful for the chance to spend time with everyone!

Street Level Ministries

At the beginning of the month, the members from both sides of the island met in Toledo for a members-only meeting. These happen once a month, intending to keep both branches unified and to train leaders in both locations. We had dinner together, then read and discussed a short article about serving God. While we’ve been in the USA, both Street Level groups have continued meeting weekly in Cebu and Toledo. 

Exploring Creation Science

To start the month of March, Laura had an opportunity to join a couple of events meant for administration and teachers in leadership within the Central Visayas Nazarene denomination. Those teaching grades 4-12 met up to discuss pronouns and how they relate to Christian Education. Staff devotions also have been an opportunity to join all four schools and continue getting to know them better. A three-part series talking about How We Got Here and who created it all will continue with students in grade 6 at Banawa & Inayawan Nazarene schools and will be taught at Southern Bethany in May. We’ve been able to post answers to questions asked in class online, so anyone with the same questions can view them. A few digital resources were provided for schools while we have been in the USA, so students can continue learning why they believe what they believe.

  • Southern Bethany
  • Banawa Nazarene grade 6
  • Inayawan Nazarene grade 6
  • Digital Media

Prayer Requests

If you are compelled, please join us in praying for:

  • Safe travels as we head back to the Philippines next Tuesday
  • Preparations for the team to come at the end of April
  • God’s direction and guidance as we enter a new season of ministry
March 22, 2023 The Children's Ministry

Class Time

Foundations class continues to meet every other week during the Sunday morning church service for kids in Kindergarten through 4th grade. The Children’s Ministry is blessed to have a rotation of 10 teachers who take turns teaching through the Bible using Answers Bible Curriculum from Answers in Genesis. Each class we take time to pray together, study the Bible in an age-appropriate way, and apply what we learn to our lives today.

Currently as we continue through the Old Testament, we have been learning about God turning the hearts of kings to accomplish His purposes (Proverbs 21:1). Daniel, Esther, and Ezra are the people we’ve studied recently.  We have seen that God is faithful to keep His promises, and that God uses regular people to accomplish His plans. This gives us hope that God will do the same in our lives, even as kids!

Welcome Time

We love getting to have new kids join us, and God has recently blessed us with that opportunity in Foundations class! We have also created a new “welcome clipboard” that can be given to families with young children if they visit on a Sunday when Foundations isn’t meeting. The clipboard includes a box of crayons, bible verse coloring page, a church notes page, and a sheet for parents with tips for helping children to worship during the church service.

Prayer Time

If you would like to pray for this next generation of church members, below is a helpful daily prayer guide from Truth:78. Please also pray for the teachers who faithfully teach in this ministry. We appreciate your prayers!

March 19, 2023 River Falls Ministry

We have been well under way this semester here in River Falls. Some of us have been on mission in Louisiana, while others participate in local community activites. Continue reading to find ouut more!

St. Patrick’s Day Coffeehouse

For St Patrick’s Day, the River Falls community had their annual soup crawl downtown. A variety of local businesses participate in this event and there are a couple of competitive games to be had. One is to go aorund downtown River Falls to all participating local businesses and find the leprechaun. The other is to participate in a soup crawl with various local business providing the soup. The winners recieve a prize. The Blind Munchies Kiosk was set up downtown at Veteran’s Park for the afternoon. It turned out to be cold and brisk St. Patrick’s Day event!

Street Level and Believer’s Campus Church…

We continue to meet regularly for meeting regularly every Monday at the Blind Munchies Coffeehouse and Wednesday night at the Falls Room on the UWRF Campus. Check out some photos here:

River Falls on Mission and Spring Break

Some of us from the River Falls ministry went down with the rest of the Street Level group to help get the work started in New Orleans for the New Orleans Baptist Church! Meanwhile the rest of the River Falls students went their separate ways on break. 

Prayer Requests

Please continue to be in prayer for:

  • Students in Street Level to have a heart to submit their lives to God in service and commitment.
  • For the rest of the semester, that the group would be able to build new relationships with students and community members.
  • For future outreach events such as showings of “The Chosen”, coffee giveaways, and our upcoming Street Level Spring Summit.
March 13, 2023 Believers Church Duluth

Only two months into 2023 and we already have lots to be thankful for!

We’ve made plenty of memories, continue to learn and grow together and have had lots of opportunities to reach out to the people around us. 

Here’s what we’ve been up to.

Enjoying church family life
We rang in the new year with sledding, games and a potluck. A few weeks later, we all laced up our skates and hit a local rink, which was a blast.

Then, we enjoyed watching the Chiefs beat the Eagles with another potluck and more games. If you can’t tell, a potluck and games is one of our favorite winter pastimes.

There have also been a lot of opportunities for us to fellowship with friends at Believers Church in Menomonie, WI. We have been invited to a few game nights and other outings.

Taking these little road trips to see some friendly faces really breaks up the winter. We appreciate our extended church family! 

Most recently, a bunch of us went out to dinner together. Afterwards, we saw Jesus Revolution, a movie about the Calvary Chapel movement. This was really interesting as our church has roots in this movement. 

Matthew on Sundays, mixing it up on Wednesdays 
On Sundays, we’re still making our way through Matthew. It’s been interesting to study how Jesus ministered to different people, according to different needs. We’ve all been challenged and encouraged as we get to know Him better and apply what we’re learning. 

For Wednesday nights, we’ve been on a rotating schedule:

  • Sometimes, we split up into men’s women’s groups and study a chapter of a book together.
  • Other times, we go through a Psalm.
  • Every other week, we’ve been meeting out in the community in small groups to discuss the sermon we heard on Sunday.

We’ve also been seeing a lot of new faces at church, which is really awesome. Since some of these faces are quite little, we’ve started up a kids class before church on Sundays again. It’s been a blessing to minister in this way.     

Reaching out to others
There have been many opportunities for us to reach out to the people around us as well. We continue hosting a Bible study in the Douglas County Jail every Sunday. We alternate men’s and women’s, and see at least a few people there every week. We’ve been encouraged by the attendance.  

Street Level has also kicked off the semester with a Monday night Bible study – on two separate campuses!

Here’s how that works: A group of us meets at the University of Wisconsin – Superior (UWS) to do the first bible study of the night. Then, they drive over to the University of Minnesota – Duluth (UMD) and have a second study there. 

Finally, we’ve sent out two teams on mission trips already (not bad for only a few months into the year).

Two of us traveled internationally to the Philippines in January and, by the time you’re reading this, four of us will be going down to New Orleans. We’re blessed to be involved in the work God is doing all over the world!

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading our update. Please keep us in your prayers and we look forward to updating you again soon.