Final Closing Thoughts

So here I sit on the bus, about 3 1/2 hours from home. This year has certainly been a different adventure from the “typical” first weekend in December. For the past eight years, we’ve gone to Mexico this weekend. The Mexico trips have always been great. The first December I was here, we went to Mexico and took 600 shoeboxes down and worked with Iglesia Christiana El Buen Pastor. We did two different programs. One, involving mostly a craft, puppet show, and a couple of songs for the younger children. The older children would get a program including songs, games, and sharing the Gospel in Spanish. Following the program, every child received their gift.

Over the years I’ve been to Mexico, we expanded the program to include a street carnival with balloon animals, face painting, and games. The number of shoeboxes grew to over 1500, and the ministry expanded beyond just the children to include women in the hospital, a group of indians about two hours out of Ensenada, and even a Gospel saturation, distributing close to 2,000 copies of the Gospel of John in Spanish to four different communities in the Ensenada area.

The Ministry in Mexico has not only grown in what the HSM trip does, but also in the groups that participate. The Immanuel Young Adult Ministry has been to Mexico twice to give away food and tons of clothing. The Men’s Ministry has gone down a few times to help with construction. Last year, when the church was able to relocate to an old theater in the downtown area of Ensenada, the Immanuel Orchestra was able to participate in the first worship service in their new location. We’ve even had many people from Immanuel donate money to help this church and have given the church over $20,000 in funds, which translates to significantly more in Mexico. Our gift of $20,000 to them would be like someone giving us about a million dollars.

It was a hard decision to not go to Mexico this year. In July, the people of Immanuel donated 433 shoeboxes. We were off to a great start in collecting shoeboxes. The trip is one that flows pretty smoothly. We have a good system down for planning/preparation meetings, teams, and doing what we do down there. Each year there are many new participants, but there are also many return participants. It’s a great blend of new and old and the trip always flows pretty smoothly. Well.... after we get across the border, that is. The border crossing has always been the one element of the trip that always makes me nervous (there are quite a few “border crossing” stories I could tell you, but that’s a blog for another time).

With all that’s going on in Mexico right now, and after discussing it with quite a few people, we decided that this year wasn’t a good year to take 40 high school students into Mexico. The task became to come up with an alternative. We weren’t looking to just “fill the time slot” and do something, but we wanted to do legitimate ministry in a new area. Because of a trip to San Francisco with our choir about six years ago, I know a couple of missionaries there. After a couple of phone calls and a few emails, we had a plan coming together.

Preparations for this trip were very different from Mexico. The trip to Mexico kind of plans itself, so to speak. Because we’ve done it for so long, everyone kind of knows what to do and the team approach we’ve used works very well. San Francisco wasn’t quite the same. The scenario was pretty fluid right up until we got there. The one thing that I knew we were going to do in San Francisco was share the Gospel. My main goal for this trip was for everyone going (adults included) to learn to share the Gospel, which would include memorizing all the verses that go along with the Gospel presentation we use in the HSM. Along with that, the main purpose for this trip was to share the Gospel with people in San Francisco.

The weekend was very different, but very good. After getting stuff unloaded at Western Hills Baptist Church, where we were staying, we headed up to the city and Fisherman’s Wharf where we split up into our Gospel Teams (2-3 people on each team) to try and engage people with the goal of sharing the Gospel with them. After spending about an hour doing this, the teams came back with a variety of stories. Some were rejected, some go to talk a bit, but many had great conversations and were able to share the Gospel. It was a great experience for our students. As a youth pastor, I was so proud of my students, who had not only learned 14 passages of Scripture, but were going out in what would not be the most “gospel-friendly” of environments, and sharing the Gospel with people.

On Saturday, we helped out at the Page Street Baptist Center. Page Street is a community center in the Haight/Ashbury district of San Francisco. It’s been a Community Center continually since 1968. It is run by Eric and Linda Bergquist, two missionaries who have been ministering in the city for about 20 years. We came in, Eric and Linda talked to us about ministry in San Francisco and serving others, then we jumped right in and went to work. We did a lot of work around the center, cleaning up and making breakfast, and serving several people that live in the community who just dropped by. We had some great conversations with people and were able again to share the Gospel a few times. Two teams went out into the neighborhood. One team wasn’t able to engage with anyone, but the other team was able to talk to a couple of people, one guy they shared the Gospel with, and were able to talk to him for over half an hour.

After lunch at Naan & Curry, a fabulous Indian restaurant that some enjoyed and some did not, we headed to Chinatown. Our task in Chinatown was quite different from anything we’ve ever done. We were attempting to gather demographic information for church planting efforts in Chinatown. It was not the easiest of tasks. There is definitely a cultural barrier there. We did some caroling, gave out quite a few Christmas Cards, each with a Gospel tract in it, then did a bit of shopping (you can’t go to Chinatown and not do some shopping).

Sunday morning was spent with the congregation at Western Hills Baptist. Our Worship Team led in worship and did an amazing job. The SWC (HS Choir) sang a couple of songs and definitely rocked the house with their closing song “Shackles.” The people of Western Hills were not only very hospitable in welcoming us into their facility to sleep, saving us quite a bit of money on lodging, but were so gracious and thankful of our ministry there with them. The morning worship service was definitely a SIX33 HSM event!!! Again, I was so proud of our students in how well they led and served in the morning worship service.

Overall, it was a great weekend. I honestly can’t think of any problems we had. The students were great, the adults were great (I don’t want to call them “chaperones” because they did so much more than just “chaperone” - all of the adults truly served and ministered just like the students did - I’m proud of them as well), the ministry times were great. Again - just a great weekend.

I don’t know what next year will hold, but we were invited to come back any time both by the people of Western Hills and by the Page Street Center. San Francisco just might become one of our new “spots.”

Thanks to everyone in the Immanuel family who so faithfully support the SIX33 HSM in so many ways. Thanks to all the parents who so graciously allow us to be a part of their children’s lives. We have such an amazing group of students and I am truly blessed to be a part of what God is doing both in and through their lives.

Seeking Him,

Rob

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P.S. - a special GIANT THANK YOU to Pete Younkman, our fearless bus driver. Pete is such a servant. I could write a whole blog just about the amazing example of servanthood he is. He’s driven for us on many trips and he’s so consistent. He just drives, and serves quietly and consistently. We can all learn to be better servants by simply observing and imitating him. Thanks Pete! We love you and appreciate you.