Traveling with Ann

Monvee!

2011-11-22T17:32:00.005-05:00

Well what a shock to take a look at my blog and realize that it has been an entire year since I last wrote on here. I could not believe that it has been that long. Obviously I am in need of some new motivation to get on here and share some thoughts.

In fact, I am in need of motivation to do lots of things so I am making some changes. One of those is that I am headed back into the gym to get back in shape. I decided not to wait until New Years to make a change so this morning at 5:30am I was up and working out. Yes...I do know that is very early and yet once I got there I felt pretty good.

Another area that I am working on is a more consistent devotional and prayer life. Sometimes working in ministry makes it almost harder to want to be consistent in spending time with the Lord personally. I find myself viewing the Bible as part of work rather than as a letter from God to me so I knew I needed to make some changes in that area of my life as well.

So today I started working with a program called Monvee. It is a tool to help customize a devotional plan for 60 days that fits your own personal learning and creative style so that you are more motivated to be in the word. We are not all created the same and what speaks to me, might not mean anything to you so they help you develop a plan for spiritual growth.

For me, one of the things they suggested was that I blog. So here I am, back on my blog and in the coming days you can expect to find me posting new things I am learning as well as how this new tool is working for me in the area of motivation and creative ideas to help me in my spiritual walk.

So until later...

Fall Update!

2010-10-27T11:28:00.003-04:00

Hey everybody! I have taken a bit of a break from the blog for most of the summer and early fall due to finishing up the last three classes on my Master's Degree. But the end is in sight and in a few weeks I will be back keeping this updated with all of the latest mission and local outreach project opportunites that you can be involved in at Colonial Woods.

I will probably throw in a few mental ramblings of my own as I am studying through the books of Luke and John this year. You just never know what you'll find on here.

So check back shortly and I will have a new design and layout as well as come great new content.

Until then....

Sunday the 27th!

2010-06-29T09:20:00.000-04:00

Our return trip began early in the morning (4am- or 10pm Saturday Michigan time). We said our tearful goodbyes to Howard, Ruth, Pastor Eduardo and our host families. We arrived at the Santiago airport with plenty of time to get to our gate. We praised God as our trip seemed to be starting out extremely well (with only a minor glitch of Mindy being stopped by security as she realized she had a souvenir letter opener in her carry-on which they quickly detained. Yet somehow Karlie was able to get on with a finger nail file lol) We arrived in Madrid on time and got on our plane for the states. We boarded with ease and all found our seats. Stephanie Hamrick and I both took a dose of Dramamine to help us sleep on the 9 and a half hour plane ride. We both quickly fell asleep only to wake up 2 hours later as we realized that the plane was still sitting at the gate due to air traffic control issues. So the 9 and a half hour plane ride turned into 12 hours. Luckly the Dramamine caused me to sleep through most of it.

When we arrived in Chicago, we quickly discovered that the flight that was coming from Detroit to Chicago had been cancelled due to a tornado and bad storms in Detroit and all the outgoing flights that night had been booked solid…. Hmm….. that makes this smooth trip home a little more interesting.

Ann got in line and rebooked us the only thing available, tickets to Flint first thing the next morning, Monday. Once we had our boarding passes, the group soon decided that we would rather rent 3 cars and road trip it the 6 hours back home. Although we would be arriving around 3am, this would be best since some had to work the next day and some had to get home to their children. We called and booked rental reservations for only $125 total! We arrived at the rental place and found out that the man on the phone was a little off in his quote…. About $600 dollars off. That left us with a little dilemma. This was WAY more than we could afford. So, the only option was to rent one car for the people who needed to be home and the rest of us would get a few hotel rooms and leave the next morning. Chuck, Michelle, Gary, Ann and Karlie were in the car ready to go and the rest of us were on the bus back to the airport to find a hotel, leaving me, the less than capable assistant leader in charge for the night… yikes! 10 mintues later Ann calls and says she needs my mom in the car since she paid and she was sending Gary in her place.

After some kinks in the bus system, we finally meet up with Gary and headed out on the shuttle for the hotel. We are all sitting there talking about how nice it will be to finally sleep horizontally instead of in a chair when we noticed that a suitcase resembling Gary’s carryon is sitting on the curb of the hotel that we just dropped a bunch of people off at. He was convinced it was someone else’s and we prayed that Gary’s is still on the shuttle. Ha ha… nice try! It was Gary’s. And it just so happens to contain his passport and boarding pass for Monday’s flight. Gary and Anna get back on the shuttle as I go to check us in for the night. Praise the Lord it was still there and they came back in one piece ready for a big dinner at McDonald’s and a restful night’s sleep.

This morning we got on our flight and made it home safe and sound (Finally after about 40 hours of travel). Although I was a little stressed out when there were only 2 seats left on the shuttle to the airport and the rest of the group waited to get on while Kari and I checked in. Oh and let’s not forget that Kari’s luggage somehow got lost on the way to Flint… No, we cannot make even one flight without some glitch.

Although we do not return home with stories of hundreds of new commitments to Christ, we do know that our work was well worth it for the kingdom of God. We cannot wait to hear, whether in this life or the next, of how this work has spurred on Pastor Eduardo and his church and all of the fruit it bears . We know that people heard the word of God proclaimed and we now leave it in His hands and trust that He will finish the work there.

Thanks so much to those that supported us financially and lifted us up in prayers throughout this crazy adventure. Keep Spain in your prayers as they are a nation that is in major need of Jesus! Also, pray for Howard and Ruth, the missionaries, and Pastor Eduardo and his church. Although our ministry there is over, they have a long road ahead of them.

Besos y abrazos,

Steph Langolf

Saturday the 26th

2010-06-29T09:17:00.002-04:00

!Adios España, nos vemos!

The crazy 10 day trip to Spain has come to an end. We have finally all made it home safely and are quickly starting the normal life routine again. Due to the crazy schedule of the last day and an early start to our travels home, I (Steph Langolf) am just now getting to post the update of Saturday as well as our return travels (and if you thought our travels to Spain were crazy, just you wait!!!)

Saturday’s ministry was probably one of my (Steph Langolf) favorites of the trip. We arrived at Howard and Ruth’s house looking forward to helping out at a kid’s fiesta in the middle of one of the town’s busiest plaza’s. None of us should have been surprised when Howard told us that were going to be spending the time beforehand passing out tracks and sticking them on the windshields of cars! I am pretty sure that every single person in Villagarcia and Santaigo have been handed at least one track if not multiple ones. We joke about the tracks and the fact that we distributed over 6,000 of them; however, that is over 6,000 times people have seen the message of Jesus’ love and the hope we have in Him.

After distributing a few hundred pamphlets, we all met up in the Plaza Galicia in the middle of the town’s busiest commercial district. Steven, a man from Marin and two of his helpers had set up games and crafts for children of all ages. I had the pleasure of making balloon animals with Gary. I think in the 3 hours I sat at that station, I successfully made 5 swords and 3 dog/giraffe/some strange animal with four legs and a head. I popped more balloons than I can count. I believe I heard the Lord say to me that the balloon animal ministry is not my calling. However, I was so blessed by just being able to talk to all the children and translate for Gary as he amazed me with his ballooning skills. I cannot even begin to tell you how many people asked me and others why we were doing this. We had the pleasure of telling them that the local evangelical church was putting it all on at no cost. They were so surprised to hear that and it was a great community outreach. Pastor Eduardo and his gang were able to talk with many people and pass out lots of literature and bibles. Praise the Lord!

For lunch we went back to the church and had a big meal of traditional Spanish Paella. It was delicious, yet most of us were stretched to trying weird food since the shrimp still had eyes and legs and the mussels still had barnacles on the shells… gross! Later at the pastor’s house we had the privilege of trying octopus with the suckers still attached. Yeah, that was interesting. My mom, Mary, and I were blessed enough to go up to the mountain with our host family to see the beautiful Atlantic coast and overlook the entire city. At the very top of the mountain was a cross. Being up there reminded me of Moses and how when he went up the mountain he saw God, but when he came back down, his people, the Israelites, God’s chosen people had been blinded by lies and built a golden calf idol to worship. Although this cross overlooks the beautiful Spanish countryside of Galicia; at the bottom of the mountain, the people are blinded to the truth, held captive to worldly things and false idols, and most importantly in need of a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

A Day With Gary!

2010-06-26T01:38:00.002-04:00

How can I put a whole day into just a few paragraphs? Days here seem
to fly by before you know it. Today was a day full of sunshine,
authentic Spanish food, about 5 miles of walking soar feet...again.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Spain and I would like to share a few
things that I have learned while on this expedition.

1) You don´t have to see it for it to happen: I have yet to have
a conversation with anyone about the gospel but I have heard many
awesome stories about the people of this wonderful country. Some are
posted in previous blogs but just a few minutes ago (about 12:15 am
Spain time) Pastor Eduardo told us that two people have called him
today about the tracts that we handed out and one is coming to church
this Sunday.

2) Turtle paws are only good for walking: Sometimes we have an
idea of what the Lord has planned so we do our best to complete that
task no matter how we may dislike it. We may complain and grumble
about it and may even get it done...but did we? I´ve learned this
week, including today that it is easier to just pray about it first.
We can really never get our little paws around what the Lord has in
mind. Ask Him and he will provide in the same amount that we ask. So
put on your most comfortable tennis shoes and get going.

3) Music is universal: We went to a concert this evening, here in
town, made up of about 60 members of a church about 40km (about 25
miles) away. They were great. I found myself really being drawn in by
the music. Some songs I knew, some I hadn´t the foggiest idea what
they were saying. All the same we had a great time.
Lastly...

4) Friends are a must: I have 11 absolutely amazing friends. The
11 other people that came on this trip have become more to me than
just "the group". They have become my true friends. They have uplifted
me with words of encouragement and gratitude. They have supported me
through stressful times (doing the drama for the first time is nerve
wracking) with prayer and a pat on the back. They also take the time
to listen to my concerns or worries with heartfelt feedback from the
heart. They will even help you shop (This may have nothing to do with
10 of them being women...nah!...sure it does).

Thanks for reading

Straight Up News-Double "A" Style

2010-06-24T19:01:00.002-04:00

A Day in the Life of the Spain team as seen by Anna and Ann...but mostly Anna!

-A brisk walk to the train station, amounting to a few miles
-40 min. train ride to Santiago
-Arrive in Santiago with excitment for the day

-Break off into "buddies" and start the journey...First we found a comfy spot on the sidewalk of rocks and prayed...we prayed out of Ephesians 5, asking God to reveal the mystry of the gospel through us to the people we would come in contact with...from there we began a prayer walk through the bustling streets...we never actually approached the Cathedral ,as we did in days past, we stayed mostly in the sorounding streets...

-Lunch Time! for lunch we went ot a cute little buffet style resturant...it was a huge blessing because a missionary couple that is a friend of the Mosers, bought the whole team lunch!

-After lunch we went walked around for a "siesta" break and looked in a few shops-

-Next it was back to bussiness...Ann and I went to a park that was near...we talked and prayed some more...I went to the bathroom and came out to find Ann chatting with a lady on a bench...I figured I would walk a little and let her continue on with the conversation but, little did I know that Ann was Struggling a bit...there was more confusion than actual communication going on because the woman spoke absolutly no English, and for those who do not know, Ann is not quite fluent nor remotely famliar with the Spanish vocabulary...so when I finally decided to join her and the woman Ann decided to go and find one of our Spanish speaking friends to asissit with the situation...I was then left with a dear old non-English speaking woman who seemed very intriged with the track Ann had given her...I then decided to attemtped to share my almonds with her, she declined...a short time after, I saw Ann and Ruth Moser on the horizion!...Ruth sat down with the woman and spoke with her about the Lord and even got to read her a few passages from the Bible...Ann and I sat on the other side of the bench and prayed...we once agian prayed out of Ephesians "...wake up oh sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you"...Ruth was able to talk to her for about 30 min...as we watched the woman walk away we prayed again that the seed that was planted today would blossom and grow...

-DRAMA...today was the first time that we have been able to do our drama..we did it right in the middle of a square, sorounded by shops and cafes...it drew a lot of attention...it was nerve-wrecking the first time...we di d it twice and had a good crowd for both...no matter what languge anyone spoke I truely feel the drama can relate...

-After that we packed up and walked to the train station to head back to the church for our 10 o clock dinner...it was good!

-Now it is bedtime!!...to get all rested up for tomorrow...

This has been Straight News with Anna and Ann...for the unedited version and deleted scenes speak with one of us...

We're In the Lord's Army!

2010-06-23T18:03:00.002-04:00

Today we were Prayer Warriors on the front line, pushing back the darkness of Santiago. Our prayers were for the veil to be lifted from the eyes of the people, and that God would shine through. The Spanish speakers took to the streets while the team scattered through the city to pray for divine appointments, and anything else God placed on our hearts. Today we tried to break down the boundaries, just enough to get God through. Satan is here, and our goal was to push our way in. We all feel that that wall is starting to crumble. Those out on the streets felt more acceptance today than any other day. People were taking tracks and bibles, and actually keeping and reading them! The mission is not over, there is still a lot of work to do in the city and this country, so we must continue to push down that wall to get through. Please keep these people in your prayers. Pray for us tomorrow as we set out once again to reach more people, pray for hearts to open and ears to listen. It hasn´t been easy to speak to others, and rejection is more common then acceptance. However we all have some pretty amazing stories to tell.

Today I (Kari) had the opportunity to partner up with Stephanie Langolf. We spent a good hour just in prayer and bible reading to prepare us for the day. We prayed for the team, for the church, the people, the city, and much more. God led us to three people today to speak with. Stephanie did all the talking (since she´s the Spanish genius ;) I did the praying. On our way to speak with some homeless men she had met yesterday, Stephanie and I felt drawn to a man on a bench. While we did not save him today, we planted the seed of God and gave him some information. After walking away, Stephanie turned around and said that is the same bench she met the homeless men yesterday. We both know that the bench at the same location was no accident, no coincidence, but divine appointment. While leaving the city today, I passed a woman on a bench reading a track, a woman that yesterday had said no to our group. God is here, and he´s not leaving!

There are many more amazing stories, Mary talking to someone from Portugual, Stephanie an Agnostic, Chuck a Buddist, and many more. Just know that God is using us, and we are being obedient in our faith. This mission has caused us all to grow personally on our spiritual walk. We are questioned on our faith, rejected and discouraged, tired and sore. Yet all of us go out every day to do God´s work. Ann asked me today to tell her the best thing on this trip and I thought I´d share it with you. For me I´ve grown so much personally. I´ve been praying out loud, talking to people in the streets, and sharing what God has shared with me. This has been my biggest and best reward so far. I have seen growth in all of us, it´s been amazing to watch us all work. Throughout the city today, we saw our team praying and sharing, we´ve been encouraging each other, and building each other up. I am truly blessed to be here with these people, and share this experience.

Well now that the serious part is over...I´ll share some of the fun stuff we´ve done today! We went to another couple´s apartment for lunch and had delicious sandwiches, and then went off to shop. Karli left her bag on the counter in a store, Anna bought cologne for men (thinking it was for a girl, have to love spanish!), Gerison (a church member) got lost and his group walked around for an hour, and we rode a train with tons of college kids. We´ve all gotten introduced to Café con leche, I´m convinced its the best coffee in the world! We´ve tried some delicious Spanish food, the best so far is Tortilla Español, hands down!!

Well its getting late and the rest of the group will arrive back at the church for dinner (yes its 10:35pm!) Please pray for us tomorrow to go with the same motivation and encouragement we had today. Pray for our drama to reach the hearts of many tomorrow, and help us to be obedient to God´s calling. I hope everyone has a wonderful night! We love you all!!

Download with Dawn!

2010-06-22T18:37:00.000-04:00

What another blessed day! I think all of us are finally adjusting to the time change and were able to get better rest last night, which was definitely a good thing as we spent a large portion of the day out on the streets sharing God's promise. We went through the gamet of emotions, disappointment, discouragement, uncertainty, joy, promise and success. We were a bit frustrated with the language barrier as we were hoping there would be more people near the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela that would speak English. One very interesting thing that one group from our team experienced was when they were around the cathedral, each person felt a darkness. Please continue to pray for these lost souls, as we will be doing. The most profound thing for me today is that I now have a firsthand experience of what Jesus Christ must have felt like when he was rejected by the people, especially knowing what he had to offer them. The one key thing that I need to remember is that it really is not up to us, God is the one in charge. We need to seek his wisdom and guidance through the Holy Spirit and he will do the rest. In closing, the team is really connecting with one another. And the laughter is flowing amongst us, which is great for me, and the rest, too.
Blessings and hugs! Ciao!
Dawn

Monday, Monday

2010-06-21T17:04:00.001-04:00

What a day! We woke up early and took the train to Santiago de Compostela where we were met by a tourguide. She showed us around this beautiful city where the cathedral was based. It was huge and ornate and beautiful. Its hard to believe it could last for hundreds of years, especially since the buildings in the US are around 300 years old. The buildings everywhere are from a numerous amount of time periods: Baroque, renaissance, romantic...To see the hills in the backround and all of the people was just spectacular. I really began to feel the culture of Northern Spain. But the one thing that was missing was Jesus. These buildings were made for priests and the pilgrimage these people walked was for nothing but themselves. At the end of the day, our sins our forgiven without having to do anything. Christ did it all. All these people have to show for their long walk is a piece of paper signed by the Bishop. All for religion. But because we have a relationship with Jesus Christ we have the gift of eternal life. That is way better than all of the fancy buildings and long pilgrimage. We have Christ because he has our love. God thank you!! Muchas Gracias!! I truly see the reason for why we are here. I am excited to see how God uses me and the team tomorrow to reach these people. Keep praying!!
~Mindy Sivecz

12 Happy Campers!

2010-06-20T16:06:00.001-04:00

Our luggage has arrived...all 13 pieces. Praise the Lord we can be clean again! :)

It's an Adventure

2010-06-20T13:43:00.000-04:00

Well, still no luggage so far, but there's a rumor floating around that we'll be getting it tonight. Everyone has been sharing what we can and things are working out all right. The good news: I discovered some excellent Spanish deodorant. And also candy. I'll let you figure out which one is more important. Today we met at the church for Sunday morning service which started at 11:00. Beat that, Venue. Just kidding. Mindy sang beautifully while accompanying herself on the guitar. I wish I could do that. We all sang (and by sang I mean mumbled awkwardly) through several songs in Spanish with familiar melodies. I clapped enthusiastically.

