Upward

Upward Basketball, the community basketball outreach to children K-5th grade

• has 100 more enrolled this year than last year
• has resulted in a great partnership with First Evangelical Free to make this growth possible
• some of the coaches serving this year came to Christ through serving in the previous years in Upward!

Drawn to Christ

• A TSC student shared Christ with an uncle who was going to leave his wife. He responded to the gospel and has returned to his family!
• International students heard the gospel for the first time at Thanksgiving meals all over the region. Pray for those seeds to grow.
• Several thousand will hear the gospel at the upcoming Christmas production. Pray for the message to be clear and to fall on receptive hearts.

Seeds Planted

And God produces the growth:

• 3 more internationals came to Christ last week
• 49 people met on Saturday to explore the possibilities of a West Des Moines church plant
• after the message on 2 Corinthians 6, several spoke of their need to break the yoke with those who have been leading them away from Christ rather than urging them onward in their walk with Him
• a staff member's neighbor, often drunken, came to church for the first time last weekend and thought the message had been planned for him

God's Word is producing fruit by His Spirit. Let's pray for more and more!

More New Life!

We are seeing God's Spirit at work...

• Escape 22, our high school ministry, had 160+ students at their weekend retreat at Hidden Acres. As Paul Sabino shared the gospel and the reality of heaven and hell, many students gave their life to Christ...many more than the 5 that Josiah, Paul's 9 year old son, was asking God for.
• A TSC leader has prayed with 6 international students to receive Christ in the past week!
• IFC has 140-150 internationals participating in the Thanksgiving dinner outreach during this next week.

Please continue to pray for more and more fruit and that the fruit would remain.

New Life

The Body of Christ is growing...

• After Paul Sabino spoke this weekend from 2 Corinthians 5 on what it means to become a new creature in Christ, he received this phone call from a 9 year old who had been in the service...

"Pastor Paul, when I saw that there was communion this weekend, I was offended because I knew that I couldn't participate. But then when you began to talk about how to have a relationship with Christ, it was as if time stood still. I knew that I could give my life to Him right then...and I did!"