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It’s difficult to capture the feeling that we all felt today when we wrapped up our last day of VBS… Maybe scoring a winning touchdown, or experiencing the excitement that comes when you’re finished something that has just gone really, really well comes close… High fives were abundant as we loaded up the bus to head back for dinner. The sense of team unity and accomplishment with the week going so well is what’s lingering this evening as we wind down for the day… but it’s all through the lens of knowing that God worked in some amazing ways this week to lead and prepare and work in and through His people to bring the message of the gospel to the people of Jalapa.

Today was bitter-sweet in many ways. It was sweet to know that so many seeds were planted in the lives of so many children, but slightly bitter that it’s coming to a close for now. We had about 60 preschoolers again this morning and about 55 elementary age kids in the afternoon. Stuart Creasey did a phenomenal job teaching the lesson as well as helping carry things with his spanish. All of our students engaged one-on-one with all of the students through our games, crafts and snack time… Taking a look at all of the activity at either of our sites today seemed to appear as one big ball of humanity as babies and preschoolers hung off of our students, rode on their backs, got swung around in circles and laughed and played together.

There’s much more to come… tomorrow morning there’s a little bit of a fun day planned in the morning and a big blow out bash at the church with all the teams who have invited all the people that they’ve worked with in the city. Pray for our continued witness as we serve and continue to love on the people of Jalapa in the days that we have remaining for this trip. May God receive the glory for all that’s been accomplished in his name this week!

Quotes of the day…

Keri Phillips says, “Suckers should not be given to two year olds, because they get stuck to their pants.”

Taylor Purcell says, “There’s a boy at the daycare that spits on me all the time; it’s really disgusting, but he’s really cute and I’m going to miss him.”

Lindsey Tucker says, “It’s really sad that we’re going home so soon, because I feel like I just made a lot of friends with the locals, and I’m gonna miss them because they are so sweet.”

JoJo Daghe says, “I agree with Lindsey.”

Alyssa Easley says, “A random guy gave us fruit through the bus window… he came running after us. I LOL’d.”

Kelly Boodt says, “If chocolate had a sound, this would be it!” (referring to a recording of Greg Harper that was playing from Nick’s iPod)

Kelly Boodt also says, “Do we only get one key” (referring to the fact that we only

Paul Wallace said, (referring to a sneaky kid at the VBS) “Watch out for that little turkey over there, he kicks you while you have your eyes closed to pray.”

Doug Boodt says, “He got me yesterday too! (referring to the same kid as above) Yea.. he waits till he knows you’re hung up and can’t do anything, then he comes up and kicks you in the leg.” Doug also says… “Thank you cards are good, but a thank you poster from a bunch of kids is the best.”

Hey there! We’re all packed up and ready for our last morning session. There’s not a ton of time to post, but here’s a few pictures for you to enjoy. We’ll have the kids call the parents when we are an hour away. See you soon!

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There’s not a much more fun way to ride around the streets of Jalapa than on a school bus that’s designed for 45, packed with 85 people. One of the other team’s bus broke down and we all had the opportunity to get quite close, literally, as we tooled around town today. We even had the police with us, so apparently we were within the bounds of the law while accomplishing such a feat.

The weather was beautiful and we had no rain today which really helped us out for our outdoor activities both in the morning and afternoon. The little kids are awesome at the daycare where we’ve been working. We’ve really been trying to love on them as much as we can while we have the opportunity to share the good news of the kingdom with the kids and their teachers. We had about 60 kids from 3-5 years old today. Stuart and Nick had the opportunity to help one of the blind children to participate with a little bit of our  soccer activity and first and later with playing the guitar. It’s was such a delight to see his smile while we played, and to hear him light up with laughter as we shared in helping him engage and feel like a part of what was happening just like all the other kids.

There are so many stories of extreme adversity that the children there are facing. One five-year-old with a little sister at the daycare had witnessed his dad murder his mom… you could literally see the weight of sadness that he carried with him, but several of our students made sure to take the time to encourage them and to help bring a smile and some fun to their day for the time that we were with them. It’s often a lot to take in as we’ve been doing ministry here in the city, but the Lord has been at work in many mighty ways to provide and to work through his Holy Spirit.

