Blume 2011 - Arrived home!

We arrived home a little after midnight last night. Thank you God for this week and the amazing opportunity to go and be with all the teen girls that share common interest. Thank you God for the work you have begun in us and through us this week, help us to stay on task with living a life according to your call FEARLESSLY~~

Blume - Saturday and The Magic Kingdom :)

Closing session for Blume was amazing!! Great way to end the conference!! We were able to hear from other Missionaries and one girl that was 20 years old who had been rescued from Russia when she was 10. God has began a good work here at BLUME and the challenge there is to take it home and live it out FEARLESSLY!!! 2 Timothy 1:7 After closing session we had lunch and YES headed to the Magic Kingdom!! We had a great day of fun and fellowship, thank you God for "girl time" and relationships that are being built!! As you can tell by the time... we closed down the Magic Kingdom and the girls all had a great time! Heading to bed now, Disney Hollywood Studios in the morning and then to Fayetteville. So thankful for each of you and the prayers and encouragement you have been sending our way :)

Blume - Friday

There is only one word for today... WOW!! My heart and mind are so full with so many things that I have seen, heard and learned today! God is good and Praise the Lord He is not finished with me yet!! Let me try to give you an overview, we went to Epcot this morning and did activities there to help us learn more about the G3 motto of Acteens. The power of 1 girl to change the world!! Where does the 3 come in? One girl and her relationship with Christ, her ability to impact the girl next door as well as across the world. How awesome is that!! God is good! How did we do this today? We worked at Epcot on the girls made them think about themselves and the differences in them and girls across the world... the BIG picture here, there are some real similarities! Then we worked on how they can influence change and somethings they can do. Our verse for the week has been 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control." God help us use the power YOU have equipped us with to impact the Kingdom ALL for your GLORY!!! Tomorrow is morning sessions and then off to Magic Kingdom for our free time. I know rough life :) Thank you God for the FUN let us shine our light for you!!

Blume -Thursday Night

Wanted to post and let you know how AMAZING worship was tonight and the Story concert. Never heard of Story until tonight but what an amazing group of women living for the Lord and setting an great example for these young girls. Got to spend some time with them afterwards and it was cool!!

BLUME 2011

We are having an incredible time here in Orlando, FL at BLUME 2011, formerly known as the National Acteens Conference. We arrived yesterday (sorry for the delay in updating, there were some connection issues) and have had a packed schedule. We had an amazing worship time last night and heard from North American Missionaries. We were able to meet the lady that started the first National Acteens Conference as a college student, that was pretty cool. Also, we have worship leader Cindy Johnson who has been great and guest speaker Chandra Peele. Chandra is an author of some very good books for teen girls. If you have never heard of her I encourage you to check out her books. Today has been packed with conferences, break out sessions and Bible study. Some of these have taught us more about Missions and God's command to go out and share the gospel. While others have challenged us to grow in our faith and be REAL. I mean you can't share what you don't have, and you can't be passionate about someone you don't know!! If you want to see the world through GOD'S eyes you have to get into the word so you will know what He sees!! Coolest thing so far was getting to write our name on a canvas respresenting the tree of life. How humbling and awesome!!The girls are all doing well and having a great time. Only one complaint "There is not enough time to go to EVERY session and the sessions are so good they don't want to choose". That is a great problem to have!! Thank you all so much for following us, praying for us and sending us encouragement. We are truly blessed to be here to learn more about Missions, ourselves and a passion and desire to be part of God's plan!! We are heading to worship now, and then a concert by the group Story. Tomorrow we go to Epcot to the YES program this is an educational program to help us learn about others around the world. Pray for safety and as you might have guessed it is HOT so pray for health. There are 2300 girls + leaders here from all over the US. So pray that everywhere we go, everyone we see will see Christ in us!!

Home Sweet Home

We made it back to Atlanta last night about 8:30!

Thanks so much for your prayers! It was a great trip and a great experience, especially for the students. I am sure you will be hearing more about it in the weeks to come!

