Van Hoy: August 2014

As some of you may know I recently went on a mission trip to Alaska with my church. This was my second time to go to Alaska with the church. It was such an awesome trip and we had an amazing time doing Gods work. Thankful for my sister, Maddie who took a week of her summer off and watched my girls during the day. And for my husband who held down the fort while I was gone. I am blessed with so many amazing family and friends who provided prayers, financial help, and other support. I am very excited to share with you some of the awesome things that happened in Alaska while we were there. Our purpose in going was to partner with a church in Anchorage called True North. Rush Creek has been partnering with True North for almost 4 years now (since they started). Our objective was to help them in reaching out to the community. Helping True North meet the people in Anchorage and share God’s love. True North meets in a library in downtown Anchorage. They are growing and are up to 2 services since last year. Alaska is a beautiful state with many unreached and lost people. God's creation is amazing in Alaska. Our goal was to help True North get the word out about their church and serve the community. Monday morning we divided up into different teams and distributed donuts to local businesses. It was very cool to see the reactions of people and get to talk about the church and why they want to reach and serve the community. After that we went to local Trailer Parks to distribute and install smoke detectors for free. It was such a neat experience. We got to meet and have wonderful conversations about True North and how much they love Anchorage and Jesus. Tuesday-Thursday looked the same. In the morning our team would divide up into different teams to distribute door hangers for the park party that evening (lots and lots of walking). One morning a few of us got to go help a church member move! Tuesday-Thursday evening we helped True North put on block parties. During the summer the church does 3/4 weeks of block parties. Churches come in and help each week. They use a different park every evening. They have 3 bounce houses, hotdogs/hamburgers, face painting, cotton candy, sno cones, and an obstacle course. All of it is FREE to the community. Our job was to help with setup, serve during, and break things down. We got to meet lots of church members who came to True North because of Park Parties in the past. Friday night me and a few ladies from Rush Creek got to help cook meals for one of the churches ministries. True North has a big heart for helping women escape from the sex industry and find new life in Christ. Once a month they deliver home cooked meals to the ladies who work in the clubs downtown. Doors are being opened through the meals to help women get out of the industry and find hope in Christ. Very eye opening and convicting. God is moving greatly through True North. He is drawing people to Him through their community outreach. We had many opportunities to pray with people and share about God’s love. It’s amazing to be apart of Gods kingdom and see how He is working through churches all around the world. It was an amazing week and God stirred my heart through it. He showed His power through my weaknesses and inadequacies. I was blessed to get to know many church members I didn’t know before and was apart of something great. Here are some pictures from the trip (sorry if there are duplicates and they may be out of order).