We had nothing but positive feedback from students and parents about the trip. We did a presentation in chapel sharing about our experience and hearing the kids share brought tears to my eyes. These kids' lives are changed forever from the experience they had with you in SF. Thank you for what you do and the impact you have had on my class and me. Send me your address and I will share pictures, essays, and a newspaper article written about us in our local newspaper!
Jessica Hoffar,
6th grade class,
Redwood Valley, CA -
2008
Our San Francisco pictures have been our screen-savers for months and as your faces flash by God often lays you all on my heart. Your ministry is so boldly storming the gates of hell and your casualties, there on the front lines, are many. I am praying that your hope and joy in Christ Jesus will strengthen and encourage your body of believers. The women from our group are studying Joshua and the battles of faith often remind us of you all and call us to pray for you.
Sheryl Noble, British Columbia - 2008
A million thanks for taking such good care of our group while serving with you. We had a tremendous time of ministry with your family. I deeply appreciate you and your family’s heart for serving and loving others. Our group certainly felt the impact of the weekend. Our time with you was well spent and left us with a lifetime of memories. May God lavish your lives and ministry with great abundance for His Kingdom. Cameron, Heather and Frank were amazing with the youth. We had a lot of great conversations on the way home.
We hope to come and serve with you again next year.
Lynette Janzen,
High School Pastor,
Newport Mesa Church-2008
Ann, both you and Mike have been a complete blessing to me these last two
years that I have gone with Westmont to Missions Outpost/City
Crossroads. Although I have not spent much times with the kids at City
Crossroads, I know that what you are doing for them is amazing. They
have such enthusiasm when they play and greet me with smiling faces
every time I am around even though I have never been part of the group
that leads them for the week.
I want to thank you for the blessing you have been to me during my
stays. Not only do you open your building to our group, you feed us,
and walk us through the entire week. You give us directions and
suggestions while we are in the city and provide for an always
rejuvenating experience when we leave.
Outside of the schedule for SBIC you have been around to answer my own
questions, to fellowship, and to even direct me all the way to SFSU.
Thank you for what you have done and continue to do!!
Kerstin, Westmont College, Summer 2007
Mike and Ann, thank you so much for this past weekend. I have prayed for some time that the Lord would show me an opportunity for me to serve His Kingdom in a new way, to show me that I can still (even at my appallingly advanced age!) show people how His love has transformed me from a self-centered pleasure-seeker to one who reflects His love for even the most defeated, suffering men and women. I’m really looking forward to working at SFMO, and I want to tell you that I’m willing to do anything your ministry can use in honoring our Lord.
Again, thank you for making this past weekend one of the most exciting in my life (and that includes a lot of “extreme” adventures and perils on the open sea). Everyone on the Calvary team was very pleased with the opportunities you introduced us to at the Outpost.
God bless you so much for your inspiring faithfulness in His service!
Richard W. Los Gatos, June, 2007
(Richard now cooks at City Crossroads Ministries for the youth every Friday)
The San Francisco Missions Outpost provided Warner Pacific College with an amazing opportunity to serve the people of San Francisco. The experience of staying in the SOMA, walking the streets, and taking public transportation with the community deepened the level of empathy we were able to have for the people. Our students and staff were blessed by the opportunity to serve both behind the scenes with the Food Bank and Project Open Hand and encouraged by the amazing services available to stop poverty. The one-on-one experiences in community through the Salvation Army, St. Anthony's, and Laguna Honda allowed the students to see first hand the suffering caused by HIV/AIDS and poverty.
Crossroads Community Center took the experience to another level by allowing interaction with the most naïve of the population, the children. Through basketball, meals, and hanging out we were able to show the kids the love of Christ simply through attention and positive reinforcement. Connections were made that week that changed the lives and outlooks of the college students, and hopefully left lasting impressions on the youth!
Our students left the experience with their eyes open to the world around them. Thank you so much Heather, Ann, and Mike for inviting us to spend the week with you! We can't wait to see you next year!"
Erika Trautman, Warner Pacific Missions Trip Coordinator, 2007
Dear Mike & Ann
Thank you very much for hosting Westmont once again. I know this trip had been very touching, thought provoking and eye opening for my team … thank you for graciously allowing us to come and partner with you. It has been a blessing and an honor.
Jayne - Spring Break in the City 07, Westmont College, Santa Barbara
I was a little nervous going into a new environment but after seeing everyone's misfortune, it made me thankful for what I have and giving back to the community made the trip worth it.
Josh Jackson, Team captain, WPC Men's Basketball Team, 2007
Thank you again for such a life-changing experience. I will keep all of you in my prayers and I hope that your ministry continues to grow and shine a light in the neighborhood.
The kids couldn’t stop talking about their experiences, especially at St. Anthony’s. Most of them are looking for similar ministry opportunities here at home. Thank you again for opening our eyes to a world that exists within our own and is always in need of helping hands and prayers.
