Monday -- Taking God at His Promises

Today was our first day of canvassing. The day began with a devotion about taking God at his promises. Here is one definition of what it means to believe in God. Believing in God is believing in and acting on the sure and certain promises of God. We recalled examples from Bible times of people who acted on the promises of God. We scanned Hebrews 11 for other examples that we didn't mention. By going out today, our canvassing group was acting on the sure and certain promises of God. God has promised that he will be with us always (Matthew 28:20), that when his Word is shared it will accomplish the purpose for which he sent it (Isaiah 55:11), and that he will give us the words to say (Mark 13:11). Those promises to us are sealed by God in Jesus. "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God." (2 Corinthians 1:20)

The "Amen" was spoken by us as we went out to knock on doors. In our debrief session afterwards we heard of contacts that ranged from people politely saying that they weren't interested, to conversations where people expressed their concept of God and "challenged" (not aggressively) our views, to a few people who were interested in finding out more about the The Way church. In a few cases, we were able to share a basic Law/Gospel presentation. On one of Mr. Raasch's stops, a man related how his heart was heavy over being separated from his daughter. Mr. Raasch offered to pray him with and the man accepted. Sophia made an insightful comment about the value of what she and Olivia experienced as they talked with a man who asked them questions that they found weren't always easy to answer. It's one thing to talk about how to defend your faith in religion classes, it is quite another to actually be in the situation where you want to be prepared to give an answer. In all, we came away from the morning mutually encouraged by our experiences and trusting that the Lord accomplished his good and perfect purpose through us.

The afternoon was spent at Coronado Beach along the Pacific Ocean. Activities included playing in the sand.

Exploring the beach...

And of course getting wet in the ocean (along with some boogey boarding on boards provided by the Boehm family). 
Can you tell what the girls were spelling in this nifty silhouette?

The evening drive included a stop at Inn-n-Out  Burger. The food met with mixed reviews. Collin seems to be our chief food critic (not in a critical kind of way--just giving honest feedback on food quality).
By the way, did I mention that our congregation and host families are taking excellent care of us? What a blessing to have places to stay and people to feed us!