missionSCHUYLKILL

Enjoy.

Although we all got up on schedule (6:30am) everyone seemed to move at half pace. Today we finished up our work projects and now hand it off to the next ministry group that comes on Sunday. And then they will do the same and it will go on for several more weeks. I like that. This community is going to feel the presence of Jesus becase of it. And it needs it. This community has been devestated by the economy and the recovery is slow and hard. It is bad enough to have mother Teresa’s order be in this town – you know poverty is real when they show up.

As a sort of celebration, we had a community cookout tonight and several families showed up. A traveling missionary showed up to… He looks a lot like the Jesus we see in our modern pictures/icons. He is a sweet and kind man. I like him. The kids loved him and many wanted to take pictures with him (see below). That got me to thinking… Do the kids realize that they looked a lot like Jesus too this week? They did. Jesus was all over this town this past week. I find myself wanting to run and take a picture with them.

Enjoy some of today’s pictures.

Note from Nicole Kuiper: Today, our group experienced kids club, where we got our first interaction with the kids in the community. Listening to some of the kids’ stories from the community shocked a lot of our kids to the point where they were finally able to understand that they have it good.
It was a lot of fun to show Gods love through games and songs to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have had that kind of interaction. The amount of love that those kids have is absolutely amazing. You give them a smile, and you have a friend for life. When we left at the end of our day, the kids’ faces fell, until we told them that we would be back again tomorrow. It is an amazing blessing that we are able to share our time and energy with them, that has also turned around to bless us as well.

Some random pictures…

Not a lot of time to post stuff today – they really keep us moving…

Only message we could get out tonight:

“Hi mom and dad its me and jessenia. We are having a good time and are having fun. I am being soshal believe it or not (Eleazar) and jessenia is makeing some new friends too. We will try to send you another message in the week. Love you guys (Eleazar and Jessenia).”

Some pictures – we went to a coal mine for our group activity today…

Monday Night Notes from Students:

Note from: krista kolean
Hey mom, dad, everyone! We are having a good time here so no worries! Haha. Write u later, love you all!!!

Note from: Alyssa hamel
Hey mom and dad im having the time of my life. Hope you guys are having fun. I miss you all. I made Devra a bracelet. Love ya.

Note from: jessenia almanza
Hey mom and dad! I’m having so much fun and I have made a couple of friends here and I hope that u r all ok and tell jovanska 2 make sure 2 clean really good around the house see u at the end of the week!!!!

Note from: Josiah Maat
Whaz up peoplez?! Today was interesting….. I got my nails painted and I helped with the kids. But yeah. And they do have NO energy limits!!! I’m sooooooooooooooooooooo tired….. But, over all, it’s plain fun! See u all at the end of the week!!!
:p

Note from: ryan maned. Hi mom hi dad I am having so much fun.I am exited to see you on Friday.

Note from: Carter vanderkolk hey mom and dad having so much fun Today we got to scrape a deck and repaint it !!!!!!! And later in the week we get to work with the vbs. Cya soon bye

Hey everybody! We are all having a great time! Today me and my group got to go to a nursing home right outside our city that we are staying in. If was really fun! We got to meet some really neat people. It was fun to talk to them and hear about their lives. We also got to play a very competitive game of bingo! We will do the same thing tomorow and then paint a fence later in the week. Can’t wait to see you all soon. Bye!
-Kirby Wierda

Note from Val Shurlow: Today our group visited with seniors at a nursing home. We spent time playing games and talking with the residents. It was fun to see the smiles and hear the conversations. Mary (a resident) and Madisyn exchanged coloring pages, danielle delivered prizes to bingo winners, Jenna , kirby and Leah played bingo with their new friends. The overall consensus was that bingo and games were most fun and cold call visits into resident rooms and beginning conversations with complete strangers can be akward. Both residents and students are looking forward to our return tomorrow. Please pray for our group that they will feel more comfortable and be able to really make some special connections.

Below are random pictures…

Here are a couple of pictures from one of several groupsdent out today.

6:30 am came quickly. They all did pretty will at getting up. We will see how that goes as the week presses on. Breakfast is done and now they are in devos. I am so glad that they have included alone time with God. Soon we head out to our work sites…

Tonight was about getting acclimated to the other youth groups, the youthworks staff, and the weeks schedule. Up every morning at 6:30am and done at 11 pm. -full, full days.

Pictures below are varied. Girls sleeping quarters, boys sleeping quarters, meeting for “club” which will happen each night, fun bags- which are places to put notes of encouragement, and then some random pictures of friendship. Enjoy.

Aaaaaah…