July was a good month to stay outside and do a lot of grilling as well as move forward with connections in the community.

Our big event was the rummage sale at the Street Level location. It was a very hot day, but we were able to still entertain 50+ shoppers. The mobile Coffeehouse joined us, which was a very helpful contribution to the day – it drew in people that stayed to talk. We were able to meet many of the neighbors in our building, including several exchange students from India. They actually purchased most of the furniture we had in the sale. The success was, of course, mostly in the people interaction, but thankfully, we were also able to raise money for the 2019 Street Level Kentucky trip in the process.

We’ve also continued our Tuesday evening grill outs. We have met several people from the community, as well as seeing a student who stayed behind for summer. We’re usually surprised at who shows up and it keeps us on our toes for conversation and listening to what God may have for us in the situation. It’s good training for us – I would expect this is a large part of what God is doing.

Please continue to pray for us as you are led. We need God’s guidance and empowerment to continue to be of helpful impact for the Kingdom.

We have been enjoying the summer. It brought us into a season of change, and we are looking forward to seeing what God will do.

Since the UW River Falls students finished school for the summer, we made a few updates to our regular schedule. Instead of meeting for Street Level each week – because most of the students are home for the summer – we started doing a community grill out at 6:30pm on Tuesdays. Our goal is to meet people in the neighborhood and more people in the building that Street Level meets in.

On Sundays we continue to do a bible study and are enjoying a meal together afterwards. We just finished up studying Galatians and a short study in Jude. Both books spoke about people coming into the church and bringing in false teaching in different ways. In Galatians we talked about the law verses following God with our hearts; while in Jude we talked about people coming into the church that we don’t initially recognize as unbelievers. The next book we look forward to beginning is Philippians.

This summer we will continue with these outreaches as well as include some other events. With the support of Street Level Menomonie, we are currently planning a rummage sale at the end of the month. During the sale The Blind Munchies mobile trailer will be at the serving drinks. The purpose is to raise money for the spring break Street Level Missions trip as well as engage with the River Falls community.

Thank you for your prayers for the River Falls outreach. Please pray for us to continue to meet the people and engage with the people in our community.

June Calendar

• Sundays: 5pm / JFBelievers Bible Study,  6pm / Meal
• Tuesdays: Community Grill Out, 6:30pm
• Saturday June 30^th: Rummage Sale 8am-3pm

Online

• River Falls Ministry Website
• JFBelievers River Falls Outreach Facebook
• Street Level Ministries UWRF Facebook

Hello Spring

It felt like an abrupt end to the winter and consequently the semester here in River Falls. One week we are calling off people from driving over due to snow, and the next week we have windows open at the Street Level place. But, now we’re full-on summer and looking forward to what lies ahead.

What’s been

As the semester wound down, we had the chance to take the Tuesday night Street Level group to attend a lecture on campus by a former atheist-turned Christian. He was a material scientist at the U of M for many years, where he spent a lot of time looking into the plausibility of the chemical origins of life – and he discovered that the random chance theories just didn’t make sense. He spoke to the crowd of about 200 in very down to earth terms and took and answered a lot of questions from the attendees. Getting outside of our norm to attend an event like this was a welcomed thing for our group.

Street Level just finished the last few weeks of the semester wrapping up “The Story” curriculum. We believe it was a good series to give everyone a comprehensive understanding of the big picture of the Bible: God’s plan throughout history to restore humankind’s relationship with himself. The series ended by looking at Revelation – not to discuss plagues and the Antichrist – but learning about what kind of life lies ahead for believers in the New Creation. Our very last meeting of the semester was a great excuse to grill out together and enjoy the weather. We played some games and kept the mood pretty light. As we said goodbye to the students, who were all returning home for the summer, we wished them well and in our minds prayed that God would keep them growing over the next 3 months. We hope their summer is fruitful.

This Summer

The Sunday evening Bible study will continue through the summer at 5pm, followed by dinner at 6pm. Our focus will remain very heavily on verse-by-verse followed by open discussion concerning application of the text. We are currently in Galatians and plan to move around in the New Testament letters over the course of the summer. We’ve had some new visitors recently to the study, and we are curious what God has planned for it. In addition to the Sunday study, our other official outlet for community outreach will take place on Tuesday evenings. We will be doing a weekly grill out at 6:30pm and have the Street Level place open for hangout.

