Trip Update 8

Monday morning we woke up....early. Mindy and Steph surprised Todd on 'La Placa' but I was too sleepy to go with them (surprise, surprise!). After our last morning up there, watching the sun rise and having quiet time (and an interesting round of 'That 70s Show' :o), we headed back down to finish packing. When the bus arrived, we took pictures, said goodbye and climbed on. Pino had us journal about our time there while we drove to our first stop. Just outside the city is a little restaurant with one of the most amazing views I've ever seen. Stopping here has been one of the highlights of past trips and this was no different. The food was great and the piña coladas (without alcohol!) were yummy, too! :o)

We got back on the bus and broke into small groups to discuss what we had just journaled about and what God had done over the past week. This was great! Among other things, the guys took some time to thank the girls for their modesty and we girls spent some time thanking them for their leadership and desire to protect us as well as their own hearts. Before we knew it, we'd arrived in the city we would depart from. We got to walk around for a little while and take some pictures, I got a book of poetry at this little book shop (btw, I LOVE book stores and old books :o). We ate lunch at a little restaurant with a patio and a FAN! Hallelujah for fans! And there was a peacock in the courtyard!

We arrived at the airport, got checked in, went through customs, security and then went upstairs to eat (see a pattern here? I think we constantly ate! :o). Then we boarded the plane and landed back in Miami. Wow! Amazing to be home! What a difference and culture shock! Again, you can feel it in the air and sense it all around you. It's pretty amazing! We had a fairly difficult time getting through customs, but everyone eventually made it through (even Miguelito :o).

The O-town team headed to pick up our van (praying it would be available this time!) and made plans to meet everyone (minus the Pinos :o( at Outback. See, we had decided several days ago that we just couldn't go anywhere else but Outback when we got home. So after an incredibly delicious steak and my favorit-est blue-cheese-chopped salad, we started for HOME. The ride home was pretty hilarious. I'll never forget Abot and the bottle, Ton and almost falling asleep, and a few other things. :o) Poor Juanita, she was sick at this point and slept most of the ride home. We pulled into the church parking lot at exactly midnight! I was impressed. My awesome dad had come to pick me up, so we all said goodbye and went home. I fell into bed and slept and slept and slept.

To summarize my thoughts on this particular trip: it was the most exhausting trip but the one I came home being the most spiritually refreshed. Team, what do you think?

By the way, THANK YOU to all of you who prayed for us and those of you who contributed to my trip financially. Pete, John, Snodgrass, Steve & Genie, Grandmother & Granddaddy - this would not have been possible without you! God specifically used you and your generosity to allow me to make this trip, experience what I did and serve the way I was able to. You have blown me away and I am humbled by your examples of generosity. So thank you!

Team, I am so grateful for our time together and the memories we made. It was an incredible joy to be with each of you, to get to know you, to become better friends with you, to serve alongside of you, to worship with you, to laugh with you and to sweat with you. :o) Thank you for the way you've served me by pointing out to me my sin and by also encouraging me. It was such a privilege to share those nine days with you all!!!

Last update on the Caribbean: quotables from the trip. :o)

Trip Update 7

Sunday morning we woke up a little later but had a service with just our team (they had cancelled church due to the activities of the night before and the conference that week). It was amazing! It was one of those experiences that stick out to you forever, the kind that are high on your list of sweet times of fellowship with God's people and Himself. We worshipped and Ton shared a word he'd received for EACH individual on our trip. It was amazing and I was just overwhelmed by the goodness of God to convict, forgive, refresh, and fill me. I didn't want it to end!

But when the pastors came in, we had the opportunity to hear how the week had affected them and how they saw the attendees being affected. It was so exciting to see how God had literally broken through and caused the people to 'catch the pastors vision'! Pino reminded us that we were literally witnessing a historical moment for the church! Wow!

That afternoon, we went on another walk through the city and prayed for the people as we passed homes. We ate lunch at the restaurant at the top of the 'mountain' and I actually saw the view from the cliff this time - breathtaking! I did, however, fear for Abot and Steph's lives as they sat down on the edge... :o) And Abot had a great story with that thar cliff.

