To start off, this is not Fred. This is Erin..and like the loser I am I can't remember either my ID or like my password or something....anyway. The biggest thing that I learned over this entire trip was to be flexible with things going unaccording to schedual. It's not so much that I won't go through with things, because I will go with the flow but with a terrible attitude. I totally just think that everything will end up horribly and I just want to get it over with. I'm pretty sure it was on the very first day when we went to the park for dinner and planned to do dramas right after. Our translator talked to a guy who worked at the park and he said that we could do whatever, but we couldn't use our speaker to play anything.... first I was just like....jeez we just brought over all of the equipment from across the street and second i thought, what on earth are we supposed to do???? So we went for a prayer walk and then when my partner and I went In a couple of circles we saw that the rest of the team was making balloons for kids and handing them out. So I joined them and it turned out perfectly. Then out of the crazy blue, this guy shows up and starts making these professional balloon shapes for the kids. Turned out that he was a pastor and all and he even prayed for us afterwards. I was just awed that those type of miracle stories that I hear every so often are actually true and actually happen to people like us and a person like me.
After that the surprises didn't stop coming. Usually space was limited wherever we went so we had to improvise pretty much everytime we did skits...and usually we would do random projects or cancel projects just off the spot. There was even one time where another team took our food by accident so we had to just scrimmage around the base. Haha, we actually found basically the same thing that we would have had anyway. We have been having sandwiches for at least one meal for the past 5 days or so.....Anyway, I'm so proud of our team and their ability to be flexible and excited for whatever came in store for us.
-Erin
July 7th, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
July 5th and 6th
Hola!
It's Jasmine reporting from sunny Ensanada~
The past few days have just been amazing! Yesterday (the 5th) we went to Sunday morning church service at Iglesia Bautista Jezreel with Pastor Manuel. Although the church was small, the enthusiasm and passion of the people surpassed that of the bigger churches I have been to. For worship, Pastor Manuel would just break out in song and the rest of the congregation would sing at the top of their lungs along with him. He had no guitar, no bass, no piano keyboard, no drums, nor back-up singer, but it was beautiful just to hear the voices of those praising and worshipping Jesus! After worship he read Ezekiel 43:1-3 to us (I gotta check my notebook to make sure that was it >.<) and then we performed some dramas. Alex also gave a testimony! Then Fred gave a message about "love" stories from the Bible. [more details will be added later... when I get my notebook; hahaha]
After the church service, they made lunch for us. They made fish, beef and bean burritos with the best tortillas I have ever had in my life! Everything tasted amazing and it was all homemade! =D Then we played with the kids. We taught them how to play "Boom-chicaka-boom-boom" and "Ping-pong". They taught us the pikachu rock/paper/scissors game, duck-duck-goose in Spanish and some other games. Then we came back to base and ate a cooler dinner at the beach where Joyce and Liya had their hair braided :) pictures will come later xP
Today we held a VBS at the soup kitchen we worked at on Satuday. We opened with singing and prayer led by Pastor Manuel. Then we had a puppet show were all of the puppetiers had no idea what was going on but I still think the kids liked it ^^ Then Fred gave a short message about boomerangs, led some games, had some clown skits, and then had the kids to crafts. After that we gave the kids our fruit and pringles and they loved it :) Then we hung around a bit and just hung out with the kids. [sorry in a rush... will finish later]
It's Jasmine reporting from sunny Ensanada~
The past few days have just been amazing! Yesterday (the 5th) we went to Sunday morning church service at Iglesia Bautista Jezreel with Pastor Manuel. Although the church was small, the enthusiasm and passion of the people surpassed that of the bigger churches I have been to. For worship, Pastor Manuel would just break out in song and the rest of the congregation would sing at the top of their lungs along with him. He had no guitar, no bass, no piano keyboard, no drums, nor back-up singer, but it was beautiful just to hear the voices of those praising and worshipping Jesus! After worship he read Ezekiel 43:1-3 to us (I gotta check my notebook to make sure that was it >.<) and then we performed some dramas. Alex also gave a testimony! Then Fred gave a message about "love" stories from the Bible. [more details will be added later... when I get my notebook; hahaha]
After the church service, they made lunch for us. They made fish, beef and bean burritos with the best tortillas I have ever had in my life! Everything tasted amazing and it was all homemade! =D Then we played with the kids. We taught them how to play "Boom-chicaka-boom-boom" and "Ping-pong". They taught us the pikachu rock/paper/scissors game, duck-duck-goose in Spanish and some other games. Then we came back to base and ate a cooler dinner at the beach where Joyce and Liya had their hair braided :) pictures will come later xP
Today we held a VBS at the soup kitchen we worked at on Satuday. We opened with singing and prayer led by Pastor Manuel. Then we had a puppet show were all of the puppetiers had no idea what was going on but I still think the kids liked it ^^ Then Fred gave a short message about boomerangs, led some games, had some clown skits, and then had the kids to crafts. After that we gave the kids our fruit and pringles and they loved it :) Then we hung around a bit and just hung out with the kids. [sorry in a rush... will finish later]
Saturday, July 4, 2009
July 4th!
