SEQ to FLL Then we wait

Well we made it to Fort Lauderdale, all of us cleared customs and made it to our gate for departure…apparently the flight we are taking back to Logan originated today from Logan and they had a little delay in getting out of Boston…Shocker!

Well we are scheduled to leave here at 4:00, and should get to Logan at 7:15.  We are chilling (Thankfully both figuratively and literally) in the JetBlue terminal while we wait for our plane to arrive and make the turn back home.

Everyone’s spirits are great and we are again, exhausted but in a good way.  We all are so thankful that we had the chance to represent all of you in the DR and grow our friendships deeper with our TIME Ministry partners.  Got to go get in line, just keeping you in the loop as FFL has FREE Internet access…

The Building That God Had Planned

Benjamin was up a little earlier today because it was the build day, consequently, we were up a little earlier today, but not too bad, only 5:25am.  We made our way down to breakfast and than loaded most of us into the TIME Bus. We had several of the guys develop a condition that was not conducive to bus rides, strenuous work and limited facilities. So, 10 of us along with Noe, Jean Carlos, Benjamin, Rose & Rafelina were on our way to Hatillo to build a chapel.  The truck was loaded the night before, along with the tools into the Red Van and all three vehicles left at 6:30 to make our way to the village.

A firm Foundation

A Good start

Presenting the Pastor with The Keys

The Front Door

We arrived to see that the men of the church had built a wonderful block wall on the foundation we had laid on Monday.  We all exited our vehicles and went to the center of the foundation to pray a prayer of dedication for the chapel we would be building and for the people that would worship in it.  Then we unloaded the truck and started the build.  The skys were a little threatening, and when that lightening bolts fired off and the thunder clapped, we knew we were in for some rain.  I asked Jenna if she had ever done a build in the rain and she could not recall one.  The great thing about the tropics is that while the rain is often intense, it is also usually brief.  We were soaked and it felt great.  We were cooled off and I believe that helped us in the longrun.  In spite of our diminished numbers, God provided just what we needed to have a successful build and we accomplished the construction in a reasonable amount of time.  All of the “kids” worked great together; the final installation was an ictus with a cross in the center for over the front door of the church that David & Ryan had created the day before.  We then had lunched served by our hosts on the property. He had Rice & Beans, Chicken and Avocados as big as your hand.  Our hosts were so appreciative of us being there and we all appreciated their warmth and hospitality.

Then came time to present the pastor with the keys for their new chapel.  He told us the story of how his mother and two other women gathered at that site a number of years ago and God told them that on this ground, God would provide a place for them to worship.  They made a sign and nailed it to a tree that is still there identifying this land as the place where God would provide for them. They met there over the years for services, outside and when the rains would come, they would pick up their chairs and bible and run for cover.  Today, that word from God has come be, his mom told him that this is just how it looked when God showed her what He had planned.  AWESOME!

Exhausted & Exhilarated, we boarded the TIME Bus, the air conditioning cranked, and made our way back to the TIME Center.  Most of us slept on the bus, and when we arrived back to the TIME Center, it was a race for the showers (No hot water down here, just mention that for informational purposes only) and some of us crashed just a bit before our celebration dinner.

The Feast

The TIME kitchen staff went all out tonight, we have been blessed with great food this entire week, but tonight was “Tu Ta Pisao” (over the top).  We then shared in some live music from Noe’s wife and daughter, a friend of theirs from church and Noe & Becker did a duet that was very powerful (Dominican Idol where are you?)