After the service, we had an hour to kill before lunch at the church, so we got a nice tour around the beach and the marina from Ruth. The weather is beautiful today! Lunch was some sort of chicken/potato/carrot/pea/broth dish with some yummy bread on the side and plenty of strangely flavored pop. Everything was delicious and the people from the church have been serving us nonstop. Spaniards are super friendly, which is great, considering the rule at lunch was that we were not allowed to sit next to English speakers. It was actually hilarious and a lot of fun, and I got a lot more talking done than I expected.

I learned that only .02% of the people in Spain are Christians, a fact which was really shocking to me. Please be praying for the people of Spain, and that God will be able to use us to effectively reach them.

We're about to have dinner with Ruth and Howard, and I'm pretty sure pizza is on the menu. So adios for now! I know where my priorities are. Much love, Karli

Travel to Spain

2010-06-19T13:11:00.004-04:00

Well as many of you know, I am off on another trip with another team. This time I am in Villagarcia, Spain. We have arrived safely, and I wish I could say the same for our luggage. Unfortunatly it is still somewhere over the Atlantic. We are told it should arrive some time tomorrow afternoon. Please feel free to pray about that as all of the material we need for our drama and other ministry items are in those bags....as well as we won't mind having some clean clothes.

But today the story I want to share with you is our amazing adventure of how we got here in the first place. When we left Port Huron we only had seats for six of our 12 team members on the first flight from Detroit to Chicago. So we arrived 3 hours in advance to make sure we all got on the flight. We checked in and were given boarding passes, but still only had 6 people with assigned seats. So we went to the gate early and I asked the lady who was just finishing up loading a flight if she could help us make sure we had seats for everyone. When she pulled up our itinterary she told us our flight was overbooked and she couldn't be sure we would all get on it. But the flight she was loading was going to Chicago and she could fit six of the team on that flight so that we all got there before our connecting flight. That was great...she got seats for 6 and then asked if we wanted her to try and put the whole team on the earlier flight. She was able to get all 12 of us on the earlier flight. Total God thing, but we didn't know how important that would be just yet.

So we land in Chicago ahead of a big thunderstorm. We get our boarding passes for the rest of our connecting flights and eat some dinner. A huge storm rolls in and you can hardly see a few feet outside the window. Crazy windy and lightening. Storm blows over, our flight is still planning to go out, but a bit later....But the Detroit to Chicago flight that we were suppose to be on was delayed until 6:30. The plane for Madrid was long gone, from the gate by that time. God knew we all needed to be in Chicago early or half of the team would have missed the Spain flight.

Soooooo....it's not over yet folks....we get on the plane to Madrid and push away from the gate....two hours late, but we have a four hour layover so no problem....But....we are in line to take off and it's a bit backed up because of the earlier storm....we are number 48 in line to take off. How long does it take for that many planes to take off you may ask.....well over 2 hours. So now our four hour layover is gone and we will be pushing it to make our connection.

Get to Madrid, yep, misssed the flight. Stand in long line for over an hour to try and get on the next flight....12 people on one flight....what are the odds. Well they are good when God is involved. All 12 got tickets on the next flight to Santiago. Amazing!

When we got to Santiago...our luggage was not to be found...not surprising, but they were able to locate it and said it was in route to Spain and would make the connection and be here around 1pm tomorrow and then they will deliver it to us by about 4pm. That's the plan anyway.

Tomorrow for church we are going casual as each of us brought pj's and a change of clothes in our carry on.

Thanks so much for all of the prayers. We had safe flights, we saw God's hand in the details and we are also getting to learn valuable spiritual lessons on patience as we wait for our luggage. Isn't God just so awesome to provide all of that for us.

Starting tomorrow a different team member will be sharing with you about our day. Until then....this is Ann writing for the Spain 2010 team.

Sanuk shoes

2010-05-28T17:09:00.004-04:00

Check out my friend Danielle's blog at yelliepooh.blogspot.com for an awesome giveaway of shoes from Sanuk. These are probably one of my most favorite brands of shoes ever and she is giving away a free pair. Who can beat a free pair of shoes?

Last Day in Mexico

2010-04-10T15:57:00.001-04:00

Well tomorrow we leave. Our time here has been great with lots of great stories to come home too. The last 2 days we spend cleaning more daycares, yard work at the school of champions and more feedings. Every feeding we did we always ran out of food and we had to bring back more later. On Thursday night some of the workers from the church even went out at midnight to feed the people who work on the dump itself recycling as much of what we call waste as they can. Today is our off day and so Tony and I sat by the pool at the hotel while Patrick, Reed and Greg went on a mission to find a parasailing place so they could fly over the ocean with a parachute on their back. Tonight we will eat at our favorite authentic Mexican restaurant that we take all of our teams to, PiPi´s. I think the team is looking forward to coming home but not our travel day tomorrow. You can be praying for us as we will leave our hotel at 4:45 in the morning to get to the airport by 5. Our flight leaves at 7. This is all Puerto Vallartan time of course. Which would mean airport by 6 and fly out at 8. Looking forward to seeing you all. Thanks for all your prayers.

Big Dan

News from Mexico!

2010-04-08T21:13:00.000-04:00

These past few days have been very interesting. Between the feedings and the work we do its going by very quickly too. The feedings that we do are normally just baked goods and some watered down concentrate juice, but last night we got hot food that was left over at Vallarta Adventures. The food is all bagged and taken to the dump. This feeding was proabably one of the most interesting of the week. On our way to our first stop, our driver, Isreal, ran over a poor little dog. He felt really bad as probably all of us did. Once we got to our stop, we passed out the hot food to parents and bread to the kids. We also passed out toothebrushes and toothepaste. There was 4 other stops just like this but by our 2nd we had run out of toothebrushes and toothepste to hand out. The 5th planned stop was the dump, where we actually go on the dump and feed the people working in it. Unfortunately, we ran out of food at our 4th stop. Luckily though, the bakery gave us some more bread for Isreal to take back to the dump later on that evening, as if it wasn't late enough at 8:30. All in all we had the pleasure of feeding 208 kids and 99 adults. The group hadn't eaten since 2 pm anyways so we were extremly hungry. We took the bus to the Malecon to eat at the Happy Ant but there was so much traffic that the bus driver made us get off the bus so we had to walk at least a mile and a half with crowded sidewalks. So Dan took the lead and with his big frame we cut through everybody. When people saw Big Dan moving fast towards them they moved rather quickly out of the way. Finally, we got to the taco stand and had a rather large portion of food, 28 tacos and 9 drinks between the 5 of us. All at the cheap price of 342 pesos (about 28 bucks). To sum that up…Tacos and pop at the Happy Ant-342 pesos, bus ride to the Happy Ant-32.5 pesos, watching Big Dan move super fast down the Malecon while people flew out of the way---- PRICELESS! This morning we did more daycare cleaning. I think our experience with the weed wacker is done though. It fell apart while Reed was using it....surprise surprise!! We also cleaned a roof where there were so many ants that you couldn't see the ground. As we were getting down from the roof, Reed dropped his water bottle over a ledge into a thorn filled bush. Watching him get it out was a lot of fun for everybody but Reed. Over all this trip has been really fun. Sleeping on air matresses in the church and showering outside everyday (with a curtain of course). It's been going by so fast I can't even believe how much we have done. We are all looking forward to our free day this saturday and to finnally coming home on sunday. But until then, adios! Small Tony

Just Another Day is Paradise

2010-04-08T07:36:00.001-04:00

The group here is doing very well. We are in high spirits and are getting much work accomplished here. Last night we went to the School of Champions, where kids that do well in school go to learn more in hope to get a decent paying job in Puerto Vallerta. While there we passed out bread and food to all the kids that attend. They got the opportunity to listen to a sermon directed towards their age and sang many common songs that we, the group, used to sing when we were of that age. They were very excited to get food and were pleased to see people from another country who had come to take care of them. I can still picture the smiles on their faces. Patrick went around and took many pictures of the sight and of the children who were there. The kids were very fond of the digital camera he had and were estatic when they saw themselves on a screen. All in all the kids had a blast. Today we went to two daycares and helped do some work that needed to be done. At the first one we did a lot of yardwork: weedwhipping, sweeping, and using the machetees(don´t know if I spelled it right but it is the giant sword things):). The weedwhip broke at the the first sight and we had to work it with a missing part, but we were able to get both sites done. At the second site we painted a room in the daycare and fixed up the area in front of it. The painting was messy, but we were able to take a shower afterwords so it was fine. The group is now about to go and give out some dental supplies and food. We are fine and know that we are in your prayers and we thank you for that. Tomorrow it is Tony´s turn to write again.

-Greg

Late Nights in the City Dump

2010-04-06T16:52:00.000-04:00

So far this trip has been crazy. Last night we went to see this massive dump in the city. It was huge! I dont think ive ever seen so many vultures in one place. Anyway, we were on our way there with food and drinks to help the 100 or so people looking through the trash to find something they needed or could use. You could tell the minute we arrived. The stench was awful, and the dump was lit by several lights scattered throughout the dump. It wasnt the smell that made me sick though. It was the sight. I couldnt believe that so many people had to look through garbage to find what they needed. It really opened my eyes to the extreme poverty in some countries. We passed out as much bread and water as we could to the people there, but we soon ran out because of the sheer number of people that wanted some.

Today was pretty cool too. We got to help out at a couple nurseries this morning that weren´t in use. We cleaned the places up pretty good. Tonight we´re doing what´s called a "hot feeding." We´re passing out hot food to people that need it. It should be pretty exciting. Tomorrow you will be hearing from Greg.

Reed

Monday in Mexico

2010-04-06T15:57:00.000-04:00

Wow Mexico is great! I never would have thought how fun it is to be down here. There are so many new things to do, so much to see. I wish I could do everything but that would take a long time. I am sad to say it but I wish I would have learned more Spanish. I wish we had food like this back in the USA! Thank God for air conditioning. Even with it being so hot we are getting a lot done. So far today we cleaned a day care that was covered in dust. We had to clean the floor, clean the chairs and then clean the floor again. It was fun and we worked well as a team and got it all done an hour faster than was given to us. We are going to hand out food tonight from 6-10 and I am looking foreword to that! We have a lot of work in our path and we are going to get it done. Tomorrow Reed will write.

Patrick

Sunday in Puerto Vallarta

2010-04-05T09:20:00.002-04:00

Today was kind of a layed back day. We woke for church an hour earlier than we needed to. And we also had a time change making us lose another hour of sleep. (daylight savings). We went to first service church and there was only about 15 people. Afterwards, we had tacos for breakfast and Reed found out that the hot sauce causes taste loss. The second service of church was packed so we didn't go to it. We walked around a little bit and sat outside. After Church was over the team ate lunch and played some cards because there wasn't much to do. Later on, Josh took Dan and us to buy some grocerys. After, we ate dinner at a really good pizza place and walked along the malicon. So far we are having a lot of fun and look forward to the rest of the week.
The next blog will be written by Patrick until then Adios!

Tony

Five Guys in Mexico

2010-04-03T23:47:00.002-04:00

Hello from Puerto Vallarta,
Our team (Tony Guizar, Reed Simpson, Patrick Palmateer, Greg Palmateer and I) made it just fine yesterday after a long day of travel. We flew from Detroit to Mexico City where we were supposed to have about a 5 hour delay. If that’s not long enough we find out after about 4 ours that our plane was delayed due to airplane issues. After about and hour they finally figured we needed a new plane and began to board. Our 5 hour delay ended up being about 6 ½ hours. Our plan was to go to the church when we got off the plane so that we could shower and rest but when we got off the plane our driver informed us that the church, Perdon y Amistad, was having a worship service on the Malecon (the big tourist trip in Puerto Vallarta) and said we were going to be dropped off there so we could watch. He dropped us off and said he would be back in an hour to get us. Unfortunately it was a little to busy there for him to get back so about an hour and a half later we took the bus back to the church. It was a fun adventure that included us getting some Domino’s pizza so it was all worth it. When we got back to the church we took showers and the guys sat down on their air mattress to relax and in about 10 seconds they were all snoring.
Today we woke up and had breakfast at the church with about 40 other people. The church just got done with a youth conference. Today was the last day so they had a big breakfast and invited us to eat with them. We then cleaned up the church for a bit and took a tour of the dump and the surrounding areas. After that we had lunch at the church and then played some cards while we relaxed a bit. Tonight is filled with dinner and more rest as tomorrow and the rest of the week should be super busy. Tomorrow you will have the pleasure of hearing about our day from Tony Guizar, until then enjoy your Easter.

Team Gets Revenge...

2010-02-12T21:49:00.002-05:00

Hello there! This is Kristen AGAIN for another blog of our day in Mexico.
Today was our last day working with the Children of the Dump. Tomorrow is our fun day so we had to say goodbye to all of our Mexican brothers who helped us at the work sites. It has been such a blast working with them. They almost made cleaning an abandoned house with random wild life in it seem like fun. And it was great seeing how even though they live in a different country we are all the same in Christ's eyes.
Now to be a little less serious, the team pulled a prank on Scott today. :) Scott is notoriuosly known for being the prankster of the team. On monday he put a fake lizard on my bag, he would take grass and run it across our legs and yell, "Snake!Snake!", he "lost" Lionel's shoe, and did other various jokes during the week. So don't think that the team all united against Scott un-provoked.
Yesterday Susan found a broken cleaver knife, so that if you put it up against you it looked like you were stabbed. This gave us a wonderful idea...
Today we set the stage for the prank. Susan took some Ketchup and the knife to the site today, which was another nursery to clean out. We went into the kitchen while Scott was outside and scattered pots and pans everywhere. Ann sat down and spread Ketchup all over her leg. On the count of three, Susan and I dropped a bunch of pots and pans on the ground and I let out a convincing shriek of terror. Scott and Lionel came running and found, in terror, Ann laying on the ground with a cleaver knife sticking out of her leg. I tried not to laugh as Scott ran for the pathetic little first aid kit and pulled out a 3 inch bandaid. Then Ann yelled: "Gotcha!" and we all started laughing. After looking confused for a second, Scott laughed and admitted that it was a funny joke. :)
We then continued to the next project which was ANOTHER nursery to clean. This thing was so filthy that after one look we said, "Where's the power washer?" We proceded to power wash the whole place; including the bed rooms and the bathrooms. We found some dead scorpians and ALOT of cockroaches. It was disgusting! However, we worked together and the place was completed in about 2 hours.
Lionel suffered another wound today. While Isreal was lifting up a ladder, he wacked Lionel on the head and he fell and with a thud he landed on the ground. We ran up to him to make sure he was okay and after a few minutes he seemed okay. We were confused because our Mexican brothers just sat and watched it happen. When we asked them about it they said, "Isn't this another joke?" And so we learned our lesson about playing jokes about people hurting themselves.
And Scott didn't help inside. He stayed on the roof and took pictures. :(In Scott's defense...he was told to stay on the roof and take surveillance photos of a car casing the joint....although he did complain alot about the heat....this is a side note from Ann).
After we completed our tasks, we said our last goodbyes to our new amigos. We went back to our hotel and cleaned up and then went shopping. I successfully learned to bargain with the Mexican vendors. I wanted something and he wanted 300 pesos for it. I said 150 and stayed there until at last the vendor let me have my price. A couple times I pretended to walk away until they ran after and came down on their price. I was so proud of myself.
One last thing: Today Daniel, one of the people helping us, brought some native fruits to try. I went out of my comfort zone and decided to try it. Fortunately for me, I washed it in purified water before I ate it. (fyi: It was gross.)He later came up to me and said, " I am so sorry! I washed it in our water here! I didn't think about how you can't drink the water!" I explained that I had washed it before I ate it and that no harm was done. But he kept on saying, "I'm so sorry! I could have killed you!" So I guess I was almost killed today....
So that was our day today. Tomorrow is our fun day and we will be four wheeling through the forest. It has been an awsome experience so far. God has been teaching us some lessons about being humble, working hard, and helping those less fortunate. We will be back in the states in 2 days! Adios!
P.S. Susan says to say that God made the sunset beautiful today, which was true. It just doesn't look like that in Michigan...

