The last few days

I have not sent a blog message in almost a week due to poor reception at Wildcat and a busy schedule, so here is a quick outline:

- thanks for praying for our "group dynamics"--more on this when we return but we had several meetings and between those, our "one-on-ones" and the fact that we just spent a day @ Grand Canyon and now at Slide Rock, we have all put it behind us
- students did a great job with the kids at Wildcat (near Gallup) in VBS teaching them about love, peace, kindness, hope led by Dara, Katie, Kate, and Libby.
- the Wednesday service at Wildcat went well with prayers by Bryan, offertory piano solo by Nicole, scripture reading (1 Cor 13)by Travis a testimony by Beth Anne, a message on love (thanks for your prayers--it went better this time because it was from the heart), and the centerpiece of the service was the skit put on by Libby, Coleman, Peter, Alena, Valerie, Nicole, and Dara which brought tears to many eyes and made the message easier to give
- by Thursday everyone was tired but finished our time at Wildcat with some new games from the youth group from Magnolia Baptist Church from Anaheim which joined our group and Wildcat's youth group
- Friday found us making a temporary home out of the Lutheran church across from McNary's new church.
- Saturday Dara taught the love lesson to the Apache (People of the White Mountains) and the sports team had the older kids playing basketball and after dinner we all participated in a water balloon toss, egg/spoon relay
- Sunday we had to be out of the Lutheran Church by 0800--the previous day we had helped Pastor Jack Townsend move 2 refrigerators, a large double sink, a washing machine, desk, computers and an organ all which he had added while using the building the last 14 years until the Lutherans kicked them out--
- the extra time before we taught the 1000 Sunday school allowed us to have some much-needed comic relief: Jamie starred in an all-star cast including Peter and Travis doing a "special" dramatized version of our Lifehouse "Everything" skit. The mock skit had us all in stitches. We hope tp re-enact both versions for our potluck at the Bond's house on 7 or 8 August.
- Sunday school at McNary Apache Baptist went well with Tammy, Libby, and Coleman teaching forgiveness to the younger kids and Kate, Katie, and Lobby teaching the older kids about other fruits of the spirit (peace and kindness)
- the Sunday service was the same as Wednesday without the testimonies. After Andy's message on Love using the skit as an illustration of God's love
- after the altar call no one came forward. However, as I was cleaning up, a family came forward that was so touched by the skit they asked me to pray for them. This couple had 2 girls and have been married 3 years and believers for 3 1/2. Reservation life is tough and the "party" culture is rampant making it difficult to just walk away from alcohol when your neighbors keep dropping by with the booze. The result is neglected children due to so much family income going to alcohol.
- monday at Grand Canyon was beautiful for all. We have lots of deaf climbers on our group, especially Travis "Mountain Goat" Briggs and "Fearless" Nicole May- today we went to "Slide Rock

Tuesday at Wildcat Christian Academy

Tuesday at Wildcat started with songs led by Valerie, Katie, Libby (and of course Beth Anne, our talented guitarist). Dara gave a great lesson on love using the parable of the Good Shepherd.

I stuck with the sports team today. Alena and Travis set up a 15 vs. 15 soccer game, so I felt obliged to play. Ryan was a high scorer for our team but despite the best efforts of Beth Anne, Courtney (competitive granddaughter of Pastor Bowling), Josh, Zach, and Kyle, we couldn't defeat the prolific scoring combo of Coolio (cherry picker), Jamie and Jamie, and Travis the Freight Train.

The VBS team had even more kids today and Enjoyed playing on the seesaw an merry go round.

It was a good day and I hope additional positive feedback will continue the healing our group began last night.

Thanks again for your many prayers and encouraging words. I share all I can with the team. Please pray for Katie who leads a lesson on peace tomorrow, our Wednesday service, and ice cream social.

Kindness at Wildcat Christian Academy

Here's the most recent message from Andy and the Arizona team and a couple of pictures of the team and some of the children:

We were met with open arms by Pastor Jim Bowling and his family. They had really cleaned, cleared a field for our sports team, provided for state-sponsored food for all of us (except dinner), and had even posted out our flyer around the reservation.

Due to a strange problem at Cracker Barrel, we had a 3 hour dinner making us late to Walmart and late back at the reservation. Despite a late night, the Arizona Team was ready to go. It took about an hour to find and pick up the 35 kids who came, but an organized team of Kate, Valerie, Nicole, and Libby registered them all by name, age, and van number and got them breakfast. Libby and Alena led singing complete with a signature whoop, whoop!

For prayer, we are experiencing some issues of respect. Unfortunately, I lost the respect of the entire group in the past two days in trying to deal with just a few. In God's Grace tonight Alena and Libby shared a devotion that opened the group to healing and encouraging words emerged.

