Fall Update 2015

A year of work, fundraising, praying and anticipation has finally culminated in Josh getting off to his Discipleship Training School (DTS) with Youth With A Mission, Holmsted Manor in Sussex, UK! It was hard to let him go, and we miss him terribly but he is having a great time learning and growing in a new community. Thanks so much to all who gave and helped with our fundraisers. Josh went to his school fully funded!

We enjoy our weekly skype chats with him. We've met most of his room mates (from Spain, Germany and India). The school will travel together after their training for 2 months of ministry in South Africa. Please keep this time in your prayers.

We had a surprise team at the end of this Summer. Plans fell through for the "Rise" Discipleship Training School in Vancouver, BC for the end of their outreach and we were asked to host them for 2 1/2 weeks here in Modesto. They worked with us on 9th Street and all throughout our community. You can read about their time with us from their perspective HERE and HERE and HERE.

Stella was able to rope the Rise DTS with some of her friends for the 2nd initiative of the "Save America Club." They worked for the morning cleaning up litter along the Dry Creek Trail in our neighborhood. We removed 8 bags of trash and 2 shopping carts! The club is dedicated to feeding the hungry, cleaning litter, removing graffiti and helping the animal shelter

We worked together with the Modesto Youth Pastor's Network to put on the annual Nor-Cal All Nighter. And yes, it's exactly what that sounds like. 190 students and leaders gathered at New Hope for worship together and a message then we played all night all around the city. And, once again, yes, we're insane. It was a lot of fun.

I (Chris) had an opportunity to go and share with another YWAM DTS led by good friends Matt and Steph in Fort MacMurray, Alberta, Canada the last week of September. My topic was Evangelism (literally "doing the good news") and it was a great week sharing with these students...3 First Nations, 4 Samoans, 1 Swede and 1 Jamaican. I love getting to travel and teach. It recharges my desire to get home and "do the good news" here in Modesto. And yes, we went to Tim Horton's a lot.

And, of course, our Café is still going strong Tuesdays and Fridays on South 9th Street with a community Bible study at a local donut shop on Thursday afternoons. Much friendship, laughter, coffee and community building comes from this simple time together.

You can find out more about YWAM Modesto at our website HERE

Thanks for interest, prayer and support!