Thusday in Mexico

2010-02-11T23:03:00.002-05:00

Hello all! This is Kristen blogging in for our 3rd to last day here in Mexico.
Today began with a health counciense breakfast. For me that inclduded a double chocolate muffin, frence fries, and a pepsi. (*Ann does not endorse any food choices made by the individuals on this trip.) After that, we headed off to the church. On our trip to the work cite we created a team song. Inspired by the Black Eyed Peas, we created the song, "I gotta feeling, that todays gonna be a good day." That might not seem significant to most, but it was a huge step into the 21st century for those over 40.
After a 30 minute car ride, we arrived at the site. After waiting an additional 15 minutes, we discovered we didn't have keys to get in. We then piled into the van again and drove 20 minutes more to a new site, to which we did have keys. It was way up into the mountains and far away, so it was a great photo op.
We were (again) cleaning out a old nursery school which the Children of the Dump owned. There were very few specimen of wild life except for some lizards and a salmader. And Ann thought she saw a lion, which turned out to be a cow. Lionel, however, won the purple heart for the day. He and Scott attacked the jungle outside the building and he had a bad run in with a bush with thorns. He still carries the scars.
Ann informed the crew we were leaving alittle early, so we ate at the church and then went home to clean up. Ann then prepared for her messege and the rest of us went shopping. I have now learned how to say "NO" and not feel bad because the vendors tried to sell everything but the kitchen sink to me..
We then went to feed the chilren at the school. My friend Alexia and I helped in the nursery watching the babies,which were very cute.
I then had to say goodbye to my good friend Alexia, because tomorrow is our last work day and she won't be there. I am excited to go back home but I am going to miss my friends here

And the Women built a road...

2010-02-10T22:59:00.003-05:00

Wow what a day, you never know what we will be doing from day to day but today was a real blinger. We were back to the day care building for some fun in the sun, not to work on our sun tans but to work on the jungle that had grown up all around the place. My job was to run the weed wacker, some old machine they found in the back room. The first thing you do is get an old hose and suck gas out out of the truck and into a plastic water bottle and gas her up and try to start the antique, are we having fun yet? The girls spent the morning moving rocks to build a driveway, Keith ran the wheel barrow and Lionel played he man attacking a fifty foot long bush on the side of a wall. No big crazed opposums or poison sewer frogs today but I was always on the lookout for something to jump or crawl out of the bush. We got lucky and finished the job. Back on the bus for that great twenty minute ride back to the hotel for a shower only to turn around to get back on the bus to go back to the church to meet the van to go get food at Vallarta Advertures. We bagged up all the leftover food and went to feed the kids. Have you ever taken a van ride in a small mini van with eight people sitting on kindergarden chairs with ten garbage bags full of bread, four trays of sweet rolls, two five gallon bottles of water two eight foot folding tables and three ten pound bags of oranges? The whole time you are bagging bread and holding on for your life. We finished up our day at the Happy Ant taco stand. Tomorrow is another adventure.
Today's blogger was Scott Bradley...he is our resident practical joker...watch out Scott the team is plotting to get you back.

A few thoughts from Ann...

Tonight I was asked to speak at the church for their evening service. I spoke on the idea that we all have a purpose and that we need to be busy preparing our lives so that when defining moments arrive we are ready to go forward fullfilling that those purposes. After the meeting I was asked to pray for many of the ladies who were wanting God to reveal his pusposes for thier lives and I talked with a number of ladies who told me the messages was a direct confirmation to what the Lord was speaking to them about. It was a great time. Now on to tomorrow's mystery job.

Tuesday with Lionel

2010-02-09T23:03:00.002-05:00

Hello from Mexico,

I slept very well last night after what I thought was a lot of work on Monday. I had no idea what work is until we walked into the school building for todays assignment. I will get to that in a minute. Susan and I made sandwiches at Pete and Celina's home. Pressure was on to keep up with the great sandwiches that Kristin and Ann made yesterday. At breakfast, Kristin tried kiwi, thumbs down on the kiwi. At least she tried them. Scott, as usual, got up early and walked the town. He found a new bakery shop and munched some pasteries before he met up with the team. At breakfast, the team told Kristin what we appreciate/like about her. Trust me, she wasn't thrown off the island.
So, this building was so dirty that there was no place to put our backpacks down, out of the crud. The building has been used as storage for the most part...rooms full of toilets, cribs, baby high chairs, oppossums, tarantulas and 4" spiders that could easily carry off a baby. After a lot of screaming and jumping around...mostly on my part, we got the oppossum out of the building. Scott wanted to take the tarantula, several geckos, and lizards home with him, but we talked him out of it. (you owe me, Celeste).
Keith and Kristin worked hard sorting out the baby high chairs, Scott and Ann power washed a couple of rooms and floors, Susan cleaned the only bathroom that "sort of worked". Kristin swepted floors and everyone help move nearly 8000 pounds (estimated weight) of baby cribs, so that a room could be cleaned.
We went back to the hotel. I showered and was so dirty that I soaped down 3 times before I felt clean. I have a new appreciation of what dirty and nasty really is. Kristin said she didn't have "tan lines" but plenty of "dirt lines".
We went back to the School of Champions where Ann taught a bible class on the subject of "fear", Keith and I played basketball with the children, Scott played in the nursery, Susan took pictures and played with the kids, and Kristin helped out with a 5/6 year old childrens class. Susan brought bright stick on stickers for the kids shirts and they had a big kick out of them.
We finished the day with Italian dinner and Kristin, head down on the table, sleeping. Speaking of sleeping, GOOD NIGHT!!!!!!
Lionel

Monday...off to work we go!

2010-02-08T21:50:00.002-05:00

Hola! This is Kristen writing the blog for today! :)
This morning was Ann and mine´s turn to make lunch for the team so we had to wake up at 7:00 am to walk to Pete and Celinas`s house to make sandwiches. They were already up and expecting us. I was informed by Ann that I was too liberal in my jelly usage, but then later we confirmed to be superb sandwiches.
After breakfast, which was at our cafe where we eat everyday, we hopped on the city bus for another adventurous ride. In Mexico, they drive crazy on one way cobble-stone streets full of people. I was thankful to arrive at the church. We then got a ride from Israel, one of the drivers, to the School of Champions.
Today was day one of the sprucing-up the school project. We arrived and were asked to help set up the computers for the temporary computer lab. The school did have a computer lab set up, but they had been experiencing power surges which broke 3 computers, so they had to move it until they could fix it. And when I say computer lab, I don't mean the million dollar ones we have at home. I mean a 2 room building with dirt floors and one chalk board, which happens to have 6 computers in it. It was humbling to see how they saw that as rich, and inb America it would be considered poor.
After the lab was set up, we went to the old nursery. The building was abandoned because the program had flopped, and now they were going to permanently move their computer lab to the old nursery. We walked in and saw that the place was a mess!! They didn´t have a door, just a gate, so all the dirt blew in and covered everything. We started by moving all the garbage out onto the street. When we took the old, ratty toys that had been used in the nursery out to the street, the children swarmed and fought over the sad excuse of a toy. It made me very sad to watch it, because I have plenty of old toys which are way nicer than a rag doll and beaten up spider man.
After all the garbage was out, we started cleaning. Scott found three lizards and put them on his arm and shirt and continued to work! I stayed far away from him. We swept, mopped, whiped, and cleaned out almost everything in that building. Well, Ann, Susan and I did. The guys spent the whole time trying to fix a broken washing machine, and never succeded :)
After that we had lunch, and that is when I was informed of my exquisite sandwich making abilities. After that, Ann had to finish mopping so the guys and I went out to clean the playground. But before we made it out, Scott pulled a prank on me. He somehow had a rubber lizard with him, so he put it in my bag so when I reached into it I saw the lizard and jumped! It was funny....after. The team is plotting to get him back.
The afternoon was spent picking up garbage from the park. As we were working, the kids got out of school and came to play and talk with us. One girl even helped us clean! We have alot of cute photos of scott and I with the kids and playing on the playground. They practiced their English with us, and were proud to remember to say, "Bye bye" when we left.
All that's left to do today is to have our team meeting and have dinner. Tomorrow we will be doing alot more, even though we arrived at our hotel exhausted.
One last note: I gave everyone on the team Spanish nick names. Scott is Chameleon because of the lizards. Lionel is Leon, meaning lion, Susan is Dulce, meaning sweet, Keith is Señor Choque, meaning Mr. Shock, because he electrocuted himself today. The team has named me Princesa Ojo Azul, meaning princess blue eyes, and our fearless leader, Ann, is El capitan, or la protona, meaning the boss.

Sunday night

2010-02-07T22:17:00.004-05:00

I awoke to a wonderful clear Sunday. Today we get to wear our Sunday best clothes. Scott was the most colorful with bright plaid shorts. Ann and Kristen with their color coordinated blues, and Susan, Lionel and myself with more conservative khakis and collared shirts. Pete and Celina were our hosts again as we prepared for church and the rest of day. We left for the church service at Perdon y Amistad in Puerto Vallarta which means Forgiveness and Friendship. I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Pastor Saul Gonzales and his wife Raquel. Church service proved to be inspirational. Pastor Saul presented a strong message on conversion. The central theme was the absolute need to have a total trust in God and that total conversion requires ones internal conversion to God and the external conversion to love your neighbor which comes from the heart thru God. Not all who claim to be Christians are actually genuine believers. Another key point he emphasized for me is that we all must forgive those who have failed us but that forgiveness does not mean trust. That has to be earned.

However, even more inspirational for me was that the amount of enthusiasm, joy and open friendliness that the congregation demonstrated throughout the service and afterwards. There was a feeling of hope and faith even with those who are very needy. Kristen had the opportunity to attend Sunday school with Alexia whom she met last night and was excited about how well accepted she was with the teenagers in her group and that she was able to interact with them.

After church the eight of us took an extended hike into the hills and forest around the city where we experienced the full gamut of living conditions from the poverty stricken small shacks to the 10,000 aquare foot condos with fantastic views of the bay. We took many pictures of people, animals and scenery that had a significant impact on us. It was a great experience to actually see, listen and talk to the local people and we are now looking forward to starting tomorrow with a full days work in updating the Day Care building near the School of Champions. We all felt that at our team meeting we have excellent comradery and look forward to having a great impact on the ability to provide better educational resources for the children at the school.

Today's blog was written by Keith Pierce

Saturday in Puerto VAllarta

2010-02-07T10:48:00.004-05:00

Greetings from a first time blogger (Susan). We began the day as tourist and ended the day ovewhelmed with emotion.

Scott, Kieth, Lionel and I started the day with an 7:00 am walk along the beach watching the city come to life.

After breakfast we took the bus up to the church and toured the School of Champions. The kids attend public school and then come to the School of Champions to learn trade skills. Electricity to keep the computers running is one of the current building challenges.

A van tour of the neighborhoods surrounding the dump and an drive through the dump itself was a very emotional experience. The small shacks made only from items found in the garbage were filled with children all eager to welcome us with amazing smiles and waving hands. Back home hearing about this communty making a living off the dump is very different than seeing the reality of those words. Individuals with a metal poker and a bag tied to their waist stand on a mountian of trash riping open garbage bags and carfully examing contents seeking items (metal, cardboard, plastic...) that will bring a few pesos. Items we would discarded without a thought are an only source of income for the families surounding the dump. Words to describe this are hard to find.

In the evening Kristin, Lionel and I went back to help the delivering food to 6 areas around and in the dump. At each stop, kids and parents gathered very appreciative to have the opportuntiy to have something that evening.

Please keep us in your prayers.
Dios le bendiga
Susan

Mexico...Friday night

2010-02-05T21:28:00.003-05:00

This is just a quick note to let you all know that we have arrived in Mexico safe and sound. The flights were relatively smooth as flights go. Tomorrow we will be taking a tour of the Children of the Dump facility and seeing where we will be working and then running the errands getting food and other supplies for our week of work. Thanks for the prayers....and please keep praying.

Mexico 2010

2010-01-25T11:13:00.003-05:00

Well it is that time of year....we are heading off with another team to work in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with the children of the Dump. This year we have a team of 6 who will be primarily doing work projects to improve the facilities for the ministry. Starting on Feb. 6th we will be updating you all on our daily adventures, mishaps , fun times and God moments. Please pray for this team and for our travel to and from Mexico. If you have ever read any of my other trip posts, you know that there always seems to be a travel story...and most of them are of delays. I appreciate any prayers leading up to the travel and throughout the trip. Thanks ahead of time for being part of the team through your prayer. We surely need it!

Yesterday....the 30 hour day.

2009-11-19T08:53:00.006-05:00

Yesterday Leona and I got up, finished packing and Denny and Linda took us to the airport to fly home. Both Leona and I hate to fly so we were not excited about the 7.5 hour flight across the ocean that we had ahead of us, but we were headed home to our family and friends so that was good. Due to the time changes we were able to enjoy a 30 hour day and finally arrived at our homes sometime around what our bodies thought was 4 am, but the clock said was 11pm.

For me this trip was different because I did not have a team to take care of while in the country. Normally I will travel with 5 to 8 people who I am responsible for taking care of and ministering to their needs as well as those we are serving in country. This time I had the privilege of traveling with just Leona, who is more like my big sister (who therefore tends to look out for me), so I was able to spend more time talking with the ladies on the retreat and in prayer than I usually do.

Speaking of Leona...It was awesome to be able to share this trip with her. She is a great ministry partner and I look forward to more trips together sharing the gospel and encouraging women in Christ. I had the chance to watch as God used Leona's gift of music, her listening ear and caring heart as the women opened up to her and shared their lives. On Saturday night, as I mentioned earlier, Leona and I did a time of music and worship with the ladies and Leona shared some of her life story with them. She was extremely transparent and real and it led to a number of great opportunities for the ladies to open up with her and share some of their hurts and pains as well.

Overall this trip was a good one. It was great to see how many of the people I met during my first trip to Ireland, almost 4 years ago, are now believers and are growing in their journey with the Lord. Denny and Linda did a great job of taking care of Leona and I during our time there and we would ask that you pray for them as they continue to minister to the people of Ireland.

Next up for me is the Mexico team in February, but before I can even think of that trip I need to recover from yesterdays 30 hour day. Until later....thanks for your prayers, all that took place on this trip was a direct result of you lifting us up in prayer to our awesome Dad.

Tuesday at The Axis

2009-11-19T08:44:00.003-05:00

Tuesday was the final day of ministry in Dublin. Leona and I worked on music for the time of worship and I put together a final message to share. I had an entirely different plan for that evening, but on Tuesday morning it seemed the Lord had a different idea so I changed my message. Sometimes God has different plans than us...so I tried to go with it.

One place I wanted Leona to see was a seaside village called Howth so we took a drive to the sea for lunch. Had some excellent fresh fish and chips in the harbor and then it was off to Ballymun to see the kids in the Asiling project and get set up for the evening service. For those who are not familiar with Ballymun...it is the very low income area of Dublin. The Asiling project works with disadvantage kids who live in this area. The first time I brought a team here we spent most of our time working with these kids so it was great to see some of the staff and check out their new location.

At the Axis we got set up and spent time with the people Denny and Linda are working with in small home groups around the area. Worship went well, Leona's song ministered to the people and then I brought the message I felt the Lord had for this group....overall we felt that God was honored and His truth was heard. Our prayer is that those who were there would take the message and apply it in their own lives.

After the meeting it was time to head home to pack up for travel the next day. We were tired!

The Free Day!

2009-11-19T08:37:00.004-05:00

On Monday Leona and I had a chance to check out downtown Dublin. We were hoping for a beautiful sunny day, but then remembered we were in Ireland and settled for an occasionally saw the sun, somewhat rainy, fairly windy day instead. Fortunately for us, we seem to have fun and laugh no matter what the circumstances so we had a great day. We took the Hop on Hop off Bus that gives you a tour of the major sites of Dublin so we got to see most things as well as get a bit of shopping in as well. I also had an emotional mishap with a three legged dog, but that is another story...

I will try and post some pictures on here later today and there will be more posted on Facebook. Tuesday is another ministry day so we will be back at it.

Sunday night after the Retreat

2009-11-15T11:25:00.007-05:00

Wow, what a great weekend. We had a brilliant time with the ladies at the retreat. Friday night started with a great meal and a good time of fellowship and worship. Saturday morning we had a morning session that started with worship and then Leona sang a few songs and I spoke to the ladies about Reflections of God. My theme was on having a correct view of who our God is: His character and nature.

The afternoon was free time. Leona spent part of the time in the prayer room meeting with people and praying with them. We had time to fit in a quick walk around the grounds and talk about the upcoming evening session.

The Saturday evening session was a time of music and reflections on life and God's faithfulness to us through the years. Leona shared some of her testimony and life's story with the ladies and we sang a few songs and led a time of worship. It was an emotional evening which led to a number of great conversations about how God can carry us through even the most difficult of life's circumstances. The evening ended with homemade pizza and conversation around the table.

Today the theme was Refections of Us with the emphasis on how God sees us and how he feels about us. So many women struggle with a low self esteem and need to be reminded of how precious they are to the Lord. Leona sang two songs that spoke to that theme and ministered to the ladies hearts through music.

After another good meal, we were on our way back to Drogheda to Denny and Linda's to catch up on our sleep. One thing we can say about the ladies in Ireland....they are great cooks and know how to treat a guest.

To me one of the highlights was talking with those I had met last year and hearing how they are doing. There were a number of great conversations about the Lord during our three days in An Tobar.

Tomorrow we are off to have a fun day of sight seeing in Dublin. Look out city we are on our way.

Thursday morning in Ireland!

2009-11-13T06:24:00.003-05:00

Top of the Morning to you all!!!!

Ann, Linda, and I are off to a place called An Tobar which is a meeting place for people, especially people from communities experiencing disadvantage, who are involved in working for Justice, Peace and searching for a Meaningful Spirituality.

We are "Lord Willing" going to be involved in Leading People to Jesus Christ. He is their only answer for the many problems and trials that most face here on a daily basis.
We were just informed of a lady that will not be coming to the retreat, as her husband's brother died this morning. (25 years old). This was going to be her birthday present from her husband, but she now needs to stay home with the family. Please be in prayer for Noleen and her husband as they are believer, and most of their family members are not.

