Venezuela Trip

A Couple More Pics

2008-08-18T19:03:00.000-07:00

Sumo, the favorite game of the campers. This is USA vs. Venezuela. It was a tie :)

All of the Campers, Guides, and Coordinators!
Our team on the top of Mt. Sion

Back to Life in the USA

2008-08-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I am not sure if anyone is still reading this, but I thought that it was necessary to "end" the trip with a few closing remarks. Last night I was too tired to write, and today Josh and I started back to school, so this is just the first chance I am getting. If you are still reading our blog, you are REALLY dedicated!

Saturday was the last full day we were in Venezuela. We were able to experience some of the Venezuelan culture by doing some shopping around the city. For lunch, we had a welcome surprise of Pizza Hut...a reminder of the goodness of home! I know that Pizza Hut probably doesn't sound good to most of you, but after 9 days of arepas, salty cheese, and yes, even Venezuelan hotdogs, it was delicious. In the afternoon/evening, we went to the re-encounter. The kids were full of energy and happy to be back together. Youth for Christ will continue to hold meetings like this once a month throughout the school year. It was great to see how the ministry that we were able to be a part of will continue throughout the year. It was difficult saying goodbye to the kids. But, after like a million pictures and even more hugs, we made our way home to the youth for Christ house for the last time. We stayed up late talking with Simon and Mirtha, the couple that live at the youth for Christ house, and we were able to talk about everything that had happened. Simon, the director of YFC, told us that this was one of the most impacting camps they have ever had. It was a miracle to hear this, especially due to the tremendous trials we had when we were there. 5 members of our team were sick at camp, 3 very sick. There were times that I did not think that we were going to be able to complete the work that we came to do. But, in God's power, His work was done. By the time we left, 70 kids had accepted Christ as their savior and experienced the healing and joy that accompanies that. It was an incredible thing to be a part of, and I know we will all remember it forever. Simon said that he knows the prayers of our churches, families, and friends back home directly impacted our time at camp. Even though you all were not there, you were our partners in service! He is very thankful for what a support all of you have been.

It was difficult to leave Venezuela, and many are already talking about going back. Next year, they would like to run 3 camps in different places throughout the country, opening up many opportunities for people to experience the joy of service as we did. Even tonight, Josh and I were talking about how much we missed it already. I know that our time was incredibly meaningful, and we are each forever changed by what we saw, felt, and experienced.

But, we are home safely and back to real life. Today is Brian's birthday...Happy Birthday Hermano! Katie, Jen, Josh, and I were back to work, like the real adults that we are :). Mary Kate leaves for college on Wednesday, and Alex and Kevin are getting ready to start their senior years...right after Kevin finishes doing his summer calc work and Alex finishes his summer reading book! But somehow, as we adjust to American culture and life, we will learn to take a bit of Venezuela with us. And we will, most importantly, have an incredible story to tell about how our amazing God, who has provided for His people throughout history, still provides for his children today.

We hope that this blog has given you a little insight into our adventures. Maybe it has stretched your faith. Maybe it has shown you, once again, how amazing God really is.

And our final prayer request:
Please pray for the ministry that is going on in Venezuela. Even though our trip has ended, we can all still partner with our Venezuelan brothers and sisters through our prayers.

Thank you, all.
Becky

Back From Camp pt. 2

2008-08-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone viewing this post, I am your host for the evening (Alex Anderson). Sitting beside me is none other than Kevin Friske, who didn´t want to update the blog.

ok.

yesterday, we got back from the camp and all of us individually gained experiences to remember well into our gray-haired years. What an exhausting week it was, but fulfilling when put into the context of serving others for Christ. To divert from information possibly previously stated in the post before this, I´ll do what I was sent to do and blog about what happened today. Us ¨gringos¨ woke up around nine, and got into a bus-like car driven by one of the dads of one of the camp counselors (confusing, I know) to spend the day at the beach. We stopped at this one breakfast place on the way over and I personally got two of those bread-flaky-triangles filled with the cheese that everyone has learned to hate. When everyone was finished with their breakfast, we all got into the van and headed again towards our initial destination. After the frustration of cramped quarters, low air circulation, and congestion on the roads, we reached the beach! Haha we tried to drive over a curb getting into the parking area and totally got stuck in the middle, but luckily we were able to back out.

So the whole day was spent at the beach and I´ll try to summarize what went on without getting this too lengthy. We rode on a bannana-looking pencil attached to a speedboat. We ate filleted fish on the beach. That was also fun. But that was after it rained a ton. That was not so fun. But overall, the fun outweighted the non-fun. The traffic coming back into the city was not so fun either.. but we made it manageable with potential facebook profile pics and semi-funny jokes.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of updation from yours truly, I apologize for the vagueness. This message cannot be reproduced in any way, shape, or form without proper consent of the writer, publisher, and manager of these words. All rights reserved. Copyright Venezuelan team. It´s late, goodnight.

