Duluth District Blitz
Our Student Link Team went on an adventure with some of our students to District Blitz in Duluth, Minnesota! District Blitz is an annual youth event with a couple thousand youth students that focuses in on bringing the gospel applicably and interestingly to high school aged kids. What I loved about many of the big rally sessions, break-out seminars, and workshops was how engaging they were for students and yet not "watered down". These high school students are so capable of understanding big things, and they are experiencing big things in their lives too. I was so proud of all these girls as they found workshops that they were interested in and were keen to start conversations with each other after about what they learned.
The theme of this District Blitz was "Who?" and the speakers focused on the Book of Hebrews looking at four different things.
1. Who wrote it?: controversial as Hebrews doesn't explicitly say, but some ideas are Luke, Barnabas, Apollos, Paul, Priscilla and her husband Aquilla, or even a combination of Paul and Luke.
2. Who was it written to?: must have been written for Christians with Jewish backgrounds, perhaps in Jerusalem, but it is unknown if it was written as a statement letter, or sermon, or something else.
3. Who is Jesus?: perhaps a better way the book of Hebrews describes it is who WASN'T Jesus - not an angel, not a priest, not Moses or any other biblical character.
4. Who am I?: the author of Hebrews seems to be be asking the reader to ask about themselves and their personal relationship with Jesus.
While there were many things covered at District Blitz and many questions that arise from the book of Hebrews, what is clear is that the author wants the reader to know the only "who" question that matters is "who are you to Jesus?"
One of my Global Link Partners colleagues is a regular returning speaker at District Blitz, and his seminar was hosted at the main stage because they have seen his break-out room fill out so quickly the past years! It was fun getting to chat with some students who would go to the seminar and then visit the table we had set up with information, games, and treats. The games about sorting the events of Jesus's life in order was a great hit!
We served by cleaning up trash at a park in the Duluth area while we were there! We found many interesting things including an old-style telephone, a deer jaw, and a picture from 1994.
Student Link
I continue to meet with a few groups of young ladies during the week in disciple-building mentorship and accountability. The girls in one of the groups had a magnificent idea after we had a lesson on the importance of prayer to make Prayer Boards! They began looking at ideas for things to include on their boards that they wanted to be in prayer over - friends, family, school, decisions - as well as many verses. I loved watching their style come through on each of their boards and the ways they encouraged each other and made suggestions and shared all the decorations they had brought. While all their boards were in some way different and unique, I was captivated to see that they all had included envelopes on their prayer boards - one envelope to write down prayers, and another envelope to move the prayers that have been answered. God is certainly working in and through these ladies building in them a heart of prayer with expectation that God will answer the prayers in His timing and that they will rejoice in those papers that move to the "answered" prayer envelope.
With the nice weather, one of the girls I meet for Student Link and I decided to sit outside and watch another Student Link student's softball game! It brought me back to some of my college years when my friends and I would study at the baseball field. I am hoping for more outdoor meetings like this one!
During the week, our Student Link Team meets on Wednesday mornings with high school kids to pray over them, their classmates, and their schools. Many youth students we are connected with help lead the Faith Clubs in the area. Our hope is that even if they can't make it to prayer in the morning, that simply knowing we are praying for them on Wednesday morning as they go to Faith Club and school encourages them. We also walk to the bus stop bringing store-bought breakfast treats to the high school kids as they get on the bus wishing them a joyful day at school. Now that the weather is nicer, those of us who can stay a little longer then continue on a walk together in the cool of the morning.
Toddler Tuesdays
We wrapped up our three-week theme about Easter with the Toddlers and Preschoolers. At the beginning of the month to continue on our Palm Sunday lesson, right before Easter, we talked about the cross. I shared with the kids that the cross used to be a very scary thing, but because Jesus died on the cross and took the punishment for all the bad things we do, the cross is beautiful (and we talked about some bad things like fighting with siblings or not listening to our parents). I shared how now the cross is beautiful because it is a reminder of how much God loves us, and to represent this, the kids colored "stained glass" crosses.
To finish up the Easter lesson, we had to talk about the resurrection! We read the story about the women coming to the tomb and not finding Jesus in the tomb, but finding him walking around! The Littles made wind-up Jesus toys, and there were little shrills of joys as their Jesus walked toward them like He had walked toward the women in the garden. They raced their Jesus toys and then, as we had also talked about how Jesus's body was new and resurrected, He had still humanly traits, like He was hungry. Many of the kids brought their little Jesus toy to the play kitchen and fed Him lots and lots of food saying, "you were dead for three days! You must be hungry!"
Then, a couple of the preschoolers created crosses from their Jesus toys out of magna-tiles and then entombed Jesus in the manga-tiles! Pretty soon all the kids were entombing their Jesus toys in the magna-tiles. It was fun watching them recreate the Easter story with their Jesus toys and seeing what parts stood out for them to remember. I definitely had the most enjoyable time watching as they broke their magna-tile tombs and wound up their Jesus toy rising Him from the dead!
Mission Trip Training - LetFest, Rekindle, and Madison
All the summer and early fall mission trips have kicked off meetings in preparation for the trip. I will be joining the team of high school students going on an evangelism mission trip at the end of July, and I am really looking forward to encouraging the students as they develop new skills in sharing their faith and act in boldness to share in Madison. Three of the girls I mentor in Student Link are a part of this Madison Team, and I am so proud of how they have already grown in the last couple months in their faith and taking this step now by going on a mission trip!
Our team for the mission trip to Czech in September 2025, just had its first official team meeting this past weekend. The team looks magnificent, and I am really looking forward to how God will work in and through this team as we go back to my home the last 8 years, Letovice. Last year was our first year with this trip, Rekindle, as we rekindle and kick-off the start of the school year by teaching in the schools and inviting the students to join us at the ministry center in the afternoon for games and a short message. We conclude the week with a huge party. The ELIM team in Letovice have seen a handful of students who we made connections with during Rekindle week are the core of the youth clubs still today!
Additionally, I continue to help the LetFest team prepare for the summer mission outreach in Czech by teaching applicable Czech language, relevant culture/history, and English Class training ideas. It is so fun to see the way this team connects and the skills they all bring that will bless the ministry this summer.
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