What a week! The week is now finished, we’re definitely exhausted, but God did incredible things in the high schools and community of Lodi.  We came with the vision to network the community of Believers together: youth pastors, Jim Elliot Christian, the local high schools…and we have been blown away by the UNITY God brought this week.  It’s hard to leave, now that our hearts are so connected with these students and churches, but it is so encouraging knowing that the work has just begun.  God is not done with Lodi…this is only the beginning.  The students and youth pastors are already anticipating the next outreach events.  This was not a one time deal…there are hundreds of students who still need to hear the Gospel!

Praise the Lord with us for all that was accomplished this week.  TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

LODI HIGH SCHOOL:

Lodi Club Leaders

• Lodi HS Hosted 10 rallies in 5 days in their Theater
• Over 600 students attended the rallies throughout the week – many coming multiple times
  
• 10 Students accepted Christ (that we know of)!!!!
• 44 Rededicated their lives to the Lord
• 16 students turned in response cards, asking to meet with a Christian club member for more information about Christianity
• 24 students want to get plugged into a local youth group
• At the rallies, the Christian club passed out to the students: 158 Bibles, 188 Gospel Tracts, 97 Gospel of John booklets, 16 More than a Carpenter Books, and 11 Jesus Films.
  

Tokay High School

Tokay Club Leaders

• Tokay HS Hosted 8 rallies in 5 days in their classroom!
  
• Over 250 students attended the rallies throughout the week – many coming multiple times
• 4 Students accepted Christ (that we know of)!!!!
• 5 Rededicated their lives to the Lord
• 11 turned in response cards, asking to meet with a Christian club member for more information about Christianity
• 8 students want to get plugged into a local youth group
• At the rallies, the Christian club passed out to the students: 77 Bibles, 91 Gospel Tracts, 78 Gospel of John booklets, 35 More than a Carpenter Books, and 13 Jesus Films.
• After school, Christian club students partnered with 10 Jim Elliot Christian high school students and shared the Gospel with 53 students on campus

Continued Prayer Requests:

→  Pray for safe travels for our team as we drive back to Southern CA in the morning

→  Pray as the students plan another outreach week later in the Spring

→  Pray that the local Youth Pastors remain faithful to meet together and help the student impact their campuses

→  Pray for the 600 students who heard the Gospel this week, that the Lord would continue to work in their heart

→  Pray for Marcos – a student at Tokay HS who came to multiple rallies, and talked with the CSP team about the Gospel Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.  He is hungry for the Gospel and searching!  Currently he is reading the book of John.  Pray he turns to Christ.

→  Pray for Kelsea – a girl at Lodi HS, raised in a mormon home.  She is wanting to become a Christian and has questions of how to do so.  Pray she connects with the Christian club

→  Pray that the Christian students in Lodi continue to be Light and Salt on their campus in the weeks and months to come

Thank you for your faithful prayer and excitement with us this week.  We could not have done this week without you and truly give all Glory to God!

The Team

His Servants,

Emma, Kellee, Kolby, and Taylor

After the third day of the spiritual emphasis week in Lodi, things are still going strong. Amidst a full day with morning prayer, a youth pastor meeting, speaking at Jim Elliot Christian High School, 4 rallies, and afternoon witnessing, not to mention introducing the California School Project ministry to a local church, God is certainly moving in Northern California.

All week long, seven youth pastors have partnered with the local outreach. They were excited to speak at the rallies, encourage the Christian clubs, fund the Christian materials, and are strategizing how to keep the campus ministry going for months and years to come.

Lodi High School: Between 400-500 students packed into the theater to hear local worship pastor Jeff share his testimony and why it is important to commit to Christ.  The students listened intently as he gave strong intellectual evidence for his belief in God as well as his own spiritual experiences.  He challenged the students not to ponder the shallow questions in life (like how to be “cool”) but rather question the meaning for their very existence.  As the students were leaving, one student expressed an interest in becoming a Christian, wanting to know how. The Christian Club President, Alyie is meeting with her on Friday to answer her questions.

Lodi High School this week has already given out 100 Bibles, and today pastors and other donors quickly brought together money to purchase 300 more Bibles for the campus to fulfill the need of the students’ interest.

