Did you know that today in 1965, the Canadian flag with the red maple leaf was adopted, replacing the Canadian Red Ensign banner that had been in use since the 1890s?

We hope your week is going great! Here is an update about what is happening at nine70 Feb 15-29, 2011.

Time For Chili

• Join us and the Timberline Primetimers for our Chili Cookoff to raise funds for Beach Reach 2012
• Thursday, Feb 23 at 6:30 PM in the Timberline Church East Auditorium
• Want to share your chili? E-mail us to let us know.
• Games and fellowship with the Primetimers will follow!
• More info – go to the Facebook event page or nine70.org.

Believe: A Study of the Gospel of John Continues

Join us for Area Bible Study as we continue our study on John’s gospel. We are meeting this Thursday, Feb 16 at 7:02 PM in the East Auditorium. We look forward to seeing you!

Get Your nine70 Water Bottle

Hydrate the nine70 way: We have some awesome nine70 water bottles that we are making available as a way of saying thanks for supporting the Beach Reach team. These beautiful stainless steel water bottles have the nine70 logo on the side. With a suggested donation of $10, you can take one home with you. We will have these available at Area Bible Study and at the Timberline Church mall tables this weekend.

Beach Reach 2012 is March 9 – 16, 2012 in South Padre Island, Texas!

Every year, nine70 joins hundreds of other college students we LET LOVE LIVE at South Padre Island! Join us as we share the gospel of Jesus Christ to over 50,000 students celebrating Spring Break.

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Learn more and sign up today at beachreach.nine70.org

This is Ask nine70 – a feature that answers YOUR questions that you ask us on our website. You can ask any question – from your theological questions to what does the 7:02 start time mean (nothing) – at ask.nine70.org, and we’ll do our best to answer them. Today’s question asks:

I’m a single 37 year old female and never been married and wondering if this group is geared more towards 20′s?  Thanks!

What makes nine70 unique is that we have people from many different age groups – from 18 year olds that have not gone to college, men and women who are in school earning their master’s degree, young married couples, and single young professionals who are in their 30s. We even have some folks in their 50s and 60s that even hang around because they like what nine70 is about.

The point being – don’t let your age hold you back from joining us at nine70. Just come as you are, and you’re sure to find some friends to share a journey in exploring faith and knowing God.

Our weekly gathering, otherwise known as Area Bible Study, is the cornerstone of the nine70 experience. Thursday evenings are a night filled with meeting new people, exploring the Bible, and discussing what God, the Bible, life and Jesus are all about. Our goal for Area Bible Study is to create a creative and engaging environment where young adults can learn what it means to follow Jesus. If you are looking for a great place to get connected with our community, this is a great place to start.

We will be meeting in room 201/202 at Timberline Church. Come as you are and join us and take part in this wonderful opportunity to learn about Jesus in a comfortable, casual atmosphere with stimulating discussion. We look forward to seeing you!

Yesterday was a great day w/ the kids here in Haiti. Went to church in the morn at a local village church, our team was thanked in front of the church and I was asked to sit on the platform along w/ the Pastor. It was a great honor. The church service went for 3 hours and the praise and worship was wonderful. There was a genuine heart to worship the Lord and thank them for what they do have. They sang and worshiped so loud that one of their speakers started smoking. They blew out the speakers giving praise to God. In our American mindset they have nothing, from a Kingdom of God mindset they have all they need.Later we went to the Son of God Orphanage. Lots of laughs, games, and joy through the afternoon. We split the guys and girls up and had one group down n the courtyard playing w/ sidewalk chalk and the other up in the chapel where we shared the David and Goliath story. During the story we emphasized that David got his strength from the Lord – and then shared how the joy of the Lord can be their strength. After the story we passed out paper and markers and asked them to draw something that made them happy. It was interesting because most of the kids drew either boats or plants (especially flowers). I believe there is a lot of hope in these children.

It’s overwhelming because there is so much we want to do for these children but we are limited because their need is so great. It seems impossible to truly be able to help these kids. However as a team we committed to doing the possible and then allow God to do the impossible.

Let love Live

What can one say about Haiti? It is a country with so much natural beauty and incredibly hospitable people; yet so much devastation. Today was our team’s first full day at the Son of God Orphanage. It has been 10 months since my last visit to this orphanage. There are a lot of familiar faces and there is almost nothing like an orphan who you haven’t seen in 10 months come up to you and says they remember you and remember your name. Along with the familiar faces that have been here at the orphanage, there are some new faces that are equally as precious.

