Traveling mercies

Hi friends!
Still updating from the Maryland side of things, but wanted to keep you all in the loop as you lift this team up in prayer!

Hannah B. sent out an email update:
Dear Family and Friends:

The entire Mexico team minus Augustine, Mary Anna and Susan are at Ichthus Education Center now. We will go to the village we went to last year. We will stay 5 days (Tuesday-Saturday). Aug and the two girls will arrive today at 4:10 pm. Please pray they arrive safely and that all our luggages are found. We lost 2 check-in bags along the way. 

Pray for the Holy Spirit to be with us throughout the trip and to guide us and lead us perfectly. We appreciate your prayers!

Love, Mexico Team

Additionally, we received an update from Augustine at the airport.  Here's an excerpt:

Our flight got delayed a little bit to 3:30.  But for more of His glory...  Alex gave a word that these delays remind him of the delay of healing for Lazarus.  It's for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it. ( john 11:4). 

When we came to the gate, on the screen it said our flight was delayed to 3:30.  I sit down, read Alex's email, and felt the delay confirmed his words.  While we are waiting, 3:30 stuck out so i looked up John 3:30 and it says this: "He must become greater; I must become less.". I felt it ties in with Jesus being glorified through all this.

The trip has certainly gotten off to an unexpected start, but we are confident and hopeful of the great things that God will accomplish through these 15 beautiful hearts!  Alex's word about Lazarus is encouraging...in that passage, Mary and Martha were so saddened by Jesus' delay because they thought He could and would do the great thing of healing their brother Lazarus.  But because of His delay, they were able to witness something even GREATER:  the resurrection of their brother from the dead and a glimpse of God's glory!

Thank you for remembering our team in prayer!  We truly are thankful for each of you.

Getting some much-needed rest at the Mexico City airport

Update and Prayer Request

The mission team headed out in the wee hours of the morning, only to be met with unexpected travel complications.  Please pray for traveling mercies as they continue to make their way into Mexico!

Here's an email from Augustine:

So here's an update - flight got delayed from BWI so we missed our connecting flight in Houston to Mexico city.  All flights were booked so the airline even said that this trip may not happen for us.  We were even thinking about flying into Guatemala and crossing the border, but that would be too dangerous.  


We eventually got flights to Mexico city, but have to wait until we get there to see about the flights to Tuxtla.  Four members are definitely going tonight.  Three are still in Maryland and will fly out tomorrow.  My group will stay overnight in Mexico city and try to get to Tuxtla tomorrow.  


Don't know why all the issues are coming up, but we want to be aware of what God wants to do wherever we are.  I had the opportunity to pray for the lady who got us flights to Mexico city tonight, even though others were telling us we probably would have to fly back to Maryland.  She started crying and told me how customers usually treat her like crap when issues arise, but to have someone pray for her instead was a blessing.  

Please keep praying for safe travels and to get there by tomorrow night.  Thanks!

Mission Team Send-Off

Last night our church had a send-off for the mission team!  Here are just a few pics from the evening.

 We heard a short message and prayed for the team.

Each of the team members shared personal prayer topics for the trip, as well as prayer requests for the team as a whole.

 
Thank you for your continued prayer support!!!

Mission Team prayer requests:
1) For God to be glorified & honored in and through everything they do
2) Traveling safety - God's protection over the team
3) Health - no sickness, exhaustion, stomach problems or injuries
4) Communicate the gospel clearly (the students will be teaching the VBS lessons and activities in Spanish)
5) Victory wherever they go and in every situation

Additional personal requests:
1) To be open/flexible in schedule; to not limit God but trust Him; to be engaged & energetic every day
2) To love freely with open, compassionate hearts and serve others first
3) Nothing may hinder God's work through them
4) Unity within the team

Mexico Mission Team 2012!

God bless you as you travel and touch lives for His kingdom!  

Love God well, love each other well, and love those you meet well!

*            *           *            *           *

"Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God."

-William Carey

Water for Mexico!

Today we had our last official fundraiser for our mission trip. What did we do? Like last year we went to Rockville and sold ice cold water for $1. We want to thank God for providing us the perfect weather and for opening up people's heart to be generous. It may have looked sketchy selling water on the streets, but many people eagerly donated and bought water! Without God's providence, we would not have been able to sell all the water we had bought.

Advice on selling water: posters are a must. 

Thank you for your continual prayer support!

Count down: eight more days until Mexico!

VBS Prep

It's sweltering hot outside right now (98 degrees F to be exact!!), but our team is inside, away from the heat, and working hard in our VBS groups.

VBS topics for Mexico 2012:
God's Love
God's Power
God's Hope

We've split up into different teams and are collaborating to create mini-messages, games, crafts, and skits. Sounds like lots of fun - and it is - but it's also lots of work and organization. We're thankful for this time to work together and encourage each other.

Enjoy a few photos from today's prep!

Mexico countdown: 10 days!

iPad Raffle Winners!

Again, we want to thank everyone who supported our missions team by participating in the raffle.

We are sorry for the late notification, but here are the winners:

first place (the new iPad): *drum roll* Paul Lim!
second place ($20 Target gift card): Faith Choi
third place (movie ticket): Rebecca Forbes

Congratulations!

