Families on Mission days 6-8

I am writing this from my kitchen desk area. Glad to be home. Extremely glad to have internet again. For the record I had more internet service in Nepal than I did in Alabama. Thanks for waiting on the videos and hanging in there.

Common question - " How did it go?"

Generic answer " Good "

The thing is we went, we served, we helped, we were kind, we were available, we let our kids see if you can teach Bible stories and pass out water in Velma, you can do it Alabama.

Silas singing before we left...

 

As Bishwa told me in Nepal and Heather Williams mentioned on our trip- it's an introduction, a beginning. I hope to one write that Colten's doing medical missions in Hondurus and Nena's leading her own group somewhere. I hope Silas is singing in Equador and Cady drawing in South America. I hope David is drumming on a hand made drum in West Africa and Morgan's "making melodies" where God leads her. 

Wednesday included day camps in the am and some much needed rest in the pm. We did a little shopping and ate out at Lamberts. Quite the experience.

Thur. included day camps again in the am and some wave riding and pool swimming in the afternoon. The oil workers were at our condo's beach area all afternoon, we talked with them as much as they would. They are kinda there but not wanting to be there. I got the idea they were told to not talk.

 Not sure what they were doing here but this is at the state park headquarters area.

This is what we saw mainly. And the occasional tar ball. Largest we saw was about the size of a small hamburger.

The waves were huge! easy 7-8 foot swells at times. We got a real pounding. I rode the boogie board. I left 2 times and kept going back. The ocean draws me. Like the Lord. I just can't get enough. With this horrible oil spill you just don't know what next year will be like, ya know? I rode while I still could.

That night we needed a miracle. The kids were scheduled to perform at one more rv resort- Anchor's Away. They were hot, the bugs were BAD, the pool was really cool and inviting. They pulled it off despite some technical difficulties with the sound system.

Friday we did our last day of day camp, presented the gospel as clear as we could, got addresses, promised to write and set off for home.

 Trinity on the left was there every day. She was so sweet. She knows Jesus, we made sure!

All of us in my  van were missing loved ones so we left as soon as mission completion. The other 2 families stayed a little longer.

13 hours later we pulled into the best place on earth- home. Where tomorrow will be the first day of the rest of our lives. Where we'll have many more opportunities to be kind to random people, to make conversation about things that really matter and to serve the One, True and Living God along side neighbors , friends, and family.

The trip meant something different to each person, I hope you'll ask them and dig deeper when they respond "It was good" . Ask them why they went, how they'll live now in light of last week- and ask them if they'll go again when God brings an opportunity to help others outside of our town.

Families on Mission day 5

Tuesday

Your days start to slide together when you are merely at someone’s call. We literally do not know what we’ll do each day until that morning.

We are secret agents, with Nate Deihl, NAMB missionary, sending us via text each day our mission. (cue bond music) This message may self destruct.

 The young man with all our kids up there on the left is Nate. You can find him here .http://barefootbelievers.com/

So last night our plans changed and we were on call for a full day of ministry

1. day camps (Island Retreat RV park and Gulf Shores State Park)
2. beach reach at public beach (yes despite double red flags and media warnings there were still people on the beach) 
3. movie by the pool at Island Retreat

Preparing for this trip has been a long time coming, in addition to a year of guitar lessons, preteen leadership camp, working at  the Velma food bank, & leading on Wed. nights our kids also met everyday for  a week learning their patriotic musical. First thing I told them, using the fun new craze silly bands, was to be flexible.

Blessed are the flexible for they will not be bent out of shape.

Our team has now grown to 20. There are many different levels of taste, age, ability and world views represented in those 20 people. We are constantly around each other- eating, traveling from site to site, & talking to people. There are opportunities to be flexible.

Day camps report- Island Retreat was up from 2 to 6, State Park went down from 8 to none.

Beach Reach had us hanging out and playing football with Chad, a single dad with a 2 and 3 year old boys hungry for food and attention . Bryce and I befriended a elderly woman named Chicky and her daughter. Turns out they too were looking to bless some one that day. We had a great visit and before leaving after asking about her salvation we prayed for her daughter who needed truth clarified for her.

Our single dad and his 2 boys was wanting to play football. So today beach reach included a pick up football game. A couple of others joined in and at the end of play Cody prayed and gave a quick devotion.

Movie by the Pool was by far the best attended thing we’ve done.

We “canvassed” the area 2 times and it paid off- we had over 60 people. Barefoot believers has an inflatable screen and the sound system and projection system to do such a thing. Nate put it up and left us with it.

The kids watched from in the pool but us adults didn't have any chairs. Here's what Jimmy rigged-

Are we from Oklahoma or what?