Our ride has just arrived so we are loading up "stuff....." and will be on our way. I will write more as the day goes on.

WE are looking forward to what God is going to do this weekend. God is Good, and His faithfulness is everlasting!!
Praise God for His love!

Here we are...in Ireland...eating cake!

2009-11-12T15:07:00.004-05:00

Well we have arrived safe and sound. Today was a day of getting settled, working on music for the weekend and talking through the plans for the week with Denny and Linda. We are soon to head to bed to try and make up for the lost sleep on the planes. The flights went well, but I don't think either one of us got much sleep. Tomorrow we head to the retreat center to get ready for the weekend. The guest will arrive around 5:00pm and then it is a laid back evening of getting to know people. Saturday morning I will be speaking and Leona will sing a few songs, in the evening we will be doing a mini concert and sharing some of our lives stories. Then I will speak again on Sunday morning and Leona will sing again. We are looking forward to a good time with all of the ladies. I am hoping to connect with some of those who were at last years retreat and I am excited for Leona to meet them as well. Denny and Linda are taking great care of us: we have had some wonderful meals and we each have our own room at their house. We will try and write again tomorrow before we head to the retreat and then when we get back on Sunday night we will fill you in on all that has happened while we were away. Until then.....good night.

Oh, I almost forgot the cake part...tomorrow is Denny's birthday so we celebrated it with him tonight and had birthday cake...did I mention that we are having great meals?

Today is the Day!

2009-11-11T09:06:00.004-05:00

Ready or not, Leona and I are heading to Ireland today. Looking back on all the obstacles and questions about whether or not we would be taking this trip...it seems hard to believe we are actually leaving. I am looking forward to all that God is going to do through us this next week. We will be doing some music, I will be speaking and Leona will be sharing her life story during one the sessions at the retreat. Please pray for her as she is not the public speaker in this team. I know that God is going to use her story and all that she has gone through to touch the ladies lives. Many will be able to relate to the challenges and disappointments she has faced over the years.

So, I better finish the last minute packing and get going, but before I do....let me thank you ahead of time for your prayers....they will mean so much the next seven days. Thanks to those who have helped make it financially possible for us to do this trip as well. All of you who gave and all of you who pray...this is your trip as well. Watch the blog to see what God is doing with your investment of time and money...it wouldn't happen without you.

2009-11-04T14:56:00.003-05:00

Ireland...one week from today I am heading back to the Emerald Isle. Last year I had the opportunity to speak at a women's conference at a retreat center outside of Dublin. I must have done a decent job since they invited me back to speak at their conference this year as well. I am looking forward to reconnecting with those I met last year as well as meetng new people.

This year instead of taking an entire team, I have the privledge of traveling with my ministry partner, Leona Seller. Leona will be sharing with the ladies using her gift of singing as well as sharing her story with the ladies. I am looking forward to seeing all that God is going to do through Leona sharing her life with those who attend the conference.

Please pray for us as we finish up the final details and preperation on messages and music. We will be posting updates here throughout the week that we are gone.

Review of Fearless by Max Lucado

2009-09-08T12:42:00.001-04:00

We live in a world where fear seems to always be right around the corner. What if I lose my job? Are the kids safe? Will I have put enough money away to retire? Wouldn’t it be great to live in such a way that fear didn’t run our lives. How do we learn to trust more and fear less…that is the topic of Max Lucado’s new book FEARLESS. Max shares with us that thru embracing the truths of Jesus’ teaching we can learn to fear less in this world and be people of courage.

I loved this book. It spoke to my heart in areas like the fear of not having enough, the fear of not pleasing God, the constant fear that I don't measure up to other people or the fear that maybe I really don’t matter. This book was truly a refreshing source of truth in an area that I would not have thought I was even in need of encouragement. But isn’t that life…we get so caught up in living day to day that we don’t even realize that fear has taken hold of us and is robbing us of the peace and joy that Jesus intended for us to experience.

I completely recommend this book. I don’t know too many people who couldn’t use the encouraging reminder that Jesus tells us over and over again…”Don’t be afraid. I am here.”

Review of Between Wyomings:My God and an iPod

2009-09-07T10:41:00.005-04:00

We all go through those moments when God draws us into a time of deepen our faith and our relationship with Him.

Between Wyomings: My God and an iPod by Ken Mansfield contains the personal story of the author as he travels across the country in his van in a search for that deeper, intimate faith. His book contains many flashbacks to his days in the record industry working with icons such as Dolly Patron and the Beatles. Mansfield spent his career as a famous music producer for some of the biggest names in the industry.

The title of this book caught my attention and I was excited to get reading it. Unfortunately I had a hard time getting into it. I found myself enjoying the recounting of his interactions with those in the music industry, but those moments were too spread out to hold my attention. I wasn’t really sure what to take out of the portions that seemed more of a soul searching private journal than a book to be read by others.

Overall, if you enjoy reading journals or personal memoirs this book may be just for you. Ken definitely had some memorable moments during his music career. If you are looking for a fast paced page turner then I would take a pass on this book.

Rest in the Arms!

2009-09-02T11:16:00.013-04:00

Have you ever had a restless day? The kind where you don't quite feel right. Not that anything is really wrong, but things just feel unsettled. You've tried to turn the other cheek and forgive, but keep getting slapped. Maybe little things just haven't been going right and it's all built up. Or you are working hard trying to do the right things and are just getting tired. Well if you can relate to any of that...I hear ya. I'm having one of those kind of days. Actually it's been one of those kind weeks or months or something, but whose counting...

Today I woke up and just laid in bed talking to the Lord for a long time. I didn't know I had so much to say. Then I came to work and clicked on iTunes and heard a song God had picked out for me today. I hope my secretary doesn't get sick of it as it is playing over and over this morning. It spoke to me even though I still feel "not quite right". At the end of the song the words say "Have no fear, I'll be here". What an amazing concept. No matter what, no matter how unsettled, no matter how tired...the words of our Savior are simply "I'm here". I can get through any day knowing that.

I was going to put a video of the song here, but have not been able to get it to work so I will just write down the lyrics. It's called Rest in the Arms and it is on the new Aaron Shust cd. You can hear in on www.youtube.com or Aaron's website www.aaronshust.com

When you're broken, when you're weak

When you've turned the other cheek

When you cannot speak

Of the bittersweet, the bittersweetness

When the floor gives out beneath

Any everything that you believe

Cannot bring you peace

You're broken inside, broken in pieces

You can rest in the arms of the One who holds you

Rest in the arms of the One who knows you

Rest in the arms of the One who won't let go

You can rest in the arms of the One who holds you

Rest in the arms of the One who loves you

Rest in the arms of the One who won't let go.

When the water starts to rise

And you've lost the will to fight

When you're losing light

Just close your eyes, close your eyes now.

Have no fear

I'll be here

Friday on the MIssion Trip

2009-08-21T22:34:00.001-04:00

Today we woke up and had a great breakfast. We split up and took different jobs. Some of us painted some mowed lawns and others cleaned out a shed. After a great lunch we cleaned up the church. Then we did devotions and debriefed how the day went. Two minutes later we went to Hacienda, which is a Mexican Restaurant, and had the greatest Mexican food in the world (no offense taco bell lovers). Then we headed back to the church for lazy time. The fart- a-thon is over! Jeanne won for the girls and Sam and Dylan won for the guys. Tomorrow we are going to the dunes/beach. Then we will head home.

Signing out,

Sam Z. and Dylan L.

Thursday with the Jr. HIghers

2009-08-20T23:27:00.000-04:00

Today I woke up late and ate breakfast. Then I went and kicked out a ceiling and tore out some carpet. I then cleaned a gross basement and after that… I took a shower! For lunch we made English muffin pizzas that were really amazing!! Then we played phase 10, but we didn’t clean it up as well as we didn’t put our plates away, so we had to clean all the dishes after dinner. Later on went to the chocolate factory and ate…chocolate (I bet that was a surprise) and it was good. Then we ate tacos for dinner (I’m noticing we eat a lot). After that it was time for VBS and we made a craft did a skit and played a game. When VBS was over it was really hard to say goodbye to the kids. We took a lot of extra time afterwards to say goodbye to them. We just had our team meeting and now were gonna hang out and play games, and then it is time for bed.

Madeline Guizar

Wednesday on the mission trip

2009-08-20T18:27:00.000-04:00

August 19, 2009

Wednesday, we are already at the middle of the week, time does fly!!! We woke up way too early for my taste but we got up quick after we realized that biscuits and gravy was for breakfast, yum! After we did our daily devotional and got ready for work, we all split up and did different jobs. Some people went and painted a room in a different house and took the trim off the walls and removed the bathroom tiles. Others (Elizabeth) went and mowed the lawn, her first time ever I might add! Another group went and cleaned out someone’s shed, after that we all went and took showers and ate lunch. Then we had a relaxing afternoon, some people played cards and other slept in the lounge. Sam slept rather interesting; he actually slept under the couch cushions instead of on top of them! After our fabulous afternoon, the dinner crew got ready for our community dinner and prepared burgers to be grilled. A lot of people came and we had a great time playing with the kids and serving food to everyone. After dinner we started our VBS and played cone soccer for a little while until we got rained out. Then Pastor Ryan (the pastor at Keller Park Church) hooked up his laptop to the TV and we watched soccer. Next, we had our team meeting and talked through our devotionals, and then we all went to sleep after a long and tiring day.

Megan Balut

Jr. Higher's on Tuesday

2009-08-19T10:09:00.002-04:00

Today I want to go on record that the comments made on this blog for the Jr. high mission team are not necessarily those of this blog owner. But thank you for your comments via e-mail and facebook about the farting contest. I have nothing to do with any of this. :)

Today was AWETASTIC (for you people who don’t know what that means, today was AWSOME and FANTASTIC at the same time)!!!!!!!! At the house we knocked out 2 walls, I mean how AWETASTIC is that!!??!?After we had lunch and then headed to Bethel College and had a cool tour of. The dorms and classrooms were sort of smallish, but the campus grounds were really pretty. We also saw touch-down Jesus (Touchdown Jesus is a big painting in the Notre Dame stadium) and got FREE Bethel bags. When we got back we had to eat quickly so that we could start VBS, It was an all craft night, we made door hangers, and bookmarks. It was fun and there was more kids today too. After that we had our team meeting and now we are chillaxin…………………….OHH I almost forgot the score for the fart-o-than is Dylan and Sam in the lead with 3.

A good night to All and All a good night……..
Elizabeth Lanham

Monday with the Jr. HIghers

2009-08-18T09:13:00.001-04:00

7a.m. was way too early to start the day. But the delicious breakfast woke us up and then it was off to our first house. We got there and it was NOTHING that we expected!!! But when we heard it was made in 1950, we understood the wallpaper a little better!:) We worked from 9-1 and accomplished a lot! Since Madeline and Sam were the smallest we put them above the ceiling and they kicked it down from the top. The rest of us had to pick up the mess. We almost threw out Sam and Madeline with the junk (they were such a mess). Then we got to rip plaster off the walls and use the sledge hammer!!! And after the macho girls pulled up the carpet, poor Stephanie stepped on a nail. It was huge!!!!!! It was a centimeter long. J When we got back at 1 for lunch, we had grilled cheese and tomato soup. But apparently it’s not called grilled cheese, but cheese toasties…. Which I don’t get!!:) Anyways, after lunch we took showers and when we got back we found out there was a little contest in the lounge area! They were having a fart-a-thon! We couldn’t believe it! But no shock the boys are winning, but it goes till Saturday, so we’ll keep you posted! (The winner gets free bethel college stuff!) Tonight was the start of our children’s vbs! We had a lot of people……8!:), but we had a blast with those kids, and hope to have a couple more! But the kids start school tomorrow so we figure maybe more later on!!!!!!!! Our group is leading vbs Thursday, and we’re doing Jonah! Now were just chillin, playing games and waiting to go to bed. Talk to you later
Sydney Grewe and Kelsey Jordyn Hedberg

Pics from Jr. High Mission trip

2009-08-17T15:36:00.004-04:00

Sunday on the Jr. High trip

2009-08-17T09:18:00.000-04:00

Today was a great day. The first thing we did was we got 7 girls in the shower (not together) in an hour! Including make-up and hair and getting dressed!! After breakfast and devotions… we had a service in the Chapel . The service was on communion emphasizing on remembering not only the suffering for Jesus as well as suffering for others. After the message they had a discussion time saying any thoughts about it. The church congregation is made of 40 people.

Last night the girls and Stephanie stayed in the churches basement (which has a Big flat screen TV) where we will be staying all week. The boys are staying in a different house nearby.

After Church we went to Fazoli’s for lunch with the others who attend The Keller Park Church.
(Which had really good food!!)

In the afternoon we had our free time which we used to hang out, played cards, and the Wii!
After dinner we went out into the neighborhood to pass out flyers for the VBS we will be doing starting Monday night through Thursday.
We will be working on the houses Monday morning.
And that’s all folks!
This blog was written and sent by Jeanne Palmateer and Jennilyn Ake
Thanks for all the prayers!

Jr. High mission team postings

2009-08-16T15:34:00.005-04:00

Dear blog readers...for the next week I will be posting updates that our Jr. High youth pastor will be sending me each day from his team in Indiana. He has a group of our Jr. high students working with another Missionary church in the South Bend area. Here is the first post from this team.

Well today was the day our Junior High packed up there stuff for a week and headed to South Bend, IN to help out Keller Park Missionary Church. The trip went great and we all are accounted for and ready to go. Tonight we pretty much got the information of all we are going to do this week as well as the lay of the land. From here on out each blog will be posted by one of the students to tell you what we did each day. Stay tuned for daily updates of the first ever Colonial Woods Junior High Mission Trip. Hope all is well back home.

Pastor Dan Hamrick

Where are the book reviews?

2009-07-30T12:29:00.003-04:00

What an awesome question...I am so glad you asked. So here is the thing...the first book I am suppose to review is in my messenger bag and I take it with me everywhere. However, it is summer (or something similar to it here in Michigan) and I just don't get it out cause there are too many other things to do. I am planning to get to it really soon...until then anyone want to have a cook out? :)

Book Reviews

2009-05-26T11:34:00.003-04:00

Well I have been obviously absent from here in recent days, but am planning to change that in the near future. I will soon be doing a regular book review post on here to tell you about what I have been reading and what I think about it. I recently started doing book reviews for Thomas Nelson publishing and will be posting my reviews for them here on my blog. I will also be sharing with you my thoughts on other books that are a part of my summer reading. Sometimes I read a book that changes my "Way of thinking" and transforms my life and sometimes I read a book and I wonder "What was I thinking" wasting my time on that...In those moments I wish someone would have told me not to waste my time...so I will do that for you. Aren't you lucky?

So I'll be back soon.

My Friend!

2009-04-02T16:46:00.015-04:00

Every once in awhile someone crosses your path and you are forever changed by the time spent with that person. For me, one of those people was Dean Core. Dean started out as a part of my life because he was the dad of one of my closests friends in the world, but it wasn't long before he was much more than just Leona's dad...he was my friend. I have been blessed in the last 7 years to sit and talk with Dean countless times about life. I have laughed at his stories of the past and he has listened to me share with him my experiences around the world. Each time I would come back from a trip, he would have all kinds of questions about what I did and what the people were like.

Dean was the kind of person who actually took an interest in the person he was talking to. When he asked you a question, it wasn't just to be polite, but he really wanted to know. He cared about people and he knew how to make you feel important. I never left Dean's presence without feeling like I mattered and that he genuinely loved me.

One of the things I have heard frequently about Dean is that he never had a negative thing to say about anyone. It was true. I can't remember hearing one critical thing from him. I'm pretty sure there are not too many people in this world that could have that said about them. I know it wouldn't be me. What a challenge that is for me to live a life of such graciousness that no one remembers me ever saying a negative thing about anyone. And this was just one of the many amazing qualities that was embodied in this wonderful man.

Unfortunately for those of us still here, the earthly life of Dean Core came to an end at 9:00am on Wednesday, April, 1, 2009. For Dean, his real life, the one he was designed and created to live for eternity, has just begun. He now knows fully what he could only imagine just a few short hours ago. He is finally in the presence of the One he served faithfully throughout his life.

Although we have been left with an empty place in our hearts, we also have an awesome legacy that has been left for those of us who knew and loved him. His life is a challenge to me to be a person who is an encouragement to others, to speak words of love and to be quick to see the best in others.

Thank you Dean for your faithful life following your Lord and Savior. Thanks for changing my life through the gift of your friendship. Whether you knew it or not....You were the kind we read about my friend. I miss you already.

The End...the Beginning

2009-02-25T13:28:00.004-05:00

Well as most of you know...we made it home. Our Mexico adventure is now over, but hopefully all that God instilled in our lives while we were there will stay with us. We have fresh revelation of what God is doing in the world and hopefully this is the beginning of using that to make a difference here at home.

I have the privilege of going to Mexico each year and each year I learn something new. Each year I am challenged in a fresh way to use all that God has given me to bless others. Long ago there was an organization of women called the "Cent Society" They were women who gave their cents to missions so that they could send other women overseas to take the gospel to those in need. The goal of this organization was to take the gospel to the lands of heathen darkness and to teach their children what to do when you had more than enough. Unfortunately those groups no longer exist, but I am challenged by their goals. We do need to be taking the gospel to those who have yet to hear, but equally important is the goal to teach those of us in nations of affluence what we should be doing when we have more than enough...and let's face it...we all have more than enough.

Today starts the season of Lent...I am challenging myself to come up with a plan to use this time to take my "more than enough" and bless someone in need. I challenge you to the same thing!

