Winter Blast was amazing!

I'm overdue for an update! Thank you to those who contributed to my year-end goals for TreeHouse support. We made a huge leap forward! I am now figuring out what the next goal will be for fiscal year end, March 31st. More on that next time....

With the plentiful snow and ice, the kids and TH staff have had some fun with fort building, snowball fights, and broomball. The Bloomington kids are going to a Timberwolves game for free this Friday night and a Swarm game next month. And we're already working on planning summer trips!

January 9-11 we took 115 teens from all 6 TreeHouses to Camp Forest Springs in northern Wisconsin for our Winter Blast Retreat. It was an amazing weekend! Our theme was Surrender, and many kids surrendered their lives to following Jesus Christ or worked through specific things in their lives that they needed to surrender to God. We even had a teen get set free from demonic oppression. God is truly loving and all-powerful! I also had a great time bonding with girls from Chaska TreeHouse and others as well.

STORY: During our Saturday night worship and prayer time, one of my girls from Chaska looked like she needed to talk. Her dad died a year ago, a man she hardly knew because he'd been in prison most of her life. She has been dealing with depression and feelings of powerlessness for a few years. I asked her what she was thinking about...what she needed to surrender. She said that she struggles to just be herself and not try to look good and act cool. It is such a common struggle, but it was hitting her so hard that weekend...wanting to be known and accepted and tired of trying to perform to earn it. I let her cry in my arms as I prayed over her to be released from the beliefs and fears that were holding her down. I told her how much God and I both love her, crying myself by that point. Then she wrote a letter to herself to remind her of what she was struggling with and what God was saying to her, a letter we will mail to her in about two months. The next day as we ate lunch on our way home from the retreat, she said in front of all her friends that she totally bawled last night, and really needed the prayer that I offered on her behalf. Gutsy girl! A first sign of answered prayer. She is a leader who needs the courage to let go of people's perception of her and do what she knows is right.

Pray that she keeps breaking free and grows strong as a young leader in a community where she is racially in the minority and has obstacles to overcome both personally and socially. Pray she keeps choosing to follow Christ and seek knowing God above all else.

PRAYER: One of my girls at Chaska has had debilitating headaches for several months. She can't go to school, and is trying to be successful with online school as an alternative. The doctors can't figure out what's wrong with her. There is clearly a spiritual element to what's happening. Pray for discernment as we seek God's intervention, and pray for her healing and release from oppression! (Luke 4...Jesus came to heal and set us free!)

One of our senior guys at Bloomington was homeless last year and has allowed us to help him find housing. He continues to need help to manage school, living arrangements, getting a job, and getting into college (he wants to go to a Christian school!); he is resistant to help though, wanting to be independent and not burden others. Pray that he will humbly accept more help and that God will lead and provide for him. Pray that he doesn't lose his new-found faith!

Thank you! Til next time...