First Wax Night

This Friday Snowboarder's for Christ set up the very first wax night in Truckee, California and it was off the wall! The concept of the wax night is a way to spread the love of Christ through providing a free dinner and waxing for people's snowboards and skis. How can anyone pass up a free meal and gear tune up? We have been planning this type of event for months and it was exciting to see everything finally come together! The event took place at Sierra Bible Church, were we are serving, and over 25 people showed up to the event. We made a spaghetti dinner for visitors to enjoy while we waxed and tuned their boards.

God is so good and is moving in many ways. A few of our coworkers were able to make it to the wax night and we are so excited to see such a great turn out. Through this event we were able to share the gospel and show the love of Christ to a bunch of local unbelievers. One Guy named J.J. came to the event hearing about a free waxing for skis without knowing the event was connected to a church. He was super receptive to the gospel allowing Jake and Ryan Egan to share their testimony with him. People ending up staying till 12:00 at night. We are so energized and excited to see what God is doing and will do in the future. Please pray that God will continue to soften hearts and open way to the gospel

new casa. new friends

So we moved into in with a couple from the church. Jerry and Flori have opened up their home to the five of us ruffians for the next 2 months. Their generosity frees up alot of our funds for other ministry expenses and there's no way we would be able to rent a home like the one that they have it. It's going to be a fantastic base and a great location to invite our co-workers over to.

A quick word on Sierra Bible Church. The 5 of us have been on the receiving end of a great deal of love. I'm pretty sure that we've been given over 300 cookies in the first week alone. We've been invited to peoples houses to eat close to 10 times. We were allowed to stay in the entire church building (by ourselves) for 2 weeks as we were transitioning into housing. For everyone who tries to plan a missions trip and spends tons of time crunching numbers, what happened here is unique and un-plannable. But that should stop all y'all churches from making it happen for other teams that come into your church body!

Jobs are a blessing. We've got buds from Argentina, California, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, and all over the US. They know who we are and they're seeing our lives. In a couple of minutes the teammates who work at Soda Springs will arrive to the church building with the friends that they have invited. Monday nights are the young adult/college group nights. We'll be chowing and doing some worship. Normally there is some Bible and fellowship. Our pals from Tahoe Donner ski area are already here with another to come. Some know Christ, but most do not. Here's to a winter of sharing truth with new friends.

following Jesus isn't rocket science.

It's amazing how easy it is to forget the basics. Jesus Christ came and died for our sins and sometimes I forget that I should be super amped about sharing that with some new people. So, after the smoke settled on our first two weeks and the hectic confusion came to meet God's sovereign death grip, everything was still ok. More than ok actually, because Christ gave us a reason to come to Tahoe.

Housing- So we were mega split on housing. Some of us wanted to rent a house and others wanted to stay at the church and some wanted to accept an offer to live with a local church family. Everyone's amped about moving in with this generous family. Their hospitality and ministry to us will set an example for us as we turn to love on snowboarders.

Jesus Christ is freedom. Getting caught up with parties, girls/boys, and worshiping snowboarding is slavery. I got a chance to ride Squaw Valley the other day. I rode with a buddy from work and we headed up to the mountain super early. Riding the gondola up to the lifts we watched as a snowboarder in his mid 20's lit up some marijuana in the confined space. In the bench across from me, I watched as a teenage snowboarder observed with bright eyes. He was watching his role model live the rebel life that he so wanted. I asked the little guy what is name was. Maverick. I never asked if it was his real name, but we rode together for next 5 hours. He showed us his mountain and I asked him about his life. After lapping the terrain park for a couple hours we took a break and spoke about God. I don't know where his heart is at, but I think that he got to see mine for a bit. I want Maverick to choose freedom.

one week in

All 5 of us got jobs at ski resorts. We split up into two groups and work at two different mountains. Some of us are at working as ski instructors, snowboard instructors, or kiddie ride facilitators. Work has been really busy through this holiday season, and we're meeting tons of new co-workers everyday.