We started to hurry home so we could prepare for the "booger-boy's" surprise party! The family had had a couple of piggies prepared for our dinner that night (unfortunately we didn't get to witness the slaughter this time - most interesting if you ask me!). We decorated, blew up balloons and put together party favors. When he arrived, we yelled surprise and blew the little blow-thingies (what the heck are they called?). He was so cute!

We got to serve them again (there were about 50 of us altogether - family, friends, etc) and did an assembly line to get the plates together and to them. After dinner, we played lots of games like 'The Cup Game' and taught them 'The Animal Game'. It was so funny to watch them try to 'send' the animal on to someone else! We also played some 'Foyer Volleyball'. If you don't know what this is, you play with a balloon in the foyer and use your shoes as the line between the two courts. Pretty cool, huh? :o)

After everyone left, we cleaned up, headed to our rooms and packed up. It was hard to believe we left the next day!!!!

Trip Update 6

Saturday morning we slept in until...8:30! Woohoo! (By the way, if Todd ever knocks on your door with doughnuts, tell him to go away! ...and then go find the doughnuts cuz they were darn good! :o) We were able to relax a bit that morning. Todd and the guys were working on a song, Pino went on some 'errands' all day, and Abot, Jordan, Mindy worked on Abot's song. I listened, gave my two cents, and journaled. It was so nice to relax like that!

Then Mindy and I left to go help decorate for the birthday party of our friend there who was turning 15. We spent a few hours decorating and then headed home to get ready for the party. We were also going to spend the afternoon pampering our friend with a manicure, pedicure and doing her make-up. I was totally unprepared for what it would look like. I had anticipated a nice relaxing afternoon, gently massaging her feet and hands, slowly painting her nails and deliberating over which colors to use for eye shadow. What it looked like was a sweaty mass of girls rushing to be ready by 7:00...we started at about 5:30! Now you and I both know that you cannot fit all that into an hour and a half. And we didn't. We fit it in to about three. It was still the fastest I've ever worked and I think the reason it actually worked was because one girl was doing her hair, one was doing her make-up, one was doing her toes and one was doing her nails....did I mention that all took place at the same time? No wonder my hands were shaking as I was doing the french mani!!!! Ay de mi! :o)

Then we had to figure out how to get dressed in the midst of that (by the way, never wear a tank top that someone else has worn already on the trip - it doesn't make for a pleasant evening :o). All in all, we ran about 45 minutes late. I was a mess and totally not relaxed but stressed out and chose to laugh instead of crying. I'm so glad I did because it only got more...interesting. We climbed into the same cargo truck from the day before with a bunch of the people already in there (another note to self: know what to wear when climbing into a cargo truck, right Juanita? We had an interesting time!! :o). After waiting for yet more people, we finally were on our way. When we arrived, Ton climbed down and began counting to see how many cattle, I mean people, were packed in there. There were 61 of us! Yes, we were shocked. This was quickly replaced by terror at the swarms of mosquitoes that greeted us at the party. Fortunately we had all forgotten our bug spray (a bummer since I usually carry it to most parties I go to). :o)

We sat down and the evening began (Ody, GREAT job on the decorations, my friend!!!!). The parents honored her, her brother honored her...grandparents, friends...it was amazing! She sang a song in English which blew us away, rededicated her life to Christ. Everything was so God-honoring! Mindy had had the idea that we would each take a letter of her name and honor her with a description of a characteristic of her life. Mine was 'L' for 'Luz' (or 'light'). Juanita graciously had translated my few sentences so that I could read it without translation. I think the whole thing turned out well and I hope she was blessed by our desire to honor her.

Then the dancing began! Abot and Steph taught me and Juanita how to salsa and Carice reminded us that it 'happens' without thinking about it. Thanks, Carice! ;o) I can't remember being so sweaty, so dressed up and having so much fun! The whole evening was amazing!!! We rode back on the same truck (in TWO shifts, though, thank the Lord!) and ate the yummy rice pudding that I had missed at dinner! :o). Then it was time for bed!

