Well we are winding down our time here in Costa Rica. It's been an absolutely amazing and God filled time! Youth stepped out of their comfort zones, shared real and moving testimonies, and interacted with the Ticos. I am proud of every single person that went on this trip. New friendships were made, old friendships were strengthened, and we will miss everyone that we've met. Let's just say facebook is an amazing tool for keeping those friendships for years to come.
Today was an exciting day. We white water rafted down a pretty strong river. Some of the youth were scared at first, but once we got going it was all fun. Even when some toppled over the side and into the white water, they always came back with a smile. I think my favorite fall was when Joey fell in almost in slow motion. All that went through my head was...Joooooeeeeeyyyyy, beeeeee caaarrreefffuullll!!! It was also great when Andrew, Melissa, Stephen, Zach, and Rachel W's raft got stuck and their guide called Stephen an idiot. I don't think he meant anything mean...but it was hilarious.
After that we had lunch then headed to the zip line! Every single person did it, including Melissa! She was nervous, but with much coaxing from Andrew she did it and had a "little bit" of fun! Zip-lining was amazing! You zoomed over the tree tops looking at beautiful fauna, rivers, and jungleness. I loved it and I think everyone else did too...at least to some extent! We all made it, no one got hurt and everyone had smiles on their faces. I call that a success.
Now we are getting ready for another Tapon concert. This is our third Costa Rican concert since we've been here. Let's just say we haven't been "roughing it" too much.
Thanks for praying for us and we will see you late tomorrow night!
Crystal
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Costa Rica 2010: Outeach Complete
Hey guys! Sorry we haven't updated in a few days. The last three days we have been at our outreach location with no internet access. However, it was a powerful three days.
On day 1, we woke up and drove to Vina del Este. We got started on our work projects right away. We sanded a handrail and concrete. It was great to finally start working. It was only our two teams and Mario, the church grounds keeper guy. The youth worked hard because they were ready to get their hands dirty. We then went to the resort, yes resort, that we were staying at for the next two nights. It was a glorious place. It had hot showers and we had about 7 people to a room which was a change fromt the 56 people to a room. It was on the top of a mountain and the veiw was beautiful. It also had 3 pools, however, we didn't get to enjoy them.
In the afternoon we did a kid's ministry. We had about 25 Tico children come and we did the Velveteen Rabbit puppet show, did lots of songs and dances and a craft with the kids. We also had a cookout afterwards. It reminded me a lot of the Freedom Outreach Party in the Parks expect we couldn't speak Spanish. We gave out hotdogs, however, hotdogs are individually wrapped in plastic here and we didn't know that. So the first round of hotdogs were cooked with plastic around them...Oops! We then performed the dramas for the families and AJ and Liz, a girl from Manchester, shared their testimonies.
The next two days were similar. We worked on our projects, sanding and painting the youth room and doing kid's ministry. The kids are absolutely adorable and so much fun to be around. They are easy to communicate with too! We also walked around the neighborhoods a few times handing out invitations to a Tapon concert. It was awesome to see the youth walk up to complete strangers, attempt Spanish and invite them to church. Stephen is a natural.
Today we headed back to the base. On our way home, we stopped at a park and did an open air minsitry. The drama team did The Family, Sarah shared her testimony and the other drama team did The Champion. Afterwards, a man came over to us and asked us to pray for him. He had an alcohol problem and had left his family because the problem was that bad. He decided that he was going to stop drinking and give his life to Jesus! YAY!!!
Overall, I have been very impressed with our youth stepping out of their comfort zones, taking risks, and sharing their testimonies. They are real and have been touched my God so much on this trip! They are going to come home different.
Tomorrow we are going white water rafting in the morning and zip-lining through the jungle in the afternoon! Pray I see a wild monkey :)
We miss you, but will see you in a few days!
Crystal
On day 1, we woke up and drove to Vina del Este. We got started on our work projects right away. We sanded a handrail and concrete. It was great to finally start working. It was only our two teams and Mario, the church grounds keeper guy. The youth worked hard because they were ready to get their hands dirty. We then went to the resort, yes resort, that we were staying at for the next two nights. It was a glorious place. It had hot showers and we had about 7 people to a room which was a change fromt the 56 people to a room. It was on the top of a mountain and the veiw was beautiful. It also had 3 pools, however, we didn't get to enjoy them.
In the afternoon we did a kid's ministry. We had about 25 Tico children come and we did the Velveteen Rabbit puppet show, did lots of songs and dances and a craft with the kids. We also had a cookout afterwards. It reminded me a lot of the Freedom Outreach Party in the Parks expect we couldn't speak Spanish. We gave out hotdogs, however, hotdogs are individually wrapped in plastic here and we didn't know that. So the first round of hotdogs were cooked with plastic around them...Oops! We then performed the dramas for the families and AJ and Liz, a girl from Manchester, shared their testimonies.
