Friday, July 20, 2018

Norfolk Day #2 - 7.20.18

This morning, the Norfolk team woke up after a great night's sleep here at Spring Branch and ate breakfast. After breakfast, we headed down the road to Union Mission Ministries. Union Mission is a Christian based homeless shelter that serves the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. We dropped off the donations that our team had brought for Union, and then got to work in their warehouse. We split into teams in different sections of their main warehouse sorting area and spent the morning sorting, organizing, and packing food boxes that Union will hand out to families in need in the neighboring community. When we had finished with our assigned food packing duties, we went to a meeting room and got to talk with a staff member about what homelessness looks like in the Hampton Roads area and how the donations we brought and the food donations that we had just organized are going to help the over 300 men and women that spend the night in the shelter each night. We left Union and headed to a park nearby to have some lunch as well as some team bonding time where the kids (and leaders!) enjoyed the park! Our lunch spot was conveniently located near our afternoon site, Consulate Health Care. Consulate is an elderly healthcare facility with many residents who have either outlived their family or are not visited very often. Albeit a somewhat sad reality, they absolutely love when they get to have visitors and were elated to spend their afternoon with our team talking about their lives and asking about ours. We socialized with some of the residents and also settled in for what has become our annual Consulate bingo battle and as usual, our team could not hang with these seasoned veterans. We left Consulate in great spirits and headed to the beach for an hour or two of fun in the sun. We left the beach and came back to Spring Branch where we ate dinner and then gathered together for Porch Time. The team shared fun stories from the day during "Remember That Time" and we also had great participation during "I Saw Jesus!" It was exciting and encouraging to see so many members of our team share where they had seen Jesus at work in the places and people we encountered today. After singing a few worship songs, Nick gave the second talk of the trip which focused on our encounters with God or "Mountain Top Experiences" and how we should revel in them while on these trips and seek to create ways to remember and carry them with us as we head back into our everyday lives. After porch time, we split into small groups to discuss this further and then began to wind down for bed time. We had a great day and are excited to finish well tomorrow as we clean up here at Spring Branch and head to Park Place Child Life Center to spend our remaining time on the trip with the kids there before heading home. Your prayers are appreciated and we are excited to continue to see God at work here in Norfolk!

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Norfolk Day #1 - 7.19.18

This won't be too long of a post, as today was mainly a travel/set up day for us. The Norfolk team left the Chapel and traveled (slower than hoped) down I64, making it to Spring Branch Community Church. Spring Branch has graciously allowed us to stay in their Student Ministry Area for our time down here. When we arrived, we unloaded the vans and settled down for some dinner. We ate and had an opportunity to explore and settle into our home for the next two nights. We then all came together for this class's very first Porch Time! Porch Time is a staple on all of our Student Ministry Mission Trips. Tonight we set up what the "Remember That Time" and "I Saw Jesus" portions of Porch Time are so that they would be prepared for tomorrow night. For those of you who don't know, each of these are opportunities to share with the whole team both funny moments from the day, as well as times where anyone had seen Jesus at work in the people we interact with, at the sites we work at, or in their fellow team members. We then were led in a time of worship, where we joined our voices together to sing praise to our God. When the singing had ended, Nick gave the first of three talks of the trip. Tonight we spoke about the idea of "opportunity."  Everyone on this trip had the opportunity to not come, to do something else with their time and yet here we all are. Just as God acted in Abram’s life in Genesis 12-15, that we studied in our pre-trip meetings. We looked at the idea that we are called to be "ambassadors of Christ" as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:20. Part of being an ambassador of Christ is doing the work that we are called to do, as well as reflecting Christ in all that we say and do. After the talk, the team split up into small groups to continue to discuss this further. As small groups wound down, so too did the night and the team got ready for a good night's sleep in preparation for a full day tomorrow. For those who want further updates throughout the day, please text "NORFOLKPARENT" to 41411 and as always, prayers for God to move on this trip are appreciated!

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Norfolk Team Pre-Trip - 7.18.18

The Norfolk team leaves tomorrow! (Thursday, 7/19)

We will be meeting at 3 pm in Woodward Hall for Check-In and departure with the goal being to return around 4:30-5:00 pm on Saturday (depending on traffic).

Reminder to get on the text list by texting "Norfolkparent" to 41411. That's the best way we can mass communicate an accurate arrival time. The packing list is below and if you have any questions, please email Nick (nmercer@wcchapel.org).

We are ready for a fun trip this weekend!

