Livin' the DREAM

I don't even know what to say about this mission trip. All I know is that it was better than my wildest, most extravagant dreams. God worked through us and in us while we picked up trash, laughed, sang, packed food bags, and boldly proclaimed our faith with our words and our actions.

On Friday, we did team building exercises and established that we were each a unique part of the Body of Christ, each with our special gifts. We also learned that, by faith, God takes the little that we give and multiplies it exponentially to do huge things in His kingdom.

We also picked up CCC's Adopt A Street (both sides of 43rd Ave. from Thunderbird to Acoma). I was blown away by the way that the team encouraged each other. The heat may have been scorching, but we trudged on, picking up every piece of trash we could.

This year, we had the opportunity to partner with The Phoenix Dream Center, which seeks to "Reach in and mine the incredible potential we believe lies within the lives of at-risk youth, the homeless, and the needy families of our community by restoring hope and allowing them to dream again." On Saturday morning, we worked with the Block Outreach ministry by cleaning up a street, which we later found out was a neutral territory between two gang infested neighborhoods. This was an incredibly tedious, dirty job, but we kept reminding ourselves that we were part of a something much bigger that God was doing in the neighborhood.

That afternoon, we got to hear our guide Jamar's testimony about how God had saved Him from a lifestyle of drugs, filled him with the Holy Spirit, and given him a passion for ministry. Little did we know it was the first of many powerful testimonies that we would hear. After that, we prepared for an outreach that the disciples do every week before Church on the Street. This outreach happens each week at an apartment complex - they make hotdogs for all the residents, preach the Word, and offer them clothing and bags of food. It was inspiring to see their passion for reaching their neighborhood as they interacted with kids and their families, danced, and rapped about Jesus.

From there, we went to Church on the Street, where we experienced the Holy Spirit in worship, shared about our trip, and heard a ton of amazing testimonies about how God had reclaimed the lives of the people in the Dream Center's discipleship program.

On Sunday morning,we had the opportunity to do a cross walk. Every Sunday, a group from Church on the Street carries crosses on Van Buren from 19th avenue to the state-run CASS homeless shelter on 15th avenue and Washington. We started by praying and asking the Holy Spirit to work through us as we prayed for people and shared our faith. We experienced several divine appointments. We prayed for a lady named Tillie, who has made a habit of praying for the drug houses in her neighborhood. She was congested after having the flu, and God totally caused her sinuses to start to drain when we prayed! We also got to witness to a couple of jr. high aged boys. After we talked with them, they accepted Christ into their lives. Needless to say, we were pumped! Once back to The Dream Center, we got to share testimony from the Cross Walk in the Sunday morning service. They also celebrated graduates of the discipleship program in the service, which was totally a blessing to me because we got to see some indirect fruit of our obedience.

I was so humbled to watch our team be the hands and feet of Christ this weekend. I'm reminded of James 5:13-15, which says:

"¹³ Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. ¹⁴ Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven."

I feel like this is exactly what we experienced this weekend. We got to function as a community that prayed for the burdens and hardships of the oppressed, praised God for everything that He was doing, and pressed in for healing from headaches and heat exhaustion. We saw God multiply our willingness, obedience, and faith time and time again as He touched people through us.

I'm so proud of everyone of the people on the team - Bekah Wilson, Yvonne Martinez, Jeff Burbank, Victoria Martinez, Noah Best-Acosta, Fred Short, Hanna Poertner, Hannah Gangemi, and Rachel Shroeder. We each experienced God in new way. May we keep dreaming!

- Amanda Cates, Louder Than Words Coordinator