Day One:
Hey all! We had quite the day...we started the day at church. We were challenged to live the calling God has for lives by the missionary. He asked "What does God expect of us?" We had some awesome worship time that brought many of us to tears. We then spent the day unloading all our supplies and the Esther's Closet materials our loving church donated. After this, we headed to Subway and ate while chatting away. Then, we headed to Kingdom Come State Park...some of us hiked, putt-putted, fished, and paddleboated. I, personally hiked with a group and we saw some amazing creation. (mountain-views for miles!) Hopefully, we can have some photos up tomorrow. We had a cook out with the missionaries and new friends while in the big park.
Following this, we headed back to Club 180 and prepared for tomorrow's day camp. We worked on drama, recreation, crafts, etc. Then, we had some discussions about our devotion times and the way things have gone thus far in the trip. We challenged one another and prayed.
I am so proud of our group....they have worked hard and many have already gotten out of their comfort zones. God is working in our group!!!! Many shared tonight how they have already been challenged.
Day Two:
What a day! I am so proud of our youth...I even cried tonight when we were talking. They have ALL worked so hard and been so "spirit-filled." Today, we had an awesome day...we are very tired though. To begin, we met many children who needed some love. We went on a safari with our group doing some crazy dramas and skits. Jared was a jungle man who was captured and safari Joe took him away. Our group did their "stories" hip-hop number and they all did incredible!!!! As far as the children, one girl would not talk to anyone...we all tried! A huge success was by the end of the day, she was laughing and hitting us all with noodles! We later found out some bad stuff she deals with. We all met children who won our hearts today and finding out their stories brought many of us to tears realizing how fortunate we are!
During "story time" Joe led with the chemical cross. Today, we had THREE children get saved! Praise God!!!!! It was amazing, and it was only the first day. In crafts, they made crosses and during recreation led by Brian and Ricky, they did some crazy games.
This afternoon, we organized Esther's Closet, cleared some of the creek bed, redid bulletin boards, weeded, picked up trash, etc. We worked really hard...EVERYONE! Charlie Doss and Justin are basically putting in a new kitchen for a needy family...those boys did some sweating! After all this, we ate, had some quiet time together and headed back to the hotel to unwind before we begin practice for tomorrow. Bailey C. shared with us tonight that he recommitted his life to Christ last night...God is good!!! Please keep praying!
Day Three:
How do I even begin to describe today's events....today was amazing! We had seven salvations and two recommitment's among those in the community today. Day Camp went great. Brian spoke on Adam and Eve and the Spirit was moving especially in the third and fourth grades. In particular, one of the girls in the community (who is spending the night tonight with us) was saved. Her story is cool....one of the missionaries woke up last night in the middle of the night and she became burdened for this girl. She had decided to speak with her today because she prayed all night for her. During story time she desired to accept Christ and I had the privilege of leading her as the missionary looked on with tears in her eyes...God is good!
Brian got to do his football camp today and it was incredible! Many boys stayed and he did a wonderful job as our guys played hard right there beside him...despite the heat and it being the middle of the day. Thanks for praying for that!
Tonight got even better...we were planning on a small youth Bible study that turned into being quite huge with perhaps numbers close to 80 or 100. We had a few other mission teams join us as Cade, Liberty and Abby led us in worship. It was their first time, I know they were nervous...but they did amazing! After this, our drama team did a drama and Joe spoke. He was fired up and the Holy Spirit began filling the place. Before it was over 5 community girls were saved, and our group made many decisions to change attitudes, thoughts, and step up and be leaders. We ALL cried and worshipped together for another hour or so led by some missionary interns. We had church in a special way...our God is powerful and we all experienced it, and I doubt we will ever forget it!
We then played some volleyball with everyone, hung out and ate ice cream. We finished the night with a talk about the day and shared individual stories of how God was moving. Our missionary shared some encouragement about how special this group is! (I couldn't agree more!!!!!)
Day Four:
The safari continues. It was a hot day and everyone was quite tired, but we saw several kids open up today in our day camp about their home lives. We are establishing quite the relationship with many of them. We also so many new faces. I am so proud of our young people because they have loved on everyone and we have already seen some discipline problems solved through love. We tye-dyed in arts and crafts and you can imagine the fun that was. Football camp went well and we had about 12-15 attend that. Brian Petzel is leading it and doing a wonderful job.
We went throughout the community this afternoon and handed out flyers for tomorrow's block party. It was very eye-opening to many of us to see the home lives of this community. Poverty is everyone and homes where grandma's are raising MANY children by themselves...as a momma, tears swelled my eyes seeing these babies in these conditions. How I wish I could stay and help them!
Satan was trying to work though. One of our day campers, Stephaine got hit by a car as the Club 180 van was taking her home this afternoon. She was mainly bruised but her relatives were not happy and they let the Club know. Also, Halee Smith hurt her ankle, but we have wrapped it and she seems to be doing OK.
We had pizza tonight and then spent some time in worship and sharing testimonies. It was great practice for our kids as many shared their salvation story...they did great! The missionaries shared they can tell the teams that have been prayed up and prepared and they said they could sure tell ours had been. I am so proud of our group...God is working!!!! Following this, we had birthday cake for jennifer coffee's birthday and we organized for tomorrow.
I stayed back with Cade, Levi, Liberty and Abby as they are going to join some missionary interns in a praise band tomorrow night at the block party. Y'all be praying cause this is all new to them!
We will also be passing out food tomorrow. We picked up the food today that our church had purchased and it is quite a bit. Thank you church for your support!!! You are blessing this community.
Day Five:
Food Ministry- We were able to make 206 boxes of food for those who cannot afford it, which is way more than expected. The goal the missionary gave our team was 100...praise God for a church family that sacrificially gives!
Day Camp- Went really well today. During story time, we had one salvation. We made flubber in craft time and recreation as always was wild and crazy.
Community Service- basically redid a kitchen...they painted and did some siding work today.
Block Party- everyone worked hard...in fact we had two other church teams who were working near by stop by and share how impressed they were...praise God for a team that works so selflessly, especially our adults! They are all beat! We had at least 5 salvations tonight. Jessy Cydrus now truly understands how to share her faith as she and Terry led two to the Lord...I know she will forever be changed! I believe many other seeds were planted. Abby, Cade, and Liberty sang with a praise band outside...they did wonderful! We had drums, bass guitar, keyboard and some awesome vocals! CBC Praise team- watch out! :)
A huge part of the night occurred when a man we have become friends with "junebug" brought us all wind chimes, and with tears in his eyes shared we were the best team this club has ever seen...we were all touched!
Day Six:
More of the same as above! Praise God
Day Seven:
Had a great day today...camp went great although it was hard to say goodbye. We played in the rain all afternoon and it cleared up in time for baptisms. The food ministry cooked and delivered food to some widows today and the poor. I think they were all touched. We baptized five (two of our own) Then a bunch played in the river.