Trip Update 5

Friday morning we had breakfast with the people and then headed off to walk through and pray for the city as we walked up a small mountain (no joke!). On the way, we visited a seminary where one of the pastors went and where his son was married. It was so neat to be there to see their history, as well as hear the history of the seminary. Very different from our Pastors' College. Al has great plans for this place. :o) While we were there, one of the professors gave us a tour and then sang for us an American folk song - very hilarious. We stopped in at the Chapel where Al read a few verses and Todd led us in spontaneous worship. Again, I'm always amazed by the fact that I can worship God anytime, anywhere. I love it!

We continued our walk, munching on fresh coconut!, and reached the top where we got more ice cream and big bottles of water (water gets drunk quickly by our team! :o). This place wasn't there when we visited last time and it was extremely oriented to foreigners. The view was absolutely incredible and just left me in awe of all our God has created. After resting, we headed towards 'the ruins' which are in the process of being rebuilt! I think it used to be a Catholic shrine and now it's being fixed up. Eric got to talk to a music teacher who was traveling with her friends. The woman was having a clarinet lesson with the friend's daughter out in the open under the blue sky and surrounded by the huge green hills and trees. What a place to have a lesson!

We got back from our walk, ate lunch and had the opportunity to go swimming!!! We packed up, slathered on sunscreen and climbed into a big cargo truck. Nice. As we drove, we picked up (running!) members of the church and headed to a beach outside the city. We thought we might be able to snorkel as well (hello! the Caribbean! oh wow!), but that didn't work out. It was still amazing and Al was so awesome to work that out for us - a surprise for the team! We enjoyed a couple hours swimming and dodging Fire Coral (Coral de fuego) and stepping on lovely bits of sharp rock. Then Jorge found a nasty dog that he named Jessica or something and tried to find a way to water it. It was pretty hilarious watching him. Does anyone have pictures? :o) On the way back, we stopped to pick up - you guessed it! - more water. When we arrived home, they held a ceremony in my honor to present me with my first Diet Coke of the trip. It was wooonderful! :o)

Dinner was delayed until 8 pm because they had run out of gas, couldn't get more and had to cook over charcoal. Unbelievable. I cannot imagine not being able to run to the store and pick up what I need! So, as soon as we were done with dinner, Melinda and I watched the girls from the church practice a dance for the party the next evening.

Then we took a quick walk (dodging HUGE crabs in the gutters!) to a restaurant inside a castle - literally! It was time for them to close, but they let us in and shut the doors. It looked like a prison but they served up great french frieds, shrimp (bleh!) and sodas. :o) That was a lot of fun and a place I'd never been before. Next door was some lovely (ahem) karaoke and dancing. :o)

That night Mindy and I talked way late (like 3:30!!) and prayed the two newlywed lizards who showed up in our room would decide it was too cold and head back outside.

Trip Update 4

Sorry for the long break! We were in the middle of our Worship Conference ‘Glorify’. Back to the updates...

Thursday began pretty similar, but one of the pastors addressed the conference regarding dancing before the Lord and how we need to base our opinions off of what Scripture has to say about this. And then he danced. It was hilarious! It kinda reminded me of C.J.'s plate-spinning demonstration or of Josh Harris' kick-boxing demo (remember that, Medana? ;o). Then one of the members of the church gave us all a gift to commemorate our time there. That was a huge sacrifice on his part!!

Afterwards, Pino spoke...and I actually understood most of it! :o) And it was amazing because it confirmed the word the Lord had given me that morning during my quiet time. I love when He does that!!! Following that, Todd read Sproul's "The Priest Who Wore Dirty Clothes" in Spanish and had everyone sit around him on the floor. It was amazing!!!! Again, I understood most of what was read, which was such a blessing! The Spirit of God began to move during this story that was written for children (Sproul's ministry had Miguel's wife translate the story and may be publishing it soon!). As tears filled my eyes, I watched as men moved from sitting to kneeling with their faces on the ground. Most everyone was crying, some weeping, as the Gospel was told through this story. Todd did a wonderful job in telling it and his passion for the Gospel was clear as well. Needless to say, it was hard to move on to lunch after that!

