Where to start? It was an amazing trip. God blessed! We were overwhelmed with the support given; your prayers were felt by everyone on the team. My purpose in going was:
To serve fellow believers, to minister to kids and teens, to serve alongside my community at NHCC, and to give God the glory for the abilities and talents He has given me.
I believe that purpose was accomplished. The missionaries kept telling us what a huge encouragement we were to them. And they were a huge encouragement to me and my team.
We got there Saturday afternoon, and it was great to have almost a full day to adjust to where we were going to be working. Due to the large number of missionary families attending, the conference location was full, so our team stayed at a motel about 2 miles away.
Sunday morning our team got together and worshiped God. We sang, read scripture, prayed and a lot of people shared what God had been doing in their hearts to prepare them for this trip. We had planned to attend a local Baptist church, but they didn't have Sunday morning services due to a funeral planned later that day. Sunday night was the beginning of the conference, introductions and the kick-off to our program.
The typical schedule was 3 1/2 hours in the morning for VBS and 1 1/2 hour in the afternoon for group story/activities. Mr. Brian and I were in charge of the games for K-6th grade during the morning session, and then in the evening we floated between the kids and teens as necessary.
Needless to say, I fell in love with all the kids! I miss them, pray for them, and want to keep them all. They had such great hearts and willing minds to hear everything that God was teaching through us. I got the entire K-6th grade to sign my t-shirt at the end of the week, so that I can remember their names and pray for them.
As for our team... God worked it out so that we had just the right people there. He knew who everyone was that need to go and every single one was needed. I knew the majority from church, but most of them only as acquaintances. It was really neat to get to know them better and become more a family by the end of the week. Ross, Tim and Nate especially as they headed up the team were a great blessing to me. I had some great one on one bonding times with each of them. Mr. Brian (helped with games) and I drew very close too. God used Mr. Brian to teach me and point out a weakness in me.
God has all the glory for the abilities He's given me.
Because of being an MK:
-I was able to connect with the kids and teens on a closer level
-The Spanish I grew up learning was an invaluable asset in Mexico
-I helped some of my teammates get through some slight culture shock
to be continued... (yes, with pictures)
Posted by tomglass at June 7, 2006 10:49 PM