Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Team Vinke: From My Mind To My Heart

The day to day mission work has begun to look the same in concept, but there always seems to be vastly different teachings from each day. The day starts with the team sharing their favorite bible verses over breakfast. This time sets the pace for the rest of the day as we set out to do work in the name of Jesus. We then go to different schools to provide a sports camp or sorts for the children here. This time is very precious for the children, and they love to hang out with us as we throw around objects of all sorts. We have grown to love the children here.

After a couple hours of sports camp, the team comes back for a quick lunch followed by providing a vacation bible school to some of the local churches. This time has been a challenge, but a rewarding one. The church we traveled to today was unique in the sense of elevation. The church is so high on the mountains that the clouds literally touch you as they come by. We had around 200 children pile into the church, and I had the opportunity to teach them that God is our protection. While I prepared to teach this to them, I couldn't help but ask myself, "What is the point of this teaching?" It is good to know that God is our protection, but how does that change my life or anyone elses on a day to day basis?

Truth is a funny thing. We are free to believe or deny it, and our actions can believe or deny it as well. We learn things in churches, from people, or even on mission trips and our lives continue to be stagnant. There isn't any transformation taking place, although we are learning transformational things. This concept was present in Jesus' time as well. Although there had been many people who knew the law of God, there was no transormation that was taking place. The problem was that the truth they knew was dwelling solely in their mind and never in their heart. We often operate the same way. We know that God is faithful, yet we refuse to act out on faith. We know that God is protector, but we feel the need to protect ourselves.

We needed to do more than relay information to children. We needed to teach them how to live lives that honor God. Today, we taught the kids to act out as God told Joshua to as he prepared to lead an entire nation of people to an unknown promised land. God's message to Joshua in his anxiety and fear was "Be strong and courageous." I feel that's what God wanted to say to all of us today.

Mission work can feel really random at times, but in retrospect it has been plain to see God's hand on our time here. He has been leading the team on a journey to not settle for solely knowing the truth, but also experiencing the bold crossing of taking truth from the mind to the heart. This trip continues to be an amazing endevor for everyone on Team Vinke, and God will continue to bless our efforts, so long as we continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
-Michael

Velez/Kiningham update 2

5/30/11

Today we held a sports camp for a school and then went to a nearby church for VBS. After the sports camp, I was fighting exhaustion. We went to the church and started preparing for the kids to come. I said a prayer in my head because I needed a reboost so badly. We got through the songs, the craft, and the story. It was taking all of my strength just to stand. As crafts were wrapping up , a little girl came up to me and said, "jugar?" This meant she wanted me to go outside and play with her. She reached for my hand and led me outside. We were shortly joined by all the rest of the children. That little girl was sent straight from God. I felt like it was him saying, "Come on Carlie, wake up and be with me." The rest of the afternoon with the kids was great . They braided my hair, sat in my lap, and what do all girls do? Giggle.

5/31/11

We were able to go to the same location today. It was nice being able to see the same kids. Every mission trip I have gone on, God always shows himself. Our lesson for VBS was God is our provider. We thought we weren't going to have enough supplies because so many kids showed up. As always, God provdided and everyone had a craft. Funny how that works right?

6/1/11
My heart was stolen today and it was without warning. First, there was Brenda . She was seven years old and she was sick. I wanted to love her all the more knowing that she wasn't feeling well. I painted her nails and held her. That was all that was needed. I then met another little girl that shared the same name as me. Once we met, we didn't seperate. She is an angel. When it was time to say goodbye, we were hugging and kissing each other. I was hoping I would see Carolina later on. My wish came true. After dinner I stepped out onto the road to look for her. I looked and she was running towards me with her arms wide open. Her face was beaming as I scooped her up in my arms. I didn't let her go until we had to leave. She kept pointing out flowers and telling me the colors of each one. The second time saying goodbye to her was even harder than the first. On the bus ride back to the hotel, Carolina was all I could think about. That little girl has my heart and | am dreading the last goodbye. Today was wonderful, but emotional.