That afternoon, we rested and FINALLY got to serve the people dinner!! They had been serving us and having us eat first. So we were able to convince them it would be our privilege to serve THEM on our last night with them. I love being able to do that! Thanks, Al! :o)

That night, Todd encouraged us to sit with someone we didn't know...with much fear I obeyed (no comments from the peanut gallery! ;o). I thought it might be a very silent interaction with the other person because of the language barrier - thank God for smiles! Ha! After sitting for a while in silence, I remembered the pictures I had brought along to show some of the people. I had pictures of some of the previous team members who couldn't make it, including baby Joey's picture. Taraleigh was pregnant in Cuba and the ladies especially enjoyed seeing him - almost two years later! Anyway, I pulled the pictures out and had a great conversation with them...in Spanish!!! Woohoo! :o) It turns out that Danny has stayed with this couple before. They were very precious and I'm so grateful for that interaction.

During worship, there was ministry time for the young married couples. It’s pretty amazing, because some of them have gotten married since I first met them four years ago! We also sang ‘Breathe On Us’ from Metro’s new Glorify CD. Among others, Abot and I played violin on this song which was so much fun! Unfortunately we didn’t get to play that night, but it was still cool to sing it in Spanish!!!!

Afterwards, Ton and Al called a meeting of our team up on ‘la placa’. We spent some time praying for what God had done, for the people and for what He would do in the days remaining there. Ton had worked it out so that we each had a card from someone back home! How cool was that? Thanks, mom! :o)

It was a great end to a great conference. For those of you who don’t know me very well, I like control. A lot. :o) Even more, I like knowing what’s happening and not being surprised by things. I like planning and seeing what was planned happen. Needless to say, being spontaneous and flexible is not one of my strong points. God was clearly working on that this trip (though events did not occur simply to make me flexible, I know :o). It was amazing to see the grace supplied by Him to be able to ‘go with the flow’ and not be stressed out. There were times that I didn’t do so well, but there were also other times where I knew that the Spirit was giving me the grace to respond correctly. I am so grateful for that! I am grateful to see Him at work and to know that He IS changing me. I just might start being more flexible…maybe. :o)

So, until tomorrow (hopefully!), enjoy these pics and the video…

Trip Update 3

So Wednesday began with...you guessed it! Bread and milk. And then a hurriedly eaten granola bar, pop-tart or one of Eric's green chocolate covered protein bars (tasty, but very disturbing! :o). Then we had our devotional with the people again. Jorge did an amazing job with the 'Thirsting for God' topic. It was incredible!!! God really used him to stir up a 'hurricane' in our midst!

I think this was the day we did our drama...that sunk fast! It was so horrible I can hardly bear to think about it! We put it together late Tuesday night and had not even practiced when we had to perform the next morning - ahhhhhh! The basic plan was that Eric would be our worship leader, Abot and I were on violin, Juanita was on the flute, Jordan was playing guitar, Ody, Chels and Stephanie were on mic and Nando was playing percussion...am I missing anyone? After we all walked in (like divas) Eric started our pretend rehearsal. Because we were all divas, we were supposed to play like divas. He stopped us because it sounded awful (seriously) and asked for less drama. So we played emotionless and he asked for a little more emotion and expression...after a couple more 'tries', well, you get the picture. The really horrible part is that we were supposed to end playing together and with the attitude of a humble servant not wanting to promote ourselves....except we really didn't know how to play together! :o) Oh, it was painful! It was hilarious, because I hadn't thought through the fact that I would have no idea what Eric was instructing us to do because he was speaking in Spanish for their benefit! Oh you should have seen it....or no, you shouldn't have! :o)

And Miguel taught mid-morning on how to lead a worship team rehearsal. He used his new song 'Casa De Adoracion' for practical application, calling some of the people up to play and sing. It was a blast and they learned it so quickly! It's a great song and I can't wait to do it at Metro!

After lunch Miguel, Jordan, Abot, Juanita, Stephanie, Mindy and I went in search of ice cream (alas, the best place for sundaes was a mirage from the first trip). We found some from the place we went to before and bought Tandems and sodas. The flies loved us as much as we loved the ice cream. On the way back, we walked over what I am calling 'Meat Market Bridge'. Guys were lined up the whole way across, some on top of the arch!, and were jumping off into the river. It wasn't very nice to walk through there.

