Operation Thankful People

As I’m sitting here in the Evangel office listening to the boys practice for tomorrow morning’s service and thinking about all of the things that have been going on recently I realized – I should update the blog!

Operation Thankful People was a huge success, we had three different nights where people from the Relevant worship community and their friends ventured downtown in the cold to minister to those they meet. I was able to go downtown the night before thanksgiving, which is the biggest party night of the year, says most college students. I have to be honest, as a person of prayer I’m mostly introverted, quiet, and keep to myself. very rarely will you see me walk up to a complete stranger and strike up a conversation. But as we prayed the half hour before we split up to hit our designated areas something came over me and my heart was awakened with the love of Christ for this city and those that live in it. I was instantly outgoing, and bold, unafraid of rejection and having no fear of man I began walking up to people standing around outside and just started sharing about being thankful! There is a lot the Lord can do in you if you are willing and open to it, I know that I’m first and foremost a person of prayer, but I can reach out to those around me if I just let God work in me and use me. So we talked to a lot of people, ministered to a lot of people, and got rejected by a lot of people.

I am encouraged and blessed by every person that gets involved with our ministry and understands our vision and what we want to see accomplished in the city of Buffalo.

May you always be thankful for the things God has given you.
May you come to understand His unending grace and mercy in your life.
May you truly believe that He is the only One that will sustain you.

Blessings!

Love, Engage, Encounter, Serve

The Lord has really been encoutering the hearts of many of us in the ministry to really press into what He has for us in the city of Buffalo. I’ve seen many of my friends in this ministry come to a new understanding of the love of Christ and their hunger and desire to see Jesus glorified through our prayers and works and love. It’s been stirring my heart up in the place of prayer knowing that there is a movement of God coming to the city of Buffalo and we are going to be a part of it.

We’ve been doing the prayer walks now for about a month and every time the Lord has encountered us, met our needs, and given us opportunities to reach out and love on the people we meet on these prayer walks. Our most recent prayer walk had almost 40 people and we split up into two groups and were able to cover more of the city. I found this to be so stinkin’ exciting because never would I have imagined that happening. I guess I don’t have as much faith as I should.

Two weeks ago we had an amazing opporunity to finally really show off the ministry and the different facets of the ministry. We were able to share our heart for the city of buffalo and really challenge people to step out of the place of complency (which was even challenging my own heart) and begin to live out our faith. The band had an amazing time of worship, probably one of their best sets ever. They all seemed really on key and in tune with the holy spirit, and it was living proof of God working in the midst of our own weakness and brokenness.  The guys have been getting many opportunities to step out of their own comfort zones and minister in ways they wouldn’t often do, and it’s really  blessed my heart to see them do that.

I’m beginning to see glimpses of things to come in this little ministry and community and in the city of buffalo. It’s awakening my heart to a new desire to be in the Word and to be praying.

May you encounter the love of Christ in a way like never before
May you experience His unending grace and affections over your life

Blessings!

Kingdom Bound, End of Summer, Fall almost here!

Hello friends!!

Well, its been a busy summer for the relevant boys and the ministry. The band has been playing nonstop, sometimes weeks at a time. I can’t believe how they manage, thankfully we have a God that sustains and strengthens us when we feel like we have nothing left to give. He is faithful!

Kingdom Bound was a blast!! The band played every morning and an afternoon set and as always, they did very well. They had many opportunities to meet fans and minister to the young people through their music, it was awesome watching God move through the park stage area and touch so many young people’s lives.

After Kingdom Bound the boys had a little bit of a respute, and with that we welcomed into our family baby Swain! Our little Relevant miracle baby indeed! He is such a joy and such a blessing, and we are so thankful to have him in our family, and we’re so grateful to God for taking care of the Swain family and providing for all of their needs!

As the summer begins to wind down, the boys will just  get busier, they have plenty on their calender in the fall, and we are excited to see what God does these next few months.

Thursdays in the square have been going strong all summer, and God has been using us to touch the lives of young people in the buffalo area. I personally have only been a few times, and I was amazed at the love that is poured out from the hearts of those in the ministry that desire to see lives touched and changed.  There are two weeks left of Thursday in the Square and if you haven’t had a chance to join these guys downtown I would strongly recommend it!

With all that said, lets partner with God’s heart and pray for His kingdom to come and His will to be done in the city of Buffalo and surrounding areas. Our heart is for this city to be changed, and lives to be restored.

Bless you!

