Hello all from sunny Geauga County! All is well out here in the middle of no where! Each teen has put forth a great effort in walking long distances in these large subdivisions. Each house sits on an average of 2 acres of land so the driveways and properties are a good distance apart. We have covered most of Munson Township and part of Russel Township. Tomorrow we will be blitzing Claridon township to the West and the rest of Munson that we did not get to today.
We are camping out at the Dahlhausens tonight and the teens have been having a blast. Of course I schooled all of them in Basketball but because I'm getting old, I only played two games. We are sleeping out under the stars tonight, roasting marshmallows, playing volleyball and much more as we relax this evening.
You will notice in the photos the teens working vigorously to stuff over 2000 brochure packets with more to come in the next couple of days. Well, I must sign off for now. More to come tomorrow night!!
Joel Potter
Hello all from beautiful Geauga County! Personally, I have never walked as much as we have in the past couple of days. As we ended day 2, Pastor Hobbes was very pleased with the amount of "Miles" that were covered on Monday and Tuesday. When we left the town hall on Monday we had over 3000 brochure packets to hang on doors. We now have less than 1500. Each teen has shown a great amount of work ethic and determination to complete this task. We also met a couple of new Christians that seemed exited about finding out more information and attending the first services in August.
We came back to Mentor, ate pizza at the church and then roamed the streets and parks for 2 hrs. canvassing for the Extreme Games. The Lord provided for us several opportunities to invite teens and their friends out for Thursday and Friday evening. Several baseball teams and their parents were approached after their games at Garfield park and even a team from Munson Township where we had been canvassing on Monday and Tuesday, was playing baseball at Garfield. The Lord sure does work in mysterious and wonderful ways!
As we enter the final day with Pastor Hobbes, we transition into full Extreme Games mode. Be in prayer that the goal of 60+ teens will attend. We desire to get the gospel into the hands and hearts of as many teens as possible, but we also know this is our first year for this event. If the Lord chooses to bring us more than 60 than we will consider that an abundant blessing!
Well I hope to report more good news from our final day with Pastor Hobbes and Maple Hills Church. You will hear from us again tonight.
Joel Potter
Well, the Lord really blessed the first night of the Extreme Games competition. We had 40 teens of which over half were either unsaved or do not even attend Grace. This was a true answer to prayer. We played a games called Human Tic Tac Toe, 4 way Tug O War and Mud Slingin. Mud Slingin proved to be the favorite since it involved chocolate Syrup and Marshmallows!!! Seeing chocolate covered faces was amazing. When we got inside the building the teens indulged in subs from Subway, chips and pop. We then played a texting game where the first or seventh person to text me with the correct trivia question answer, won 1000 pts. for their team.
After all the fun was over, Pastor Tim had the teens watch a powerful video that told of a true story back in 1982 where a man hung onto the rear tail fin of a large jet that crashed into a major river after taking off with too much ice on their wing. That man passed up a life preserver over 50 times to allow less capable and more inured people a chance at life. Finally when he was the last person to be rescued, he was already dead. The water was 30 degrees or less and that man risked his life for the quantity and quality of the life of others. Pastor Tim explained that our great Savior did the very same thing but not just for 60 people, he did it for the entire world in the past, present and future. The teens responded well and we had 5 professions of faith. What a blessing to know that your prayers as a congregation were answered. Pray that as we enter tonights final night that the Spirit of God would have free course in the hearts of even more Middle Schoolers. Our prayer is that we get several families out of this event and not just teens, so pray that God would also see fit to add to our congregation here solid families to replicate more disciples in the future.
Joel Potter
6883 Reynolds Rd. · Mentor, Ohio 44060 · 440.255.7045 · Fax: 440.255.7166