Thursday

Well today was our last day at our work site. There were many sad American students and also many sad people in the camp that hated to see us leave. All it all it was a great few days of ministering. The Gospel was shared through drama, one on one (or group), and through our time and fellowship. I had the opportunity with one of our translators today to share with 5 men at the camp for over 2 hours. It looks like the JW's (jehova's witness) have been in the camp a few times as well and really caused a lot of confusion. So we spent some time answering questions and then flat out sharing the Gospel. It was a great opportunity to share but with these folks being so poor they feel like they have to steal and beg for $ to make it and since they know that is wrong it makes it tougher for them to want to accept Christ as they know what the right thing to do is. we of course walked through this with them and they understood as best as possible. Tim (pictured below by himself) is the IMB missionary here and will be following up.

We are now about to head to worship the dinner. Then we will be back to pack and go to sleep. We will leave in the morning at 5:30a.m. (Rome time) to catch our flight. Therefore this will probably be the last time I blog before we get home. And just a reminder parents (or whoever is picking up your student) be sure and be on time and you can also check the flight online to make sure it is on time. But again please be on time as you can imagine we are all tired (Good Tired) and ready to be home!

Oh and I also blogged a second time on Wed (after the Coliseum and Paul's prison so be sure to check that out).

Praise be to GOD for HE has done great things!

Wednesday Part 2

A trip to the Coliseum and Paul's Prison deserved a second post today. For me the most incredible thing I have seen since I have been here is Paul's Prison. It was nothing fancy and I am sure it has changed some since many years ago but simply being there and also taking it in context with God's Word was incredible! The Coliseum was great as well, we have a team picture there that we will receive later.

Now off to bed as it's almost midnight here!!!

Wednesday

Well it's almost 5:00pm here in Rome and we are back from our work day. Another full day as we were able to have some great talks with kids, teenagers, and adults today about Christ! Some were really open and really had a lot of questions. We also had a lot of fun with the kids that included Bible stories, jump rope, salvation bracelets, and more.

We just got back and have a "free night" tonight. So we are going to dinner and then to see the Coliseum and also Paul's prison. Many of use have been looking forward to this all week.

Continue to pray as tomorrow is our last "work day." Pray that God would give us direction on what we need to do and opportunities to continue to share.

Here are some of the pictures from today. Everyone is doing great!

Tuesday

Well today was a full day. I think I forgot to mention that our site is about an hour bus ride (longer depending on traffic and wait time) away from where we are staying. Sometimes we get so sit all the way and sometimes we stand just depends on how full the bus is. We left here this morning at 9:00 and arrived about 10:30. We then were able to stay and work in the camp for about 5 hours. We played soccer, basketball, did dramas, balloons, sang songs, and told Bible stories. We had well over 100 kids today. They loved playing with us and those that could used us to practice their English.

We have 3 more days. Pray that their will be some opportunities to share the gospel. The parents are often there much of the day as well so we can share with them to. Also pray that as we are being the hands and feet of Christ God's love will be revealed to them.

I have added some more pictures. The one with the bed is my room (and typical of all the rooms). And did I mention no AC? It's all good though as we are mainly in here to sleep and by the time we get to bed it doesn't matter what temperature it is as everyone is so tired after a full day! All is well and thanks for the comments I have been sharing them with the group.

Monday

Happy 4th of July!!!!! We saw a few Americans today that wished us a Happy 4th. Being in Rome is great but there is no place like the United States.

Today we were able to engage the people we are ministering to this week. Yesterday the would not let us in to the camp (although all the paperwork had been filled out). They wanted more so we got what they wanted today and still almost didn't let us in. After they figured we were going to be persistent and were there to help they let us in. Best way to describe it is government housing at it's LOWEST. These people live all around trash and some live in their vans that they also use to go back to forth to town.

However we had about 100 kids today playing soccer, duck duck goose, listening to Bible stories (through translator) and other opportunities. Please pray they will be open to hear the Word and that the enemy not have his way in any shape, form, or fashion.

It's bed time!!!!!

Sunday

Today we had worship as a group and then went and saw the Pope speak. That was...interesting, words can describe later. We later went to see the group we will be working with. We will start tomorrow with more pics and stories to come. All is well and we for sure sleep good at night! That's where I am heading!