Bennett's Backyard Bible Adventure
Sunday, July 20, 2008

Last week was an incredible ministry week here in Benton Harbor! Thank you for your prayers and support and know that God is truly on the move here. Last Wednesday a 17 year old student who has been attending Overflow since Easter (he said he was dragged their by his mom and has never really attended church before) came into the mall office/lounge to talk. Within a few minutes it was apparent God was up to something and he ended up praying to receive Jesus right then and there. We talked about what it meant and he committed to be baptized in August! It was pretty amazing and to add to the story was the fact that we are in a mall so I was able to walk down to the bookstore to get him a good Bible that he could understand!

Here is an AWESOME update from Cindy:


We had a “Bible Backyard Adventure” in our backyard last Monday through Thursday and it was incredible. We had a ton of help from Overflow leaders to make this happen and a special THANKS goes out to Kim Hooper who helped coordinate the entire week and spent a ton of time with planning the week, setting up each day, etc.

We spent each day from 3-5 pm with the children. A typical day looked like this: snack & drink, Bible teaching & craft, sharing a song (Amazing Grace and Jesus Loves Me some days), then hang time with the kids. The first day Kim taught on creation and that God is King! She had each child (and adult) decorate a crown before proudly displaying it on their heads. The coolest thing for me personally from this day was seeing one of the girls wearing her crown the next day as I drove by her house. :0) I almost yelled I was so excited. What a blessing!!!

Mel Page-Wood taught on day 2 and talked about Jesus! We set up a cupcake bar and the kids decorated their own cupcake before singing Happy Birthday to Jesus. It was awesome. We ended the day with a game of musical chairs! Check out the video to see who won!

I taught on day 3. I shared the story of the lost sheep that went astray and how the shepherd searched carefully for him until he was found. The leaders painted little sheep noses on all the kids before the message and they all looked so cute. I then told the story of the lost coin and had the kids go on a scavenger hunt to find goodies. It was great.


Brian talked about Christ, the Cross and Resurrection on day 4 and 13 children stepped forward to ask Jesus into their hearts!!! The entire week was very moving and God was working. Thank you to all of you who made this happen!!!! Mom, Marguerite (who graciously let us borrow her 3 tables and 2 tents!), Mary T., Ashley (who created the neighborhood flyer), Rose, Sherry, Mel, Kim, Brian, Matthew, Nikki, Georgia, Malita….. You are all a blessing!!!!

The same evening the “Backyard Adventure Week” ended, I brewed some decaf and headed out to the patio for some downtime when three of the boys (just saved!) poked their heads around the gate and asked to come in. I told them sure and they sat down and asked when I could read more stories out of that book. (The book is the Bible!!!!) I told them anytime…. just come on over and I will read you more stories out of that book. J




Thanks for reading. We’re headed to the mountains for our family vacation. God bless and have a great week.

posted by Brian @ 8:11 PM, 2 comments,