After our entertainment, we had a chance to each share what God had taught us this week.  Noe challenged us to take our zeal for evangelism back with us to Cape Cod and not just have it be for “foreign missions” but in our mission field at home.  I would encourage you to talk with some of the team members that went on the trip. God used each one of us and taught each one of us things that are for His Kingdom purposes. We had some tears of joy and some of sadness as we knew that Saturday morning we would be leaving our friends here in the DR.  One of the benefits of our continued involvement with TIME is that we are building relationships.  We are truly connected with Noe, Anyoly, Megan, “Billy”, Elda, Rafelina, Rose, Rose Marien, Argenis, Jean Carlos, Benjamin and all the Ladies in the kitchen. We were presented with a little gift for Pastor Nate to have in his house, because most of the “kids” on the trip frequent the Criser home.  It is a little house with the Dominican flag on it and Anyoly said that when ever we are at the Criser’s and we see that, we will be reminded of our friends in the DR and how we all serve an awesome God.  I need to get to sleep. I has been an awesome week, but we know that our return home will drop us right back into the middle of Life and all the responsibilities that we each have.  Our prayer is that we realize that God knows the concerns of our lives and He has a plan for each of us. It is as clear as His revealing to the Pastor’s mom that he would provide for them a church on that ground. Maybe the voice of God is speaking to each one of us, we just have to filter out all of the noise that is not God’s voice so we can hear what he has for all of us.

Lord willing we will arrive at Logan Saturday night around 6:00pm and be back on Cape after 8:00, thank you for your support throughout this week, God Bless you and Good Night.

It takes A Chapel to Raise a Village

The Big Day Before the Big Day

Breakfast of Champions

It just would be wake-up if we did not have the soothing tones of Benjamin saying; “GOOD MORNING, HALLELUIAH, JESUS LOVES YOU, IT IS TIME TO GET UP!” Hey, let me tell you, you get up and if you are fast enough, you can gat a High Five from Ben as he takes a lap around the dorm room.  He also wakes the girls up, but that is through yelling through the door, after all, he is a gentleman.  Devotions and breakfast and off to the ground floor of the TIME Center to build final few items…

The items we built were very detailed today. Although they were relatively few in numbers, they took through lunch and beyond to complete. 

Working on a Roof Truss

The Roof Trusses and Gables proved to be very time consuming and

A Stonger Door Design by David

David and I made a field modification to the door design, let’s just say, it’s solid and should withstand the stiffest wind.  We believed that we were all done with the necessary components for the build, it was after 1:30, so we went up for Lunch and most, if not all of us, cleaned up and took a little siesta  (I am surprised that this has not caught on, beyond Commonwealth of Massachusetts  employees, that is) it really is very enjoyable.

VBS in a 20x28 Chapel

Well it was a good thing that we rested, at 4:00 we were on the TIME Bus heading for a church in Villa Mella that TIME built a building for 3 years ago. 

"Tu Ta Pasao"

They were having VBS and we were the Arts & Crafts and Games people for tonight, in addition to David (via Oto) giving a brief message about Jesus Christ who they could read about in the Spanish New Testaments that we handed out at the end of the evening.

50 Kids + 2 Gym Teachers = Fun

But set the stage, we arrived to what can only be the equivalent to a Rock Star’s welcome. I don’t think it was just about us, but the team from TIME and the teachers that accompanied us from San Felipe (a sister church to this one), but they were excited to see us too.  Remember Benjamin, well, his “real” job is a teacher in the school system, and let me tell you, they love him. He and Rafelina led them in singing and they were belting it out.  (Definitely not your typical reserved New Englanders) these kids were SINGING!

The chapel was full and kids were still arriving when we divided into classes by age and gender.  After they had their lesson, it was time for crafts. The lesson was on Joseph and his coat of many colors. The younger kids colored, while the older ones used a glue stick to place swatches of material on a paper image of Joseph. Now it was time for Games.  I mentioned that “Ben” was a teacher; he is a Phys. Ed. Teacher just like our own Rich Chase.  Well, we had some very creative games ALL in the 20’x28’ chapel (talk about church space issues) but the kids had a blast.  Our girls and Rafelina were also doing face painting for the little ones, (Baseballs & DR Flags for the boys and the Girls wanted hearts and other more pretty things). David gave them a short message and we handed out the New Testaments for all who wanted them.  We all were exhausted, but it was a good kind of exhausted.  We headed back to the TIME Center and had a filling dinner of “Sloppy Jose’s”, chips, pumpkin pudding and cake! 