Packing List 

Friday, July 13, 2018

NC Day #6 - 7.13.18

Our last full day here in North Carolina! We woke up early and had breakfast, but no morning worship today. Instead, we gathered with the other groups that are staying here with us and prayed for the clients who's houses we are working on, the staff here at ReCreation, and each of our respective teams. After our prayer, we headed to the work site and got after it! The team worked hard to finish up the projects that we had; digging the septic trenches and painting the house. Upon arrival we discovered that there had been some rain in the night and a few brave souls went into the our second, unfinished trench and bailed out the standing water so that we could get back to digging and leveling in preparation for the second line of piping to be laid. Because of the delay at the start the trench took longer than expected, but there was no discouragement from our team as they stepped up and worked hard for most of the morning and into the afternoon. Finally, after we had gotten the trench to the correct specifications, we began to lay in the piping.  Once that was set in place, we buried the pipes and leveled out the yard so that the homeowner can reseed the yard. The house was ready upon our arrival for a second coat of paint and the team divided and conquered to finish up all of the painting of the final coats before the work day was even officially finished! We cleaned up once everything was done and said our goodbyes to Ms. Sharon and her grandkids who we have gotten to know this past week. We headed back to ReCreation for some well earned free time before dinner. After dinner we joined together with the other groups here and all of the staff to worship together one last time. George encouraged us to not just enjoy serving this week, but to take the energy and servant hearts that we have seen on display this week back home with us. After this ReCreation end of the week worship time, our team convened for our final porch time. Rather than meet in the gym at ReCreation as we had all week, we met outside around a small fire so that we could admire God’s creation as we continued to worship Him. There was no ‘remember that time’ or ‘I saw Jesus’ tonight, we started straight in with continued worship, which was followed by Luke giving the final talk of the trip. Luke spoke about Abraham, who we had studied in our pre-trip training and we reviewed all that we had learned and how it applied to the week we had just had. Throughout our time studying Abraham we have seen him continue to build altars throughout his experiences: altars of appearance, calling, repentance, and assurance.  Luke used these as a guide for how we can structure our lives to be open to the leading of Jesus in Williamsburg like we have been here in North Carolina.  Then we looked at one final altar moment in Genesis 15 where God establishes a covenant with Abraham.  So we created a final altar of covenant moment for our team where we could put behind the things that are holding us back from fully committing to Jesus.  It was great to see our team take this moment of honesty to establish their own commitments with Jesus.  Finally, we closed our evening together in small groups as a team to discuss final commitments and realizations as we head back home. We will be leaving in the morning after breakfast and cleaning/packing up. If you aren't already, please sign up for our text list "NCPARENT" to 41411 to receive updates as we travel home!

Nashville Day 5 - 7.12.18

Hey Everyone!

We had a great day today. Students continued to work through our devotional booklets in the morning before heading out to their worksites to continue serving the organizations we’ve been building relationships with throughout the week.

In the afternoon, all of our groups participated in Urban Exposure where we split up into smaller groups of 3-4 and, loaded with sandwiches, water bottles and snacks, walked the streets of downtown Nashville seeking to meet people and have conversations with them. We learned a lot about what people facing homelessness deal with on a daily basis and met some incredible people who impacted us more than we impacted them.

In the evening, we bonded with other CSM church groups that are serving here this week as we played games and ate dinner together. We gathered our students for our second to last Porch Time of the trip and celebrated together all the moments where we have seen Jesus move today and passionately sang worship songs together. We had our very own Lauren Clark give the word tonight and students had awesome conversations in small groups as we processed our experience from the afternoon and thought through the two big choices we have as Christians everyday: Choosing Jesus or Choosing ourselves.

We are excited to give everything we have on our final full day tomorrow!

Thursday, July 12, 2018

NC Day #5 - 7.12.18

The North Carolina Team woke up this morning for our routine of breakfast, worship, and a talk from ReCreation Director George. George continued to encourage the team to serve joyfully as we finish out our week here in Weaverville. After morning service, we headed out to our work site to continue the work set before us. The majority of the group returned back to work on the septic trench lines. It was great to see such a positive attitude from them as they worked hard throughout the morning and we themselves up to finish one of our two trenches by the end of the work day. Tomorrow we are set up well to finish the second trench line, with maybe some time to spare! The remaining members of th team got back to tackling the painting of the main house we have been focusing on this week. With two coats of primer having been done earlier in the week, our group got after it with the first coat of the house color. By the time we left the work site for the day, we had finished the first coat and are ready to finish the house tomorrow! After a great day at the work site, we headed back to ReCreation for a shower and some hang out time before dinner. Following dinner we had our second to last Porch Time of the trip. Nick spoke from John 11 and focused on what we should be thinking about as we begin to switch our mindsets back to heading home to Williamsburg. After porch time the team split into small groups and had great discussions about how to take our experiences here and translate them back into our lives at home. After Porch Time, our team went to bed excited to get some sleep for our final work day tomorrow!

Nashville Day 4 - 7.11.18

Hello again from Nashville!

Our Wednesday started with our usual personal quiet time to reflect and process the trip as well as read scriture and journal. Today our groups implemented reading through the Prayer of Saint Francis at the end of our quiet time as a way to get into the mindset of becoming and “instrument of peace” as we head out to serve. (See below for full prayer)

After quiet time groups went out to serve in their service projects, continuing to build relationships with kids at the Andrew Jackson Boys and Girls Club, Youth Life Learning Center and Project Transformation (a community-oriented summer day camp for children and youth from low-income neighborhoods).

One of our groups got to visit the Giving Garden and do some manual labor picking weeds and cleaning up the fields. The Giving Garden produces over forty-one thousand pounds of produce each year that is then distributed between 21 different local partners serving food to low-income families and people who are homeles.

Last night we had our night off where we went downtown to the famous Wild Horse Saloon which is a 3-story music restaurant and music venue in the heart of Nashville. Students got to bond with each other’s groups, enjoy food and try their luck at learning to line dance. Because we had a night off, we put a pause of Porch Time for the night so students could hang out and get some rest. Tomorrow (Thursday) will be a big day for us as we take part in Urban Exposure. More on that in our next blog update. Thanks to all the parents that were able to come to the prayer meeting Please continue to pray for us as we serve Nashville.

