What We've Learned!

One of my favorite parts of a mission trip is when, at the very end, the team gathers to describe how God has moved in their lives. I always wish parents and the church could hear the amazing things that God has done. As a leader, there is no sweeter time. That was the case again on this trip as we gathered tonight to share. Of course, I cannot do it justice listing them on a blog (this is a weak summary of some powerful testimonies), but at least you might catch a glimpse of what God has taught us!

1. Rachael--learned more patience and how to talk with other people

2. Eric--learned about forgiveness and how to deal with conflict better

3. Adam--learned patience, and everyone on the team better. Also, realized he has taken for

granted his life at home

4. Kevin--learned about selflessness and learning to share and talk with others more

5. Liann--learned how open kids can be and how inquisitive they are about spiritual things

6. Nancy--is learning compassion for others and learning that it takes time to develop

7. Jenna--learned how to live less selfishly and got to know the others better

8. Abbey--learned patience

9. Logan--learned firsthand how God puts people in the right place in the right time to carry

out His work (especially when visiting homes for evangelism)

10. Alicia--learned how to paint, and made some new friends and reestablished some old

friendships

11. Megan--learned that she can accomplish things she didn't think she could do and learned

how not to be shy (particularly with strangers when visiting their houses)

12. Alex--learned patience and how not to judge people by their outward appearance

13. Rob--learned that he needs to unlearn things that he has wrongly learned over the years

14. Ryan S.--learned patience and grew in watching how he talks and sings around others

15. Ryan T.--learned he needs to continue to work on his patience and learned some valuable

leadership skills from the other leaders and students

16. Mollie--learned to face her fears (particularly her fear of heights on ladders!)

17. Lisa--learned again how well a group can care for each other

18. McKenna--learned that she has a lot of really good new friends

19. Brett--learned anew how much people have been disposable to him in the past and to

recommit himself to loving people for God's sake and not his own

Thursday News

Greetings ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, people of all... er... I guess you know where I am going with this. I am Ryan S., and I am writing to update you all back in good o'l Ohio on what happened in Cherokee today.

In the Paintown gymnasium, we spent our last day with the little guys. It was a great day. We played a game of organized soccer, and also a basketball game. We also finished teaching the kids the gospel message through the colored bracelets. At the house worksite, we got the first coat of blue paint on the top part of the house. We are going to put the second coat on tomorrow.

Before the painting portion of the day, we talked about an our theme verse...

" Serve the Lord wholeheartedly as if you were serving the Lord, not men."

- Ephesians 6:7

You know, as the week is winding down, so is our willingness to serve the Lord, and it gets really hard to think about what he Lord would want instead of ourselves. I had to constantly be on my toes to remind myself to only cater to our Creator, not ourselves. I'm sure others are in the same boat as me as well. So I am asking you to pray for us as a team, especially as this great week draws to close. I mean, we are all going to be hot, sweaty, and are going to be prone to sin. Thanks!

- Ryan S.

Wednesday Updates

White water rafting:
anticipation, freedom, awesome mountain views, white water rapids, learning experience, excitement, very cold water, God's awesome beauty, lots of Boy Scouts following behind in rafts, awesome power, smiles, laughter, British accents, Southern "drawl", Australian accents, great guides, Very Fun! Let's do it again with more "white water"!

Regards,
Rob

Hey! It's Liann! :) Tonight we went to a play called "Unto These Hills". It was the tragic tale of the Trail of Tears. It told the story through songs and Cherokee dances. Tsali was a very heroic and brave leader who gave his own life to save the lives of his own people. "Unto These Hills" started out with a song and the Corn Mother and her husband who showed us early Cherokee life. Tecumseh comes to all the Cherokee people, asking them to join in a war against the white men. After a Cherokee leader saved his life, Andrew Jackson later betrays the Cherokee. Along the Trail of Tears, 4,000 people lost their lives. We were told that today, the Cherokee have over 13,000 people. :) This performance was filled with music and colorful costumes! :)

Hi! Mrs. W here...a few of us enjoyed discovering some more Cherokee culture at the Oconaluftee Indian Village. Highlights were watching social (as opposed to war) dancing...The Quail, The Corn, and our favorite, The Bear (grrrrrr.) The gals enjoyed hearing how the women were quite influential in the tribe...even deciding when they went to war. We learned that the Eternal Flame, the center of Cherokee life, was carried to Oklahoma during the Trail of Tears...in the 1960's, part of that flame was returned to NC and we saw it on display, burning outside the theatre.

