Missions Trip Details

Everyone who has supported me either financially or in Prayer and to those who continue to support me (and the team) in prayer, Thank you very, very much for your support. God is preparing something amazing.   Below is will tell you what we are doing for our missions trip and some more details about it.  Aside from what is below, we will be teaching a number of concepts (such as fear, self-image and creation) through songs, games, skits, object lessons and much, much more.  It will be a challenge because of the language barrier, but through the interpreter and God working through us, God will do great things.

SLI World Team Trip Project

         Guatemala & Honduras 2016

Praying for your SLI Team – 2016 1. Safe travels including flights and daily ground transportation to and from ministry sites 2. Wisdom and strength for team leaders 3. Unity and grace as team ministers cross-culturally 4. Favour with hosts, ministry partners, and the communities which will be visited 5. Physical health of the team & national hosts 6. Effective ministry, partners encouraged, lives touched by the love of God and Gospel advancement in each community Dates:   Feb 27 – Mar 10, 2016

Destination: Guatemala & Honduras

World Team Members:

Amada Dickerson, Ariel Bondy, Brooke Nafziger, Dana Paris,

Daniel Baxter, Janette Kuepfer, Jasmine Ortiz-Yang,

Joshua Baurer, Rosalie Nugteren, Sierra Guderian,

Bryan & Rebecca Ferguson, Oto & Liz Perez.

Travel Schedule:

Departing –Feb 27 Avianca #627 departing Toronto 3:10pm

Returning – March 10 Avianca #626 arriving Toronto 1:55pm

Purpose of Trip:

 To bless and encourage and experience the Church in another culture. Experience cross cultural service through ministry, outreach and building projects. We will learn about leadership in other cultural contexts and hear their stories. We will also be challenged to connect our gifts to the needs before us.

Ministry during the trip:

Children’s Ministry and Evangelism Presentations

Painting Project at a local school

Assembly of Picnic Tables

Share testimonies and encourage partner missionaries, national leaders and students.

Our Daily Itinerary At A Glance: Saturday – Arrive & Settle Sunday – Worship at Spanish congregation / orientation / visit Antigua Monday – Ministry at Christian Schools / Visit Casa Esperanza & Anthony Van Engen  Tuesday – Ministry at Christian Schools  Wednesday -Ministry at Christian Schools Thursday - Ministry & sharing with Guatemalan aboriginal people group - Atitlan Rest Day Friday- Atitlan Rest Day  Saturday- Travel to Honduras-touristy day shopping or Jesus Statue/Park Sunday- Spanish Church   Afternoon - touristy, shopping time Monday- Teach with Dale in 1 School OR help with Fun Day at 1 School Tuesday- Teach with Dale in 1 School OR help with Fun Day at 1 School Wednesday- Teach with Dale in 1 School OR help with Fun Day at 1 School Thursday- Fly home - debrief/prayer time before you leave

Get to know our Missionaries

Since 2004, Anthony van Engen has been part of Fe Viva World Missions, in Guatemala City, Guatemala.  Fe Viva World Missions’ goal is to reach Guatemala and Central America with the Gospel of Christ and they focus on many areas of community development.  Founded in 1995, Fe Viva World Missions has been “exploding” Central America with Bible College training, children’s’ homes, youth ministry, community service, and the list goes on and on. All the while they are fully focused on spreading the Gospel of Christ to everyone. 

Our class will be focused on working alongside Anthony in ministry at Christian Schools and possibly a few community service projects.  Anthony spends some of his time assembling picnic tables to give away to vulnerable Guatemalan families; we may have a chance to be apart of this community ministry as well.  In addition, Anthony will be inviting us to spend the day with him, and possible will be our overnight host for a night.

Hector and Ruth Aragon are missionaries at The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, founded in 1939, and will be our Hosts as well. The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada is a Fellowship of more than 1,100 churches who help facilitate the vital work of global workers in more than 50 countries around the world. Their goal is to spread the good news of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and bring hope and help to those in nee

Hector and Ruth’s focus in Guatemala is ChildCarePlus, a program that takes place in 15 different Christian schools providing a great Christian education. They focus on the younger generation, helping them grow up to be better, godly and sustainable people in the community and overall, Guatemala.  They want to help break the mould of poverty, their family and their community. They do this through CCP, which is ultimately a child sponsorship that allows these children to attend school, receive meals, hear the Gospel and have a better chance to change the future of their community.

Hector will take us to a few of the schools that he oversees in terms of child sponsorships. He makes sure the children receive medical care, nutrition, uniforms, and an education. In addition he also hosts teams like ours that are come to Guatemala wanting to spread the Gospel.

