As the year goes on, we continue to have more churches that we visit and more encounters with people desperate for God. June was an amazing month full of encouraging other believers and drawing people closer to God who didn't know Him before. So take a look at all that's happened in the month of June for Final Greetings.
We started off the month attending the wedding of Colton and Tanya Forte in Utah. Colton and Tanya had been a part Garrett and Alissa's wedding party, and they were excited to return the favor. It was a fun time to celebrate the happy couple and to see old friends while in Utah. It was also the day Garrett and Alissa celebrated six months of marriage. #celebrationsallaround
The next morning Final Greetings went to Salt Lake City Nazarene. It was exciting to be there for this amazing group of believer's Sunday school, main service and potluck. It was fun meeting people from all over the states and hearing their stories of life and the lessons they've learned. It was also a cool experience to attend a church with a translator for those attending who only spoke Spanish. #bilingualchurch
Later that day we went to New Hope Fellowship in Clearfield, UT for a worship night. We ate amazing enchiladas before singing a few gospel songs with the worship leader and his family(three of them pictured right). The whole team felt refreshed to worship with the people before leading worship ourselves and tell some of the stories of being on the road. This church richly blessed us in encouragements and helped us fundraise for our upcoming Europe tour. We look forward to visiting them again in the future! #gospelmusic
On our way into Colorado, we visited the Pape family for an evening. They have hosted us in the past and were more than happy to have us over for dinner and to tell them about our recent adventures. We were encouraged by Daniel, who is one of the board members for A Jesus Mission, and his wife Melissa throughout the time we spent with them and we are thankful to have them praying for our team. #dinnerandconversations
One of the first things we did in Colorado was help remodel the downstairs at James' family's house. We painted the hallway and stairs leading to the basement and them Garrett tackled the task of putting together the flooring and molding. It was a great few days of work and service! #remodel
TWe then traveled to Boulder, CO for an evening of worship at The Point Café, a non-profit coffee shop next to a college campus that is aiming to reach the attending students. We had a great group of people join and share music and stories throughout the evening. It was also the first time we used Garrett's new cajon made specially for him by our friend Time Pearl. #thankyou
That weekend we led worship at Whitefields Community Church in Longmont, CA. We started off the service with a new original rock song that we look forward to sharing more in the future, and then we were able to bless their people during the service through praise music. They were all excited to have us back and many of them supported us by buying t-shirts and stickers to help us fundraise for Europe. #returning
After leaving Colorado, we made a quick stop in Utah to say hello to the Larsen family again before heading to Modesto where James was able to buy a new bass! We are all very excited for him, and he's put it to good use already in all sorts of Final Greetings events. #pitstop
From Modesto we traveled to Rocklin, CA to serve at a church called Mosaic. We were able to help out at their youth group by leading worship and throwing scoops of ice cream at the students for a game time. We then joined with their young adults ministry for a house worship night at the home of Roenz, the youth and young adults pastor who so graciously housed us during our stay. Over the weekend we celebrated Fathers' Day with all the men of Mosaic with rootbeer and sports cars. They also enjoyed our music that morning at church, and many dads ended up grabbing one of our t-shirts. #happyfathersday
We then traveled north to the Alliance Redwood Campgrounds to partner with Grace Evangelical Church's youth summer camp. It was an incredibly hard but rewarding week as we spent time with all the students during worship, games, meals and small group times. A lot of the students at this camp are walking through difficult times with their family, and we were able to invest in them. Garrett, Kyle and Sam were able to speak into the lives of students who were in the midst of drug addiction, and James and Alissa were able to help a young girl walk through stress and panic attacks. We were also able to be there for several students' decisions to come to Christ and be baptized. #testimonies
Final Greetings teamed up with The New Divide for a summer camp at Biola University called Zona Camp, where churches from all over Arizona and a few other states send their youth to a 5-day conference full of worship, learning and fun. It was a great time of engaging with students and staff with our friends Andy and Alen. We met some amazing people and got to have fun holding a Q&A with the students about Coffee and The New Divide. We also played a fun game of "Familiar Feud" with the camp speaker Jeff, which we won and earned fake mustaches for. #rockthemustache
While we were at Zona, Garrett flew to his old hometown in Georgia to see friends of his and encourage them. He was able to visit family, friends and all of his old favorite places to hang out with people. While we missed him, he was having a great time investing in people who needed his friendship and God's love poured out on them. #oldfriends
After camp we went further south in California to the San Diego area just in time for Switchfoot's annual Bro-Am concert which aims to raise money for the youth of Southern California and to help fund music programs in schools. Great music, beautiful weather and the ocean made for a pretty awesome day, finished off by bacon burgers with some friends of Sam. #broam2019
The last day of the month we spent at Calvary Chapel San Diego leading worship for their Sunday morning service. Pastor Phil Metzger told everyone to ask us about the story behind our t-shirt and why there was a flying cow on it. A lot of people were curious, and so we were able to share the story of how God had radically provided for us in the past. We were able to spend time with other people from the church afterwards during their weekly brunch where they served pancakes, sweets, quesadillas and mexican soup. #goodfoods
While this month has been packed full of events, it's also been packed full of amazing experiences and conversations with the students and people we have come across. And you have noticed a few mentions about visiting Europe later this year. On August 5th we will leave from California and travel to Germany to start off our summer Europe tour. We plan to visit several countries, and we are excited to see what God will do! Take a look at the video below to learn more about our upcoming adventures. #europetour
Thanks for reading! Make sure to check in again next month to hear about what else God has been doing!
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