Hola everyone!!
its a meee Jenny!!! Saying hello from Ensenada! Our team just got back from a most delicious dinner! Tacoss!!! Earlier we had done a soup kitchen for some of the kids somwhere in Mexico?? haha.. We performed some skits and sang LOTS of songs and just played aruond with them! I personally had an awesome time there, because I finally got to have a real conversation in Spanish with one of the kids, Marisa! and i felt quite proud of myself for it for it was one of the goals I had set for this trip..sooo. yay me! I also played alot of jump rope with the kids where I had to count in Spanish as well over and over and over again where now i feel like I could learn math in Spanish relaly easily or something..
Anyways... after we hung aruond with the kids most the whole day, we spent the rest of the day SHOPPING!! Most people bought some cool shades(sunglasses) and as for me .. what else but... .CANDY!! hehehe..
Now we are just chilling aruond the base having an awesome time with the staff, who are very cool btw! I just had a lovely time laughing my face off from just hearing one of the staff talk to me with a thick spanish accent! I love it! hahaha..
To end this very long post.. I would just like to say that I am having a GREAT time.. besides the fact that I was sick almost all day yesterday.. i had TOO spicy of food.. and welll.. bad things came out.. and it isn't that great of a story. .soo.. I'm just quite thankful I'm better! and am hoping I stay that way the rest of the time here! Thank you all for your support! it has not been a waste I will definately tell you that! Thank you all again. miss you all!!
~Jenny
its a meee Jenny!!! Saying hello from Ensenada! Our team just got back from a most delicious dinner! Tacoss!!! Earlier we had done a soup kitchen for some of the kids somwhere in Mexico?? haha.. We performed some skits and sang LOTS of songs and just played aruond with them! I personally had an awesome time there, because I finally got to have a real conversation in Spanish with one of the kids, Marisa! and i felt quite proud of myself for it for it was one of the goals I had set for this trip..sooo. yay me! I also played alot of jump rope with the kids where I had to count in Spanish as well over and over and over again where now i feel like I could learn math in Spanish relaly easily or something..
Anyways... after we hung aruond with the kids most the whole day, we spent the rest of the day SHOPPING!! Most people bought some cool shades(sunglasses) and as for me .. what else but... .CANDY!! hehehe..
Now we are just chilling aruond the base having an awesome time with the staff, who are very cool btw! I just had a lovely time laughing my face off from just hearing one of the staff talk to me with a thick spanish accent! I love it! hahaha..
To end this very long post.. I would just like to say that I am having a GREAT time.. besides the fact that I was sick almost all day yesterday.. i had TOO spicy of food.. and welll.. bad things came out.. and it isn't that great of a story. .soo.. I'm just quite thankful I'm better! and am hoping I stay that way the rest of the time here! Thank you all for your support! it has not been a waste I will definately tell you that! Thank you all again. miss you all!!