NC Day #4 - 7.11.18

Today we began our morning with our new normal routine of an early wake up call, breakfast and morning worship with our ReCreation team! Today we had the opportunity to hear from the Director of ReCreation’s wife, Donna. She shared her testimony as she encouraged us as we enter the halfway point of the week. On Wednesdays here at ReCreation we get the day off from our work project as a way to promote team unity and gear up for a strong finish to the week. After listening to Donna’s talk we headed to the Brian Center, which is a rehabilitation and nursing facility that we have been privileged to partner with in our years of coming down to Weaverville. Our team split into 3 different groups at the Brian Center, one helped with some maintenance projects around their campus. Another group split up and had the opportunity to get to meet with residents and also help with a Bible Study that the Brian Center does every Wednesday. The third group got to go and visit with some of the residents in the Alzheimer’s Unit. After a great morning of getting to relationally connect with the residents, our team ate lunch with some of the staff at ReCreation (who graciously provided food for us!) After lunch we headed up into the Pisgah National Forest and we spent the afternoon at Sliding Rock, a natural water slide where we got to enjoy our afternoon off.
After a fun time at Sliding Rock, we headed to the May Family Barn that is owned by the family of a former SM Summer Intern that has become our traditional Wednesday night home for dinner and Porch Time. As with all Porch Times, we began with “Remember That Time” and “I Saw Jesus” where we all got to reflect on the day and share all the funny moments and the times where we saw Jesus at work! Luke spoke tonight from Luke 10, the parable of the Good Samaritan. He urged our team to consider where we are approaching situations selfishly and how we should switch to a compassionate mindset, like the Good Samaritan. After Porch Time in the barn, we headed back to ReCreation and had a little bit of free time before heading to bed.
We had a great day off, but are excited and energized to get back to our work site tomorrow and to see how God will continue to work in and through our team!

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Nashville Day 3 - 7.10.18

Another incredible and eventful day is coming to a close here in Nashville. As students wrap up their small group time. Here’s a little glimpse at what some of our groups did today.

This morning we kicked off the day with devotions and quiet time centered around compassion. Some groups spread out throughout the CSM space while a few other groups ventured out to local coffee shops with their leaders to fuel up and do quiet time in the community.

In the morning, some groups visited learning centers where students helped K-5 develop reading skills while some cleaned local parks and others visited Project C.U.R.E where they sorted and packed medical supplies that will be donated to hospitals and health organizations in developing countries.

We’ve had a couple of students with some minor stomach aches earlier today but those issues have been taken care of and students are feeling much better.

In the afternoon, some of our groups combined to do joint service projects. One of those projects involved helping at Second Harvest, one of the larger food banks in Tennessee. Students sorted and packed over 4,976 pounds of food that will go towards providing 4,147 meals that will be distributed to local non-profit organizations that feed people who are in need.

Tonight we had a very lively Porch Time. Students were energized and excited to share their experiences from the day and moments where they experienced Jesus. Small groups are deepening their bonds and having great conversations.

Good night from Nashville!

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

NC Day #3 - 7.10.18

Today, was our second full day with ReCreation Experiences and it began with our normal morning routine of wake-up, breakfast, and morning worship.  It has been fun to see our group lead the time of singing and dancing that ReCreation does to kick off their morning worship.  Not only does it wake them up, but it allows them to really just embrace singing worship songs to God without being self-conscious about what others think of them as they are doing it.  Following our time of singing Jorge gave a talk about the impact we can have on other people and challenged us to be a positive impact on those around us rather than a negative one.

After our morning routine we all loaded up in our vans to head over to our work site.  The kids were eager to jump back into the work that they had already begun yesterday.  So, we quickly split into the diggers and the painters as people grabbed shovels and paint brushes.  The trenches for the new septic system are looking great and by the end of the day were the correct length and width everywhere.  In the morning we finished all of the priming of the house and then in the afternoon we began the first coat of the final paint color for the house.  The team finished the day excited because they are able to see the path to finishing our projects for this family.  As we have been working we have been getting to know this family and their story.  It is a family of four that lives together here in the mountains. Their septic system had broken a few weeks ago, they had trash all over their yard, and the house just looked old and rundown.  So, our team has really embraced the opportunity to serve the needs of this family along with getting to know the mom and her two kids that have been there with us each day.

We finished our day of work well and then loaded up to head back to our housing site for dinner, some free time, and our evening porch time gathering.  We shared memories from the day together, sang some worship songs and then listened to a talk from Nick.  He used a couple passages from Colossians and 2 Corinthians to talk about the concept of incarnational ministry.  Incarnational ministry is the truth that Jesus can live in us and we have the opportunity to literally be Jesus to other people.  Nick talked about the importance of sacrificial love as we seek to represent Jesus to other people.  After his talk the team split up into their small groups to dig a little deeper into what it means to represent Jesus to others and how we can live out the call for sacrificial love.  It is so special to watch everyone start to really open up about their faith and where they are seeing God start to teach and show them things on this trip.  It has been a great day and we are excited to take our day off from the work site tomorrow to visit a local nursing home along with having some fun at sliding rock.

