Focus Twenty Ten.

Last weekend was by far an awesome experience. On friday, we arrived at Crossroads Church and had a worship service, which was just like every other service, pretty good to start off the night. then we went to our host homes and had devotionals around a campfire. it was cool to get to bond with some people. in the morning, it was time to work. we had breakfast and more devotionals in the car, then got to our worksite. our worksite was a house that belonged to Gloria, an 86 year old lady, that was the sweetest lady on the planet. we got to talk to her during lunch and learn about her life. her husband died when he was 92 years old. he was 18 years older than her...WOW! they have 2 children that live in the area still. she never learned how to drive. her husband built her house in 1942 and they've been living there since. Gloria was a lady that was on fire for Christ and she shared that she stays up until 2 a.m. every night. we were like, what do you do until then?! she said that she watches the 11 o'clock news every night. and reads her Bible every night of her life. she said that she made a promise to God that if He helped heal her cancer, she promised Him she would read every night. and she's kept that promise for 12 years since she was diagnosed and overcame it. Gloria was such an amazing woman and it was an honor to help her out. we painted her house, her railings, cleaned windows, and scrubbed her carpet too. some girls cut down the limbs and dragged them to the top of an extremely steep hill. after we left, we went to the school for another service. after the service, we had prayer sessions. some stations were so moving to me. we had to do activities such as lighting a candle, writing our sins down on a piece of paper and shred it to show our sin is gone, write things such as what we are thankful for, someone we are praying for, what we can do to get closer to Him, and how we want our life to be later down the road. we did all stations in complete silence. to see almost 300 students show the respect of being quiet and taking everything to heart was so powerful. you try and do that at my school and it's the end of the world. no one has respect for the speakers, it's quite sad sometimes. that's the reason why i love events like this. they are there for God and to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. and i pray that it was effective in some of their hearts. i know it was effective in mine. it definitely made me want to get more involved in missionary work and help others in need. it was by far an amazing weekend of worship. work for Christ gives you an amazing feeling.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. ¹⁷For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith." -Romans 1:16-17.