We had an injury free lunch… no basketball tournament this time. When we headed to our afternoon VBS site we were blown away to see a group of kids waiting and cheering for us when our bus rounded the corner and our site came into view. Our afternoon VBS has ballooned from 25 the first day to 55 today. We even had a few kids that we met at the daycare in the morning show up to the afternoon VBS in the neighborhood. Alyssa Easley did a wonderful job teaching the lesson of Jesus walking on water in Spanish today. It was an exciting afternoon and everything seemed to be firing on all cylinders as our group has settled into the groove of the week. As we closed out our afternoon VBS, almost everyone of our students had a couple of kids either on their lap or in their arms. Stuart held the microphone in one hand and a little girl helping him sing in the other.

Quotes of the day…

Clint Kearney says, “Woke up, ate french toast, smiled and giggled with kids, crammed into a bus, and lastly…intertwined our hearts with one another and with Jesus.” Enough said.

Jeff Dillinger says, “Just make sure you get the right water in your jug.”

Lori Dillinger’s quote of the week has been “God take me out of my comfort zone” and it’s been happening!

According to Keri Phillips, “Today we were finally organized in what we were doing. For the most part we stayed with plan “A” today, and everything went great.”

Jake Boodt’s summary of today is, “Dry.” (the weather)

Stuart Creasey says, “For a smile you can be someone’s friend, for a hug you can be someone’s best friend, and for a piece of candy you can be their girlfriend.”

Kennedy Wallace says, “The days just keep getting better.”

More quotes to come…. these were the only people I could find at the moment…

Man it’s been an awesome week! Yesterday was jam-packed full of growth, laughter, discovery, and… dodgeball. We went caving yesterday during our recreation time… some of them had their first caving experience! After a fun afternoon at Carter Caves, we headed into our evening session and heard that God, the greatest author, wants to amend your story. We don’t have to be afraid to let God have our stories, because we are all on a first-name basis with Him. We looked at the story of Zaccheus, and how after his encounter with Jesus, Jesus forever had his story. After the message, artist Eric Samuel Timm, pieced together our students stories’ (that they wrote on Monday night) all over the cross in the middle of the room. With the stories, he created an image of Jesus’ face on the cross, and over it wrote AMENDED. It was, as one of our students said, “a real picture of what Jesus did for us on the cross–taking our stories, burdens, and pain… and making them his.”

After a powerful evening session and sharing in our group time, we went out for the Dodgeball Finals. And… drumroll… our kids WON! As you will see in the photos, Coach Bill truly was a part of their success. Today is our last full day here, so be praying for our students and leaders… that we will not waste a minute of it!

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Let it rain again! This morning was beautiful. We were excited to get started in the community where our morning VBS would be h/eld and we arrived willing serve and ready to go. There was only one problem, no kids. We had canvassed the neighborhood the day before and were ready with a location provided by one of the men of the Christian Church here in Jalapa. So, we waited….

We were blessed to have the prayer team with our group this morning. The prayer team is a group that has joined us here in Jalapa to simply bathe the entire week in prayer and rotate around with each group on their specific projects. So while we waited, we also prayed. Then, we thought, if the kids weren’t coming to us, we would go to them. We packed up our stuff and divided into small groups and went out and his the streets to talk with people, pray for them and to share the love of Christ.

It was neat to interact with so many people as we walked around, and as the prayer team prayed for us, for our conversations, and for the community. Not long after we were running low on supplies, the gentleman that was providing his house for us to use as our morning VBS location came riding up on a moped with his young boy. “I have good news,” he said. “I have 100 kids waiting for your group.” Our eyes got a little large, and my mind immediately went to the passage of Jesus feeding the 5000 with the loaves and the fish, because we were out of stuff.

A few minutes later we had a bus coming by to pick us up and we were of to a government run daycare. Our understanding is that its a facility for lower income children where most of them spend all day while their parents or guardians work. It’s a free service to families and they provide breakfast and lunch to the children, which for some is just about all that they get. The kids we got to meet were absolutely precious. Our team immediately went to work just loving on them and almost everyone had two or three kids, mostly preschoolers, hanging off of them and laughing and playing. For security reasons, as per the government’s instructions, we are not allowed to take photos of the kids, so that’s why you won’t be seeing any from the government daycare.

