"Summer 2010 Mission Trip...TBA"
2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Today was a wonderful start to our trip!! We left
Monday, June 22, 2009
The traveling is going well today. We awoke to sunshine and have had it all day long. We made quick time through Oklahoma, then Texas….New Mexico got a bit longer; the topography was a bit long and flat (like Nebraska). We stopped for dinner in
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Our first day of training!! Thanks to Steve’s early shopping trip, we began our day with an array of cereal for breakfast! The accommodations are great… plenty of showers to go around and a kitchen for cooking. We are meeting in the church’s
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Good morning again!!! We were greeted with a beautiful morning and have the privilege of spending time today with some youth and young adults from our host church, First Baptist Church Pinetop. They arrived at 9am to make breakfast—about 11pm we enjoyed a delicious French Toast, Eggs, and Bacon Brunch outdoors then joined in for a Bible Study on Proverbs 24. It was great to share our faith and hear their strong faith during a great discussion! We spent the afternoon at a local park, doing some more team building; walk’n talks on the 1-mile trail around the lake and a challenging ‘marble run’. Then, we dug into small group time and quiet time while still at the park… plus we were treated with Snickers ice cream bars – yay! The rains moved in again late this afternoon; we learned that Monsoon Season has arrived a couple weeks early. So, we’ll probably see some more of this. We are chillin’ tonight with the FBCP youth. Thankfully the rain passed quickly. We hung out in the parking lot watching the guys ramp with skate boards and bikes… we all ate pizza, played 5-Base and Ultimate Frisbee. When the sun went down, we went inside for worship and teaching in the purple room. It was a fun night and as we ended the day with our team pow-wow, we shared how we had seen God at work… challenging us, changing us, and reminding us of who He is and desires to be in our life, everyday!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Today began with waking up after a good and long night of rest! We’ve been kicking off our day with morning devotions by two Christian comedians, The Skit Guys; each day watching one or two videos of them doing hilarious skits with a point. It’s been a fun way to kick the day off with laughter and with foundational faith truths. We beat the rain, by taking a 20 minute walk’n talk; It was good to get some fresh air. Our morning routine continued with worship and teaching, then moved into small groups which have been a great way to dive into God’s word and seek answers to some questions. We’ve been able to really dig in. In the afternoon, we split into guy vs. girl teams to create a cheer/song/rap that involved our theme and verse: Alpha-Omega…”He is before all things and in Him, all things hold together”. Colossians 1:17. The girls came up with a very well done ‘cheer’ and the guys created a bit of a comedic song with dramatic characters. We all laughed a TON! Then, we moved into a team building challenge, the “Labyrinth” where we were forced to use our individual memory & brain power, without communicating, to accomplish a team goal together. This forced us to use our eyes more and our mouths less…. It was pretty challenging, but we succeeded! The team is becoming more unified and more understanding of our need to include everyone and appreciate the abilities and ideas each person can contribute. Ron, from Apache Youth Ministry, was able to come and give us some background on the White Mountain Apache Tribe, how their culture/community functions, and how the AYM began in 2000. Tomorrow, he will be back to share more… it’s exciting to think that our time of ministry is getting closer. We really do trust in whatever God’s plans are for our time there, since we are confident He is the one that brought us here. After a wonderful dinner outdoors tonight, we’ve taken some quiet time to ponder the story that God is writing in our life by the witness of our faith, as the sun sets; each of us is preparing a ‘testimony’ of God’s work in our lives so we can be more prepared to share as God provides opportunities for us to share in the next week, month, and years of our lives.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Today was our last official day of training… We poured into some morning worship following our devos and then dug into small groups again. It’s become more evident today that the team is really growing together. In their interaction & conversations, they have become more at ease, interested, and caring about one another. We can also see the hunger they each have for growing in their faith & understanding God’s word. Our prayer groups have also been a real joy; today we moved from just praying about our own growth, to praying for our outreach and the growth that God continues to do in so many as He works through the Apache Youth Ministry. We are getting super excited to get started. Ron from AYM came and talked to us more about understanding the natural differences of the culture due to social economic divisions (hidden rules & mindsets in each social class) and also the effects of generational poverty on the reservation. It was very helpful in framing what we will observe & experience. Also in the afternoon, we dove into a final round of official team-building with a twist on the labyrinth and a final challenge…. The Web! The team accomplished both. As they finished the web at sunset, we gathered together to consider each team member’s strengths, weaknesses, and how they had grown during this particular exercise. The team leadership offered encouraging comments to affirm each person’s recognition of their shortcomings and how throughout the challenged they were recognized and worked to overcome them. We were VERY proud of each of them…and again, this continued to bring the team together! We closed out the night with a special dinner out at an Italian restaurant across the street to celebrate.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Today is our last day at First Baptist in Pinetop. Following breakfast, we cleaned up their contemporary worship space that we have borrowed this week; Saturday night service tonight! Looks super-- ready to go now. Then, we spent about 30 minutes in prayer for our ministry this coming week. As a partial “free day” we found a local trail, jus t north of town. The Mogollon Rim has a beautiful view of the pine-treed valley below. Then, we returned for lunch, cleaning up all our leftovers from the past few days and dinner out last night. Then, we had some quiet time for personal devotions, bible study, and prayer. It’s another blue sky sunny day, so many of the team found a spot outside. Then, we headed out for another fun adventure at the local Family Fun Spot: go karts, arcade, and mini-golf. A super fun time was had by everyone… not sure who actually won the Golf Tourney. .. guess it’s more about the fun, right?! Now, it’s back to work. We returned to FBCP to clean up our space and ready for departure. After covering the kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms (aka: Sunday school class rooms), and our Jungle Room meeting space, we loaded everything into the vans. We are just eating grilled hot dogs and hamburgers now before we head to worship at 7pm. Ron from AYM will meet us following worship, and we will settle into our new home in Whiteriver tonight at the local elementary school. Looking forward to an exciting week of ministry there! Hope we can get online and keep you updated on the amazing ways God will continue to work “in” our team and “though” our team. “He who has called you is faithful, and he will do it”-I Thess 5:24
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Welcome to Whiteriver! We arrived last night about 10pm. We met Ron at the Kennel (the youth center) and he took us to the local Elementary School where we will be staying. It’s really new and super nice accommodations! There is a locker room for us to use for showering… so, that will go fast! Our morning is going smoothly; we found a Lutheran church (Wisconsin Synod) just down the street and joined them for worship. There was a guest pastor there from
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday we were excited to locate a street vendor; we walked down the road a bit and enjoyed Indian Tacos and Apache Burgers made on homemade frybread for lunch (SO DELICIOUS!). Back at the Kennel, we dove into afternoon work projects. Three teams: Shed Team, organized and cleaned out the work shed full of tools and supplies. Nice work ladies! Rock Team, cleared lots of rock from around the basketball court out back and then worked to even out the surface to prep for lining and dumping landscape rock all around the court’s boundary. Court Team, swept & power washed the outdoor basketball court, then started the painting projects to freshen it up! After a long and very hot afternoon (the team worked SOO hard), we enjoyed a veggie/pasta dinner and returned to the school around 8pm to clean up. We relaxed the rest of the evening and enjoyed watching Les Miserables (the movie version from the 90s). What a wonderful story of redemption we can relate to in our relationship with Jesus as we receive undeserved mercy and are covered in such amazing grace! Monday morning began with resuming projects at 9am. We had a few random projects and continued work on and around the basketball court. At lunch we found another street vendor and tested out the local tamales with our PB&Js. After a good respite from the heat, we returned to projects as the storm clouds lingered over the mountains. Though several brief showers delayed us bit, most of us joined in the Court Painting projects and finally got it 95% completed. YAY~ Great Team Work! The Kennel (
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Late yesterday afternoon we learned difficult news from home; one of our sister’s in Christ, Hannah Hall was critically injured in a car accident in the morning. We were able to reach Tyler, her brother, and were devastated to hear the severity of her injuries. Our team prayed for her as we closed out our day, trusting in the hope of Jesus Christ. Tragically, we learned in the night from
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Well, today is our last day in Whiteriver. We dove into our day with a handful of projects yet to finish from our beginning of the week list.… away we went! Rock Crew worked and finished the landscape rock around the basketball court. A new painting crew went to finish finer trim on a house a JH group had begun several weeks before… Done! We did a few other small projects including a thorough cleaning and organization of one staff member’s office! (Nice snag of the big hairy spider, Steph!) By mid-afternoon, we split up and sent half the team back to clean up and pack at the school, as Open Kennel began at 3pm. When they returned, the second half did the same. We decided to leave Wednesday evening when the Kennel closed at 6pm, instead of Thursday a.m. with the intent to drive straight through and return to be with our body of believers and celebrate Hannah’s life together! It was hard to leave Whiteriver… our time there seemed so short. We accomplished and met many needs that AYM had and feel like we were able to help further their ministry by building positive relationships with those we met. We are excited and anxious to see how God continues to further our relationship with Apache Youth Ministry in the years ahead.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Well, we left Whiteriver at 6:30pm last evening. Thanks to some top notch driving by Cathy & Stephanie, we survived the all night drive through!! Steve & Kristen took over as the sun continued to reach mid-day… and we entered