This Sunday: The Hallahans & Uganda!

Join us for Global Cafe`, Sunday at 6PM!

Goat Roast Featured Cover Story in Collegian

Click here to read the Collegian's Cover story about the Goat Roast!

Saturday, October 16... Don't Miss the Goat Roast!

The Zimmermans (Bolivia) visit Global Cafe`!

new assistant in the kitchen!

First Global Cafe` of Fall 2010!

Camp

We had our last day of camp yesterday. It was a great week, full of lots of games, songs, skits, and fun. The campers all seemed to have a great time and enjoy camp. Here are some pictures from our week.

We sang lots of fun songs to go with our Western theme

A skit about forgiveness

Silly Games

More games

And even more games!

Each team member led a workshop, in which we taught the campers some new English vocabulary. This workshop was themed "Project Runway: World Cup." Campers got to make soccer uniforms out of papers, pipe cleaners, and other arts and crafts supplies.

Another workshop on cupcake decorating

We're still here!

Yes! We are still here! And we are having an amazing time! As you have most likely figured out from our lack of posting on this blog...camp has kept us very busy! Our days have been full of silly songs, skits and fun games with our campers. As the camp photographer, I have enjoyed experiencing everyone's workshops. Each team member, whether from Asbury or elsewhere, put a lot of thought and creativity into their lessons and each one is uniquely different from the rest. The campers seem to be particularly fond of the workshops involving food, but they have enjoyed the other projects as well.

Tomorrow is the last day of camp.....and we are all feeling the weight of exhaustion physically, emotionally and spiritually. But God has been so faithful to us and has provided for our every need (including making it home in time to watch the World Cup matches). This is a difficult mission field and we have relied heavily upon His guidance. We look forward to sharing our experiences with you when we return home!

Face Prayers

So up to our arrival in Hungary, we have been praying and preparing by specifically thinking about the missionaries, translators, and English Campers. We received pictures of the Searl family as well as Tibi, Jolayne, and Emma, but sometimes pictures aren't enough to see the true face of Jesus. Experiencing people face to face makes pictures inadequate. Our time yesterday with most of the team, American and Hungarian, was spent in Budapest. What a blessing to get to bond with our brothers and sisters in Christ, even sharing the common experience of touring Budapest and surviving the heat together. Today, we meet nearly every member of our team, increasingly Hungarian. I just need to mention that our team is incomplete without our wonderful translators. We got to learn names, share stories, meals, and even a card game and World Cup game. May the Lord continue to bind us together with love! The only people that we have yet to meet is our campers. However, I can say that our prayers have not been in vain, rather they have been met with the heart of Jesus. I and those of our Asbury team have been given the blessing of putting beautiful faces and wonderful personalities to our prayers before this trip. We now see Jesus' face within the workers whom he has chosen to be here, and it has made evident the presence of the Lord in this place. The only real task that remains now, to carry out this mission, is to obey the voice of Jesus.

Day 2: Tourism

Today we took on the role of the typical American tourist. Fully equipped with cameras, backpacks, maps, paper bag lunches, etc., we ventured out early this morning into the city of Budapest where we took in the sights, sounds, and smells of this beautiful western European town. We took advantage of the public transportation system (one of my favorite things in Europe), as well as the availability of caffeine (which is a necessity in our battle against jet lag). Many pictures were taken, much laughter ensued, and the excitement about the coming week swelled in each of us. Tomorrow we look forward to orientation with the whole group...Asbury work team, VIAs, translators, missionaries, and friends...and an evening consumed by World Cup madness!

Your prayers are powerful and effective and God has been faithful in answering. Your support is so encouraging to us all and we are eager to share with you what God has in store for us and for the people of Hungary in the coming days.

Hungary : Day One

Hello Everyone!!

We left last night for Budapest, Hungary and had two smooth flights from Detroit to Amsterdam to Hungary, everyone on the trip is safe and sound but quite tired. Needless to say we are all incredibly excited about what God has in store for us on this trip, what with the sightseeing we'll be doing to the ministering we'll be doing through the English Camp next week. I can hardly believe that this week is almost over already and thinking about it, we're not here all that long. The people we're staying with are so hospitable and kind--we couldn't have asked for better people to be staying with. Well since not much has happened yet, I'll leave this for someone else to add on to.

Made it to Detroit, our flight is delaued until 11. We'll then have a 35 minute window to make our flight to Budapest. It will be a close call.