Dinner after VBS

The truck arrived that we would be transporting the components to the build site in so we headed down to the ground floor one more time to load the truck.

This is not Noe’s first rodeo, the load sequence is critical to get all the chapel on one little truck.  We started, Roof Panel (Tin Down), Solid Wall, Window Wall, 2 window louvers, Roof Panel (Tin Up) and repeat… Well, we were at the point after our 5^th repeat and we did not have another 3 roof panels… You see, we are the last group for TIME this season. We had re-purposed some of the roof panels that other teams had constructed and were not used, well in that process, we counted some of the ones that we could not use as “Good Ones” so our count was off. So, we broke out the tools and, seeing as it was only 8:45 at night, we fires up the power tools, grabbed some sections of tin, and banged (LITERALLY) three more roof panels out,

Last Minute Building

finished the loading and were up in the Dorms by 10:00, more exhausted than before, but still a good kind of exhausted.

I must say that everyone has done a terrific job working, adapting and doing what is necessary for the process to occur.  Whether it is playing with Elda, Rose, Megan or “Billy” so we can load the truck, or our guys jumping in and doing crafts at VBS with kids they have never met before, in a very warm room in dress pants (because that is the custom when doing ministry for the Lord in church) all the kids rose to the occasion and I believe that God was smiling not only on the results but on the effort.  Well done team!

Well, in 6 hours Benjamin will be sounding the alarm and we will be rolling out of the bunks, I will be heading to Noe’s to upload this post, and we will be on our way at 7:00 to build a chapel. I can’t believe it’s already build day, Thank you for your prayers, comments and encouragement, I share them with the team when I hear the “Bing” on my Blackberry and it is a message from one of you. 

The Entire Body Was the Answer to The Pastor's Prayer

When I spoke of the Pastor of the chapel we built last year, and he said the “We were the ones that God told him would come and build his congregation a place to worship”, that “we” includes all of you. Those of us here are blessed to be the hands that hammer and cut and build, but you all are the Body that allows this type of ministry to occur, the pastor was speaking about YOU when he said God would provide … Gloria Deos!

Wednesday and Ahead of Schedule

Good Morning!

Benjamin was right on time, in spite of losing power over night and the generator not kicking on, at 6:00 am we were enthusiastically greeted to begin our day.  As a side note, after a long day of building and a wonderful time at the beach and a filling dinner, sometimes you just get a hankering for some “Pica Polo” and when that urge hits you in Villa Mella at 11:30pm, you must get some fried chicken and plantains. Now if this were one the “kids” with this “hankering” those of us who were the responsible leaders of the group would have told them that the idea was ridiculous and they should go to bed…But when the ridiculous idea comes from one of the leaders, well, we got dressed and Rich, Nate, Oto, Jean Carlos and I walked to the closest Pico Polo, but it was closed. So, we went to the next closest, and it too was closed. The third time was a charm. And for the equivalent of $1.71, we purchased our “polo” from the local Chinese Pica Polo purveyor and headed back to the TIME Center for our mid-night feast.

For those in our group that actually stayed in their beds, getting up at 6:00 was still a challenge.  But the promise of a hearty breakfast, Noe’s devotions and the chance to get to work on the chapel was sufficient motivation.  We hit the work area hard and by the end of he day all the panels were done, the roof panels complete and all that’s left for tomorrow are the doors, a few roof trusses and build the window louvers.  Everyone worked very well together and much was accomplished.

3 of the "Ladies" on team Girl Power!

The group went to do some shopping at the Mercado and everyone practiced their ‘Bargaining Skills” and I must say, some are more adept at that skill than others.  Upon returning to the TIME Center, the guys changed into their basketball clothes and got on the TIME Bus to go to the village again for some “Basket”, sharing testimonies and handing out Spanish New Testaments.