~Jenny
Friday, July 3, 2009
Thursday, July 2nd
hey everyone - i got enoch here to blog so it wouldn't just be me. everybody likes play baget (baguette?) whatever and that's what most people are doing now or taking pictures or hanging out or something. on thursday morning, we had our last session with John Ray - he challenged us to put truth into action - that the only way to appropriate truth is to apply it. You do what you value and value what you do; it seems like circular logic but you experience the truth by both knowing and doing it. Basically, John was calling us to action. We had cultural seminars that day which were extremely helpful. Liya, Timur, D-Gil, and I were in the basic Spanish class with Katlyn. D-Mats, Jocelyne, and Jenny were in advanced Spanish. Everyone else took either the leading a child/adult to Christ class or the Spanish worship songs class. By all accounts, they were very good.
that night was also Africa night. We did this exercise where we all carried in these buckets containing strange but edible mystery drinks - like onions in water, or fruit loops with peaches, soy sauce combos. And one group got a mug with normal water. This symbolized access to water in Africa; where most water is polluted and women walk miles to get dirty, nasty water. It was a pretty powerful exercise. No more - I'm tired
that night was also Africa night. We did this exercise where we all carried in these buckets containing strange but edible mystery drinks - like onions in water, or fruit loops with peaches, soy sauce combos. And one group got a mug with normal water. This symbolized access to water in Africa; where most water is polluted and women walk miles to get dirty, nasty water. It was a pretty powerful exercise. No more - I'm tired
First Day of Outreach
Today was our first day of outreach.
We started by going to an orphanage/day care to do a VBS and play with the kids.
During the VBS, we found out that we were missing the music for some of the skits so we had to cut the puppet shows out. But our translater Giezi (Yessi) led all of us in singing some songs with the kids while we tried to find the music. It was just cool seeing all of the kids following along and doing the motions to the songs and having fun. We did not end up finding the music so we cut the VBS program short but we were able to spend more time hanging out with the kids, bond with them, and just have fun with the kids.
We also went to a park to do some park ministry and when we got there we found out we were not allowed to use our amplifier to play the music for our dramas. We did not know what to do at first since most of our ministry materials are dramas and skits. But since we were there we decided to make the most of our time at the park. So instead some of us did a prayer walk while the others began to make balloons to pass out and we wrote things in Spanish on the balloons like John 3:16, Jesus loves you, God loves you, God bless you. We spent some time passing out balloons when we met a pastor named Sammy who worked as a clown for 10 years before and he also began to join us and make balloons for the kids. He could blow up the balloons without a pump!! Crazy cool!! He could make things like flowers with hearts on them, a bird sitting inside a heart on a flower, a dog on a leash, and alot of other things. Sammy offered us his phone number so if we wanted we could call him up and have him teach us how to make the balloons.
Also, Dan Matsuoka met and talked to a man named Mike who was looking for a job. Mike lived in LA for a while and went to Calvary Chapel but was deported because he was caught for drug possession twice and he was looking for a job and a church to try and get back into a relationship with God. He was really encouraged by what we were doing and Dan and Giezi prayed for him and Giezi told him about a church that he would like.
It was just amazing to see how God turned the situation around. We went from not being able to do our ministry dramas to meeting Sammy and Mike and just being able to bless the people at the park with just sharing balloons and food.
This experience was a great reminder to me how our plans are not always what God intends and we should always be ready to follow Him whether or not we are prepared for it.
We started by going to an orphanage/day care to do a VBS and play with the kids.
During the VBS, we found out that we were missing the music for some of the skits so we had to cut the puppet shows out. But our translater Giezi (Yessi) led all of us in singing some songs with the kids while we tried to find the music. It was just cool seeing all of the kids following along and doing the motions to the songs and having fun. We did not end up finding the music so we cut the VBS program short but we were able to spend more time hanging out with the kids, bond with them, and just have fun with the kids.
We also went to a park to do some park ministry and when we got there we found out we were not allowed to use our amplifier to play the music for our dramas. We did not know what to do at first since most of our ministry materials are dramas and skits. But since we were there we decided to make the most of our time at the park. So instead some of us did a prayer walk while the others began to make balloons to pass out and we wrote things in Spanish on the balloons like John 3:16, Jesus loves you, God loves you, God bless you. We spent some time passing out balloons when we met a pastor named Sammy who worked as a clown for 10 years before and he also began to join us and make balloons for the kids. He could blow up the balloons without a pump!! Crazy cool!! He could make things like flowers with hearts on them, a bird sitting inside a heart on a flower, a dog on a leash, and alot of other things. Sammy offered us his phone number so if we wanted we could call him up and have him teach us how to make the balloons.
