As we begin to put away our shorts and sandals, it’s a great time to reflect on the past few months. Summer 2023 has been a season filled with lots of reasons to be thankful, including opportunities to serve, new beginnings and memorable moments of fellowship. We’ve been really blessed and want to share everything God has let us do!

Serving locally, nationally and beyond
We started things off serving coffee from our brand-new coffee trailer at the Park Point Rummage Sales. This year, we also hosted a small rummage sale as well. It was a great opportunity to engage with our community, work together and raise funds for missions. Overall, we counted it as a successful event.

Speaking of missions, we had a big change at the beginning of the summer: We sent off Jesse and Chelsey to the Philippines as full-time missionaries. Do we miss them? You betcha we do. But we’re grateful for the chance to support God’s work there and excited to see how He’ll use them. 

Recently, a few of us also traveled to Mississippi to partake in a construction project. This group was able to help build a pole barn for a local church so that they can build beds for children in their area. Those who were on the trip worked hard through scorching 90-degree weather and sweated buckets. But, they left feeling like they were the ones who received the bigger blessing in being a part of the work.

Starting a new ministry
This summer, we also kicked off something pretty cool – a new ministry geared towards young adults. This is meant for those of us who’ve graduated college but haven’t started families. This is a large group of people here in Duluth and within our church, so we’re excited to see how God uses it. 

Throughout the summer, this group hung out once a month hosting bonfires, an outdoor movie night, some volleyball matches, and, believe it or not, even tackled a midnight 5k run! It’s been awesome to get to know new friends and each other better.

Enjoying time together
We also made a lot of memories just being together. Our annual all-church bike trip took us to Carlton, where we enjoyed lunch and, at the end of the day, pedaled more than 30 miles together. We also braved the heat for a thrilling game of dodgeball and made frequent visits to Gordy’s, a local summer-time favorite for burgers and fries. 

For National Night Out, we threw a yard party in West Duluth. This allowed us to get to know our neighbors better. It was such a great shindig that the Duluth Fire Department even made an appearance. 

Our summer adventures concluded with the annual church campout, where we camped alongside fellow believers from Menomonie and River Falls. We especially loved seeing a few of our friends get baptized. Hearing their stories of how Jesus has transformed their lives was awesome.

Into the Fall
As we transition into the next season, our focus shifts to the University of Superior, where we’re excited to host Bible studies as part of Street Level, our college ministry. Plus, our addiction recovery group, Most Excellent Way, continues on Thursday nights, and we’re gearing up to serve coffee at Fall Fest. 

We appreciate your ongoing prayers and support and look forward to sharing more updates soon.

Can you believe how fast spring flew by? We sure can’t!

For us in Duluth, it was a whirlwind of making memories, working hard and planning for the summer. We wanted to take a moment to catch you up on everything we’ve been up to and share our excitement for the future.

March: St. Patty’s Day Shenanigans and Group Hiking Fun
In March, we came together for a memorable game night on St. Patrick’s Day for a little friendly competition. To honor the occasion, everyone wore green, adding a touch of festive spirit to the event.

Later in the month, strapped on our boots and hit the local trails for a group hike. The beautiful scenery and great company made it an unforgettable afternoon.

April: Easter Blessings and Coffee Trailer TLC
For Easter, many of us took a road trip down to enjoy church in Menomonie. It was great to see our extended church family and share a special Easter meal together (which was delicious, by the way!). Some of our friends who are international students even got to tag along.

We also celebrated a significant milestone together as we witnessed Jesse’s ordination. It was a momentous occasion and we couldn’t be more proud of him and Chelsey.

As if that wasn’t enough, we decided to take our coffee-trailer game to the next level. We snagged a brand new trailer and spent some quality time working on it together to get it ready for service. Let’s just say we’re really brewing up something special. We also got to take it for its maiden voyage at a local homeschool conference.

