Interesting notes from the Love of God Tour hosted by You – AMADEO Church!!! - well done!

1)

July 21 at 3:02am

Hello Cloud Family and Amadeo Church Family,

I cannot express in words how grateful I am for your hospitality, mentoring, leading, welcoming, acceptance, selflessness...the list goes on. My girls cannot stop talking about all of you or the experience they had while in Arizona.
This trip was just what they needed. Without going into a long detailed story, they've had a rough few years, our family has in fact been through quite a lot. Including, having our former church family turn their backs on us, ultimately leading to us moving away from a place we loved.

To say that the experience left us jaded as a family is an understatement. It's been a long time coming for my children (and my husband & I) to find a church home where the people are REAL, and REAL Christians.

Thank you for showing my girls that there ARE REAL CHRISTIANS out there who can be genuine people. Please keep our family in prayer, that God would work in us as He has worked in our daughters through the Love of God Tour.

Blessings to you ALL,


2)

"(We) deeply enjoyed getting to know you and are missing all our new friends as well. Great, rewarding week - being the church in the community is what its all about - haven't seen it done that well - on that size of scale. Thanks to you, Ben, Tony, Deanna, Mandy, and all the missionaries for your service and leadership. God's love was revealed!!!!"

3)

From Facebook,
“AZ Love Tour...
Awesome week of love with the most incredible folks EVER.”

4)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
AZ random stories

+ My team met G when two nights in a row, she brought these elaborate and delicious cakes she had made for our teams. Come to find out later that she hadn't been going to Amadeo for that long and she lived in San Clemente, the apartment community where we were doing VBS. In fact, she was one of the first people from that community to go to Amadeo and when there was enough momentum to start a home group there, it was hosted at her apartment. She knows all her neighbors well enough to influence them, she's friendly, engaging, and connects people to one another - she has a good reputation among many. She's a textbook example of a person of peace.

+ All through the week, Ben brought in different people to speak on various topics. After every single session, students would gather around the speaker to dive in to the topics with more depth - sponges and vultures. Learning is an intentional posture.

+ J&S run Re:Store, the sister organization that serves to help people in the community with food, clothing and utility assistance. J used to be in a bike gang, wears a lot of leather, has a ton of tattoos and has a wild past. But he also has an enormous amount of clarity about his reality now - that God saved him and prepared him for his job now, helping run Re:Store. Oh and volunteering at the public library two days a week. [Oh and don't you love the name of Re:store?]

+ Amadeo reminded me of the church in Acts 2. There were people at the Cloud's house almost all the time and every time I came in, someone was playing the guitar. Stuff was being shared all the time to meet needs - cars, food, a refrigerator, a mattress - sometimes needs that weren't even shared outloud yet... Re:store was donated half a pallet of eggs [that's 5000 eggs!]

+ We drove back from the Grand Canyon on Saturday and drove through Sedona with a quick stop for dinner. On the way home, AR talked for a few minutes about our team and kicked off a time for everyone to say encouraging things about each other, which lasted about 90 minutes. Always amazing listening to students say why they love each other. Even more special this time because our two girls jumped in.

+ Amadeo hangs out with the homeless every Friday evening. Actually, two people from Amadeo are point leaders for this. Lots of other people have come alongside and many, many of them aren't even interested in 'church.' They even started a little org for this. Ben tells a story of one guy totally disinterested in church giving a ride to a homeless person to church but waiting for them in the car through the whole service. There's something significant when a church is doing something unchurched people dive in to.

+ Ryan A had his wrist healed during one of the healing prayer sessions. I don't know what you think about healing prayer - I'm not sure I even know what to think. But we did it because Jesus said we should. RyanAyl will be doing an informal internship with Ember this coming school year, tell you more about that later.

5)

B - July 18 at 1:12pm
I've never felt more loved and accepted by anyone than you folks at Amadeo, and before. Just keep loving and telling people about Jesus.

6)

David M commented on your post:
"What a great church, Ben! It's getting even better, there. I'm with you re: healing on the streets of Phoenix! God bless your foodbank, and everything you do!

7)

Michael commented on your group:
"What a great time! You folks are a real gift!"

8)

I thinks it's cute that E & G fight 
over who gets to tell each arizona story...

9)

“Hey man thanks for your tireless efforts and long obedience towards the advancement of the Kingdom.” - anonymous

10)

K has fallen in love with....Arizona! :)
K Now how to break it to Mum that I'm not coming home... :P

11)

“Amadeo has a very very tight community - that's a big thing our kids learned from this expression of a local church.” - TS

“very tight community here - lots of people in and out of the cloud home. lots of praying too - they pray like nobodies business.”