Our first DiscipleTrip to Seattle, the Emerald City, was amazing! A diverse team of nine disciples arrived with eyes-wide-open to engage a beautiful city besieged by darkness. The contrast was stark and our comfort zones were stretched at every level. The beauty of Seattle was breathtaking! From Mount Rainer to the Puget Sound, our eyes were thrilled with the grandeur of the great Northwest! However, our hearts were troubled by the brokenness that casts a pale shadow in every direction. Homeless people were everywhere. We saw great wealth juxtaposed alongside extreme poverty. Signs of racial tension could not be missed, along with shrines to pagan gods.
Our team joined forces with the Fremont Mission Team led by Isaac & Heather McNally. Under their capable and passionate leadership we did outreach to the homeless, prayer walked the campus of the University of Washington and encouraged their team and church members. Street preaching in downtown Seattle definitely offered an opportunity to stand up for our Lord and share “good news” to all who passed by. Many stopped to ask for prayer while others while others expressed their disdain with “drive by curses.” Regardless, it was a beautiful thing to see our team embrace this challenge—many doing so for the first time in their life.
We also spent time assisting Team Northwest’s outreach to West Seattle at Alki Beach where we scattered out to invite people to a sunset cookout, gave away bibles and set up a prayer station that drew many with an assortment of prayer needs. It was there we met Zayne who asked for prayer. He was open to a bible study and obeyed the Gospel of Jesus a week later! Just another example of the value short-term missions can bring to a full-time team.
In Revelation chapters four & five, we see a vivid description of heaven where a throne is encircled with “a rainbow resembling an emerald (4:3).” I can’t help but compare these two emerald cities. One in a state of collapse and the other a picture of eternal glory. One governed by the prince of this world and the other with a “lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne…(5:6).” One city worshipping every false god you can imagine while the other falls down in reverence to the only true and living God!
Yes, it was an amazing DiscipleTrip and we can’t wait to return next year (June 9-16, 2022–visit discipletrips.com/trips for details) Our trip to this Emerald City opened our eyes to the increasing need for missions here in America—so the lost can find Jesus and sing, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise and honor and power and glory, forever and ever, Amen!”
