UPDATE 6/26 9pm PDT: The team made it to Miami after a very delayed flight, but sadly their connecting flight was long gone to the Caribbean! The plan was to fly out on a different flight from a nearby airport tonight, but they weren’t able to make it out in time to catch it. They have a hotel in Miami tonight to get some good rest and will fly out late tomorrow night (6/27) for the Caribbean! Pray that they would all have renewed energy tomorrow and that their last flight would be smooth, safe and on-time! 🙂
6/26 12:30pm PDT- Sending hello to everyone from Charlotte, North Carolina…because we’ll be here awhile.
We knew there was going to be spiritual warfare on this trip but what we didn’t know is that it would break into the physical realm.
It all started with our overnight flight from Sacramento to Charlotte. We did have a very cute puppy Winston on our flight. We bet on who would get to sit next to him, and it turned out to be Spencer. However, he is allergic so he let Mark take his spot and Mark was so excited!
Meanwhile, the dog kept Jordynn and Sofiya up for half the night.
We arrived at Charlotte at 6:30 am and were going to be here for 8 hours.
Psych.
We passed the time by playing Monopoly Deal, posting BeReals (we definitely did not retake them and Alyssa was totally on time), snacking, napping and walking around. We also had a really cool piano player who played cool songs including The Office theme song. He played for 5 hours straight (not the same song).
On our way to Shake Shack, Cheyenne got the divine inspiration to stop and check our flight.
Turns out our flight was now coming in at 5:55 instead of 2:30. We are now missing our connection flight to the Caribbean. Our luggage might already be there but who knows? Six of them might still be in Sacramento according to American Airlines.
This is us informing our families about our situation.
There are also thunderstorms coming in soon, so pray for us. Please and thank you.
Good thing we have Mark Moore as a team leader on this trip and he is taking very good care of us. All of our team members said Amen.
To wrap this up, while we might all be running off two hours of sleep, we are #thrivingandsurviving and we believe this happened for a reason and God is keeping us safe.
Hello all! Today was our second morning over here, and tomorrow we’ll get to jump right into ministry with the kids! Today wasn’t as much exploration as it was prep work, but these are the kind of days that we’ll need in order to most effectively spread the Gospel.
We opened up this morning with our team and all got to wake up to some of Isaac’s coffee, something he has a bit of talent for! After getting up and ready enjoying the natural beauty here, we had some of our ministry leaders come over and give us an orientation on the culture over here. There were laughs shared and tears shed learning about all of the unique things and hardships that these folk suffer through, and a fire was lit inside all of us ready to serve to the best of our ability tomorrow.
We then at at a cafeteria styled restaurant where the food was great, and we got to relax at. After a lunch we had some locals who will work alongside us this trip teach us the language, and we spent a significant amount of time learning to count to 10 and learn some important snippets to help talk to the children.
We then moved onto preparing our first day of VBS for tomorrow, with getting down our skit, music selections, craft and game ready for the day! After spending that time till dinner finishing our work, we enjoyed some more time team bonding and sharing in Banitsa, a local popular pastry here that was incredibly well made!
Getting to see the work that everyone is putting into this as well as talents shining where we hadn’t expected has been such a blessing, and a great joy experiencing the growth we’ve had even as a team these last few days. We look forward to spreading the Gospel, and ask for your continued prayer for our strength and rest and the impact our message will have on these children.
Our day started off slow with a nice breakfast and some time to journal or nap. Our team then went to church where we saw people praise God with so much joy. They were singing, dancing, clapping and shouting praise to God. Pastor Sh shared a powerful message about building spiritual muscles through trials and tests. It stood out to me was when Pastor Sh shared how trials can come in so many forms and three steps to overcome any trial are: 1) Word of God 2) Prayer 3) Fruit of the spirit. Also the importance that in relationships trials, we are not fighting each other but fighting against the common enemy behind it. After church we went out to get some lunch and enjoyed delicious food (I had a chicken avocado salad with fries, chapati, juice and some cake for dessert).
Today our team also had the privilege to be part of the graduation ceremony for some of the girls from CLA (Courage Leadership Academy). It was a time filled with joy as we listened to all the praise and encouragement given to the girls and their speeches too. It really stood out to me that one of the girls said “God has brought us from failure and helped us to overcome it”. It was beautiful to see how far these girls have come and even in the midst of ups and downs, they have never given up. Their determination and faith in Jesus is so inspiring that we can all learn from. The whole courage family was together and it was so cool to see all the amazing girls and staff that we have been building a special relationship with all together. We had snacks and a yummy cake too.