Aftef a great day in the Grand Canyon yesterday and then drove to Albuquerque, NM. We have driven all day and are about to set up camp right outside Ft. Smith, AK.

A great week of camp. We were blessed by the children and the opportunity to learn with them. Now we're heading home.

Today has been a full day of games, music, art, reading, bible stories, cooking and story time at the library. We are all starting to grow close to the kids and they are precious. Tonight we take them to the pool.

About to wake up the campers amd start the first full day of camp. Pray that they'd see Jesus!

Kids have arrived and we're super excited to spend the next 4 days with them. They've already been a blessing!

Enjoyed Sunday school and church at the First Indian Baptist Church in Pheonix this morning and then lunch with the Boldens (one of the missionary famalies). We have around 2 hours to rest and then the kids arrive. Thank you all for your prayers.

About to eat rocky mountain oysters and rattle snake!

We're still alive. Been in training for camp. Good times.

Arrived at the Southwest Indian Ministry Center after 1879.8 miles. God truly went before us.

Back on the road. We went 786 miles yesturday. Just realized we left 2 pillows at the motel. We will get them and be back on the road soon.

Made it to Holbrook, AZ. Only 3 1/2 hours to go tomorrow!

At a Whataburger in Amarillo, TX for lunch. All is going smoothly.

Made it 852 miles yesterday. We're back on the road again, destination Gallup, NM.

Arrived for the night. Just east of Oklahoma City at a KOA. Made it 100+ more miles then planned. It was a successful day.

Safely made it to the show me state. Having lunch just outside st. Louis

On the road

It's 6:24 a.m. and we're getting ready to take off. Everything fit in the car so we're good to go!!! Today we hope to drive about 12 hours and make it to a campsite in Oklahoma. We appreciate your prayers for traveling mercies.

Last Global Cafe` of the semester!

Join us for our last Global Cafe` of the semester! Featuring Gabor and Meg ('00) Dul from Hungary! You'll enjoy it!

183 Pictures in 3 Minutes

Thanks for your prayers for the team. Tonight at Global Cafe, we shared what God did and is doing in Honduras. This slideshow was part of our presentation.

Enjoy the best of a week's worth of photos. They are set to the music written to celebrate Honduras making it to the 2010 World Cup. You can also view them one at a time after the slideshow.

You can see a larger version at http://www.asburywgm.org/slideshows/Honduras_2010b/

Last post from Honduras

Due to internet issues this was written in Honduras, but was posted after we returned.

Hey guys,
Sorry it has been so long since our last update, but the last few days we have been really tired, really excited and really busy. So here is our last update from Honduras itself.

Friday, we started painting the front of the conference center. It was really nice because we were able to interact with the boys as they passed by throughout the day. During our afternoon break, Heidi and I (Adrienne) had the opportunity to ride on the front of Omar’s four-wheeler. It was the first time I had ever ridden on one!! Then, one better, Heidi and I each got to drive the four-wheeler with Thad sitting on the front giving us directions, lol! It was great!
That night we had a very nice farewell dinner with a nice table setting and the staff served us. After that, our team headed over Jerry and Sherri Murphy’s house to hear their testimonies of how they came to know Christ and came to the mission field. Since I’m not sure they would like to have their story shared over the internet, basically neither of them came from Christian homes. Their story was very different from most missionaries and very inspiring. Omar showed up a little while later after we had finished and hung out for a while.

This Friday night was different from most Fridays because throughout the week the missionaries had been planning a pancake breakfast for the boys at 11pm that night. So the Bible Institute put on a worship night for the boys in order to keep them awake. After we finished at the Murphy’s, Heidi, Omar, Mark and I went to the service. We hung out and sang songs until Heidi and I had to leave at 10:20ish for our staff meeting at 10:30.
As we got up to leave, Omar came running over and asked Heidi if she was ready. Earlier at the Murphy’s, Heidi had told Omar that she had her testimony written in Spanish and wanted to share if there was time. So Omar left us and ran over to those in charge and came running back and told us that it would be better if both of us would share. Problem – the adults weren’t there so I had no translator. But we followed God’s leading and said yes. Heidi shared hers first in Spanish and then I stepped up to the podium. I shared some of mine in Spanish and anytime I switched to English, Heidi would do her best to translate. At points, the boys began to shout out and help us find the right verbs, conjugations, and grammar, lol. Overall, my testimony was very interactive, lol. But it was told and Jesus was able to use it to give them hope.