Switching over from the Guatemala perspective to the Honduras side of things, we will take ourselves to Honduras’s Capital City, Tegucigalpa.  Dale and Carolyn Ruttan, missionaries in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, work at Schools of Hope, also located in the capital city.  Both Dale and Carolyn are teaching and equipping people to preach the gospel.  They are also involved in the CCP and the feeding program through ERDO, just as Hector and Ruth Aragon are. 

Schools of Hope is involved with three schools where they teach the children Bible stories, songs and memory verses.  The Ruttans preach the gospel to encourage the children and remind them that there is still hope. Generally the meals that the students receive through ERDO are rice, beans and tortillas.

We will spend our final three days in Central America with Dale either teaching in one of the schools or helping with a Fun Day at one of the schools nearby.  

          Guatemala                                                          Honduras

   Population: 15.4 Million                                                Population:  8.098 million (2013)

Literacy rate: 75%                                                          Literacy rate:  95%                 

       Religion: Christian 97% (62% Roman Catholic)          Religion: Catholics 47%, Protestants 41%, 

                                                                                                                Atheists 8%

         Capitol: Guatemala City                                                Capitol:  Tegucigalpa

     Language: 60% Spanish, 40% Amerindian                   Language:  Spanish

Our Team

Back Row: Daniel Baxter, Sierra Guderian, Rosalie Nugteren, Jasmine Ortiz-Yang, Brooke Nafziger, Joshua Baurer, Oto Perez

Front Row: Bryan Ferguson, Rebecca Ferguson, Janette Kuepfer, Amanda Dickerson, Dana Paris, Ariel Bondy, Liz Perez

Lots of Sleep - Good or Bad?

So God really does work amazing with answering prayers.   I was getting sick a few days ago and I started praying that God would heal me. After a day or so of my health getting worse, I asked God that if I was going to be sick, at least keep my body healthy for the Fundraiser on Sunday (yesterday).  God did just that, yesterday almost all my symptoms were gone, and this morning they were all back and they were worse.  So sadly I stayed home from SLI today. Since I was going to be home already, I was hoping to catch up on a little sleep and then read my book for SLI all day (I have till Thursday morning to read the entire book and write a 5-page report on it).  I don't know if I am happy or sad right now.  I just woke up, at 4:35 pm!!!! I've never slept this late before!!! I can say that it is nice to get more than 14.5 hours of sleep, but I also lost 5-8 hours of potentially reading my book.

SLI Fundraiser Lunch Day

I've been very busy this week so that is why I haven't posted much.  Below is a very quick summary of today (which is what I've been prepping for all week).

5:30 am - Got up
7:30 am - Arrived at church
7:30-8:20 am - prepped Lunch Fundraiser, Silent Auction, and Food Line
8:20-9:15 am - Served in parking
9:15-10:15 am - Sat in First Service
10:15-11:15 am - Served in Parking
11:15 am -12:15 pm - Prepped food, tables, etc... for Fundraiser Lunch
12:15 pm -1:20 pm - Helped with Fundraiser Lunch
1:20-1:25 - Helped talk about what we will be doing on our Missions Trip up on stage
1:25-1:35 - Finish up Silent Auction and "Who Get's A Pie in the Face Voting Jars" announced winners for Silent Auction
1:35-1:45 - All us SLI's and Bryan lined up on the stage with garbage sacks on us.  Bryce had counted the money in each jar and told Pastor Steve.  Pastor Steve threw 1/4 of a Chocolate Cream Pie in Bryan's face, (Bryan had raised the most in his jar even though his jar was only out for about a minute vs everyone else's jars were out for an hour).  In all 1/4 of a pie was thrown into the faces of the two highest voted jars AND the two lowest voted jars - Thank goodness I didn't get a pie in the face.
1:45-mid afternoon - Clean up and set up for Twenty20
mid afternoon-about 5:30 pm - Watched War Room - Great movie, Highly recommend it!
5:30-6:15 - eat leftovers for supper and hang around
6:15-7:00 - prepare for Twenty20
7:00-7:30 - Bake sale at Twenty20
7:30-9:00 - Twenty20 (I was doing ushering)
9:00-11:00+ pm - Bake Sale at Twenty20 (Sold out only after reducing prices several times)

15.5+ hours at the Church Today!!!!  We raised so much money for the trip - I have no idea exactly how much yet but it was a ton. We had donations for the lunch, a Silent Auction, Bake Sale, and a Pie-in-the-face voting with coins/bills.   The Pie-in-the-face alone raised more than $750, plus an additional $100+ Profit from the Silent Auction, Plus who know how much from the bake sale and donations.  All of the 1,000+ of Baked goods (Bake Sale items) sold out.   By the time Twenty20 hit, only about 1/10 of the baked goods were left (if even) and we reduced the prices (some up to 90% off) and we still made nearly $40) - so I can't wait to hear how much we made in total.  Praise God for providing!!!!

