First Day of Work

Finally, after days of travel and anticipation, we got to work on the future location of New Orleans Baptist Church! Since we are so many in number, we were able to divide into multiple groups.

One team cleaned out some of the rooms inside the main church while another team demolished the interior of the side building with sledgehammers, sawz-alls, and brute force. Thankfully, no major injuries occured amidst the falling plaster and exploding toilets. Another group worked on “the shed” – installing windows and prepping to install new siding.

Philip, one of the men who occasionally attends the church, dropped in to help throughout the day. Please continue to pray for safety and unity as we head into day two tomorrow!

Church Service and City Streets

This morning we jumped up after a great night’s rest, and got to join in on Pastor Kyle’s Sunday morning class and church service. He preached on Melchizedek. We met members, like Rosaline and George, and guests who do full-time missions in Sudan. We were thankful to be able to be, inexplicably, a part of this church’s soon-to-be history. Tomorrow, we will begin the work.

The afternoon was spent walking downtown and taking a train car to the historic French Quarter. Everyone we passed by as a group was so friendly, always stopping to see what so many people were up to!

We grilled outside for dinner and got our hearts and minds ready for the main work ahead. We look forward to seeing just what God has in store for us.

Welcome to New Orleans!

After a night on the train, the team rose to watch the sunrise, read, and play games until arriving in NOLA. Once in the city we made our way walking and by bus to NOLA Baptist Church. Kyle welcomed us in and told us the story of their church. He also gave us a word of encouragement for the messy job of demo work ahead. 

Those Jesus People

Our team shared the morning with the Jesus People and got to hear more about their story and different ministries. A couple of us served lunch in the community shelter, while the rest of us helped sort out clothes for their free store. Afterwards we headed to the Union station, walked around, got dinner, and waited to board the train. ¡Adios Chicago!

On the road…

We are headed to Chicago! The winter weather gave us a head start to leave a day earlier. But as God would have it we get to stay with some old friends at Jesus People overnight to catch our train tomorrow. Meanwhile in NOLA Tim and Sharon getting things ready for our arrival. Keep everyone in prayer as we roll with the changes!

“Crazy Things Jesus Said”

During the month of February, we had 15-minute Bible studies and discussions at various locations throughout Cebu City. We dove deep into some of the crazy things Jesus said and talked about how to respond to Him.

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” – Jesus (Luke 14:26)
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” – Jesus (Matthew 10:34)
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish?'” – Jesus (Luke 14:28-30)

Spring Mission Trip – Less than 2 weeks away!

Street Level has been planning a mission trip to New Orleans for Spring Break… We’re boarding the train in less than 2 weeks! Please pray for us as we finish up the final preparations and head south for 10 days!

Note: If you would like to follow along with updates and photos of how the trip is going, we’ll plan to post updates in the newsfeed on our website!

Our projects include helping with initial cleanup and renovations for the future home of NOLA Baptist Church. (pictured above)

Street Level Cebu Summit

Friday night member’s gathering… Pastor Jesse from SLM Twin Ports led a discussion on what it actually means to put the Kingdom of God first.
On February 4, 19 students and young people from around Cebu Island gathered in Balamban for a day of biblical teaching, small group discussion, and building relationships.
Fred and Rona share their stories and how God has used Street Level in their lives…

The topic of the Summit was “The Depth of God’s Calling.” There were four sessions that looked at each chapter of the book of Jonah and what lessons could be learned from his life about finding God’s will for our own lives. Thanks to all who attended and participated!