The next two days were similar. We worked on our projects, sanding and painting the youth room and doing kid's ministry. The kids are absolutely adorable and so much fun to be around. They are easy to communicate with too! We also walked around the neighborhoods a few times handing out invitations to a Tapon concert. It was awesome to see the youth walk up to complete strangers, attempt Spanish and invite them to church. Stephen is a natural.
Today we headed back to the base. On our way home, we stopped at a park and did an open air minsitry. The drama team did The Family, Sarah shared her testimony and the other drama team did The Champion. Afterwards, a man came over to us and asked us to pray for him. He had an alcohol problem and had left his family because the problem was that bad. He decided that he was going to stop drinking and give his life to Jesus! YAY!!!
Overall, I have been very impressed with our youth stepping out of their comfort zones, taking risks, and sharing their testimonies. They are real and have been touched my God so much on this trip! They are going to come home different.
Tomorrow we are going white water rafting in the morning and zip-lining through the jungle in the afternoon! Pray I see a wild monkey :)
We miss you, but will see you in a few days!
Crystal
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Costa Rica 2010: The Outreach Begins
Sorry it's been a couple of days since we've posted. We've been going non-stop with training and visiting the community we are going to be serving at. But just so you know, I woke up early (and I'm not a morning person) to share what we've done the past few days.
We continued with training on Friday. The theme here is relationships: Relationships with God, ourselves and others. We've been learning about pride and how to be humble. The cure to all the lies that we tell ourselves is community! We need to love each other to be truly real.
Besides that, the youth have been sharing testimonies. Rachel W. shared hers in front of all 120 people. It was truly amazing and she touched many hearts with her story. Isaac and Elizabeth have also been brave souls to stand in front of our team and share their stories. God is truly challenging the youth to be real with who they are and with who God is.
Yesterday, we visited Vina del Este, which is the church we will be working at. We were given a tour of the church and shown the project we will be doing. We will be sanding, painting and putting windows in their youth center room. Monica, a woman that works at the church told us about the community. One side is a very poor area and the other is a very wealthy area. There are many teen moms and drug addicts and they have a very big burden to help and reach the people. She also shared a prayer request for the church. They gave classes to help the Tikos learn skills they can use to get a job, however, they are not pursuing a job because they have no where to leave the children. The church wants to start a free daycare but they are having difficulty getting approval from the government. Please pray for favor so they can begin this ministry.
We then walked around the neighborhood doing trash pick-up. Costa Rica is not a very dirty country. They have a garbage system and a truck that picks it up, but there is still a small amount of litter. So we walked around with gloves and open hearts to help clean the community. Along the way, we had awesome conversations and prayed for quite a few people. One man in particular shared that he really felt the Holy Spirit as the team was praying for him. Another woman was homeless with 4 children, a widow, and her mother was a drug addict. She needed prayer desperately.
Some of the fun things we've done is go to a Christian Concert. The bands name was Crossover. It was a fun night out and at times it felt like we were at a Spanish Jeremy Riddle concert. It was a great cultural experience. We also had youth group with Vina del Este young adult group. We played an ice breaker game and Marcus, the leader of the group, shared about miracles.
Today we are heading back to Vina del Este to have church, play some futball de cinco, and just spend time with the community. It is the sabbath and we love resting and having fun. Pray we win a game of futball against the Tikos!
Thanks so much for praying for us and supporting us. It's been an amazing and life-changing time so far and it's going to continue to be! We are also becoming more bold to try the different foods they are serving us. So I'll leave you with a little ditty...
Where God leads me I will follow.
What they feed me I will swallow.
By God's grace I'll keep it down.
And I will not frown until they turn around!
Thanks,
Crystal
We continued with training on Friday. The theme here is relationships: Relationships with God, ourselves and others. We've been learning about pride and how to be humble. The cure to all the lies that we tell ourselves is community! We need to love each other to be truly real.
Besides that, the youth have been sharing testimonies. Rachel W. shared hers in front of all 120 people. It was truly amazing and she touched many hearts with her story. Isaac and Elizabeth have also been brave souls to stand in front of our team and share their stories. God is truly challenging the youth to be real with who they are and with who God is.
Yesterday, we visited Vina del Este, which is the church we will be working at. We were given a tour of the church and shown the project we will be doing. We will be sanding, painting and putting windows in their youth center room. Monica, a woman that works at the church told us about the community. One side is a very poor area and the other is a very wealthy area. There are many teen moms and drug addicts and they have a very big burden to help and reach the people. She also shared a prayer request for the church. They gave classes to help the Tikos learn skills they can use to get a job, however, they are not pursuing a job because they have no where to leave the children. The church wants to start a free daycare but they are having difficulty getting approval from the government. Please pray for favor so they can begin this ministry.