Mighty Morphin Flippin Flamingos post #3

Hey guys! Today has truely been a ´delicious´day for everyone on this team. We are deeply learning about trusting in the Lord for strength these past few days. Today especially being one of those days. God rests on our hearts and we rest on His love. Again we devoured another delicious breakfast and went back to the school in San Pedro and just loved on the children who attended. We played another hardcore game of soccer, kickball, sang songs and above all just poured out love into the little ones. They are amazing kids who have very strong hearts and are just aching for love, and we so grateful to be the ones to pour out Christ´s love to them! We were all very tired today, many of us were sick as well and there was a haze of ´bleh´in the air. I honestly thought that some of us were just going to pass out with exhaustion. I think that we were all alittle disheartened to about some of the kids we were going to see today, them being a very roudy group and all. But God taught us a whole different lesson today as we did VBS. The children were so amazing! They were very easy to get along with and were so obedient in the class we were teaching. All of them interacted very well as Hogan did a very passionate skit on how God protects us. It has been a deep and beautiful day to say the least my friends!
Here are some words from the members on my team, they all wrote down significant things that they would like to share about their time here so far.

Today, after sports camp, I spoke to the kids about God´s most important commandment (Matt 22.37-39). That verse pretty much sums this trip up for me. God has broke me and is building me back up in His image. Life changing journey. - (Chris Lovett)

Today was awesome and unexpecting. So everybody knows that I dont speak a lick of spanish, but i taught a spanish class today! They were learning english, I know its awesome right!? LOL. So i helped the students write sentences in english. It was honestly amazing! - (Jolisa)

Today was an extremely good day for me. I was pushed out of my comfort zone by the team, and i was terrified of going up infront of everyone and translating. Nicole prayed over me and i felt the spirit of God right there by my side telling me ,¨You can do this.¨It was amazing and the whole team cheered me on! - (Gabby)

Smiles, That´s how we are greeted every day. The Guatemalans are such a happy people and i feel so blessed to be a part of God´s purpose in this country. I cannot describe how amazing this trip has been in a few short sentances. But i will tell you grateful i am. Grateful for you monetary donations to get me here and your prayers while i´ve been here. I´m also grateful for such wonderful teammates who are so full of God´s love. We have gotten so close in such a short time but there is an abundance of God´s love pouring from each of us and we are abñle to share that with the children here. Its an awesome feeling, so thank you! We love you guys so much and cant wait to share everything when we get back! - (Shawna)


LOVE YOU ALL!
-Garin H.

Team Jimenez/Bryant Day 4

God's blessings demand our responsiblity. Each day that we are here is another day that the relationships with the children we serve grows more and more. Even before we arrived at the church for breakfast the children were already waiting to greet us. This wasn't because we had gifts or candy, but because they knew we were coming to play with them or to just be with them. They have to walk a few blocks just to get to the church and we usually arrive at 7:30am for breakfast. During our morning devotion we talked about remaing in Christ. One of the verses that was brought up was about remaining in the vine, Christ, to recieve nourishment and strength. This was a beautiful reminder of how dependent we are on God for everything we do.

Things weren't much different as we arrived at the school. We barely walked into the school courtyard before the children started pouring out of the classrooms, running up to us and nearly dragging us down with hugs. We love spending time with them. We play soccer, jumprope, drew pictures, watched them in their music class, did relay races, spun kids, frisbee,... you name it. Some kids, they didn't need all that. All they wanted to do was be right next to you and be able to just rest their hands on you. Just to know that you're near. Nearness. It builds relationships. I'm really starting to grow very fond of the children. We first started just with high fives but now we're hugging. When we left, I started hugging the children. As I was walking to the door, one of the girls ran up to me. I kneeled down and hugged her and she kissed me on the cheek. Words cannot express the feeling that came over me.