Mack Schutz doing what he does best - loving people.

If you have never walked into an orphanage, I would encourage you to serve at one within your lifetime. Our team brought crafts for the kids to do, planned games for them to play and thought through schedules that would help the kids learn and have fun; yet it seems that all of that was thrown out the window today because all these kids really want is to hold your hand or sit on your lap and laugh. Today I had a little boy named James latch onto me. He is one of the young kids that I remember from last summer and he is also the boy whose picture sits on our fridge at home in Ft Collins. I couldn’t put him down without him looking up at me with his big brown eyes and his arms up saying, “up, up, up, up…” He didn’t want to be set down at all. It is difficult for any of our team to walk through the orphanage without 3-5 kids holding your hand and hanging on your arms.

These kids crave personal touch. All they want is to be held, touched and noticed; honestly their innate desires are not any different than those of us who grew up with a family who we lived in proximity with. As I think of these kids I am quickly reminded by the heartbreak I sense when I think of their situation. It is all I can do to keep from tearing up when I think of these kids with no mothers, no fathers, no uncles, aunts or any other family but the other kids in the orphanage. What they crave is the attention of the teams that come through their orphanage throughout the year. One of our team members asked one of the children what made them happy and the child said (Through an interpreter) that what made her happy was that we were here to be with them.

Tonight our team gathered after dinner and I threw out the question on why serving orphans is such a heartbreaking and worthwhile effort. The thing we landed on is that all of us have been designed by God to live life in the context of relationship and the one relationship that God intended everyone to experience is the context of family. When God’s design is broken what follows is a broken heart.
These kids don’t have even a  1/8 of the conveniences that my son and daughter experience back home,  yet they smile continually. Today I saw an infant go to the bathroom in her pants and without missing a beat an 11 year old girl took the little infant and washed him under the faucet. As soon as this was over the infant was set down and the girl went back to jumping rope. The sense of community here is incredible and these children are committed to one another, it makes sense because all they have is one another. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be satisfied with “one another” rather than the other things that compete with Jesus for the motivation of my heart.

Tonight we rest up and tomorrow we head to a local church for worship and back to the orphanage to serve.

Let Love Live.

One of our goals for this trip to Haiti is to get every child at the orphanage to a local medical clinic for a check up. Some of these kids are quite sick and there is a Mumps outbreak on the brink at the orphanage. One girl has a serious case of Mumps and a few of the other children are looking like they may be coming down with them. the problem is that Mumps is a virus and there isn’t really anything we can do to treat it, they will have to let the Mumps work its way through the orphanage children.

One boy has something dramatically wrong with his liver and diaphragm. The doctor at the clinic seems quite worried about him and we are going to monitor him over the next few days.

This is a prayer point that we are asking our friends back home to help us with. Pray for the health of these children and that we could get them the medical attention they need to be healthy.

Let Love Live

One of the girls at the orphanage has a heartbreaking story. She cant be any older than 16 and Six days ago she was kicked out of the place she was staying. When she was on the street some soldiers molested her in broad daylight in front of a crowd. Luckily the crowd got involved and the girl got away and came across some police officers. These police officers took the girl to the Son of God Orphanage and she has been there for the past 4 days. Today she went to the medical clinic with our team and shared her story with Sarah, Rita and Ben (Members of our team).

Ben shared the gospel with her after she shared her story and for the first time she heard the whole Gospel story. It was the first time that someone had shared the story of Jesus with her and how He not only cares for us but intervenes for us. She took in the story and right in the hallway of the medical clinic this precious girl accepted the Love of Jesus in her heart.

It’s a wonderful story of how God takes something traumatic and triumphantly walks people through it. In Scripture the Prophet Joel tells us that the Lord restors the years that the Locust have eaten and I cant help to think that we have just seen the begining . Coming to faith in Jesus doesn’t wipe away the atrocity that happened to her, but it does give her the promise and hope that she is a redeemed daughter of the King. We are doing what we can to get this girl placed in a loving and caring environment before we leave.

In less than a week this girl has moved from heartbreak to New Life. She got kicked out of her house, and now has an eternal home with Jesus.

Please pray for this girl, she has a lot of questions and we are excited to hook her up with the staff girl from “Adventures in Missions” who we partner with out here in Haiti.

Let Love Live