What a WEEK!!! The mission team arrived on Monday night and departs tonight at midnight. My kids have made some life-long friends and will be extremely sad when they have to say goodbye tonight (especially Jaxson).Here are some stats/highlights from the team:
A team of 10 youth (ages 16-22) came from Mandeville, Louisiana (First Baptist Mandeville).
The youth minister, Michael Blue, age 31, was the only adult in the group (brave man).
Most of the kids have grown-up together in the church.
They are leaders of some sort in the youth group.
They brought 2 native Spanish Speakers (one is half Peruvian) and another girl that spoke excellent Spanish.
They are some of the most spiritually mature and Godly teenagers I have EVER been around. Their lack of wordliness was SOOOOO refreshing. They worked hard, prayed hard and loved hard!
They worked in an area that John has been frequenting for the past 6 months called Santa Rosa. It has 188 homes (shacks) and is much like Oasis.
They spent one day prayer-walking, one day building benches and inviting people in the neighborhood and praying for them, 2 days holding vacation Bible school and a church service, and another day doing follow-up in the people's homes.
We saw 14 adults commit their lives to Christ and about 100 kids come everyday. About 25 adults attended the services. We even had one woman approach me and express that she felt like she shouldn't pray to the Virgin Mary anymore. She said she went to her priest and he told her it was okay, but she said, "can you show me that in the Bible?" She has been studying the word dilligently and can't find "saint worship" anywhere. WOW! She said she wants to stop praying to Mary, but it will be hard after many years. This is huge! She is one of the women that gave her life to Christ this week.
We saw a HUGE interest in a desire for a Bible study/church in this area. They currently have NOTHING!!! YEAH!! PRAISE GOD! We left the 8 benches that we made for this community.
I had my mom's group on Thursday and was expecting about 15 people. I figured my bad spanish would've scared off at least half of them. We had 25 the first week. Well, over 50 people showed up on Thursday. Unfortunately, about 7 of them were men. We are going to try to stop this because I do not think it is Biblical that I should be teaching men. Anway, can you believe it - 50? It is truly GOD and not me! I am so excited. Please keep praying for this group of women who are learning to parent differently (ME TOO)!
The "nanny" stayed at our home until Friday night and did a great job. The kids love her and I was pleased with the 4 days she spent with the kids. She was suppose to stay until tonight, but by Friday night I just needed my life and family back. We paid her for the 2 extra days and sent her on her way. A house just can't have 2 moms!!!
We have decided that out of the next 4 teams, I will only do 2 of them. One is our Pastor and Associate Pastor for 4 days and the other one is a BIG team from Texas that has been loving on us for awhile. I can't wait to meet them in August. I just found that I can't do the long, long days at almost 7 months pregnant. I get tired and grumpy and miss my family A LOT!!!! I really feel like it's okay to help the teams, but my primary place is in the home and I miss it so much when I can't be here day in and day out. Plus, I need naps! LOL!!!! So, I will be holding down the fort except for a few days in July when the nanny returns and one week in August. I think I can handle that, but the thought of being out of the home for 1 week, every other week for the next 7-8, was just overhelming for me. We are both comfortable with the new plan. I can resume "light" homeschooling and continue the mom's group and my Sunday afternoon activities in Oasis.
Anyway, I need to get going to make some Rice Krispie Treats from the stuff that the team brought! YIPPEEE!!!! They don't sell the cereal here.
Please pray for John as he is now going to give his sermon in Oasis and will not have my help with the kids that live there. Normally we go, but we are staying home to get some much needed rest and rap up a few things before we have to say good-bye to the team at 8 p.m. tonight. We will miss them all so very much! :(
1 comment:
Jessica,
I really enjoyed reading this post. Matt and I live life very similar to you and John it seems. The ministries are very similar and I always enjoy reading about your life now. I have shared with you before my struggle to balance ministry and family. The month of June and July are full of back to back teams. I have allowed the kids a "vacation" from school and also have had help with them from a babysitter and this time around my main role has been cooking. I have really enjoyed it, as I believe God has given the gift of hospitality to me and I love using it to glorify him. However, there have been days where I have been gone from the house the entire day! I agree with you about how strange it feels to not be "home." I still don't have it all figured out. I know that I enjoy what I have been doing, and it has worked for us...but I haven't been trying to school either. There has to be a way to balance this all out, be there for our husbands, serve and be the mom God designed us to be. I just haven't quite figured it out yet.
I am enjoying walking this journey with you and hope to continue learning with you :)
Much love,
Brooke :)
Teams are such wonderful encouragement to our kids and one of my favorite things about having them :)
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