9/23/2008 - Sioux Falls Day #1

Hope your Friday is going well!
 
Just wanted to document for you all the “first day” on campus at Lincoln High School, give you a picture of what were actually doing – how we hope it will evolve, etc.
 
It was a beautiful morning, I arrived at Lincoln at 7:10. I walked in with about 15 students. All of which looked a little bit like zombies, but it’s homecoming so they were all decked out in blue, red and white. One guy had his legs, arms and face completely painted. I started talking to them about homecoming, and you could tell they were really excited and quite content with being a Patriot!
 
I think a lot of time we can look at Lincoln High School, and sort of assume everyone is suicidal, or something. It’s not true, they need Jesus and are going to hell if they don’t trust in Him– but there’s still hope left in their eyes, which I think is a very good thing!
 
I told them a little bit about Collision and they seemed interested, they said they’d atleast come check it out! So pray for those guys (Brett, Jeff and Luke) that our paths will cross many times this year, and that they will find Jesus (if they don’t know him already).
 
I then proceeded to walk into the office and sign in as a visitor, the lady behind the desk remembered me! That got me excited, she looked at me for a moment then something clicked “are you that Collision guy?” I said that I was, and she seemed excited to have us. She explained to me where the room that we had reserved was –down the hallway to the right, take the second to last left and it is the first room on the right A-201 (I think? Might have been 211 – oh well).
 
The moment I turned the corner this woman with her hands completely full was pulling her keys out to open up the room. I asked her if she was “Mrs. Dubois” – she said she was and I helped her get into the room. She seemed stressed so we talked for like 10 minutes, I thanked her for letting us use her room. She said it was her privilege, she said that she loves what we are doing and that she hopes she can help. She also told me that she is the leader of the Student Council, and is in charge of basically all student events (homecoming, prom, etc.). Praise the lord?! God in his sovereignty used Rachel Ziegler, a LHS senior, and Phil Gladder to get us a great room (which we’ll probably end up using for our weekly meetings, because it has plenty of seating room, a projector, and is overall a great setup).
 
We talked about Lincoln, and what Lincoln needs. We talked about her family, and science (the subject she teaches). It was a great chance to build a relationship with an important person. Please, thank God in prayer for this relationship, pray that it improves and trust is developed.
 
Speaking of relationships, there is a teacher – large man, who is in charge of the hallways. He stands in the middle of the hallway and moderates the passing students. He was there last spring, and he’s there now. We also had a good conversation, when I initially walked in – although short. When we left, John allowed me to give him the rest of the Bagel Boy bagels to put into the teacher’s lounge. He seemed genuinely grateful –praise the lord again! This same man was sort of pessimistic about the time we spent in the hallway last spring promoting our event at Tut Hill. He will be a huge ally – pray that trust will develop there as well. Sorry can’t remember his name.
 
Anyways, back to A-201. We had 5 high school students, all girls (pray that guys will start getting involved) we opened up and just began praying. Nothing fancy, or entertaining we just began to pray. The entertainment and creativity will come to draw in the lost and lukewarm – right now we are trying to find the FAITHFUL leaders God is raising up for our movement – pray, pray, pray.
 
We desire for these core leaders to be a tight knit group. Community can come from many things, we believe some of the greatest community lies within spheres of competition. Most athletic teams have a vision, a goal and are continually challenged in that direction. The vision the girls came up with last spring is that they want every person at Lincoln to hear the gospel – so today we challenged them with a relational evangelism strategy called “Hand to Hand.” Hand to hand is a non-threatening way to approach someone, because all you are doing is asking a friend if they could give you’re their feedback and opinion on a specific tract. We are using one tract called “For Your Joy” it answers some of the tougher questions, god and evil, hell, etc. Also another tract that contained ten reasons Jesus came to die. Pray for the students over the next week that they will give them away, that the person who receives them will  read them and be changed or that it would simply bring up questions and prepare the soil for further conversations with them! 10 people at Lincoln High School over the next seven days will (hopefully) be given the gospel, and asked to talk about it. Pray for boldness, and for the Spirit to move.
 
Speaking of challenging, and community. Hopefully you got as much out of Mark Driscoll’s sermon for today “Jesus on the Cross” as I did. The amazing prophecy fulfillment, and the description of Jesus really focused my heart on the Lord and definitely did raise my faith in the infallibility of God’s word.
 
Tomorrow you get to hear from Ron Hutchcraft talk about rescuing lost people, being bold not cold and the destructive nature of Jesus t-shirts, etc (subculture) J  my favorite subject – in his crusade classic talk “Rescue the Dying.”
 
Be Blessed and have a great weekend!
 
Grant
 
p.s. – I have a jiu jitsu tournament tomorrow morning, pray I dominate! And don’t break any joints or bones…
 

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