Portland update #5

Oh, words are not enough. What an incredible final day in portland with our brothers and sisters at bread & wine. We experienced something really cool in the loveslave project. Please ask a student about it. We closed the trip out at the eddlemans' house, hearing the story of God and praising Jesus together. I wish I could say more, but it's very late and I'm exhausted. We will be sleeping in the airport tonight and flying home in the morning. Pray for sleep and safe travels.

For His glory and our joy,
Nick

Portland update #4

Friday we finished up several service projects across. Many people within bread & wine were encouraged and said that they had really seen gospel service and community modeled by ours students. I couldn't be more proud of this crew. They have had wonderful hearts and been incredibly open to having their ideas about church challenged. One of my favorite comments came from Jayme Doss. She said, "I used to always think that my time with God meant time by myself reading and praying. Here, time with God means getting together in community to read, pray and discuss." We're learning that our walks with Jesus were meant to be in community.

Students are also learning what it means to live with "gospel intentionality." We have viewed little decisions like where we have breakfast and who we start conversations with through the lens of building relationships to share the gospel. The bread and wine community has said that our time here has already built some relationships that have led to people asking to come and explore the bread & wine community.

Friday night we got to go downtown and see more of the city. Fun times.

For His glory and our joy,
Nick

Guatemala Update # 3 - final blog

we made it to guatemala city. yesterday was a recovery day, in which it just felt like we needed a nap all day. i think after a week of loving on kids, out in the sun, and the wonderful death hike of doom, which we loved, we drove the four hours back into the city, and crashed. besides a trip to the park to throw a frisbee, we were at the hotel most of the day. today we are going to head out to do something pretty neat. we will spend the morning at an orphanage of kids who work at a cemetary. i just got off the phone with the director and he said they were doing a skit and dance clinic, followed by soccer. besides those...they really need people to just hug and love their kids. then he asked me if he thought our kids were up for any of that. i said...i think youve come to right place. we will then head to antigua for our shopping day. its a great way to finish the trip.

we fly out tomorrow at noon, getting home at 927 to xna. ill have the students call from houston. keep praying for courage, strength, safety, and rest. we love you all, and are excited to see you

matt, martha, and the G team
ps...did you know there are special latin american key boards...for the life of me i could not figure out any quotation markings. makes for alot of periods and a massive lack of apostrophes. sorry...

Guatemala Update # 2

Friends and Family:
We have made it to thursday! Due to some unforseen internet issues, i was unable to update yesterday. I guess you never know when your in the mayan mountains how well the internet coverage is going to be. We have had an incredible time. Today was our last day in Santa Cruz. it was a tearful goodbye as we exchanged gifts and hugs with the students and kids that we have gotten to know. what a precious people. We actually started today with a famous hike to a waterfall here. not lying...by the end of it, we were exhausted. There was a whole lot of sweating going on for sure as we hiked 4 miles either directly up or directly down. but it was a wonderful time to talk and see where the Lord is moving in each of the students lives. The students are doing great. Nobody is sick, we are all getting good rest, and besides handing out a handful of ibuprofen for sore backs from piggy back rides, things have been incredible. Every student has led in significant ways. One of my highlights was yesterday after we did a zaccheus skit for kindergarderners, ryan graham stood up and shared an incredible testimony. Despite his fear, he clearly communicated the love of Jesus through both the story of zaccheus and his own story. pretty cool. We have been taking some great video and pictures that we look forward to sharing with all of you. Tomorrow, we head back into Guatamala City and will check into our next hotel (where we will be for the rest of the time). tomorrow night we will serve at a homeless and hurting food kitchen. We will meet some pretty unique people. pray for courage. then Saturday, we'll be heading to Antigua for our debrief day that will include shopping and alot of laughing. we're hoping to visit an orphanage on the way.

thanks for praying! tonight we are studying 2 cor 5. should be a blast. Keep praying for energy, hope, strength, and courage as we prayerfully seek to live out the gospel to our guatamala friends.

Via Con Dios (Go with God)
Mateo, Marta, and the G team

(cross my fingers...i'll try to blog again Saturday after we return from antigua)

Memphis Update #4

We absolutely loved this last day of our trip! There were lots of emotions stirring in the air, yet we mustered up the strength to say good - bye to these kids (as they kept asking when we were coming back). Our day was full as we painted and cleaned an entire gym, we fed 150 people in the Bethel Community, and then fed another 50 people when we arrived back at the Grizzley Center. Not only did we physically serve, we were able to see how God used our group to spiritually serve as well. We have countless stories about how the Memphis kids would approach our students asking them what a personal walk looked like. Wow- how sweet it was watching our students talk about the Lord to these new friends. We then worshipped this evening with NES-( 7th-9th group from our church), and heard a powerful message from Coops/Jarrett-- Coops is our friend who runs the Bethel gym. We have all been in awe of this week's trip. As my eyes are heavy, I feel blessed to have experienced this trip with the most incredible leaders and students. Our hearts are "overflowing" with love for MAM and for the people of Memphis. We are grateful for the parents who prayed and felt lead to let their kids come on this trip. We are thankful for a body of believers and a church who sent us here and who financially gave so we could in-turn "feed the 5,000." We are thankful, filled, and excited to love others with Christ's Overflow. See you back in NWA.

Chanika

portland update #3 - serve and learn (or perhaps the gospel demonstrated and the gospel proclaimed)

Today was our first day in more of the rhythm of the week. We all started out with breakfast at our various locations. Then, we split up to various homes where we served for a few hours. We served both inside and outside the bread & wine community. Nick, Kassie, Shawn and Kristin went to ashley's house, where we scraped the old paint off of the walls in preparation for a new paint job. Michelle, Alex, Andrew, Carter, Megan, Kelli and Taylor went to Art's house, the home of elderly man who has recently joined the b & w community. There they cleaned and prepared to repaint. Carrie, Jayme, Cydnie, Sami, Luke, Dylan, Reid and Jason all went to Cameron's house. Cameron is a leader within the bread & wine community. There they painted and helped him on a remodel on his house.

In the afternoon, we met at Elevated Coffee and heard more of "the story of God" from Duke. Really a cool discussion time as we heard the story of God saving His people from a fresh perspective. After that we prayer walked the neighborhood through some good portland rain. We prayed that God would soften hearts to be ready to receive the gospel. In the evening, half of the team went to a prayer gathering at cameron's house while the other half went to dinner with their host homes. It's been incredible to see how the b & w community lives out community. They are very intentionally in each other's lives in a regular, rhythmic way. It has challenged many of our understandings of how the church understands and relates within itself.
More to come soon.

For His glory and our joy,
Nick

portland update #2 - orientation and sunshine

Incredible day. We all did breakfast at different locations across Northeast Portland. Then we gathered at the Revard's house to learn about bread & wine, the church here in portland. They introduced us to their identities and rhythms, which you can read about here. We hung out atop the Green Micro Gym, from which we could see Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helen's on the clear, sunny portland day. We then did a little "neighborhood beautification." We cleaned up the streets and had a few great conversations along the way. It's all about paving the way for the gospel to hit people's hearts by showing them that the church cares about their city. Tonight a few groups got to experience a gospel community (bread & wine's small groups) while the rest of us spent the night with our host homes. Great day in portland. Cool to learn how this community is living out the gospel.

For His glory and our joy,
Nick

P.S. Only one pair got lost walking today. Reid Schatzman and Jason Holmstrom made a devastating wrong turn that put them a couple of miles away from where they were going. They found us after some cell phone coaching. All the girls did great.