After we gave our testimonies, we rushed over to the conference center to get ready for the breakfast. Christian, the director of the school, opened and then Heidi and I did a skit about making and eating pancakes since the boys had never really eaten them before. A little while later, Mark and a girl from the Bible Institute on campus, Daniela, lip-synced to the new Honduran World Cup soccer song. I have never heard boys shout and cheer so much in my life! During the meal, Nathan went table to table doing magic tricks with a message which the boys really enjoyed. That night ended with saying our goodbyes and finishing with some really good conversations with some of the boys.

Saturday morning, we said our goodbyes and pulled out around 8am with heavy hearts, said to say goodbye. Around lunch time, we arrived at the Valle de Angeles, a big shopping area in Tegucigalpa, to spend the afternoon shopping with some of the missionaries. Then we went to the guest house in Teguc where Heidi’s host family from the summer came to visit. Mark and Heidi went with them to dinner and Jerry, Sherri, Nathan, Colleen and Terry Hawk, and I went to dinner at a typical restaurant called El Gordo. It had fantastic food! Last night ended with us dumping the rest of our pictures together and flipping through them. After some last minute packing, we went to bed.

This morning we had breakfast around 8am, and now we are waiting in the airport for our flight to Houston to get ready to leave. We have no wireless here so we are going to post this when we land in Houston. This is our last post written in Honduras. L We are getting on the plane with hearts of sorrow from leaving our new found family members behind but with an excitement and hope for the future, not only for the school but for the boys and even for our lives in missions in the future. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel through flights, customs, and immigration, and finally a drive back to school. And keep the school and missionaries here in your prayers as they work out some of the new visions that God has given them. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. We have a final round of pictures coming soon.

Dios les bendiga, (God bless you all)

Adrienne, on behalf of the team

A quick note about a full day

We just wanted to get a quick note out to let you know that we are packing as much as we can into these last days at the farm, so it may be Saturday evening before we get more pictures up.

Yesterday's work project saw us doing more digging and concrete work as we made cement drain pads for the downspouts. We spent the afternoon in Catacamas seeing what a typical Honduran town is like. We ate at a local restaurant with great smoothie-type drinks.

Today we will be painting because it is dry enough. Before and after pictures will hopefully accompany our next post.

Thanks for your continued prayers as we say our goodbyes this evening. We have made many friends and there will probably be some tears.

Nathan for the team

Proof we really have been working!

Today we nearly completed our main work project here at El Sembrador. While it will only take a few seconds to scroll through the pictures, we can all testify that it was three labor intensive days!

The courtyard that turns into a pond during rainy season. It becomes very slick when wet and even had some mold problems.

Our first task was to remove the 2 inch thick brick tiles without breaking any others around them. Mark ran the angle grinder for hours!

The dust made it hard to breathe and made a real mess, but the bandanna's were fun for pictures!

Then came removing the tiles. After this picture, we found that a mini sledge hammer and a chisel were the best way to go.

When I took this picture about half way through day one, I thought we had done the hard part. Little did we know that there was about 1.5 inches of mortar to cut through and about 4 inches of cement under that to cut and pound and chisel through and that was before using a pick to dig through rocks and clay. The majority of that process was on Tuesday, and it was so dusty that we didn't bring our cameras out much.

Heidi and Adrianne spent much of Monday and Tuesday making the replacement tiles. They had to fill the forms with concrete and tint the top 1/8 inch to match the current tiles as much as possible. The forms and dye were made by Thad Gouge, the missionary who is our project manager.

We did have some help from some Honduran friends. Mark was always able to make them smile.

Jumping ahead to this morning, we made sure the slope was perfect which required more digging, but it was fun to finally get the pipe in the ground.

While the color on the bricks does look a little different now, the color was matched to an original piece of brick, so with a little weathering, they should match great!

We still have a few tiles to put mortar around, but we are otherwise finished! It even rained tonight so we were able to get a real life test. The drain passed with flying colors!

Tomorrow we will be painting part of the front of the building. Thanks for continuing to follow us in your prayers!

Nathan for the team

Hammers and Chisels and Saws..Oh My!