Nashville Day 2 - 7.9.18

Day 2 started off strong with our students having some personal quiet time to reflect, journal and dive into the devotionals we provided in their booklets.

Groups headed out to their serving sites after morning quiet time and got experience things like serving at a soup kitchen, running a day camp for kids at a boys and girls club, helping students at a learning center for low income families among other projects.

After lunch, all of our groups embarked on a prayer tour of Nashville. We visited historic sites and various neighborhood landmarks and prayed over schools, neighborhoods and ministry partner locations like “room at the inn” which uses rooms at a local boutique hotel as a day shelter for some of Nashville’s homeless population.

CSM staff led our groups in a neighborhood immersion project where students took on the identity of an average family from various different neighborhoods in town. Roles within the family were assigned to each students and collectively, they had to make decisions about how provide food for the family’s dinner while taking into account the limited resources they had and unexpected expenses like buying toilet paper and peanut butter for the home. We were then able to debrief the experience and discuss some of the causes and remedies of poverty in communities. One of the bigger takeaways for groups was realizing that poverty is not simply a lack of material resources but the result of broken relationships.

The night wrapped up with our first “Porch Time” of the trip where we gathered all of our groups and shared funny moments from the trip so far as well as moments where we saw Jesus move. We sang worship songs and had our first talk where we visited the Luke 10 passage where Jesus sent the 72 disciples and instructed them to “leave it all behind”. Small groups dove into the topic and discussed being fully present on the trip and putting aside things that would distract us and take away from our experience.

Nashville is off to a great start and we are excited for what tomorrow will hold for our students. 

Monday, July 9, 2018

NC Day #2 - 7.9.18

We had a great first day here in North Carolina! It began as all our mornings will from here on out, with an early wake-up call, breakfast, and morning worship. Worship is put on by the ReCreation staff and is a bit more up-tempo than we see at the Chapel, but the team embraced the difference and sang/danced the whole time! When worship ended we heard a brief message from Jorge Herrera, the director here at ReCreation, who spoke on "Standing on the Rock", their theme for the summer. We then set out for our work site, which is about 30 minutes from the ReCreation building. We are working at a home where the family has fallen on some hard times and a few work projects are needed to allow them to keep their home in a livable condition. We are putting on a new roof, painting, and digging a new septic line for them and well as doing a new roof and paint job on the grandmother of the family’s house which is right next door. While this sounds like a lot of work, our team was enthusiastic and accepted the challenge head on. We are also working on the same project with the other team that is here at ReCreation this week. Our team tore into the projects from the get-go and we finished the day at a great place to set us up for success to finish everything on schedule. After a great day of work, we headed back to ReCreation to clean up and have some dinner. The team got some down time after dinner and then we gathered together for Porch Time. Porch Time is a Chapel Mission Trip staple that consists of a few key elements. We start off with "Remember That Time" where students have the opportunity to share funny stories from the day that not everyone was likely a part of. This is followed by "I Saw Jesus" where the team shares stories of where they saw Jesus at work through the team and throughout the day. We were then led in a time of worship by Sam Otey and ended porch time with our first talk of the week. Nick spoke from Luke 10 and tied the story of the 72 being sent out by Jesus and the story of Abram being called by God in Genesis 12 with our team being sent here to Weaverville, NC. We studied Abram in our pre-trip meetings and throughout the week we will revisit Abram’s encounter with God as we work through our own. We discussed how in Luke 10, it does not say what happened when they were sent, just that they returned with joy and that as we work through this week, regardless of how well it goes "according to plan" God is behind it and God is with us! After Porch Time we split up into small groups to further discuss this idea and then began to wind down the night as we headed to bed to rest up for another great day! Thank you all for your continued prayers and we are so excited to continue to see and feel Jesus at work!

Nashville Day 1 - 7.8.18

Day 1 here in Nashville is coming to a close as the last couple of students are brushing their teeth and getting ready for bed while most others, exhausted from the long day of traveling, are already fast asleep.

As we left the Chapel this morning, we mixed up small groups into different vehicles so students would get to interact and get to know students who would be in other serving groups throughout the week. Van groups sang, played road trip games in the car and students began to get to know and bond with their leaders.

We drove a little over 12 hours today with a couple of gas, food and bathroom breaks built in. Halfway to Nashville we stopped at the Parkin’s Alpacca farm house in Rural Retreat VA where we got to stretch our legs, take in the the beautiful mountain view and load up on food before hitting the road.

One of our vans had to leave the pack and double back to the farm house to retrieve a retainer that was left behin which set that group back about 15 mins from the rest of the vans but ultimately we all made it to Nashville at roughly the same time. We are staying at CSM headquarters at the Eastland Baptist Church. It’s a big building with several floors of meeting space, sleeping areas and communal space perfect for hosting groups on mission trips. There are two other church groups here with us. One group is actually also known at “the chapel” from a church called Armstrong Chapel in Michigan. Both groups are a bit smaller than our but extremely kind and welcoming.

Once everyone brought their things to their rooms, we split up into our serving groups for the week and met the CSM hosts that will accompany each group to their different serving sites and headed out to dinner. Groups went to different ethnic restaurants around town including a Thai market restaurant where students got to learn a little bit about Thai culture and choose from various food options to try.

