Last week's journey took us further into the Sonoran Desert to Tucson, AZ. This meant more saguaro cactus and unpredictable weather. Case and point, on Wednesday afternoon it snowed for a good half hour; on Thursday it was about 65 degrees. The location of Desert Foothills Baptist Church is nudged between two mountain ranges with all types of cactus around the property. We could see snow capped mountains and sandy cactus ridden foothills in one eye shot. God was so creative in how He designed this area! The Sonoran Desert is continuing to amaze us.

We saw God's creativity as well as His grace and love to lost souls this past week. We spent the week ministering with the flock of Desert Foothills running events each night for unsaved guests. The Lord allowed us to see precious fruit from the consistent gospel relationships of the flock. Many guests came to each event, heard the gospel, and responded in professions of faith. We were able to run a chili cook-off, women's night, men's night, Cola War, and Irish Concert.

The Lord allowed the ladies on the team to have a picnic in the park with some of the ladies of Desert Foothills. It was special not only because of the fellowship of the ladies and their children, but for the gospel conversations we were able to have with them and some unsaved friends of theirs at the park. It's exciting to see purposeful gospel relationships happen within the church, and the flock of Desert Foothills really does strive to make them happen. Ministering with them was a huge encouragement to our team.

The team enjoyed our second week in Arizona last week at Tri-City Baptist in Chandler. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and we enjoyed being outside as much as we could. Last week was full of ministry opportunities for our team since Tri-City has a school and college alongside their church ministry. The guys on the team were able to speak for school chapels, and we all were able to do a mini-concert for the college on Wednesday. On Thursday, we had an all-day Cola War in the school followed by an evening Cola War for the church. We are so thankful that there was a boy who trusted Christ in the high school! On Friday, we did an Irish Concert outreach and were glad to see some guests.

We were thankful to be able to be involved in all the different ministries at Tri-City. One of the neatest parts of the week was hearing some kids in the high school give testimonies of what God was doing in their lives through His Word in the chapels.

The team is loving the Winter/Spring itinerary in the Southwest. It's the warmest most of us have ever been in January and February. We count it a great privilege to work along side with Western churches this semester. This past week we ministered with Northwest Valley Baptist Church in Glendale, AZ. Will has ministered with this church a number of times. Back in his Steve Pettit Team days and early on with his own evangelistic team.

Throughout the week we were involved with Arrowhead Christian Academy, Northwest Valley's Christian school, preaching at school chapels and running an all day Cola War. It was great to interact with the students and have gospel conversations throughout the week. It's a blessing from the Lord to work with Christian schools so that we have more opportunities to minister to the students.

We praise God for many guests that came out to our evangelistic meetings. There were a number of teens at the Cola War and adults at the Irish Concert. Most of those guests were relational invites from the members of Northwest Valley. We love the opportunity to help plant seeds or water gospel relationships within the church, and God definitely gave us that opportunity this past week. There were many professions of faith from our meetings, and we owe all of the work to our Savior and Lord.

We are on the road again! After a long holiday break, the team reconvened in San Diego to begin this season of ministry. Our first church of the new year was Faith Community Bible Church in El Cajon, CA. The church was so kind to us, and we enjoyed the time we got to spend with the pastors and families in the church. We had a shorter week that ended with the Irish Concert outreach on Wednesday night. It was good to see several visitors out that night, and we are praying for fruit that remains from those contacts that were made through the church members.

On Friday, we enjoyed a day at beautiful La Jolla beach. Christy and Josh’s sister and her husband who are in the church in El Cajon were able to bring some of their family and enjoy the beach day with the team. We grilled some burgers and hot dogs, played in the surf and tide pools, and loved seeing the sights along the California coast. That night, some of the single team members were able to experience In-N-Out Burger for the first time. It was pretty good!

Please pray for us as we minister this semester that we would have safety as we travel, love for people as we minister, and joy in Christ for the journey!

-Matt Reid

We spent our final week of meetings at Berean Baptist Church in Brooklyn Park, MN. We had nightly meetings with the church folks and then had an Irish Concert outreach on Friday. The team also was able to get in a good deal of practice time for our recording that we are doing this week.

On Saturday of the same week, we drove about 25 miles up to Saint Francis, MN to First Baptist. We were greeted in Saint Francis by a beautiful snowstorm! The team was able to minister at the church on Sunday for services and then we were able to have our last Irish Concert outreach of the season with them. We did not have long with the people at First Baptist but we are thankful for the fellowship we enjoyed and the new friends we met.

On Tuesday, we left snow-covered Minnesota for Indianapolis, IN. The Rolands, Jonathan, and Reba went home to be with their families for Thanksgiving, and the rest of the team spent Thanksgiving with the Galkin family. We had a great meal that we all had a part in preparing!

The team all got back together on Saturday, and we were able to minister at Trinity Baptist and Burge Terrace Baptist on Sunday in the Indianapolis area. The rest of this week we are working on our new recording at Aire Born Studios near Indy. Pray for us that the team will be well for the recording week, and that we will truly worship the Lord as we record these songs. To God be the glory, great things He has done!

Over the last month or so, we have been in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. It seems like we have been all over the south side of the cities. It's been nice to be somewhat centrally located and have short trips for our Saturday travel days with more time to hang out or catch up on sleep on those mornings.

Our short drive last weekend took us from Pine Island up to Inver Grove Heights to First Calvary Baptist Church. The church had been gearing up for a while for a big week of outreach while we were with them. Sunday and Monday were more focused on meetings for the church members, and the rest of the nights were designed to be evangelistic events. We had a ladies night on Tuesday, family fun night on Wednesday, early Cola War/Irish Concert night on Thursday, and an adults night out on Friday. It was great to see many people come out throughout the week for these events. There were several children, teens, and adults who made professions of faith in Christ.

The story for three of these people is really special. We had two teen brothers come the night of the Cola War and accept Christ. The next night their parents came and the father accepted Christ! The gospel works! We are so thankful to be able to see God use His word in the lives of people!

We ask that you please pray for us this week as we spend a good amount of time getting ready for our next recording. This is the last full week that we have before our recording week in Indianapolis. Pray for the health of the team, specifically for Josh and Christy. Pray for us that we would also really be internalizing the texts of the songs and worshiping God as we sing. We want to not only record enjoyable and beautiful pieces of music, but we also want to produce songs that challenge people in their walk of faith and assist them in loving and worshiping our great God!