Blog Archives - Awe Star Missions

His presence is Restoring Homes and transforming Hearts...

6/15/2020

Today was intense! It began with 3 service projects across the community. One was a yard that needed completely cleaned and cleared and the other two were homes that needed significant paint work done.

One house had cedar siding that had been painted over so many times that it took several hours scraping before it looked like we had made any progress. We taped off the windows & doors, took a paint sprayer to it, gave it a few coats and just like that it was finished. We felt every scrape and every spray; but it really paid off. It didn’t even look like the same home! Without doubt it will stand out and our prayer is that when people see it, they will remember how God provided transformation to their community!

It was a beautiful picture of how Jesus works on our hearts (some longer than others) then comes in and changes them completely. He is relentless in His pursuit, scraping away at anything that doesn’t look like Jesus once we belong to Him.

After projects were completed, everyone hurried to set up for our community family outreach we call Carnival night. From the very old to young, our team had opportunities to share the gospel and experienced its power as several made decisions of salvation.

The local pastor said that he saw children and parents from all sorts of backgrounds come to this event that had never/would never have stepped foot on church grounds otherwise.

Will you join us in celebrating and praying for those that made decisions tonight and pray for the many more seeds that were planted!

Tomorrow will be a “free day” for our team to rest and recoup from the last couple weeks of intense ministry.

Pray with us as we transition more team members in tomorrow from Inola and prepare to go into two communities that have been the most difficult for us to establish connections with. We know though, that just means that they still need Jesus!
Please pray as we prepare to do some serious Spiritual battling in these dark places; fighting for freedom for those who can’t fight for themselves.

The team has been working so hard pouring themselves out to make sure that everyone they interact with feels seen. Please pray for a physical and spiritual recharge tomorrow, and for divine encounters all along the way!

United in Christ

6/14/2020

One of the amazing things that we are getting to experience on this trip is the family of God working together as He designed it. This morning we were blessed to participate in a church service outside and invited everyone in town! It was incredible to see different denominations and ministries coming together for one common purpose: to glorify God and make Him known! It was like seeing a little glimpse of heaven.

As soon as church was over we grabbed our sack lunches and headed out for Loyal and Okeene (this time we are combining the two towns together). We rode most of the way and the team was blessed by the extra time to gather strength worshipping together and practiced sharing testimonies. After Inviting everyone in Loyal to the carnival tomorrow night we continued on to Okeene.

We could tell that God has gone before us because we were able to have many Christ centered conversations. One of the team members talked to a lady named Kay whose husband (who is not a believer) had been on life support a while back. When the doctors said there was nothing more they could do, a man she didn’t know came to her and said “Don’t give up hope. Trust in the Lord.” Then the next night he woke up from his coma! The students were able to encourage her that God has a plan for her husband still and that he allowed him to wake up for a reason. We encouraged her to continue to share the Truth of the Gospel with him. Will you join us in praying for them? Pray that God will change Kay’s husbands life!

As we prepare to help restore some homes and put on a carnival again tomorrow, please pray for the people in these towns. Pray that God would prepare them even this evening to have an encounter with Him tomorrow; and that the presence of God would undeniably fall upon this place!

Our God Reigns!

6/14/2020

God has shown himself mighty!
Our students have grown in so many ways, they are developing a heart of a servant and we are excited to wrap up this first week with some exciting stories of the great things God has done!

We started off with our quiet times and after breakfast we headed on over to Mrs. Julia’s home, an 84 year old woman who lives on her own in an old run down house. Seeing her house was heartbreaking. It has been through many floods, flooring was coming up and the siding had rotted. So our team got busy!

With hearts full of love and hands ready to serve we replaced the rotted siding and inside walls and then were able to put a fresh coat of paint on them. God gave us the privilege to spend some meaningful tim with Mrs. Julia, talking with her, praying for her and sharing the hope of the gospel with her! Please pray for Mrs .Julia with us!

During our family outreach that evening ( our carnival) God continued to move! The community that we had visited the day before through going door to door, slowly showed up during the evening. Adriana, our newest summer staff member got the opportunity to translate in Spanish as the gospel was presented to the entire Carnival. She was also working a booth and had a girl come to her booth. She talked with her and began to ask her if she had ever heard the story of Jesus. The girl said no. She began to share but before she could get done the girl asked if she could get her twin sister. Adriana continued to share and both girls gave their lives to Christ! It was incredible!

