All Posts By

Kayla Balangue

Jun 19 2024
4

Update #4 East Africa

By | 2024 Teams, East Africa

Today was wonderful!

It started off with our daily morning devotion with our team and Mama Victor. This started our day off well and we were all prepared for the long day ahead!

We all piled into our two vans and headed up to the house where we greeted the girls and began the day with worship, VBS lesson and a fun craft. Worship with the girls has been so moving for all of us as they all have some of the most beautiful voices on the planet. Even late tonight the songs they sang are still stuck on repeat in my mind.

Once the morning was finished we had a wonderful lunch and our fearless leader, Dave, showed up after leading a small leadership workshop with the Courage Executive Team bringing with him Kayla (our Global Outreach Leader) who will be visiting us for the next couple of days! With Kayla and Dave we then broke up the girls into smaller groups and rotated them through games of kickball and sharks and Minos and a dance group. We then ended with another worship song and said our goodbyes.

Leaving the first courage home, we headed to a Wednesday night church service with incredible worship and two sermons which one of was taught by Dave! We came away thinking about the hope we have in Christ regardless of the circumstances we are in and that “our faith is is the assurance of the things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

After this service we ate dinner with a group of older girls at a second courage house who are transitioning out of the program. These wonderful girls had several children who we all quickly fell in love with. We were given a tour of the courage house 2 and then reluctantly said our sad goodbyes and headed back to our hotel to get some sleep!

Despite this being our longest day yet, it flew by and we found ourselves wanting the day to never end.

Thank you all for the prayers as they are all so needed! If you could specifically pray for protection of the girls who we are able to work with and that they would be able to overcome the mental hurdles of trauma and hurt in order to succeed in their ambitions. They are all such beautiful girls who have some of the greatest dreams!

Bwana Yesu Asifiwe! (Praise Jesus!)

-Isaac

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.

Jun 19 2024
5

Update #3 East Africa

By | 2024 Teams, East Africa

Jambo!

How do I describe a day that is completely unforgettable?

This morning, we got to hear a devotional from the Courage’s Chaplin Ellie. She asked Kenzie and I (Lauren) to act out a skit for her, one of us was blind and the other was limp, our acting skills were great!

Second part of the morning we got to worship with all the girls. We showed them a few of our songs and then after we asked if they would teach us a few of theirs. (We enjoyed theirs way more!) After worship we got to host a mini VBS, we went over Joshua 1:9. I was able to read the verse and share my testimony with all the girls. It very was scary and empowering at the same time.

For the afternoon we had three stations for the girls to be apart of. First group was dancing, second group was volleyball, third group was soccer. Kenzie and I had volleyball, and we just taught a few easy skills (pass, set, hit, serve) We were also able to give each girl a jerseys due to the kind donation we received from Jessup athletics. The girls were in awe and absolutely loved wearing them.

For the end of the day we ended with a few crafts. We made bracelets with the girls and Dave made balloon animals/crowns. The excitement the girls got over a balloon giraffe has kept a permanent smile on my face.

It’s only the second day and I have already fallen in love with the location and the people. I can’t wait to see what else God has in store for us.

Tu Ta Unana Kaesho (See you tomorrow)!

-Lauren

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.

Jun 19 2024
1

Update #3 Western Europe

By | 2024 Teams, Western Europe

What up fam! It’s Cole,

Yesterday was such a blessing.
We started our morning with breakfast made by your very own chef Cole and sous chef Hailey.

We then walked to the refugee center and learned about Muslims. The lecture was so educating and was so good.

We came back home for lunch and ate empanadas. We took a cat nap and made our way back to the center.

We stopped at a coffee shop on the way, I have a list of many I want to try. I rate this place a 3/10. Iced coffees are not common here, it’s so weird.

We got to the center and finished setting up for the camp. The kids started trickling in and it was time to go, go, go!

We started with dancing and then the kids put handprints on a poster paper.

Ely, Marilyn, and I were working with the older kids and they were a handful. We did a relay race and I was so ready to win. I didn’t win, the ground did.

It was such a cool experience and I’m so pumped to do it the rest of the week.


If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.

Jun 19 2024
3

Update #5 Southeast Asia C

By | 2024 Teams, Southeast Asia C

We’ve now switched to having our soccer camps. We got the opportunity to play soccer with some kids from another village. We were dominateddddd. The score was only 1-0 but still. Playing with the kids while they had no shoes on was really impressive. We also got to introduce them to Mexican food!! Winnie took on the challenge of trying to find the ingredients here with one of our field workers and managed to find everything he needed here at the local market. We made them chicken tacos, rice, beans, and horchata. They loveddddd it. The kids towards the end kept coming back for more and more horchata. Before we knew it, it was all gone. I’ve also (Bre) gotten to teach them some Spanish words and slang. Now when they play all we hear is “DALE BICHAA”, which means “let’s go girllll” or we’ll also hear “AFUERAAAA”, which means “OUTT”. It’s been so fun to not only be able to learn their language but have them learn Spanish. They’ve picked up on it really quick. We feel like we now have good relationships with everyone and so we’re all really sad that we’re coming to the last few days here.
⁃ Bre Gonzalez

Danny and Bre have both shared their testimony to the masses while Maddie and Winnie have shared their love for soccer at the camps. Every kid here loves yelling Isaac’s name. Ashley has built sweet relationships from the sidelines. & Nat has continued her mission to learn anything and everything about being a missionary. It’s been incredible to see the strides taken by our group to learn and grow. Whether we’re watching puppet shows, getting beat in soccer, or putting on epic pickleball tournaments we are finding joy in it all. Thank you for the continued prayer!