Update: We will be officially leaving for Mexico in two weeks. We will be there from July 1st ~ 9th. Please keep us in your prayers!

Ipad Raffle Update

Hello everyone!

Thank you to everyone who has shown such generous support of our team! We are so grateful for each one of you!

Just a quick update - we know that some of you may be logging onto our blog tonight looking for the iPad raffle winner.  Unfortunately, due to the youth softball tournament today, we will not be able to post results until tomorrow.  (We will be drawing the ticket during our youth group Sunday service.)  We so apologize for the inconvenience!

See you tomorrow! :)

For Narnia.

This week we focused all of our energy and time into practicing the skit (The Battle). When we first watched it, it was hard to concentrate on all the details and understand what exactly was going on. But once you see what it's about, it's pretty cool. Plus the skit music is from the The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe! Practicing the skit is really fun and we all act pretty silly and laugh a lot because it's the only way to stay awake haha. I wonder what Esther thinks as she watches us from her laptop from wayy across the room. She's probably on tumblr or facebook lol. We've been rehearsing for a couple of weeks, but we're far from ready.

1. We all break character and laugh whenever Adam washes his face or pets the Lion or...well basically anything he does haha
2. Satan acts creepy. Really really really creepy, but not evil.
3. The Mary, Joseph, and Teenage Jesus trio doesn't have that "family chemistry" down quite yet 
4. The tree doesn't exactly look like a tree
5. The baptism of Jesus is...
6. We haven't started the third part of the skit yet

I'm afraid our antics are leaving our dance teacher frazzled and slightly stressed. Thank you Mary for teaching us and being so patient with us! 

Fundraisers so far:

• Date Night - A night when couples can drop their kids (ages 0-12) off at the church where we will provide babysitting services so they can have a night out
• Apple Ipad Raffle - With each raffle ticket purchase, you have a better chance of winning the newest ipad! Only $5!
• Service Auction - Need a babysitter? A photographer? A musician? Come to our service auction!

Side note #1: Sarah L. Park's dad's birthday past recently! Happy 60th birthday! 

Side note #2: I feel like this should be our Mission's cheer. Yep, we should definitely shout that before boarding the plane.

Win the new iPad!!!

Hi everyone!

Fundraising for this summer's mission trip has officially begun, and we are so excited to announce this new fundraiser!  

Each of the team members will be selling raffle tickets for 5 bucks each.  What could you win?

the NEW iPad  (16GB)!  The color choice is yours.

There is NO limit to the number of raffle tickets you can purchase...and the best thing is, 100% of the money from the raffle tickets will be used toward purchasing supplies (school supplies, soccer balls, and materials for Vacation Bible School) for the children we will meet in Chiapas, Mexico.

Please see one of the team members or leave your name & email address in a comment below if you are interested in purchasing a raffle ticket!  

The drawing will be held on June 16, 2012 and the winner will be announced here on the blog...so don't forget to check back in! :) 

Meet Our Members!

On Saturday, for the first time ever everyone was present.

As a result, we were able to take a group picture (photo credit: Esther Naikal).

Meet our team members! 

From the left first row (first picture): James, Sam, Andrew, Matthew, Aug

From the left second row: Hannah C, Sarah Lee Park, Adriana, Sarah, Susan, Esther (in the laptop), Mary Anna, Grace, Deborah, Mary, Jonathan, Hannah B

Cinco de Mayo!

Today it felt like our numbers shrank by half  because all of our juniors were taking the SATs.

We had an unusually long prayer time this morning and the topics consisted of the following:

1.  For God to give wisdom to those taking the SAT's and to bless the people who will be taking the IB/AP exams next week (hopefully over 2000? :D)
2. For God to move in Mexico, even if we arn't there
3. The logistics logistics is such an Aug word of the missions (airplane ride, transportation, preparing for the VBS's)
4. For God to bless the missions training
5. For Mary Chang to do well on her driving test so she can drive us to 7-11

I'm pretty sure there were other prayer topics but...
Esther joined us today! Esther joins our meetings through skype but we will finally see her in her physical form when school's out. Then we'll finally meet as a full missions group for the first time.
Oh and James Park presented a power point on the missionary Jim Elliot. It was really interesting. I feel like I should jot down some notes during missions so that I'm not this vague in future posts...
Oh and he turned eighteen too! Now he can do lots of things like...vote.


We didn't have enough people to practice our skit today.

• We only had one branch of the tree
• Eve was taking the SATs
• Satan/Bird was with her
• We were missing the lion: our star
• So was one of our rivers
• Our dance teacher was off doing her driving test

Creation's starting to look pretty pitiful ):

But next week we'll hopefully meet as a whole group even if one of us in stuck inside a laptop screen

UPDATE: Sam Brogi will be presenting a power point on the missionary Samuel Yoo next week. AND MARY PASSED HER TEST. THE POWER OF PRAYER.

Spanish word of the day: Tambien -also, too,as well, likewise 

Welcome!

Hello there!


Welcome to our mission team blog!  We hope that this will be a place where you can check in on our team, hear updates, and be reminded to lift us in prayer!


Looking forward to taking this journey with you :)