Sorry to say, that because I am editing a video for tomorrow’s awards ceremony, I will have to update you tomorrow about both today and tomorrow. Thanks for your prayer and your patience. I am really excited to share about our day, but lack of sleep is starting to take it’s toll.
Love to you all!
First let me say, the responses to the blogs have been incredible. Thank you. I have been trying to share as much as possible with the students.
Today we had another rainy day, although, there was a period of no rain where we went out onto the pitch and played for a bit until it started to rain again. We have had some interesting stand ins for sports, like Rachel Bundy teaching kids the dances from “High School Musical.” It was a big hit here as it was in the States,so that has been fun. We also have been playing “youth group” games. I always wondered how those wold come in useful and here is a perfect example.
Today Tommy Heinemann was able to share the gospel with two kids who prayed to recieve Christ. Only time will tell, but we are so glad we are working with New Life Masih Ghar, so they can do follow up. Local church involvement is so important with missions trips!
After camps today we went and did work projects. The first team went to a widow’s house from NLMG to paint some rooms. Tommy also went with that group, but did some wall paper stripping for Asha, which is the charity shop (thrift store) that is run by NLMG. The other team went to a young couples house who are missionaries here, to help them as they remodel it for living. They are tentmakers here with World Harvest. Just to give you some prespective. The house we worked in today, would probably go for around $60,000 in inner city St. Louis and it needs a lot of work. Here it costs the equivalent of $406,000 US dollars. No I did not type too many zeros. After this we went and spent some down time with the Hatches and even Got a visit from our good friend Kleavin Howatt, who is here on business!
Well tonight my interview is with two special girls, Laela Smith and Marissa Williams. I made a joke about them being inseparable, but nothing could be furhter from the truth. I am so proud to see two of our younger students branching out into new territory!
J: What have you learned from your time here so far?
M: Oh great (laughs…more laughs…laughing hysterically, basically because I am writing down how much laughing is going on!) I think it is staying positive and not letting the little things get me down. Life is too short.
L: How to take situations with the kids and run with it. TO be able to take what they know and have conversations based off of that. I wasn’t able to do that before.
J: What was your biggest fear in coming on the trip?
L: Interacting with kids. It’s something I haven’t had experience in. I was afraid, it is a weak point. But really it turned out to be nothing.
M: Mine is similar. Trying to take charge and have authority with the kids,since I am more laid back.
J: What was your favorite part of sports camp today?
M: The skits and the lessons and being able to take it tomorrow and use it. It sets up a great opportunity.
L: Playing Ameba (Youth group game from back home) There were some boys who were really acting up and I was proud of myself for stepping in. I don’t usually do that!
J: What was the biggest challenge before and since coming on this trip?
L: Before, it was not getting financial support from some of my family. Some gave a bunch, but some I never heard from. Since being here, it’s been being up late and then getting up early, being positive is hard when you are tired.
M: Before coming, it was final week and getting ready that was a challenge and having to be away from my family, since I have never been away from them this long. Since being here, it’s been staying awake and having patience in giving the Gospel, it’s a free gift and it is frustrating sometimes trying to understand why people won’t accept it.
Thanks again for staying in touch through the blog. We love you all!
It is the night after our second day and we had a great day. No literally, it was a great day! We had sunshine and we had 63 kids!
It was our second day of camps, but it was our first day of being able to do the sports we came to do. I was in charge of Basketball, while Rebecca was in charge of Volleyball and Tommy and Janie took care of football ,that’s soccer to you yanks 
We haven’t really had any of the older kids (11-13) so the ones that have shown up are usually helping out. Many of us had opportunities to share the gospel with kids today, and it seems like this will only get better as the days go on.