Lost in Cyber Space

2009-02-25T13:23:00.003-05:00

While we were traveling, Madeline sent me her write up for the Saturday blog...in fact she sent it twice...but somehow it got lost in the wild world of cyber space. Well I have finally located her writing and wanted to post it here for you to read.

So here is Madeline on Mexico...

Hi so this week we did alot with the kids and had alot of fun! I really liked being at the school with the kids and playing with them after the lesson. I think this trip was a really good exspirence for me seeing the way the people lived and how little they had it really made me feel like we had so much but we want so much more that we don't need.

It was amazing how clean the people were because it was so dirty there. They were so happy even though they had so little. When we went to the feeding on Wednesday I really felt that the children were very grateful for what we gave them but it was terrible when we handed out the hygene stuff because not all the kids could have them because we didn't have enough. They all were very excited when they saw that we were handing out free stuff. They all ran to come get some.

Today we went to the beach and that was pretty awesome besides the fact that I got sun burn. The waves were huge and parasailing was fun too!!

God taught me alot and I won't forget the children and their needs but this week was pretty amazeing and alot of fun!!

A Note from Dan

2009-02-21T21:35:00.001-05:00

Well my friends our trip is coming to an end but our memories we will have forever. This has been a great week filled with a lot of fun, laughter, tears, broken hearts for the kids and a new understanding of what is going on in the rest of the world. This is my 3rd year coming on this trip and each trip brings new things to think about. This year we spent more time than any other year working directly with people and what a blessing that was to watch as our team interacted with all the people down here.
Having come down here 3 years in a row it has been a real blessing to watch God work within the ministry that we are helping out, Perdon y Amistad. God has really been blessing this ministry as well as the kids down here. I think one of the best parts about bringing teams down here is to watch God work in the lives of the people that come. I don't think we as Americans or Canadians see how much we truly have. Each year we come the team always comes back saying there are so many things that we want but don't need yet we get so upset when we don't get what we want. Then you come down here and you see that the people down here have next to nothing yet they are so content. Our teams seem to always go back with a new understand of who God is and what He can do in our lives if we let Him.
I really suggest to those of you out there who have not had the opportunity to go to another country to try and get on a team that does so. We have so much to be thankful for and I think sometimes it takes looking at other people who have less than us, material possesions wise, to be thankful for the tremendous amout that we do have.
Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us and we look forward to seeing you when we get home as well as talking to you about our trip.

My Turn

2009-02-21T10:54:00.005-05:00

Since everyone else has been writing these posts, I have not had a chance to offer any of my thoughts on this trip. I decided since it is the last day here I would take a moment and share with you a few highlights for me.

There is no doubt that for me the highlight of the trip was the opportunities I had to speak at the ladies bible study on Tuesday and Thursday. I had been asked to preach on Sunday morning at one of the satellite churches, but our schedule did not allow for me to do that. Hopefully next year that can be worked into the week as well. Back to the ladies bible studies...This is my second year to speak and the group is growing. They are almost out of room in the back yard that they hold the meetings in. The church is trying to find a building so that they can accomodate more ladies. Twice a week the ladies come to hear the word and to then receive food to help care for their families. Tuesday was a great day with the ladies, but Thursday was awesome. They start with a few songs and then I get to speak. On Thursday things just flowed really well and the ladies were connecting with the message. After my speaking, a number of them came up for prayer so I was able to pray over them for different things in their lives. It was a very cool time.

After the prayer time, I was asked to help pass out the food items that were available for the ladies to take home and I recruited Dan to help me. The problem was that there was not enough of each item for everyone and Dan and I were told to just give it to who we wanted. So we have one box of milk and three mom´s who don´t have milk yet and we are suppose to pick someone to receive it. Dan looks at me and says "I don´t want to do this. Why did you bring me over here? If I pick one mom then I don´t pick two other moms. This is horrible." And horrible it is...but also reality for those who work in this ministry. There are always more families that need food than there is food to go around and one person getting milk means others don´t. I am thankful that we don´t have to make those decisions on a regular basis, but it is a reality that those who work here face daily.

Well I could go on, but I will stop for now. In the coming days I will share other thoughts on this trip and also add some photos for some of the events that the team has described for you. Thanks so much for all of your prayers. Please continue to pray as we travel home tomorrow morning.

Friday

2009-02-21T10:30:00.003-05:00

Today we hear from Sherman...

This was the final day of a very successful trip ministering to the children of the dump and School of Champions. Today we were asked to provide games for the children one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. That request actually means a full day leaving by bus at 9:00 and finally returning around 7:00. There is much waiting at the church for available drivers, but we used that time to prepare 140 sandwiches and also participate in a team meeting. We have enjoyed great commradery and each day there is a time when we express what we appreciate about one person on the team. I think that meant a lot to everyone. It did to me.

Our chair soccer game time was so exciting and Dan was a great team leader. The kids loved his antics. The kids were very intense and really enjoyed the game. We also passed out crayons and colored pencils for prizes.

Tonight we ate at a place on the beach called Los Burros. Tony, Danielle, Phyllis Jean, Carolyn and Claudette got more than just their feet wet walking into some waves. Our meal was great.

We have met so many devoted people. Peter and Celina work hard in this ministry and are always willing whenever they are asked. Their hospitality and helpfulness is a great asset to our team. Dan and Ann are two very capable leaders. I would encourage anyone to come and expereince the work being done here.

Thursday

2009-02-19T22:19:00.001-05:00

Today was a work day. We returned to the preschool to finish what was started on Tuesday. I had the privilege of painting the outside iron rod that covered the window. I also painted over the graffiti that was on the wall. As a team, we all worked together to get the job done. It is true what they say ¨ Many hands make light work¨ We had some downtime in the afternoon and we used this time to eat lunch, finish our daily devotions and held our team meeting. I used this time to stop and reflect on the day. I am amazed by all the children who who came up to you with the biggest smiles I have ever seen and are so thankful for the piece of bread and juice that they get to eat.
For the afternoon session, Carolyn Parr and Heidi Richards were the team in charge and their story was Noah and the Ark. What a great group of kids that were there. In all, about 55 children heard the wonderful story. It was interactive in a way that the kids were given an animal to place on the ark. One by one they came and velcroed there animal in place. When the story got to the place where the boat was swaying back and forth, Dan had a squirt bottle and gave a light misting over the kids. The kids chuckled when they realize what was happening.
On the way back to the church tonight, we had about 10 people in the back of the pickup truck. It was an ok ride until we stopped and picked up 30 five gallon water bottles. Talk about a tight squeeze after that. Ann, Dan, Madeline and myself had to stand at the front of the truck hanging on so we could all get back to the church.
This experience has been very overwhelming to me. By nature i am a very emotional person, and almost every night when i have time to sit and reflect on the day, I become teary eyed. I can´t believe that children have to stand in line to get bread and juice and be grateful for it.
What I have learned is that I have to be content with what I have and not to complain about anything. I have to take my eyes off my self and help others who need it.
¨If life hands you a lemon, make lemonade and give it to someone who is thirsty.¨
In his service,
Claudette

Wednesday

2009-02-18T23:10:00.003-05:00

Today is Heidi´s turn to report on the day´s events.

Today we went to the School of Champions and taught the story of David and Goliath. Phyllis Jean did a great job as narrator. Sherman was the giant and Madeline was David. The kids love it and enjoyed the story. We then went to eat and then had a bit of free time to spend all of our pesos.

Later we went to the church and bagged beans, bread and loaded the van with other food. We went to Vallarta Adventures and they gave us more food to give out tonight. We then went to feed the children in a very poor area. I had a bag of apples that the children surrounded me for with all of their little hands reaching for an apple-basically begging me for food. I understand why Pete and Celina do this, because even though we fed many, we still felt there was much more left undone-more to feed.

We also gave out a small bag of hygeine items and the children swarmed us for these small items. We only had 60 bags to give and many more children than that.

The cool part down here is that God uses all kinds of people-both saved and not to help the children. Teachers that come down for long periods to teach English, restaurant owners that donate food and tourist who donate money-many who are clearly not followers of Jesus.

I love watching Tony and Madeline as they serve and as the play games (basketball and soccer) and talk and interact with the kids. We are having a great time.

Tuesday

2009-02-17T22:54:00.001-05:00

Hola, from Mexico. Today started off pretty typical with us catching breakfast in the morning and then a bus to the church. From there, we headed out to a daycare center near the School of Champions to do some work. We were asked to sand, clean and paint there. It was a good work day and we all worked hard and enjoyed doing it, even though we were covered in dirt and paint by the time we were done. Amazingly, no one complained...imagine that! We went back to the church for lunch and enjoyed some sandwiches that Carolyn and Sherman lovingly prepared for us. Ok, I´m pretty sure Sherman probably didn´t make them, but I thought it would be nice to give him some credit anyway. We had time to sit and work on our devotionals and even ended up doing our team meeting there between our work project and our VBS that we were teaching. Once Heidi and Claudette got back from the feeding they went to do, we headed back out to the School of Champions to do a VBS for the kids whose mothers were at the Bible study that Ann was teaching. We had so much fun doing a skit of David and Goliath for them and then we helped them do a project where they colored pictures and got to glue jewels and other objects onto the paper. They all seemed to really enjoy it and liked that they were able to keep their boxes of crayons. There were so many sweet little kids and their smiling faces couldn´t help but capture your heart. The women from the Bible study all really seemed to enjoy having had Ann there speaking and kept stopping and talking to her and telling her thank you. It was really nice to see everyone we worked with enjoying their experiences. We headed back home from there, where we continued the lovely game of slug bug that Ann so nicely suggested this morning. There are tons of those darn cars around here, so it makes for a seriously action packed game. Seems I am the favorite target and Madeline got me so good with a slap bug instead of a slug bug on the back of the neck that my neck was red for a good half an hour or so. It´s a brutal game, yet strangely amusing to us all. When we got back from the dump, we went back to our hotel and showered and got ready for dinner. We went to Bubba Gump´s for dinner tonight and had a really good time. There was a clown there who made balloon hats for all of us. It was pretty funny to see everyone like that, especially Sherman. The funniest thing though, was that Heidi, Madeline and Tony told the waiter that it was Dan´s birthday, so they came over singing and clapping with dessert and smeared it all over his face. We were all cracking up. It´s been a long but rewarding day and I think our whole team would agree that the time we´ve spent here so far is life changing and we´re all looking forward to the time we have left here and the lives we´ll be able to touch. God is so good!

Danielle

Monday

2009-02-16T23:10:00.006-05:00

Well Carolyn is giving us the update for today. Here is what she had to say...

Our day started with a good breakfast at 8am then off with our peanut butter and jam sandwiches for our lunch later. We arrived at church then made our way by van and truck to the School of Champions about 5 miles away riding over rough terrain having to slow down at times to 5mph. Ann and Dan rode standing up in teh back of the truck and described their vehicle having a near miss with a firetruck and city bus. It was a close one on both sides of the truck.

The surroundings are horrendously dusty and dry. Danielle, Tony and Claudette taught the bible lesson on creation today. They spoke with calrity and had great response from the children when asked questions. The children are very polite and attentive. There was no indication of being bored. Our team sang¨"I´ve got the joy joy joy...in English and in Spanish. Let´s put it this way...we wouldn´t get many pesos if we were busking on the streets, but we made a joyful noise.

Another activity included bagging rolls, bread and sweet buns. Madeline and Danielle went with Pete and Celina on the feeding program today.

We are always amazed at the cleanliness of the children with their white socks and bright uniforms. God has richly blessed our day. We send our love to our families at home.

Well that was Monday...check back tomorrow and hear what Danielle has to say about the adventure called Tuesday.

Sunday

2009-02-15T22:34:00.002-05:00

Hi everybody. Today is Sunday. We started out the day with a large orange juice and banana pancakes. We went to church at Friendship and Forgiveness church(Perdon y Amistad). The music was very good, even though we couldn´t understand the words. We knew the people were praising the Lord. We listened to the sermon with headphones and a translator. It was kind of difficult to catch everything that was said. After church we stopped at a little Mexican place and had lunch. (Brandon, it was the same place we ate last year with the table facing the wall.)

After lunch we had devotions and worked on our bible school stuff. We have gone from 30 kids to 230 kids so we had to change things a bit. In the evening we attended a cultural festival with music from a mariachi band and dancing. The costumes were beautiful. We then had a late supper at a taco stand on the side of the road.

It is interesting to see the people and make a bond with those who love the Lord. There was an older gentleman in church this morning who danced and raised his hands during all of the music. My heart was blessed as I watched him praise his maker.

For the team...Phyllis Jean

Saturday

2009-02-14T22:14:00.000-05:00

Today in mexico, we went on a tour to the dump. We got to see the schools we will be working with and how the people live. The people in the dump are very poor and have to dig through the trash to find popcans or bottles for the little money they might get for them. Their homes are very small and the biggest homes that the people had were still smaller than what we would consider as a small house. To give you and idea of how small the houses were and how many people lived in them, Pete told us how they brought 14 food packages for a strip that had 14 houses on it and they also brought toothbrushes for them. When they asked how many people they needed to provide toothbrushes for there ended up being 90 people. So 90 people living in 14 very small houses.
So all in all our day today was interesting because we saw lots of new things and we really almost go to experience what goes on in the poor countries of the world.

--Tony

We have arrived!

2009-02-14T09:44:00.002-05:00

Well we arrived at our hotel around 10pm last night. We have all settled in, had a good nights sleep and have had breakfast. Dan and the team are on their way to the bank to exchange money and then we are off to the church to get a tour of the dump area and the school of the champions. Tony Guizar is the man of the day...this means he gets to pray for all of the meals, help lead the devotional time during our team meeting and report to you all on the blog tonight. Stop back later to hear what adventure we had today. Thanks for your prayers.

Heading Back to Mexico!

2009-02-05T11:00:00.003-05:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year...no it's not Christmas....it's time for me to take another mission team to Mexico. I know, I know....someone has to do it. I am really going to miss the snow shoveling.

So we are heading out Feb. 13th to go work with the Children of the Dump in Puerto Vallarta. We are a team of 10 and we are going to be running a few kids clubs, doing some service work projects and taking part in feeding a ton of kids. Each day of the trip we will write a report of how our day went and what we did. You will get a chance to hear from each of our team members during the week and it will be almost like you are there with us...of course when you look out your window, you'll know that you're not because you'll see snow and we will be in shorts and t-shirts, but other than that....it will be just like you are there.

These wonderful reports on not just to keep you up to date on our activities, but also to tell you how to pray for us while we are away. The greatest thing you can do for us is pray that God uses us in the best ways possible to make a difference in the lives of the people we come in contact with. Thanks ahead of time for remembering us in prayer while we are away.

So remember to check back daily starting next Friday...

Good-Bye old Krazr!

2008-12-17T13:35:00.007-05:00

So, tomorrow I can get a new phone. For those of you with Verizon you know that you can get a new phone every two years and I was recently notified that it was that time...I can go pick out a new phone. Well this is totally awesome because I am a gadget junkie and love getting a new phone and I am excited to pick out my new toy.

However, one of our secretaries, Lori, asked me why I was getting a new phone because it seemed like I had just gotten the one I am using now and that got me thinking...two years have gone by since I got my totally awesome, fire red Krazr. Two years of technological advances that have made my totally awesome, fire red Krazr seem outdated.

Now if you know how my mind works, I can never just think a thought like that without somehow wondering how that might apply to my life as a Christian. So of course, here is my random devotional thought of the moment based on my old Krazr and my soon to be totally awesome new phone that is yet to be determined.

In the two years that I have been using my old phone, they have created new and improved phones that are more advanced and have greater ability. My question to myself is...in that same two year period, have I advanced and become a better person or have I remained the same, just like my old phone? In my walk with the Lord, am I more advanced, am I closer spiritually, do I serve the Lord more reliably and do I look like a new and improved Ann Harrington? Or am I still only doing the same old things I use to do, with the same old prayer life, the same level of service to the Lord and the same depth of understanding of scripture? I hope not. Everything changes over time. My prayer is that as each year passes, my love for the Lord continues to grow, my depth of spiritual insight deepens and the world sees a new and improved me who points them to Christ.

2008-11-18T14:18:00.005-05:00

Wow, I can't believe that Christmas is rapidly approaching. Today we had snow...yeah, I am not loving the idea of winter. So, with Christmas comes the ever popular shopping nightmare and the equally wonderful...how am I going to pay for this meltdown. And if we are lucky, in the midst of all of this we might remember Jesus...you remember Him, the actual reason for the celebration. Now would be a good time to start preparing to stay focused on Christ and not the commercialism of this season because if you don't prepare...you will inevitably get sucked into all of the crazy.

Now some of you are wondering why I am writing about Christmas when it is only November...great question. Truthfully it is because I am just writing down my own rambling thoughts as I sit at my computer and that is just what went through my head. Another thought that has occurred to me is that we usually bypass one of the best holidays that should turn our hearts to the Lord and that is Thanksgiving. Between the ever popular Halloween and Christmas comes Thanksgiving...for those of you who have forgotten.

I love Philippians 4:6-7...it says this. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

God tells us in His word to not be anxious about anything...the economy, gas prices, whose the president or the craziness of this season...but with THANKSGIVING...pray. With a thankful heart....PRAY! And God tells us that He will give us His peace to guard our hearts and minds.

Don't overlook Thanksgiving...if we celebrate it first, and come to the Lord with thanksful hearts in prayer...He can keep us peaceful and focused on the right things during the entire holiday season.

Open the Book

2008-10-22T11:17:00.007-04:00

Lately I have been studying the book of Nehemiah and have learned many great lessons from this book. One of the things that has impacted me greatly in the last few weeks is found in Nehemiah 8:1-8. After the walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt and the job was completed, the people gathered together (about 50,000 people) and they told Ezra to bring out the book of the law of Moses. So this big mob of people gather in a town square and call out for their spiritual leader to bring out the Word of God and teach them. What would that look like in our churches today if the people just started calling out for the preacher to bring out the Word?

The Bible tells us that when Ezra "opened the book "the people stood up in reverence to God's Word and then Ezra read and taught it to them for about 5 or 6 hours. That is a long sermon...we are usually ready to be done listening after someone has talked for 30 minutes and we are sitting down.

As I read this section of scripture, the question that kept circling in my brain was, "Do I have this great of a hunger for God's word?" I am not sure I am so hungry for the scripture that I would want to stand and listen to it for 5 or 6 hours. I think one of the problems we face today is that the Bible has become common to us. We have our own copy (many or us have multiple copies) and since we can read it any time we want, we usually don't read it at all. Isn't that ironic? What we can do whenever, is usually put off until...never.

Around the world people are longing for a copy of the Bible in their own language. In some countries where the Bible is forbidden, some people are just happy to have a few pages of the Bible.

My desire is to have such a hunger for God's word that I am excited to hear from the Word at any time and to hold it's teachings with great reverence. My prayer is that God would increase our passion to spend time in the Book and that in spending time in the Book, our lives would be transformed by the Book.

Check out the entire 8th chapter of Nehemiah to read the results of the Book being taught to the Israelites. It was one powerful event.

Winter in Mexico....anyone with me?????

2008-09-03T17:17:00.006-04:00

Who wants to go to Mexico in February? Ok, well I probably can't take all of you who would like to skip winter and get a tan, but I am looking for 7 of you who would like to travel with me to work with the Children of the Dump. So, if you are looking for a challenge and a bit of adventure...pray about joining me February 13-22, 2009 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

We are going to do a few work projects, run a kids club and take part in feeding a few hundred kids each day so that they get one good meal.

This is one of my favorite trips each year and I would love to have you join me. Drop me an e-mail if you are interested or need more information. You can also pick up an application at the information desk at CW on Sunday. The cost is $1400, but don't let that number worry you. I'll make sure you have what you need to raise the funds needed.

Summer is over...where was I?

2008-09-03T17:03:00.003-04:00

I don't know if you have noticed...but summer is just about over. Yes...we technically have until September 22nd when autumn officially starts, but for most of us...let's face it....it's over. We are now back into the normal routine of life....back to school, vacation's over, and we are starting to pull out the jeans and sweatshirts in the evening.

Here at CW we are back into the fall routine with Wed. night services back in action and all of our small groups are starting to meet again. Last week we had an excellent Back to School Bash that was a lot of fun and tonight starts all of the regular programs.

So why am I telling you this....well, fall is a brilliant time to try something new. If you have not been a part of Wed. night ministries this is a good time to give it a try. If you are looking for a small group where you can connect with others and study the bible together....this is the time to do it.

Check out the new brochures to see what is offered that might interest you. Cause one thing I can guarantee you...there is a place for you at Colonial Woods...now go get connected...there's no better time than the fall.

Home at Last!

2008-07-09T15:36:00.003-04:00

Well we arrived home Tuesday morning around 12:30 am. The trip home was uneventful, which I am always thankful for.

To all of you who have been praying...thank you! You have been our greatest asset. You are a big part of the success of this trip. Together we have all been a part of God using this trip to make a spiritual difference in the lives of the people in Ireland.

Continue to pray for Denny and Linda as they are busy this week following up with the families of the kids in the Kids Club. They have also written to tell us that there has been great feedback from the ladies who attended the retreat.

Well this will be the last update for Ireland 2008. If this trip sounded interesting to you, then maybe you should consider being a part of the February trip: Mexico 2009 or the Summer project: Russia 2009

Until later...

The Last Blog from Mike

2008-07-06T15:21:00.000-04:00

Our last full day has come to an end. And personally, I am very sad. God has done many things on this trip. We have been blessed greatly. God has made Ireland steal a piece of my heart and I am sure it has to the other team members. I pray that God will choose me again to take another trip over here to do even more of His awesome projects.
This morning the guys went back up to Navan to help Ann lead worship. From my point of view, God worked in some of the ladies lives, and He is continued to work in the ladies lives who already knew Him. Ann’s message went very well. She spoke on how we should all surrender everything to God, even though it can be difficult in some areas. After her message, we all got ready for lunch. It was a fantastic lunch. We all had chicken and lasagna, and for dessert, a cream puff with vanilla ice cream and Irish Cream. Yeah, it was awesome.
If you guys remember Tina, (some of you may have prayed for her two years ago to find the Lord) she really stuck out to me. She truly has a heart for God. Dennis gave her a “to do list” for the Bible. He told her to read the book of James, because it has a lot of material for every day life. James is one of my favorite books, and I know as a fact that Tina WILL read it and put the whole book into practice. She said that she is hoping to come to the States with Denny and Linda soon, and it would be great to see her.
After everyone left the retreat center, the team helped some of the ladies clean up the center. Some of the conversations we had were awesome! The ladies we talked to also saw God work in their friends’ lives! We had to be ready to leave the center at four, because that is when sign out was, (it’s kind of like a hotel) and we left with four minutes to spare.
We headed back to Denny and Linda’s house to unwind and get ready for tomorrow. We talked for about two hours. After talking, we decided to go to Michael’s (Me-haul’s) house to say our final goodbyes. I was really glad to see him and his family one more time. Both Michael and Jamie’s mom (mother of one of the kids from kid’s club) said that they have a feeling that they will see me again here in Ireland. When they both said that, at completely different times, I did not really believe them. But now I know that God may have a plan for me to visit here again.
Right now it is 8:09pm, and we are waiting for supper. We are having fish and chips from Drogheda. After we eat, we will head back to Balbriggan and clean the McGrath house. And as for me, I will write a letter to the McGrath’s thanking them for what they provided for us, and thank them for other stuff. We leave for the airport at 12:00pm tomorrow that would be 5:00am your time. We take off at 2:30pm, that’s 7:30am your time. Pray for us to have a safe trip home and for Ann and me to not worry about flying. This is the last blog for Ireland 2008, and I feel blessed to write to all of you guys back at home. Take care, thank you for your prayers, and God Bless!!!!
Love,
Michael and the 2008 Ireland team.

The Retreat...Ann's update

2008-07-06T12:36:00.002-04:00

Thanks for praying for the retreat. It was an awesome time! The ladies really enjoyed themselves and it was very evident that the Lord was present throughout the weekend. This retreat was made up of both believers and non-believers, but even those who already know Jesus are relatively new in their faith. This weekend was a time to pamper the ladies and give them a place to ask questions about Christianity and what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. Many of these women come from a place called Ballymun. This would be known as the wrong side of the tracks and many of them come from rough backgrounds. For many of these women, this was the first time they had been out in the country away from their neighborhood for any length of time. It was awesome to see them respond to being out in the country and relaxing.

On Friday night I spoke on the Samaritan women at the well and how Jesus loved everyone, even those with a past that might not be so pretty. Our retreat was at a place called An Tobar, which is Gaelic for The Well. The question of the night was, are you thirsty for what Jesus has to offer.

Saturday morning we talked about Mary and Martha and their encounters with Jesus. We asked the question, "What does it mean to worship Jesus?" Then in the evening the guys came out to do the concert that Mike has already mentioned. The women really loved the concert and enjoyed the music and comedy that we brought.

This morning the guys came back and joined us to lead worship and I spoke on the story of blind Bartimaues and shared some of my testimony. There were some great questions and many significant conversations that took place throughout the weekend. Becky Inger (who works in Ireland with her husband Stan as team mates of Denny and Linda) ran a prayer room where the ladies could come and talk and get answers to questions that they might have.

This weekend was a big event for this ministry in Ireland. I believe there will be much fruit that comes from this time away. I look forward to hearing about those who being relationships with Christ because they had a place to come and ask the questions that will lead them closer to Jesus.

We head home tomorrow. We are excited to be coming home, but have enjoyed the time here. It has been a great mission trip and we have seen God do some great things through our lives here. Please continue to pray for us as we travel and for Denny and Linda as they begin the task of following up on all of the new contacts from the kids club and the retreat.

Saturday...Almost time to head home!

2008-07-06T12:04:00.003-04:00

Well I would like to PTL for holding the rain off today! It was supposed to start raining at 5:30pm and it did not start until 10:00pm. Us guys had a great day today! Along with the girls.

I'll start with the girls. Linda texted Denny a few times today, and we could tell that she was excited. God has done amazing things in Navan, at the ladies retreat. At the beginning of the day, us guys were planning on going to Bray, but since we saw it was going to rain on the forecast we went to plan B. Plan B was that we were going to Ballymun to clean up a flat that Michael (Me-haul) will use for his work. ( Ann here...plan B was actually plan A...but they can think whatever they want)

Michael works with little children, for an outreach center. The flat we cleaned was broken into and ransacked by teenagers. It was sad, but an awesome way to evangelize. After Ballymun, we went to a mall in Blanchardstown. The mall was huge, but me being a guy, there was absolutely nothing there that appealed to me. We were planning on being there for two hours, but we couldn't take it any longer, so we got lunch from Burger King, and went to the largest park in Ireland, Phoenix Park. It was a beautiful park, and we all enjoyed a much more gratifying meal than McDonald's! After the park, Denny had an idea of taking us to another castle. I thought it would be like 45 minutes from where we live, but it is only about 5 minutes away. The castle is called Ardgillan Castle, and I'm guessing it was built in the 17th century. The garden and fields there were breath taking! Not to mention the perfect view of the Irish Sea (Atlanitc Ocean) from the castle. We went home after the castle and had a quick supper. After supper, we set off for Navan for a concert we put on for the Ladies Retreat. I got to see my new friend that I made there yesterday. He is a little black Jack Russell Terrier, who I named Rocco. I love that little pup. I also made new friends while warming up on my trumpet. I warmed up playing Carnival of Venice, and a herd of Irish Cattle came and watched me intently. It was hilarious!!! There will be pictures! (This truly was the funniest thing ever. As Mike played the cows started running towards him. He stopped and they stopped coming. He started playing again and they started running until they got the the fence and they all just lined up in a row to listen to him.)

The concert went very well, we sang a couple church songs, and Jim and Ruth played a few classical songs, and I sang just like Louis Armstrong in What a Wonderful World. After the concert, Ann kicked us out, because the ladies were going to have ice cream sundaes. When Ann said that, all of the ladies had pity on us, but Ann still made us leave. (Ann here...as you can tell I am such the bad guy on the team) And right now I am going to be quite frank. We (the guys) went to Mickey D's and had ourselves our own Sundaes and they were delicious, far better than the ones in the US. Take that Ann. Ann here again...I am the one who asked Denny to make sure he took them for ice cream since they didn't get to stay for sundaes....but again...they can think what they want! :)

So, tomorrow is our last full day here, and if you guys could pray for us as we bring this trip that God has blessed us with to an end, that would be great! Also, pray for us to have a safe trip home, pray especially for Ann and me, we both are terrified to fly. Take care and God Bless!!!!
Love,Michael and the 2008 Ireland team

July 4th...in Ireland

2008-07-06T12:01:00.002-04:00

Happy Fourth of July everybody!!!! It feels kind of weird not having anything over here to celebrate with in Ireland, seeing that fireworks can't be found at any time except Halloween.

All of us except Ann had an easy going day. Here mind was so busy, she had no clue what she was saying. No lie, at one time she said "Whoever's lunch is in the dishwasher, your laundry is done." I did not exaggerate those words, she said them word for word. (It's true...I did actually say that exact sentence when trying to tell Matt that his clothes were done. Would it help if I told you that the washing machine is under the sink in the kitchen and it looks like a dishwasher? :)

This morning felt a little awkward not going to Kid's Club, we ended up meeting here at 9:00 and practiced for the concert for the Ladies retreat on Saturday night. After practicing, we had lunch, but had a little scare. The goulash we were having had green peppers in it, and I am allergic to them. I did not know there were any in the goulash until I was done eating. Ann spoke up and said she could taste them, so at that moment everyone prayed for me, and that nothing bad would happen. And PTL, nothing did!!!!

After lunch we took Linda, Ann, and Ruth to Navan for the Ladies Retreat. We arrived and helped them get set up. Navan is a beautiful town. When we left, us guys went to the town of Trim, to visit Ireland's largest medieval castle, Trim Castle. It was huge!!! The rich history behind the castle was fascinating. One thing occurred at the castle in 1994 though. I always knew that Mel Gibson's movie "Braveheart" was filmed in Ireland, but I never knew that Trim Castle was the castle in the movie. I knew it looked somewhat familiar. The execution scene of William Wallace (Gibson's character) was filmed near the west tower of Trim Castle.

All that I can ask for you guys now is to pray for the lady's retreat to go well, and to calm Ann's nerves. Also pray for the team to stay united even though we are separated by about 40 miles of country road. Hope you guys are having fun tonight, be safe and God Bless!!

Love,Michael and the 2008 Ireland team

Thursday...still raining!

2008-07-03T19:33:00.002-04:00

Well, today was a tiring day! We did get to sleep in a little, since we practiced the music for this weekend quite a bit in the past few days. The sleeping in was needed for Kid's Club today!

A quick refreshment on Kid's Club attendance: On Monday, we had 11 kids; on Tuesday, we had 24; Wednesday, we had 28; and today...we had 36 children!!! What a handful they were! But PTL that those kids who had come every day, invited more and more of their friends!!! If we could have made a difference in the children's lives, imagine what they could do for others! Crafts today had a message in itself. We had the kids make Salvation Bracelets. I must say that we went out with a bang today, and I know that we will miss those little munchkins, and vise versa. Pray that some of the children would begin to start a relationship with God. I noticed one girl named Rebecca, who I think will have an awesome impact on people's lives with her already maturing attitude for Christ.

After we said our goodbyes to the kids, we went back to the McGrath house (place were we are staying) in Balbriggan to eat lunch. After lunch, Denny, Jim, Bruce, Dennis, Matt, and I headed to Ballymun to paint a flat that belongs to a brother in Christ. Linda, Ann, and Ruth went back to Drogheda work on the Ladies Retreat. When we got to John's flat, we did a quick walk through of the house to see what needed to be painted. Matt, Denny, and I took the sitting room, and it was painted burgundy and beige. Bruce and Dennis took the hallway and bathroom. The hallway is peach, and the bathroom is lavender. And Jim took one of the bedrooms, and it was painted light yellow. We had some help from John's mother-in-law, and another fellow believer named Damien. After three hours of work we got most of the work done, and it looked very nice.

Quick prayer request: A few years ago after John and Noleen got married, they tried to have children, but due to a tumor on one of Noleen's glands in her brain it was impossible for them to conceive. Neither of them at the time were believers, but Noleen's mom Tina started to go to Denny's Bible Study in Ballymun. They laid hands on Noleen at a healing service, praying that God would heal her and do a miracle in her life. Two weeks after she was prayed for, John and Noleen were pregnant! Nothing is impossible with Christ!!!! By then Tina was already a christian and John wanted to know more about this Jesus guy, but Noleen did not want anything to do with God. Now both Tina and John are on fire for God! Both of them did a complete 180 on their life. Noleen is "on the fence" whether or not she should have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Pray that Noleen would be pushed on the backyard of christianity, getting to know her in the three hours while we were there, she has a big heart. Her mother Tina is an amazing woman. Bruce and Dennis told her that they prayed for her to find the Lord three years ago, and all that she could was smile an extravagant smile of gratitude. We stayed a little while to visit, and have a cupa tea, and some biscuits.

After we left, we had time to stop at McDonald's and have a healthy supper...yeah right. We hurried home to get ready for the Bible study here at the McGrath's house. The Bible Study tonight consisted of the team; Denny and Linda; Burt who is from the US; Andrea who is from Germany; Ann who is from France; and Grace who is from New Zealand. I learned today that out of the 199 countries in the world, Ireland is home to people from 183 of those countries. We had a great time disscusing 1 Peter 4:1-11. it's kind of funny though, two nights ago I spoke from 1 Peter 4:12-19 and tonight Denny spoke from 1-11. God is doing amazing things over here, keep on praying for us and Noleen, she has a heart, but now she just needs God. Take care and God Bless!!! Love, Michael and the Ireland 2008 team

Wednesday in Sunny, Rainy, Cold, Warm Ireland

2008-07-03T03:55:00.004-04:00

Ireland forecasts are just like Michigan's. Last night Bruce, Dennis and I checked how the weather would be, and it said there was a twenty percent chance of light rain. Guess what, that twenty percent chance of light rain was wrong, it rained all day until 5:30, not to mention a flash of lightning and thunder.

Besides the weather, today went very well. I'd like to PTL (Praise the Lord) for what He has done so far for Kid's Club. In just three days, the attendance for the kids has doubled and then some!!! We had twenty eight today!!! I think it is really great when we only had the craft today made out for the kids that we knew; and Dennis, Ann, and I had to go into the toilet (bathroom) to sort out jewelery letters for the kid's we did not have on the list the past days!!! I am just glad that Bruce knew what he was doing when he was telling the story of Andrew, Peter, James, and John. He told the story concisely, and it really helped Dennis, Ann, and me to get the necklaces ready. It was quite the rush, but the more kid's we have there, the better the chance of them wanting a relationship with Christ! It's like how the Bible says that we should humble ourselves before God, with a child's heart and attitude.