We then walked around the neighborhood doing trash pick-up. Costa Rica is not a very dirty country. They have a garbage system and a truck that picks it up, but there is still a small amount of litter. So we walked around with gloves and open hearts to help clean the community. Along the way, we had awesome conversations and prayed for quite a few people. One man in particular shared that he really felt the Holy Spirit as the team was praying for him. Another woman was homeless with 4 children, a widow, and her mother was a drug addict. She needed prayer desperately.
Some of the fun things we've done is go to a Christian Concert. The bands name was Crossover. It was a fun night out and at times it felt like we were at a Spanish Jeremy Riddle concert. It was a great cultural experience. We also had youth group with Vina del Este young adult group. We played an ice breaker game and Marcus, the leader of the group, shared about miracles.
Today we are heading back to Vina del Este to have church, play some futball de cinco, and just spend time with the community. It is the sabbath and we love resting and having fun. Pray we win a game of futball against the Tikos!
Thanks so much for praying for us and supporting us. It's been an amazing and life-changing time so far and it's going to continue to be! We are also becoming more bold to try the different foods they are serving us. So I'll leave you with a little ditty...
Where God leads me I will follow.
What they feed me I will swallow.
By God's grace I'll keep it down.
And I will not frown until they turn around!
Thanks,
Crystal
Friday, July 30, 2010
First full day in Costa Rica
Well I've been trying to keep these guys from worrying too much about you parents. I tell them "Your parents are responsible adults, and were ok before you were born, and they will be ok for 10 days while you are away." :-) But the whole group have been champions so far. Yesterday was packed with preparations for ministry; in the practical, learning dramas, dances and puppet shows, and in the spiritual, examining our hearts and motives, getting before God and asking for His will to rule and reign in our lives and through our lives!
A highlight for me has been the food. I think everyone in our group has already gained a new respect for rice and beans, which no one knows how to prepare, season and serve like a Costa Rican cook.
One thing I am really excited to see in the next day or so is each of our group prepare and share testimonies in front of the group. We had some teaching on how to do this, and I've already been talking to some of our guys, who are thinking "I don't have a crazy, radical salvation testimony, so what do I say?" I think it has really challenged them to think about where they have seen God at work in their lives.
The day starts early here at the PVM base. I'm about to head to quiet time which is observed by the whole staff / student body, so I think I need to end this post. If you are related to anyone on the group, know that you are missed by your Costa Rican missionary, but they are doing well and will come back safe, sound and full of stories of God's light shining bright through their time here,
Blessings all,
Andrew
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Costa Rica 2010: We're here and we're exhausted
Most of us haven't slept in over 36 hours, but we arrived safely and it's been amazing so far! We left the barn at 3:00 am this morning, took a plane to Atlanta, then flew to Costa Rica. Our team leaders were waiting for us outside the airport, so we piled into a bus and drove through San Jose to the PVM base. The city itself is very westernized. On our way we saw a McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King and even a Papa Johns. It's a beautiful country. We are in the Central Mesa which is about 5000 feet above sea level and we're surrounded by mountains. The weather is also amazing. We all put on sweatshirts tonight..so yea, be jealous :)
We arrived at the PVM base and they had a delicious fruit cabob snack waiting for us. Some of us ate star fruit, guava, a really spiky koosh ball looking lychee nut thing and the pineapple was heaven! The base itself is small, but nice. It's mainly one building with six really big, long rooms; a cafeteria, chapel, girl's dorm, boy's dorm, common area, and storage. There's also a big field in the back equipped with a volleyball net! The dorms have 18 columns of triple bunk beds. That's 54 + a double which is 56 beds...all in one room and pretty much filled! I'm assuming the guys dorm is about the same :)
There's 9 or 10 Vineyard churches here, 98 guests and the PVM staff. Our team leaders are Meghan, Josh, Ryan, Donika, and Tricia. We are joining with Manchester Vineyard for the outreach part of the trip. We will be doing our outreach in the city of del Esta and Vina del Este church. Manchester has 9 total people; 3 leaders, and 6 female youth..oh and an 8 month old baby boy!
It's been a pretty chill day of settling in, team building games, and orientation. The food is also amazing. For dinner we had rice, beans, pork chops, fried plantains with cinnamon and sugar, Costa Rican salad which is cabbage, beans, tomatoes and cilantra. To drink we had guava juice!
After dinner we had worship in both English and Spanish and DeLynn, the leader of PVM, gave a teaching on why we are here. We are here to glorify God and that's why we were created. It's all about love and building and continuing to work on relationships. Love must be sincere to glorify God.
Now it's about 9pm here and everyone is settling down for bed. Tomorrow we have a day full of training for the outreach. Our group will be learning two skits and a puppet show for the kid's ministry.
Everyone is doing great! And parents, we have a certified nurse on our team. She's a leader from Manchester Vineyard. Continue to pray for boldness, unity, and the willingness to step out of our comfort zones to glorify God!