We weren't planning on doing a silent auction, but Pastor Beth donated several large collections of chocolate to sell. So in order to draw more people to the silent auction and to get more people's attention, I went to K&K and spent $70 on gift baskets (K&K is the Big Lots of Costco, so everything is already very reduced in price, plus the Gift Baskets were 40% off). They all had bids and nearly $200 was bid on all the items, which is over $100 Profit!!!!

Hopefully I can Find some more pictures and post them soon.

Praise God!!

SLI Winter Getaway Adventure

Ahhh, it feels good to be back writing on the blog. I have spent the last two and a half days up north snowed in at a cottage without my laptop - it was great.  Time to catch up for what happened the last three days.

Sunday Morning:  Parking! This month I get to serve by helping people park before the 1st service and in-between the two services.   I love it. Sunday was snowy and cold, but it was still a ton of fun. I love directing people to where they are suppose to park or to another person who will park them. And I love being the first one to welcome them to our House, Koinonia, with a big smile, a wave and just friendly directions for parking!  The past two Sunday's I have mostly been on welcoming, which is right as the cars pull into the parking lot - I am literally the first person they see, and then I direct them to the next parking server who has an open spot available.

After the services I ate the lunch I packed and brought by bags of cloths and snowsuits and stuff into the church to wait to load them into the church van.  Finally we were off (around 1:30-ish).  We drove two-ish hours north west to Port Elgin Ontario, Canada, where the Flemings (Pastor and his family - including Bryce) have a cottage in a wooded area near a lake. When we got to Port Elgin, we stopped at a Walmart to get food for our stay.  Bryce and Heidi had split our class up ahead of time into three cooking groups, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.  I was in the breakfast group.  Each group was given the budget of $50 to get the supplies for their meal to serve 12 hungry people.  

After Walmart we drove a few minutes to the cottage. However when we got there the driveway had too much snow to drive through. So us guys got out and started to shovel the snow away while the girls unloaded the van and Bryce's car.  As we were putting away the shovels, the guy across the street came out and told us that we could park our vehicles in the neighbors circle drive, since it was already plowed and he was gone for the week.  We figured that wasn't needed since we had already shoveled our driveways entry pile (just the first few feet, since that was the deepest part. The rest seemed drivable in).  So Bryce said we could go ahead inside and unpack while he parked the vehicles.  However, a few minutes later Bryce came and got us. The van wasn't able to make it through our drive and got stuck.  So we pushed it out and Bryce parked both the van and the car in the neighbors drive.

Bryce gave us a bit to get our snow stuff on to go for a hike out by the lake.  We drove out to the park-like area and started our "hike" (more just a walk).  It was beautiful and a ton of fun.  Here and there snowballs flew between those who wanted to take part in the snow attacks (I was one of them).  And while we "attacked" each other, we all were attacking Bryce with snow.  The whole time we were throwing snow at him, and he would return fire.  From time to time either him, or one of us, would stop and tackle the opposite and a snow wrestling "fight" would arouse - these were the best. I do not remember ever having this much fun in snow! There was snow in our faces - snow forced in our faces and rubbed in our faces; minor scrapes, bumps and bruises but nothing serious enough to prevent any of us from backing down on the "attacks".    Bryce even pushed Janette off of a little foot-high bridge into a shallow creek. But that was all part of the game.  I got flipped flat onto my back (several foot drop onto my back) after I attempted to attack Bryce. As I jumped on him from behind and shoved snow in his face, he pulled me over his head and dropped me on the ground. However, I pulled him over with me - it was worth it.

That night Bryce and Heidi prepared grilled burgers for dinner. We then proceeded to watch one session - of five sessions - of a Conference that was from earlier last early in Oklahoma (Have you ever heard of Buffalo Bill - he is the pastor at this church).   By then it was around 10:00 pm, so we stayed up till around Midnight playing games and such. I played some Egyptian Rat Slap (ERS),  Euchre, and some other card games.

The next morning, I was part of the breakfast team. We were suppose to try to have breakfast ready by 9:00 am, so we started around 8:30 am since we only had to make scrambled eggs, sausages, toast, and cereal. Well, the sausages turned out to take longer than we had expected, and breakfast was served around 9:30.  After breakfast and clean up, we sat down and watched the next two sessions of the conference and talked about them after watching each one.  By that time it was 1:00-2:00pm and no one was hungry, so we decided to just skip lunch.  We weren't for sure what to do with the $50 of food we had purchased for lunch but that all worked out later.

We were then allowed to go out side and we shoveled the drives and then were given some free time outside. We played around int he huge snow piles on the sides of the road left from the snow plow. Then everyone when out back to play. Though I stayed out front. I was working on a 4-5 foot high mound of snow, digging out a snow igloo.  I have wanted to do this for years, yet have not had the snow to do so. I use to love doing this as a kid, and I still do!  A friendly couple walked by as I was digging it out and said something along the lines of, "we use to do that when we were kids, I loved doing that to."   I then went out back and joined in the snow "fighting".  Sooo fun!

