- Leading VBS for an entire week in a village
- Painting an orphanage
- Helping lead a Ropes course for teenagers
- Speaking in churches and youth groups
Making necklaces for VBS during my (Phil's) 2007 trip to Zambia.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Less than 3 weeks till we board the plane on an amazing adventure to serve God's children in Zambia! What a process we have been through leading up to the trip! The Lord has been faithful through it all! We are getting all the last minute planning of games, skits, sermons, songs, and resources ready! A brief overview of what we will be doing will include the following:
Making necklaces for VBS during my (Phil's) 2007 trip to Zambia.
Making necklaces for VBS during my (Phil's) 2007 trip to Zambia.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
An Update...look how good we are at this!
HAPPY EASTER!
God is so good...in less than a month our team will be leaving for Zambia!
For all of you who so generously donated to our team funds, we were among the first of the ORU teams to reach the 100% fundraising deadline! That means that we've been able to focus more on preparing ourselves to go overseas and less on frantically trying to get funds in...which is, of course, a very good thing.
Next week we are looking forward to talking to Butch and Janet, our contacts, over Skype (God bless technology!). Butch and Janet have been working with AIDS orphans in Zambia for ten years, and we are so blessed to have the opportunity to learn from them. Needless to say, the whole team is pretty crazy excited. We'll be spending the next month compiling songs and skits and games to share with the children, as well as preparing sermons and messages to share with the churches we visit. Please pray for us, because a lot of this ministry stuff is somewhat intimidating for some of us (I won't mention names but it rhymes with mine). Nonetheless, God is faithful, and we've already had some terrific messages shared within the group during our weekly prayer meetings.
We'll be updating this more frequently as D-Day approaches. Please keep Zambia in your prayers!
God is so good...in less than a month our team will be leaving for Zambia!
For all of you who so generously donated to our team funds, we were among the first of the ORU teams to reach the 100% fundraising deadline! That means that we've been able to focus more on preparing ourselves to go overseas and less on frantically trying to get funds in...which is, of course, a very good thing.
Next week we are looking forward to talking to Butch and Janet, our contacts, over Skype (God bless technology!). Butch and Janet have been working with AIDS orphans in Zambia for ten years, and we are so blessed to have the opportunity to learn from them. Needless to say, the whole team is pretty crazy excited. We'll be spending the next month compiling songs and skits and games to share with the children, as well as preparing sermons and messages to share with the churches we visit. Please pray for us, because a lot of this ministry stuff is somewhat intimidating for some of us (I won't mention names but it rhymes with mine). Nonetheless, God is faithful, and we've already had some terrific messages shared within the group during our weekly prayer meetings.
We'll be updating this more frequently as D-Day approaches. Please keep Zambia in your prayers!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
The Vision: This is Why
At one of our team meetings, we took some time (individually as well as corporately) to seek the Lord and ask what his heart for our team would be. We talked it out, and this is the result: a compilation of our personal visions and our team vision.
Team Zambia 2009: One Vision
The Individual Vision:
I expect God to do beyond what I can ask, think, or state here. I expect to be twice as broken, to be driven twice as hard, and to bear twice as much fruit as a result. I expect to see His miraculous power at work. I believe that the power of Christ Jesus is made perfect through and despite my weakness, and that as I humble myself before Him, He will be glorified in Zambia.
I believe that God’s anointing in boldness and confidence will work in and through me, giving me the grace and the courage to proclaim His Good News to all who will listen. I will rely on His Spirit to guide my decisions, taking time to listen for His leading in every situation.
I affirm that any spirit of fear will be powerless to halt the progress of God in me as a leader and as a minister of the Gospel. I seek to have the heart of a servant, giving without expectation of reward. I will live the power of the Cross without inhibition.
My expressions will be expressions of faith. When I speak, my words will be such as glorify Him. I will fear neither the opinions of man nor the attacks of the enemy. Rejection will have no hold on me, and discomfort will be no detriment to my cause—to His cause.