Thanks! We miss and love you all!
The Costa Rican Team :)
We arrived at the PVM base and they had a delicious fruit cabob snack waiting for us. Some of us ate star fruit, guava, a really spiky koosh ball looking lychee nut thing and the pineapple was heaven! The base itself is small, but nice. It's mainly one building with six really big, long rooms; a cafeteria, chapel, girl's dorm, boy's dorm, common area, and storage. There's also a big field in the back equipped with a volleyball net! The dorms have 18 columns of triple bunk beds. That's 54 + a double which is 56 beds...all in one room and pretty much filled! I'm assuming the guys dorm is about the same :)
There's 9 or 10 Vineyard churches here, 98 guests and the PVM staff. Our team leaders are Meghan, Josh, Ryan, Donika, and Tricia. We are joining with Manchester Vineyard for the outreach part of the trip. We will be doing our outreach in the city of del Esta and Vina del Este church. Manchester has 9 total people; 3 leaders, and 6 female youth..oh and an 8 month old baby boy!
It's been a pretty chill day of settling in, team building games, and orientation. The food is also amazing. For dinner we had rice, beans, pork chops, fried plantains with cinnamon and sugar, Costa Rican salad which is cabbage, beans, tomatoes and cilantra. To drink we had guava juice!
After dinner we had worship in both English and Spanish and DeLynn, the leader of PVM, gave a teaching on why we are here. We are here to glorify God and that's why we were created. It's all about love and building and continuing to work on relationships. Love must be sincere to glorify God.
Now it's about 9pm here and everyone is settling down for bed. Tomorrow we have a day full of training for the outreach. Our group will be learning two skits and a puppet show for the kid's ministry.
Everyone is doing great! And parents, we have a certified nurse on our team. She's a leader from Manchester Vineyard. Continue to pray for boldness, unity, and the willingness to step out of our comfort zones to glorify God!
Thanks! We miss and love you all!
The Costa Rican Team :)
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Costa Rica 2010: Here we go!
Costa Rica 2010 is only days away! An amazing group of 14 youth and 2 leaders are leaving on Wednesday for a 10 day mission to Costa Rica. Our team consists of Taliah Kurlak, Sarah Lenard, Morgan Edwards, Melissa Greenplate, Rachel Kane, Rachel Walker, Alli Thurman, Elizabeth Collins, Isaac Walker, Stephen Crecsenzo, Joey Hilferty, Eric Tavenner, Zach Tavenner, AJ Duzan, Andrew Greenplate, and myself.
Costa Rica is one of the safest and most beautiful countries in Central America. We will be serving in the community of Heredia, which is north of the capital San Jose. It's filled with coffee covered hills, tropical rain forests, volcanoes and beautiful fauna. Our team will doing some sort of construction project, kids ministry and building relationships with the Costa Ricans.
Please pray for us! Some things to pray about is safety, health, boldness, divine appointments, and obedience to the Holy Spirit.
I'm really excited for this adventure! We have an amazing team of youth that are ready to serve and grow. They aren't doing this for themselves, they are doing this to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Haiti 2010: A day of work and a day of rest
It is still hot here, but God is good! Yesterday, was a great day in the community of Trousable. We arrived at the church expecting to be moving a mountain of dirt to the main road. However, the pastor decided that he wanted us to continue to help with the foundation of the church. So we formed more assembly lines to move buckets of cement and rocks to the workers. We worked non-stop and took few breaks and never became tired.
Looking back we realized that today was a day for relationship building with the Haitians. We began to realize how joyful the Haitians are. The church is located in the middle of a steep hill, and the mountain of debris is blocking most of the steps, so everyone that walks by has to pass the church entrance. I was encouraged by the people walking by and when we would say Bon Jour or Bonswa (good afternoon) people would smile and sometimes start conversations with us. One particular conversation happened when this man stopped me and asked if he could talk to me about the work we are doing. He asked if we were American and if we were Christian. I said yes to both. However, he wanted to know why we were not preaching and praying because all other Americans he has met only preached and prayed. I said we do preach and pray, but we also came here to join with the Haitians to rebuild their country. He said he liked that and wished more would come to work and not just preach and pray. However, I did ask if he was Christian and he was!
In the afternoon, we did our last childrens activity. We told the story of how Jesus loves little children and had the children draw houses and put themselves in the picture to show that they are part of God´s Kingdom. Afterwards, we prayed for each child individually and asked for specific prayer requests. Most of the children asked for a home for their family and others asked for healing from stomach aches and headaches. Others asked for intelligence in school so they can get good jobs. This was a powerful time because when the adults saw that we were praying for the children, they also received prayer.
At the end of the day, Pastor De Jesus gave a thank you speech to us. He said that we have helped them bring hope to their community that was deserted after the earthquake. He asked us to continue to pray for them and blessed us. It was sad to know that it was our last day in the community.
