Team 1
Yesterday was a great day for our team!! We went to Beverly Bootstraps, which is a thrift shop. God gave us the opportunity to get to talk with people who came into the store. Madison and I had the privilege to speak with this lady named Joanie. She told us about how her friend had a group of kids like us come in her shop and ask to clean. The lady said no, and how they group asked if they could pray for her or anyone she knew. She told them about her friend’s great grandson who had brain cancer. Soon after she told us that we found out that she was the friend who great grandson had cancer. I was able to use my experience of my dad having cancer to talk with this lady. Madison and I asked her if we could pray for her and she said yes. After we finished praying for her 7-year-old great grandson, she told us thank you and all the work we are doing matters. God showed us that even though we might not always be able to see that what we are doing is important, it actually is.
-Lexi
Team 2
Hello from team 2! We have had another incredible day! This morning, we did the laundry and prepped for our block party tomorrow night. We cannot wait to encounter all that the Lord has in store! We went to the mall food court for lunch and a lady named Jacqueline offered us a sample at a popcorn stand. We stopped by for a sample and she asked about our matching T-shirts. We told her all about Netcast Church and why we are here to share the Gospel with the people of Boston. When Jacqueline heard that we were from a church, she immediately asked if we would pray for her…”like right now!”. We prayed for her right there at the popcorn kiosk at Northshore Mall. She is going to bring her sister, friend and their kids to the block party tomorrow! Later on, we went to the YMCA to prepare for a kids camp. Please continue to pray for our team!
-Isabel
Team 3
Today we got the chance to have some great conversations with people while also offering to help them in any way they needed. Even though we may have gotten many no’s, we kept going and didn’t let that keep us down! We got to meet a lot of dogs which made me really happy and that was a great opportunity to talk to the owners as well. One of our most impactful conversations came from us walking up to pet these two beautiful huskies, we got to learn a lot about the man. He was a pastor for 30 years with a wife and kids before he decided to explore homosexuality. We got to pray with him and will continue to pray for him and his situation! Miss ya mom & dad!
-Lilyann
Team 4
Kyndall, Sean, and John went up to a set of kids at the park while their moms were doing pilates and started talking to them to get to know them. Kyndall got the moms permission to talk to their kids because they weren’t there with them, after she got the “okay” they started talking and sharing about Jesus. John connected with them by talking about football and baseball and Kyndall brought up God and Jesus and the kids didn’t really know much about it. She pulled out her bible and talked about the cross and how Jesus died for their sins and two of the kids asked to pray to receive Jesus. At that time, Kyndall and John asked for permission once more and the mom said “I’d rather you not” and took her kids away.
We also met this British gentleman named Geoff and his grandson Justin. Everybody there but John stayed to talk with Geoff; John went out to play baseball with Justin and started to share the gospel. Justin didn’t wish to pray for Jesus but we learned that Geoff was a missionary from England. So the seed was nurtured.
Good day with lots of interaction and good conversations.
-Kyndall
Team 5
Today we took a trip to open doors which is a food bank that provides food for the homeless and the poor. We volunteered by doing many different tasks such as sorting foods and picking up trash around the area. While picking up trash, a neighbor to the open doors came out and asked us where we were from, and we replied “Houston Texas.”
She told us that she very much appreciated it and she also put us on her Facebook page. Later in the day, we continued with our sports camp and teaching kids about the gospel. Tomorrow we are having a soccer tournament with all the kids.
-Austin
Team 6
So today, our group started to finish putting up the Sheetrock in the barn. We were working all day like usual. We still had a lot to do, so we just ordered pizza. Even though we weren’t able to talk to people about Jesus that day, we still can see God working in us every day.
-Harrison
Team 7
As this week began, our team was trying to figure out how to work with one another and be efficient, but we were struggling to work as a team. We sat down as a team and had a serious conversation about the importance of focusing on Christ this week. We ultimately came to the conclusion that we needed to be intentional with our time and conversations. After a wonderful day yesterday, we were ready and excited for what God had in store for today.
We started out our day with a team devotional during our van ride to breakfast. We discussed several different things that God has been teaching us individually and then began to explore 1 Corinthians 13 and the importance of love. We talked about different aspects of living others, loving Christ, and loving yourself.
After eating breakfast, we began to explore Salem, Massachusetts with the intention of getting to know the people there and sharing the Gospel. While walking around the town, we began to see how prevalent the practice of witchcraft still is in the town. We met a few people in the town and were able to share the simple Gospel with them. While some were receptive, others weren’t. During our next van ride, we discussed the importance of failure in order to reach success. While not all of our conversations ended up the way we would have hoped, the name of Jesus was still heard.
We made our way to the sports camp that we have been leading worship at, and the kids were super excited today! The camp started out with just a handful of kids, but it has grown every day. The kids are enjoying worship more and more each day. Team 5, who is leading the sports camp, shared with us that the kids kept asking about the worship team throughout the day. Although this sports camp is an hour away from where we are staying, being able to see the joy and the children’s faces as they worship makes it all worthwhile.