Yesterday, was another great day and our second work day. We are happy to say that the trench is now ready for us to begin installing the pipes and drains! It took a lot of sawing, hammering, pounding, chiseling, digging, cleaning, and muscle power to finally get the remaining grout and several inches of cement out of the trench, but thankfully we are ready to begin the next step today. We are very thankful for all the hard work of the Hondurans that are helping us with the project. Adrienne and I finished two more batches of homemade bricks, so we should have enough by now. We are pleasantly surprised at how much we have finished so far and our goal is to be completely done by dinner tonight. Please pray that this goal can become a reality.
Last night they had a special worship service in the Chapel here on campus. Normally the service is every Wednesday night but it was a day early because of a special group that is here until this afternoon. The service was really good. Several of the students at the Bible School here put on a shadow screen drama. They did an absolutely amazing job and the message of the drama was very powerful. It was the story of what many of the boys here have lived - being raised by a single mom with nothing to eat, but once they come to El Sembrador, it gives them the opportunity to have a better life, based on a Christian foundation. Please pray that God continues to work in their lives. The end of the service they gathered around the group that is here and prayed for them.
After the service, Adrienne and I had the opportunity to help one of the boys with his homework and talk with a few others. Thankfully, Spanish is improving for both of us - in understanding what they are saying and being able to speak it ourselves. They are patient with us and I think, are thankful that we are trying.
As long as the internet stays up, hopefully we can get some more pictures posted today. Well, it's time to work so may each of you have a great day and stay tuned for more.
God Bless,
Heidi, on behalf of the team :-)

Sabbath and Work Day #1

Yesterday (Sunday) we had the opportunity to attend church in Catacamas, the nearby city. We arrived a few minutes early and it was fun to watch everyone filter in and fill up the good sized sanctuary. The praise team up front led worship for about an hour. Thankfully they had projectors on both sides of the stage area so we were able to somewhat sing along. Their worship is very free and relaxed but full of thanksgiving to our Lord. It was really cool to praise God continuously for that long.
After the time of singing, we saw three babies get dedicated to God. They were so adorable! After the dedications, the pastor gave the sermon, which lasted about 45 minutes. He preached from several different passages but mainly from Romans 12:1-2 and transformation through Christ.
We returned to the El Sembrador campus and after lunch our team took a restful 1 1/2 nap ~ this was much enjoyed after traveling, touring, and getting used to a new language the past couple of days.
At 2:00 we gathered at the softball field and played a fun game. (Just for the record the score was 22 to 13 and Nathan and Heidi's team beat Mark and Adrienne's team). It was a great time of fellowship and fun playing softball. Having such a small team has been kind of nice because we have gotten to interact with the boys a lot.
After dinner we went over to the Gouge's house, a missionary family that is here for a year. What a blessing to hear their story and how God has led them here! Please be praying for them as they continue to listen for where God is leading after their year is up. Also, they are going to have another baby so please pray that everyone stays healthy! We also began plans for a special event for the boys on Friday night right before we leave early Saturday morning for the Tegucigalpa guest house.

Today (Monday), was our first work day. Our task this week is to install a drain in the patio at the Conference Center. When it rains, all the water pools in the middle of the patio and can't drain out and off the back. This is a problem because it stays there and molds in the hot sun. We are cutting out the middle row of stone bricks to install a pipe that will carry the water out the back. It's a little slow going but thankfully we were able to accomplish much more than we had originally thought today.
Adrienne and I also had a new opportunity today ~ we learned how to make the new bricks that we will lay over the pipe later this week! It's a little bit of a process but it's fun to learn.
After lunch we took a small break and toured the school building. Christian, the El Sembrador director, led us through and shared his passion for the boys' education and vision for the school. Please be in prayer for the school as a whole and that they can continue to improve their educational programs and have enough funding to do so. His heart for the boys and that they can be their very best is evident! His enthusiasm is encouraging and inspiring.
After we finished some more work on the patio and new bricks, my dad and I got to see some of the boys finish slaughtering one of the cows on the farm ("pobre vaca" ~ poor cow, a quote from one of the boys).
After a long day of work, our muscles are tired but in a very good way. Dinner is about ready so I best be going but thank you for your continued prayers! I think we have all really enjoyed our time so far and are excited for the remainder of the week. More pictures will be coming in the morning so stay tuned!

God Bless,
Heidi :-)

Hot, Sweaty, Dirty... Doing great!

Our internet has been out for over a day, but it hasn't slowed us down here. Below are some pictures from Saturday's tour of the farm. Read the previous post from Mark to help the pictures make more sense. We will have more pictures and report from our first real work day tonight or tomorrow morning. - thanks for your continued prayers!