Dream Center 2010

It's Easter! Today is going to be a great day. It's a little bitter-sweet for me personally, because in about 9 hours we send a team from ECC down to the Dream Center, for our annual Spring Break missions trip. You can read the blogs from last years trip on this blog...needless to say, it was life-changing. Due to some other responsibilities I am not able to attend the trip this year, so the mantle of leadership has been passed to my capable and Spirit-led associate pastor Jake Gamble (alongside pro and 3rd time leader Christy Briggs), and an experienced team of leadership.

This is an email that Jake sent to the team last night. Unreal.

I hope Good Friday was wonderful for all of you. Just a quick word before we leave tomorrow-

We are leaving Olympia on Easter Sunday, the day of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is no coincidence that on this day His resurrection secured our place in heaven at the right hand of the father, and on this day 27 people from Olympia will head to southern California to display the love and righteousness of this very Savior to a group of people we don't even know. The knowledge that Jesus died for us yesterday, and rose again for us tomorrow pushes us and moves us forward. The fact that he was exhausted and overwhelmed, even to the point of death prior to heading to the cross urges us onward, no matter what our last week looked like. Knowing that he suffered much for our sake calls out to us to set aside our own lives, even if just for a week, to help the poor and the broken. The hope that comes from His resurrection is the same driving factor leading us to California, and for some of you eventually to El Salvador, Guatemala, Poland, Russia, China, or Pakistan. It is that hope that will keep us going as we push our bodies and minds to help others. It is that help that will bring light to the faces of so many in darkness. It is that hope that brings us joy in knowing that our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all! It is that hope that says we are pressed but not crushed! That forevermore we will press on and run this race with perseverance, throwing off everything that hinders. It is that hope that moves you from the comfort of your homes on Spring Break, to the heat of the California sun to see things that you have never seen before. It is that hope that will change the people we minister to. Let me say that clearly- we as a team are not much. We are young, probably immature, selfish sinners. But submitted to Christ and his mission, we are a mighty group. We are carriers of a light that cannot and will not ever be snuffed out, no matter how far we travel into the depths of suffering on this earth. That light we carry, that hope we deliver in the form of food or relief, it is greater than us- it is so much greater than Los Angeles! This very hope will turn us into messengers, and will change the lives of the recipients. I am so honored to travel there with every one of you and deliver this message. May we never be the same- and may Los Angeles forever be changed by the love poured into it by 27 humble strangers.
For the Glory of God,
Jake Gamble

I wish I was going! Nevertheless, as you undoubtedly can see, this trip is being led by a man of God with a pulse for the leading of His Spirit.

Commit to pray with me each day this week for this team. I can't wait to see what God is going to do through them and in them!

FOS Church on Wednesday, April 14 will be testimonies. Don't miss it!