Tampa Mission Trip

 the past two days we canvassed several neighborhoods near palms community church.  in total, we have visited around 1,000 houses & talked to people or placed our door hangers at their door. this has all been done to promote our family fun night at the church tonight.

 

needless to say, the past two days have been hotttttttt. i mean, waaaaaaaaaaay hot. but we've stuck it out. yesterday we had the wonderful sharon craft join us. sharon just finished at tcc & is now at usf. so she came over to help us after she finished her class. in all, our team has had a really positive experience with this type of mission work. even though we still get denials, it's the people that open the door & are looking for a church or are excited about what we are doing that get us through the day. they may be far & few in between, but Christ reminds us that the path to Him is narrow & few will take it.  it is these that we are out to find & encourage & lead in the direction of the cross.

 

yesterday afternoon, we went to the tampa bay rays game. although wonderful tampa traffic made us about an hour late to batting practice, we still got there in plenty of time for the game & to check out the stadium. highlight of the game: the fact that tropicana field is a cool 72 degrees all year round. even though brian hall tried to rally, the rays lost the game 2 to 1 against the san diego padres.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

once we got back to the usf bcm, we celebrated ashlee darby's birthday! happy birthday ashlee! since we're pretty much awesome, we surprised her with a birthday cake! 

 

 

this morning we will canvass a few more neighborhoods, but we also have car washed planned at the farmers' market where we got milkshakes & strawberry shortcake a few times this week. after those activities, it's time for family fun night. hot dogs, cotton candy, bounce houses & more will abound. all of it is free for anyone who comes.  pray that we have a response from the community from our work. and pray that those that see it driving by will stop by & enjoy the event.

 

today will wrap up our last day of mission work. pray that we will be effective & bold in all that we do. pray that we will stay upbeat & encouraged because today is going to be a long day.

 

thanks for the prayers. they are appreciated more than you know!
 

grace&peace,

ashleigh

good morning! there's not much time to write this monday morning. but, yesterday was very busy & fun. 

 

 

in the morning we helped with worship at palms community church. our students helped with parking crew, welcome team & ushers. pastor danny was out of town so zach allen brought the Word & taught on giving from 2 corinthians 8, except, he didn't talk about money. he challenged us to give ourselves to Christ first - a different & difficult task.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

our very own tyler clark, amanda rigsby & emily sanders led us in some worship during the offering. pcc's worship band was awesome & led us in a great time of corporate worship.

 

 

after church & lunch, we met up with caesar & his family to begin canvassing neighborhood.  but, before we could get started, a rainstorm passed through.  while we waited out the rainstorm, we meet maria & luis, friends of caesar & his family. maria invited us into their home & told us about a recent trip to cuba where she visited her aunt & cousins. she had all of us sitting in her living room listening to stories about the conditions over there & different stories about her family. pray for her aunt & cousins as they don't have running water & are under strict regulations when it comes to food & work.  maria is coming out with us today when we canvass.

 

we canvassed 138 different houses sunday afternoon.  doors were slammed on some groups, other were interested & some weren't home. but, for a first day, it wasn't too shabby.  pray for the people that we reached out to yesterday. pray that they will come to our family fun night wednesday & that they will feel welcomed to visit pcc.

 

once we finished our canvassing work, we headed to a local farmers market... for milkshakes, strawberry shortcakes & sundaes! needless to say, they were delicious! we are going back every day to continue to minister to the workers there & of course, to get some more delicious afternoon snacks.

 

 

 

today holds much of the same thing.  we are canvassing a larger neighborhood today. pray for open hearts once again. pray for our students to be bold in their speech & discerning in their manner. pray that we don't get discouraged, but instead are encouraged by the great Encourager.

 

thanks for your love & prayers.

 

grace&peace,

ashleigh

 good morning to our wonderful followers! thank you for continually praying for us & reading about us.

 

today we want to wish every dad out there a happy fathers' day! even though we are here in tampa, we still love you all who have made great impacts in our lives as father figures.  thank you for all you do!

 

this morning we are headed to palms community church for its sunday morning service.  pastor danny is out of town until tomorrow, so our very own zach allen will be preaching.  sermon preview: 2 corinthians 8 on giving, but not your money. 

 

after service, we are going out canvassing.  the smallest neighborhood we are targeting has almost 400 houses. pretty daunting task.  

 

keep us in your prayers! pray for the Lord to move mighty & use us as his vessels.  pray for zach has he brings the Word this morning. and pray for hearts to be soften & opened to the gospel.

 

grace&peace,

ashleigh

this afternoon we visited the palms community church for the first time.  the church plant actually meets in at "new life church".  pcc rents space at the church each sunday morning.