Two people that have really done a superb job for this Kid's Club Program are Jim and Ruth Chubb. Their passion is to love children to show the love of Christ. And I am one of those children that they ministered to in the same way when I was 2-5 years old. I love those two.

Tonight, before I started writing this blog, Ann asked me to include Jim and Ruth's point of view on Kid's Club. When I asked them their reply was, "Girls are much more easier to teach than boys." I asked them if they were serious and if they wanted to say anything else, but they were serious and they said they did not need to say anything else about Kid's Club, God is doing His work and that is all that matters. Jim and Ruth truly have a heart for Christ, and they help give the children support at Kid's Club. We are truly blessed to have them here with us.

I am sad that tomorrow will be our last day working with the kids. Some of them make my day with their little Irish, or African accents. God uses everyone no matter what age they are, like little Muna, Manoah, Franklyn, Sean, Jamie, Emma, Jonathan, and Juinita at Kids Club. Those names are just a few of the kids who God has blessed all of the team members to teach and learn from. This week we were truly blessed to work with them. Tomorrow, after we finish our last day at Kid's Club, Ruth, Ann, and Linda will get ready for the Ladies Retreat, while Denny will take the guys back to Ballymun to paint a house that belongs to a fellow brother in Christ. Pray for our safety, and for the ladies to get everything straightened out for the first ladies retreat in Ireland history. Take care and God Bless!!Love Michael and the rest of the Ireland 2008 Team!!!

A Team Photo

2008-07-02T18:33:00.009-04:00

For you golf lovers...this shot was taken at the 1st tee box at this awesome golf course in Houth. We didn't play there, but it made a nice team photo.

Note from Ann

2008-07-02T04:22:00.002-04:00

Well I hope you have been enjoying Mike's updates. He's a funny guy and I think he is doing a great job of telling you about our days. But occasionally I still like to write to all of you.

One of the great lessons to learn on any missions project is humility. It is so easy to make comparisons between cultures and to assume that we have the answers to how to do things. For me I am continually humbled that I have been asked to speak and share God's word. This ladies retreat that we are doing on the weekend is a huge project for Linda and those helping her. I take for granted the blessings we have of heading off to a conference or retreat in the US. But here this is the first retreat being held for ladies in this part of Ireland...the ladies are excited about coming and many are new believers or still on the fence about Christianity. Yeah, I don't feel any pressure being the speaker at their, first ever, ladies retreat. Yeah right! :)

Please pray for this awesome weekend that we are going to have. Pray for me as I continue to refine what God has laid on my heart for these women. Also pray for the worship, the various craft times and the pampering that is going to take place throughout the weekend.

Specifically...

Pray for Linda as she finalizes the plans and details for everything from food to song books.

Pray for the hearts of the ladies attending, that they would be open to the Holy Spirit's call.

Pray for our team as we prepare to entertain them with music as well as lead them in worship.

Pray against anything getting in the way of any of these ladies coming this weekend.

Tuesday in Rainy Ireland

2008-07-02T04:17:00.002-04:00

Today was one of those days that Ireland is well known for...RAIN! Yay!!!!! I love sarcasm! The past two days (Sunday and Monday) were abnormal weather for Ireland because it did not rain at all...not a drop.

We had our second day at Kid's Club, and it went much smoother than yesterday. Yesterday we only had 11, and today we had 24! When Ann and I did our skit, we did it for memory, unlike yesterday. Matt and I were in charge of the day today. The theme today was "Trading Sheep for Subjects", the story of King David. And yours truly played King David for story time. Everyone said I did well, the kids seemed involved in the story. Due to the rain we had to do the games in the small classroom. We introduced the kids to another American game...Hot Potato!!!! Snack went well, we served biscuits (cookies) and juice that tasted a lot like Tang. After Kid's Club, Ann, Linda, Matt, and I hurried back to Denny and Linda's to get ready for lupper (lunch/supper) because today was Jim and Ruth's 27th wedding anniversary. They had their own table, with a table cloth, candle, and flowers. All that was missing was someone playing the accordion! Ha!!!

After lupper we all practiced the music for the ladies retreat this weekend. At 6:30 we left for a town called Ballymun. Ballymun is a very sad town. No lie, it makes the worst streets in Detroit look like Sunset Blvd. To imagine how bad it is, imagine the grocery store being in a train car, with no refrigeration. That means warm milk, meat, warm everything. We did a prayer walk in Ballymun, that's how we saw all of the things. I personally prayed that the Bible Study that we were going to would be moved by the Holy Spirit to help change this broken town and country. at one point I could not help but to cry, that is all I could do, besides pray for the people. When we got to the Bible study, we prayed some more, and met new people. Two people that really stuck out to me were Thomas (Toe-mas) and Patrick (Pour-ic). Just by talking to them, they seemed they really had a heart for knowing Christ. Keep them in your prayers. Now I'm going to let Dennis type the rest of what happened tonight, because I honestly don't feel like I should.

So here he is. I will try to give you a picture of what Michael spoke on tonight. I have seen God working in this young man's life. Michael shared how God transformed his life through another person. He shared how Jeff Harrington had really made an eternal impact on him that changed him and how he wanted his life to mean something. As many of us know, Jeff left us too soon, none of us wanted him to go, but God had a purpose. Michael shared that he decided no matter what the cost, he was going to serve the Lord because of the example that Jeff had on him. It reminds me of the fact that we have no guarantee on how much time we have on this earth. So we need to make sure we leave a legacy that we would be known as serving Christ. He shared how the passage in 1 Peter 4:12-19 and 1 John 1:9 also impacted his life and not to worry about what non-believers might think about him and his walk with Jesus Christ. He also shared that he was going into youth ministry. He felt a calling on his heart that God wanted this for his life. Michael also spoke about the beauty of Ireland and the awesome power that God has done here by forming the hills as well as the views of his creation. Mike also made the point of how foolish people can be by saying there is no God, when there is complete evidence of His creation right under their noses. The people really listened and respected what he was talking about. They prayed for him at the closing of our time, for his up and coming studies in college. I feel that God will use him to make an eternal impact for the Kingdom. Keep praying for him and Matt as they both know God is calling them into full time ministry. PTL!

At our team bible study Monday night, Ruth-Ann shared how Pastor Hossler's prayer was being answered from back when he was here at CW. He prayed that God would raise up 25 young individuals for full time ministry in the missionary church. Now in the present the number has exceeded 25 young individuals. God has indeed answered that prayer.

This is Michael again and I would like to thank all of you again for you prayers for this trip, we all are getting along great! There is one person here with me that I am glad I have gotten to know. And he wrote about me in this blog. I never really realized how great of a man Dennis really was until I have gotten to know him here. He definately loves God and has a passion for people, not to mention his great sense of humor...good times! Reta (Dennis' wife), if you are reading this...you married a great guy! He sure is competition for comic relief on this team!!! You've raised a great husband!!!! You deserve a pat on the back!!!! Thank You all!! And we will see you in a week!!!!
Love,Michael, Dennis, and the rest of the Ireland team!

Sunny Monday in Ireland

2008-07-01T03:49:00.001-04:00

Our days here are going by so fast, I don't even know how I'll be able to leave Ireland! We just finished our fourth day here, and it was just as amazing as the first three. We started Kids Club today and we only had eleven children ranging from all ages, but we should get many more tomorrow. Some kids had their last day of school today. We rocked out in worship, singing songs like 'Jesus Loves Me', 'The Lord's Army', 'Father Abraham', and my personal favourite, 'I've Got the Joy Down In My Heart'. Jim and Ruth did a wonderful job telling the lesson today. This may sound funny, but Ruth told the story of Ruth! The Kid's Club memory verse is John 3:16, and they are doing a good job learning the verse. The craft was revolved around John 3:16. For sports Matt and I had them play football(soccer), a paper relay, and we taught them how to play a well known US game...kickball!!!

After Kid's Club, we had lunch and then we discussed the next three days for Kid's Club, because we won't have time after the next three days. We worked until about 5:30 when Denny and Linda came to pick us up to go to a fishing town called Houth. There we had THE BEST fish and chips. That is not an opinion, I've had lots of fish and chips before, and these ones put all others in their grave! The scenery in Houth made all of us speechless. There will be pictures of Houth soon.

One verse in the Bible that really spoke to me was Isaiah 55:12, 'You will go in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.' By seeing the land that God has blessed us with, it was like the mountains and sea and the breeze were in fact singing a song to me and the rest of the team. A song that God IS here and He loves and cares for this torn country and the rest of this world. I really wish all of you were here with us physically, you all would love it. But you are here with us emotionally, we here are not just the mission team, YOU ARE TOO!!! Without you, we would be the only one's praying for God's work, but you guys are praying, and we greatly appreciate that! We love you all.

On the subject of prayer before I close for tonight. Last night, I posted a prayer for Denny and Linda. they were to go to the Immigration office in Drogheda today, to try to renew their rights to live here. As you can recall, it was their third time going and the Irish government absolutely frowns on third renewals. By your prayers, the immigration officer asked no questions whether or not to renew their rights living here. They are not to leave this country. God wants them here longer. Long story short, NO government has ANY power over God's plan. God is in control!!!! I just want to say Amen!!! Thank you for your prayers and keep on praying. I look forward to writing to you tomorrow night!!! Goodnight and God Bless!!! Michael and the rest of the Ireland team

Sunday in Ireland

2008-06-29T18:17:00.003-04:00

Hey folks!!! It's Mike again, and I'll be writing all the rest of the blogs from now on for Ireland 2008! Everyone over here liked the way I did my last one, and they asked me to be the team stenographer for the trip! We just ended our third day here in Ireland! It is 10:00pm and it looks like its 8:00pm outside!!

Today went very well, we woke up at 8am, and had breakfast here at home. Ann and Denny came by to pick us up to go to church in downtown Balbriggan. Service started at 10:30, and we opened with worship. Bruce, Ann, Dennis, and Matt all contributed to the music. We sang "Blessed Be Your Name","Sing to the King","Amazing Love","Hungry", and for special music we did "You Are God Alone". I'm not going to lie...it was really weird not playing my trumpet in front of everyone, and it was REALLY weird seeing Bruce in front of just 40-50 people greeting them just like he does at CW. After we sang, my big brother Matt came to us with a message, and I must say he did a fantastic job!!! He made me very proud, he'll be a great Rev. some day!!!

Did you know that Ann has the psychic powers of knowing what people are thinking. There was a little girl named Dina, who has a smile that can light up a whole room, and Bruce started to talk to her. At one point she looked back behind her and then looked back at Bruce, and then she ran off! Bruce asked ,"What was that all about!?!?", and Ann's reply was, "She just told you that she was getting some help..." And sure enough, little Dina brought over her cousin Emily, and together they are like peanut butter and jelly! I'm not going to lie though, those two talk a mile a minute.

After church, a BBQ was held for us at Maggie and John's house way out in the country, called Ashbourne. We met lots of new brothers and sisters in Christ! And it's just amazing to go 25 miles inland and have people have completely different accents!! We met another American and his family. Mark is from Ohio, and I said we probably should not discuss which football team was better...U of M...cough....no we had a great time talking! I never really realized why foreign exchange students freak out when they meet someone else from their own country until today!! I was so excited to see another American that I did not know right away!!! I absolutely LOVE the Irish people here though! All of the team members are starting to pick up a little accent. I catch myself speaking with an Irish accent once in a while! After eating some BBQ and some delicious Rhubarb Crumble Cobbler...yeah, don't you wish you were here...we went for a walk in Irish country. Emily's dad John said there were some beautiful stops were we could go to take pictures, and it was just a half mile up the hill. Ann and I discussed on the way to Puddenhill (the destination) that Irish folk have got to be joking when they say a half mile! The same thing happened yesterday...remember my blog from yesterday? Anyways we got there and we were thinking it was maybe a mile and a half, so we just sucked it up and took in the indescribable scenery that God had blessed this beautiful country with! Hopefully we can get some pictures up on the site. After Puddenhill, John made the comment that there was an ancient castle up the road just a little walk from there...my first thought was, "OH GREAT!!!". The walk clearly not little, and our feet were aching, but on the way we saw some cows, and I mooed to them thanking them for their fine sacrifices that helped us get a filling meal back at the house. They mooed back...I think they said, "No problem, anytime!". I knew I've always liked cows!!! We got to the castle, we could see it from a distance, and we took a photo opp. It was a beautiful castle!!! We headed home and I talked a little with Mark, but I mostly talked to Denny. We talked about the sports teams we have back in the US, like the Tigers, Pistons, Ice Hawks, and the NFL. It was a nice walk back. When we got back to the house, we stayed for about ten minutes, and then we left. We took the way we walked, because we wanted to see exactly how long the "half mile" really was...can i say...FOUR MILES...yeah. That's all I have to say about that. Daily word of wisdom: When an Irishman asks you if you want to go for a little walk, be prepared to go four or more miles!!

When we left our walking trail in the cars, we headed back to Balbriggan. We had a meeting, because we start VBS or Kids Club tomorrow. Ann, Dennis and I are in some pretty funny skits; Jim and Ruth are puppeteering, Bruce and Ann are doing music, and Matt and I are doing games. After the meeting Bruce gave a short devotional and we had a wonderful discussion on our faith. I made a personal observation. It was; how could someone be so foolish and say that there is no God, when you can see here in Ireland, the beautiful land that someone had to have created. Something doesn't just explode and boom it exists. This country did convert C.S. Lewis to believe that there HAS to be a God. God made this world, what else could? After discussion we prayed for Denny and Linda, they are going to Drogheda tomorrow to renew their immigration for the third time, and the Irish government frowns on renewals for the third time. People rarely get them, most are asked to leave the country. So if all of you reading this keep Denny and Linda in yours prayers tonight. They are making a big difference for the Kingdom of God. Goodbye for now and keep on praying!!!
Mike and the rest of the CW team

How to View the Photo Album

2008-06-29T16:47:00.006-04:00

Here is just a sample of what you can find at the Ireland 08 team photo page. If you are interested in seeing more...and really....why wouldn't you...here's what you do.

Go to flickr.com

Enter annican67@yahoo.com in the search box and click search

On the next page it will tell you that they didn't find anything in that search, but above that will be a people tab. Click on that and it will take you to my flickr site.

From there you can click on the Ireland 08 album and look at our photos. We will try and update them with new photos each day as time allows.

Photo Album

2008-06-28T19:07:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow I will give directions on how to get to a team photo album page on line so you can see a bit of what we are up to.

Saturday in Ireland

2008-06-28T18:54:00.004-04:00

Today's blog is being written by Michael Schoettle!

Well, our second day went much smoother than yesterday! Much less traveling and on Ann and Mike's(me) part...no flying!! Today started out nicely, the guys went out for breakfast with Denny and his two friends from his prayer group, Michael and Michael(Me-haul). The food was great, but much different to what we were used to in the states! Michael and Me-haul were two hilarious guys!! Michael is just like King David, a man after God's heart. He is a true warrior! I put Me-haul next to the other Michael because he was raised to speak Gaelic and that is how his name is pronounced. The girls went out to breakfast with Linda to a Cafe, and from the sounds of it they had a good hardy breakfast too! After we ate we all met back at the home in Balbriggen, and got ready to go to Dublin by train. A few of us decided to walk to the train station because we were told it was only a half mile...some believe it was more than a half mile. But we all got there with the assistance of Denny coming to pick us up when we were about 3/4 of the way there. We were on the train for about forty minutes and admired the beautiful Irish country. When we got to Dublin Denny told us that for today Matt and I were Linda and his children; and Bruce and Dennis were Jim and Ruth's children I'd like to say that Ann was our aunt. Quick prayer request: Pray for Jim and Ruth, because their "children" have got some serious issues on NOT leaving their parents alone!!! We did that because we got family passes for the train and it was most believable if we did acted in that way. Hey, it was cheaper!! Good times, good times. Dublin is a great city, with great people! We learned that some phrases in the U.S.A DO NOT mean the same thing in Ireland...thanks Bruce. Again, good times! The first thing we did was went gift shopping for stuff to bring home. We found some nice merchandise, I must say. But the prices for EVERYTHING is expensive! After shopping we went to a restaurant to get some delectable sandwiches. I personally believe that the location of the restaurant was not appropriate for the building (it was a former church that the government bought and turned into a business center), but Ireland's society accepts it. After eating we shopped a little more and then walked down a very busy street, where a lot of popular shops and street performers are there for exploration. Soon before the shopping came to an end, Bruce and Dennis wanted to get group shirts that showed Irish tradition, but Leader Ann turned down the idea in a very blunt way. The question for group shirts was never brought up again. After we dropped from shopping we went to Trinity College to see the campus. On the campus, was an exhibit where The Book Kells was. Quick history lesson: The Book of Kells is an ancient bible written in the 1400s. At the end of the exhibit was the library, Dennis and I both wanted to take pictures of it, but it was not permitted. The library was so breathtaking the furnished wood, tall ceiling, to try to visualize the size of the library...over 200,000 books. If you want to see a picture there should be one on Google images under Trinity College Library. After the library, we went to the Dublin Castle to take pictures, the court yard was beautiful! After the castle we went to the place CW was stationed the first time here in Ireland. It is called The Lighthouse and it is in Dublin in a not so nice neighborhood. We met a lot of nice people there. One man by the name of Alan really stuck out to me. He had a terrible life before he became a christian. He had trouble with drugs and alcohol, but when he turned his life to Christ, EVERYTHING was accounted for by Christ!!!! We went home after the Lighthouse and had a late dinner because of Denny's directions to Ann and Linda. He told them they were going the wrong way in Balbriggen to get the pizza, but it soon occurred to him that he sent them in the wrong direction when we passed the market on the way home. We ate, and it was good! God has blessed us on this trip, and he has certainly blessed us with Jim and Ruth coming! Without your prayers and the grace of God, neither of them would be here with us. Thank you for your prayers, and keep on praying!!! We start ministering tomorrow! Mike and the rest of the CW Missions Team

Quick note on leader Ann vetoing the team shirts...had they picked ones that were...shall we say...appropriate...I might have agreed. Nice try guys!