Also, Dan Matsuoka met and talked to a man named Mike who was looking for a job. Mike lived in LA for a while and went to Calvary Chapel but was deported because he was caught for drug possession twice and he was looking for a job and a church to try and get back into a relationship with God. He was really encouraged by what we were doing and Dan and Giezi prayed for him and Giezi told him about a church that he would like.
It was just amazing to see how God turned the situation around. We went from not being able to do our ministry dramas to meeting Sammy and Mike and just being able to bless the people at the park with just sharing balloons and food.
This experience was a great reminder to me how our plans are not always what God intends and we should always be ready to follow Him whether or not we are prepared for it.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Night of June 30, 2009
This is Joyce using Freddie's account: It was a clear, beautiful night, and we worshipped under the stars in the courtyard. Our speaker John spoke to us for the second time about motivation and the difference between Christianity and other religions. Some of the things he said that struck me the most are how constant revelation is what keeps us motivated and how we need to be buddhist (totally detached)towards the world and Christian (attached towards the right things) towards God. John also invited us to write down the sins that are keeping us from embracing God on a small slip of paper and to stick it in a sack bag.
After the talk, John lead us all into the recreational yard. As a newbie first timer, I didn't know what to expect and waited anxiously while everyone filed in. When we had all arrived, the back gates opened and we could hear the sound of a whip and anguished cries. What followed was a very real reenactment of the crucifixion. One of the most intense moments for me was when "Jesus" was nailed to the cross. Hearing the sounds of the hammer hitting the nails and "Jesus's" pain brought tears to me eyes. Because I've heard about the crucifixion so many times, I've become numbed to the story and watching it all unfold before my eyes, with the cold breeze intermingled with the heat of the torches, I could understand on all levels the immensity of Jesus's sacrficie for my sins, and for the sins of every human ever to exist.
After the talk, John lead us all into the recreational yard. As a newbie first timer, I didn't know what to expect and waited anxiously while everyone filed in. When we had all arrived, the back gates opened and we could hear the sound of a whip and anguished cries. What followed was a very real reenactment of the crucifixion. One of the most intense moments for me was when "Jesus" was nailed to the cross. Hearing the sounds of the hammer hitting the nails and "Jesus's" pain brought tears to me eyes. Because I've heard about the crucifixion so many times, I've become numbed to the story and watching it all unfold before my eyes, with the cold breeze intermingled with the heat of the torches, I could understand on all levels the immensity of Jesus's sacrficie for my sins, and for the sins of every human ever to exist.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
2nd day
Today is our 2nd day in Ensenada. We arrived yesterday and it was drizzling. We stopped at the Walmart in Rosarito. Its in this mega-mall plaza with Home Depot and a huge movie theatre that has all the latest movies just like back home (Transformers 2, etc.) but dubbed in Spanish. If you take away the Spanish, you wouldn't know we're in Mexico. The Walmart was huge. The main difference is the kind of produce they have and the unbelievable bakery. The pastries look SO good. Liya was the only one who bought something. I wish I did now. Right now, everyone is either doing skit training or VBS training. Our VBS coordinator is Dan Mats. Daniel and Alex round out the VBS team for today. I bet we are one of the only churches to have an all-guy VBS team. Awesomeness. The rest of the group is learning two skits - one is Wake Me Up (Evanescence song) and the other is Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2. Supposedly they are new this year which is pretty cool. We played games this morning. They were ok. We did an obstacle course and then played water balloon battleship.
