SPOTLIGHT ON MISSIONS: Michael & Laura Strong • Minneapolis, Minn.

         We are working to start a disciple-making movement that results in a church-planting movement. We are praising God that we finally secured a meeting place for the next few months and began weekly services with the men on June 11. We will be meeting on Saturday evenings until we can grow to a place where we can rent another facility for Sunday mornings. Our first service was a success, with almost everyone in attendance taking part in the service in some way, shape or form. We modeled the service after I Cor. 14:26. We plan to continue to operate in the less formal house-church style worship services until we grow to a point we need to either split or incorporate more structure for the sake of orderliness.

         Our intern, Isaiah and I traveled to Conway to take part in the Good Soil Evangelism & Discipleship Training offered by BMAA Missions, and we are now certified as trainers. We have already been able to put what we learned into practice in Minnesota. We will be working with disciples to go through the Story of Hope curriculum. The Story of Hope is a great tool for relationship evangelism that helps the student understand the Big Story of the Bible. We both plan to offer the study to larger groups through different organizations where we volunteer weekly. Will you pray for God to use this training to help the people of Minnesota come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord, Savior and Treasure?

         Our ministry exists to give people the opportunity to flourish in their lifelong pursuit of Jesus Christ. We have been prayerfully working to accomplish this goal over the last month by challenging our people to pursue Christ with more of themselves through Bible studies, worship services and building a leadership team for the Extreme Tour outreach event. We are watching as God moves some of our people to be all-in. We see a growing hunger in the men and women who are trusting Jesus by acting on His Word day by day, and I think we are beginning to see some leaders emerge. We are praying for new church planters to be identified, raised up, equipped and sent out from our headquarters in Minneapolis. Will you join us in this prayer?

         We have a lot of great news to report about the Extreme Tour. First, God has brought forth 11 men and women who have committed to giving their time to lead teams that will accomplish the work necessary for the second annual Extreme Tour outreach event. We use this event to equip leaders with skills that will benefit them in their personal and professional life, including in their ministries. Last year, the tour led to the start of a new group of men who wanted to do more service and outreach, eventually becoming the core team of the current church plant work. We are using all our gifts to serve the individuals involved to the degree they desire to grow.

         We also prayed for God to provide a place for the bands to stay and for food to be provided for the bands and for the concert-goers. He has already provided the housing and food for the bands. This saved us thousands of dollars. We are still asking Him to send funds or food for the concert-goers through our network of partners. We also need to raise around $4,000 for all costs associated with the outreach. Will you partner with us in this prayer?

         Please join us in praying for the following: our first Short-Term missions team coming up to help with our Extreme Tour outreach, baby Eden Elizabeth Strong’s health (due 8/4/22) and for God to raise up two more church planter interns to join our internship program.