Back from Camp

2008-08-14T18:46:00.000-07:00

We just arrived back at the Youth for Christ house in Caracas after 4 days of camp. The camp was amazing...but we are ready for some much-needed rest!

Camp started on Monday afternoon...after a 3-4 hour drive. After settling in and eating lunch all the campers, leaders, and ourselves were split up into four teams ("Verde, Verde!"). Then each team spent some time developing a "cheer". Alex was quick to suggest our team make use of the Spanish term for Americans--"Gringos"...and so our team became the "Gringos" (like "Go, Green, Go!"). We then became part of some elaborate choreography involving a lot of clapping, chanting, shouting, and even some salsa dance steps.

Every night there was a time for singing, a slide show/video, and a message. A very popular part of those times was the "notihuellas". During that time a video was presented which had several themed pictures and video clips from throughout the day. Everyone there loved the praise time...they sing certain songs over and over and dance to it. Our team has joked about how it seems as though all Venezuelans can sing and dance incredibly! Later on in those sessions one of the directors would challenge the campers and present an invitation related to that particular message (trusting God, giving our burdens to God, following Christ).

Our purpose in being at the camp was to lead the activities and plan for them. This usually meant we had some preparation to do before the afternoon (blowing up balls, filling water-balloons, etc.). The times of preparation were a great time to be together as a team, having fun and serving together. Then we usually had several hours in the afternoon for the activities.

On Tuesday the camp directors took some time to meet with us and let us know what their opinions were of how we were running games. It was a time of encouragement for us. However, something we have discovered is that they all want to know "how we feel". A common question throughout our days was, "How are you feeling?" The first couple times we were asked we were caught off-guard, not knowing what to say. Then we came to expect that question and appreciate the fact that they cared enough to be genuinely interested in how we felt.

On Wednesday morning we got up before the "crack of dawn" to go hiking. It was some quality time spent with the campers and leaders. Once we got to the top, we had some time of worship and a message. Then began the rather interesting descent--which involved a lot of slipping and sliding. However, we made it back...tired and in need of water.

This really doesn´t even begin to get into everything that happened at the camp and all the stories we have to tell. Overall, I think the biggest thing we learned was that we had to do it in God´s strength--not our own. We came to recognize that early on in the camp as several of us really weren´t feeling great. Yet, we found ourselves having energy to direct the games, to interact with the campers, and do all the crazy stuff that a camp requires...and on less sleep than would have been ideal. So, we are amazed by the strength of God and are thankful for the opportunity He gave us to serve at the camp. It really was such a blessing to be there. The campers and the staff were so open and loving--wanting to spend time with us and even seeking us out.

Some ways you can be praying for us:

-Please pray for the health of our team. It has been a rough 4 days for us and we are exhausted. Several team members weren´t feeling well earlier this week, but seem to be doing much better now...so please pray for the continued healing of them and the continued health of the others.
-Please pray for the meeting on Saturday. We will be meeting up with several of the campers and their families on Saturday and it will be an opportunity for the campers to share what they learned at camp.
-Pray for all the campers that made decisions to follow Christ. Pray that they would follow through on the commitment they made at camp and their lives would continue to change because of the grace of God at work in them.

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Mary Kate

Day 3

2008-08-10T18:37:00.000-07:00

Hola,
We are finishing up day 3 in Venezuela and are about to depart for camp in the morning. Today was a great day. In the morning (well, it was from 12 to 230), we went to la iglesia cristiana de caracas (the christian church of caracas). It was a great experience! The people were so welcoming and excited that we were there. In Venezuela, it is very common to dance at church. When we got there, there were people dancing to You are Good, a song you might know, but in Spanish it is eres fiel! After about 10 minutes of that, they had all of us up in front of the church dancing with them. It was a sight to see!
We had a meeting this afternoon with everyone involved in the camp and went over all the plans. They keep saying here, we have done all we can do to prepare, now it is in Gods hands. The leaders have a great perspective and it is really helping us to feel calm about what is about to come. I think overall, the team is VERY excited to get to camp and work with the youth here. There are about 120 youth coming, and 16 guides (they are around our age, and they are like what we would call counselors). Camp is going to be very dirty...lots of games in the mud, even a game where you break an egg on your head like russian roulette (sorry...spell check for me). Some of the eggs will be hard boiled and some raw...I am leading that game so I dont have to get egg all over me! But, the camp is very high energy, and it is going to be a great time. We are praying that God will work through us to bring kids to the church for the year to come. Only 5% of people in Venezuela believe in God and call themselves Christians. YFC really believes that the future of Venezula lies in the youth. It is going to be an exciting, emotional, funpacked 4 days.
We are so thankful for your prayers. I really feel them being answered! Everyone has seemed to pick up at least a little Spanish! With our broken Spanish and their broken English, we are actually able to communicate quite well. Our team has definitely bonded. The boys have created a dance to do at Gringo Night, Katie sang Forever at church today in half English-half Spanish, and we all have Spanish names now...Josh is Antonio, Kevin is Carlos, Alex is Luis, Brian is Pedro, Mary Kate is Dulce Maria (sweet mary), Jen is juvirivisay, Katie is julazee (i dont know how to spell it, but it sounds like you lazy), and I am Julia. We are having a great time, feeling very blessed, and ready to go tomorrow.
Here are our prayer requests while we are at camp for the next 4 days. We will try to write during our time there, but we have to go to town to use the internet, so I am not sure how frequently we will be writing.

