Wednesday

Bright and early we got on the bus at 7:00am to get to the airport! The airport is not far but we needed to get there early in anticipation of the Customs process. Juvenal, Nohely, Josue, Benjamin, Johnatan, and friend Johan all met us at the airport which was really nice. After check-in, we thought all was good and headed upstairs to the restaurant. Minutes later an official came to get the group to come back to Customs. Apparently they wanted each person present with their luggage while they searched very thoroughly, going through each item by hand as well as sniffing things - this took quite a while. Not much time left in the restaurant by now as we needed to get to the plane. Again, we flew Tiara Air to Aruba. We had quite a bit of a layover in Aruba - but used part of the time to still go through several check-points. Alejandro counted up seven check-points for the day - including Security, Customs, and Immigration! Fortunately, our Customs process in Aruba will exempt us from any Customs in Atlanta so it was time well spent. Great flight home to Atlanta and now we are so excited to be able to share our experience with all those at home!

Tuesday Night

At the Farewell Service, Juvenal opened with prayer and then Melissa, Barco, and Samuel all had an opportunity to speak to the group (with Rosmery translating). Rosmery also thanked everyone for their hospitality and especially the ladies who prepared our wonderful meals. DRACMA performed, several sang, and then Juvenal had us all come to the front to lay hands on a young lady who came forward to give her life to Christ. After this, Juvenal had the mission team stay at the front. The band played How Great Thou Art and we sang - some in Spanish and some in English, it really didn't matter as we all felt God's presence. Lots of tears were shed and Juvenal layed his hands on each of us and prayed with such intensity as only Juvenal could do! When we finished, more tears as we hugged and kissed our brothers and sisters in Christ one more time. Lots of photos. It took a LONG time to make our way to the doorway and into the bus. We returned to the hotel and had dinner at the hotel restaurant with Juvenal and Nohely joining us. They also joined us for devotions right after dinner with Melissa leading. We all shared what changes we felt as a result of the past week's experiences.............

Tuesday

Our last day - we are so sad! Alyssa is now "it" for the virus or whatever is going around. We arrived at the church and were saddened to learn that the church had been broken into during the night. The thieves took many tools and the fans. Juvenal called the police to file a report but we are sure not much will be done. The method of entry was bending the metal bars on the open window. For breakfast we had scrumptious egg/cheese/hame casserole along with really good bread. The group split into sports camp, wall finishing, and a few to hang around to plan the VBS for the day. Because we did not have tools for the wall, Samuel drove to get the needed items - so it was quite a while before we could start on the walls again. He also purchased welding supplies so he could weld the bars back on the window (we have now given him a Welder title and are now convinced he can do anything and everything). Melissa organized the items needed for the VBS of the day - the story of Noah's Ark. She was able to transport an ark made out of brown kraft paper and then prepared paper plates on popsicle sticker for the children to draw animals.
After the group from sports camp returned (it was very hot as there was not much wind today), we had a great lunch of a lasagne type dish with more of the great bread. The afternoon was spent working on the wall and playing with the kids. It is really fun to learn their games and they love the jump ropes from us! Rhonda and Stephanie worked on English colors and numbers. Melissa has now come down with the "virus" and went back to the hotel to rest before VBS.

VBS started later than planned but we have learned to be flexible. Melissa told the Noah's Ark story and several of us acted out the parts. After the kids colored their animals, they brought them up to put in the Ark. Then it rained! Yes, it really rained. Coincidence? I think not!

After VBS, we headed back to the hotel for quick showers before needing to return for the Farewell Worship Service.