After we left the school, we had a great lunch back at the church and headed up to the high mountainous city of Panyebar. It is so high up that its usually cloudy and you feel literally on the summit of the mountain. The children there were amazing. We had the church packed full of children for the VBS. At VBS we learned that God was our protector. We sang songs in spanish, taught about the armor of Christ, and then built sheilds with the kids that they were able to decorate. Afterwords they all played soccer down the hill and I stayed up at the church with the pastor. We got into a discussion about the church itself. Its been there for 2 years and has a total of 70 members excluding the children. I told them I would pray for them and the pastor continued to thank us for coming out. It was in that moment when he asked me if he could pray with me. So right there, at the threshold of the church, the pastor prayed for our team, our mission, our travels, and all those that were there.

We finished the day having dinner at the church, sharing our experiences from that day. After dinner, some of the children came down again and we played soccer in an alley behind the church grounds.

Prayer Requests:
1. Please pray for one of Impacto's leaders father, Antonio. Antonio needs triple bypass surgery to open up the clots in his heart and the family doesn't have the money yet. Please keep him and the family in your prayers.
2. Please pray for the teams health as soom of them have gotten sick lately and the days are starting to settle on some of us.
3. Please pray for the church in Panyebar that God's favor falls over it in an unusual way. Also, keep the children that we serve in your prayers. That walls of barriers come crashing to the ground and we are impacting their lives.

Prayers resonate much farther then our hands can reach.

Thank You
Emy Iacob

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Team Jimenez - Bryant post 3

Today we started the day at breakfast sharing scripture and preparing for another day of serving in Guatemala. After breakfast we headed up the the mountains along with Julia and Juandi's team to Santa Clara. The ride up there, the view was completely amazing. The mountains and the lakes are completely picturesque. It doesn't even feel real that we are actually in Guatemala and surrounded by such beauty. As we arrived in Santa Clara, we had to get off the bus and cram into a van to to to the school in Santa Clara. As we drove up the hill to the school, the children ran out of the school in such excitement to see us. We conducted a field day, played soccer, painted nails, and taught the children Red Rover. It was such a blessing to see how happy the children were with just the presence of us. After we left the school, we headed to a church in Santa Clara to prepare for VBS. As the children began to arrive you could hear them at the doors of the church awaiting in anticipation to come in. As the children began to pile in one by one the church began to fill up and children were outside listening through the windows to the songs and message that was spoke. The message that we taught was on God the Provider and how He provides for our every need. When we started to pass out the paper bags for them to decorate and make their own for the craft, we began to realize that we didn't have enough bags for each kid to decorate. We then collected all of the construction paper that we could find and started folding them into bags in an attempt to make a bag for each kid. Which was proof that GOD does provide even in the most unexpected circumstances.

What continues to amaze me in how simple the life is in Guatemala. They are not consumed with facebook, cellphones, tv's, or blogs and their lives are still filled with so much joy. God is seriously changing my heart and teaching me to put things into perspective. I honestly just feel so small in comparison to the size of this whole world that God has created. As I'm sitting here feeling the wind as the thunderstorms begin to roll in, I am so thankful to be apart of this mission trip, which I was very nervous about. But once again God provides and shows me that He is in control. I serve such an amazing Father and I am a grateful, loved, happy, and overwhelmed child. My heart is truly full.

Even after all the exhaustion of the day our team is truly blessed and overwhelmed with the people of Guatemala and have fallen in love with the hearts of each of these children. Please continue to pray for each of us and pray that we be the hands and feet of Christ in all that we do. Please pray that we shower these kids with the love of Christ so that they may know Him even more.

Team Vinke Post 2

There has been a lot happening in this wonderful trip. The wonderful stories that have been written and the changes that have been happening within us are tremendously inspiring to me. I wanted to tell you about my team mates in this post.

Jonathan is one of our two leaders, and he has beem a calm leader to all of us, inspiring us to move forward in our faith. His fluency in Spanish has surely been an aid to us as we struggle to communicate, but my favorite part of Jonathan is that he simply cares deeply about the well being of those he is leading. I'm tremendously thankful to have him on the team.