Please continue to pray for rest and community within our group. Also, please pray for the town of Salem, that people’s eyes may be opened to the light of Christ in the midst of darkness.
-Katy Robbins
Team 8
Allison- So we started out the morning at the Arc, which is a center for people with disabilities to have a job/get started in the workplace. We got there and immediately started to clean up the place and organize it because they are turning this huge room into a black box. Anyway the second I could get away I went to this room that a group of lifeskills was going on a trip to some of the surrounding towns. I met 5 people: Heather, Jessica, Sarah, Chris, Ron, and Danny. These five all had the funniest, most enjoyable personalities. Heather promptly made fun of me for all of the times I said “y’all” and then showed me how amazing her British accent was. I really got to know Heather and her life story and tell her about what we were doing in Massachusetts. Then later on in the day, we went back to our kids club that we’ve been at since Tuesday. We played four square with the kids until the lesson and got to love on them and show them Christs love through our actions. It has been such a blessing to be doing what we have gotten to do this week, and I’m so grateful.
Mattie- After getting to the Arc, we were immediately put to work cleaning out a room and putting together another. Holden and I decided that we should start our own moving company after moving huge dressers and some really old gigantic lockers. After that, we went to our kids club that we are running in Nashua. We had about 9 kids and I was able to get to know a girl called Alexa who has been there every day since the beginning and she finally opened up to me and her home life. It really opened my eyes to how such a young girl can have already felt such physical and emotional pain, it really made me appreciate my parents and family. Finally, we went to dinner and we all pitched in to pay for a mom and her son’s dinner. After she found out and I saw the look on her face and how thankful she was it immediately made me want to pay for another table.
Team 9
Hello from the Red Hot Chili Puppets! Today began bright and early, as we made the hour drive to Nashua, NH (giving everyone a chance to catch up on some sleep). We had a couple of puppet shows today, at two different senior living homes. When we walked into the first home, the residents were a bit quiet. After the show, however, it was so nice to see how they seemed so joyful and happy to have us there. One of the residents (Velma) was very sweet, saying, “You’re doing this show for the youngin’s too right?”—making sure we told all the kids too. 😉 Our second performance was just as much fun, as the residents began to interact with the show, playing and talking with the puppets as we walked around after the show. As the week closes, we are so thankful for our encounters so far and excited to see what else God has in store!
-Jessi
Team 10
Today was so amazing. Within our team 10, we have become so unified and we have helped each other grow and God has brought us together as one in beautiful ways. Yesterday I prayed for our team to break our of our shells and to talk with people we come across, but also for God to put obvious people in our path, and God beyond answered our prayers. We worked at the ARC, which is a place for people with disabilities to express themselves through their art, and we fixed up the basement and it will be used for ceramics and clay. It was neat to serve God in that way and we know powerful and fun things will happen because of what God is doing there. We came across many people today. One of the women Sarah and I talked to was really open and sweet and we shared our beliefs with her and she didn’t shut us out but she wasn’t ready to give up her current Universal Unitarian beliefs, but we know God still worked through us. Another lady we talked to was a Christian and she shared that she is from Massachusetts but became a Christian in Turkey where she spent 23 years. She said she is so thankful that a group is coming and pouring into the community around her and that it is much needed. That was a sweet encouragement for us and a reminder that we are doing important things that have eternal value. We serve an eternal God and He is at work in this city, and He answers prayers beyond what we can imagine.
-Morgan
Team 11
All week we have been building a porch in Travis’ backyard. Today was the first day we did something different. We went and worked at this soup kitchen/ food pantry type place. We started by sorting but then I got moved to kitchen duty. It was awful because apparently I was doing everything wrong. It wasn’t a shocker because in my family I don’t really do the cooking. In my family my mom usually cooks so I guess I was it was a learning experience. The lady I was working with was so rude so I went outside and took a break. That’s when Nick told me he got hit by a car, but he was ok. I then went back in a began to sort some more. While I was doing that, Ms. Audree was talking to a girl named Jade. Jade was trying to get community service hours, because she had been arrested for drug related reasons. She said that she kept trying to call her parents and they would not answer. Ten days later she began to feel discouraged and unwanted by her parents because she kept getting in drug related trouble. She began to pray and on the eleventh day, her parents called her back. We took her outside and she told us that she is over a year sober. We prayed with her and she began to cry. She said that she really needed that and we told her about The Well. She was so happy that we talked and prayed with her. After that, we went a looked around Boston. We got to see Fenway and Harvard. It was really cool and then I got to have some really good fried chicken! We made it back and went to worship. After worship, all the seniors went to the beach and had a bonfire. It was so nice and so fun! What an awesome day.
-Maddie
cfbc students 