The Guys Side Dorm Room

We had a late supper, another round of Capitalist and then up to the dorm room for some shut-eye…

If Today is Tuesday, This must be Villa Mella

Just as expected, it was 6:00 AM and we awoke to Benjamin’s very loud “GOOD MORNING, HALLELUIAH, JESUS LOVES YOU, IT IS TIME TO GET UP!” so we did.  Typical day Tuesday, Devotions, breakfast and Building!

Naomi & Team Girl Power move a completed panel

Today we had a full complement of worker bees. With the foundation team joining the rest of us from yesterday, we hit the boards hard.  We had three panel stations working: Nate with The Two Ryans, Jenna had Gillian, Naomi and Rafelina, one of our TIME Staff members and the final panel team consisted of Erik, Brandon, Myles & Colby being lead by Rose, also on staff at TIME. Working the component assembly side of the project was

Shiplap Routing by Oto & Rich

Rich Chase on Router, cutting Shiplap edges for the wall boards with Oto and batting clean-up was Dave & Scott

Making Window Slats

cutting window slats and routing all four edges of the 121 slats for the 11 windows for the building.

Myles, Colby, Erik & Rose

The breeze blowing through the work space was refreshing. We were treated to a “Coke Break”

"Coke Break"

mid way through the morning and the occasional torrential downpour also lead to our cool working environment.  Now, when I say “Cool” let me but that in context, it was 85% humidity and an air temperature of 90, like I said, “Cool”.   Today we managed to go beyond the point where we need to be by today, to be “on track”, Praise God!

Rose & Rafelina (Red Sox Nation extends South)

After a hearty lunch we had the opportunity to go to the beach.  I won’t bore you with the details of the Caribbean’s azure blue waters and their soothing bath-like warmth. The beauty of the white sand beach and palm trees swaying in the gentle breeze just wouldn’t be able to be conveyed in words… so here’s a few pictures.

On the road to the beach

Chillin on the Beach

David out for a little walk

We headed back to the TIME Center, and quickly changed for a trip to play basketball in the village where we are building the chapel, Hatillo.  The boys came up against some serious competition from the locals but after the game, they were able to share what was even more important to them than even basketball. Myles gave his testimony and translated by Noe. They gave away over 100 of the Spanish New Testaments to the kids and adults at the game.

We came back to the TIME Center for a fashionably late supper followed by some serious rounds of Capitalism (and the traditional Noe “I’m Out, I’m Out, I am the King” gyrations and then sleep… God is Good, Always!

NOTE: You can double click on the images to see them larger…

The Importance of a Proper Foundation

Getting Ready for Breakfast

Monday morning is “Foundation Team” day. Usually a portion of the group heads to the chapel site and prepares the site for the building that will arrive on Friday.  Depending on the distance that is to be traveled the team may have to leave very early (we left at 2:30 when I was here in 2005) but this year the village is less than an hour away, so we woke up at the regular time of 6:00 AM to Benjamin’s very loud “GOOD MORNING, HALLELUIAH, JESUS LOVES YOU, IT IS TIME TO GET UP!” there is no snooze button for that type of alarm, so we were on the deck and down for devotions & breakfast.  Noe led devotions and we all had a wonderful meal of

The Most Important Meal of the Day!

scrambled eggs and bacon, home made biscuits, fresh fruit, COFFEE & Juice.  At 7:30 the foundation crew (Noe, Benjamin, Rich, Nate and “the Boys” were in the Red Van and heading to the site.

The Foundation Crew

David, myself, Jenna, Gillian & Naomi along with Jean Carolos & Rafelina remained at the TIME Center to start constructing the panels and other construction components that go in to making a chapel. 

David and I set the girls up with just enough cut boards to start their first panel, got them set-up on the jig for the piece they were making and then we returned to “Running the Stack” (cutting all the lumber in the sizes necessary to make all the various components of the chapel). 