After dinner, all groups gathered in the sanctuary for a CSM official welcome and orientation of the week. We went over rules and expectations and well as had some time to reflect individually and in groups about why we are actually here, how we hope to grow this week and what we want to learn from the Lord.

Groups then had some free time to unpack, get settled and get ready for bed. We are so excited to be here and eager to start serving tomorrow.

Sunday, July 8, 2018

NC Day #1 - 7.8.18

Our first day was mostly filled with travel as we left Williamsburg and headed to Weaverville, NC.  Our drive was smooth and filled with fun van games as kids and their leaders started to bond and build relationships.  We arrived at our housing site around 4:45pm and got settled in our rooms before dinner.  Our housing site is an old school building that ReCreation Experiences has turned into their headquarters for all the groups that come into work throughout the summer.  It is a great space with the old gymnasium serving as the dining hall and corporate gathering spot while the classrooms serve as the bedrooms for the groups.  It is a seven acre property that has a big open field for soccer, football, wiffleball, and frisbee as well as a full basketball court.  This gives everyone a great chance to play some games and have some fun during free time.  

Dinner was pizza, a full salad bar, and ice cream sandwiches for dessert.  Following our first meal of the trip we gathered along with the other two church groups for a time of corporate worship to kick-off our week with the ReCreation staff.  The music was high energy and the ReCreation director, Jorge, gave us an introduction to the work site where we will be all week along with a vision for what God has in store for us this week.  We will be serving a family that has two houses next to each other by digging them trenches for a new septic system, painting both houses, and repairing their roofs.  So, it is going to be a great week with a very purposeful and needed project.  

Our night ended with some free time to play games outside, showers, and then lights out for bedtime to get a good night’s sleep for our first day of work tomorrow.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Costa Rica Day 7 - 6.27.18

We had an amazing day here at our debrief site. We had our second debrief small group this morning followed by some quiet time. Taking time to connect with the Lord one on one is something that is not done enough in our day to day lives and allowing the team to take the opportunity to process what they have experienced on this trip has been a very beneficial activity. Following our small group and quiet time, we had some free time where the team was able to spend some time on the beach swimming, playing volleyball, and playing soccer.

After a great day of experiencing the beautiful beach of Costa Rica and a delicious pizza dinner our team gathered for our final porch time.  This is our final moment for the kids to analyze how they can use what they have learned and seen here in Costa Rica back in Williamsburg.  Luke re-visited the story of Abraham that we studied prior to our trip in the pre-trip meeting to close out our study on him.  Throughout our time studying Abraham we have seen him continue to build altars throughout his experiences: altars of appearance, calling, repentance, and assurance.  Luke used these as a guide for how we can structure our lives to be open to the leading of Jesus in Williamsburg like we have been here in Costa Rica.  Then we looked at one final altar moment in Genesis 15 where God establishes a covenant with Abraham.  So we created a final altar of covenant moment for our team where we could put behind the things that are holding us back from fully committing to Jesus.  It was great to see our team take this moment of honesty to establish their own commitments with Jesus.  Finally, we closed our evening together in small groups as a team to discuss final commitments and realizations as we head back home.

We have truly had a blessed trip and we look forward to sharing more stories when we see you all in Williamsburg.

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Costa Rica Day 6 - 6.26.18

After our usual morning routine of devotion, alone time, and breakfast we headed out for final morning in the la cuenca community.  We went to a different park in the community that had a soccer field, swings, and a jungle gym which was a great spot for kids of all ages to join in with us.  Upon arrival we split up and went out to the surrounding homes to invite kids over to the park.  The older kids stayed at the soccer field to play some pick-up soccer while they younger kids gathered in the shade of an overhang for another vbs lesson on Jonah.  Since we were in a different part of la cuenca it was a different set of kids and so we were able to use the same lesson from the previous day.  Part of our team acted out the story of Jonah while Isaac narrated.  Then Luke gave a short lesson on obedience to God along with a testimony from a member of our team about obedience to God in their own life.  Following the lesson we had a pipe cleaner and bead craft to make whales for all of the kids to take home.  It was so great to see our team finish well in the community and work hard until the last minute to care and love our new friends of la cuenca.

After the vbs lesson and snacks we went back to our original la cuenca location to say goodbye to all of the kids that we have developed relationships over the week.  It was a tear-filled goodbye because God has truly created some deep bonds between our team and the kids.  God has shown up in some unexpected but great ways through these kids and I think we will remember them and their impact on us forever.

Following the goodbyes our team ate lunch at vidanet and then loaded up on the bus for a long bus ride up to our debrief location in Tamarindo, Costa Rica.  Upon arrival, the team was excited to see that our debrief location is a hostel on the beach.  We choose to have a day of debrief because it is very important for us to take time to process all that we have seen and experienced.  So, this hostel called Casa Aura is going to be the location for us to discuss, reflect, and listen as we open ourselves up to the transformation that God is wanting to enact in us.  After getting checked in we walked down to a local food court for dinner, spent a little bit of time souvenir shopping, and then gathered together for our first of three small group times while we are here.  We re-visited Abraham who was the character we studied in our pre-trip meetings to start looking back at our week for encounters with God and moments that helped us connect to God.  We are excited to continue processing and please be praying that God would seal the lessons we have learned on our hearts and minds during our final day here in Costa Rica.

