Week Four at Ocean City

The final week of Mission Possible at Ocean City was amazing.  God did some incredible things through the team.  God also used the weather to bless us one evening, but we did not realize this until after it rained.  I will explain this further in this post.

The Team for Ocean City.  We had some MP3 teens join us and Jacob.

It was great having the older teens join the team for this week of ministry and act as mentors for the younger teens.  I feel like this is a great model to use and we have done this for several years now and I pray the older teens continue to join us at Ocean City for many years to come.

Jacob Thompson preaching to a large crowd

The awesome thing about ministry at Ocean City is that we have hundreds of people that stop to hear the messages throughout the night and this is by far the place where to most people hear the gospel in the shortest amount of time.  In past years we have shared the gospel with over 1000 people in just one week.  The crowd were not quite as big this year, but still many heard the gospel and hundreds of conversations took place throughout the week.

Many conversations took place after the preaching.  Here Dylan and Jacob sharing with a small group.

On Tuesday Mike Maslin came down to visit and join the team for the day.  He had an opportunity to talk with each of the teens and then right before it was time for ministry on the boardwalk it began to rain.  Everyone was disappointed,  but God had other plans.  We decided to make a good use of our time and pray for the people of Ocean City and also sing some songs and spend time praising and thanking God for He was doing through us.  We spent about an hour praying and singings songs of praise to the Lord and then the rain stopped and we were able to go out to the boardwalk and preach the gospel.  It was a great night even though it was abbreviated and many people heard the gospel.

Derek preaching a message to a large crowd

The time we spend praising God and singing really encouraged us and and brought the teens together as a team and we truly felt the joy of the Lord this night.

The team after ministry on Tuesday night.  (David not in picture)
I was not aware of this until later.

On Wednesday night we may conversations after the preaching.

Kimberly in a conversation

Jared and David in one to one conversations

Thursday night we meet another group from Baltimore that were down on the boardwalk in front of the sand sculputres doing ministry and we ended the night by joining them to sing praise songs in front of the sand sculptures.

Praying before a message

The teens enjoyed doing the "Set Free" drama to draw crowds to listen to the messages. 

David did a great job in the drama.


As this year of Mission Possible comes to an end I look back at all of the good memories and the great ministry that was accomplished throughout the summer and I thank God for again giving me the opportunity to lead this team.  I hope all who are reading this blog will come out to Forcey on August 5th to hear more from the teens during the potluck dinner after service.

Week 3 in Western PA

Week Three in Western PA was a great week of ministry and we made some great memories as well. The above picture was taken in Pittsburgh after doing lunch time ministry. We saw this gate and it seemed appropriate to get a picture of the team in front of it, as we have been showing many that the narrow gate leads to life.

Dylan standing on the solid rock at Chimney Rocks park

Walking to the PNC Park before the game

David teaching the children a memory verse

The girls with one of the children from the club

The teens really enjoyed interacting with the children.

Kimberly doing a magic trick to demonstrate God's love at the Willowbrook club.

Zacchaeus, I mean, Jared in a tree

This week was the most enjoyable week of ministry yet as the kids really began to bond as a team and they enjoyed spending time with the children of Willowbrook Trailer park.  It was also good that we were able to partner with a friend of mine, Jenifer Pepling when we went to Pittsburgh.  Jenifer has been doing ministry in Pittsburgh and other areas for 9 years and she was able to speak to the team about some of the challenges she has faced.
I want to thank everyone who has been praying for us and I ask that you continue to keep us in your prayers as we go to Ocean City this week.

Week Two Mission Possile

 Week two of Mission Possible is now complete and it held many learning experiences for the teens.  I want to thank Mark Johnson, Jacob Thompson, and Rebecca Jefferson for coming out to do ministry with the team and sharing their experiences and wisdom from over the years with us. 

Week two started out with us helping with the Bible lessons at Forcey Day Camp.  Here Lauren is doing a hangman puzzle.  The kids really enjoyed guessing letters and figuring out the the verses.

During this week we also went to Lexington Market and here Jacob is preaching a message on Monday as the team and many individuals listened.

Kimberly and Lauren speaking to a man at Lexington Market on Tuesday

Kids club at Perkins Homes

The team listening to a message and a few women stopped to listen

Kimberly and Jared speaking to a women about the gospel at Freedom fest in DC.

On our last day of the week David did a hangman at Day Camp

As you noticed there are no pictures for Thursday.  We had such a long day on Wednesday at Freedom Fest that we decided to take Thursday to do more training to prepare for week three.

