A Few Mission Trip Pictures

Posted by tmloberg on July 4, 2010 under General | Be the First to Comment

Back in Pequot

Posted by tmloberg on July 3, 2010 under General | Be the First to Comment

Well we made it back,what a trip and what lessons along the way. After a week in Colorado I forgot how bad the Minnesota Humidity can be.

The Bus made it back with no problems and other then the few minor things in CO it did very well and has 2,300 miles to show for it, just Air conditioning would have been nice. The last few hours across MN was a little warm on the bus and even though we love and care for each other tempers where starting to get short.

Thanks to everyone who helped support us through pray and giving financially we could not have done it with out you. If you could have been there during the week and during Devotion time you would have seem this paying off already. God is good the energy and lessons learned are going to last a life time . Thanks Again

-Tony

Home Tomorrow

Posted by Matt Loberg on July 2, 2010 under General | Be the First to Comment

We are here in Nebraska. Everyone else is asleep. We had a long trip in the bus, but made it here safely.

We will be heading out for home tomorrow morning.

Thanks for all your prayers. I believe thats what made this trip great. And dont stop praying for us. Today I personally felt like I was being attacked. The enemy trying to take away from this experience we had.

We will be putting a slide show and presentation sometime in the near future to talk about our trip.

-Matt Loberg

Wednesday Night Program-WOW

Posted by Matt Loberg on June 30, 2010 under General | Be the First to Comment

WOW is the best word to describe tonight, at least that’s what pops to my mind first when I think about it, then the next thing that pops to my mind is “Undeserved”, which is also the theme for our trip. We have been learning about the prodigal son and how the father waited days after days, looking for his son, waiting for him to come home. As most of you know, the son came home, asking to be a servant-because he thought he was not worthy to be called his son. Tonight we looked at how the father tackled his son when he got home, and the son was welcomed with kisses and many hugs. They got him cleaned up, put a robe on him, had a feast for his home coming, and the father gave him a family ring. Family rings were very important back then, and tonight they gave us a ring that represents that-but first they had us hold our hands in front of us, and make a tight fist. That tight fist represented what we were holding onto and what we needed to give over to God-as He wants us all. We then let go of our tight closed fists and that was representing us giving it to God. If we didn’t open up our hands, we could not put the ring on our finger. For me, when I was holding my fists tightly closed, it hurt-much pressure and it felt like I was holding onto the thing that I have struggled with for a very long time-giving God total control of everything in my life, and not just parts of my life. After letting go, I didn’t really feel anything different, but I felt pressure release from my hands, and there wasn’t that pain anymore. Many faces had tears running down their face, and there were leaders going around comforting people, along with a few of the students. When God speaks-its powerful-no doubt about it! We had youth group devotions and we circled up and prayed, not until then did it hit me hard-God wants everything, even though I am nothing compared to Him, He deserves so much better then what I can offer-and yet He still wants me, He still wants everything in my life and to do His will and His work-and that’s good enough for Him. I don’t deserve His love, His son or anything He has blessed me with-my great family and my great church family, the house I have, the food I eat and clothing I wear, even my health-no matter how good or bad-I deserve worse and I deserve death. But God loves me, and all of us, so much that He gave us the undeserved. He blessed me with all of these things and is continually blessing me-He isn’t finished with me yet! I’m not the only that came to this realization tonight, there were many who were talking through thick throats and tears running down their face. God spoke powerfully tonight and got our attention. He defiantly got mine! Thank you all so very much for the prayers you have said for us throughout this trip and for all the prayers before, and after, and all the support you have given us! We are very blessed with the church family we have!

Tomorrow is our last day here in Colorado. Colorado has been a very fun and beautiful experience. I got to see mountains for the first time ever in my life! Although, when we went up to Estes Park I got very motion sick, and my ear infection has been very irritating with the elevation difference.  And then my allergies and all that-but it’s been an enjoyable trip. My crew is amazing-and I am on the same crew as Dane-and there is another kid here who is a lot like Dane and he is also on my crew. We have been to three different sites, and the people who we have helped have been a blessing! There has been God sightings happening daily and they are amazing to hear about them! Another thing we also have going here is a food drive for the food shelf. The first week they got 605 cans, and then the second week they got 608 cans. Maybe we can top them this week! Tomorrow is going to come, and then Friday-and we leave. We are staying in Bellevue, NE and we are hoping to be home about 4 or 5 on Saturday afternoon. We look forward to seeing you all on Sunday!

On a side note-God is great with people in this area. We had bumper problems on the bus, and a few other problems. We called several mechanics in the area, and none of them were open by the time we got back from the day and would stay late and do it. Finally, we had one guy who would stay late and do it. Today after we got back from work sites, my dad brought the bus over, and we had it back tonight! He fixed it quickly and was a huge blessing. The other groups also helped us as we didn’t have transportation, and some of us needed showers (and the showers are 3 miles away) and needed to run to Target for a few things. I am amazed at how great our God is-and all of these is undeserved. It’s been a great experience, and we all are looking forward to the stories to tell!!