Tuesday News!

Heya! This is Eric. Today was great! We had an actual game of soccer with the kids at Paint Town. We also got the whole house, (the parts that are going to be painted gray and blue), primed with primer. We didn't have any serious injuries and had a lot of fun. We finally got to meet the family and they seem like some nice people. They have a little daughter that looked just like her mother. But at Paint Town, the kids there LOVE us. I went in there and immediately had kids calling my name, and other kids were calling others of us. Its just sad that we're only going to have two more days there (There is a Cherokee holiday on Friday). Well, hopefully you enjoyed reading this and hope everything is going good back at home. Well, BYE!

Hi everyone! It's McKenna. I had a great mission trip so far and expect it to get better. The first night we were all hot and tired and just sick of it. My dad told everyone to expect it not to be too comfortable. We would get out of our comfort zones and not much of it would be normal. One of the only things comfortable for me was sharing the gospel tonight. I enjoyed talking to the people.

I was also making a bracelet with a girl and I was telling her what the black bead stood for which was sin. I explained to her that if you asked the Lord to take your sins away the bead would turn a different color. She asked me," Which color does the bead turn?" I answered her," The bead turns white because God takes all your sins away and it becomes clean again." I had lots of fun and many other conversations like this with the kids and they feel very comfortable talking with us about them.

1st Day of Work & Ministry!

Hi this is Mollie. Today we had lots of fun and got a lot of work done. After we had breakfast we got in the vans. These wonderful vans took us to the first destination which was the Paint Town Gym. There we met some wonderful kids filled with Jesus love. They had lots of fun doing a variety of activities. Most of these kids played soccer, basketball, and tag. Others played games and made crafts, which were sun magnets and coloring a creation wheel. Once we were done we journeyed back to camp to eat our handcrafted sandwiches. After lunch we ventured to our next worksite. At our next worksite we prepped the house for painting. We scraped and scrubbed a very dirty house. When we got done we were all so wet already we decided to go to a river down the street. We got very wet and this was the end of our day of adventures. ;)

Cherokee Church Experience

Hi this is Abbey M. who recieved the privilege of writing tonight's blog!

Today we went to a Cherokee Church called Aquoni Chapel. It was a very neat and different experience! It had a couple differences from Harvest that were very interesting to experience. For example, there was almost 15 minutes in the middle of service where we just greeted each other! Also, children sang in the choir and it was very family oriented. It was a great mix of culture--some Cherokee, some white and some black people. The opening song was even sang in Cherokee. It was a very cool experience!

Saturday night, 6-26-10....WE MADE IT SAFELY!!!

Thanks for praying! We pulled into MTW headquarters at 5:45 pm and according to Alex Root (our official timekeeper) we made the trip in 11 hours and 15 minutes, including stops.

Tonight, we are attending multiple orientation meetings, so there is little to report. We can give you some highlights from the drive though...

1. The kids found license plates from 27 different states

2. We were witness to the world's largest Pepsi bottle cap in Tennessee!

3. During a lunch rest area stop, we encountered some Muslim travelers which led to some good theological discussions

4. The kids all had fun snapping pictures of the mountains

5. Brett's favorite dialogue....Alex: "When I grow up I want to be a (unintelligable)"

Brett & others (misunderstanding): "A Pirate Director?"

Alex: "No...a CHIROPRACTER!"

6. The kids wanted me to include that we passed Hungry Mother State Park and Creeper Trail along the way!

We are all settled along with groups from New York, Texas, Mississippi and New Jersey (around 100 total). We look forward to worshipping at a local Cherokee church in the morning. We will have more updates tomorrow!