I am personally in love with the music culture here and can’t help but dance every time a beat starts. The DJ was on fire and played some amazing songs which had us all dancing and celebrating. Some of the girls were teaching us some of their dance moves and it was so fun to learn it from them.
We are so proud of the graduates and will be praying that God continues to guide, protect and bless each and everyone one of them during this new journey.
Thank you so much for all of your prayer for our team! We really miss and love y’all!
The fourth Global Outreach team this summer is now on their way to the Caribbean with a long travel day ahead of them! Please join us in praying for them– for health and safety during the next two weeks, for renewed energy as they serve long days and for strong unity between all the team members. We’re excited to see how God will move in and through them as they serve in this ministry!
We will update again once they are settled at their ministry base.
We have made it to our location in Central Europe after 31 hours of travel! Luckily, we landed in the evening so we are adjusting to the time difference well! Today was a Sunday, so we started off our day with breakfast, then we attended a church! We are staying pretty close to this church, so we walked and it took about 20 minutes. Fun Fact, our location is full of Roman ruins, so we were able to see one on our way to the church!
Once we made it to church, we were greeted by many people and they cultivates such a welcoming environment! They played some worship songs in their language and then Isaac, Liana and I were able to lead them through two worship songs, “The Blessing” and “10,000 Reasons.”
Being able to lead worship in a different country and hearing people sing to the Lord in different languages is an experience I will keep with me forever! I am so thankful the Lord gave me that opportunity.
Then, Sophia gave a little testimony to the church about why we are here and what we are doing! She did amazing and was the first of us to volunteer to give a testimony! Even more amazing, she introduced herself in the language here!
Overall, the church service was amazing! The people there were incredibly welcoming and it was a great experience to hear a message in the language.
After church, we ate pizza from a place named “Friends!” (Yes, like the TV show! It was super to cool to see that here and the pizza was AMAZING. Best pizza ever!)
After that, we walked around the Cherry Festival! We got to see pieces made from the locals and we bought the best cherries! They were absolutely delicious.
After the Cherry Festival, we went back to our apartment for a few hours and all of us took a glorious nap…so glorious that all of us were a little sad to wake up. However, being awoken from our nap was made worth it by our next activity!
After our naps, we had the opportunity to go to a Roma Gypsy community and walked through it. We even saw a Roma wedding right in the street!
After walking through the community, we had the opportunity to hang out with the children of this Roma community. That was an amazing experience! We were able to show love to these children. There were a group of us coloring with the kids and a group of us playing outside.
At first, it was a little awkward because of the language barrier but once we split into groups based on the activity, it seemed less awkward! I was inside coloring with the kids and through that experience, I was able to practice the language! One of the girls even had a similar name to mine, which was kind of cool! It really touched my heart to be able to play with these children and show them love of Christ that is within us. When one girl left, she even gave me a hug!
We ended the day with planning for our upcoming VBS (3 of them, to be exact) and then watching an episode of The Chosen, as one of the episodes described one of our Bible stories!
I know this ended up being a little long, but there were so many great things that happened today that I had to share all of it!
I love you all and miss you very much!
-Danyelle
Prayer Requests:
Continued strength and rest
That the VBS’ would be fruitful!
Continued bonding for our team
Also, enjoy this picture of all us attempting the “Slavic Squat”
The team safely arrived at their destination in Central Europe early Saturday morning (CA time), ready to get settled, take showers, and get some sleep!
Join us in praying for them to get some good rest tonight and wake up with fresh energy to jump right into their ministry!
We will update again in a couple days when we have a post ready from the team.
The CLA (Courage Leadership Academy) girls took us to the Memoria market to do some shopping. They seemed to take delight in helping us find specific items and haggling with the vendors on our behalf. I loved being able to experience more of their world. This outing allowed us to further connect through conversations and experiences. It also gave us the opportunity to see and interact with the incredible people of this city. We were graciously welcomed (karibu) and we did our best to use Swahili—some of the team are doing really well with the language. I appreciated the opportunity to see a new part of the city and to depend up the CLA girls for guidance. (It would have been overwhelming without them and we no doubt would have gotten lost.)
We then spent a couple hours at CLA where we ate another amazing Swahili lunch, played card games, talked, and got to watch Bella enthusiastically play with the CLA kids (it turns out that the language of preschoolers is universal—and Bella speaks it fluently).
We then had the opportunity to take the CLA girls swimming at a local hotel (thank you, Redeemer Covenant Church!). They were very excited to get to swim. We were able to provide swim lessons and teach them “Marco Polo.” There was also time to converse and relax in the beautiful hotel setting (and I may have fell asleep on the grass in the shade).