May Calendar

• Sundays: 5pm / JFBelievers Bible Study,  6pm / meal
• Tuesdays: Community Grill Out, 6:30pm

Online Presence

• River Falls Ministry Website
• JFBelievers River Falls Outreach Facebook
• Street Level Ministries UWRF Facebook

Hello

We’ve all been very happy to see the days getting longer here in River Falls. It’s been wonderful starting our evening gatherings while the sun is still out, rather than in darkness. As summer approaches we are beginning to wind down Street Level and are preparing for the best weather of the year.

Semester Winding Down

Upon writing this, we only have three remaining Street Level meetings this semester. Our Tuesday meetings have primarily remained in our “The Story” series, with the 2nd half of the semester almost exclusively looking at the New Testament idea of “church”. We’ve defined what a church should look like, discussed the church’s mission, and it’s necessity in the life of believers. It’s clearly been a challenging topic to broach, as there are many misconceptions in concerning the reality, role, and importance of “church”. The struggle to live a “Christian” life while at the same time actively disengaging from the local body is something that we are finding all too common.

Guest Teachers

We’ve been please to have recent visitors from the other Street Level chapters join us as guest teachers over the past few weeks. Brittany of Street Level Cebu joined us during her time back in the US, and Ben and Sasha of Menomonie were also with us recently. It good to have these people with us so they can share what their groups are doing, and also help paint a clearer picture of God’s work through Street Level abroad. We have also recently been enjoying some “local” connections also. Our advisor David visited a few weeks ago us to say hello to the students and sit in on a Bible study. Additionally, we are gearing up to attend a campus event at which a Christian professor will be speaking on the topic of intelligent design. Several campus ministries are praying and advertising for this event.

Soon, many of the individuals were are engaged with weekly will be leaving for the summer. Although we will miss these them and the familiarity of our weekly gatherings, we are turning our attention to the next three summer months. The specifics are yet to be finalized, but we are praying, discussing, and keeping our eyes open to see what God has waiting over the next hill.

Have you see us online?

River Falls Ministry Website

JFBelievers River Falls Outreach Facebook

Street Level Ministries UWRF Facebook

Second Semester

Since our last report, we’ve begun the new Spring 2018 semester with Street Level. We’ve been pleased to see many of the students back. We’ve also had several new visitors who have come to see who we are. We never know who may come to visit on any given week, so we plan accordingly and are oftentimes surprised. It’s an incrementally slow, but noticeable increase in overall consistency and stability within the ministry. If we don’t stop to consider it, it’s easy to not even notice. We are thankful for God’s continued presence and leading along the journey.

Changes

We’ve made a few logistical changes. We are doing a meal every Tuesday proceeding the Street Level meeting (Meal 6:30pm, Bible study 7pm). This has been good for the conversational aspect as we seek to build relationships within the group. It’s also been a doorway of opportunity for getting people involved. Each week, we take on volunteer to come in early the following week to help with setting up and serving the meal.

Involvement such as this has been a focus for us during the last few months. Aside from the meal assistance, we have opened up a few poster routes. These are done on a first-come first served basis. The stipulation is that the route must be done as a pair, and at least one person must have had done it before. We’ve also, for the first time, had a few of the students do a table on campus for Street Level without direct assistance. Finally, we opened up the opportunity to “shadow” on the most recent issue of Word on the Street Magazine. One of the students who has been very participatory has chosen to step up and to write for our River Falls edition, this is also a first for us.

Sunday Study

Our Sunday JFBelievers meetings continue at 5pm each week. We’ve ended our study of the Gospel of Matthew, and are now turning to the Epistle Letters. The goal is to cover one chapter each week, which keeps us moving through the material fairly quickly, addressing the big topics of Scripture. We are currently in letters of 1/2/3 John. We split an hour right down the middle: 30 minutes of teaching and 30 minutes of discussion. The discussions are have been helpful in getting the group to grasp the meaning of the text and encourage each other to respond in practical ways.

As we reflect with gratitude on what God has done and is doing, we look forward to what the coming months will bring, and are prayerfully considering what God would lead us into next.