India/Nepal Mission Trip

I will be leaving to India/Nepal this Monday, January 14 through January 29. The first week we will be in India where we will attend a conference of believers! It should be quite exciting to meet brothers and sisters in Christ! Pray for a harvest because I know for some time they have been praying for a revival and many unbelievers will be there at this conference. You can check out more information on the specifics.

The second week we will be ministering in Nepal. We have partnered with another local church to reach an unreached people group for the Gospel. Please pray for us as we do chronological bible storytelling! It's going to be a great opportunity.

Please be in prayer for my family as I am gone. I'm hoping to give occasional updates and pictures....you can check these out by going to http://www.awestar.org/ and then go to Trip Updates and then click on RidgewayIndia2008. Again, I'm not for sure if I'll have access, but am hoping to keep everyone updated.

Thank you for your prayers!

Let Me Tell You What God Did in Nueva Laredo Part 2

Andrew and I practicing for the drama: FREEDOM

We started early in the morning learning the drama on December 27. I was cast as a good knight. My fighting partner was Andrew.

A God sized thing happened on Day 2. Groups have to have a permit in order to go and perform in public. To that point, there were about 40 groups including us asking the governmental authority to perform in public. They initially turned down all 40 groups. Walker and Jorge, our interpreter went and talked with the authorities and still turned us down. We prayed, they prayed and one of the authorities said that he had seen the drama and then approved us doing the drama! What a miracle!

We got a chance to practice the drama for about five hours and we found out that that afternoon that we would get to go to the plaza to perform the drama. I was incredibly nervous because I had not got down what I needed to know. It was only by the grace of God that I made it through the first drama, but it was AWESOME. Many people gathered in the plaza to watch and people gave their hearts to Christ!


The next day in my time with God, He led me to Judges 6:14: "Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel(Nueva Laredo) from the Midianites(grip of Satan). I AM SENDING YOU! Talk about confirmation from God that I was here for a purpose! The day before I did not feel worthy, I was nervous trying to get the drama down and did not want to become a stumbling block to my team or to those I was ministering to. In addition to this, I was sick.

It was as if God was saying, "HELLO--I am in control!" In my journal I wrote:


Mike, you may not have everything down and your health is not to it's fullest, but go with what you have--you have 26 other people to support and help lead--Go with what I have provided you!
Verse 15 has been your plea and here I am to tell you to GO, "I will be with you!" Yahweh Shalom--the Lord is peace--I will be your peace today and comfort today. Trust me enough to do so.


God's confirmation was so evident and his Word spoke truth to my situation! The rest of the week, I had an amazing peace!

Dad, Hannah, Elijah, and Grace

Elijah excited about his hotwheels!

Modeling Hannah's Hannah Montana Wig--how do I look?

Hannah, Noah, Grace, and Elijah showing their favorite Christmas Stocking Gift

Christmas Pictures

I had to leave the day after Christmas for Nueva Laredo, but wanted to share some pictures with you from our family Christmas! I love my family!

On Christmas Eve, we watched the Nativity Story--what a great movie. We enjoyed having Caroline join us for Christmas this year. On Christmas, we read the Christmas story, opened gifts, and then headed to mom and Jim's for Christmas lunch! I absolutely loved watching the kids open their gifts!

Let Me Tell You What God did in Nueva Laredo....Part I

What a great week in Nueva Laredo! I spent December 26-January 2 with a group of young adults sharing the love of Christ! God worked in my own life through these missionaries as we worked alongside to bring Hope to a lost city. I am hoping to give you a taste of what I experienced through my journal and my personal time with God, so hopefully there will be many parts to this post throughout this next week.

Wednesday, December 26.....

We left the AWESTAR office around 5 a.m. and headed to Nueva Laredo. The trip was a good opportunity for us to get to know one another. Kristen P. was my co-pilot--Josh T. was my backseat driver(not really--he helped keep me awake) Annie slept pretty much the whole thirteen hours in the back seat.

We arrived in Laredo, Texas around 5 p.m. and stopped at Sam's Club to get some groceries. All of us except Walker and Katie were in the vans. After taking a bathroom break and sitting in the parking lot for about 15 minutes, I had my window rolled down and I was looking through the AWESTAR journal. As I was reading, a lady came up to the window(scared me half to death, because I was in deep thought) and she shared a need and asked if we could help. She was trying to get to Houston to see her husband, who had cancer.

After talking with her briefly, all of the students got out of our van and surrounded her. We told her one thing we can do is pray and one person that could change her circumstances and life is Jesus Christ.

After sharing the Gospel with her, she invited Christ into her life. I tried to talk with her, but she was not fluent in Spanish, so we pulled out our card written out in Spanish to explain the Scriptures. Kristen helped to translate and she asked Christ into her life!

It was a GREAT wake up call. It was a huge reminder for us to expect the unexpected. It was a confirmation to me of my purpose on this mission trip.

Praise God!!!!!