Monday, June 25, 2018

Costa Rica Day 5 - 6.25.18

Sunday's are always great days on our international mission trip because they start with a chance to join in worship with a local congregation.  We went with the Vidanet staff to Rey de Reyes (King of Kings) church for a morning of worship.  It was special to reflect on how our God crosses culture, language, country, and race as we worshipped at the same time as you all in Williamsburg.  The church welcomed us and provided a translator for us throughout the service so that we were able to engage with all that was going on.

Following the service and lunch at the church our team headed back to la cuenca.  We were all excited for the afternoon because the plan was to split into smaller groups to deliver food, prayers, love, and conversation to the actual homes within la cuenca.  La cuenca is basically a bunch of tin-roofed homes that are all attached to one another to form a few big structures that are separated by narrow and muddy pathways.  Each group visited a different section of the community along with a few vidanet staff to translate.  At each home the group would introduce themselves, give the family a bag of food, ask them about their lives, and close in prayer.  Every team came back sharing stories of how the people of la cuenca gladly welcomed them in and were very grateful for the food but just as grateful for the prayers.  One group had a man commit his life to Jesus through their conversations with him while other groups heard stories of steadfast faith in the midst of extreme tragedy and pain.  It was a powerful day of getting to see the realities of extreme poverty while at the same time seeing the peace and joy of God still being manifested amidst these awful circumstances.

Afterwards we headed back to our headquarters for dinner and our final porch time here at Vidanet (we will have one more at our debrief site).  Isaac gave a great message on how to understand why those in poverty are seemingly able to experience happiness in ways that our team in Williamsburg can struggle with and he called it the secret of the poor.  He used Luke 12 to quote Jesus in saying that life is not found by simply working hard to build bigger barns to hold all of the stuff we accumulate.  Instead, it is only those who are rich towards God that find fulfillment in life.  He closed by jumping to Luke 14 as well to use the story of the great banquet to challenge our team to stop building bigger barns and instead build bigger tables that use our resources to welcome other people into the Kingdom of God.

Finally, we closed our evening with another time in small groups to discuss the secret of the poor followed by a time of "sweet fellowship" where we all continued conversations, played music, and bonded with each other.  Tomorrow is our last morning in la cuenca before we head to our debrief site in Tamarindo.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Costa Rica Day 4 - 6.23.18

We had an early departure time today and so we loaded up to go immediately after our morning devotional and breakfast.  The reason we left early was to maximize our time at a local amusement park for some of the families from the la cuenca community.  The families that joined us at the amusement park are connected to a branch of vidanet called El Nido, which means "the nest".  This is a pregnancy center for women who have experienced rape or trauma in their life and live in the la cuenca community.  So, a group of about 40 women and children connected to El Nido joined us in the amusement park for the day. 

We split into small groups and took these moms and kids around the park to rides, snacks, lunch, and arcade games.  It was a beautiful sight to watch the faces of these kids light up with excitement as they were able to ride rides and have a once in a lifetime experience.  For example, it was one of the girl's birthday today and she told us that this was the best birthday ever.  Later, her mom told us that she probably would not have gotten anything for her birthday if we hadn't taken them to the amusement park.  It was very special to see our team selflessly run around with these kids, give the mom's a break, and bring such great love and joy into their lives.

After the amusement park we hopped on the bus and went back to our headquarters for dinner and another porch time gathering.  During this porch time it was really neat to watch as more and more people started sharing moments where they saw Jesus.  Our team has really started to open their eyes and see God's presence working through each other as their friends are performing selfless acts that don't often happen normally in their lives.  Luke spoke tonight from Romans 1 to answer the question: Why is their suffering in the world?.  He said that human selfishness either causes or perpetuates all suffering in the world.  Then he closed by saying that although selfishness leads to suffering selflessness leads to life and challenged the group to think about how God uses selfless people to bring life into the suffering of this world.

Our evening closed with some small group discussion time as everyone continued to dive into the selfishness of their own lives along with what it could look like to allow daily worship to move us towards selflessness.

Saturday, June 23, 2018

Costa Rica Day 3 - 6.22.18

During our time here at vidanet their staff starts each morning with a devotional thought for everyone followed by quiet time.  It was such a great thing to see our team take serious the challenge to spend 45 minutes alone processing and reflecting on their time so far in Costa Rica.  Many of them told us later that they have never taken that much time to just be silent with God and that it was very helpful for them.  Following our quiet time we joined together for a hot breakfast and then loaded up for our morning activity.

Our morning was spent taking a group of kids from the impoverished la cuenca community to a local roller skating rink.  It was both hilarious and inspiring to watch our team fall together with the Costa Rican kids as well as help them get right back up and laugh it off.  In addition to the skating we had a local christian rapper who came to the skating rink to share his music and story of transformation.  He talked about the switch in his life from valuing fame to valuing Jesus which was great for everyone to hear. 

After a pizza lunch at the skating rink, we headed back to the la cuenca community where we split into two groups.  Half of our team joined in with the older youth in the community to play soccer while the other half ran an afternoon of vbs for the younger kids.  We taught the kids about Jonah and the truth that God knows what's best for us, so we should always obey Him.  We ended our afternoon with snacks and other fun games together with the kids.  Our team has really embraced the importance of and opportunity to care and love these kids who normally have very few older figures in their lives that tell them they are wonderful and loved.