Later that evening , Pastor Gilliome, who is overseeing the STEM teams, came and spoke to us about the country of Haiti. He told us about the nation right after the earthquake happened. After the earthquake, the community of Trousable was empty. The people had moved to 3 tent cities that were at local schools. However, the government made the people leave but did not give them anywhere to go. They just wanted to reopen the schools. The people returned to their community and cleared very small areas, put up a tarp and called it home. The pastor hoped that the government would come and clear the debris, but after 6 months nothing had happened. They decided to start rebuilding the church. Once that began, the people starting smiling and finding hope. If the church can get rebuilt, so can their home. Us being there has been an encouragement to the people. This shows how God can use the smallest things to make change.
Today we went to church. Church in another country is always fun. It is in a different language, but you can still feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. We gave out the hygiene bags to the church members, sang a song for them and they taught us a song that is sang in both English and Creole. It was nice that they included us in their service and made us feel like part of their family.
We then went to the market place and bartered for our gifts to bring home. This is a hard experience because there are always people begging and asking for money and you just have to tell them no. I am not going to tell you what we bought. You will just have to wait and see.
The rest of our day was spent napping and fellowshipping at the guest house. Tomorrow…we go to the beach!
See you in two days!
The Haiti team!
Looking back we realized that today was a day for relationship building with the Haitians. We began to realize how joyful the Haitians are. The church is located in the middle of a steep hill, and the mountain of debris is blocking most of the steps, so everyone that walks by has to pass the church entrance. I was encouraged by the people walking by and when we would say Bon Jour or Bonswa (good afternoon) people would smile and sometimes start conversations with us. One particular conversation happened when this man stopped me and asked if he could talk to me about the work we are doing. He asked if we were American and if we were Christian. I said yes to both. However, he wanted to know why we were not preaching and praying because all other Americans he has met only preached and prayed. I said we do preach and pray, but we also came here to join with the Haitians to rebuild their country. He said he liked that and wished more would come to work and not just preach and pray. However, I did ask if he was Christian and he was!
In the afternoon, we did our last childrens activity. We told the story of how Jesus loves little children and had the children draw houses and put themselves in the picture to show that they are part of God´s Kingdom. Afterwards, we prayed for each child individually and asked for specific prayer requests. Most of the children asked for a home for their family and others asked for healing from stomach aches and headaches. Others asked for intelligence in school so they can get good jobs. This was a powerful time because when the adults saw that we were praying for the children, they also received prayer.
At the end of the day, Pastor De Jesus gave a thank you speech to us. He said that we have helped them bring hope to their community that was deserted after the earthquake. He asked us to continue to pray for them and blessed us. It was sad to know that it was our last day in the community.
Later that evening , Pastor Gilliome, who is overseeing the STEM teams, came and spoke to us about the country of Haiti. He told us about the nation right after the earthquake happened. After the earthquake, the community of Trousable was empty. The people had moved to 3 tent cities that were at local schools. However, the government made the people leave but did not give them anywhere to go. They just wanted to reopen the schools. The people returned to their community and cleared very small areas, put up a tarp and called it home. The pastor hoped that the government would come and clear the debris, but after 6 months nothing had happened. They decided to start rebuilding the church. Once that began, the people starting smiling and finding hope. If the church can get rebuilt, so can their home. Us being there has been an encouragement to the people. This shows how God can use the smallest things to make change.
Today we went to church. Church in another country is always fun. It is in a different language, but you can still feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. We gave out the hygiene bags to the church members, sang a song for them and they taught us a song that is sang in both English and Creole. It was nice that they included us in their service and made us feel like part of their family.
We then went to the market place and bartered for our gifts to bring home. This is a hard experience because there are always people begging and asking for money and you just have to tell them no. I am not going to tell you what we bought. You will just have to wait and see.
The rest of our day was spent napping and fellowshipping at the guest house. Tomorrow…we go to the beach!
See you in two days!
The Haiti team!
Friday, July 2, 2010
Haiti 2010: It´s 95 degrees and we´re tired!
Praise God it hasn´t rained yet! We´ve been working very hard and we are continuing to help rebuild a church in the community Trousable.
Yesterday, we moved a pile of dirt from one side of an alley way to the other side of the alley way and with the direction of "Michael Jackson" we made a garden wall. The dirt was in front of a woman´s house and she did not want the dirt in front her house anymore. We started pick axing and shoveling buckets of dirt to clear the entrance way to her home. She was not happy at first, but Pastor De Jesus talked to her and she was finally satisfied with our work.