Must have Water...

The girls were on fire!  While David and I measured and chop-cut

Meassure Once... Cut about 500 times

they were machines and by the end of the work morning, had completed 6 of the panels for the building.  I don’t believe that being handy with a power drill or hammer is found in Prov. 31, but it should be.  We made great progress getting the almost 500 pieces necessary for the construction cut while the foundation team was away.

Site Prep.

Upon there return, we learned of the site that the chapel will be constructed.  They site of course was flat as can be and the soil was pure sand….Not really.  There were less than ideal soil conditions and as usual, the lot sloped to the rear.  The team cleared the lot of all the years of accumulated trash and hand dug he footings for the block wall that would support the chapel.  One little hitch… the concrete blocks did not show up and the team was only able to set the rebar in the footings and the local men of the church will finish the block work.  The guys returned at 3:00 and after some much needed showers, we were all ready for our afternoon “free time”.

Initially we were planning to go to the beach, but since the guys got back later than anticipated, we modified our plans and went to “La Serena” the equivalent of a Super Wal Mart in the DR.  I won’t ruin the surprise for some of you but we did pick up some serious coffee and a few other items of interest.

The New SkimIce Sales Team

 Dinner was an American treat, hot dogs and potato salad. We all went over to the church for Monday Night Church basketball. The guys played hard on less than wonderful conditions and everyone enjoyed the cool night air.

We headed back to the TIME Center, talked a bit and headed for the racks… I can already hear Benjamin’s voice at 6:00…

NOTE: Sorry for the late post, we did not have Internet Access until this evening…

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Rise and Shine Dominican style. Reports are, for the most part, all slept very well last night. Those of us older and allegedly wiser, realized that if one mattress is good, than two would be better. The dorm can sleep way more than the 9 of us, so some of us set the sleep number on our bunk beds to 2 by putting a second mattress on our bunks, it helped.

We gathered for breakfast at 7:00am for cereal, fresh fruit, coffee (Rich Chase says it’s strong enough) and OJ.  Church started at 9:30 and we were there with several hundred of the church’s members. Even though we all do not speak Spanish, we know what the presence of the Lord is and that feeling is definitely not “English Only”. The singing and Joy the filled the church was wonderful. Oto received a “Home Town Welcome” from Pastor Rudy and all his and Jenna’s friends greeted them warmly (no pun intended).

After church, we gathered back at the TIME Center, changed in to some cooler clothes and had our Sunday School lesson. We sang worship songs, (English & Spanish) and Noe led our discussion on being “Salt & Light”. We had about 30 minutes to chill before our noon meal and we hung-out with Noe’s kids, while Anyoli and the ladies in the kitchen prepared our feast. After lunch, we played basketball, grabbed a quick nap or wrote in our journals.

This afternoon, we have a surprise from Noe. The pastor of the church that we built last year contacted him last week and asked if he would like to come visit their church. He told the pastor that the group that built their church was coming down next week, when he heard that, he said “Please Bring Them!”  So, in another one of those “God Things” we get to worship with them tonight.  It is amazing how God is allowing us to be blessed even before we have really done anything other than just “Show up” so far.

We loaded the TIME bus with our dinner, ourselves, our friends from TIME and we made our way to Geuerra, the town that we built the chapel in last year.  The bus ride is worth a blog entry unto its self, but let me just say I don’t care what you have ever experienced on Cape Cod that you referred to as “Traffic” but it can’t compare.  Just for your consideration, imagine Route 28 change over day traffic volume, only it’s a dirt road with deep ruts & big holes, cars coming from all sides, or just stopping randomly and CRAZY people on mopeds that have an invincibility complex, all beeping their horns.  We arrived safely at the chapel site and prior to the evening service we ate Nate’s favorite DR meal, Dorito-Hamburger-Bean & Cheese Salad.  The challenge of eating that salad on a 45 degree angle due to the way in which the bus was parked was a an issue for some in the rear of the bus.  That minor inconvenience was overcome and we enjoyed our meal before heading in to the evening service.