Following our day with the la cuenca kids we headed back to our vidanet headquarters for dinner and our second porch time together.  Tonight, we had a lot of members of the vidanet team here in Costa Rica join us and even play instruments with us during the music portion of our evening.  It was special to be praising the same God alongside people from a different country.  Isaac gave a talk on incarnational ministry tonight which is just the concept that Jesus actually can live in us and that we bear the image of God in everything that we do.  He challenged us to think about how foggy that image is right now and what responsibilities being image-bearers carries with it.

We closed our evening in small groups where we continued to process our experiences here in Costa Rica as well as started to take a close and honest look at our own lives and the image we are portraying to others and how we can be more fully aware of Jesus in our lives.  We had a great day filled with wonderful experiences and we are looking forward to taking kids from la cuenca to a local amusement park tomorrow.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Costa Rica Day 2 - 6.21.18

We began our day sleeping in after our long day of travel.  We woke up to a delicious continental breakfast of fresh pineapple and papaya, cereal, and costa rican coffee.  It energized us as we began to take in our new surroundings for the first time in the light.  Due to the higher elevation of our housing site the morning was very mild and pleasant to begin our day.  After breakfast we were introduced to all of the vidanet staff that are helping run our trip.  They have a discipleship program for students in their early twenties and so there is a group of about 10 students from Costa Rica, Honduras, and America that are serving as our translators and coordinators for the week.  We got to learn a little bit about them, the mission of vidanet, and the place we would be serving this week.

After lunch at our housing site we loaded up to go to a local Nicaraguan refugee community called la cuenca where we will be serving all week.  This is a very poor squatter community that is basically a bunch of tin roofed homes built alongside of each other where families of 4-6 people often pack into one room to sleep together.  We partnered with a local ministry that runs Christian day programs for kids and youth in the community to provide support and love to this impoverished place.  Our team took the charge and immediately began to give kids rides on their shoulders, draw in coloring books, play soccer, and generally bring light to a place that has a lot of darkness.  Today was all about getting to know the kids and community and then we will be doing some VBS lessons later in the week.  

Once we finished up our time with the kids of la cuenca our team loaded up to head back to our housing site for dinner and our first porch time.  Dinner was a delicious meal of rice, beans, marinated chicken, and plantains which our team really enjoyed.  Following dinner we circled up in one of the community rooms here for our first porch time.  Porch time is our evening worship gathering where we remember funny and inspiring moments from the day, praise God through music, and listen to a talk that helps us engage with some of the tough questions that Costa Rica has started to stir in us.  For this porch time Luke used the Bible passage from Luke 10 where Jesus sends his seventy two followers out on their own mission trip as a model for our week.  He talked about the importance of leaving behind our normal expectations for how we operate on a daily basis and instead be present and focused here in Costa Rica.  

Finally, our day finished with our small group discussion time where we split up to discuss and process.  We talked about our first impressions of la cuenca and what things were holding us back from fully engaging in the work God has set before us here in Costa Rica.  It was such a great end to a wonderful day as Jesus has already begun to stir new thoughts in our minds and show up in some unexpected ways for out team.

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Costa Rica Day 1 - 6.20.18

Our first day was filled with all sorts of different modes of transportation.  First, we took an Oleta charter bus up to Dulles early in the morning as our team was filled with excitement for the beginning of our journey.  Next, we took our first flight to Houston, Texas as we began our trip southwards.  In Houston, our team was already starting to bond as this new shared experience took new steps towards Costa Rica.  In Houston, we were delayed for a little while as we waited for a storm to pass which was a great opportunity for our team to start learning new card games, talk about what they are excited for on the trip, and spend quality time together.  

Our flight from Houston to Costa Rica went smoothly and we were met by the friendly staff of Vidanet (the organization that is housing us) with an old yellow American school bus.  Our final leg of the journey was to ride on this school bus down to San Jose where we were first introduced to our housing site for most of the trip.  The team was tired but also excited to have arrived at our location and we all separated into our rooms to get to bed and sleep in before starting our first full day in Costa Rica.


Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Costa Rica

Just a reminder that we are going to meet at the Chapel at 7am Wednesday, June 20th for our departure to Costa Rica.


Friday, June 8, 2018

Senior Experience Meeting #1 - 6.5.18

We had our first of two Senior Experience meetings this Tuesday where we went over some administrative/logistical information regarding the trip as well as dove into our first Abraham teaching as we gear up for our week of serving others.

Below you will find the powerpoint presentation used at the meeting as well as the checklist of tasks students/parents involved in this trip should complete before our next meeting on July 17th. Please also be sure to register for VBS as a volunteer as we will be serving there all week July 23rd-27th and complete the background check form if you are over 18 and participating in this trip.

PRESENTATION

CHECKLIST

VBS REGISTRATION

BACKGROUND CHECK FORM (if you are over 18)

-SM Team

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Updated Costa Rica Packing List

Packing List

Just text or email Luke with any other specific packing questions.
lkincaid@wcchapel.org
757-570-0292

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Nicaragua Meeting - 5.15.18

Thanks for coming out last night to hear all of the new details about our trip to Costa Rica.  Here are the slides that we went over along with the informational letter to send out to all of you donors.  I still have more letters and stamped envelopes leftover from last night if you weren't there or didn't grab enough to send the informational letters to you donors.  You can come stop by the Chapel and grab some from me.  Please remember to send the donor informational letters or new support letters this week.

