El Paso Day 6

Here are some photos from the outreach at the Rec. (Wayne announcing the raffle)

Today was our final full day in El Paso. A group of us went back to UTEP and another group did Pay it Forward. Misti and I went to UTEP to share our faith. We really wanted to keep trying even though we hadn't had much luck the past few days. We came down to El Paso to share our faith and this seemed like the thing God was guiding us to do. I approached 3 guys that were alone. The second and third guy were already shared with by some people in our group. The third guy was named Zo. He knew about the Rio and was excited to check it out this Saturday. I'm praying he really does go. (I later learned that Paul and Kelsey had shared the Gospel with him the day before and he had accepted Jesus as his savior. Awesome!) We approached 19 people and shared the Gospel with 7 today.

Then we got ready for the outreach at Westside "Rec" park. We had free pizza, games, raffles and some other activities. The turnout was pretty good. We had about 130+ Franklin High School kids. They had an early release that day. It was a nice day for it. I was able to talk to a few kids about church and the Pay it Forward campaign. There was one kid that I talked to for a bit. He was searching for something. He was intrigued by the Rio slogan which is similar to the Rock's "Interested in God, not religion?" Our conversation was cut short, but I gave him a tract later. I will pray that he reads it.

We had a team dinner out at a Mexican restaurant called Taco Tote. It was fun to all go out together. We then went up to Transmountain Pass to watch the sunset. We also went to Rim road to pray over the city. We had some time to reflect on the trip. It's been great serving along side each other. I think we've all grown this week. Each trip has some special moments where chills run up my back. That night on the mountain was one of those moments. We looked over the thousands of lights and prayed for the Lord to work in El Paso. We also sang "Praise God" together. It was a beautiful night. We were dreading that we had to leave in the morning. It went so quickly.



The beautiful sunset from Transmountain and the city lights from Rim Road.

El Paso Day 5

Kids from Franklin High School crossing the street to grab some lunch.

Encouraging Day

It was a full day. A group of us went to UTEP and a group of us did Pay it Forward. The Pay it Forward crew continued the returning carts campaign at Walmart. They also put money with the P.I.F. card into the bank tubes and gave it to the bank teller. I went back to UTEP with Misti. We struggled again. It seems that sharing in the morning on campus is a lot harder. I think I mentioned this before. The students are busier and rushing to class. Misti and I tried passing out free candy bars, but nobody would take them. We switched to sharing our faith.

I approached about 4 people and no one wanted to talk. Then Misti and I found a lady in the library cafe that we approached. She was open to talking. She was hesitant to share her beliefs so Misti began and shared the whole Gospel. She was a Universalist and basically believed that there are multiple ways to heaven. She shared that she has a hard time with religion and judgemental people. I asked her if she wanted us to pray for her and she told us what she needed prayer for. I hope the Lord can soften her heart. She seemed interested in checking out the Rio.

Then we quickly went to Franklin High School and passed out candy bars and flyers for our outreach event. The kids saw that we are having free pizza and were very excited. We quickly had lunch and got in the Nelsons' van to head to Juarez, Mexico. We got there and it was very wind and dusty. The kids were excited to see us. We brought soccer balls, kites and other toys. It was fun to play with the kids. I recognized some of the kids from last year when we visited. We played soccer and some the younger kids sat and colored or blew bubbles. The South House put on a puppet show for them. It was very fun and animated. It was great to see the joy on the kids' faces. After that we headed back to El Paso. The military was at the border and heavily guarded the entrance. I really didn't feel unsafe though. The return back to the U.S. was pretty quick and painless.



Here some photos from Juarez: the indoor soccer room, puppet show and boy coloring.

We then had a potluck with the Rio at the Nelsons. It was a TexMex meal. It was very good. After the meal we had some worship and sharing time. The Rock teams shared their encouraging stories how God has been working this week. Then John asked the Rio: "How do you keep encouraged in the last 2 years since the Rio was started?" The answers were incredible. This was the highlight of my trip so far. It was inspiring to hear how they persisted through many trials. My favorite answer was from Ryan, the worship leader. He said that he delights in the small blessings from God. God gradually turned the band from nothing into a very solid group. Kathleen Nelson, Pastor Steve's wife said, "We also get encouragement and energy from mission teams." This was really nice to hear. The Rio team is a special group with hearts for God. We look up to them because we may be in their place some day. The Rock wants to plant churches when the time is right in the next few years.

El Paso Day 4

Pay It Forward

We went to the UTEP campus again in the morning. Misti and I were paired up again to evangelize. We were feeling pretty confident on the way there. All the students seemed to be in a hurry though. They were rushing to class and the people we approached didn't have time to chat with us. Misti was able to share with two girls who were Catholic outside the library. She did a very good job. They didn't want to pray though. As a whole our morning of evangelism was a little discouraging.

We went back to the Nelsons and had lunch. Then we headed to some local business areas to start the Pay it Forward campaign. The Pay it Forward campaign is something that pastor Tom Brown started. It is very similar to the movie that came out in 2000. It mostly involves us doing some work of kindness given to someone with one catch. They are supposed to in turn show kindness in some way to 3 people. We passed out water bottles, gift cards, and also returned shopping carts for people. A few of us returned carts at Walmart, then we give them a $1 bill with the Pay it Forward card taped to the back. People were really taken back by the whole idea. The people I encountered were either very thankful and excited about the idea or they were completely dumbfounded. I had many people refuse to take the dollar. It's all about the approach I think.

People also stood by the highway with signs that had different phrases on them like: "Forgive your ex", "Encourage somebody today", "Forgive your coworker", "Live for eternity" and "Love one another". The reactions were great. The goal is to get people to respond in their cars. You get points for car honks, semi honks, etc. I haven't had a chance to try it, but it seems to be a fun approach.