Outside of camps, our other big task for the day was “book table”, where we stand out on the street and offer tracts and other free literature an videos to anyone who would take them, and surprisingly many do. It was not till the end of our time that I had a real chance to interact with a lady about the gospel. We were just about to pack up when I noticed that Janie had begun to have a conversation with a lady. I went over to see if I could lend a hand. In the midst of our conversation, we discovered she is Muslim and were able to use what we had learned from our training to interact wit her. She was not convinced, but I could not help but think that we had planted another seed in this woman’s life.
We also had a great time of worship and prayer tonight. It was just one of those group bonding times as we sang praises together and then lifted up thanksgiving, confession and supplication to the Lord. Tears were shed as we considered those who we were witnessing to in Southall as well as the spiritual condition of those who need Christ even back in the states.
Well I would like to share my interview with you for this evening. Tonight I interviewed Maggie Heinemann and Janie Hayward.
J: What has been your biggest surprise since coming to Southall?
JH: How open people have been with religion, how willing they are to talk about their faith as well as hear about ours.
M: I didn’t expect for everyone to be South Asian, you rarely see a white person walking down the street. (side note: If you did not know, Southall is sometimes called Little India, and for those who have never been, their first rime of seeing this can be quote overwhelming. You have become the minority in this situation. Very different from what we are used to.)
J: What was your biggest fear in coming to the UK?
M: Definitely book table and street evangelism. Not Knowing what to say, not knowing enough about their religions.
JH: My heart not being prepared enough and switching gears from camp (Kanakuk) atmosphere, where it seems that everyone loves Jesus, to here where it is rare to run into a Christian (For those who don’t know Janie is a counselor at Kanakuk for 2 terms this Summer and took a break from that to go on this trip.)
J: What was your favorite part of book table?
JH: The rush of it. I got a rush from how open people were. It was very easy to start conversations, just being able to start with a clean slate, with someone who has never heard the name of Jesus. The challenge of trusting the Lord.
M: Passing out the leaflets (tracts). I was nervous on the bus ride over, just getting us to the situation, just thinking, “I know I have to do it.” So my favorite part was just passing those out, knowing I had to trust in God. It’s encouraging to know I can only do it with dependence on God!
J: What has been the biggest challenge about this trip?
M: Before we left, just my schedule and being able to get to youth group, having to make sacrifices. Since being here, trusting God, trusting that He will take care of all of this.
JH: Before we left, just being away at school and not being able to prepare with the team, having to prepare alone with the Lord and praying about it and remembering to pray about it with my school schedule. And now that we are here, it’s been keeping focus on why I’m here, not thinking about camp and missing all of the “good stuff” at camp, but rather putting others first.
Well, it is way past time for me to turn in. Thanks for all of the comments and reports of prayer! You really do not know what it means to us!
Sorry about not blogging this morning. I think morning blogs will not be the norm from here on out.
Today we began our day with the lovely sight of police officers taking away a man who had been bothersome, not only to us, but also to some of the other tenants here in our guest house. Apparently, he was not very stable and was up all night in the upper level (not where any of us are staying) keeping folks up at night. The few interactions that any of our group had, were strange to say the least, but no harm came from any of that.
We then went over to the church to set up for camps, which were held inside today because of rain. We here it is supposed to be dry tomorrow! Registration started off slow, but things quickly picked up and soon we had 39 kids. This is good considering the rain and the fact that it is “Bank Holiday” (sort of like a generic name for holidays, making it more politically correct.)
We had plenty of fun as we played “youth group” games, board games and the like. It was good to get a feel for how things will be throughout the week. But instead of me telling you, I will let you in on the interview I gave to Maddie and Rachel.
J: What has surprised you most since we’ve been here?
M: Actually I was thinking of this earlier, it’s sort of random, but as we were walking through Southall, it was intersting to watch the Indian families and see the lack of affection. I kind of noticed that something was missing and it finally hit me that this is what it was. It gives sort of an impersonal air.
R: I thought people would not want to come near, I didn’t know exactly what it would be like, but the kids are definitely more affectionate than the adults seem to be.
J: What was your favorite part of camp?
