A Day of Rest

What a great week it has been. It is coming to an end. We are packing up and will head back to North Carolina tomorrow after lunch. 

We had a lot of fun yesterday in the city. We had an awesome tour of the U.S. Capitol. A young man named Caleb from Salisbury gave us a great tour. We were able to go into the House Chamber, which was a special treat. This is where the House of Representatives meet and the State of the Union takes place. 

Here is a rundown of what we got to see:

-Walked by Library of Congress

-Walked by Supreme Court

-Lunch at Union Station

-The White House

-Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

-Smithsonian American History Museum 

- Washington Nationals Baseball Game

Today was a good day but was much slower. We went to a big shopping area and invited people to Impact Church.   We had some great conversations.

We took the afternoon to rest and relax. 

It was much needed. We were able to have a nice team dinner to celebrate what God has done this week. 

We are worshipping with Impact Church in the morning. We are so excited toert the whole church. We are praying and expecting great things. Please join us. 

We will head back to North Carolina right after church and lunch. Please join us for safe travels. 

Blessings,

Pastor Matt and Ashley

Pics from DC

Long day. 

Left at 7:15. 

Returned at 11:30

Exhausted.

Here are a few pics. Will post more tomorrow. 

Blessings,

Pastor Matt and Ashley 

Seeds Planted

Well another day has past. We spent this morning going into the neighborhood businesses and giving them gift baskets to put in their breakrooms. We hit businesses like Subway, Starbucks, Panera Bread, BB&T, etc. 

It was amazing to see the people's reaction. At first there was a huge wall put up but after the conversation, it was very apparent that the wall had come down. They were able to see our heart and we open and welcoming and received a blessing.

We spent the afternoon at the Vienna Metro Station handing out free waters and invite cards. It was so much fun. We got rejected a lot but we handed out around 200 water bottles. Most people just walked by and ignored us but we did have a few great conversations about Impact Church. It was very sad to see so many people be so dark and hopeless. They would just walk by you and you could feel their emptiness and darkness. We certainly prayed over them as they were leaving. 

The team is starting to feel the effects of the week. We are starting to get tired but our spirits are high. Thank you for the prayers and lovely comments. We are feeling them. 

We will take tomorrow as a day to go into the city and get to see some of the historic parts of  Washington, DC.

We have a personal tour of the U.S. Capitol in the morning, thank you Zach Almond for the hookup. We will venture to Union Station, some of the Smithsonians, and the memorials (Lincoln, Vietnam, WWII). We also have tickets to see the Washington Nationals play the Los Angeles Dodgers tomorrow night. We surprised the team with that tonight. 

We will be posting photos to Social Media tomorrow but doubt we will have time to write a blog about it. 

Please pray specifically for strength tomorrow. It's going to be a long day and lots of walking. 

Thanks for everything. We love you all. 

Blessings, 

Pastor Matt and Ashley

Working in the Trenches

It was another great day. We started our day by going to Colin Powell Elementary School, which is where Impact Church meets every Sunday. We went to help them with their school facilities.

The team from Impact took coffee and breakfast to the school staff. There are not a lot of churches who meet in schools. The ones who do meet in schools usually don't have a lot to do with the school staff. Impact is working to change that and your Revolution Students made a HUGE Difference. 

We arrived and started tearing up weeds and realizing that the task ahead was going to be very large and very difficult. We didn't have any tools but our hands and we started picking weeds. We finally were able to get a weed eater and that helped tremendously. 

The students were able to go play basketball and swing with the kids on the playground and invite them to church. To see the before and after pictures were pretty amazing. The custodian Mike

came outside and was shocked by the progress. He said it looked the best it had been in years. He said he wanted to take a picture of it. We were able to witness to him and talk to him about Impact Church. 

Our afternoon consisted of buying 30 watermelons and heading to a neighborhood to pass them out and invite them to church. The students did great and passed out 28 watermelons.

We ended the day with a cookout at the Merrimans house. A couple with Impact Church opened their home to us and add us feel so special. They were such a blessing to us. 

The past couple of days have been difficult because we have been met with some huge culture barriers. I would say 95% of the people we have meet have been of foreign nationalities. It's been difficult to have extended conversations but we have planted so many seeds and praying that God uses our efforts to further His Kingdom.

Tomorrow we start the Business Blitz. We have 20 gift baskets to hand to businesses to use in their break rooms. 

Tomorrow afternoon we will be able to hand out water bottles at the local Metro station. We will have much better opportunities to have great conversations about the Lord Jesus. 

Here is how you can pray for us tomorrow:

-Pray for the businesses and workers to receive the gift baksets. Pray for them to

be receptive. 

-Pray for all those receiving water tomorrow. 

-Pray for boldness as we share Jesus. 

-Pray for strength for our team. Fatigue is starting to set in. 

-Pray for safety for our teams. 

Thank you for the prayers. We feel them daily. Keep them coming. This is a special group of students. They are making a huge difference in our nations Capital.

We love you all.

Blessings,

Pastor Matt and Ashley

An Amazing First Day

Our first minister day is in the books. We had a great day. We started by prayer walking around Northern Virginia. We went to 5 different locations. We wanted to start our day by praying for the Lord to give us strength for the day. We will share them below briefly.

1.  Centreville Fire Department

2.  Colin Powell Elementary Schook

3. Centreville High School

4.  George Mason University

5.  Manassas Battlefield

The afternoon was HUGE. We were prayed up and ready to go out into the neighborhoods. We knocked on doors and invited people to church. We had some great conversations as we knocked on about 150 doors and handed out invite cards. When that was complete, our students wanted to keep going. We headed over to the mall an continued to share. Most were pretty receptive but a few were anti-church. Adam Huneycutt got a hand to the face when he mentioned church, but he handled it beautifully.