This is me going down the slide at the Nelsons' pool.

After this we rested and a few of the guys jumped in the Nelsons' pool. It was a great time. The water was very refreshing for the 78 degree day. We ate dinner then we had some worship time and shared stories from the day. There was some great success on the UTEP campus for the South House. God was definitely guiding them to the right people. Overall both groups combined approached 50 people and shared the Gospel with 21 people. I was encouraged by the stories shared. I was having a discouraging day, but tomorrow may be very different. The Lord is stretching me and using us all.


Dan, Wayne and Nate lead us in worship.

El Paso Day 3

These are photos of the UTEP campus. It has a very Southwest look to it.


First day of Evangelism

Today we got up early and ate at the Nelsons. We were all a bit nervous because this was our first day to share the Gospel. The South House went out in the morning to the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) to share their faith. The North House went to some west side neighborhoods and put Rio Church magnets on doors. It was a chilly morning, about 50 degrees and windy. We set out and quickly put nearly 3,000 magnets on doors. I was able to personally invite a few people to the Rio that I ran into. We then had lunch at the Nelsons.

Then we went to Franklin High School in El Paso. We passed out snickers with Rio business cards taped to them. Our plan was to approach the kids as they crossed the street for their lunch break. Unfortunately we ran out of Snickers pretty quickly. There were nearly 300+ kids that crossed over.

Right after that we headed to UTEP to share our faith. We split up into groups of 2 and headed out. I think we were all a little nervous. Misti and I were paired up. We went to a coffee shop near the campus. It was not a good place to share though. Everyone was on their computers facing the wall with their head phones on. We left and were discouraged that somehow a hour had gone by. We were both frustrated and decided to pray quickly and just start approaching people. We headed to the Union where we started. Misti approached 2 girls and shared the Gospel. They were interested, but didn't pray with us. I approached a guy and shared with him. We talked to a few other people, then met 2 guys on a bench. We shared the complete Gospel and one of the guys, Abe was very interested in salvation through faith. They both prayed with us to receive Christ. I'm not sure they both completely understood, but I hope we planted a seed.

There were a lot of good stories from the rest of the team. The total for the day for both House Churches was: 65 people we approached and 33 we shared the Gospel with. I think those were some encouraging numbers for our first day. After UTEP we rested and hung out at the Nelsons. We had dinner and then had some worship and prayer time. It was really awesome hearing the day's stories from everyone on the team. After that the majority of us went to Toby's and watched some of the NCAA championship game.

We had a good day. We are doing about the same thing the next few days. We will also start doing the Pay it Forward project. We will be passing out gift cards and things and then asking people to pay it forward to 3 people. We have signs and shirt we will wear as well.

El Paso Day 2

Sunday in El Paso

"If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your life will be radiant, as though a flood light is shining on you." -Luke 11:36

My prayer that day was that we could be flood lights in El Paso.

We got to sleep in. I felt rested when I got up. The guys stayed at Clara and Toby's house. It was Marlon, John, Rafa, Bill, Marc, Paul, Dan and me. Our hosts made a great breakfast for us. It was a huge blessing. We then went to play ultimate frisbee at a local park. It was a perfect day for it; 70 degrees and not too windy. We got to know the Rio members better and enjoyed the nice day.

We then had a meeting to discuss the plan for the week. We have a busy week ahead of us. Some of the things we are doing: UTEP evangelism, pass out business cards/magnets in the neighborhood, go to a local high school to outreach, and go to the orphanage in Mexico on Wednesday. We then went shopping and rested. A group of us went to the mall and the Texas store to get some souvenirs.

We had some spaghetti for dinner at the Nelsons. It was great to eat as a team. Then we had some worship time by the campfire in the Nelson's backyard. Nate, Wayne and Dan led the worship. We prayed afterward for our week. We know tomorrow it gets serious. This was our free day. We prayed our hearts would be ready to share the Gospel. We also prayed for Jeremy from the South House. He got sick before the trip and wasn't able to come to El Paso. We hope he can fly down and join us.


Here is our team around the fire getting ready to worship together.

El Paso Day 1

We made it to El Paso!


We are Team Jireh. Named after this boy. He is Pastor Steve and Kathleen Nelson's son who love us Minnesotans. We are his favorite mission team.

21 of us (5 from the South House) began our journey to El Paso on April 3rd at 5:30. We rented 4 vans. I was a little nervous at first. I'm often nervous on trips. I felt ready though, after a week of some good prayer time. In my van is: Misti, John, Nate and Maria. We, along with the guy's van stopped at Subway for dinner at around 9:00pm just south of Des Moines. After dinner I drove until about 2am. Then John took over until 6am.

I then drove to our breakfast spot which was in a town in New Mexico. It was called Dingy Dean's. We met 2 other vans (guy's and gal's) there for some good eatin'. The South House van was about a hour and a half behind. We eventually made it to El Paso at around 2:30pm Mountain time. We were the first ones to pull into the Nelsons' casa. We were greeted with warm hugs and ice cold lemonade. It was great to be back! The rest of the vans all pulled in shortly behind us. We played some 4-square with the kids and had pizza for dinner. We went to the Rio church service at 6:30. There church meets at a Christian center in a strip mall. The set-up was nice. They have a worship team that has greatly improved over the last year. Pastor Tom shared a message on giving back to your church and local community. He stated that we should step out in faith with our giving and God will honor that. After church we headed to our host families' homes and went to bed. 8 of the guys stayed at Toby and Clara's house. We were all tired and needed some good rest.