Wednesday Highlights

Duck-duck-goose gone awry:
Perhaps you noticed the photo of the accident-prone Melissa and Joey :) During an impromptu game of duck-duck-goose, intended as a stall tactic while we waited to rotate stations, Melissa tripped while chasing Joey. Pastor Mel came to the rescue and bandaged up her scrapes. Ironically, Joey tripped minutes later, also while playing duck-duck-goose. He was too manly to rock out the bandaids, and especially to admit his injury came from a kindergarten game (so I'm taking the opportunity to admit it for him ;) Nothing more than minor cuts and scrapes and a good little story - no worries!

Spontaneous street ministry:
This afternoon we were scheduled to minister at a pre-school in the village. While we were singing and dancing with the children outside, adults started gathering to check it out (some danced and sang along!). Juan and Chris got into a conversation with a group of curious on-lookers, and they ended up getting into a conversation about Christianity. Juan patiently and boldly stood his ground and did his best to answer the difficult questions they fired at him. I was amazed at the way he did not give up. Several other students joined Juan and Chris, and Iesha summarized the gospel message for them (they all made me SOOOOOO proud).

When they still weren't convinced, I spoke without thinking, and said, "Would you like to see a drama that will explain what we're trying to say?" Oh dear, what did I just get our team into? We were supposed to be doing a children's program, and I just offered to do a drama that we didn't know very well, which would require half of our team!!!! All for an audience of 4 people!!!!

We spoke with Vickie, who without hesitation made big adjustments to the children's program to free up the rest of the team to minister. We set up the speakers in the street, and got into position (feeling alittle ridiculous, but somehow knowing we were doing the right thing). As we performed the drama to the song Everything (by Lifehouse), our audience continued to grow as curious neighbors gather along the outskirts. At the conclusion of the song, D.Lo Jr. (totally put on the spot), gave a dynamite, anointed explanation of the drama and the gospel message (yet another proud moment!!!). At least half a dozen of the onlookers came to us for prayer and accepted Jesus as their Savior! If that's not powerful enough, it gets better! Several of them said to us, "You need to perform it one more time, right now, because my friend needs to see it, and we don't want to wait for church on Sunday." OH MY GOODNESS! ARE YOU SERIOUS?????!!!!!!

It's only the first day of ministry, and I think God is proving that he has a LOT in store for us! There is so much more to come! Please keep the team in prayer, because the greater the impact you make for God, the more opposition you face from the enemy (though we know that we are MORE than conquerers in Christ).

Love and gratitude,

*Pastor Courtney

P.S. The team had the opportunity to shower in the water falls last night - such an experience and so refreshing! I want one in my backyard ;)

P.S. All of our team members are in great health and are doing well. They are having a blast and making us soooooo proud! I'm sure you're proud of them as well.