We also built a stone wall, moved extremely heavy stones and formed assembly lines to move cement up lots of steps. Super Mario and the Amazing Jason worked hard doing all the heavy lifting and becoming good friends with the Haitians that are working. Mario is amazing at forming relationships with the Nationals. He has a group of about 6 or 7 men that he is teaching English too and in return they are teaching him Creole. I am encouraged to see how well he has become friends with Reno, Mike, Kiaja, Williamson, and another guy that is going to make fun of Mario for forgetting his name again.
After lunch, we did another small kids program. We brought the guitar and sang Awesome God, Lord I Lift Your Name on High, and Deep and Wide. The kids loved Deep and Wide which Judy taught to them. It has become a favorite within the last two days. We did a puppet show about how to get to heaven and made a q-tip cross craft, it is called God´s eye. Emily and Katrina have been amazing with the kids. They play hand games, Pepsi Cola, and just laugh the whole time with them. The kids have started asking for them by name. Katrina is Kachina, Cecilia is Cece, Emily is Emoly, Jason is Jasone (pronounced on) and I am Christoph. We love it!
Today we returned and tried to set up a rope course to send buckets and buckets of dirt down the hill to the main street for pick up. However, we realized we are short on man power and will wait for tomorrow when more members of the church come to help us. Since that did not work, our main goal of the day was to complete the rock wall. We lifted more rocks, formed more assembly lines to move concrete and drank lots of water.
The highlight of today was the kids program. We told the story of David and Goliath. Goliath was Jason and David was Mario moving around the smallest kid, Tibat. The translator told the story and we acted it out. It was hilarious when this little kid threw an extremely small stone at Goliath and Goliath tumbled down. Pictures will come...I promise!
We also played with the kids using bubbles that we had brought. They had a blast chasing after them as blew them. Cecilia, Emily, and Katrina had the kids laughing and just having a good time.
Overall, we are having a blast helping rebuild the church little by little, but the most important aspect of our trip is the relationship building and conversations that are happening with the Haitian. Many of them know a small amount of English so all of us are having meaningful and powerful conversations.
Thank you for praying for us. We can feel your prayers a lot. Tomorrow is our last day in the community. It is going to be the hardest day of all. We have to move a humungous mound of dirt and debris down many many steps, up a hill and to the main street for pick up. It is going to be hard and tiring. Please pray for supernatural strength and stamina!
Other prayer requests are the bugs, a good idea for the kids program tomorrow, sore muscles, and continue favor from God. Everything has been going really well!
BTW..I am using a Spanish keyboard and have decided to not use contractions anymore. It is too confusing :)
Thanks,
The Haitian Team
Go Argentina!!!!
Yesterday, we moved a pile of dirt from one side of an alley way to the other side of the alley way and with the direction of "Michael Jackson" we made a garden wall. The dirt was in front of a woman´s house and she did not want the dirt in front her house anymore. We started pick axing and shoveling buckets of dirt to clear the entrance way to her home. She was not happy at first, but Pastor De Jesus talked to her and she was finally satisfied with our work.
We also built a stone wall, moved extremely heavy stones and formed assembly lines to move cement up lots of steps. Super Mario and the Amazing Jason worked hard doing all the heavy lifting and becoming good friends with the Haitians that are working. Mario is amazing at forming relationships with the Nationals. He has a group of about 6 or 7 men that he is teaching English too and in return they are teaching him Creole. I am encouraged to see how well he has become friends with Reno, Mike, Kiaja, Williamson, and another guy that is going to make fun of Mario for forgetting his name again.
After lunch, we did another small kids program. We brought the guitar and sang Awesome God, Lord I Lift Your Name on High, and Deep and Wide. The kids loved Deep and Wide which Judy taught to them. It has become a favorite within the last two days. We did a puppet show about how to get to heaven and made a q-tip cross craft, it is called God´s eye. Emily and Katrina have been amazing with the kids. They play hand games, Pepsi Cola, and just laugh the whole time with them. The kids have started asking for them by name. Katrina is Kachina, Cecilia is Cece, Emily is Emoly, Jason is Jasone (pronounced on) and I am Christoph. We love it!
Today we returned and tried to set up a rope course to send buckets and buckets of dirt down the hill to the main street for pick up. However, we realized we are short on man power and will wait for tomorrow when more members of the church come to help us. Since that did not work, our main goal of the day was to complete the rock wall. We lifted more rocks, formed more assembly lines to move concrete and drank lots of water.
The highlight of today was the kids program. We told the story of David and Goliath. Goliath was Jason and David was Mario moving around the smallest kid, Tibat. The translator told the story and we acted it out. It was hilarious when this little kid threw an extremely small stone at Goliath and Goliath tumbled down. Pictures will come...I promise!
We also played with the kids using bubbles that we had brought. They had a blast chasing after them as blew them. Cecilia, Emily, and Katrina had the kids laughing and just having a good time.
Overall, we are having a blast helping rebuild the church little by little, but the most important aspect of our trip is the relationship building and conversations that are happening with the Haitian. Many of them know a small amount of English so all of us are having meaningful and powerful conversations.