Please continue to pray for God to give us more and more Divine Encounters! Pray He would give us strength mentally, physically and spirituality. Join with us in praying for the students that ended their week trip today that God may continue to do His work in their lives. Pray for those that will join us on Tuesday for our second full week of ministry. We are excited for all God has in store for the days ahead and can’t wait to share!

Salvation Reigns!

6/13/2020

God has shown himself mighty!
Our students have grown in so many ways, they are developing a heart of a servant and we are excited to wrap up this first week with some exciting stories of the great things God has done!

We started off with our quiet times and after breakfast we headed on over to Mrs. Julia’s home, an 84 year old woman who lives on her own in an old run down house. Seeing her house was heartbreaking. It has been through many floods, flooring was coming up and the siding had rotted. So our team got busy! With hearts full of love and hands ready to serve we replaced the rotted siding and inside walls and then were able to put a fresh coat of paint on them. God gave us the privilege to spend some meaningful tim with Mrs. Julia, talking with her, praying for her and sharing the hope of the gospel with her! Please pray for Mrs .Julia with us!

During our family outreach that evening ( our carnival) God continued to move! The community that we had visited the day before through going door to door, slowly showed up during the evening. Adriana, our newest summer staff member got the opportunity to translate in Spanish as the gospel was presented to the entire Carnival. She was also working a booth and had a girl come to her booth. She talked with her and began to ask her if she had ever heard the story of Jesus. The girl said no. She began to share but before she could get done the girl asked if she could get her twin sister. Adriana continued to share and both girls gave their lives to Christ! It was incredible!
Please continue to pray for God to give us more and more Divine Encounters! Pray He would give us strength mentally, physically and spirituality. Join with us in praying for the students that ended their week trip today that God may continue to do His work in their lives. Pray for those that will join us on Tuesday for our second full week of ministry. We are excited for all God has in store for the days ahead and can’t wait to share!

Boldness and Salvation

6/13/2020

Today team one started walking to Dover! We continued in the prayer walking that we’ve been practicing and it helped us to focus and gave us strength. Along the way we saw a trailer park that we felt the Spirit was leading us to go into so we went door to door offering sack lunches, handing out Bibles, asking to pray with everyone and invited them to the carnival tomorrow!

This evening we had a movie night free for the community. While setting everything up one of our team members started sharing the gospel with a girl who had come to watch the movie. The little girl decided to pray to ask Jesus into her heart and immediately asked when she could be baptized! She ran home to tell her mom the exciting news and then her whole family came to join in on the movie fun!

Please pray for even more awesome stories like this tomorrow as we engage with the community through service projects and the carnival again tomorrow! Pray for boldness and willingness to share, for hearts ready to recieve and this small town to be changed forever in Jesus’ name!

Overwhelming gratitude and Persistent Seeking.

6/12/2020

We started out today working on two service projects; this time the homes were next door to each other. On one we put up a new porch and the other needed a complete makeover including the entire exterior repainted, one exterior wall rebuilt, all new windows put in and a sheet metal roof! This home belonged to Jeanie. As she began to tell the story of the house we discovered that it has been in her family for over 80 years! Needless to say, it was very special to her and she often teared up stating “you guys just have no idea how grateful I am.”

Then later at the carnival, (family fun night with games) we were able to see the fruit of a seed planted yesterday! When one of our teams started out on the “grill walk” offering hot dogs and inviting everyone to the carnival, they ran into two girls walking down the street. We asked if they wanted any food and started making conversation. Then we offered to let them walk with us inviting more people and they actually came! They were able to witness us giving, praying, and sharing all first hand! At the end of the night, one of our students took the opportunity to share the gospel with them and since we sensed they weren’t quite ready, we gave them tracts and asked them to share what they learned with us at the carnival the next day. We are so excited to share that they not only came and shared what they learned, but one, Addi, decided to ask Jesus into her heart at the end of the night!

Join us in celebrating Miss Addi and everyone else who made decisions to follow Jesus tonight!

Please pray as we walk into Dover tomorrow and invite more people to the carnival there. Pray that we would see the people above the tasks and look for opportunities to make them feel valued and loved; ultimately by the King of kings!

Condemned Homes, Suicidal thoughts, but a Jesus who sees, heals, and provides!

