The last two weeks have been a wild ride! We are so proud of this DTS for stepping out of their comfort zones and into the promises of God.

Last week, we were blessed to learn about the “Father Heart of God” from Redding’s own Claude Bonjour. Claude touched us all with many stories of how God displays his parental heart, both from the Bible and from personal memory. The Holy Spirit revealed many misconceptions of God that we had been believing, ushering in fresh revelations of His love for His children.

You see, our God is not only the Creator of the Universe, not simply our King, Judge, and Shepherd – He is also our dad.
He yearns to hold his children, to beckon them back into the embrace of redemptive acceptance, and, in return, He longs for us to recognize the massive family into which we’ve been adopted! He protects his kids, teaching them and molding their hearts through both happy and difficult circumstances.

He is such a good, good Father, and He so desires for us to know Him as such. That being said, it was an honor and a privilege to witness our Father adopt one more brother into the family just a few days ago!

During our weekly Thursday evangelism, one of our groups met a homeless man sitting alone on the streets of Redding. Over the next 45 minutes, they listened to him pour out his story, asking him where He believed God acted in his life. Tears and laughter ensued before our team got to share the Gospel with him, a motion that resulted with him accepting Jesus!! God is so good!

This week, our team is down in Los Angeles, CA for a “track week,” where we are spending the days in sessions, evangelism times, and workshops – all intended to strengthen our heart for worship!

We kicked off the week with a night of teaching from Joy Dawson, an honored “matriarch” of Youth with a Mission, who blessed us with a motivating discussion on our role to end human trafficking. Hearts were were stirred, eyes were opened, and prayers were activated as we interceded fervently for those in captivity. We are so thankful for this time with Joy.

Today, we also had the privilege of hearing from Lou Engle, a veteran revivalist and prayer warrior. He imparted so much wisdom and inspiration to us through stories of God’s faithfulness in his life, as well as his incredible call to move the world into prayer and fasting for America. It was an honor to hear from this man of God, and I know all of us left the session with renewed fire for our nation – the cry to turn America back to Jesus is louder than ever!