The sessions have been pretty good. I like the speaker. His name is John Rey or Ray. He is not a pastor rather he does all kinds of social justice stuff. He is very down-to-earth. He's not very dynamic and he said he's not your prototypical youth speaker but something about him I really like. I see him as a man of action. He brought his wife and family with him. I'll see if I can find his bio on-line. Some people commented that there are much fewer teams than 2 years ago. Last time, there were like 200 people on the base. This year its just us and another team from Washington so its like 50 people here including staff. In our team time, I shared a passage last night about Gideon and how God turned 22,000 soldiers away from battling the Midianites because he did not want Israel to boast in their strength. God is doing the same thing with this group and the people here - we are few but we are going to do great things through Him and we cannot boast in our strength because of it.
The worship has been excellent. The worship leader is a guy named Axel. he's Mexican, his English is not very good, and he's hilarious. They taught us a song in Spanish and it was really good. The team is extremely talented. Four guitars and they sound really really good. The girl Katlyn has a beautiful voice.
I'm looking forward to the outreach time. I think we're going to be working with an orphanage, a disabled kids' ministry, and hopefully hooking up with the church from last time. Tonight, we're gonna have the sin bag service and some other special stuff. Please pray that God would move in our hearts to meet each one us personally, speak to us, and remove the obstacles that keep us from hearing His voice.
The sessions have been pretty good. I like the speaker. His name is John Rey or Ray. He is not a pastor rather he does all kinds of social justice stuff. He is very down-to-earth. He's not very dynamic and he said he's not your prototypical youth speaker but something about him I really like. I see him as a man of action. He brought his wife and family with him. I'll see if I can find his bio on-line. Some people commented that there are much fewer teams than 2 years ago. Last time, there were like 200 people on the base. This year its just us and another team from Washington so its like 50 people here including staff. In our team time, I shared a passage last night about Gideon and how God turned 22,000 soldiers away from battling the Midianites because he did not want Israel to boast in their strength. God is doing the same thing with this group and the people here - we are few but we are going to do great things through Him and we cannot boast in our strength because of it.
The worship has been excellent. The worship leader is a guy named Axel. he's Mexican, his English is not very good, and he's hilarious. They taught us a song in Spanish and it was really good. The team is extremely talented. Four guitars and they sound really really good. The girl Katlyn has a beautiful voice.
I'm looking forward to the outreach time. I think we're going to be working with an orphanage, a disabled kids' ministry, and hopefully hooking up with the church from last time. Tonight, we're gonna have the sin bag service and some other special stuff. Please pray that God would move in our hearts to meet each one us personally, speak to us, and remove the obstacles that keep us from hearing His voice.
Monday, June 29, 2009
A Night In Mira Mesa
We spent an awesome night here at Simon Huang, Simon Hsu, Randy and Stanley's place. Its a very nice house that they just moved into. We're getting ready to leave to be picked up by the YWAM vans in San Diego. Its nice and cool here in Mira Mesa, near San Diego. It was slightly chilly last night; we had all the windows open and the birds chirping provided a tropical feel. Our team is doing well. We have some peeps playing cards and Alex, Jack, and I recently returned from a donut run. Peace out.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Arrival!
We made it here safely! All of us in our single one pieces! Anywho, the trip down was a bit rough, a long drive, but over all, it was a fun ride down. We stopped by In N Out/Wendy's and got some dinner, and then continued. On the car I was in, we listened to some awesome worship jam music, as while playing games to get to know each other better. Often times it got really quiet because people got tired, but that's when those of us who were awake got to start taking pictures! A great start to our trip! More to come later on...!
Pictures of the Trip from YWAM
The link for the pictures is www.missionadventuresphotos.org
I believe it is updated daily during the trip. We're outta here!
I believe it is updated daily during the trip. We're outta here!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Car Wash Fundraiser
This past Saturday 6/20, we had a fundraiser to raise money and promote the trip within our neighborhood. We washed 44 cars and at least 15 of the cars belonged to people in our neighborhood who were passing by!!! Great job holding the signs Jasmine, Jenny, Erin, and Kim!!!
For pics go here
For pics go here
Welcome to the CCIC-SV Ensenada 2009 blog
Welcome to the CCIC-SV Ensenada 2009 Blog! From June 29th to July 8th, a group of high school students and youth counselors from our church, Chinese Church in Christ - South Valley (CCIC-SV), will embark on a trip to
This trip has already been quite a journey.
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