We organized a really fun time of singing some praise songs in spanish and played a few games and somehow had enough snacks and prizes to cover all 100 children. It was an amazing experience and one that we’ll have the opportunity to share in the remaining mornings from here on out. We didn’t necessarily have the full picture of what was in store for us today, but God did and it was amazing.

We broke for lunch around noon and while we were waiting for the final meal prep we had our first two injuries of the week. Our boys have taken to some pretty fierce competition on the basketball court with some of the other groups and Jake Boodt twisted an ankle, while Clint cut one of his toes pretty badly while going for a layup (which he made, by the way). Again, because of God’s provision, the medical team was on site for lunch and Clint had a team of doctors, nurses and EMT’s right there to help. They put together a makeshift ER and after making a tourniquet with a silly band the doctor stitched him up good as new and we still had plenty of time to eat lunch and catch the bus back to our afternoon VBS site. We complimented Clint on his timing of getting injured over lunch with a complete medical staff present so we could get him patched up and keep on going… (We’re taking good care of him – Paul & Kelley)

After lunch Clint has a comfy chair to elevate his foot and relax from, while the rest of us jumped in with tay two of our afternoon VBS site. The 25 kids that we started with ballooned to around 40 and we had a great time with the teaching, singing, crafts, games and hanging out. The rain came with vengeance just as we were had everything cleaned up and it was off to the hotel for the evening. The students are currently getting cleaned up and there was a very loud dance party happening that I’m sure you’ll eventually see documented on video. Overall it’s been an amazing day in which we’ve continually seen God show up and lead us in amazing ways. Keep praying for our strength and for the Holy Spirit’s leading in all things.

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Good morning! Yesterday was an amazing day. We woke up bright and early to hear from Danny Curry as he introduced the theme for the day. We heard that God wants to use our lives as the canvas to display His art to the world. Even though we mess up our story sometimes, or things we cannot control come in and invade our stories, He has the power to change it… to edit it… to rewrite it… and to amend it.

Some of our students got to take part in Active Water’s Water Walk yesterday. The “Water Walk” is an experience set up to expose students to the hardships many people endure just to have a glass of dirty water. Some of them even went at it barefoot to get the most authentic experience. As you can maybe tell by the pictures, we had our dodgeball tournament yesterday. Two teams went at it and one of our teams made it to the final four tourney, which will take place tonight at 10:30!

We have a lot going on here in Youth Ministry this week… students learning, being challenged, serving, and loving others, and all so God’s light will be seen through us. Pretty incredible, wouldn’t you say?

Day two found us feeling well with a solid night’s sleep behind us and the excitement of a day of work in the neighborhoods before us. We started out the morning at the soccer stadium in Jalapa where the mayor, the chief of police, and a few other local officials greeted us warmly and encouraged us in the work that was ahead. It was really neat to experience the hospitality and open arms with which our team was received by so many in the city.

Toward the end of the mayor’s remarks a gentle rain began to fall. By the time we loaded back up into the bus and arrived at the first neighborhood we were to walk through to invite to the neighborhood VBS that gentle rain had become steady. We thought about waiting it out to do what needed to be done, but the enthusiasm of the students won out against the temporary deterrent of the weather and we were off to walk the streets. The team did great at getting our flyers out even as we dodged the rain drops, a few free ranging cattle, some goats, and a pig that apparently Jake Boodt tried to take a brief ride on…

After lunch we made our way to our afternoon VBS site and jumped in with day one. At the start of our time there were about 4 or 5 frightened young girls that braved the unknown to participate in a few of our ice breaker games. By the end of our time together we were laughing and carrying on with more than 25 kids who had wondered into our street throughout the course of the afternoon. The students on our team did so well. It was neat to see the interaction and excitement build. Language barriers melted away through games of hot hands and intent work on beading a bracelets together. We’ve got some work to do yet on our singing and leading kids songs in Spanish… Even though our pitch may be lacking we make up for it with our enthusiasm.

So far today Nick W. and Jake are dominating in the evening euchre tournament. Alyssa fell mostly in the pool while washing her feet off after a friendly soccer game in the courtyard with everybody. Taryn (Tarly) enhanced her already beaming smile with some rosy sunburn on both cheeks. Patsy, Doug and Kelly filled up about 150 water balloons, and everyone enjoyed an authentic Guatemalan spaghetti dinner. It’s been a good end to a beautiful day.