Overall, week two went well and the teens got into many conversations with individuals about the gospel.  I am encouraged by the way these teens are initiating conversations with individuals on the streets. I am excited to see how God will use us this week and at Ocean City for our good and His glory.

Week One Mission Possible

The week started out with us going to Langley Park and Lauren shared the memory verse with the children by doing a hangman puzzle. We only had a few children the first day but, they were very attentive and enjoyed picking letters.                  

Then Dylan shared the message with the children.  This was his first message on the sketchboard and he did well and the children listened attentively.   Our club this day was cut short as we arrived late but, we told the children we would return the following day and they were excited.

Our second day at Langley Park was exciting when we arrived because many more children came out to the club.  Although, it looks calm in this picture as the puppets were entertaining the children soon the climate changed.  I had already spoken to the children prior to this picture being taken about sitting on the mat and paying attention because they were already starting to be disruptive.

After this we sang a song and David started the hangman puzzle.  You may notice a difference between the first picture and this picture as there is a hole on the mat where many of the older boys had been sitting.  At this point many of them were up running around and beginning to be disruptive again. 

We had asked them to leave if they were not going to pay attention and listen because the younger children were being distracted by them.  This only seemed to make them more disruptive and one of them said to Joan, "This is my place and you can not tell me to leave." Unfortunately, it continued to escalate and we decided it was best to end the club early.  As we were leaving some of the children began attempting to steal our belonging and even open our backpacks.  I was saddened by the behavior of the children because this type of disrespect and disruptive behavior had never occurred before.  The one positive thing that occurred is now the team has a burden to pray for this community. That evening and the following day we had a team meeting and we made a prayerful decision not to return to this club.   We are trusting that God will use other means to reach those children with the gospel.

On Wednesday we used the time that we had planned to go to Langley Park to do some additional training for adult ministry.  The teens did well preparing the messages.  Here Ana is painting up "Solve This Riddle."  We also did some apologetic training in the morning to help equip the teens for conversations they will have throughout the summer.

On Thursday I preached a message at Columbia Heights and the teens formed a crowd. They were able to get into many one to one conversations after the message.

David, Jared and Alex in a gospel conversation.

Friday night at Silver Spring we had several of the teens share messages and we had many people stop to listen and engage in conversations.

Jared preaching a message.

Dylan preaching a message

Overall, the first week of ministry was successful and the team learned many things.  I am thankful for the way God used the team this week to reach many with the gospel.  I also want to take this time to thank each of you for your prayers and the financial support that you gave to make this Mission Possible, possible this year.  Until next week your prayers are appreciated!

Mission Possible One begins

Another year of ministry and a new team on Mission Possible is about to begin.  I wanted to take a few minutes and share some photos from the car wash fund raiser we had to raise money for the two Mission Possible teams this summer.  The car wash was a great success and  we had great weather on the day of the car wash.  In fact I do not think there was a time during the entire car wash that we did not have at least one or two cars to wash.  For those of you who do not know me, my name is Zane Dempsie and I have lead teams on Mission Possible One for the last 7 years.  It has been a blessing to be able to disciple the teens each year and I am expecting some great things to occur this year through this team that God has assembled.  My Co- leader for this year's trip is Joan Fountain.   It is great to have Joan leading with me again as she had lead with me several years in the past.  The first photo I have posted is a partial picture of our MP1 team.  I say partial because several of the teens were not available for the picture due to some other commitments on this day.  I will be updating this photo with a picture of the entire team after the commissioning service on June 10th.  One other thing that I want to mention is that I will have an Intern, Alex Figart, working with me and Joan this summer.  Alex had joined the group I lead last year on an abbreviated trip and this year since Alex is now attending Lancaster Bible College and needed an Intern experience for her summer I felt this would help Alex with her Internship and also be a benefit to the Mission Possible team.

 This was a first for our Mission Possible car wash.  A Gentleman brought his semi to get washed and the teens loved being able to wash this truck.

The teens did a great job at staying on task and getting the car's washed.

We also did some training this day and the  teens are starting to be more cofortable using the sketchboard.  We have one more training on June 10th after the commissioning service and then on June 25th we start with our first local week of ministry.

 I will giving weekly updates on this blog as the summer goes on so check back to stay informed of how God is using your prayers and support to touch lives with the gospel. I also want to thank everyone who came out and contributed by letting us wash your car.  Until you read again may God be glorified!