Sarah Templin, Whidbey Island, Washington. Summer, 2006
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Just wanted to write to let you know how thankful we are to have been a part of reaching out to the local community in the 6th Street Corridor area. Partnering with you this past weekend and all your volunteer staff in what we got to experience in serving was truly a privilege. We thank GOD for people like you who have opened up the opportunity to provide a venue in which youth groups like the one I am a leader in can be welcomed into, housed, and sent out to minister to the people who make their home in that immediate area near the Outpost. We had a truly amazing time and would love to return someday to be able to do it again. We will continue to pray for the Outpost in that GOD will truly make it a place of refuge and restoration from the darkness and despair that overwhelmingly resides just steps outside your front door and all around. Thank you too Cameron and Frank, Heather, and all the volunteer staff at SFMO who blessed us with opening yourselves up and your area of ministry while we were there. We truly have left a piece of each of our hearts there with you in San Francisco. We will continue to serve in our local area all the while remembering the truly amazing time we had in San Francisco. GOD bless you always as you continue faithfully administering GODS grace in it's various forms to the people of the 6th Street Corridor area.
Tony (Solid Rock Youth Representative/Leader)-2008
Our time with you this summer was absolutely life-changing for each and every one of us. For me personally it was the most significant and powerful mission trip I have ever participated in. You will be glad to know that we are seeking out a number of different ways to serve here in Vancouver in similar ways. Our youth are planning to begin handing out "bags of love" regularly in different areas. We are developing opportunities to regularly volunteer at a couple of local ministries that serve the poor and homeless. We loved getting to know you and Mike and your wonderful staff and hope to be able to return some time soon.
Pastor Gordy, Northcrest Church Vancouver, Summer - 2007
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My experience at SFMO during Westmont's Spring Break SBIC trip
was a time of breakthrough for this particular point in my walk with
Christ. I was the Westmont Student Ministry's Off-Campus Ministries
co-leader this year and God has been stretching my heart more and more
to understand and take in His heart of compassion and justice. However,
it had been becoming more and more difficult to encounter God during
musical worship time, which was usually the time where God would meet
me most powerfully. I found that I could no longer settle for merely
singing songs about his mercy and love and was not satisfied by the
small weekly outreaches I participated in during school. Spring Break
in SF was the kind of immersion in the daily life of living the gospel
that my soul needed.
But it wasn't an immediate "oh, now I feel you
God" as soon as I got to SF. It wasn't until we went out at night to
meet homeless people that I encountered (or at least noticed) God's
tangible presence again. I love the homeless, and I've hung out with
homeless people before, but it was different those nights. To sum it
up, it was like God was playing hide & go seek with me. I'm not sure if
there are a lot of Christian homeless people in SF, but every night I
had the opportunity to pray with someone or talk to them about the
Lord. In the end, even if they themselves were not Christians, they
ministered to me.
I knew that I was not coming on this trip to
necessarily evangelize verbally or completely change the city, but
rather learn. I saw a lot of hurting people, a lot of bondage, a lot of
desperateness, heard a lot of confusion...I felt frustrated when I
talked with people who criticized faith in Christ, felt discouraged
when they didn't want to listen to me, felt lost and helpless when I
felt like I couldn't do much to help others...Yet, during that week, I
saw a bit of hope and I saw God truly at work through his people.
Seeing Christians living in the SOMA or the mission district reach out
like Christ would gives me hope and stirs my desire to "act" out of
love for Him and strengthens my confidence that it is possible. Living
for Christ is not separate from suffering for Him, and I'm
understanding that better. It's all or nothing, wherever we might be.
Jennifer R., Westmont College, Summer 2007
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I remember this one kid who came to play basketball with us in the evening. He was smaller than the rest and definitely younger. He was working so stinkin' hard but the bigger guys kept on getting in his face. One run down the court, I merely yelled out a "good job! Good work!" to let him know his efforts had not gone unseen. To my surprise, he lit up and started working even harder. As different as this kid and I are, and as different as our personal histories are, I saw that he needs affirmation just as I do. It reminded me to take every opportunity to speak to, encourage, and affirm.
Isabeau Waiau, Spring Break 2007, Warner Pacific College, Portland, Oregon
"What would it be like to go through life ignored?" This was the idea that changed me. I came to San Francisco looking for a chance to get to know some students, travel somewhere new, and hopefully do some good. But like so many mission trips, I come away changed more than I could have imagined. For some idiotic reason I had believed it was better to turn my head away from those asking for help rather than refuse to their face. Walking along the streets of San Francisco put me face to face with the human beings, the children of God, that I was ignoring as a way to be kind. I can't save the world by my self, but I can look it in the eyes, pray for courage, and say hello.
Megan DuMez, Spring Break 2007, Warner Pacific College, Portland, Oregon
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One of the most amazing weekends in my life consisted of constantly bursting out of my comfort zone! Walking, manual labor, packing nine tons of grapefruits, sorting through clothes and distributing plates of food, hanging out with inner-city kids and learning how disgustingly easy life is for me. Reading the Bible in Spanish to the congregation, eating Indian food that burned my throat. Handing out socks and juices and realizing we were Jesus in such a simple action. Seeing God in places that I never expected. Having an appreciation for graffiti, Meeting Coco, a new little buddy and ganging up in Foosball with him. Signing up to take showers, learning a way of life that I have always known about the thought about but one that I never actually knew the severity and harshness of. And I was continuously in awe of such wonderful, giving hospitable people. God was in that little room as we ate, as we laughed, as we played games, as we discussed what was going through our minds, as we prayed to change lives, as our own lives were hopefully changed.
High school Student from Church of God in Exeter, CA 2005
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