Our students where PHENOMENAL. They jumped right in and had no fear. I was so proud of them. 

We had a great debrief meeting and here is what each person has to take away from the day: 

Kalysta Russell: even when it seems like you are not making a difference, know that you are. 

Rachel Fields: I need to be a bold witness for the Lord. He will enable me to do anything that He called me to do.

Joseph Williams: The courage to keep going even after being rejected and stepping way out off my comfort zone. 

Adam Kimrey: That even when people reject me that I need to love and pray for them instead of showing hatred and basically saying that they are "too far gone"

Adam Huneycutt: I want to be able to go home and have confidence to go door to door and invite people to church. 

Joy Whitley: To know that we were taking the gospel to the nations without even touching foreign soil. 

Robert Whitley: I am totally amazed by our youth and their commitment to the Lord. I was impressed by their willingness to share the love of Jesus. 

Anya Bullock: I loved going to the pool because I made my own whirlpool. I figured out by spinning I can get warmer. I love it. Even the hot tub. I would like it more if I didn't have a blister. So it was fun. This sentence is written by Anya Bullock. This is my favorite part including handing out cards.

Ashley Wilkinson: While watching my (almost) 8-year-old knock on doors without fear, I'm amazed at her passion and eagerness to share Jesus. We often look at young ones and think of their limitations but today I was amazed by my baby girl. I was reminded that leading doesn't come from age or even experience.

"Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity." (1 Timothy 4:12)

Matthew Wilkinson: I am truly amazed at the incredibly diverse area that we encountered today. The nations are all right here. I am amazed at our team and how they totally went for it today and absolutely hit it out of the park. I am one blessed Youth Pastor. 

Thanks for your prayers. Tomorrow you can pray for the following:

-  We have a work day at Colin Powell Elementary  School in the morning. Pray that we will be a blessing to them. 

- We will be handing out free watermelons tomorrow. Pray for great conversations about the Lord and that gospel seeds will be planted. 

- Pray for safety and boldness for our team. 

- Pray for strength and energy for the team. 

- Pray for the people who we will talk to tomorrow that their hearts be receptive. 

Thanks for reading and praying. 

Blessings, 

Pastor Matt and Ashley 

We Made It!!!!!

We had a great day. We got loaded up and had an ON TIME DEPARTURE.  That is an amazing feat. We had a very good trip.  Safe travels the whole way and no major traffic issues on 95. We stopped for lunch at Chipotle. YUM. Adam found this sign and we were very sad because it didn't allow for handicap people. Adam was distressed. (This was a loading ramp and not intended for handicapped access. Chipotle is in no way violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.)

As you can imagine, we haven't had any dull moments yet. We arrived around 5 pm at the hotel. We got situated and had dinner and then had an orientation meeting with the team from Impact Church. We got to meet 4 members of their team and it was great. We loved getting to see their heart and mission for Northern Virginia. Impact is a very mission-minded church and is very strategic in how they reach people. 

They shared some of what the culture is like around here.

-Fairfax County is one of the wealthiest counties in the entire United States.

-Only 2% of the population goes to church in DC. Let that sink in. That means 98% of people don't go to church. 

-A lot of people are very closed to the gospel. 

-There is a ton of diversity within the county. There are large populations of both Chinese and Indian in the area. 

We were able to go over our schedule for the week and then we prayed together as a group. The sweetest part of the night was when the prayer time was over,  Anya was upset because she wanted to pray. So we let her pray and she prayed  beautiful prayer and said "help us as we go out and love people and tell them about Jesus."  I had to fight back tears. Wow. Amazing that kids so young can grasp that. And I couldn't help but silently pray "Lord, may we all have faith like a child."

God has us placed right where He wants us. We only traveled for a few hours, but the nations are at our doorstep. Tomorrow we are scheduled to prayer walking in the morning and pass out invitations to Impact Church in the afternoon. 

Here are some specific ways you can pray for us:

-Pray for strength. 

-Pray for boldness and that we will share the good news of Jesus.

-Pray for those who will hear the gospel tomorrow. 

-Pray for safely for our team. 

-Pray that we reach our goal of inviting 1,000 people to Impact Church this week. 

Thanks for the prayers and we will keep you updated.

Blessings, Matt & Ashley

It's GO Time!

It's the night before we leave to go to Washington, DC for our 2015 High School Mission Trip.  We are excited about what is before us and know that God will use us.  To be completely honest, we are a little nervous. We are going into a place that has been the hotbed of political activity over the past few weeks.   We want to make sure that everything we do is going to honor and glorify the Lord Jesus.

We have been planning for months.  That has all gone away.  It's GO time.  It's time to pack the bags. We are done planning.  We are ready for action.

I am excited about the 2015 DC Mission Team.

-Rachel Fields
-Adam Huneycutt
-Adam Kimrey
-Kalysta Russell
-Joseph Williams
-Joy Whitley
-Robert Whitley
-Ashley Wilkinson
-Anya Bullock
-Matthew Wilkinson

 

  Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future.

Acts 26:16

We will do our best to update you at the end of each day.  We will also give you certain prayer request.  

Tomorrow is our travel day/orientation training.  

Pray for:  

•  Rest for all the team members on Sunday night
•  Traveling mercies for the entire team
•  Eagerness for the Mission Team to present the Gospel. 
•  That seeds be planted in the hearts of those that we come in contact with. 

Thank you for your daily prayers. 

Blessings, 
Pastor Matt