We were greeted by Pastor and warmly welcomed by the members.  It was wonderful to see the work that the congregation had accomplished since we left last August. They had painted the entire building, inside & out, poured a concrete floor and raised pulpit area, wired for lights, fans, and sound equipment. The stairway from the road was also a welcomed addition.

We were asked to share something with the congregation so we sang a song we learned in Spanish, “Peace Like a River” then Rich was handed the electric guitar and we sang “Come, Now is the Time to Worship”. Both David and Nate each delivered a message, translated by Oto, (The service was scheduled from 6:00 to 9:00) the tag team approach worked well and after Nate finished, the Pastor shared how 7 years ago, when the church they were renting burned down, God gave him a vision that people that he did not know, would come and build a church for their congregation. He told us how since that day, he had prayed for those that would come and that we were those people.  The church is the Lord’s but he said that because we “gave” it to them it was ours too.  It was wonderful to see the results of last years work and how God is being glorified in this little 24’x28’ building in the village of Guerra.  Gloria Deos!

Bus ride back (the same as the way there only now in the dark…) arrived back at TIME Center, changed out of “ministry clothes” (long pants and collared shirts, skirts for girls) into shorts and T-Shirts, played a few rounds of Capitalism, and hit the racks.  What a great day of worship and seeing God’s people praising Him in many languages, a true foretaste of heaven.

Here at Last, Here at Last

Pre Flight Sleep

2:30am came rather quickly for most of us. We arrived at church at the prescribed hour (3:45am), loaded our Cape Destinations shuttle bus (Allowing those of you that we would have tapped to drive us to Logan to continue to sleep) and made our way to Boston for our allegedly 7:05am Jet Blue flight to JFK where we were to board a flight departing at 9:55am.

We are not complaining, just re-telling the events of the morning.  We arrived at Logan with ample time to check in our bags (NOTE: Jet Blue only lets you take one 50lb.max bag at no additional charge (plus your carry-on) so we re-distributed our Spanish Bibles, and between all 13 of us, we only had to pay for 4 additional bags, not too bad.) Bags checked, Boarding Passes issued, we made our way to security and did the TSA shuffle, (Shoes off, bags on the x-ray belt, walk through the Magnetometers and down to our gate.

We arrived to find that our flight crew didn’t.  Apparently the First Officer scheduled to fly us to JFK was a no-show. Jet Blue said they were arranging for another Pilot and we “Should” have no problem making our connection.  Eventually a Capt. Arrived (to applause fro the assembled ticket holders, and we were “Wheels-up” late but still within the window of time to “Most Likely” make our connection.  God is Good and in spite of LaGuardia being evacuated this morning for a bomb scare, we were on our way to the Dominican Republic.

The flight was scheduled to be 3 hours 18 minutes and most of us watched or listened to some of the in-flight entertainment or napped or both. We are meeting Gillian at the airport as she evidently knows someone with some serious juice at Delta Airlines (A little birdie told me she was treated “First Class” by her air carrier) and she arrived about 30 minutes prior to us.  In light of all that went on this morning we are just happy to be here on the same day.

We went through Customs, bought or “Tourist Cards” (Hopefully Gov. Patrick isn’t reading this blog and they try to do this back home), and walked out of the secure area to see Noe’s smiling face and big bear hugs for us.  Oh, I should mention, God’s timing is never to late, never too early, just always on time. Oto, Jenna’s husband, who is from Villa Mella, did not have all the paperwork necessary from the U.S. in order to allow him to travel back and forth while he’s is awaiting all of the final paperwork for citizenship… It came on Friday morning, RIGHT ON TIME, and we are blessed to have both Jenna & Oto with us… needless to say, when Noe saw Oto, he was smiling even more.