I think I can speak for the team in saying that our lives are being changed through the relationships we are building with the Courage girls/women. These are some of the strongest, most joyful, kindest, friendliest, most talented people we’ve met. For (about) two weeks we get to live life with them and—I know that this might sound a bit dramatic— it is sacred. It’s like entering holy ground. And because it’s sacred, any words I use to describe it are inadequate. But it’s real because God (ultimate reality) is present. As I’ve watched them dance, sing, worship, laugh, serve, play, learn, teach, support one another, and love each other’s kids as their own, I cannot help but see the self-giving love of God. God’s image shines beautifully and clearly in this sisterhood called Courage House. And we are blessed to experience it. But it’s not just the girls—it’s their kids, the incredible staff, and the fieldworkers (J, St, and Sa). God is at work and is present in and through Courage.
But I also see God’s image reflected beautifully and clearly in our team. From day one they’ve fully entered into this relational ministry and have developed a deep love these Courage girls. They’ve been vulnerable, generous, outgoing (even the introverts), creative, committed, flexible, humble, open, and compassionate—even when feeling tired, sick, and in pain. It’s a privilege for me to watch each one sacrificed love in ways that are both life-giving and physically draining. We also have a lot of fun together.
If you’re still reading this, then you probably won’t mind if I add a little more. Over the past week, I’ve thought a lot about the apostle Paul’s words in Romans 1:11-12– “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” The “spiritual gift” Paul refers to is the activity of mutual encouragement. A charisma or “spiritual gift” is Spirit-directed activity, and Paul envisioned a Spirit-directed activity of mutual encouragement when he visited the Roman Christians (he strengthens their faith, they strengthen his faith). I feel that kind of mutual encouragement on this trip. When we’re with the Courage girls and staff, there is mutual encouragement, learning, giving, sharing, teaching, and supporting .
I also can’t help but think of this Thomas Merton quote that describes this kind of Spirit-directed mutuality: “When the Love of God is in me, God is able to love you through me and you are able to love God through me. . . . Because God’s love is in me, it can come to you from a different and special direction that would be closed if He did not live in me, and because His love is in you, it can come to me from a quarter from which it would not otherwise come. And because it is in both of us, God has greater glory. His love is expressed in two more ways in which it would not otherwise be expressed; that is, in two more joys that could not exist without Him” (“Seeds of Contemplation).
It is this mutual sharing of the love of God with each other that has motivated us, sustained us, and is changing us. Yes, we are on holy ground.
For those reading this (still!), you’ve likely supported us in this endeavor. We humbly say Thank You.
(And to my family, yes, I typed all this on my phone.)
Today was amazing! We hung out with the CLA girls for the first time! We did worship, played the name game, nertz, and painted. The girls were lovely and very funny. It was very rainy so we didn’t go swimming but instead played soccer. I got to take portraits of all the girls and it was very fun, each girl was very unique and funny in their own way. I can’t wait for tomorrow!
Our third Global Outreach team of the summer is currently on their way to Central Europe! We invite you to join us in praying for them during these next two weeks (& after they return home). Pray for safety, protection, and health as they travel to a new place. Pray for unity among them as team members and for the Lord to use them in their various gifts and strengths as they serve in ministry, as we trust that God is transforming their own hearts in the process.
We will update again once they land and get settled in Central Europe!
We just finished day 5 of our trip and the third day with Courage House girls! Today we started with a devotion led by one of the girls, and it was about hearing the voice of God! Then, we and the girls got bagged lunches and went to the hiking spot. A guide met us in a village, and we began our walk. From the start, the hills were very muddy and we had to be careful walking up and down. Local children were seen running along these roads—everyone was astonished that they didn’t slip! It started to rain, but the group kept going. Throughout this trek, many of us kept slipping and sometimes falling and getting dirty! Anyways, we hiked through the beautiful landscape until we reached the waterfall! Most of the group stayed on the rocks at the base of the waterfall. However, my teammates went swimming. It was freezing!
After about 20 minutes of being at the waterfall, the group journeyed to visit the “coffee boys.” A few local men explained and showed us how to make coffee straight from the beans. They made it fun and interactive, showing us how to pound the beans while singing a song! (The credit goes to courage house for the coffee bean pounding picture). They boiled the coffee in water and BOOM, we were able to drink it (sooo good)! We had a chance to buy some of their coffee too. I got some for sure 😛
The hike was tiring but an amazing experience! My team got to our hotel, cleaned up, went to dinner, and drove to Courage House to see a movie with the girls!! My team served the girls yummy ice cream, and started watching “Kicking and Screaming.” I loved hearing them clap for the soccer players in the movie, and laughing super loud at the funny scenes.
Thanks for following along with our trip so far! We’re seeing God work each day.
