Monday, May 16, 2011
Pics
Forgot to put pics on the last blog so here are some pics of the mountain adventure and the 2 vbs' we were involved in!
Update
First off would like to say sorry for not posting sooner. We have been quite busy and due to the fact we have done so much lately we didn't know how to organize our thoughts. So the moral to the story is that we will try to get back to writing more often.
Last month we went up to the mountains with Pastor Fred and Pastor Johnny and some of his leaders. They have a hostile there with 35 ICCM Children. I can not remember if we have explained ICCM but it is a children's organization that gets sponsers from US and Canada to help children in developing countries. The sponsership that is collected for these children goes into housing them, feeding them, tutoring them, and doing special programs such as camps. The OLM church has been reaching out to these people in the rural areas for many years. They had built up 20 pastors with many congregations but over the past year many had walked away because the pastor from OLM who had these people has a project walked away from them. So we had gone up for Pastor Johnny and Pastor Fred to rebuild the relationships of these pastors and congregation. As well monthly for the iccm children there needs to be a health assessment so myself and Che completed those. The whole did crafts, games and singing with the children as well. Wednesday there was a huge celebration with 14 pastors and many from there congregations from all over the mountain area gathered to praise God for what He has done to restore the relationships and their lives. One Pastor walked for 7 hours to get the gathering. It was a great celebration. While up there we had to watch out for Cobras.. many have been killed just walkinng in the fields. So when we treked up to the area where we were staying we were with men with a machete just in case. Up in the mountains they have had to be very resourceful because there isn't much up there. It was so peaceful being surrounded by mountains and trees. Everyone up there love to sing, Pastor Johnny brought a new guitar for them and the 2 days we were there it was never put down. That was so awesome. Pastor Johnny also brought up sacks of rice and they had not had rice for a long time cuz it is hard to bring it up to the mountains so you should had seen the plate fulls of rice being served and none went to waste.
Being here we are seeing God's love being shown through people. It is so overwhelming. God's love shows forgiveness, shows acceptance, and guidance. There has been many times that through this ministry we are actually seeing it being done for people. I have never seen it before and with seeing the love from God it builds my faith and my trust with God. I have seen people forgive others but here when God is their only source for them to rely on you can see His love come forth to them through this ministry and it is breathtaking.
We have been involved in two VBS over the past month. That has been great to be involved in it here because we have done it many times back at home. It was great to work with the team in Bucana and just last week work with the team from the professional church of Pastor Freds. It was neat to bring forth our knowledge and also listen to their ideas and combine them together. Learning more and more how to work as a team and not focus so much on the project as a task but as a relationship building project. That is a bit hard for us western task orientated people but it is very enjoyable. Stretching our characters and our reliance on God. We have also been involved in skills training for the children in Bucana because they are right now out of school for summer. Adam has been teaching computer and I have been helping with cooking/baking.
Our new project right now is to set up a clinic. Working on how seeing the community needs and working on building up networks and getting the community involved so they own this so it continues when we leave. We are learning to be facilitators not doers. Just really to have God lead which has been hard. Another stretch and refiining in us. Just looking forward to see what He has in plan and excited to see how this clinic can reach many and change thousands of lives.
Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers. We will keep you updated more freguently!
Last month we went up to the mountains with Pastor Fred and Pastor Johnny and some of his leaders. They have a hostile there with 35 ICCM Children. I can not remember if we have explained ICCM but it is a children's organization that gets sponsers from US and Canada to help children in developing countries. The sponsership that is collected for these children goes into housing them, feeding them, tutoring them, and doing special programs such as camps. The OLM church has been reaching out to these people in the rural areas for many years. They had built up 20 pastors with many congregations but over the past year many had walked away because the pastor from OLM who had these people has a project walked away from them. So we had gone up for Pastor Johnny and Pastor Fred to rebuild the relationships of these pastors and congregation. As well monthly for the iccm children there needs to be a health assessment so myself and Che completed those. The whole did crafts, games and singing with the children as well. Wednesday there was a huge celebration with 14 pastors and many from there congregations from all over the mountain area gathered to praise God for what He has done to restore the relationships and their lives. One Pastor walked for 7 hours to get the gathering. It was a great celebration. While up there we had to watch out for Cobras.. many have been killed just walkinng in the fields. So when we treked up to the area where we were staying we were with men with a machete just in case. Up in the mountains they have had to be very resourceful because there isn't much up there. It was so peaceful being surrounded by mountains and trees. Everyone up there love to sing, Pastor Johnny brought a new guitar for them and the 2 days we were there it was never put down. That was so awesome. Pastor Johnny also brought up sacks of rice and they had not had rice for a long time cuz it is hard to bring it up to the mountains so you should had seen the plate fulls of rice being served and none went to waste.
Being here we are seeing God's love being shown through people. It is so overwhelming. God's love shows forgiveness, shows acceptance, and guidance. There has been many times that through this ministry we are actually seeing it being done for people. I have never seen it before and with seeing the love from God it builds my faith and my trust with God. I have seen people forgive others but here when God is their only source for them to rely on you can see His love come forth to them through this ministry and it is breathtaking.
We have been involved in two VBS over the past month. That has been great to be involved in it here because we have done it many times back at home. It was great to work with the team in Bucana and just last week work with the team from the professional church of Pastor Freds. It was neat to bring forth our knowledge and also listen to their ideas and combine them together. Learning more and more how to work as a team and not focus so much on the project as a task but as a relationship building project. That is a bit hard for us western task orientated people but it is very enjoyable. Stretching our characters and our reliance on God. We have also been involved in skills training for the children in Bucana because they are right now out of school for summer. Adam has been teaching computer and I have been helping with cooking/baking.
Our new project right now is to set up a clinic. Working on how seeing the community needs and working on building up networks and getting the community involved so they own this so it continues when we leave. We are learning to be facilitators not doers. Just really to have God lead which has been hard. Another stretch and refiining in us. Just looking forward to see what He has in plan and excited to see how this clinic can reach many and change thousands of lives.
Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers. We will keep you updated more freguently!
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