What an amazing end of the year! The interns were able to show the love of
Christ through three separate missions experiences.
Our first team flew all the way to Rio Viejo, Honduras and spent a week
serving alongside Healing Hands International Ministries. This is where a
fellow 2008 HPSM graduate, Heather Stewart, is currently serving as a
full-time missionary. This trip was packed full of medical brigades,
construction projects, school outreaches, and much more. The team saw God
graciously do multiple miracles such as a paralyzed child walk, a man’s
broken rib healed, extremely high blood pressure dropping instantly, and
countless teeth extracted with no complications. Mark Younger, a first
year HPSM graduate, presented the Gospel in Spanish to roughly 280
children. The team also brought comfort and relief to the missionaries by
finishing some much needed construction projects. This team even survived
a 7.1 earthquake! With God’s protection, all were kept safe and were used
to touch many lives for Jesus!
Our second team spent a week at our Healing Place Swaziland Campus in
Swaziland, Africa. They were able to help facilitate an amazing
international pastors’ conference. Pastors from South Africa, Swaziland,
and Mozambique came together to unite in Christ to be not only encouraged,
but strengthened. The team served passionately in multiple facets such as:
technical assistance, worship, décor, and assisting networking. The
interns also helped impart the DNA of HPC into the local pastors by taking
them on a community outreach. They played a huge role in training and
equipping the staff of the Swaziland Campus to host future events like
this and to encourage the pastors of all over Africa to continue serving
in their own local churches.
Our third team was privileged to host a group of visiting interns from
GUTS Church at our Baton Rouge Dream Center. It was a week of non-stop,
crazy outreach. 300 plates of spaghetti were handed out at the Monday
outreach at BRDC, 1200 bottles of water given out all over town, and then
they went to a surprise bar outreach to top it all off. But, one of the
largest projects was for the team was to completely repair and facelift
the youth room at our Donaldsonville Campus. After extensive repainting
and wiring, they helped create an environment where the youth of
Donaldsonville can now come to hear about the Good News of Jesus. New
friendships were made, our community was shown the love of Christ through
serving, and as they served hand in hand with the GUTS Church interns,
Jesus was lifted high.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support during these trips.
Jordan Gautreau and Jay Melilli are two full-time interns from our 09 graduating class. They were sent to Chicago for the summer to help with a church plant and to develop leadership teams at an already established church.
Jordan Gautreau (Second Year) Jay Melilli (First Year)
Here is a report from Jay of what’s been happening there…
Hey HPC!
Hope you all are doing great! Jordan and I miss all of you guys! We just thought we would check in with y’all and give a little update of what’s going on up here in Chicago.
Everything has been going great. So far, working with a church plant has been an awesome experience. We are really getting to add value where it is needed. At City Church Chicago, we have been given the opportunity to start a chill/hang out environment called the Patio. It kind of has a 10-min party type flow, except it is after both main services, and it’s for everyone. We have also been helping build the ‘hosting teams’ (Guest Services) and other core teams as requested by Pastor Kent.
During the week, we have been working at their main campus, Family Christian Center. Jordan has been working with their youth ministries, helping build teams. He has also been given the great privilege of receiving the offering and closing out the service. I have been working with their graphics department, helping restructure the way they do weekly news and bulletins. Investing into these students and leaders has been a really cool experience.
Thank you for all your prayers and for this amazing opportunity to be able to represent Healing Place Church in such an incredible way. We know you guys have wanted to see what is going on here in Chicago, so I made a photo album on Facebook that we have been dumping pictures on. Also for other updates you guys can follow Jordan and me on Twitter!
HPSM interns got to serve at Healing Place Church’s Amplified Weekend with over 500 high school and junior high students from all around the Baton Rouge area. Students from all of our HPC campuses gathered for this fun-packed, Holy Spirit filled experience. Students even joined in from 5 different local churches, including Household of Faith, Miracle Place, Journey Church, Victory Harvest, and Church of the Highlands.
The entire weekend was packed with incredible worship, life changing messages, and community outreach. The interns stayed in host homes with the students, came up with outreach ideas with them, worshipped with them, prayed with them, and had countless opportunities to make an impact in each student’s life. From late night pranks to a late night dodge ball tournament, the interns and students had one life-changing weekend.
Generations and churches merged, others were reached, lives were touched, Jesus was glorified, and no one left the same. It was definitely the place to be to sow into the next generation and see God move in a radical way.
This past weekend was our 2009 HPSM Spring Retreat. We all loaded up and caravanned over to Judson Baptist Retreat Center in St. Francisville for one night and two days.
On Friday night, we had a great service with Pastor Mark Stermer. He spoke about “The Trip of a Lifetime” – sticking together, depending on God, allowing those around you to help you. Our missionary pastors from Mozambique, Isaac and Carol Williams joined us that night as well. Pastor Isaac shared a word of encouragement with us during flow time and stayed after service for pizza and fellowship.
Saturday morning was packed full of excitement during breakout sessions. These sessions provide a much more one-on-one learning experience for the interns. Here is the breakout session lineup…
How to be a Vessel of God – Pastor/Teacher Mike Davis
The Journey to Overcome (Spiritual Warfare) – Mrs. Alliece Cole
Women in Ministry – Tiffany Dupree
Men in Ministry – Pastor Mike Haman
Marriage and Ministry – Pastor Jim and Esther Rentz
After the sessions, the interns had lunch, a bunco tournament, and some free time. The retreat closed out with Pastor Timmy Straight sharing a message straight from his heart about the life of Peter.
God was so faithful to meet us and speak to us throughout the trip. Everyone left encouraged, united, and recharged by the Holy Spirit!
We had many special moments with God and each other, and we also had tons of fun. In fact, check out this video that we made to open up retreat and encourage the interns.
Periodically throughout the year, second year full-time interns have the privilege of having lunch with different panels of staff members and special guests. The first luncheon they attended was a Missions Panel Luncheon with:
How incredible is that?! Lunch is provided, and everyone just hangs out together for the first 20 minutes. Then the interns have an opportunity to ask the panel members questions that they prepared ahead of time.
Here are some of the insights they shared with the interns:
Rusty Dominque: “Blossom yourself wherever God brings you. He’s getting you ready for the next thing. Trust Him not just for your needs but also for where you are going.”
Dan Ohlerking: “Faith is not ‘for’ something. It is to sustain you through things. It is your relationship with Christ.”
Jack Dyer: “When you feel like quitting, just stick around long enough to outlast it.”
Thank God for those who go before us and learn so that they can teach us from their experience.