Chalk Ministry, Prayer Walks, Camp Vick

Hello friends!
It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything so I’ll share a little bit about the last few weeks with Relevant!
We had a prayer walk last weekend and we had a lot of new faces come and pray with us! It was awesome, we love when we have new people come out – especially for the first time. It gives us a renewed energy and fuel for the city of buffalo. I know I have hard days when we go out and pray and I just find myself getting distracted and not really entering into prayer and dialogue with the Lord and it tends to take me a little longer to enter in. Usually by the end of our walks I’m fired up and ready to go! So it was nice to see new faces and fresh hearts that have a desire to pray for the city. All we can do is continue in our obedience to what God has called us to do, and remember in the little things He is delighted with us.
For the past month or so Claire and some of the gang from the ministry have been heading downtown to Thursdays in the Square and I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about what God has been doing and what they’ve been doing with these kids downtown. So I went this past week for the first time and I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed by it at first. There were SO MANY kids downtown walking around, just wasting time and hanging out and they LOVE chalk! I am fully supporting this facet of our ministry and I believe this is what the church needs to do. To get out of their comfort zones and talk to people, love people, and accept people as they are. Jesus did that, He didn’t try to force Himself onto anyone, or make them believe, He just accepted them, loved them, and talked to them. We need to be Jesus to these kids. They need to see Christians outside of the church, living life, being human. I personally didn’t have any conversation with anyone, I was just overwhelmed by it all I prayed and wrote with chalk. But I loved watching what happened.
Camp Vick! A few of us left saturday afternoon for Freedom NY to play at VICKfest. It was an all day music festival of sorts. We got there around 5:30 after our little mishap with the poor band van. It is currently sitting in the Hamburg Auto Repair Shop. The serpentine belt is shot, along with the power steering. It made an aweful noise, as Amanda said – it sounded like the screaming eels on the princess bride (a classic) and all we smelled was burning. So that’s not good. But the set went really well, Chris played a lot of great songs, some of my favorites.
So this is a pretty low-key week – I believe we will be out at Queen City Farm Saturday to help plant trees and do other outdoor type activities. Next week We have Faith night at the Bisons game and we can’t forget the WDCX baseball fundraiser, I’m kinda excited to see some of my men play baseball, followed by a benefit concert for City Mission.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend, feel free to leave comments about what you did over the weekend, or anything really! We love to hear from our readers. And hope to see you all out at our events!
Pray for us!

God is faithful

Hello friends!
It’s been awhile since anything has been written in our blog. There’s been a consensus that I am going to be the permenant writer of the ministries blog. I’m ok with that. I enjoy writing and sharing God’s heart for this ministry and for the city of buffalo with those that want to hear it and want to be a part of something bigger in this city.
So last night was the first time the whole band was together since the CD release back in April.
We were asked to come and lead worship at Vintage at The Chapel. I know I’m bias because I love these men, but they were amazing. Seriously. I’ve never seen such a talented group of people.
I fully believe last night was the beginning of what’s to come for this summer, and into the fall. God is beginning to refine and purify this group of people. Everyone involved in this ministry has gone through or going through some refining period within the last six months or so and I believe God is beginning to put a unified vision in the group for the city of buffalo and what’s He’s called us to do as a ministry and a community of believers.
I’m personally excited to see all of this unfold, and to be a part of something bigger than myself. I know that every person that’s involved in this ministry is here for a reason and a purpose.
Most of all we just want to worship God, we want to see Him glorified in our daily lives and we want to walk in it. We’re a people that love God, desire to serve Him, and to see this city changed.
Keep checking the myspace page for upcoming events, we’ll be around.
Also any prayer walks or service projects that are on the schedule are open for anyone that wants to come join us and serve this city.
Jesus came to serve, not to be served. Let’s do the same.

beauty hidden in the midst of rundown

this morning i decided to talk a walk. i wanted to walk down to this ministry to inquire about volunteer opportunities..only to realize that when i got there it was only open mon/weds/fri. it was a nice walk though, and i never really walked down breckenridge (or any other street for that matter) past richmond. though i walked past many houses which were boarded up and had a feeling of sadness about them; i felt a sense of hope. i walked past a group of people from habitat for humanity fixing up a house which will eventually be lived in by a much thankful family. i often overhear people talking about how much buffalo sucks, and how they can’t wait to leave…and what i often want to say to them is “yes buffalo has its problems, but don’t you realize that you could make it so much better if you really wanted to?” theres so many opportunities to help better the city! politicians can only do so much…i believe in many ways buffalo’s rebirth needs to start with its inhabitants. God was speaking to me as i walked showing me all the beauty that was around me, and how in each one of those houses lives a family that He loves very much, and showing me how neighborhoods can be renewed when people come together for a similar cause. it’s wonderful seeing a community come together and help to better the places where they live, and love. two weekends ago i had the privilege of helping plant trees in an east side neighborhood. i saw kids come out of their houses, and people from around the area very excited about what we were doing, and thanking us for helping. some even joined in to help out as well. its giving up of your time…giving to people, and places that need to be cared for and shown love. i want to see God glorified in this city.

do you realize that the elmwood village wasn’t always as nice as it is now? for a period of time, it had its lack of residents and closed down shops.. but because people saw the potential that the elmwood village had to offer, and the love for the community they came together to build it up again…a revitalization. now the elmwood village is one of the top 10 communities in the U.S. to live in. 

http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/neighborhoods/elmwoodvillage.htm

 

Lindsay

So I’m going to write the first post on our blog because so far besides Amanda I’m the only one that has the password. Pretty soon you will be meeting different individuals from our ministry through this blog that you may normally not meet on a given friday or saturday night when we are out downtown ministering to the people of the city or at a local church.

What do I do? I pray, I guess I’m the official “prayer person” of the ministry, we all pray of course, but I know my calling to this ministry is to coordinate the prayer aspect of the ministry, but I have no idea what that looks like really. But I don’t want to talk about me, someone else can talk about me later.

God has been so good to us as a ministry, I am in shock and awe when I sit back and look at what has unfolded over the last 6 months or so, it’s been a little over 6 months that we’ve been meeting every Friday to head downtown and walk through the city and pray for the city to be restored. He keeps speaking to our hearts and preparing us for what’s to come, He’s doing a new thing in this place and I’m excited that He’s picked us to come a long for the ride.

Bless you!
Meghan