We are still currently living at the church building and today, being Sunday, found us stashing all of our gear in a side room as people showed up to Sunday school. As we examine our ministry approach, housing options are bountiful. A couple in the church has opened up their home to the 5 of us and we're looking to see if it'd be a good fit with all of the ministry ideas that we had in mind.

It's a really neat feeling to be floating around Sierra Bible Church in the morning before service. People come up to us and ask us how we're doing and honestly care. We've been invited to dinner countless times and have been meeting church members intentionally and even as we are at work or passing through town. It's a cool feeling to have the church body so involved in our lives.

God has been so good to us. He's placed us in a body of believers that is serious about being the Church. We've been given so much and the expectations are so high for the ministry. It's our will to humbly move forward knowing that God will further His own glory with or without our help yet strongly desiring to be a part of His plan.

boots on the ground

2000 miles in the Ford Taurus brough the Tahoe Team to the much anticipated meeting with our last member, Brad, in the parking lot of In-and-Out burger in Reno, NV. After so many phone calls and internet meetings, it was great to finally meet in person!

We set up base camp in Reno and were warmly greeted by a local family. The next morning was spent scrambling through housing leads and job openings. A 30 minute drive placed us in the town of Truckee, which will be our home for the next several months. Over the course of a couple hours, we looked at a couple of options for leasing a cabin and were offered jobs at a local ski hill. The next day in Truckee we were offered even more jobs as snowboard instructors! With these options, we chose to split our team (as to not dominate the small hill with too many personel) and placed 2 workers at the smaller resort and 3 at the larger. This works very well with our transportation situation (we have 2 cars). The smaller resort is just minutes away from our housing.

As for housing, there's a couple of great cabins that fit our profile. The rent's not that crazy and the location is great. And then there's our host: Sierra Bible Church. They have stepped above and beyond our expectations. Even through all my studies in missions and church, I don't know if this is normal! They have warmly embraced us even before we did anything. There hospitality is on a level I never though possible. In one Sunday morning service we meet dozens of members at the church, tons of youth, and the ministry team. We were presented to the church and the love just started pouring out! We were given more job offers and housing opportunities.

With so much expectation upon our arrival and so much excitement surrounding the ministry, our work is cut out for us. We came to minister and Sierra Bible set the bar. It's our time to do what we came here for.

With thanksgiving for what God has already provided, we look forward in prayer to see what He has next for us. Our ministry plan is to be re-aligned and we've to make some decisions with housing. Thank you for all of your support and keep these points in prayer!

We have arrived!!!

After 7 tanks of gas, a case of red bull and 35 hours of straight driving, we have safely arrived to Reno, Nevada. God is to be praised for so many reasons. It is a huge blessing that a Ford Taurus with a trailer was able to take us 2000 miles without breaking down. Upon arrival we met up with our fifth team member Brad Carlson and we are excited to have him with us. He is great guy with a passion for the Lord. Please continue to pray for us as we search for jobs and a place to stay in the Truckee/Donner area. God is Good!!!

one week and counting (down)

As the Tahoe Team wraps up koledge here in Chicago, anticipation builds for the coming winter season. It's a hustle to turn in the final papers and cram as much studying as possible into every night, but a 2000 mile road trip keeps us focused and pressing forward.

God has been so good to us and moved many hearts to generous giving. We've been blessed to receive such donations and are excited to see God bring in the other $6000 we need to set up an effective ministry base (and feed ourselves). If you could offer up a prayer for this need it would be great, but our biggest need is found elsewhere. Our approach to mission is that of Tentmaking. In a nutshell, a tentmaking missionary intentionally enters into a culture to work in a "secular" job place with the goal of preaching Christ there while earning his daily bread. It's a staple of our ministry approach and as of one week before we show up to Tahoe, not one of us on the team has a solid job offer. I know unemployment is on epic proportions, but I serve a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Pray that we would get plugged into the jobs that would best help us reach our snowboarder friends!