Please pray for a fresh start Tuesday and for safety Wednesday when we take 20 of the kids swimming; for wisdom in our Wednesday church service; and for outreach to families at our ice cream social afterward.

From the AZ team:

Sorry for the comm blackout. No Verizon even at the top of the mesas.We reached Gallup today at 5:00

(Mountain time in NM). The next four days will be dramatically different as Wildcat expects 40-80 kids!
Our last day at Keams Canyon even though there were only 3 church members.

And now messages from some of your kids...

Libby: I love u mom and dad! Everything is going great I love all these kids!

Valerie: I love and miss you dad mom jeff shea josh ryan isaac!

Katie: I miss you guys so much but I'm having a great time ! Say hi to everybody for me!

David: have fun with the tv and couches!

Beth Anne: hey everyone especially andrew! I hope u had a great trip and made it home safe, I can't wait to hear all about it. Hope all is well at home, ps Andrew I hope u like ur new room color, cuzzzzzzz ur stuck with it now :].

Alena: hey dadio wuz up? Maddi moo yes I am having fun without u jk lol. Garrity don't cry about me too much :] love ya`ll a lot adios for now toodles! Alena.

July 19

Good Evening! Here's a message from Andy about their ministry so far. It sounds like they're doing well.

After a long drive through a majestic and otherworldly landscape of sage, towering mesas and lots of dirt and another generous serving of frybread, we arrived at Keam's Canyon Community Baptist Church. Despite waiting an extra hour or two to pick up kids as far as Second Mesa, the team remained flexible and performed admirably. Travis has been cooking up a storm, including sausage egg burritos a la Steve Whitney and spaghetti Friday night. Kate gave a great VBS lesson on kindness from the story of the good samaritan. Alena set up a rousing game of kickball in the 101 degree weather at 7000 feet. We only had 7 Hopi kids but the were wonderful and loved both making snap bracelets and any game we suggested.

Our rep from CHIEF, Nick Piantedosi (Italian guy) related a neat story of a Hopi conversion. Ralph is a 62 year old former medicine man who used to perform rituals in the kivas. He had been in a coma for 3 weeks. When he emerged he related a story of having felt himself walking toward a light. But, two men stopped him and told him he had to go back. It was then he realized he needed Christ. He also had another vision of someone telling him he needed to be baptized to make his decision public. He was baptized in June and is one of a handful of Christians on the tribal council.

Today (18 July) is the second and last day of VBS. This morning half of us woke at 0500 and climbed the rocks behind the church. Thanks for praying for our safety.
In Christ Alone
Andy

Safe Arrival

The team has arrived in Arizona safely!

Below is a message from Andy Hart:

We landed safely in Phoenix at 0845 local. Thank you to all the parents who came @ 0400 this morning to send us off in prayer and especially to Rich Bates who drove the big van and Kara Walker who was there and will keep our blog up to date.

Pray for attentive ears and spirits as we talk to Heron Claus and Nick Piantedosi @ CHIEF Inc. and as we go to the Heard museum this afternoon. Most of us slept on the plane.

Here's a picture of the team early this morning at IBC as they headed out for the airport. Pray for safe travel today.

First Post 7/13

So by popular demand of both parents and students we have decided to create a (drum role please)...

BLOG!!!!!!

This will be one of the several ways that you can keep track of the group as we head around Arizona from the 15-29 of July. We will do our very best to update this every so often with what has happened and what will be happening as we head out. Please be patient with us as we try to keep it updated because internet connections may be hard to come by.

Another thing that I (or whoever happens to be updating) will attempt to do each time that we update the blog will be to give out a list of recent prayer requests. The main one for us until we arrive in AZ is smooth traveling and everyone arriving on time to the church so that we have a prompt departure. It can be an intense challenge to get a team of 15 people in an aircraft with no issues so we pray that we get through the check points smoothly and efficiently so that we arrive at our gate with plenty of time to hopefully make a starbucks run to wake us up. We also are praying that we have a safe flight, that the airplane will take us safely across the country with no real issue what so ever. Another real big request is that we all have patience with each other for the first couple hours so because of how early it is that we will be seeing each other.

Everyone on this trip has been given an amazing opportunity to go and serve our Lord Jesus Christ with everything we have for two weeks. Thanks to all the students and parents who have sacrifced their time and efforts to help make this trip possible. I know that my parents and I have felt the strain and will contiune to feel it (atleast the pressure of making sure that I am completely packed and ready to go). I look forward to seeing each and everyone of you Wednesday Morning at 4am!!!!!!!!

1 Peter 4:11b "If anyone serves he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ."