Tuesday, March 20, 2018

CCCOG to Houston Round II

This week, a team from our church will be returning to Houston to help provide assistance to the church and area impacted by Harvey flooding.  Remember to pray for those rebuilding in these areas, as well as for purposeful, meaningful interaction with our team and locals.

Friday, October 13, 2017

San Vincente, Ecuador 2017

We've been without internet for a few days, but here is a brief update.

The house at the halfway point that the team is building for Elizabeth and Natasha.

On our team's day off.  We spent the day at the beach after church.

The children made lion masks, and the team shared the story of Daniel and the Lions den.
Children attended VBS, and learned song and games during.


Thanks,
The Ecaudor Team




Thursday, October 5, 2017

San Vincente Ecaudor 2017 Day II


The work on the house is well on it's way.  The foundation is poured, some of the steel is up. We are looking forward to the work ahead of us.

We had our first children's event similar to VBS. where we had well over 100 children present. We shared the story of Zacchaeus in song and story. 


Sharing a time of games and songs with the children of San Vicente, Ecuador.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

San Vicente, Ecuador October 2017

We have reached our destination of San Vicente, Ecuador. We are all tired from two days of travel but otherwise healthy and ready to start working on the house. We will be building the house for a single mom, Elizabeth and her daughter Natasha. This will be house number 17 out of a goal of 50.
After a quick walk around San Vicente to see the progress that has been happening in the restoration process, we were invited to a home bible study where Pastor Louis shared about being the body of Christ.
Thank you for the prayers, they are greatly appreciated.
Team Ecuador 2017

Saturday, June 24, 2017

CCCOG to Mexico final day - 2017

The last day brings about many feelings and while it may be easy to check out both physically and mentally the team made the best out of our time until the very end. The puppet team finished with a grand finale of two shows in one day! The construction team was able to get far on the wall they were working on building. Plus, the medical team saw every single kid from Welcome Home--that's 40 kids! 

Elmer was introduced to a sort of tradition of taking part in foot washing on the last night of a missions trip when he was in his youth. He carried this tradition to our team. We first started with the yarn of encouragement. One person starts with a ball of yarn and they get to pass it to someone and give them an encouragement, affirmation, or a thank you of some sort. Then the person who received the ball of yarn gets to pass it on until the whole circle is a zig zag mess of yarn representing memories and smiles. This was followed by foot washing and it was one of the most amazing things to watch! Our whole team came together as a family. It was so powerful to see sisters, parents and kids, and friends of old and new humbling themselves and washing each other's feet. We all love to get those warm fuzzies! This evening was full of them. There's no better way to end the trip. Thanks to everyone who made the trip possible and to all the people who went! 

God Bless

Thursday, June 22, 2017

CCCOG to Mexico Day 4 - 2017

Craig shared a devotion with us that really sums up this trip we've been on and that is, it's great to have hard workers, but being able to build relationships with people is even more important. We've been working towards helping build the new Eternal Anchor, improve health, and teach kids about Jesus, but the transformation in our team is just as incredible!

At the construction sight it was really cool to see the team passing cinder blocks down a row of people to build the wall and just the unity of the team working together. There was no VBS for the day so the group of people that are part of that got to work together to put together grocery packages to pass out to people in the community. They included rice, beans, oils, and other staples.

Our evening spent together with Craig's inspiring words about unity and going forth with God brought forth a lot of God sightings and aha moments of the week. We went out to ice cream afterwards and we are practicing enjoying all God's people and loving each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. 

CCCOG to Mexico Day 3 - 2017

Hard work is hard! Today was another day full of accomplishing things and working for the Lord. The team was quick to eat breakfast and head out into the community.

The majority of the construction team  was covered in paint from head to toe by the end of the day. We've been painting lots of rooms in the new Eternal Anchor school. Most of the guys got friendly with a shovel as they dug down and down in order to put in a new wall so the entire complex is secured.

The VBS and puppet team were even more successful in their second showing! No media problems this time. As I've heard from almost every person on this team, it is just a joy to see all the kids smiling and enjoying being at Eternal Anchor. They are happy to see love from those running Eternal Anchor, but also just getting attention from our team who are so excited to be here. However, like Elmer has said, we are not here to be heroes. These kids need looking after every day so we are just thankful for the week we get to be here.

The medical team got to serve the most disabled kids at Eternal Anchor. Mary Burton, part of our medical team, speaks with such a passion about these kids. She's amazed at how families care for these kids that would be put in institutions back in America. It costs so much for treatments, care, wheelchairs, etc., but their families and Eternal Anchor take care of these kids everyday. Each night they put different vitamins and medications in little baggies to give away to those who need it.

After a hard day's work we were able to pick where we wanted to go to dinner. As Craig said about one of the taco stands, "My nose was running while eating at Smokies so that must mean it's good." Needless to say we are still thoroughly enjoying the food here! Afterwards the team got to relax and enjoy the evening at the minor league baseball game! This time is for serving the community here, but it's also so great to see our church family growing closer together.