Dear Friends,
I usually post here to tell how I have been doing and what the Lord has been doing with me. Today I post for another reason: I and my friends here in Ambridge are taking on a major challenge over the next four months, and I need your help.
The Lord has moved me to help lead a Youth Alpha program which will run this spring in Ambridge. For an overview of the program, see here: http://www.alphana.org/Group/Group.aspx?ID=1000042013
I covet your prayers.
The program, along with adult Alpha, will be hosted by Church of the Savior (Anglican), a congregation of four to five dozen folk taking on a historic challenge to reach out into their community. You may see their website at http://www.cotsambridge.org/
Please pray for this faithful church.
The Youth Alpha segment is being directed by Eric Geisbert of Ambridge Youth Ignite (AYI), whose website is at http://ambridgesportscamp.blogspot.com/
They have just returned from a successful short mission trip to Peru, where they presented their Sports and Arts Camp to the children there.
My young charge Alex has attended the AYI Sports Camp for the last two summers here in Ambridge, and I have been thoroughly impressed by Eric and his organization. I invite you especially to watch the short video of their summer camp experience, located here:
http://ambridgesportscamp.blogspot.com/2010/01/ayi-video.html
Our Youth Alpha team is small: Eric, myself, Cyndi, Stewart, and Joe and his wife, plus John, a high school age boy who has accepted the challenge to lead worship. Please pray for all of us. We are praying for more young people to come forward to do one or more of the 'Talks.' We are inviting children from grades 5 through nine: please pray for young folk to come and to be blessed by the Alpha program.
I will be doing two of the talks: the one on Reading the Bible (my specialty) and the one titled "Does God Still Heal Today?". I trust that my experience taking the Alpha course at Saint James Anglican in Newport Beach will prove valuable to me, but I am relying primarily on the Holy Spirit to carry me through.
Recruiting people to come to the programs has been tough here, as we've had one of the worst storms in many years. Church of the Savior was forced to cancel Sunday services that week, along with their Saturday walkabout to invite participants. But our hope is in the Lord.
The photo above is of Alex measuring the snowfall from the "big one", when I had 16 inches of snow stacked up on my porch railing. In the last week we've had a few days of balmy weather (clear up into the low 40's!) and some rain that has tamped down a lot of the snow.
We kick off in earnest this Thursday February 25, and continuing most Thursdays through May 20. I look forward to what the Lord is going to do for youth here in Ambridge. I will keep this post updated in the comment section below; come back to check up on us!
Thank you for your prayers.
Rolin
1 comment:
Good News: we have two groups of young people attending Youth Alpha, boys and girls from fourth to ninth grade. I have been leading the small group discussion for the boys' group--at times it seems like conducting a class in the midst of a tornado.
Please pray for the boys in my group, who have chosen names of cars as nicknames to help us remember one another: The boys' nicknames are Rambo (that's a car?), Lamborghini, Accord, Ferrari, Blazer, Thunderbird, and Toyota.
Stewart is our stalwart activity leader; he was instrumental in holding it together this week in Eric's absence, as Eric was out of state visiting his mother who is undergoing medical treatment.
Thank you for your prayers. We will continue to need them through course completion May 20.
God bless,
Rolin
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