The Lord Is Preparing The Way

Will and I are finishing up all of our To Do's and Packing List; and the Lord has definitely been leading every step of the way. Leaving a house, family, and friends for two and half months is crazy and stressful.....but God has blessed us so much. Things have been smooth and each day we are able to cross off something big from our list. Sweet Sweet people have paid for our gas going down and our gas coming home.....The Lord Is Great!

Basically I just wanted to let anyone who actually reads this know that God is already blowing our minds and we haven't even left! So Praise God:)

Our Tentative Schedule For Mexico

This is the sch. for the youth groups going on the trips...I sorta edited it some to for what Will and I will actually be doing....but anyways....it is a general outline of what we will be doing every week.

When the sch. says Ministry Blocks....this means things like: VBS, Living Water (passing out purified water in hopes of a good chit chat), Prayer Walks, Construction, Sports (soccer, soccer, and more soccer), and other needs that the local churches need us to help with.

Saturday

Basically we are picking the groups up and crossing the boarder with them (if they want us to help) around mid-day.

1:00 - Teams begin arriving at the Gateway and settling in.

7:00 - Dinner at the Gateway

7:45 - Gateway orientation and worship

8:45 pm - Project Facilitators check in with youth pastors! Let the little chickies run free (but no running in the parking lot!), go to Nena's (for hamburguesas and joya), etc.

Done around 10:30

Sunday

8 am - Breakfast

8:45 am - Participants and leaders spend time alone with Jesus (Devotionals)

9:15 am - AIM training, ministry orientation, learn how to use a translator, cultural do's and don'ts, etc.

11:00 am - Break to get ready for the market and evening church services

11:45 - Lunch at the Gateway: sandwich, apple, chips, and cookies

12:30 - Leave for the market

1:00 - Allow groups (and maybe even us) to shop a little bit in the local markets in Mexico....it is play before work!

3:30 - Leave the market and head to the ministry sites

4:00 - Meet your pastor and prayer walk his colonia. Invite the community to the service.

5:30 - Worship with the church in your colonia

7:00 - Share a meal with the congregation. We bring the food. The American groups will serve the church and then eat and fellowship with them.

7:45 - Depart to head back to the Gateway

8:30 pm - Project Facilitators check in with youth pastors, showers, team time if desired, etc.

Done around 10:30

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday

8 am - Breakfast

8:30 am - Silence and Time to be alone with God

9:00 am - Concert of Prayer

10:00 am - Leaders Meeting/Free Time for Groups

10:30 am - Ministry Prep (team time to get ready for the day: practice VBS, gather supplies, fill up water bottles, put on sunscreen, etc.)

Project Facilitators check in with Youth Pastors and allow them to exhaust every question and concern!

11:15 am - Lunch at the Gateway (sandwich, apple, chips, and cookies)

11:45 am - Leave for the colonias in Matamoros or other ministry sites

12:30 pm - First ministry block

3:00 pm - Break and snacks

3:30 pm - Switch to second ministry block

6:00 pm - Leave the ministry sites

7:00 pm - Leaders Meeting

7:30 pm- Dinner at the Gateway (warm and filling meal). Then we will probably get clean:)

8:30 pm - Evening Debrief (Brief corporate worship time and then around 9:00 pm groups will break off with their team to debrief the day)

9:30 pm - Project Facilitators check in with youth pastors! Done around 11:00....A.K.A.:Karan Anne will probably be sleeping by 11:00.

Wednesday

~~~Wednesdays are different!~~~

8 am - Breakfast

8:30 am - Silence/Time to get alone with God

9:00 am - Concert of Prayer

10:00 am - Instructions for Day

10:30 am - Service Ministry Block in Ejido Buenos Aires (neighborhood where the Gateway is located).

12:30 pm - Lunch

1:30 pm - Second Ministry Block/VBS

3:30 pm - Break and snacks

4:00 pm - Sports/Carnival

6:00 pm - Cook Out

7:00 pm - Community Worship, Band

9:00 pm - Team Debrief

11:00 pm - Lights Out

Friday

We will take groups back over the boarder around 10:00 am and say Good Bye!

Then Will and I will have some time off hopefully until the next group arrives!