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
The Team Vision:
In name of God and by the grace of Christ, we declare that Team Zambia will be a family, bound by the blood of Jesus and baptized in the Holy Spirit. We will be a family in name as well as nature, to the best of our individual abilities contributing to the group. In our interactions we will seek to explore and experience God’s unifying power. Our communications will be characterized by love, humility, and vulnerability. We will not be afraid to show weakness just as we will not be reticent to offer strength.
We will affirm one another daily in prayer, for ourselves, for one another, for our contacts, and for those to whom we minister. When we speak, our words will be “seasoned with salt”—edification and encouragement will be our goal.
We are small, but we have strength. Our strength will come from the closeness of Christ, through drawing together in friendship and in His freedom. It is in this unity of faith and love that we find the freedom to bear one another’s burdens, to be open, honest, and real with our brothers and sisters on the team.
We will come together with one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel, striving always to catch the beat of God’s heart for the people of Zambia. What one does not hear, another will; what one holds a piece to, another completes. We cannot do the full work of God in Zambia without one another, and we refuse to allow any intrusion of pride to thwart His will.
God will use our team, united, as He could never use five fragmented people. Our effective ministry will depend on our utilizing each other’s strengths. We will operate cohesively and smoothly in the Spirit, all going the same way, all listening to the same Lord. We expect the love of God to shine abroad from our hearts—that from us there come such a strength of love, laughter, and compassion that we would not be able to contain it.
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are
pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. –St. Francis of Assisi
Team Zambia 2009: One Vision
The Individual Vision:
I expect God to do beyond what I can ask, think, or state here. I expect to be twice as broken, to be driven twice as hard, and to bear twice as much fruit as a result. I expect to see His miraculous power at work. I believe that the power of Christ Jesus is made perfect through and despite my weakness, and that as I humble myself before Him, He will be glorified in Zambia.
I believe that God’s anointing in boldness and confidence will work in and through me, giving me the grace and the courage to proclaim His Good News to all who will listen. I will rely on His Spirit to guide my decisions, taking time to listen for His leading in every situation.
I affirm that any spirit of fear will be powerless to halt the progress of God in me as a leader and as a minister of the Gospel. I seek to have the heart of a servant, giving without expectation of reward. I will live the power of the Cross without inhibition.
My expressions will be expressions of faith. When I speak, my words will be such as glorify Him. I will fear neither the opinions of man nor the attacks of the enemy. Rejection will have no hold on me, and discomfort will be no detriment to my cause—to His cause.
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
The Team Vision:
In name of God and by the grace of Christ, we declare that Team Zambia will be a family, bound by the blood of Jesus and baptized in the Holy Spirit. We will be a family in name as well as nature, to the best of our individual abilities contributing to the group. In our interactions we will seek to explore and experience God’s unifying power. Our communications will be characterized by love, humility, and vulnerability. We will not be afraid to show weakness just as we will not be reticent to offer strength.
We will affirm one another daily in prayer, for ourselves, for one another, for our contacts, and for those to whom we minister. When we speak, our words will be “seasoned with salt”—edification and encouragement will be our goal.
We are small, but we have strength. Our strength will come from the closeness of Christ, through drawing together in friendship and in His freedom. It is in this unity of faith and love that we find the freedom to bear one another’s burdens, to be open, honest, and real with our brothers and sisters on the team.
We will come together with one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the Gospel, striving always to catch the beat of God’s heart for the people of Zambia. What one does not hear, another will; what one holds a piece to, another completes. We cannot do the full work of God in Zambia without one another, and we refuse to allow any intrusion of pride to thwart His will.
God will use our team, united, as He could never use five fragmented people. Our effective ministry will depend on our utilizing each other’s strengths. We will operate cohesively and smoothly in the Spirit, all going the same way, all listening to the same Lord. We expect the love of God to shine abroad from our hearts—that from us there come such a strength of love, laughter, and compassion that we would not be able to contain it.
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are
pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. –St. Francis of Assisi
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