We viewed “Finding Nemo” . I hadn’t seen it in a while- cute and funny. Packed with good tie ins to conversations about Jesus. Some I mentioned at the end-

The scene where Nemo first hears (from the pelican) how he’s dad is coming to find him and all the things he has overcome reminds me of how I felt when I first heard what Father God has done in order to have a relationship with me. Awestruck amazement.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world (me and you) that he gave his one and only son so that we would not die separated forever from him but that we would have everlasting life.

John 14:6 Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father except through me .

We were like those fish in the last scene, trapped in our sin and Jesus Christ made a way for us to be free.

Freedom is a wonderful thing. Freedom to choose. Free to leave the God I love. But what I’ve found in Christ is worth leaving everything else behind to follow – he’s all that and so much more. 

As Cody said in his sermon Sunday – Jesus is not the key he’s the treasure!

Mission accomplished day 5 Gulf Shores, Alabama

Families on Mission day 4

The internet isn't fast enough to include the videos like I'd hoped to do. So here's a list until better internet...


1. It's awesome seeing your friends serve. I thought it'd be fun watching the kids and it has but to watching Jimmy Miller jump in and do what ever is needed, seeing Wade Williams fish for scripture with a little boy at day - there's something so cool about that.

2. Chris Sanner made it today. He came to our Cady's rescue when we got off without her glasses the other day. He brought a co-pilot Cody Foster with him. We've enjoyed getting to know Cody.

3. Our kids are sick of doing our patriotic songs. Their performances are showing that. Tonight Silas took his eyes off me, the director. And he got off, he messed up. He'd done well the 2 times before. Our whole team is like that- we need to spend time in meditation and prayer alone- keeping our focus on God , following his lead each day or we can get out of rhythm, off key, confused and messed up pretty quickly.

Today's video - Colten talks ....

Families on Mission day 3- Happy Fourth

Well it’s the end of first day of ministry. And we are soooo tired, that’s the theme on this post. I think I speak for all those over 30 in this regard.

Working along side your family and other families you will have moments of great success and moments revealing the true heart. Selfish.

Cady was tire and grumpy. If I heard , “ I don’t want to do this” once, I heard it 20 times. She pulled off her part in their program well ( they all did better than the first time even having to improvise some) but when she crawled in my lap while Cody spoke (reading from his Itouch) I knew she was really tired.

Here’s what she had to say

A forced downtime was in order after getting a little mouthy.

Point being- rest is imperative on any mission trip. You can not make it on your own strength. You must be wise and use your down times to truly rest. Working with varied ages we built some rest into each day this week.

Here’s the team after their performance this morning. The backdrop Leona Norton made was functional and pretty.

I will never cease to be amazed at how awesome it is to worship with other believers from other places. Even different denominations. In today’s service we had campers, our group, the long term guy (missionary Nate), the short timers (aka barefoot believers find them here online) and another team of teens from Louisville, Ky.

The barefoot believers did 3songs before our stuff and it was beautiful! This first song was about peace. I loved it (it also had 2 harmonies going on) . Marvelous Light and Blessed Be your name.

I cried for awhile- it was just so powerful- and I was extremely tired and when that happens I cry.

In the afternoon we did two shifts of “beach reach” passing out water bottles, face painting and hair wrapping. I walked a long way. They have a lot of stuff they bring out there. They do it several times a week there at the public beach in Gulf Shores.

Note, I have yet to put on a bathing suit, neither have my kids- but that water has magnets in it and they get sucked to it every time!

Tonight we simply watched the fireworks on the beach, laughed at funny things from throughout the day . The kids looked for crabs in the sand- found a few.

The oil wasn’t as bad tonight on our skin but there were double red flags up most of the day and we figure it’s due to the oil. Double flags means beach closed. Nate told us the beach was pretty much empty today compared to most holiday weekends. Sad.

We are still praying about getting into encourage the workers with sno cones, prayers and conversations.

Families on Mission day 2

Bryce, one of our team members, talks here about seeing the ocean for the first time.

Btw we are all family here! We all have nick names....

We left Velma a little before 5 am Sat. morning and headed sw with these guys.....

These guys were in Vicksburg, MS checking out some history, they had left the day before...

The Williams.....

The Nortons, Minus the older kids

You could call families on mission , vacationing with a purpose.

Let me tell you how I and 17 other people got here.

18 years ago I spent a week at Atlantic Beach, NC doing resort area ministry with some of my dearest friends and family. For me it ignited a life long desire to do more than sit on a pew, ya know?