Thank you for praying for us. We can feel your prayers a lot. Tomorrow is our last day in the community. It is going to be the hardest day of all. We have to move a humungous mound of dirt and debris down many many steps, up a hill and to the main street for pick up. It is going to be hard and tiring. Please pray for supernatural strength and stamina!
Other prayer requests are the bugs, a good idea for the kids program tomorrow, sore muscles, and continue favor from God. Everything has been going really well!
BTW..I am using a Spanish keyboard and have decided to not use contractions anymore. It is too confusing :)
Thanks,
The Haitian Team
Go Argentina!!!!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Haiti 2010: Day 1 and 2
Hello All!
We have had a very exciting start to our mission. We left Newark, NJ on time after a little bit of traffic, flew to Ft. Lauderdale and raced to our next flight. When we found our gate, they were just about to close it! They told us that only one out of our 13 pieces of luggage made it to the plane. That caused a little bit of panic but we prayed on the flight and when we landed, our entire luggage came too! Praise God! We were serenaded at the airport which added to our excitement.
The next adventure was finding our leaders, Katya and Miguel. The airport is extremely different than American airports and we were cattle herded through a very small exit, constantly being asked by “workers” if they could help. We found the parking lot, but no Katya and Miguel. We waited about an hour with our total of 17 pieces of luggage. Finally, I saw YWAM and asked to borrow their cell phone. I contacted Pastor Franklin and within minutes, they found us! Apparently the organization of the airport changed from yesterday when they dropped the last team off.
Next, we crowded into a 15 passenger van and started driving. For most of our team, this was a new, scary experience. Judy and Katrina sat in the front with Johnny our driver, and learned the importance of horns and being extremely close to motorcycles. He gave them a new definition of “road rage,” however, for them this is just the way they drive. It was about an hour drive to the guest house and we stopped for gas that was $6.00 a gallon.
The guest house was a pleasant surprise. We were prepared to sleep in tents in the backyard, but were lead to rooms with pre-made beds, fans, electricity, and a marble bathroom with ceramic floors. They had just finished this room recently. Apparently after the earthquake, many organizations were looking for places to house their teams and found many unused nice houses on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. This was one of them and it´s gorgeous. (We can´t add pictures yet because it will take too long, but I will post some when we get home). We ate, showered, had devotions and we were asleep by 9:30.
We woke to the lovely neighborhood rooster at 5am, however, we didn´t actually get up until 6am. We had individual and team devotions. Jason shared the story of Jesus feeding the 5000, specifically Matthew 14:16, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” He explained that we need to have faith in Jesus and he will take whatever we have and multiply it. This was a great word to start our day.
We traveled to the opposite side of Port-au-Prince, through crazy traffic to a community that was hit hard by the earthquake. We passed many tent villages, collapsed buildings and homes, and saw the people still living their normal life. The community was on a steep hill and we were helping to rebuild a church that had completely collapsed in the earthquake. We began by moving rocks for the right side wall and filling in a trench with dirt. We formed assembly lines to move dirt and debris out of the building and to bring concrete into the building. It was extremely hot and we took many, many water breaks. Mario became good friends with the concrete crew having mini Creole/English lessons in between mixing and moving the concrete.
After lunch, we worked for a few more hours surrounded by children that often joined in with our assembly line. One boy in particular, Papouch, learned all of our names and learned to “blow up a pound” (you know, the handshake thing) with me. He was adorable and made us all laugh. We then put on a puppet show, sang some songs, and made “Jezi renmen mwen paske mwen special” or “Jesus loves me because I´m special” on paper plates and we decorated them with flowers, hearts, and crosses.
It´s hard to see the devastation that is here and realize that we can´t fix it all. We are just joining in with the Haitians to put a small dent in the restoration that needs to take place. The people are hard workers, have strong endurance, and are joyful. It´s encouraging to see this and know that the Lord´s will is moving and working.
Our first day was hot, and tiring, but full of blessings. We can´t wait to see what the Lord is going to do tomorrow when we return to the church and continue to move debris, play with children and witness to the Lord´s people.
Please pray for physical strength (there´s no way we could be doing what we´re doing without God), for health, protection from the sun and staying hydrated (we sweat puddles in minutes), Judy´s car sickness and safety while driving, that we will not become cocky and over confident because we had a great day and continued grace, favor, and love from God.
This is the only internet access we will have, so if you are expecting emails from the team members, I´m sorry but you probably won´t get them!
The Haiti Team!
We have had a very exciting start to our mission. We left Newark, NJ on time after a little bit of traffic, flew to Ft. Lauderdale and raced to our next flight. When we found our gate, they were just about to close it! They told us that only one out of our 13 pieces of luggage made it to the plane. That caused a little bit of panic but we prayed on the flight and when we landed, our entire luggage came too! Praise God! We were serenaded at the airport which added to our excitement.