Our other leader is Jonathan's wife, Aubrey. She has resolved to be driven in this trip, owning the spiritual growth of the team. The first night we met as a team, she introduced a simple system of helping each other grow. The system is telling eachother one challenge accompanied by one encouragement. It isn't complicated, but rather it is simply intentional in helping eachother reach the goals God has given us for this trip. She has been a blessing.

Gerrick is hilarious. His sense of humor is a constant breath of fresh air, not to mention his trtansparent humility. His transperency has been a catalyst for deep discussions to happen.

Anna is one of the more quiet and calm members of the team, especially when compared to Gerrick, but she has been a wonderful team member. She has the gift of kindness and hospitality, which has been a great ministry tool on this trip.

Matthew is a character. Our arrival to any village is met by a bunch of joyful children screaming Matteo! The children simply love Matthew, and his love for them has done much to inspire me to push further in our mission here. He is also a very talented guitar player and singer.

Gena has been a wonderful friend. It has been great to watch her become more acquianted with the city and its inhabitants. Her joyful attitude has been fueling the rest of the team as we spend many exhausting days working with the local churches.

Katie is always fun to be around. Her finely/tuned practical approach to this mission trip has been a means to reach the children here. Her heart for the peopel here has inspired me to try to get to know everyone a little better, although we come into contact with hundreds each day.

If you don't know these people well, you should change that. I am immensely blessed to be part of this team.

Mighty Morphin Flippin Flamingos!

So, I just realized that I may have given the team´s name incorrectly on my last post. In saying that, take note, we are the Mighty Morphin Flipping Flamingos. Dont ask why, because I dont know either, other than that the name sounds epic indeed. lol.
I am not entirely sure where I left off so Ill just jump into the amazing events of yesterday and today. Yesterday we went up into the mountains in San Pedro and did a VBS for the children in the village. Although it was chaos, I think we have all agreed that God shows us beauty in chaos. The children were very happy to hang out with us and we loved loving on them. We ended the day with an awesome game of soccer(fútbal)with them. The crazy thing was that we were so high up into the mountains that we were actually playing the game in the mountain clouds. Amazing to say the least.
Today started out with a great breakfast and a great devotion time with Pastor Carlos where we discussed being a living sacrifice in Christ Jesus. We then took a short hike up the road from the church and set up sports camp with the local school. Soccer is quickly becoming an awesome sport in my eyes. During our game, the music class of the school came out into the courtyard to practice drum beats. This so happened to be at the exact moment of an intense soccer shootout. Quite epic I must say. Some of the little girls found it hilarious to paint all the guys fingernails, so i am currently typing with electric purple cuticles. Needless to say the energy of the day was filled with love, and it was a beautiful thing.
So as far as personal things from our team, we have a couple great stories. Chris on the first day here decided to go play with some children on one of the broken down walls outside of the church. The wall collapsed on him pinning him down to the ground and giving him some wicked scrapes. He is perfectly fine and i think he´s wearing the ufc fighter look quite well. Jonathan stayed back in San Juan with a couple other leaders to help equip some of the local adults with skills for VBS classes. There has been alot of great stories shared and great people who are coming with open hearts yearning to be poured into. Gods presence is very evident in this town! We all agree that the Lord is pushing us and stretching us in our faith´s and its an amazing time of growth in each one of our spiritual journies. Also the food is flippin awesome! Shout out to the cooks for sure!

Prayer requests for this trip...
For Tony(from impacto missions) His father is going through surgery. I dont know the details but please pray that he is safe.

For Manuel(bus driver) He was sick and out of work for about a month, so he is afraid that his children might not be able to stay in school because of the costs. Please pray that the Lord will just bless him and his family and that his trials will strengthen his faith in Christ.

For our team, that God would keep showing us new things on this endeavor and that his love will be evident in us and through our actions.

LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU!!

-Garin H.