hey guys! it’s karina coming in with your our daily blog from the team! Today we got to work more outside on the campus preparing its season for different camps and retreats. Me, Levi, and Nate got to start stitching up some concrete from a basketball court, and I got to use a concrete saw for the first time 🙂 The rest of the group got to do some landscaping work and housekeeping around the house. Claire learned how to do laundry for the time too 🙂 For lunch we got to eat some traditional local food, which was delicious! My favorite part of the day was watching Chris struggle peeling an orange. We were all dying from laughter, it was so funny we made Chris cry!
Hey guys! Danyelle here. 🙂 Today was a pretty quiet and chill day! We were mainly still recovering from jet lag, but we did start a few of the tasks here. We were also limited in what we could do because of an Orthodox holiday and we were not allowed to work outside.
We started the morning with some yummy breakfast (German cereal, fruit, and toast). Most of the boys unintentionally woke up together at 4:00 am and they were able to do their devotions. Us girls slept in until 8:00 am, but we all kept waking up in the middle of the night…except Claire. She was out cold the whole night despite us girls accidentally dropping our water bottles and turning on the wrong light.
Anyway, we finished lunch and then Matt, our fieldworker, led us in a devotional. We then Nate Mao…he did not enjoy at first but he quickly got the hang of it. After a couple of games of Mao, we were able to speak with the missions pastor of the church here, Cristi, and he shared that sometimes the way in which we view success in missions or trips like this one in the American mindset: “how many people did I share the Gospel with?” “how many people were saved?” “what did we do?” However, the Lord views it differently and we often do not get to see the fruit of our labor. The Lord views it as a bigger picture and sees how the work He has planned for us impacts the future of the organizations. This was a really sweet session in which many of us were able to gain new perspective on the work we will be doing on this trip.
After we finished the meeting with Cristi, Katya , Claire and Vincent went shopping to prepare for food. While they were gone, Chris, Karina, and I got to play games with his son. We played Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza and they claimed that apparently, I slap too hard. I think they were slightly dramatic, but the kid did say that he thought he was going to have to go to the hospital because of the game (he didn’t) (he also kept roasting me the entire game).
When they arrived back at the hotel, the boys went to the country’s version of a Home Depot to pick up materials for some of the projects that we will be doing. The girls stayed back to do some cleaning.
Then, we hung out for a while until dinner was ready. Katya and Vincent made stuffed peppers, which was very yummy! Then, we celebrated Vincent’s birthday with cake and non-alcoholic bubbly.
To end the night, we debriefed the day and some of us played games until 11:30 pm.
Overall, it was a chill day and we now feel rested enough to start working!
Hey everyone! Today we met at Jessup bright and early at 5:30am and prayed as a team. Then we all piled into our cargo van from Jessup and drove to Sacramento Airport. Upon arrival we unfortunately realized that we had to check over half our bags but luckily all of our bags made it through our 3 layovers.
Something funny happened when we arrived at our first plane stop. Danyelle totally forgot that we were in such a small plane and after we landed she stood up full speed and bounced off the ceiling and everyone in the plane laughed at her.
We all had lunch together in Canada and Vincent had an Elk burger!
Next we boarded the long leg of our flight which was a 10 hour flight! This flight seemed to drag on but was overall a very smooth ride. We then landed in Germany and went through a second TSA checkpoint and made it to our gate in time for our final flight!
To board our plane to our final destination we had to ride in a bus out to the airplane and board using stairs. It was quite a funny experience as we are all sleep deprived by this point and found us falling over in the bus hilarious.
Finally we arrived in Eastern Europe around 1 pm and met up with our field workers! We then drove about 2 hours to the place we are staying and got settled in.
We wrapped up the day by visiting a cool memorial park that was nearby, eating a local dinner together with our field workers, and doing devotions together. Now to sleep and serve Jesus tomorrow!
After 3 flights and lots of travel, our final Global Outreach team of the summer has arrived in Eastern Europe! They are excited to get started and are getting oriented to their ministry now. Let’s pray for renewed energy for the team and a willingness to serve with enthusiasm in these next two weeks!
Our tenth and final Global Outreach team of the summer is finally off to the airport to start their two week journey to serve refugees and churches in Eastern Europe. Join us in praying for their safety and health as they travel, and for the Lord to work through them to minister to the refugees in incredible ways. We will update again when they arrive in Eastern Europe!