2 years ago I was sitting in a breakout session with a children's minister named Cliff May. This guy was telling us how he'd started training his preteens to serve instead of being entertained and how they'd taken them all over the country and even overseas to do mission work. All before they were 12.

I liked the concept. I worked with kids on this level. 4 weeks later we are at falls creek kids camp and not only are kids getting saved, when encouraged they would do the devotions at night and lead the music and then one decided God was speaking to him about being a missionary.

Hummmmmm.............

So from the moment we returned May, 2009 I waited for the trip to come together. I started searching for places to serve. We had contacted a couple in Gulf Shores, Al 5 years prior about taking a group of teens done to do resort ministry. That couple has left but Nate and Alecia Deihl have taken their place and once I contacted them in the fall about a summer trip they said, "Come on"

So by November we had dates and a place, by Feb. we had a place to stay and by first of March we had a tentative team. God put it all together, there is no doubt and we rely heavily on his leadership from start to "what do we do now" on the way home....

My God is so big , So strong and so mighty there's nothing that he can not do...

 
Two neat converstions we've had a long the way....

A lady came into the van at a gas station, said she was a Believer and from Gulf Shores...and she said thank you for coming, it reminded her of Katrina when they didn't have water for 2 months and so many teams came down to help. You know they are in somewhat of a disaster down here.

Another conversation came as I waited for our massive order of chicken...I noticed the man in front of me looked a little like the guys around Velma- oilfield. So I asked if he was working on the oil spill. He said yes, I asked how it was going and he replied , "hot, so hot" I told him were I was from, what I was doing and asked how could we help you? He smiled, I think just knowing someone cares enough to ask and come cheered his soul. There is a set up place close to our condo that is a clean up station-

We were told the beaches are fine, get on it. The kids couldn't stay out of it and we put our feet in last night but when we got home we had oil residue on our clothes and bodies, we scrapped it off with a knife and washed. It's not "fine" there's a lot of oil in the gulf and it's not good. We couldn't have come at a better time.

So we are here, exhausted from a year long journey to this "time" but over joyed as usually at the same time. Thanks for following, hope you find a relationship with Jesus if you don't have one, hope you get closer if you do know him and I really hope you decide to live on purpose, vacation with a purpose and tell others about the hope, love and incredible peace found only in Jesus! 

Families on Mission day 1

We are 7 adults, 5 tweens and teens, 6 "under 10's". We are Velma Comets (and one Bray donkey ) headed southeast for 7 days of beach reach, Bible Clubs and Patriotic Musicals. We are sinners and saints, saved by grace telling truth and offering hope to people on vacations. Why? Because I have begun to realize on any given summer Sunday people aren't going to church anymore. They are going to play. So if we are going to reach people we are going to have to go where the lost are.

God has put 18 people together for purpose. We have prayed through work problems, van problems and ...well I'll let you hear our first answered prayer....

Ten of the 18 left on July 2nd, taking their time traveling and sightseeing along the way. The rest of us die hard roadies are leaving at 4 am on July 3rd. Traveling 13 hours all in one day.


So speaking of road trippin....some pictures from the last one and some ideas of how we do it.

Dvd players and DS's - it's just part of being an American kid. There are also books, and I let them pick them out on their own at the library - I also offer to buy them books. Books are important! But the best way we've found to get reading in on a trip is do read together the same book. We read a Junie B Jones book on this trip. The library also has lots of books on cd.

We are waiting for someone to make a car with a divider between loud children in the backseat and "wanting to converse" adults in the front seat. Something besides a cop car. While we wait the ipod has been a lifesaver for this guy.

These little cups I found at Micheals craft store a year ago. They have lids , were only 1$ and fit perfectly in my cupholders. I got three. They are amazingly convenient for splitting everything from candy to chips to even ice cream.

Under my seats I have a plastic bin that holds wipes, toys, spoons, books, snacks, juice boxes....they are helpful

Occasionally new toys will entertain for hours. Which is more than they do at home. Click here to see our lego set up, we aren't taking those to Alabama

Charis regrettably won't be joining us on this trip to Alabama. I am going to lead and cook and she still requires naps. And while I was doing Bible school Wed. night at our church she broke loose of her group and came front and center to me, pulled up her summer dress and flashed the group. She is entertainment on long trips but granny wants to participate in the trip and this is her specialty.

Speaking of everyone doing their part. We have been really have been blessed by many who've made food for us!! And # 1 need is prayer for the challenges along the way. PRAY. All of our 10 and under kiddos have yet to be baptized. Some have made decisions for Christ and are working that out with parents.

Mission work more often than not changes us as much or more than it changes those we minister to.