6/11/2020

In Hennessey, passing out hot dogs, our team met one man who had experienced a lot of hurt and guilt and was considering ending his life. But we praise God for leading us to him because he ended up re-dedicating his life to Christ, asking for forgiveness and for help to forgive others!

Please pray as we do service projects and a carnival again today, that darkness would be pushed back, the gospel would boldly be proclaimed, and that salvation would rain down in Hennessey!

Yesterday the weather continued to provide some welcomed reprieve as the team walked crosses from Waukomis into Hennessey! Not one student has complained and all continue to amaze us with their willingness to push past their own fatigue for the sake of serving others. In fact, every conversation they had or opportunity to pray with someone that opened their door energized and spurred them on!

Before we started walking, we had the opportunity to help out on one more service project in Waukomis. Going into this home was a bit like entering a third world country right here in Oklahoma. We began by trimming overgrown areas in their yard and by gutting one room where things have been hoarded. We are so proud of how the students jumped right in with whatever needed done; overwhelmed at first, but when we asked them what their thoughts were afterward, their biggest disappointment was wishing we could have done more! Please pray specifically for these sweet new friends Ronnie and Lisa.

Revitalize Buildings, Revitalize Souls

6/10/2020

This morning we all split into teams for service projects. There were two homes in need of significant improvement here in town, both of whose residents have no ability to make the repairs on their own due to physical and financial reasons. One resident was an elderly woman whom nearly everyone in town knows and adores. The other was a man who was very skeptical and hesitant to accept help at first but his whole demeanor changed over the course of the day as he realized that we truly just wanted to serve him. At first he only cracked his door open to answer questions but he was smiling and laughing with us all by the end of the morning! We pray that the impact we were able to make will affect not only them, but the whole community as people drive by, see the change and question why others would give and do so much.

In the evening we were able to experience the carnival for the first time. There were people and games everywhere! It was a total blast and a total hit! Everybody that came through was able to hear the gospel at least once and a few even decided to give their lives to Christ! During our debrief time afterward, we asked our students what they thought God saw as he watched everything going on. One answered “I think these people have waited a long time to feel loved like this.”

All of the communities we will be traveling to have the same story; one of people crying out on the inside to be seen, heard and loved. A story of dying churches in desperate need or revival in order to survive. Please join us in praying that God would send out workers into the fields after us to continue the work that has been started.

We know that He is faithful and the Bible promises that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, are blessed and will be filled. (Matthew 5:6)

A Sight to See

6/9/2020

Today team 1 started traveling and walked about 6 miles carrying crosses from Enid to Wakomis! We began to feel the discomfort of the Oklahoma heat and weight of the lumber. It was a humbling reminder of everything Jesus went through to demonstrate just how much he loves us, so that anyone who believes in Him can have eternal life.

Police escorted us the entire time ensuring safety, and as we walked we also prayed over the city on loud speakers and waved at every car driving by. Several waved back and we are grateful to share that we were very well received!

Once arriving in Waukomis we continued to walk door to door handing out hamburgers to everyone and shared that they are not forgotten but seen and loved by God! Because a very generous sponsor decided to donate shoes to every single child (0-18) in the town, we were also able to gather their names and shoe sizes so that we can gift them tomorrow evening at a carnival!

Please join us in praying for strength as we do service projects at several homes tomorrow morning, for God to draw people to the carnival to hear, for them to be receptive to the Good News that we have come to share and for lives to be changed forever all for His glory!

READY FOR ANYTHING

6/8/2020

We are so glad to share that Team 1 has arrived in Enid safely and are now resting up for our adventure ahead tomorrow!
After goodbyes were said everyone spent time at orientation learning more about what to expect, the role of the Holy Spirit and the importance of having a regular quiet time and how to journal what God is doing. We also began training on some of the tools that we will be using for ministry, worshipped Jesus together and had a wonderful time of Surrender, deciding from the start to be “ready for anything”!
When we arrived we took a short tour of Forgotten Ministries’ Mercy House where we are staying for the evening and practiced sharing our personal testimonies during small group time before heading to bed. Each and every student was so brave in proclaiming how Jesus has changed their lives! We know that God has given them a unique story to tell and that He has already people planned to share the hope that we have in Him with!We are excited about what God is already doing here, ready to start ministry tomorrow and most of all we are expecting God to move in mighty ways!

As we begin the first leg of our journey beginning to walk tomorrow will you join us in praying for; divine encounters, lives to be transformed, and continued health.

Awe Star Staff