One last thing-please keep in prayers a kid from St. Louis-my dad mentioned it in his blog, but I would also like to remind you. Being so far away from his family and having this tragedy strike. Thanks for your prayers!

See you Sunday!!

-Samantha Loberg

[Isaiah 58:11 ; Jeremiah 29:11]

Powerful Wednesday program

Posted by Matt Loberg on under General | Be the First to Comment

Wow what a trip so far some many stories to be told and not enough time to type them, especially the way I type.  Make sure to ask the young people about these stories when we return on Saturday. We are hoping to have a Sunday School time to tell you about some of these stories like we did two years ago. We have kids in all kinds of different community service projects and they really can see God using them in these projects. We can see the difference we are making here, and we as a group decided tonight that we can make these same difference for Christ in our own community. It is really apparent that our group of youth is different from the rest-the bonds they share are not ordinary. They truly consider each other apart of each others families and support group. They also consider themselves an important part of their church, and I thank you for your encouraging words and prayers, it means a lot to all of us involved with the youth. We serve a great, mighty, and gracious God!

Also, we would like for you to keep in prayers a youth member here from St. Louis who lost his 21 year old cousin today in a car accident.

One last thing, take a look at Samantha’s blog about the Wednesday night program-it was a very powerful program and many decisions were made in our group, as well with the other groups.

Thanks for your support and prayers!

-Tony

Taylors View of Mission trip

Posted by Matt Loberg on under General | Be the First to Comment

The bus ride was quite interesting…haha. But it was good. We bonded quite nicely. We arrived to Loveland full of energy and more than ready to meet new people and serve God. However…though we were outgoing and tried to talk to the other groups, some seemed a little…shall we say…reserved, or stuck up, at the first impression. Grant it, our bunch is very energetic and, rather, crazy, which may have been a slight turn off. But we vowed not to let their reserved attitudes affect us and just agreed to work harder to reach out and make new friends. It didn’t take long. By the end of the night, we had new friends from southern Minnesota, St. Louis Missouri, and Colorado Springs, Colorado The following days brought myself to an assisted living home in Loveland that is quite nice We have done aerobics with the elderly, visited with them, played “balloon volleyball,” made ice cream, and more there. It hardly seems like we’re working at all. And, in reality, we aren’t. The people in my crew are 4 others from Minnesota and St. Louis, but none from our own group. We have laughed harder together and bonded more than I thought would be possible with 5 people who hardly know each other. Our nightly chapels are focusing on the prodigal’s son story. We’re learning some very important lessons through these things. In all, it’s been a swell trip. OH YEAH!! And last night (tuesday) we took a trip up to Estes Park in the mountains. It was absolutely beautiful, though, unfortunately, a few of us got motion sickness…including myself. But while there, we went to eat at a nice pizza place (which was absolutely delicious!) and then did some shopping at the few small shops they had there. The evening was a lovely vacation amongst our week of service. When we got back to camp, it was like we stepped back into reality after a short dream. It really is amazing.

PS. To anyone who would be interesting in a vacation, I would HIGHLY recommend Colorado. The mountains and streams are absolutely beautiful!!…once you get past the motion sickness…and it’s just a wonderful atmosphere. The ultimate site-seeing and camping experience

One Last Day In Colorado

Posted by Matt Loberg on under General | Be the First to Comment

Just a Few pictures from our trip so far

Night Out in Colorado

Posted by Matt Loberg on June 29, 2010 under General | Read the First Comment

We just got back from a night out in Colorado.

Yesterday was our first day out on our job site. We are all doing a variety of different jobs. We are all blending well with our other group members.

As I said earlier, we spent the night in Colorado. We went up to Estes Park, which is at 7600 ft elevation. We went to a pizza place and then walked around. Estes Park is a beautiful town with a ton o places to shop.

Some things you can be praying for: That jobs would get done. For safety at our job sites. That our work crews and youth group would grow closer together.

Thanks for all your support.

We Are Here

Posted by Matt Loberg on June 27, 2010 under General | Be the First to Comment

We arrived safely in Loveland today. We are staying at a Catholic school. Tonight we split up into our work groups and got the projects we will be doing during the week.

As normal, when a large group of people, who dont know each other, gather in one place, you find that the groups usually stay together. Last time we went on a mission trip, we hardly interacted with the other groups until later in the week. This time I see our groups trying to interact with the other groups.

Tomorrow, I will hopefully have some pictures of our trip thus far to upload.

Good Morning

Posted by Matt Loberg on under General | 3 Comments to Read

We arrived in Valentine last night. We had some music, games, and lessons last night and got a little sleep. We are packing up right now and getting ready for the second part of our journey.

Please pray that we make it there. Yesterday we found the bus doesnt do the greatest with hills.