Thursday, February 28, 2019

Village Ministry Day 1

Here's a quick summary of today:
Today was our first day of ministry. We started our day with oration and breakfast, then we drove in the bus to a village right outside of Cuilapa. We spent the morning at the church and soccer field playing with the kids, doing skits, and sharing Jesus’ love with them. After we ate our lunches we went door to door sharing the gospel and praying with the people there. Then we drove back to the hotel, had fun cooling off in the pool, ate a very yummy dinner, listened to a testimony, worshiped, and played games.

Playing soccer in the village

Sin Chair skit

Spanish 3 students sharing the gospel

Sheylah

From Shelbea:
Today God really opened my eyes to the joy of the villagers. It was so incredible to see the joy the kids had, even if they didn’t have shoes on their feet, they couldn’t stop laughing and smiling. They were content with the presence of others. Their joy and love was a testimony to me in my life that I need to thank God for the many things I take for granted, and that I need to share His joy and love with others. After playing with the kids we split into groups to go door to door evangelizing. This was one of my biggest fears going into this trip, that I wouldn’t represent Christ well and share what He had done for me. When we got to our first house I was so amazed by the love the woman showed to us, she asked us to come into her home and we sat down and shared with her. I realized that is not about how well I could tell other about God, but that God is working whether or not I do it “right.” Today is on our first day of missions and Christ had already grown me so much and I can’t wait to see what He does in me and other this week.

Shelbea


From Jessica:
We are only one day into our trip, and I already feel like God has shown me so much that I never even thought about before. This is my first time out of the United States, and while I knew that there were people in the world outside of Bozeman, I never actually realized that there are real human beings here too; living, breathing, crying, hoping, hurting, loving people. And God has so graciously given me this opportunity to bring His love to them. The other main thing that God has shown me today is that if we choose to obey Him, He will give us the power to do His will. I was completely terrified in at least two different points, worrying about something coming up, and each time God gave me the courage and love to continue in what He wanted me to do: I was anxious about meeting people in the village; once I actually met them He gave me His love for them. I was stressed about sharing the Gospel door to door; He provided wonderful people to lead the way and support me and He took away all the fear. I am so excited to see how God continues to provide for me and the rest of the team throughout the rest of the trip!

Jessica

Travel Day Take 2 - We made it!

After our flight delay and cancellation yesterday we were able to reschedule a flight for early Wednesday morning. We all got to the airport at 5:15 in the morning for our flight to Chicago. From Chicago our group split up; seventeen of us flew to Houston, and the other group of eight flew to Dallas. The team met up late in the evening in Guatemala City and then took a bus to Cuilapa. We got to the hotel around 1am!

Sunset on the Dallas to Guatemala flight!
Guatemala City

The first part of the team arriving in Guatemala!

Yesterday’s disappointment of not flying out also gave us the opportunity for extra time to bond, and to learn that our trip is in God’s hands and that He knows what’s best. We are keeping our attitudes hopeful and focused on the mission ahead of us. We are looking forward to playing with the kids, performing our skits, and sharing God‘s great love (and the sunshine as a nice bonus). Please pray for God’s strength for our team, grateful hearts, for continued health, enthusiasm and courage, and that our team will all safely be together in Guatemala as soon as possible. And please pray for Mr. and Mrs. Goede and Mr. Stomprud who got delayed again and will be finally arriving on Thursday afternoon, Lord willing!

En el nombre de Jesús,
Parker and Lily

P.S. In honor of the Goede's and Mr. Stomprud, a couple more stanzas were added to the poem from yesterday :) ... we pray they can join us tomorrow!

Oh it's foggy down in Houston
And the clouds keep rolling in
All the skies are grey
And the planes are all grounded

How I hope the skies clear up
So we can hit the air
Guatemala's calling
And there's people who need Jesus there! 

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Delayed Departure!

The team arrived at the Bozeman airport at 6:10am Tuesday morning ready to get on the way to Guatemala! However, after having to de-plane in Bozeman on the first flight of the day due to the de-icing fluid freezing and limited visibility (oh how we love winter travel from Montana! :), the team was unable to head out.

In honor of today, here is this poem:
It's winter in Montana
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At thirty-five below

Oh how I love Montana when
the planes will not take off
The de-icing fluid is frozen
And the visibility is naught

Yes the weather here is wonderful
So we guess we'll hang around
We could never leave Montana
Cuz we're frozen to the ground!! :)

God is good to give us a sense of humor and the ability to trust His timing! Praise the Lord, a sweet United rep helped us for a couple hours at the ticket counter to get everyone re-booked for Wednesday, so we will try again tomorrow! The team is splitting into a few different groups for travel tomorrow and will Lord willing all meet in Guatemala by tomorrow evening! We are trusting the Lord's timing and looking forward to how He goes before through the rest of the next week! Please pray along with us as we go!

"Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples." 
-Psalm 96:3

2019 Guatemala Team

The team hanging in the airport during the delay.

Avery and Nathan wishing that the weather outside could have looked like the picture
on the side of the jet bridge instead of a white out ;) 

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Nicara.....no, Guatemala, here we come!

Hello Heritage Families and Friends!

Yes, it's that time of year again for the Junior class mission trip. But, as you can see from the heading, we won't be traveling to Nicaragua this year. Instead, we will embark on a different mission to a different country.

The political unrest and street violence in Nicaragua, which broke out shortly after we returned from there last March, precludes us from returning this year. Though it seems to have settled down some, there is enough concern about what still remains to give pause for now.

So, our destination this year is a bit north and west of Nicaragua in Guatemala. We will partner with Trek-X, the mission organization that our former Athletic Director, Amber Lundskog, works with now. Trek-X has had career missionaries in Guatemala since 2012.

We sill leave February 26 for an area called Cuilapa, about an hour and a half outside of Guatemala City with 40+ rural villages that have no gospel presence. Churches have been planted in a few of these villages now and the career missionaries are working to train the indigenous pastors and believers to be able to go and share the gospel and plant churches in other surrounding villages. The team will be coming alongside them in this work.

Part of that work will be visiting door-to-door with villagers in an effort to help Trek-X map the village.  Our hope is that God will give us opportunity to share the Gospel in these face-to-face visits. We will also do a Gospel-sharing VBS ministry with the children in the village.

Please pray for the team - 18 students and 10 adults - as we continue our preparations in the next two weeks. Pray that our hearts will be surrendered to God's will, that we will have servant hearts toward each other, and that Jesus will be glorified in it all.

We will attempt to post as often as possible while in Guatemala but have no guarantee of internet availability. In the meantime watch for another post just before we leave.

If you have any questions regarding the trip or helping with the trip, please call the school office at 587-9311.