The Arrival!

2008-06-27T11:44:00.002-04:00

We have arrived in Ireland! After 23 hours of travel and one plane delay we are here and trying to recover from the lack of sleep. Today we went through orientation, exchanged money and got settled in our houses. We also went to St. Peter's cathedral where they have the head of St. Oliver Plunket on display...and I mean his real head in a glass box...totally freaky leathery looking. He didn't look to happy about it though. Tonight we are hoping to get to bed early...well let's say I hope everyone is still awake to eat dinner. Tomorrow the guys are headed to a men's prayer breakfast and then we will head to downtown Dublin. Normally we save the site seeing for the end of the trip, but because of the ladies retreat we are hosting next weekend, we are playing tourists on this Saturday. Starting Sunday we get into the routine. We are leading worship and Matt is going to be preaching on Sunday and along with VBS, we will be leading worship for several small groups that Denny and Linda are a part of. So that is an idea of what we will be doing. Starting on Sunday, you will be hearing from a different team member each day about the latest happenings. Ok, well until tomorrow...

Headed to Ireland

2008-06-25T12:44:00.007-04:00

Well it is that time of year again and another summer mission team is heading off...this time to Ireland. A team of 7 will be traveling to Dublin to work with a church plant doing VBS and music and we will host a women's retreat. Please pray for us as we travel. If you have followed any of my other exploits you know that airline travel and I have a sorted history of late flights, snowed in flights, rained in flights and no flights. I would love to be able to actually have scheduled flights that work on this trip. Aside from the fact that I actually hate to fly....so any prayers for our travel are very appreciated.

Again on this trip I will be having the team give you daily updates on what is happening on our side of the globe. We love it when you write back to us so feel free to make any comments on our adventures.

On Retreat!

2008-05-20T13:33:00.004-04:00

Well I once again find myself on a staff retreat. Two times a year we go away as a staff to plan and prepare for the months ahead. Today we started with a devotional by Pastor Phil from the 8th chapter of Deuteronomy. His message to us was that God causes us to hunger for Him so that He can then answer that hunger by giving us more of Himself.

That was completely a word for me and so I went to sit and talk with the Lord about my need to connect with him in a deeper way. I don't know about you, but sometimes in life I feel this deep need to connect with God, but he seems light years away. That is how I have felt lately. Intellectually, I know He is here and He loves me, but sometimes He feels so distant. So I sat down and just ask him how he felt about me and he gave me a song that wrecked me for a few hours. It is called You're Not Alone by Meredith Andrews. After my time with the Lord I wrote an e-mail to a friend and one line in the e-mail sums up where I am at today. I don't have all the answers, but I wrote...

"Let's just say for now...I know my God loves me, in a fresh way that seems actually relevant for my life today where I am at."

That is my prayer for you today as you listen to this song and you ask God how he feels about you. May you come away knowing that your God loves you in a way that is relevant for you and your life at this moment in time.

My Day at High School

2008-04-28T12:02:00.004-04:00

Well I am right now in the library at Marine City high school. I am in between classes where I am speaking about missions and the differences between the 1st world (the one we live in) and the 3rd world countries (most of the world). It has been good so far. I have had a chance to challenge around 200-250 kids on making a difference with their lives instead of just being a consumer. I still have two more classes to speak to so I might see another 100 kids or so.

The day was an early one for me. I had to be here at the school by 7:00am so I left home at 6:30. If you know me at all, well that is an early morning. I am amazed that high school kid's brains even function that early in the morning. Anyway, the break is almost over, so I am going to go for now.

I am just thankful for this opportunity to bring the awareness of missions and the need to serve our world into a public school.

Where Have I Been and the New Widget!

2008-04-16T13:05:00.007-04:00

Well isn't that a catchy little title? I can hardly wait to see where I am going with this one! Anyway...

So I realized the other day that I have not really written much on this blog since returning from Mexico. We all know it can't be because I have nothing to say, cause when does that ever happen, right? So I started looking at my life and realized yet again how crazy and chaotic my daily life is. Normal life is busy enough, but recently I have had new oppoortunities that have upped the schedule.

I am now a graduate student at Moody Bible Institute, so that is sucking up a lot of time. Who knew you could spend so many hours trying to figure out one verse in the bible? I am pursing a degree in biblical studies so that I can teach the bible more effectively. It really has been awesome and I am loving class, but it is definitely taking a toll on my time.
I am getting ready to take a team to Ireland in June and preparing messages for a ladies retreat that I get to speak at over there.
I have been asked to speak at Marine City High School on what it means to live without so I am excited about that opporunity to remind teenagers about how blessed we really are.
I recently led worship for our Ladies Day Away, which was totally awesome.

Now you might be wondering why I am spending time telling you all about my very full, busy life. It is not to tell you how awesome I am because I am soooooo busy. It really is my way of reminding myself that all of the craziness that goes on in my life is only important if I am using it to minister to people.

This brings me to the new widget part of the title. I have added a new widget to the left side of my blog. It is titled 150,000 people will die today. When I found this widget I felt overwhelmed by the reality of that truth. The counter just keeps going. The question is what am I doing about reaching some of those 150,000 people?

So when I am tempted to get frustrated about my busy, crazy, sometimes overwhelming life...I just need to remember that it is all worth it if it is making a difference in the lives of those around me for eternity.

Loving People

2008-03-17T17:45:00.004-04:00

So, here I sit waiting for a meeting to start and I find my mind wandering to a topic that has been a bit consuming to me lately. What topic is it Ann that has been occupying your mind? Well, I'm glad you asked.

I have been thinking about how important it is for us as believers to love those around us. Why is it that a hurting world doesn't look to the church for help? Why is it that, even in the church, we don't have time to ask people how they are doing and actually listen when they try to tell us? As I look around me, I see a world of hurt. In the body of Christ called Colonial Woods we have hurting people. Those who are in need of a shoulder to cry on, arms to hug them, ears to listen and lips to speak words of truth and encouragement. There are so many in need, yet those who are willing to support, hug, listen and speak caring words seem so few.

Why are we not stepping up to meet the needs? Better question...why have I not stepped up to meet the needs? Partly because I haven't seen them. It's amazing what you miss when you are self-absorbed! And if I am honest, I can be pretty self-absorbed at times. Another reason I haven't stepped up is because it's work. It takes energy to care for people. It can be draining. It hurts to care and to let people actually matter to us. I think it is much easier to just stay self-absorbed! That is a plan you can choose.

There is one big problem with that plan though. To be a follower of Christ self- absorption is not an option. Jesus told us over and over that we needed to love Him first and secondly to love others has ourselves. So if I want to take seriously following Christ and not just say that I am...I need to be growing in my love for Him and growing in my love for others. If I am not growing in these two areas...how much am I really following Christ?

Here is my thought...most of us need to stop focusing on our own lives and actually pick our heads up and look for the nearest person who is hurting and start loving Christ by loving who he has put in front of us. And you can start today!

Awesome New Song

2008-03-05T13:25:00.002-05:00

Trent Willmon released a new CD recently and one of the songs is called "There Is A God" I loved it and wanted to share it with you here.

I am now an M&M

2008-02-13T15:39:00.004-05:00

OK, so here is the thing. I was watching tv and saw the new m&m commercial that says that there is an m&m is all of us. Well I wanted to see if that was true so I went to their site and who knew... It was true, so I downloaded my own inner m&m and am now using it as my picture for the blog. Hope you like it since it is the inner me. Yes, I do think it is possible that my lack of sleep since arriving back from Mexico may have something to do with me thinking that making myself into an m&m is a good idea and worthy of posting on my blog. Either way, it was fun to make and should give you a laugh.

This weekend I am headed to a winter snow retreat as the speaker with our jr. high kids. Talk about extremes. Mexico, sun and warmth to a snow retreat that is just cold sounding. What was I thinking?

Saturday

2008-02-09T16:49:00.000-05:00

Well we are back from our whale watching expereince and we saw some great up close whales and dolphins today. Way better than last year when we went. We had one whale come up out of the water and splash his tail and we had 4 dolphins that swam with our boat. It was totally awesome. Ok, well that's all I wanted to say for now. Hope all is going well at home in the snow. I know, I know....I am awful.

Friday

2008-02-08T19:29:00.003-05:00

I was finally able to add some pictures today. The pictures of the kids are from our time passing out backpacks and the picture of us in the truck is one of our school runs. Imagine riding in that on bumpy, dusty roads and you will begin to get an idea of the wonderful world of off road transportation in Mexico.

Today we get to hear from Eden Seller on her thoughts about our day.

Hey everyone!!!
Today was an amazing day, it was a very long and tiring day but so rewarding. We were able to distribute backpacks to kids from two different schools. The kids were so excite and so grateful for them, their facial expressions were priceless. Today was our last day with the kids and working with the church and the organization. It was so hard to leave the kids that we've made friends with, our time with them has seemed way to short. We all wish we could pack the kids up in our suitcases and take them home, we're going to miss them. Time has gone by so fast the last couple of days. Tomorrow is our day off, we have another early morning because we are going whale watching. Lets hope we see some whales or it might just be a long, hot, four hours.

Well I am headed to bed. I hope you have enjoyed our team updates. Please pray that our flights are on time and we can arrive home at our sheduled time.

Thursday

2008-02-07T22:11:00.000-05:00

Today we are hearing from Phyllis Jean Robbins...

It is now Thursday evening. I am whipped!!! We have been having a great time. This morning we went back to the dump schools and fed the children. In total we fed six schools. Three this morning and three this afternoon. The kids crowd around you and many ask for more than one drink. It is hot and I am sure they are thirsty. I am amazed at how well we can communicate without knowing the language. Sign language helps. I think the thing that has struck me most is the Bible studies for the moms and children. They have such need but in spite of the physical needs there is joy on the faces of those who know Jesus. The little children have nothing and the simplest things please them. Even in their poverty the people are generous with what they have. You can´t imagine the amount of dirt and dust. It is so thick even the leaves on the trees are coated with it. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Phyllis Jean for the team

Ann here again...

Another day is over and the team is back at their hotel, hopefully getting some much needed rest. Tomorrow should be a fun day for the team as we will have the opportunity to give out the backpacks that we raised the money for back home. Each backpack is filled with school supplies and we will be able to bless over 150 kids with these much needed items. We are all looking forward to being able to give these gifts.

Tonight the team had the privledge of eating dinner on the street at a taco cart. Everyone needs to have this expereince in Mexico. The place is called the Happy Ant. And yes, I do think the ants that live near is cart are very happy most nights. We have some great pictures, as the owner let Dan and I get in the cart to chop up the meat. Ok, there wasn't a lot of chopping, but by the looks of the pictures I was close to losing an arm to Dan and the meat cleaver.

It has been an awesome day. We are doing really well as a team and we thank you for praying for us and for our team unity. I can tell that your prayers are working and this has been a great trip so far.

Wednesday

2008-02-06T23:42:00.000-05:00

Today Vicky is bringing you the team update....

Hola,

Greetings from far far away. The weather is beautiful here and the country is amazing. Where else in the world can you see palm trees adn mountains? (Don't worry I have taken hundreds of pictures to show you.)

Its a lot of fun trying to communicate in Spanish. (the whole two words I know). We rely on Dan for all of our translations. (Thanks Dan)

The kids just giggle and laugh at our attempts. Kids are kids no matter where in the world they live.

Today we made sandwiches-lots of them. Ham and cheese with a little mayo. We took the sandwiches and delivered them to the local schools around the dump. Its hard to believe how poor these schools really are. I am not sure if their are any schools in inner Detroit that can even compare.

The best part about our day was picking up left over food from a cruise ship and bringing it to the school children in the poor part of Puerto Vallarta. We fed around 250 happy kids today. It was a great expereince.

I would rather do this any day than be stuck in Michigan with 10 inches of snow. HA HA

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY TO MY BOY ETHAN!

Gracias....Vicky

Tuesday

2008-02-06T00:04:00.000-05:00

Today's update is coming from me...I know you want to hear from someone else, but they are all in bed and so it's just me you are stuck with.

Today started with a tour of the dump for all of team except for me. I was going from bank to bank to bank trying to cash our travelers checks so that we could pay for the hotel and eat for the rest of our time here. I walked about 3 or 4 miles in this amazingly fun process, but finally did succeed in getting the checks cashed and our bills paid. No evictions from our rooms today.

The team had a tour of all of the various ministries that Children of the Dump are involved in and had their eyes open to the way other people live. After the tour we went to a home in one of the neighborhoods near the dump and did a kids program and I spoke to the moms. After the programs they were all fed a hot meal and the moms were given good to take home for the family. That was a great time and all of the team were impacted by this event. It has been a high point of the trip so far.

I would love to keep writing about all of the other crazy events that have taken place today, but I am literally exhausted and am headed to bed. Hopefully tomorrow you will hear from someone else on the team.

Until then...

Monday

2008-02-04T22:47:00.001-05:00

Today's day is being sponosered by Brandon Robbins...yeah boy...that is Brandon's most common saying on this trip. Here is today's update in Brandon's own words...I'll be back at the end to wrap up the details.

Today's day, Monday, February 4th we went to go eat breakfast and then we caught the bus to go to the school of Champions and cleaned up the place for four hours and while we were there we saw the dump and it looked horrible. Houses made our of cardboard pieces and houses half way done. We actually met some of the kids there and they didn't look the best, but they were dressed with some kind of clothing and that's what counts. And one more thing...it was cool because Ruban taught me how to do some sweet moves with the soccer ball.

Well for those of you who don't know...Brandon is our 13 year old who is doing an awesome job serving the people down here and making us laugh all of the time. Today he lead our devotion time and was our designated prayer for meals.

The day was a good one. We did work hard at the school and got most of the classrooms cleaned. Some of the team also helped powerwash the rest of the school. We spent some time putting together the backpacks that Colonial Woods raised money for and we will be giving those out to the kids on Friday.

So far we have all had pretty good health and no real injuries. Tomorrow we head out to the dump again to work with kids doing games and a bible story while I give a devotional for the kids moms. After that is over we will then help serve a hot meal to those working in the dump. It will be a longer day that today so please pray for us that we have enough energy to go all day.

One thing that the team prayed for today was our relationships with each other. If you could add that to your list that would be great. As the days go by, those unique things about each person that seem endearing in the beginning become, shall we say....less endearing and so we are praying for this stuff before it ever becomes an issue. Just so you know...we are all getting along just fine.

Well until tomorrow...

Sunday

2008-02-03T20:39:00.001-05:00

Today Bev Snyder is our writer...here are her thoughts on today.

Today was a great day! We started with breakfast at the Malibu. Next we got on a bus and zoomed thru narrow streets to the church, Perdon y Amistad. The worship service was awesome. All in Spanish of course. You could sense the power of the Holy Spirit as we worshiped together in different languages. Some of the songs were familiar. We had head sets to listen ot the preaching and met lots of new people. church started at 11 and we returned home at 2. Then we went to lunch, spent some time walking on the Malicon enjoying the sun and the sand. Like I said, it was a great day! God is so good!

ps. Tomorrow we will be going to the dump to clean the school and the grounds.

Blessings, Bev

Friday and Saturday

2008-02-02T22:00:00.001-05:00

So today Dan is going to catch all of you up on the fun side of air travel...here's Dan...

So I want to share with you all the adventures of the Mexico team 2008. If nobody has ever travelled with Ann you need to sign up as soon as you can. I have never met a more capable person to lead a trip to somewhere in the world but for some reason on her trips you always have an adventure. So on our first day we met at the church at 2:30, oh yeah did I mention that was in the am not pm. So if we met at the church at 2:30 that means almost everybody was up by 2 if not earlier. Oh yeah so we met at the church before the crack of dawn was even in sight rearing and ready to go. Our flight was to leave at 6:15am and we were to head to the great area of Denver Colorado. AT this point the adventure began. We show up at Detroit International Airport excited with smiles on our face only to find out as we our standing in line that our flight has been cancelled due to weather. Not a horrible thing because they say that the next flight we can catch at 7:45, oh yeah did I mention they meant pm not am. Oh yes so we had the amazing honor of being in travel mode for 18 hours and only traveling an hour and fifteen minutes from home. You may ask what did you do in that time? I´m glad you asked we stayed at the airport the whole time because the weather was so bad we couldn´t go drive around. I tell you what though it was a great time getting to know each other and seeing how well people react on no sleep whatsoever. Any whoo... we made it to Denver that night and had to stay at a hotel. Oh yeah did I mention that because the weather cancelled the flight and not man that they don´t compensate any hotels. It´s ok though we got to stay at a red roof inn and that is an adventure too. The next morning we flew out of Denver to head to beautiful Puerto Vallarta, oh yeah did I mention that our flight got delayed an hour and fifteen mintues. But its ok we finally made it with good attitudes and a readiness for our own beds that you have never longed for in you life before. Regardless of all this God has been faithful in all of what He has done. Satan has tried to keep us from doing the Lord´s work but we are persevering through it all to do the Lord´s work. In conclusion the adventures of missions with Ann is always a treat and this team is looking forward to many more adventures along the way. This short excerpt was brought to you by Dan Hamrick and I am speaking on behalf of Brandon Robbins, Phyllis Jean Robbins, Vicky Brown, Bev Snyder, Eden Seller and Ann Harrington.