We got home and got cleaned up (this means peeling off layers of sweat-soaked clothing and hanging them to dry so that when you put them back on later on in the trip, they won't stink as much...hopefully.) and worked on gift bags. Unfortunately, 99.99% of our gift bag material was 'lost', so this posed quite a challenge. How do you make 10 gifts from a bunch of band-aids and miscellaneous items? Steph and I found out that God had already put them together by providing us with the perfect amount of what we had! More evidences of grace!

Todd spoke that night on "What's in Your Hand, Moses?" which was excellent!...at least the parts I understood! :o) During worship we sang the song Miguel wrote and some of the younger people responded more freely with dancing as opposed to a more formal and typical response. Quite a few of the people had concerns about this which led to one of the pastors addressing everyone the following day (more details to come).

After the message, I enjoyed getting to hang out with some of the pastors' family we had never met before. They were precious people and some were unsaved, so it was neat to be able to interact with and get to know them. The two children found their way into my heart - beautiful kiddos! The daughter had a smile that would melt your heart and her little brother followed me around for gum or a chupa-chupa. I pray God captures their little hearts!

Once again we headed up to the roof (or 'La Placa') to hang out, I called home (finally!) and found out John Morgan didn't win :o(. Then it was off to bed (wasn't that the night we met Mr. Roach, girls?) to rest up for Thursday, July 26th...

Again, some pictures are from Nando, Ody, Juanita and Jordan...

Trip Update 2

Okay, so we're on to Day 2 of our trip! I promise it won't take you four hours to read the recap of each day! :o) Poor Melinda hadn't been feeling well leading up to the trip and got pretty sick the day we left and through our first day there - the first day of the conference, too. She bounced back incredibly well, though, and was an amazing 'patient' the whole time she was stuck in bed. For breakfast we had stale bread and milk (some thought it was powdered condensed milk, but I dunno. It was really sweet, but I liked it. I know it wasn't goat's milk like before! ;o)

The people for the conference were already there, so the devotional that we were going to do with just our team became a conference devotional! Todd's notes for his messages had gotten 'lost' the day before, so he spent the entire night and this day's afternoon and the next day (Wednesday) working on recreating his messages and translating them. Amazing. He spoke that morning and Pino led us in a 'chupa-chupa' ceremony - the first of what became a daily event! It was hilarious! The Miami people also did a drama which was pretty darn good! But I've come to expect that from them. :o)

After a yummy lunch, and because it was so hot, we cancelled the afternoon sessions so everyone could rest. We headed to our rooms and the people went home or hung out in the church building, sleeping on pews, jamming on the instruments or just talking. This was a pretty unusual opportunity for them since most of them rarely see each other, so it was neat to see them taking advantage of it. It reminded me of a very hot Celebration afternoon walking past the tent-cities, ya know? Oh, and the electricity was out for about 8 hours! Random. And such a bummer because the fan and those a.c. units are your best friends when they're working!

That night, our team led worship. This was my first time to play on the worship team, so with much fear and trembling, I began to play. What did we play, you ask? I have no idea! Some of the songs I didn't even know....that promised rehearsal? Never happened. It was like the feeling of being held out over the Empire State building and trying to climb to safety....ok, so maybe that's a little dramatic. :o) When I began to get comfortable, Todd must have sensed this and decided to have Miguel get me and Juanita Megan to sing the girls part on 'Extiende Tu Mano' - on mic. This felt like someone slapped my hands as I was gripping the ledge of the Empire State building and I began to plummet. Okay, again, maybe that's a little dramatic, but you have to understand. I have never sung on mic before, let alone in another language...and on top of that, I didn't know the song very well. Definitely not my idea of a perfectly progressing conference and definitely not what I'd anticipated my first time on the worship band to look like...Isn't God good? *grin* He takes our measly expectations and plans and turns them into what He wanted all along...but I'm kinda getting ahead of myself....

After worship, one of the pastors there spoke and then we were done! We fellowshipped for a while and then headed up to the roof for our nightly ritual of cooling off, telling Helen Keller jokes (Abot, I still laugh!) and taking pictures. All in all, it was a great first day where the Lord was clearly leading and in charge - exactly where we want to be!