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.

Jun 17 2024
0

Update #2 Western Europe

By | 2024 Teams, Western Europe

Hola, de Western Europe!

We have had an eventful past 2 days!
We started our Sunday with a yummy breakfast and headed to church! We traveled in the metro (which is spotless by the way) and headed there. The congregation was so welcoming and the message was so inspiring, it really moved our hearts and we saw God speak to the things we really needed. We witnessed around 5-7 people give their life to Christ and it actually brought me to tears.

We then proceeded to eat Dominican food with our new friend Danelle! She was the sweetest and it was so yummy!

We took a little break (siesta) and then had a scavenger hunt around the city! We went to so many different tourist attractions and were in awe of the architecture and the beautiful statues, gardens, cathedrals, and the royal palace. We ended the night with gelato and an overhead view of the ENTIRE CITY AND THE SUNSET.

On Monday we woke up and I cooked breakfast for our team and it was sooo fun to bond and talk before heading to the refugee center. We began preparing for our camp and painted posters, made tissue paper flowers (or head decorations according to Cole), and hung flags all over our main room because our theme is Olympics.

As a treat we had cafe con leche (coffee and milk) and walked around. We ate Turkish food for dinner during sunset. Can you believe the sun doesn’t set until 10 pm? It’s crazy!
We ended our night at our apartment with a devotional brought by our awesome student leader Hailey and had a team prayer to end our awesome day.

We are loving it here and can’t wait to tell you the rest of the adventures we have!

Love,

Ely!

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.

Jun 17 2024
6

Update #2 East Africa

By | 2024 Teams, East Africa

hello !!! today has been amazing !! we got to the country at 4 am this morning! with that being said, we all slept great last night and woke up with sufficient energy for the day, praise the Lord! we ate lunch and dinner at Courage Cafe (sooooo yummy, pictured below) after eating lunch and meeting our amazing field worker, we headed to Courage House where we will be doing vbs, sports, and dance with the girls!

meeting the girls was something i will never forget. they met us with songs of worship and palm branches. the joy that radiates from these girls is contagious, and i can’t help but direct my eyes toward the Lord. it is hard to understand how these girls can be filled with so much joy when they have been through so much pain. i am amazed at their strength and their intelligence at such a young age. these girls are seriously amazing, and i am so excited to get to know them deeper these next couple of days! i am so thankful for the memories already made and the ones to come! thank you, Jesus, for this country!

-Kenzie

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.

Jun 16 2024
7

Update #1 Team East Africa is safe & settled!

By | 2024 Teams, East Africa

Jambo! The team successfully arrived after 20+ hours of flying. Our six hour layover at the Instabul Airport was a fun adventure of sights, sounds, and trying to sleep where we could. It’s great to be back together as a team after not seeing much of one another since the end of the semester. These are some great students. I practiced making balloon animals and made friends with a couple of kid travelers along the way. Please pray for good rest as we landed at 1:30 am local time, and for all the love and energy God graciously supplies as we meet our field workers and the girls later today for the first time. Blessings, Dave Heitman (Team Leader)

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.

Jun 16 2024
0

Update #4 Southeast Asia C

By | 2024 Teams, Southeast Asia C

Things have been a little bit hard to get used to, new food- a.k.a…chicken and rice almost every day, driving on the left side of the road, and the Bahasa language. We found out quickly that Soccer is the most popular thing on this island. Don with HOH is the Soccer Coach for the best team on the island. We got invited to watch the championship game of the season. It was interesting seeing hundreds of eyes being locked onto us as we sat to watch the game. We got treated like royalty because they don’t have many foreigners (aka Bulai in Bahasa) coming to their island, let alone to a championship soccer game. We took lots of pictures with people, received gifts, and celebrated with the team. Some small highlights of the first couple days so far are: the soccer game mentioned before, playing worship songs with the kids, and going to church service. Two of the biggest highlights are teaching the kids how to play pickle ball and I mean…. A LOT of pickle ball, and Natalie getting baptized in a river.

-Maddie Jern

We’ve been accepted with open arms. We look forward to everything that’s coming our way. We’ve been blessed with a community here that is constantly teaching us to look at life in a slower more compassionate way. We were fortunate enough to watch our sister in Christ get baptized… tears were shed, the river was swam in, and God was being praised to the highest. It has been such a gift to go to their local beach, eat coconuts that a staff member climbed a palm tree to get, and celebrate a sport that is LOVED by everyone around. We are so blessed and so grateful to be here.

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.

Jun 15 2024
4

Team East Africa is departing!

By | 2024 Teams, East Africa

Our eighth and final Global Outreach team of the summer is on their way to the airport to begin their time serving with an anti-trafficking organization in East Africa!

Please join us in praying for their safety as they travel, and for their health (spiritual, mental, and physical) while they are on the trip. Pray that the team would be united together and would serve one another and the ministry with humility and grace. We trust that God has some incredible things planned for this team and we are so excited to see how God is going to work in their hearts and use them to bless and serve those they are ministering to in East Africa.

We will update again once they have arrived safely in East Africa!

If you would like to share your prayer support with this team, please feel free to use THIS FORM and we will share your encouragement with them.