August Update

Dear Friends,
Wow, what a great summer this has been! We have been incredibly busy with a variety of things, and it has been fun watching the Lord’s hand in all of it. Here are some of the highlights:


Praise the Lord!
• Jamie, Andy and I spent a few days at Camp Shamineau’s staff training in June. We prayed with the staff, Jamie taught a seminar on mentoring relationships, I got to build relationships with some amazing young women that are coming to the city in the fall and possibly joining us. Pray they would follow the Lord wherever He leads them.

• BUMP week (Bridging Urban Mission Project) was fantastic! It is a week where rural church kids come into the city and do ministry with local urban churches. Local churches made some amazing reaches into their communities because of the students that led VBS, prayer walked, handed out flyers, and played with kids. Pray that some of these students would catch a vision for the city!

• Antioch Community Church (ACC) is growing! Our first public service is October 19th, but we have small groups and are meeting just for fun already! It is really great to see those relationships developing. Please pray for the endless list of details that need to be taken care of before October 19th, and for more people from the community to join us.

• 25 people from ACC took the S.H.A.P.E. class. This is a class that looks at each person’s Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences. Then we take that information and talk about how we as a church body fit together. It was a long day, but a fantastic exercise for many of the people there, and it really shed light on ways we can value and utilize each individual in the church. Pray that it would be a launch pad for people to get a vision of how they can be actively involved in ACC.

• I got to be a speaker! The jr. high youth pastor from Berean Baptist in Burnsville got my name from a mutual friend who recommended me. So, I spoke for the last night of their jr. high VBS-like event they do every summer. They are doing great ministry down there, and it was fun to be a part of it. You can read more about this on my blog, if you’re interested. Please pray for more opportunities like this for me to get into churches.

The Greatest Need?
There is no denying the fact that we all need money. And the current economy is an incessant reminder of how little it seems there is to go around. Unfortunately, that has become the case with my support-raising fund. The generosity of many one-time gifts has been an incredible blessing, but I do not have enough monthly gifts to sustain the hours I have been working for Antioch. I really do no like saying that money is my greatest need right now; the greatest need in ministry is always prayer. However, at this point I cannot continue until I have enough financial support.

One wonderful new development is that we now have Direct Deposit available! This is a giant answer to prayer, as it makes a lot of peoples’ jobs much easier and it’s easier for individuals to give. If you are interested in utilizing that service, information is enclosed with this letter.
Please be in prayer about how you can be a financial partner in this ministry. If you know of anyone you think would be interested in what I am doing, let me know or pass this letter on to them! I am still confident this is what the Lord has called me to, and I trust He will provide.

What an adventure, to live a life of trust,

Coley Bloomquist
P.S. My cell phone number has changed. Email me or check facebook if you don't have it!

Surreal

Hello Again!
Yes, I've been AWOL. A lot has happened, but I'm not going to spend lots of time updating about the past two months; I'm just going to start up again. I know that's going to drive all three of my readers crazy :)

Last night I had a chance to speak to about 300 junior highers at Berean Baptist in Burnsville for their last night of a VBS-like week for kids going in to 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. I have not been the sole speaker to any group larger than 30 in at least two years! I was nervous for that reason, and I really didn't know how I was going to do. I think it went alright.

Of my own accord I do not have any connection with Berean. But I got connected with them because their Jr High youth pastor Jesse called my friend Georgia looking for guest speakers. She put me on a list of top recommendations for jr. high and high school! That in itself blew me away! I really don't feel like I have enough experience to be put in that category, but I digress.

I asked them if I could get a copy of the recording so I could go back and listen to myself and feel stupid. Don't tell me not to, everyone does. If you've ever heard your own voice you know what I'm talking about. We sound differently in our heads than we do to others, and it takes some getting used to. Add to that all the talk ticks* we have in our speech patterns, and listening to yourself for 30 minutes becomes a very humbling experience. I just listened to it, and realistically I don't think it's that bad, but it still makes me wonder why in the world anyone lets me talk. ever.

I had 20-25 minutes in the schedule. When he asked if that would be okay, I kind of knew he meant of I felt like I would be able to fill it. Yes sir, not a problem. Bloomquists are not known for their terse speaking engagements, so I knew I would by nature write something for 45 minutes. So I desperately wanted to prove to myself and Jesse that I could stick to the time frame. I knew there was a clock I could see from the stage, so I was going to rely on that. I must be done by 8:30. I hadn't looked at the clock right when I got up there, but I didn't think that mattered. 8:30 was my time. I looked up part-way through; it read 9:12. What?!?! There is no way I have already been speaking for over an hour!! Then I remembered overhearing someone say the clock was wrong. Perfect time to remember such a thing. Since I didn't know when I had started, I had no idea how much time I had used, aside from my internal clock, which is only so reliable. Or not so reliable. I decided I just had to keep going, albeit quickly, and hope for the best. I finished and looked at my phone in the back: 30 minutes on the button! Thank you hereditary speaking methods!

I love speaking to youth because it forces me to stay limber. Adults can get so caught up in the theoretical (especially college students), but if you're not applicable to life in the moment of a jr. higher, you're never going to reach them. I hope I get to do it more in the future, it was fun. Maybe next time I won't say "guys" and "like" so much. Then again, who am I kidding?

Coley

*"talk ticks" are those things in our speech that our ears ignore until there are so many of them it becomes the only thing we hear, i.e. like, um, so, uh, ya know, but, yeah. or my favorite, "but um like yeah, right?" Thank you Mr. Schaefer of SMHS.