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| Here's a review of the events that the Bridge was invovled in over the past 3 months. On Saturday, October 30th, we transformed our Hamilton Parking Lot into a Halloween Alternative called Harvest Fest. It was a festival of food, game booths, candy and entertainment, but the most important part was that it was to glorify God. |
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| Some of the members from the Bridge were privileged to perform two dramas, "The Puppet" and "Everything" for the Harvest Fest Main Stage. It was so encouraging to see the Bridge come together and share the message of the Gospel through these dramas. There were many in the crowd who were able to relate to the dramas, some even made a decision for Christ. |
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| Another event the Bridge was able to participate in was the Awakenings Retreat, which was sponsored by Patmos Disicipleship Training Ministry. Patmos is based out of Calvary Chapel Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. |
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| So when you think of a mountain retreat, you think of relaxing and resting in the mountains...enjoying all the free time with God. Well this was not that kind of retreat. The best way to put it was this was a "Spiritual Boot Camp" with all the added bonuses of waking up at 6am and exercising for 4 hours while shouting out Bible memory verses, running up and down hills while staff members are attempting to tackle you and have you carry them up a hill, and let's not forget the fact that we fasted all day until dinner. The purpose of all of this was to say not to our flesh and to awaken our soul. |
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| So you're looking at these pictures and notice that we're all smiling...We'll this was the last day of the retreat. We're smiling because it was over. And the crazy part, in the midst of the soreness of our bodies from the intense workout, or the fact that we were deprived of sleep, because of the early 5am wake up call. More than anything as a result of this retreat, we were spiritually challenged, inspired and encouraged to "run this race with endurance"...we were awakened! |
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| These pictures are merely re-enactments of our workout time, we were too tired to take any pictures during the actual workout session. |
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| With all this being said the Awakenings Retreat was life changing for many of us. The way we went up the mountain, was not the same way we came down. We were radically transformed and "awakened", each of us were inspired to memorize bible scripture, become active in outreach ministry and make a difference in our world. If you would like more information about this Discipleship Training check out their website. http://www.realitydiscipleship.org/ |
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| With Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Bridge was able to be involved with the "Feed the Need" Outreaches in the city of Wilmington. This outreach meets and feeds the physical needs of the homeless community in the South Bay, but also addresses the greater spiritual need of every individual. |
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| As we were sharing the love of Christ with the homeless community, the best thing we could offer to these individuals, so much greater than a sandwich or a care package was prayer. |
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| "Jun and Jared, are you guys playing charades? Ok, I get it...1st word sounds like... |
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| Here we are singing Christmas Carols during the December Feed the Need Outreach. We were singing favorites like "Angels We Have Heard on High" to "Joy to the World", the best part of this was that we were all singing together. |
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| That's right Mike, give it all you got "Feliz Navidad..." |
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| Our last "official" time to meet for the Bridge for 2010 was on Friday, December 17th and we were scheduled to sing Christmas Carols in a neighborhood in South Torrance, but God had other plans. You see because of the rainy weather, God re-routed us to a handful of elderly people at Gardena Retirement Center. And we were so glad that we did. |
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| We were able to speak with the residents, pray with them and sing Christmas Carols with them. |
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| And some not only sang Christmas Carols, they danced to them. They were all smiling, clapping their hands and singing along. It was evident that Jesus was bringing joy into the Gardena Retirement Center. |
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| This was a memorable time for all of us. We were able to get our eyes off of ourselves and focus on these individuals, even if it was for just an hour. The beautiful thing about reaching out to others, is that we go with the thought that we are really going to encourage them, we have so much to offer them. But what often happens is that we walk way even more encouraged than them. We thank God for all these awesome opportunities to share His love with this world. |