We boarded the TIME Bus, and made our way through Santo Domingo “traffic” and some roads that would make Jeff Colby’s Chatham Road Department just shake their collective heads, and arrived at the TIME Center.

Realizing that we only had “Blue Potato Chips” or cookies on our Jet Blue flight, we arrived to a “Snack”… Spaghetti, meat sauce, bread & butter, salad… and we were all appreciative of that.

With all our stuff moved in to the dorms, we had our orientation for the week. Noe introduced the TIME Staff that would be with us this week, we went over the “typical day” activities i.e. Time to get up, food, work, food, ministry time, recreation, food, typical 16 hour day…

Dinner

Several of us took a little rest under the cooling fans in our dorm room, and we awoke to the whistle which means “time to eat”… it was 7:00. Hams sandwiches, fresh pineapple slices, homemade fried plantain chips and oatmeal raisin cookies…

We spent the next few hours relaxing and hanging out in the fellowship / dining room of the TIME Center, some of the kids were up on the roof enjoying the cool Dominican night and listening to the loud and festive sounds of the city, oddly enough, no one complained (Bob & Kathy, that comment was for you . As I mentioned last year, the Dominican is a country that has it’s own “sound track” the music goes late into the night, but you get use to it, now the Rooster that crowed ALL night, that may take more than a week to learn to “Enjoy”, but we are working on it.

A few of us played “Capitalism” a card game, and as usual, Noe was “El Presidente”. Lights out at 11 and we are getting ready for Sunday worship with Pastor Rudy and a special trip we are going to take in the afternoon… more to come. Thanks for your prayers, God is faithful.

Just What the D.R. Ordered

 

2008 Team Photo

I can’t believe it’s been a whole year, but it’s August and that means it’s time to head down to the D.R. for some time with TIME.  We are privileged to have the opportunity to serve the Lord and His people in the Dominican Republic through a short-term missions trip with TIME Ministries again.

Just like last year, a group of us will fly down to construct a chapel for a congregation that has no place to meet for their worship services.  Having been several times, I can tell you that it is amazing to see how God blesses not only those who receive the chapel, but He blesses the hands that build it. We go to be a blessing, but in God’s great economy, we too are blessed, pretty Awesome.  Again this year we will make an effort to keep those of you at home updated as to our progress and activity.  Please visit this blog and Lord willing, we will post a recap of the prior days activities…

Please keep us in your prayers, pray for safety, that we can be a blessing to those at TIME and the village that we will be building the chapel.  Next Update from the D.R.

Scott

Deep Freeze 2009 or is it Deep Thaw?

 

Approximately 25 Sr. & Jr. high students along with Nate and the leadership team, will be leaving the Church at 2:00 on Friday, March 20th for Camp Berea.  Our speaker will be Sam Bhatt, Here’s a little about Sam:

 

As a youth pastor for a number of years, Sam Bhatt has a strong heart for students and a desire to serve them. His riveting storytelling engages students as he humorously takes them through the issues they face, igniting them to pursue passionately the strength they can find in Jesus Christ. Sam attended Emmaus Bible College in Dubuque, Iowa. 

 

Here’s what Berea says students should keep in mind:

What to bring: Bible, friends, pajamas, notebook, pen or pencil, toiletries, washcloth, soap & towels, play clothes, sneakers, boots, sleeping bag & pillow, warm waterproof clothing.

Optional: Flashlight & batteries, sports equipment, musical instrument.

Do not bring: Firearms, archery equipment, radios, electronic games or media players. Use of alcohol, tobacco and non-prescription drugs is prohibited.

 

NOTE: 

The leadership team has made it a policy that students will not be allowed to bring Cell Phones on the Retreat. The whole point of a “Retreat” is to get away from those type of things and build relationship and FRIENDSHIP (see last weeks sermon link) with one another and deepen your relationship with your Savior.  Leaders will have cell phones for EMERGENCIES.