The Minneapolis Project
July 24th- August 18th, 2020
First of all, I want to thank God for this outreach opportunity and give Him all the honor and glory for the great things He did in the hearts of the people of Minneapolis! Thank you for all of your prayers, I appreciate it greatly! Many told me that it was a courageous thing to go to the city where all of the riots started this year after Gorge Floyd was killed there, but we did not go there because of that. God knew the need far before anyone else. The local Church there had reached out to me back in December 2019. We set up a trip for me to go sometime late July of 2020. God knew how great the need would be this summer when we were to go. I contacted my close friend Daniel Ibarria to go help me with this mission project in Minneapolis. He has been to six different countries with me on missions. Daniel (Danny) is a great teacher and coordinator. He went with me and helped with everything.
When we arrived, we sadly saw the aftermath of the riots and looting. An innumerable number of businesses were boarded up or just burned to the ground. Our purpose was to go and train a local church and start some new ministry outreaches in the community. The first week we had teacher workshops for the the teacher and families from Straitgate Church, which is located in downtown Minneapolis (about 8 minutes from where all the riots started). We had about 15 people in our teacher workshop and it went very well! We covered a number of topics including: How to share the gospel, counseling, how to understand children and their needs, and the power of a teacher!
The following week we stared some bible clubs at a park located near the church. The clubs consisted of the following: Playing with the children at the park to connect and inviting people from the surrounding neighborhoods. Once we started we began with some songs and prayer. Everyday we had a new memory verse followed by a Bible lesson with an invitation for salvation. At the end of the Bible club we had prayer time where the kids could pray with some of our volunteers. We also preformed some skits with the gospel presentation at the end. Then we passed out all the goodies we brought such as: juices, chips, and candy bags with gospel tracts inside. Then we had free time and played with the children and just had fun with them and invited them to return the next day. This went on for 5 days, then we did it again the following week at another location.
The main difference from the first week of clubs and the second was that the first week Daniel and I did most of the teaching the first week and the second week was that it was almost entirely done by the local church! The children loved it as well as the parents that attended. Over the course of both weeks we had a little over a hundred people attend the Bible clubs at the parks! And Glory to God that many were saved!
We are exited to see what God is going to do there in Minneapolis! We were able to get most of the contact information of those who attended the Bible clubs so that the church can follow up with them! This past Sunday, August 30th, was the first day of “Sunday School at the Parks” where the church members go out to the community and have Sunday school for the children there! Please continue to pray for them as this is no easy task, but with God all things are possible!