Monday

The bus picked us up this morning to head for the church. (Rachel stayed back at the hotel as she was very sick through the night) The ladies prepared empanadas - one choice of meat and one choice of ham and cheese! It is very humbling to observe how the people of the church create such a warm hospitality, yet have very little means to prepare everything for us. We always have a table cloth, glass dishes and cups, two kinds of coffee, and just a nice presentation. Then we were off to sports camp,with some staying to continue working on the walls. A few hung around the church to see if any children would end up there, and a few did. With those, we worked on some English - colors, numbers,simple words. After all returned from the sports field, we had a fantastic lunch! We have observed that, although we really eat three meals a day without any snacking, we are never hungry. We scurried to the hotel for a quick shower and then off to sightsee at the sand dunes! This was about a 45 minute ride going south - and we really did not know what to expect. It was quite interesting to traverse through the countryside and see what things look like outside of Punto Fijo. After going through a few road checkpoints, we came up on gigantic sand dunes! Not like any of us have seen in the States! Most of us quickly climbed up the dunes - or took it as a challenge to see how fast we could get to the top! We also took Nohely (Juvenal's wife) and son Johnatan with us. On the way home, Samuel found a place for us to stop to view the beach. How disappointing that such a beautiful part of God's creation is so littered with garbage - and it wasn't just a little bit! Quick photos and then we had to hurry and get to the Punta Cardon church by 5:00pm. Once arriving at Juvenal's sister's (Zoraida Gonzalez) house, we filed into her hair salon (which serves as the church). Samuel flashed back to his past of hair styling and created hair-dos for Janet, Judy, Rhonda, and Stephanie - much fun. We then walked to the community center nearby to assemble for a march through the neighborhood - much like we did in Punto Fijo. After the march, we went into the community center for a fantastic music and drama program - including our kids performing both mime skits.
Finishing quite late, we were humbled by the offer of refreshments back at Zoraida's house. We marched through the darkness (as there was no electricity in the streets) and then enjoyed wonderful sandwiches - served out of the trunk of a car. We later reflected how hospitable the gesture was as they provided this with no financial help from us and with such limited resources. Before we left, a scrumptious cake was also served to all.
Devotions tonight were prepared by Judy, Stephanie, and Sarah. The "after party" lasted quite a while for a small group and we were eventually told by the hotel we were too loud! It must have been the games Judy made us play...............ask her about the HaHa game.
Steve is starting to feel not so good so we are not sure if there is a food problem or virus going around.

Sunday Night

After eating dinner, we returned to the hotel for our devotion period. Dore, Samuel and Alejandro were in charge tonight. Dore handed out scripture selections for people to read. Samuel selected music to play off of the computer before each of the verses was read and discussed. Dore read from John 13:1-17 about Jesus washing the feet of the disciples and we related that to our call to service. To reinforce the message, we then took turns washing each others feet while Samuel played music in the background. It was definitely a moving experience and reinforced our purpose.

Marla Update

I know many of you are aware Marla was to have surgery on July 9, the day of our departure. She did and everything went very well. She returned home on July 10 with the pain gone (except for the incision). She is doing very well. Thank you for your prayers and for everything you have done in my absence. God bless you!

From Steve (a Missions Trip Rookie)

Sorry for those who may have been looking for a posting from me (family & friends) that it has taken me this many days to post something but while “things” move very slow around here, “time goes very fast. I cannot begin to explain how exciting these past few days have been. There are always opportunities to share with someone through your words and actions the love of Christ. The kids all just want to be “loved on”. But there are also young adults and older adults who are watching to see if we are really committed to putting our Faith in Action. Just a few things I have learned about being here that I would share with others who may be feeling the call to participate in a mission trip here.
- Leave your watch at home, you won’t need it
- Don’t worry about what you will eat or if you will be hungry. The food is fantastic and very filling.
- Learn that even in what we might view as “chaos” (kids running around during church and dogs wandering into the aisles during service) doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things because God’s Holy Spirit is so strong in every gathering that you cannot help but be touched by it.
- But most important of all, no matter what the barriers to communication might be here; language, cultural, personality differences, we are the same church with the same God as our Father and the same Savior in Jesus Christ. After that, the rest is not important.

Hi to Sondra, Katie and Paige. I miss and love you and I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to come on this trip. It is truly a Transformational Experience that I hope someday each of you may experience. Gloria Dios!

Sunday

Today we went to Dino Pan again for breakfast - very, very good! Then, we made sure we were back at the hotel lobby in time to test the connection to McEachern via Skype. It was so nice to see familiar faces on the computer! Juvenal and his family also joined us in the lobby - hope you were able to see him well! After we "left" the Transformation service, we held our own service in the lobby. Rosmeary had prepared fancy bulletins even - complete with English and Spanish! She, Alejandro, and Samuel led our service. Rosmery sang and has such a beautiful voice! After our service we waited for the bus.