Please pray for our health. A couple of people are feeling weak from lack of sleep slash the higher altitude of Venezuela. It is not debilitating, but I know that they would like to feel better before camp so that they can really give their all while they are there.
Please pray for our attitudes. It is really important that even if we cannot speak the same language, we are acting with love and kindness towards each other and the campers. We will be having LONG days, and I know we will be tired, so please pray that we do not let our tiredness be an excuse for crabiness, etc.
Please pray for the guides and their relationships with the campers. They are staying in the cabins with the youth, and they are going to be with them ALL the time. Pray for energy for them, and for wisdom, patience, and love.
Please pray that through all of our efforts, God would be glorified!

Thank you so much for praying for us. Parents, I hope you are not worried...everything is going well and your sons and daughters are doing a beautiful job serving the Lord.

Also, we noticed that people were having problems commenting to our posts. I think we fixed it, so if you want to try again, go ahead!

Becky

Pics!

2008-08-09T19:18:00.000-07:00

View from our living room. Que bonita!

Around the house

Day 2

2008-08-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

Today has a been a long and fun day. Today we had a chance to meet some of the campers at the "pre-encounter." This ¨pre-encounter included most of the kids that will be at the camp starting Monday. Today we played games with the kids and we had a great time interacting with everybody. The kids here are really friendly and they want to know everything about us "gringos". Sometimes there is a little bit of a language barrier but we are working through that as best as we can. Also, we can not thank enough our hosts here. They have been very accomdating with us and we are very grateful that they are willing to share their home with us. Tomomorow we are going to church here in Caracas and we are looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us. If all of you could pray for the following prayer requests we would greatly appreciate it.

- That the language barrier would not stop us from interacting with the kids

- For continued health and safety for our team

- That the campers would expereince God at the camp starting Monday.

Thank you very much and we miss everybody back in the states!!!

Brian

Day 1

2008-08-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

It is a little after 10 in Venezuela and we are pretty much tired out. But we wanted to write to update you on what is going on here with us. Today we had many meetings regarding our camp experience next week. We have a much better picture of what we are going to be doing. So, please pray for us in the following ways:

Tomorrow we are meeting campers and parents for a pre encounter. The parents and kids get a taste of what camp will be like. Please pray that we are able to quickly form bonds with the kids, are able to communicate (it has been difficult at times, but we have an excellent translator!), and that our team really bonds together to serve as needed.
We are all running low on sleep, so please pray for energy and that no one will get sick.

For parents, we did find out emergency phone numbers in case you need to reach us in an emergency situation.

1) The YFC house: 011-58-212-753-2306

2) The YFC office: 011-58-212-753-3319

3) Simon´s cell phone (for when we are at camp): 011-58-412-292-3436

4) Mirtha´s cell (for when we are at camp, if you can´t get a hold of simon): 011-58-412-598-3341

Everyone is doing well, and I am sure our dreams will be sweet tonight! Thanks for your prayers!

Becky

We´re Here!

2008-08-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

The whole group made it through to Venezuela safely and without any problems! We were very happy to find the customs area of the airport basically paid no attention to us and we passed through the airport without so much as a question directed to us. We arrived in Caracas a little after 5 this morning, met the Youth for Christ group who was driving with us, and drove a short distance here to the Youth for Christ house. It is also the home of Simon, the YFC director for Venezuela, and his family. The country is beautiful and we enjoyed a short driving tour from the airport and a little guided walk through part of town as well. After a little Venezuelan breakfast we were all ready for some power naps! I wanted family and friends to know we arrived safely... we´ll write more, hopefully today, when we have some time. Thanks for your prayers for us!

-Josh

Getting Ready

2008-08-04T13:00:00.001-07:00

Thanks for visiting our blog! We are getting ready to leave for Venezuela on Thursday and still have much to do. Hopefully Josh and I will be able to update this blog while we are on our trip, so check back here to see what we are doing and how you can be praying for us.

We will be leaving on Thursday at 7:05 from O'hare and have a layover in Houston. We will arrive in Venezuela at 5:37 on Friday morning. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we will be staying in Caracas in the Youth for Christ mission preparing for camp. On Monday we will begin our time at camp with 150 campers!

Here are our current prayer requests:

For safety in travel, that our bags would arrive, and that we would meet our hosts at the airport without problem
For the campers, that we would be able to form relationships with them, and that they would be able to experience God's love and begin a relationship with Jesus if they have not already
For the language barrier, that we would be able to communicate with the campers
For the logistics of running a camp, that we as a team would be ready and willing to do whatever is necessary

Thanks for your prayers. Hopefully we will be writing soon from Venezuela!