May: Serving and Connecting with the Community
May was action-packed to say the least! We were excited to collate a brand-new issue of Word on the Street Magazine. After that, we distributed it to the community.

We also dove headfirst into a work day. It was filled with cleaning, crafting new signs for our spring rummage sale and giving the coffeehouse trailer some finishing touches.

Speaking of the rummage sale, it was a smashing success! We met so many lovely folks from the community, raised money for missions endeavors and had an absolute blast.

Looking Ahead: Sending Off Our Missionaries and Embracing Summer
On top of everything we’ve gotten to do this season, we’ve also been working hard to support Jesse and Chelsey as they get ready to embark on their full-time missionary journey to the Philippines.

One of the ways we’ve ben able to help them out is by lending a hand in building a cabin for them. That way, they will have a place of their own to stay during their visits back home. We’ll miss them like crazy, but we are so excited to see how God uses them in this next chapter!

With summer fast approaching, we are filled with anticipation. We are eagerly preparing to serve coffee at the upcoming Park Point Rummage Sales, where we hope to extend warm hospitality to the wider community.

As we embrace the season ahead, please pray that God will continue to use us as vessels of love, light and service in our community and beyond. We’re looking forward to updating you again soon!

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. 

As we conclude another year in Duluth, I am once again amazed at how fast the year has gone by! We were fortunate as a church to be able to participate in domestic and foreign missions trips, retreats, service opportunities, and many fellowship events with our church as well as fellowship groups from Menomonie. 

This past month Pastor Jesse and our campus ministry group has continued to meet at UW-Superior on Mondays for a “micro” Bible study.  They are continuing their studies on the “crazy things Jesus said”.  They also recently had a movie night in one of the dorm halls there too.  On Tuesday nights our Campus Church service is held at UMD.  They just finished up a series going through John’s letters talking about what real Christianity looks like. They concluded the semester by braving the cold and walking through Bentlyville (a huge Christmas lights display in Canal Park).  During the campus’s winter break, the church will be having an evangelism class.  For three weeks on Tuesday nights, we will continue part two of our study of the book, Evangelism as Exiles.

This month we will be starting our Bible studies in the Douglas County jail once again.  We were very excited to be asked to return to this ministry now that Covid restrictions are lifting.  A small group of women and men will participate in this ministry on Sunday afternoons. 

On Sundays we are continuing to go verse by verse through the book of Matthew.  On Wednesdays we rotate our services with rewind groups, verse by verse studies through Psalms, and Men’s and Women’s book studies.  As always, we try to gather together for times of fellowship whether scheduled or impromptu.  This past month a group gathered together for a meal on Thanksgiving and for an impromptu game night at the Moss’s house on a Sunday night.

Thank you for your prayers.  We are looking forward to the coming year and all that God has for us up here. 

– Sara

Fall has been a full and exciting time for us in Duluth. On Sundays we’ve continued our journey through the book of Matthew in chapter 11. We’ve learned about dealing with doubt by studying how Jesus addressed John the Baptist when his confidence in Jesus was waning. No one doubts Jesus when things are going well, but we suddenly question His purposes when life becomes difficult. The antidote is to wait through suffering, look around at what He is doing, and learn not to be offended. Later in the chapter, Jesus had hard words for those who refused to repent of their sin by making excuses and blaming the messenger. When we’re born again, sin becomes repulsive, and those who truly know Christ will repent. On Wednesday evenings, we followed up with these subjects during our weekly rewinds, diving deeper into doubt and repentance in small group discussions.

