For 5 nights in a row over this past week, 250 different River Pointe volunteers showed up and loved on North Richmond!  It was so awesome to see families serving together, our middle and high school students…it really felt like to the whole church was represented out there this week!  We wrapped it all up with some great BBQ prepared by a family in the neighborhood and some great music!

Well a lot of great things happened!  New friendships were formed, and many lives were touched in profound ways.

About half of our volunteers ran an amazing kids camp each night.  We had 96 different children join us for fun and games, crafts, singing and bible stories.  One big highlight from kids camp was having 2 young girls made the personal decisions to follow Christ with their lives as well as 4 adults!

The other half of our volunteers worked on 7 different Home repair projects – I want to give a special thank you to our partner the Fort Bend CORPS for helping make this happen, we did everything from painting, to plumbing repair, a kitchen remodel, new roofs, tree removal, new siding and really just making new friends with the home owners who worked so diligently alongside us.

One of the highlights from the construction projects was receiving this email that reads,  “Tears come to my eyes every time I see dad’s house transformed to such beauty. I am blown away by all the hard work and sweat of all the volunteers- they give with such love – and their kids also- I don’t know what we did to deserve such love and gifts from River Pointe- but all I do is cry– I can’t explain what I feel inside! The volunteers are so amazing, everybody greets you as if they have known you for years- their love is just overflowing and I pray to God that their sweat and precious love of giving unconditionally will be rewarded in his name. I know these few words will never take the place or come close to what you have done for my dad and Roy. God bless you and may God reward River Pointe triple the gifts they have given us. Thank you so much, Lucinda”

I want to give a special shout-out to Becky Watts our North Richmond Director for making all this happen.  Her dedication is inspiring! This really has been an amazing on week in North Richmond and a huge foundation of trust has been laid that we will continue to build on throughout the year!

Today I want to highlight our amazing prayer team!  This team is the foundation for everything we are doing out here this week. They have had some great conversations, amazing divine appointments and many have shared personal requests for prayer.  Pray for our prayer team that they would be encouraged and strengthened in their ministry.  May God use them to shine his light in the darkest places!

The highlights from Day 3 come from our construction crews!  I am blown away by the volunteers and the grace they practically express through home repair.  These men and women work so hard and with such excellence!  In many cases they are working in less than ideal conditions dealing with plumbing and sewage, or just doing work inside very hot spaces, yet they are driven by a love that is bigger than them!  Last night a crew worked late and went above and beyond the call of duty by removing two huge trees that were growing up against a house and hauled it all off.

So this is a shout out to the 111 different volunteers who have lifted, painted, nailed, caulked, cut, cleaned and loved on 7 different homeowners during Mission Week.  You guys rock!

The highlights from last night come from the spiritual hunger around Kids Camp:

• A woman showing up for the second night, this time she brought her Bible and said she was ready for Bible study!
• Two elementary girls made first time decisions to follow Jesus!  When the volunteer that prayed with them told them they should go now and play with the rest of the group, one girl said no I want to stay here and learn more!
• A group of teenagers were standing off to the side of the Kids Camp and so one of our prayer team members asked if she could pray with them.  At first there weren’t real receptive but as she began to pray something happened and when she was done they all started really opening up to her and sharing some of the crazy stuff and burdens going on in their lives right now.
• A woman came back at the end of the night and said thank you so much, if you have no idea what this means to our community to have such a great, safe and positive event for our kids who don’t have anything to do.

Keep praying for our volunteers who work so diligently on the Kids Camp and the home repair projects.  They are getting tired and will need a special energy as they head back out tonight!

Mission Week got off to a great start last night! We had an amazing crew of volunteers spread out all over the community. The Kids Camp at Juan Seguin was a hit with 50 kids attending by the end of the night; and our 7 home repair projects were in full swing! It was so awesome to see all the green volunteer shirts throughout the community. Pray for our volunteers as they head back out tonight after a long day at work.