We Are Circuit Riders (More to Come)

Alright, so as soon as we started this Circuit Riders course we knew there would be no way for us to do all the updating we had promised. So over the next week, or so, we are gonna be sharing some more of the teaching we received, stories from outreach, as well as the audios of all the sermons & some worship (once we edit them down to size). Thanks to all of you who have so faithfully followed our journey and sown into it, we pray you receive a blessing from the Lord, as amazing, & greater than what we received in our hearts from this past week. 

So the last that you all knew we were about ready to go out into the streets of Kansas City and did we ever. For those of you that are familiar with our hometown of Benton Harbor & St. Joseph MI we really couldn't have been sent to 2 better places over the 2 days of outreach. On Tuesday we went to Hickman Mills, which looks and feels a lot like Benton Harbor. A group of 18 or so of us from all over the globe  (Mexico, Canada, Germany, Korea, and all over the US from Alaska to Texas up to Michigan and Indiana) loaded into a 20 passenger van, which I was selected to drive because I'm 25 and have chauffeur license, and then drove to Hickman Mills. 

When we arrived to the area we got into teams of 2-3 and all went in different directions, most went into neighborhoods and basically went door to door stopping and talking to anyone who had 1 minute of time sharing with them the good news of Jesus Christ. If people wanted to know more, had more time talk or even made a decision to follow Jesus then our response was to pray with them/for them, lead them in a prayer of repentance, bless them in anyway we could whether just talking with them or even praying for physical healing right on the spot. 

My small group consisted of Kelsey (my wife), Ju-sook (a 41 year old teacher from South Korea who Kelsey really connected with at a deep level), and myself. Our group went the opposite way of the others and went to some of the local businesses in the area. Most of the people that we encountered along our journey claimed to be Christians, so when we met them we would ask to pray for them and would rely on the Lord to speak words of life and encouragement and perseverance over their lives. 

Our first stop was a local beauty salon. The sign on the door said "only customers welcome" but we said. "these people need the Lord because He has been so good to us." So we went in anyway. After we entered we got some stares, because here were 2 asian girls and a really raspy white boy (I had lost my voice) in an african american hair salon with about 12 people sitting around talking/doing hair inside. As soon as we entered I mustered up some courage with a little nudging from Kels and said "My name is Austin & my wife Kelsey and I are here from MI with our friend Ju-sook who is from S. Korea. And honestly we are here because Jesus Christ has radically impacted our lives and we want to share Him with you." Because of this we had the opportunity to bless almost all of the men, women, and children in the beauty parlor with prayer and encouragement as they pursue Christ and all that He has planned for them. We even got to pray for a woman who had hip problems and she said that after prayer it was feeling better. God is so good.

We parked our van at Joe's Tobacco in the background & the building
in the foreground is now a beautiful hair salon, that we shared the love of Jesus in.

Check back here over the next few days/week as we share more testimonies of God's goodness and mercy on our journey to become Circuit Riders.