During our wait, we noticed a building catch fire across the street with flames coming out of the window. To us it looked like a vacant, run-down building but we soon learned it was a residence. Samuel and Juvenal raced across the street while someone from the hotel tried to get a hose to reach and looked for a fire extinguisher (which was actually locked up). The flames became too big and the smoke too black so Juvenal and Samuel went around to the back of the building and heard voices screaming from the bathroom. Samuel actually was able to tear the bars off the window and then break the glass. Two adults and two children were in the bathroom with no way to otherwise get out. There was also a car in the front opening and Samuel was able to get that out to avoid an explosion. The mom and children were hysterical - Alejandro prayed over them and we provided them with water before the ambulance came. Praise God that noone was hurt as this could have very well been a disaster. The homes here have one door in the front and typically bars on all the windows. We have now dubbed Samuel our mission trip escort, bodyguard, banker, chauffeur, and now fireman! This is one of many times that we have been so thankful for Samuel's presence.

We took a quick trip to Makro (just like Sam's or Costco) for some shopping of items to take home and then left for lunch at Tropi Pollo and then on to the ballfield for a softball game against the Punto Cardon church. In Punta Cardon (which is fairly close) they have a community ballfield and they were sure ready for us! Every year we (Juvenal's team) play them and we switch off the trophy for the winner. Steve, Brian, Shaun, Joseph, and Kyle were the players from us - however, they soon let Alyssa join. Not sure how this was going to be perceived, as the women do not really play ball with the men - and here we have a blond girl on the field! She soon proved her worth though. Juvenal was very specific about where he wanted everyone on the field - despite Shaun's suggestions. After we were losing by a big margin, he let Shaun go in the outfield - his specialty. With Alyssa on first and Shaun in the outfield, we started scoring! Wahoo! Still, the win of the game went to Punto Cardon and we celebrated by handing them the trophy. It was really a great time of fellowship! We then headed back to the hotel and had dinner at the hotel restaurant. Our dinner have been very late each day - typically can be 8:00 - 10:00pm.

From Kyle

Hola! I’m chatting with Pastor Juvenals sons (or at least attempting to). We had a short worship service in the lobby of the hotel, singing in both Spanish and English. While I’ve been here I got to witness many amazing things of God’s goodness. People being saved, intense worship services (with great dramas and dancing from the church’s youth dance team, very cool!).

My heart has been really touched by these people. They are truly after God’s heart. This trip has been really inspiring thus far.
Tchau!

Building of relationships

Juana, here! It is Sunday and we just finished our local church service in the lobby of La Peninsula hotel. It was great to see you all this morning from the Transformation service. We are having a wonderful trip as we continue to build the relationships with our existing friends and meet new ones along the way. Since I missed last year, I am amazed at how the children have grown. Barco has a picture of Stephanie (the former Tom boy) is full dress up outfit complete with makeup!

It was great to see 6 more people give their testimonies and be baptized into the Christian family earlier this week.

We have also been able to create an integrated drama with two young people from here and to of our young people. It was very well done.

Please continue to pray for the people of Punto Fijo and for Juvenal and Nohely as they serve this area and with Juvenal’s new role as Bishop (Obispo) of the Methodist Church in Venezuela. Their work can be very difficult. They need our continued prayer.

If we come back, we will see you later this week!

Saturday

This morning we headed to Dino Pan for breakfast. A great place to go close by with a variety of food! After breakfast, we took the bus to the church. One group went to the "sports" field for the morning, another group continued to work on the wall in Juvenal's office. A few stayed to practice a new skit based on the Ragman drama. We incorporated two of the boys (Johan and Jorlian) into the skit along with Alyssa and Rachel. They learned it so fast! The church has a very talented group of teenagers who perform drama and dance routines. Stephanie, Alyssa, Rachel, and Sarah all stay in the "shaded" pavillion and very amusingly taught English (slang and proper) to the teenage boys! It was SO hot and dusty and windy! Around noon, we took the long walk back to the church. The ladies prepared a great meal of carne, fried plantains, and rice. The afternoon was spent playing with the children and dancing around. It was pretty neat because our girls taught them the Chicken Dance, the Cha Cha Slide, Cotton Eyed Joe, Hokey Pokey THEN the boys of the church taught them a choreographed dance from their dance group, DRACMA. Although it was very hot for us, it was so much fun! Around 4:00pm, we all gathered outside of the church to prepare for our march through the neighborhood. Rosmery gave everyone instructions on what we were doing. Banners were carried by the children, Samuel had a banner on his car, and we were all given salvation bookmarks in Spanish as well as prayer tracts in Spanish to hand out to those we passed by. We walked about a mile or so through the neighborhood. Lots of people came out of their houses to see what we were doing. It was a great experience to see the young children feel comfortable with going to people and giving them the prayer tracts. After the march we gathered back at the church. All the music equipment and speakers were set up outside. Zoraida introduced the children that would perform outside the church and we enjoyed several performances. Then, the new skit called Ragman was performed - after Rosmery told the story of the skit in Spanish. Alejandro gave a brief message and then we prayed with EVERYONE holding hands in a circle. It was very dark by the time we were done. An interesting contrast to our culture, is that here there are no time limits to the task. There wasn't really a starting and stopping time for our activities outside. The children are just so happy to have us here and it is hard to leave every evening. One little girl had to be pried away from Stephanie crying.