P.S. Some of these pictures are Jordan and Ody's. :o)

Trip Update 1

Well, what can I say? It was the most amazing trip I've ever been on! It was hard...the sun was hot, but God was good!!!!

So, after the interesting rental van story and some great Chinese food, we headed down to Miami. The travelers were myself, Juanita Megan Spradling, Jordan Chew, Eric Wilfredo Mendez, Jorge Luis Romanacce, Abot Jones and Ton Twining (or, as I have named him - the Madman at the Piano :0). We had to read some interesting stuff on the way down, in preparation for our trip, so we all took turns reading it aloud...Eric does a mean German accent! Haha!

After stopping at Starbucks and getting the van...washed, we got back on the road and Todd shared with us some words and pictures the Lord laid on his heart. He gave each of us a card and a verse - all in Spanish! This was really cool because he had been given a word for each of us from the verse he had written in the card. He sensed that the Lord was going to answer the questions of my heart while on this trip. (Side note: when receiving a word like this, it's best not to assume that this means God is going to give clear definitive direction such as which job to take, which school to go to or which person to marry. A better expectation is to expect nothing and be surprised with how He chooses to answer. :o)

Anyway, we arrived in Miami at the Fabs' house (they're truly 'Fab'ulous people! har, har, har!). The rest of the team was there, as well as some of the PVCC church members. We had yummy pizza and a great massive chocolate cake with gi-normous chocolate covered strawberries (I can still taste them!). Then we had a time of worship and ministry. It was so neat to see the way the team was already merging as one and posturing themselves to serve and love each other. Afterwards, we went to our host families (Jenn - a.k.a. Juanita Megan - and I stayed at the Fabs which consisted of Jose, Odalys, Carice and Chelsey).

We woke up the next morning at 4:30 a.m. (bleh!) even though I was supposed to get up at 4:00 a.m. I was still ready at 5:00 a.m....suitcase packed and all (thanks to Juanita Megan's sitting capabilities! ;o) After a nice drive in Miguelito's van with Fernando entertaining us on the way to the airport, we arrived at the ungodly hour of 5:30 a.m. I pretty much stumbled inside desperately trying to locate a place that I could buy wonderful coffee from.

We checked in (have you ever had to tell them how much you weigh before? Yeah, that shows how small our plane would be, when they track everyone's weight. The question of the morning was whether or not to add the ounces from that morning's breakfast....I opted against that additional weig....I mean, info). We stood around and waited. And walked through security (if you go through at Miami - for those of you O-towners - they have this really cool air-blast thingie. I think they just like to see the fear on everyone's faces as it POOFS you. I don't think it really does a thing.) Then we went and boarded the plane pretty much right away. And when I say 'plane', I mean something about the size your little brother flies with a remote control. When we boarded, there was this crazy white smoke filling the cabin and the whole thing stunk...not usually a good sign.

We landed - what an amazing feeling! I will never forget each of the three times I've landed in the Caribbean. There's an immediate difference in the air! So, we got off (oh yeah, we had to fly a second plane over with the rest of our luggage...again!) and went through customs and then security where the snacks in my backpack got thrown away....or should I say Todd's snacks. :o(

I don't remember how many pieces of luggage we had, but it was a ton!!! After locating them all and matching them up to the right tags (btw, I've got ideas on how to make that work differently, next time ;o), most everyone headed outside. Usually about a hundred people hang on the fence waiting for the arriving flights. That's another of those things I will never forget.

Pino, Abot and I got stuck going through a second line of security with a bunch of luggage. There were some interesting details surrounding this that take a lot of time to explain. Feel free to ask any of us in person about these. :o)

We had a great big tour bus waiting for us with the family we were staying with waiting inside. It was so exciting to see them all!!! We ate lunch there and hung out on the bus for quite a long time and then went 'sight-seeing' for a little while. When we arrived at the house, it was like a big family reunion! It was like coming home! I love this place and the church.

That night we basically got settled in, ate our first meal, hung out on the roof (which was flat, in case you were concerned :o) and went to bed.

So, that's all for now...here are about 30 pics I took of the first couple days.