On December 8-11, we are taking youth to Denver to serve at the Operation Christmas Child processing center. We leave at 9 am on December 8. We will make stops for lunch, gas, and to stretch our legs a few times, as it is close to an eight hour drive. The main purpose of the trip is to spend two days working at the Operation Christmas Child (OCC https://www.occvolunteersignup.com/) processing center to provide some experience serving and learning about missions. We will be organizing, sorting, packing and shipping all of the OCC boxes from the Midwest region for their final destinations all around the world. We will also be joining with a Converge sister church in Denver (The Way Church) for their youth group meeting on Thursday evening, December 8 (this church is also providing host homes for us during our stay); we will be having dinner with representatives from Reach Beyond (https://reachbeyond.org/), a mission organization in Colorado Springs to learn more about world missions on Friday evening, December 9; then enjoying a fun evening out on Saturday, December 10, after our time at OCC. We will join the host families and leadership from The Way Church for a brunch Sunday morning, December 11, before we head home. Our goal is to be back in St. Paul around 8/9 pm on December 11. Please be in prayer for the youth going, that God would use this time to expand their vision and desire to serve, and lead them into a deeper relationship with Him. Pray for our travel and our interactions with others on the trip.
We will have a Christmas celebration for the Wednesday night youth group on December 21. Please continue to pray for the youth who have been attending Wednesday evenings. We have been averaging 18, with a high of 21, a low of 13, and a total of 27 different youth. These youth continue to come and are from a diverse background of church involvement and/or experience. Pray God would give us continued wisdom as we interact with them and that we would be a good witness to each of them.