Greetings from Duluth!

It’s hard to decide where to begin with everything that’s been going on in our little fellowship up here. God has certainly stirred things up, and there’s a lot to anticipate, be thankful for, and pray for as our summer progresses. We sent our first official Duluth team to Kentucky in mid-June for a week-long building project at Bethany Christian Mission Center. In all respects, we believe the trip was successful.

Not only were we able to replace an entire foundation for a crumbling building, but the unity and camaraderie that grew amongst our group was one thing we didn’t have to leave in the mountains. Being a small church naturally provides some closer bonds, but there’s something deeper that happens when you live, work, laugh, and cry together on mission 24-7. We were encouraged by seeing the passion and work being done through Bethany, and no doubt will continue to think and pray for them in the years to come.

New Ministry Group

Upon our return, we started right into a new endeavor called “Community Group” that we’ll be doing on Sunday afternoons. This group is comprised of several people who are not involved in Street Level Ministries. The mission of the Community Group is pretty simple: go out into the Duluth community and see what God will do!

Our tentative plan is to head over to a local park, grill out, and rub shoulders with whoever we happen to meet. We’ll also set aside time to hang out a local coffee shop right down the street from church at least once a month. We may even pass out ice cream on the street corner right outside of the church building to better connect with the neighborhood right around us. The anticipation is high as we wait to see what will come of this, so please pray for God’s will to be done and for fruitful interactions with those we meet.

Fund Raising

June ended with Street Level hosting their first-ever garage sale. They held it at the church and also served breakfast and lunch to the community. Street Level is planning on taking a mission trip this spring to a ministry in David, Kentucky (about an hour from Bethany), and all proceeds from the sale are going toward this endeavor. It’s exciting to see them branching out as a ministry and being blessed in all they are doing. Please pray for the planning, preparations, and ministry involved in this upcoming trip for Street Level.

Upcoming Event

One final note: we have our 10th Anniversary Celebration coming up on Saturday, July 14th. We’re going to block off part of the street in front of the church and host a party to celebrate being planted in Duluth for 10 years. We’ve invited the community for free food and music, and we’re hoping many of you from Menomonie will come as well. Pray for people in the neighborhood and community to join us for this event, and that we as a church will be blessed in ministering to Duluth in the next 10 years as well.

Annie

Coming up

Please continue to pray for us as we are gearing up for our first domestic missions trip to Kentucky! This has been a big undertaking for JFB Duluth and God has been blessing us throughout the planning and prepping. Please pray for both the team leaving to the field as well as those of us staying behind tending to the church. This is Duluth’s inaugural trip, we’re excited but we’re also preparing for the warfare that comes along with any kingdom work such as this.

A Change

Some other pretty cool news for Duluth is that we’ve officially moved our Sunday services out of the coffeehouse and up into the sanctuary. This has been a good change for all of us. The shift in setting helps bring a new perspective and life to what had become the comfortable norm; change is good. The move has added a whole new dynamic to how worship goes as we are not using the stage. All the instruments are on the floor with the pews facing in on themselves around the front area.

It’s been great to have a tight knit, family feel with the worship and the teachings. It seems that we’ve been seeing a lot of new faces Sunday morning as we continue our study in 1 Peter. Therefore, the influx of new faces might be due to the move or perhaps because it’s finally getting warmer up here in the frigid northland; either way it’s been a blessing to us.

Coffee

Speaking of blessing, Curbside Coffee has begun as we go full swing in blessing the community. We’re giving away free coffee to commuters travelling on Wednesday mornings. It’ll be cool to see some familiar faces this summer!

On Campus

Street Level has been very active this summer even though a large portion of the students have left campus once the semester came to a close. Street Level’s latest adventures have consisted of… taking a walk. Where? We don’t know! It changes week to week as the group treks around the campus and throughout the city to predetermined, but undisclosed, locations and events. It’s been a fun ride so far and it’s exciting to see what God has in store for Street Level and all of JFB Duluth moving forward!

We’re continuing to learn how to hear the Spirit and respond to His leading. It’s been neat to see the growth that God allows us to see and be a part of, God is good. Thanks for all of your prayers!