The big changes were our new dates for the trip, June 20th-27th, and new partner organization, Frontier Horizon.

Costa Rica Meeting Slides

Costa Rica Meeting Checklist

Donor Informational Letter


Friday, May 11, 2018

Nicaragua Update - 5.11.18

If you missed our meeting this past Tuesday the big news is that we have had to change the location for our summer international mission trip.  We are no longer going to Nicaragua because of the civil unrest in the country due to tension between the president and protest groups.  Instead we are going to be traveling to Costa Rica where we will be doing very similar work but in a currently safer country.

Please join us this Tuesday (5.15) for a special meeting to get more details about the Costa Rica trip and how we are going to update our donors.  The meeting will be at 6:30pm in Ross Hall which is upstairs and easiest to get to by coming in the children's ministry door West 3.

Email Luke Kincaid at lkincaid@wcchapel.org if you have any further questions.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

North Carolina Meeting #1

Thanks to those who made it to the first North Carolina meeting!

We covered a lot of information in the Parent section, so below you will see links to the parent presentation as well as all of the literature that we gave out and the forms you will need to turn in before we leave for Weaverville this July.

Parent Presentation

ReCreation Information

ReCreation Forms (to be turned in at the next meeting)

WCC Parent Consent Form

Packing List

Meeting #1 Check List


In the student portion of the meeting, we began our character study for the summer. This year we are looking at Abraham, beginning in Genesis 12 and looking at his encounters with God as preparation for our own coming experiences on the trip this July!

If you have any questions, please email Nick - nmercer@wcchapel.org

Nashville Meeting 1 Recap

Thanks to all parents and students that came out to our first Nashville trip meeting last night! Below you will find links to the parent meeting presentation as well as packets that were included in the welcome folders. Our next meeting will be our Missions Team Night on June 1st from 4:30- 11:00pm for students going on all of our summer Mission Trips. If you have any questions about any of the information covered in the documents below don’t hesitate to reach out to Isaac at igoncalves@wcchapel.org

-SM Team

Parent Meeting Presentation

CSM Info Packet

Nashville Packing List

Checklist to be completed before next meeting

Support Letter Instructions

Norfolk Meeting #1

Thanks to everyone who came out to our first Norfolk Meeting!
Below you will find links to the parent meeting presentation as well as the parental consent form (if you still need one of those.)

Parent Meeting Slides

Parental Consent Form

Packing List

Meeting #1 Checklist

After the parent portion we began our character study for this year, looking at Abraham from Genesis 12. We will be studying his story and encounters with God as preparation for our own experiences this summer on our trip.

Our next meeting will be our Missions Team Night on Friday, June 1st from 4:30-11pm where we will continue with our teachings on Abraham as well as have a team bonding experience and continue our preparations for the trip this July!

If you have any questions, please email Nick - nmercer@wcchapel.org

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Nicaragua Update - Trip Status

Dear Families,

I am continuing to monitor the situation in Nicaragua very closely and have stayed in regular communication with Orphanetwork about our trip.  Through Orphanetwork I am able to hear how the US government, the Peace Corp, and other organizations are handling things in Nicaragua in order to give us an up to date and accurate gauge of things.  So, I would like to invite everyone to come to the first 30 minutes of our Nicaragua team meeting on Tuesday at 6:30pm so that I can give you an in-person update on the situation in Nicaragua as well as the plan moving forward.  Just continue to more forward as planned at this point, but I will give you a lot more specifics on Tuesday about our timeline on things.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Luke
lkincaid@wcchapel.org

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Nicaragua Update - Political Protests

Dear Families of the Nicaragua Team,

As some of you may have heard there are currently some political protests occurring in Nicaragua.  Orphanetwork’s staff on the ground is reporting that the situation has turned a corner towards peace since the weekend.  

As always the safety of our students is a primary concern and so I, and Chapel leadership, are closely monitoring the situation alongside Orphanetwork.  Our Nicaragua team at this point will continue with our training, planning, and equipping with the hope that our trip will proceed as planned.  We will be sure to keep you updated throughout the process and if you have any questions just let me know.

Let’s continue to pray for our team, our partners in Orphanetwork, and the nation of Nicaragua as we closely monitor the ongoing situation.  We are grateful to have a close partnership with Orphanetwork who is communicating directly with the US embassy in Managua, the pastors on the ground, and their Nicaraguan staff to obtain accurate information and assess the situation.

Finally, please sign up for our parent text list by texting NICAPARENT to 41411 for parents and NICASTUDENT to 41411 for students because we will handle all future communication through texting and the blog at wccsmtrips.blogspot.com.


Luke Kincaid
SM Pastor

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Nicaragua Parent Meeting 4.10.18

Here are all of the forms and information from our Nicaragua Parent Meeting.

Parent Meeting Slides

Meeting Checklist

ONET Form

Support Letter Instructions

Chapel Parental Consent Form

Please don't hesitate to contact Luke at lkincaid@wcchapel.org or Isaac at igoncalves@wcchaepel.org if you have any further questions.