This past week while in South Dakota, we spent a great chunk of time bonding as a team. The first two days here we spent time doing business and getting ready for Hills Alive festival, and then the two days following that we took part in adrenaline pumping, fear-facing activities. Thursday we went rock climbing in the Black Hills, and if I had to describe that experience in one word, I would use the word exhilarating. I really learned to trust my team members as they belayed me while I climbed up huge mountains! There was one point when I was climbing and I was tired, thirsty, and scared but the team cheered me on as Joe patiently coached me. I will never forget the feeling of completion and growth that I received after finally making it to the top. Friday, after set up, Ann’s family took us out to the lake where we went cliff jumping, wakeboarding, and water skiing all while soaking up the warm sun.

Saturday began Hills Alive festival and before 11:00 a.m. struck, it was already almost a hundred degrees. We thought that was bad until the next day when it reached 104 degrees by the time we arrived at the festival! The days have been long and the heat has forced exhaustion onto a lot of us but that has not stopped us from sharing the love and the word of God with those we have met. Hills Alive is a very small festival and it is free so what I have noticed is a lot of people from the public are coming in to see what the festival is all about and they do not even know Christ. Yesterday I was able to talk to four girls who didn’t even know what the Gospel was or how to accept Christ, but I was able to share with them scripture, and I was able to pray for each of them! God is moving and He is using people as small as myself to witness to the lost and broken! Please pray for our team as we leave South Dakota and make our way to Washington for Creation East!

In Christ our coming King,
Stephanie Andrew

Blessed, stretched, unified, reverent, these are a few of the terms I would use to describe our Alive experience.  The reverent hearts of the people at the Alive festival have been encouraging on an incredible level.  They have challenged us to show the love of the Lord through showing our love for His people.  As for the team as a whole our unity has grown abundantly and our love and respect for each other have become increasingly great.  I can say that the presence of the Lord is truly here.

We have put our faith to the test and this week the Lord has stretched us and strengthened us and has renewed and reinforced our foundation as believers.  We have prayed for numerous people and just to hear what is on their hearts has been an amazing blessing.  Prayer has shown its true strength this week, for our brothers and sisters in Christ and for our Live Offensively family. This week has been a definite reminder of how praiseworthy and evidently loving the Lord truly is.

Luke Brooks

The Live Offensively team is spending our third day at Alive Fest in Mineral City, Ohio. The first day the team set up the merchandise booth and then returned to our friends house to watch some television, spend time reading the Bible, etc. Yesterday, Wednesday, we arrived at Alive Fest and began preparing to encounter the people that God brought through the merchandise tent. One thing I noticed yesterday was that people would leave, but shortly return with a group of friends! The word about Live Offensively was spreading like wild fire and our shirts were truly a hit! Save the Storks was also a very big success yesterday. David used his riveting personality to lure in an audience as he presented Save the Storks, and it’s goals. People were so moved by such a new and state of the art way that not only saves the lives of innocent babies, but to also gives us the chance to witness to the mothers! We spent the day challenging people to take part in Cupcakes for Life, Save the Storks, among the other everyday things that our shirts encourage people to do! We were also able to promote our awesome “Save the Pornstars” bracelet, which seemed to be popular. Torie did an awesome job yesterday as she explained to two girls how to proclaim the gospel effectively, and afterwards she just spent time loving on them and talking to them. Thus far, things are going really well and as a team, we are excited to utilize the next two days to really leave our mark on everyone at Alive Fest, pointing them straight to Jesus.

By Stephanie

Prayer Requests:

• Please pray for safe travels as we head out of Ohio and drive to Creation.
• Pray that God will be at the center of all that we do and say, and that our actions will be glorifying to Him.
• Pray that as a team we will continue to be unified, and that whenever a disagreement or issue arises, we will have tame tongues, speaking with grace and love.
• Please pray that we will have a purposeful use of our time.
• Please pray that God will help us to have his eyes and heart.