–       Seth

Looking Back

As I’m sitting down to write the Duluth update, it’s striking me how much God has allowed us to do – and in that, shape who we are becoming – this past month.

Sundays

Greetings from Duluth!

February came much sooner than expected. We started off the month with a prayer breakfast and workday, where we did some housekeeping, made some technology upgrades, and continued the remodel of the balcony into a work space (and it made quite the jump forward that day). The day after was our Super Bowl party, which was quite the event. Per our usual tradition it was a pot luck event, and the number of crock pots definitely shows we’re mid-westerners! The good fellowship we have helps make the Duluth winters more bearable.

March brings with it a longing for spring, and the excitement that comes with it. We started off the month with a men and women’s Bible study and prayer breakfast. As the month progressed things became more lively. A group from Duluth went down to the covenant retreat, and we also had a visit from Brittany and Laura. Slides announcing our annual rummage sale entered the rotation, a sure sign that spring (and warm weather) is on the way.

On Sundays we have continued through the book of James, digging deeply into what he has to say about genuine faith. We have been continuing on the theme of putting our faith on trial, and we’ve been looking specifically at what James has to say about works, fruit, wisdom, and faith. James is very convicting in these matters, and it has produced deep introspection here, which helps us to grow and mature. March brought a close James, and we started Jude at the beginning of April.

Exciting things are also happening at Street Level. We were having our pre-meeting meals in one of the dorms at UWS since last semester. In February we moved both our meal and our meeting off campus to Big Apple Bagels! Thus far the change has been nice; it’s a nicer atmosphere, and it gives us some additional opportunities to serve (and the food is also very good).  We had an open mic night at the beginning of April, and we had a very good turn out. We look forward to seeing how God will use this new location in the months ahead.

Until next time–

Duluth Update

2018 is well under way in Duluth and is not slowing down at all.  It has been an exciting start to a new year as we have continued to see visitors coming to check out the Sunday service. We have been seeing 30+ people on Sundays.  We know it’s not about numbers. However, it sure is encouraging to see God bringing people our way and to see some growth in our church.  We have even had eight kids in the children’s ministry on some Sundays.  Speaking of exciting, we were also happy to pray for and send out Jesse and Chelsey as they join Jason and Faye in the Philippines. They’re going to set up some radio equipment to help get a radio station running overseas.  It’s good to remember what God is doing outside of our church and that we get to be part of it.

New

It was also just announced that we may be assembling a Duluth team to go down south this summer on a domestic mission trip.  It’s exciting to think we could be at a point where we could send out our own team.  Street Level is in full swing again after winter break. We have decided to make some huge changes like moving off campus.  We were meeting in a dorm common area for a meal before our study. This used to happen in the Yellow-jacket Union years before.  Now, we are meeting at Big Apple Bagel and will be having a meal and study at the same place in hopes that students may be interested in getting off campus and trying something new.  It seems the change has been good; a few new students have come to check it out.

Football and Fellowship

We had a Super bowl party at the church equipped with plenty of “healthy food” and a retro halftime show.  Pastor Justin surprised us with streaming the 1992 Super bowl half time show held in the metrodome.  It was hilarious!  We also recently had a prayer breakfast/work day at the church, those tend to be some of my favorite events at the church, and it’s always fun to work together and see the building God has given us continually transform.  We were able to have separate men’s and women’s studies before we began working on various tech upgrades throughout the church as well as transforming the balcony into more than just storage.  We plan to use it as a work station and meeting area.  As our church grows, so does our need to put the space we have to good use.

Food on Wednesdays

We also started serving a Wednesday night meal prior to the study, which has been great for arriving early to eat and hang out with everyone.  Please continue to pray for us to grow into the people and the church God wants us to be. We are praying for you all as well.

• Pastor Justin is reading a book called “Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor” by D.A. Carson

• Sara is reading Tim Keller’s “Prayer”

• Pastor Jesse is reading “The Hole in our Holiness” by Kevin DeYoung

• And Chelsey is reading a book by Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth called “Adorned”