Tokay High School: Today was an answer to prayer as the classroom was quickly filled with students during the lunchtime rallies. 100 students gathered to listen to Pastor Kevin give his testimony.  Pastor Kevin explained his high school experience and told of how, after trying to fill an empty space with drugs, alcohol, and popularity, Jesus truly filled him and made him whole. One student Marcos, (a student who heard the Gospel during yesterday’s after school witnessing) came to the rally to continue learning more about having a relationship with Christ. He said through this week he is understanding Christianity in a new way.

Jim Elliot Christian High School: After Emma and Kellee spoke to the students at Jim Elliot today, 5 Jim Elliot students came after school to help witness at Tokay High School. They were very excited to share their faith and help the Christian Club promote the rally, in spite of the fact that it is not on their own campus.

Prayer for tomorrow:

→   Please pray that everyone involved gets enough rest tonight and that they are bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and ready to go again tomorrow.

→   Pray that the students who have questions feel comfortable to approach a club-member, youth pastor, or advisor.

→   Continue to pray that the Holy Spirit speaks to the students that continue to come to the rallies.

→   Please pray that the youth pastors continue to work together and with the students to plan follow-up events

God bless!!

–Emma, Kellee, Kolby, and Taylor

We are so excited to see what God is doing in these students’ lives!  Yesterday was a great encouragement to everyone involved.  Four youth pastors came to support the students at the rally at Lodi High.  Students flocked to the rally where there was standing-room only within the theater and we gave away an entire box of Bibles!

Check out what Pastor Joe had to say about the outreach:

Pastor Joe

Lodi High School:   The students put on their first rally yesterday during both lunches.  They put on the “Human Video” skit to the song “Everything” by Lifehouse and then Pastor Gary explained it by giving his testimony.  The students heard how a life can be turned around because of the power of Jesus Christ.  If you haven’t seen the skit before, I encourage you to do so.  It is amazingly powerful.  Throughout the whole rally, the students were SILENT!  This just shows that the students were being receptive.  A total of 222 students came to the events and 80 of those students left with Bibles!!! It was absolutely amazing.

Tokay High School:   Tokay got everything approved and they are very excited to start their rallies today.  After school, they put up all of their posters and made last minute arrangements for today’s rally.

Jim Elliot Christian High School: In addition to the awesome things that are happening at the public schools, we have also had the amazing opportunity to make announcements at the local Christian high school to try to get them involved in witnessing and praying with the students in the public high schools!

Prayer for today:

→ Please pray that the students have the opportunity to share with their classmates.

→  A few of us as well as the students have been getting sick recently.  Pray that God protects our bodies as well as our minds.

→  Pray for the speakers, that they may speak truth to the students.

→  Please pray that the students come back to the rally and that their hearts are open to receiving the messages.

→  Pray that more students catch the vision to pray over their schools in the morning.

→  Please pray that when Emma speaks during Chapel at Jim Elliot Christian High School tomorrow, the students feel the call to join with the Christian clubs at the public schools.

So here we are!  Lodi, California.  We’re preparing for an exciting week of high school outreach.  Today is a lot of last-minute planning and organizing to start our exciting journey.  We will be working with the Christian clubs at Lodi High School and Tokay High School, two public schools in the area.  Their theme is “Why?”  They want to challenge the students at their schools to consider Christianity by asking a lot of important and thought-provoking questions.

Lodi High School- In addition to passing out pizza, ice-cream and cookies, the club has speakers who will talk about subjects such as why do bad things happen?  Why believe?  Why choose?  And why me?

Tokay High School- With pizza, rootbeer floats, and hot chocolate, the students have arranged for speakers to address the following topics:  Why care?  Why choose?  Why change?  Why commit?

We are very excited to get started!

Prayer for tomorrow:

→ Please pray for the students as they speak with their congregations and that the congregations get behind the clubs in prayer.

→ Please pray for the poster party that we will be having tomorrow.  Pray that a lot of students come so that we can do training with them, and that our time together will be effective.

→ Pray that the students would become excited and encouraged to share their faith with their peers.

Thanks for your support through prayer!

–Emma, Kellee, Kolby, and Taylor