We shook up our typical Wednesday rotation with some different material, which was both challenging and admonishing. We spent two Wednesdays watching a series of films about Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who were faithful Jewish-Romanian Christians during World War II. In “Tortured for Christ”, we followed along with Richard’s story of faithful evangelism and ministry to the Russians who had invaded his country and how he stood up to the religious leaders of his day who were compromising their faith because of government pressure. All of this landed him in prison, where he was subjected to torture, loneliness, and cruelty for years. After the film, we had a large group discussion, where we were challenged to evaluate our lives as soul-winners and the cost we will pay for the salvation of the lost. In the movie, “Sabina”, we saw the story of how both she and her husband came to faith, and the subsequent radical effect it had on their lives. They started by ministering to the people around them, their neighbors, whether they were pleasant people or not. God blessed their efforts, and many, even enemies, came to Christ. It was moving to see how their huge sacrifices and endurance later in life began through the small acts of faithfulness, hospitality, and love in their neighborhood.

We were blessed with beautiful weather all through October (the news said the last time it was this warm in the fall was 1903), and we took full advantage of it. Several of us headed down the street from the church to work on installing siding on one of our neighbors’ houses. We worked alongside the homeowner and his family and were able to get a significant amount of work done. It was a great way to connect with our neighbors because there’s nothing like working alongside others to build a deeper relationship.

On the same weekend, we were delighted to host the Street Level Summit up in the Northland, with all members of the campus ministries joining for a weekend of learning, fellowship, and… kickball. Pastor Tim was the guest speaker for the first evening at the church, and he spoke on having “an unfinished life”. The group spent the night and then did some more sessions at a local hostel in downtown Duluth. Pastor Justin taught the first of a two-part message at the church on a Saturday night and then followed up with the second message at church on Sunday. He spoke on the contrast between the kind of people who use God, and then the kind of people God uses. It was very encouraging to have our church full on Sunday; we’re such a small group, that being able to worship and fellowship with a larger body is such a joy, and it makes us long for Heaven when we will all be together.  After the Sunday message, the Street Level members headed to UM-Duluth for some costume kickball, in the spirit of the season.

On October 31st, we had an all-church Halloween costume party at the Street Level House. It had all the makings of a good time: food, games, guests, and trick-or-treaters.

-Annie

Find out what’s been happening in Duluth.

“Well, there’d be seasons of growing and seasons of renewing in my soul”

We have just made it about a third of the way through Matthew on Sundays. We’ve learned of Jesus addressing the root cause of sin through the paralytic man (Chapter 9). Matthew then points out characters who are in desperate need of Jesus, including himself. Jesus then calls his disciples (Chapter 10) and we see that they were an answer to prayer, they were available, Jesus was familiar with them (enough that a couple had nicknames), and they were reliable.

Can the same be said of you and where Jesus called you to?

Jesus then gives the job description to what it takes to be a disciple. We have taken the time on Wednesday Rewind nights to dig deeper in how this applies to our life. In between rewind nights, we have taken some time in Psalms (75 & 76) and discussed how we are equipped to endure suffering and persecution and how we can be assured that we love God by looking at whether we really know God, do we trust God, do we fear God, and do we obey God. Pray for us in that we use these teachings as a way of growing with the Lord and not just another message on Sunday or Wednesday. 

“So, shake the leaves of red and yellow and trust the life that follows me”

Community Group was able to participate in Fall Fest again this year at Chester Bowl. We had Street Level there as well with a root beer float station. The day started out with rain but our spirits were high as we engaged with the community trying to reach people. Community Group is then gearing up for Boo at the Zoo for the next several Saturdays in October. Pray for those in Community Group to find unique ways of engaging in the community both individually and corporately. Pray for direction and clarity to what we are to be doing and willing to change in all types of seasons. 

“Seasons to seasons, time after time, living and laughing, dying and crying”

Campus Church has been going through 1 John and what it means to be a Chrisitan. For the Street Level micro studies, they have been having discussions on what Jesus has said including “Jesus tells us to judge” and “to eat his flesh”. They also were able to have a plant sale at UMD. Street Level is then gearing up for the summit around the corner. Pray for Campus Church Duluth and Street Level in softening the hearts of the students to seek out Jesus and for direction in what they should do on both campuses in the coming months ahead.

-Amber