M: Inside the Blue Room (Side room of the church where some of the activities occured today,) sitting down with 3 girls, Nadia, Zahra and Keren, they taught us how to play a game called “snap” (sorry didn’t get an explanation for this,) and were talking about school and getting to know them.
R: (Not in respinse to the camp question, but more about from our day.)When we went to the temple (Mosque) today, thinking that ours is the only true religion and that everyone else just sort of believes because it sounds good, but they believe that there’s is the one true religion! But I like the challenge of bringing truth to them.
J: What has been your biggest fear in coming to the UK?
M: Honestly, getting through customs (laughs), you know afraid that I would come of suspicious or nervous, you know DUN, DUN, DUN! CUSTOMS!!!
R: Yeah, the customs thing, and scared that I would push people further away by something I would say.
J: How was traveling for you?
M: Pretty good, long…I didn’t sleep (laughs) [ side note: It is a well known fact that Maddie never sleeps while we travel.] I was a little freaked out by the plane flying over the ocean…
R: Pretty good…little uncomfortable with small seats, but I met a girl who was sitting next to me, and she runs a charity organization that houses homeless people, and the mashed potatoes were good [on the plane] (laughs).
J: What has been the most challenging aspect to you?
M: Throughout the most challenging thing has been being away from my family and graduation. I thought this would be hard and it was a big struggle for a long time. But God has given me an overwhelming peace. Even if I want to be homesick, I can’t force myself. I was praying for God to give me a willing heart even up until Thursday (before we left) because I was still struggling. But I definitely feel God’s presence, I have a focus, that I couldn’t give myself, it can only be from God.
R: Starting conversation with the kids, but that has actually been easy It has been harder trying to talk about God, I just don’t want to offend…
Well that’s it for now. Hope you guys have a great evening!
Good Evening. I trust all is well back in STL. We had a great day today. It did not go as planned. We were supposed to go and canvas the neighborhood for the sports clinic, but it has rained all day. So we talked to Marcus (WHM Intern) about what the sports camps will look like and did a “scavenger hunt” on the Broadway (South Asian Marketplace) to try and find some diferent cultural things out. I believe that Tommy Heinemann and Nathan Zide won that one.
We also had the opportunity to go to New Life Masih Ghar (New Life Jesus House), which is the church plant here from WHM, and worshipped with them together. After every Sunday service, which is held from 4:15 – 6 p.m. so we are in church the same time as you guys, which is totally cool, they have a meal and so we were able to eat with the folks and get to know them better.
I had the opportunity to interview Cullen Delaney and Nathan Zide tonight and so I would like to share some words from them. (J = Jason, C= Cullen, N= Nathan)
J: What is the first thing that took you by surprise?
C: The traffic, just the we were weaving in and out, and the fact it is on the opposite side.
N: The coutnry is so much differnt, not the scenery, but the neighborhoods and how strict customs was in the airport.
J: What have you enjoyed the most so far?
C: (sarcastically)Spending time with Nathan (laughs from all), No walking around, having dinner and church, the folks at New Life remind me of our church.
N: Meeting the Hatches and going to the Gurdwara.
J: What was so interesting about the Gurdwara?
N: Looking at all those people who think they are going to heaven, seeing all of them and realizing that they are literally headed to hell.
J: What is your biggest fear about starting camps tomorrow?
C: Probably saying something that will offend them, something that is o.k. in America, but here it is out of the question.
N: Meeting the parents who are entrusting us with their kids and witnessing.
J: Have there been any disappointments?
C: Not getting to go to KFC today (laughs from all), No place to hang out as a group at the guest house.
N: No
J: What are you most excited about?
C: Camps. Getting to hang out with the kids.
N: Getting camps started so the nervousness will go away, and building friendships with the kids by the end of the week.
Well, I hope this has been enlightening. I’ll post again in the morning. Thanks for the replies and especially thanks for the prayers!
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Handbook on the Prophets |
