You can see the devastation first hand here. The waters have started to recede, but Governor Schweitzer has declared it a state of emergency and currently 90 national guard troops are watching evacuated properties and helping stabilize the community. FEMA has offered little aide, and even with the Governors order and National Guard units, this town is still a long way from home. God in his amazing timing has planned for us to be in Roundup two weeks after the initial flood waters hit, and the church we were planning on working with, in God's foreknowledge, is the main driving force behind the clean up efforts. As city officials are fixing levy's and begging to pump the water back out, our teens will be faced with the unique challenge of bringing God's gospel of hope through suffering to a city that is on it's knees.

It is of no coincidence that we as a youth group are just finishing up 1 Peter, where the main theme is suffering. Our students will be faced with a difficult challenge of putting their newly found knowledge to work in the worst of circumstances sooner than they would have ever thought. But this is the vastness of our God: we are here not only to help rehabilitate a community, but to emphasize that God is not distant or bound by flood waters, but rather he is working and arranging this momentary setback for eternal glory.

You can asist in two ways to this mission: 1.) Pray for us. Our teens will be evangelizing to people who will certainly ask the tough question of "Why would your God let this happen?" And by God's grace they will answer them in a God honoring, people serving way. 2.) Donate to the trip. Not only are the kids paying their way over there, but most of their money goes to a ministry fund that allows us to buy supplies for the community relief efforts (shovels, water, etc). Any donations from your end will decrease the cost for these kids to go, and help with the relief fund.

Updated: 6/1/11

The Uprising Generation is about to take it's first ever missions trip to the booming metropolis of Roundup, Montana.

This is unique in a couple of ways. 1.) We are assisting a semi-local church by providing for it bodies and ministry options that are not usually available to smaller churches and 2.) Students are presented with the difficult challenge of sharing the gospel to people who speak, act, look and are pretty much the same as they are. We are working with an organization called Rural Church Missions and they have hooked us up with Pastor John Iverson with Emmanuel Baptist Church in Roundup. I met with Pastor John and he is very excited to have us. One of our primary tasks will be to facilitate whatever needs the community has amidst this

Because the only overhead for the trip is gas and food, most of the students travel fees will go to supplies to assist with whatever ministry options we decide to do while in Roundup. Pastor John and his team have recently opened up a teen center in town, which provides us with an excellent venue for ministry.

We are called to carry the gospel to all aspects of the earth (Matt 28:19-20), but we are also called to minister locally (Acts 1:8). That is why we are going here, we carry with us not the fanfare of a large youth ministry, or simply the aspect of a group on a "mission" but rather we carry with us, just as Paul did the weight of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: That Christ Died For Our Sin..." (1 Cor 15:3).

Updated Details (4/6/11):

Dates: June 12-18th       Price: $140 at most (it goes down exponentially for every person who comes after 12 people)

People limit: 15-25 (leaders and high schoolers get first dibs)

For more information or to reserve your spot email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it