The next adventure was finding our leaders, Katya and Miguel. The airport is extremely different than American airports and we were cattle herded through a very small exit, constantly being asked by “workers” if they could help. We found the parking lot, but no Katya and Miguel. We waited about an hour with our total of 17 pieces of luggage. Finally, I saw YWAM and asked to borrow their cell phone. I contacted Pastor Franklin and within minutes, they found us! Apparently the organization of the airport changed from yesterday when they dropped the last team off.
Next, we crowded into a 15 passenger van and started driving. For most of our team, this was a new, scary experience. Judy and Katrina sat in the front with Johnny our driver, and learned the importance of horns and being extremely close to motorcycles. He gave them a new definition of “road rage,” however, for them this is just the way they drive. It was about an hour drive to the guest house and we stopped for gas that was $6.00 a gallon.
The guest house was a pleasant surprise. We were prepared to sleep in tents in the backyard, but were lead to rooms with pre-made beds, fans, electricity, and a marble bathroom with ceramic floors. They had just finished this room recently. Apparently after the earthquake, many organizations were looking for places to house their teams and found many unused nice houses on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. This was one of them and it´s gorgeous. (We can´t add pictures yet because it will take too long, but I will post some when we get home). We ate, showered, had devotions and we were asleep by 9:30.
We woke to the lovely neighborhood rooster at 5am, however, we didn´t actually get up until 6am. We had individual and team devotions. Jason shared the story of Jesus feeding the 5000, specifically Matthew 14:16, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” He explained that we need to have faith in Jesus and he will take whatever we have and multiply it. This was a great word to start our day.
We traveled to the opposite side of Port-au-Prince, through crazy traffic to a community that was hit hard by the earthquake. We passed many tent villages, collapsed buildings and homes, and saw the people still living their normal life. The community was on a steep hill and we were helping to rebuild a church that had completely collapsed in the earthquake. We began by moving rocks for the right side wall and filling in a trench with dirt. We formed assembly lines to move dirt and debris out of the building and to bring concrete into the building. It was extremely hot and we took many, many water breaks. Mario became good friends with the concrete crew having mini Creole/English lessons in between mixing and moving the concrete.
After lunch, we worked for a few more hours surrounded by children that often joined in with our assembly line. One boy in particular, Papouch, learned all of our names and learned to “blow up a pound” (you know, the handshake thing) with me. He was adorable and made us all laugh. We then put on a puppet show, sang some songs, and made “Jezi renmen mwen paske mwen special” or “Jesus loves me because I´m special” on paper plates and we decorated them with flowers, hearts, and crosses.
It´s hard to see the devastation that is here and realize that we can´t fix it all. We are just joining in with the Haitians to put a small dent in the restoration that needs to take place. The people are hard workers, have strong endurance, and are joyful. It´s encouraging to see this and know that the Lord´s will is moving and working.
Our first day was hot, and tiring, but full of blessings. We can´t wait to see what the Lord is going to do tomorrow when we return to the church and continue to move debris, play with children and witness to the Lord´s people.
Please pray for physical strength (there´s no way we could be doing what we´re doing without God), for health, protection from the sun and staying hydrated (we sweat puddles in minutes), Judy´s car sickness and safety while driving, that we will not become cocky and over confident because we had a great day and continued grace, favor, and love from God.
This is the only internet access we will have, so if you are expecting emails from the team members, I´m sorry but you probably won´t get them!
The Haiti Team!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Haiti 2010: And the adventure begins...
The Haiti Mission Team is about to embark on an adventure. We are seven ordinary people that have a heart for serving others and serving our Lord. Our team members are Jason Jaszemski, Katrina Tavenner, Cecelia Tavenner, Emily Yeatman, Judy Yeatman, Crystal McCardell, and Mario Cassase.
We leave on Tuesday, June 28th for Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. We will be joining up with STEM Int'l to participate in medical ministries, re-building a local church, children ministries, and just serving the people of Haiti. Our team leaders are very close friends of mine, Katya and Miguel Ulloa who I served with in the Dominican Republic in 2008.
I can't wait to get to Haiti and begin the work God has for us there. Please pray for us and continue to read our updates throughout the week!
Crystal
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Getting Started!
Woot! It's starting! I have begun to organize missions! You don't understand how excited I am right now. This summer I will be taking our youth group to Costa Rica through Surge2010. It's a Vineyard Eastern Regional Youth trip. It's going to be powerful. So far I have 9 people going on the trip and word just got out this week about.
The other one that is in the works is a mission to Haiti. After the earthquake hit them, I immediately felt that we had to go and help! I've contacted STEM Int'l (I went to the DR with them in 2008) and have expressed interest! Keep these trips in your prayers and that God uses us this summer.
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