 

 

we met caesar, one of pcc's small group leaders, at the church. after some delicious sandwiches, courtesy of oscar mayer, we worked with caesar & his daughter laura.  we stuffed more door tags to use while we canvass. these are ones that pcc had created. 

 

caesar, a pcc small group leader.

 

 

a mid-afternoon thunderstorm was pretty intense & caused us to surrender our attempt at canvassing today. but, we also stuck labels advertising our wednesday night block party on all of the door hangers we prepared this morning. who knew sharing Jesus would be peel & stick.

 

now we are relaxing at emily greene's house watching the FSU baseball game as they play in the college world series against texas christian university. our team is still peeling & sticking while they are watching the game. let's go noles!

 

 

we also have a new team member... her name is nala. 

 

 

up tonight: dinner at emily sanders' house, courtesy of the sanders'. 

 

catch up with you later.

 

grace&peace,

ashleigh

 

 

 

 

day one is officially underway! last night we made two new friends - magic matt, the head intern at usf's bcm, & our friendly giant mutant grasshopper/cricket thing. we'll get some videos of matt posted up soon, but in the meanwhile, enjoy this pic of our insect friend...

 

 

 

as of this morning, we've already made our first walmart visit of the trip. as emily green, zach allen, tyler clark, shawn haskin & myself ventured through interesting parts of tampa, the rest of our crew got started on our doortags that we will be using during our canvassing. our preparations included organizing our materials and some intense rubber band fights... 

 

 

 

while we are here in tampa, we will be promoting the palms community church .  pastors daniel & mary stahl have been planting this church in the valrico area.  

 

 

 

at fbc-tlh, we had doorhangers printed so that we can canvass & promote the church in the surrounding neighborhoods. today, we're kicking off those efforts. we'll be walking the area in teams of three or more and doing spiritual surveys with anyone willing. pray for open & receiving hearts as well as protection.  by the way... heat index in tampa today... 106. bring it on baby. 

 

hope you enjoy the pictures of the morning! 

 

grace&peace,

ashleigh

 

p.s. some videos featuring our own n*sync group are soon to come... 

 

 

 

 

 

hola tallahassee & fbctlh! we are officially in tampa & unpacked. well, at least half of us are. we are currently waiting on the arrival of group #2 & then some stragglers that will join us tomorrow.

 

so, it all comes down to this.  we left tallahassee for eight days to serve the people of valrico, florida & the palms community church.  hours of meetings, shared testimonies, prayers & hours of preparation will be put to use over the next week for the glory of God. follow along as we blog our adventures (& mishaps) & tell of the awesome things the Lord will do! be on the lookout for posts from everyone on the trip. this is a team effort.

 

that being said, the trip down was relatively uneventful, thankfully.  although, we did start off with the torrential downpour in tallahassee. a few hours later than originally intended we hit the road & ended up in tampa at the usf bcm (baptist college ministry, just in case).  weather was touch & go. brian hall expressed what we were all thinking come dinner time... "i never thought i'd say this... but i'm happy to be in gainesville."  chick-fil-a provided a glorious dinner in the town that shall not be named. our only casualty throughout the trip... our loaf of bread. 

 

 

on the ride down, about twenty minutes out from our destination, we did see a horrible accident.  no need to go into details, but pray for the family involved.

 

air mattresses are currently our best friends. and, we're about to finish the day with a rousing game of apples to apples. 

 

 

thanks for following along this week. we hope to have an incredible time, but more importantly, we are expecting God to do big things.  pray for us & for the Lord to go before us as we begin our canvassing work throughout the community tomorrow. ask the Lord for hearts to be softened & for opportunities to be presented. 

 

throughout the week, we will be memorizing colossians 1:15-20:

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. for by Him all things were created: things in heaven & on earth, visible & invisible, whether by thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him & for Him.  He is before all things, & in Him all things hold together. and He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning & the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. for God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, & through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross." 

 

so be on the look out for the verse o' the day.  

 

 

also, our devotions for the week will be based on the book, humility, by c.j. mahaney. if you don't have a copy, you should get one. really. 

 

thanks for following along & thank you for the prayers! 

 

grace&peace, 

ashleigh

 

wanna follow the happenings on twitter?

here is a list tweeters this week.

@zach_allen1 - zach allen

@kwaters2008 - kevin waters

@askinhaskin - shawn haskin

@ashleighgrant - ashleigh grant

@embalina7tina - emily sanders

@alr07h - amanda rigsby

@tylerclark_89 - tyler clark

 

zach smith, emily sanders & amanda rigsby at our final meeting thursday night.

 

shawn haskin at our final meeting thursday.

 

kevin waters hanging out (well, really texting) after we arrived at the usf bcm.

 

ashlee darby relaxing after the drive to tampa.

 

our fearless leader - zach allen (who is already asleep at the time of this post...)