We all went to Tropi Pollo, a restaurant where we had chicken, coleslaw and yucca, a food somewhat like potatoes. We then made our way back to the hotel, where there was a fantastic devotional by Kyle, Shaun, and Joseph. The boys confidently declared their planned devotion as the best one yet! Go Room 236!

Friday Night

Our service tonight at the church was very special. Earlier in the day Juvenal had inflated a children's pool and put water in it on the "stage". Six people were to be baptized. After Alejandro preached his message, Juvenal had each of the people come and give their testimonies. The congregation crowded around the front, with the children in front or on shoulders. Although we could not understand what they were saying, there was no doubt that we "understood" and it was very touching with tears in many of our eyes. After the testimonies, they all lined up on the stage and, one by one, Juvenal baptized each by immersion in the pool. It was truly a wonderful moment that we were able to share with them.

After the service, we headed to a local restaurant that served a variety of food. Joseph and Alyssa decided to have a contest to see who could eat the most pizza in the shortest period of time. Interesting...

Brian, Barco, and Steve planned our devotion for the evening. Brian read the scripture from James 5:7-8. We talked about how the preparation a farmer takes for a harvest mirrors our preparation for people to learn about and accept Christ.

The fatigue is starting to catch up with us so we then headed to bed to get rested for another day!

Friday

The bus picked us up at 8:00am from the hotel and we were on our way! After arriving at the church, we "hurried up and waited" - that seems to be a common comment among us. In this culture, as many of us know, it is very relaxed and not so rigid with time deadlines, etc. Not a bad thing - perhaps we could all learn from this as we go through our daily tasks. The ladies of the church prepared a fantastic breakfast of arepas along with coffee. Coffee is either served negro (black) or con leche (with milk) and very sweet. After breakfast we split into two groups. One group stayed at the church and prepared VBS materials for a craft along with three of the children helping. Some the guys (and Judy!) prepared the wall in Juvenal's office to prepare it for a final coat of plaster - quite a dirty job! The other group went out to a field about a mile away to have a sports camp - led by our Coach Shaun. To give you an idea of this field - picture dry,dusty, full of glass and rocks, lots of garbage debris beyond the field and extremely windy. To say "windy" is an understatement - imagine at least 25 mph wind constantly with dry dirt blowing in your face. We did not see many children at first and really only a few joined us that morning. We finally figured out that a lot were at a party at the school. Still, we played "kicky ball", football, jump rope, badminton with hacky sack ball. Kyle was the best outfielder as he continuously ran into the garbage dump area for our foul balls! Alyssa taught the local boys how to hold and throw a football, Rachel and Joseph both wiped out as they slid on the dry dirt, Janet and Rhonda were the water girls, Stephanie played paddle ball, Brian coordinated a game with some of the older girls, and Steve figured out that if you don't kick the ball real far then you don't have to run the bases in the heat! Then, we made the journey walking back to the church, taking in the look of the neighborhood on the way back. For those of you who have never been here, imagine rows of concrete block-style "houses", holes in the them, open windows and doors, occasional electrical wire hanging dangerously low, a tank of water in the back or on top of the house. Our lunch at the church consisted of paella, potato salad, and fried plantains. Very good once again! After that we just hung around and played with the children, finished some of the wall preparation. Around 4:00, the VBS program started with the children performing for us. It was very festive with music and some minimal balloon decorations.Judy and Janet did the lesson based on Jesus feeding the 5000 with bread and fish and then handed out bracelets they had made with a fish and bread. Part of our mission is to teach some English so the children learned those words too. After VBS, we returned to the hotel to quickly shower and then return again to the church for the worship service at 7:30.