We came in then and watched the remaining two sessions of the conference, and then the supper crew made their taco wraps for us.  We had heard that another 1-3+ feet of snow was on the way (additional to the nearly 2 feet we had already got), and we were very hopeful we would get snowed in.  As you can tell, we did get snowed in - we were suppose to of arrived back at the church by 9:00pm Monday night. We actually arrived a the church around 2:00pm Tuesday afternoon.  Monday evening we stayed up agin playing games. Half the people went out on a walk in the snow, while the rest of us played Coup. Coup is a card-ish game kind of like One Night Ultimate Werewolf, but a lot simpler, easier, and shorter.  It's a fun game.

Tuesday morning for breakfast, we had Monday's lunch that we had skipped, grilled cheese (God sure dose provide). We then split into three groups again, one for shoveling the cars out, one for parking the bags and stuff into the cars, and the third for cleaning the cottage. I was thankful to be on the shoveling. I can really enjoy shoveling, especially with friends and in a ton of snow. We had to shovel both our drive and the neighbors drive partway since there was a vehicle in each.  We made it out okay and had a bit of slipping and sliding, but we made it home safely and we all had a ton of fun!!!


Here are few pictures that Bryce took.  I hope to have a few more, but since I took them with a film camera it will take a few weeks for them to be developed.

Fasting: Day #6

Well God has shown me much over the past few days, and I pray He will continue to expand my living capacity.  I am now starting to really feel the stomach begging for something solid, though my stomach seems to want food more than my eyes do.  I've been getting a few five-or-so-minute "spells" of headaches and/or nauseousness.  They come and go, but when they come, I just remember why I am doing this and realize that God has given me such a greater peace, revelation, and understanding than when I was more focused on eating.   I find that I have so much more time in the mornings to pray and sit and listen to God. I feel so less rushed when I get up, since I don't have to worry about eating, just praying.  Though, because of the headaches and nauseousness, I have decided to postpone my allergy shot that I should of got this week.  I plan on getting it first thing next week, Tuesday (Tuesday is the first day back in the area after our SLI Winter Getaway).

SLI Winter Getaway

So this weekend our SLI class and Bryce and Heidi will be going on a Winter Getaway up north to the Fleming's Cottage for a day and a half. We will leave right after church on Sunday and will return Monday night.  Bryce made it clear that we will likely be spending a lot of time outside in the snow - so excited!   This is going to be a lot of fun. Also for meals, Bryce and Heidi will be making dinner Sunday night, but each of us have been assigned to a meal that we have to prepare for everyone else on Monday.  I will be helping three other classmates prepare Breakfast. Bryce and Heidi will provide the menus for each meal and then take us shopping when we get up there Sunday afternoon to get the supplies.

Life Coaching

Today we had Pastor Steve in for Life Coaching again.  As we do every time, He had us do a "Wheel of Life" type of paper - which is basically a paper that you rate 1-10 how 10 different areas of your life are going (e.g. Spiritual Life, Personal Development, Work, Pace of Life, Financial Stewardship, Physical Stewardship, etc...).  We have to fill it out based off of how we feel at that moment. Then once we completed that we compared it to last month's.  We also started going over our "homework" teaching us about our Passions.  We had to fill out six different areas for what would we do in that area or how would it go on an ideal day with unlimited time and money (e.g. family, work, emotional, physical, activities, what excites me, etc...). We went around the room for each topic and shared how our day would go while Pastor Steve took notes.  Then He went back and told each of us what he heard us say and or passion he sees in that.  It was really cool. Not only from him telling me me what passion he saw, but also from writing it, I found that my parents may actually be correct :), I may actually be more of a people person than I thought.

After Life Coaching we had our third and final Noon Prayer and again God did many things there.

Worship and Prayer

So yesterday we finished up New Testament Survey. NT Survey was a study we did from a professor online, digging into each of the New Testament books, leaning their author, date written, history, meaning, special circumstances, importance, and a ton of other things. It was a blast, and now I believe that we are going to start the Old Testament Survey soon.

After the NT Survey, we had Day #2 of the Staff's Noon Prayer. Again, it was very powerful and God showed me many things. He gave me specific names of people to pray for; He showed me areas I have messed up in the past and kind of how to fix that in the future; and a lot many other things. God is Good.  And it didn't stop there. That night, I was on child Check in, and then got to go into the service for another Church body Worship and Prayer Night!!

SNOW!!!!

So Exited!!! Were expected to get 7-12 inches of snow tonight alone!  We already have a few inches and it's predicted that we'll get 2-6 inches between tomorrow and tomorrow night, Plus an additional 3-6 inches over the following few days!! Don't you just love Snow - The best part of winter!!!

Oral Report - fasting

Today in SLI we had our Oral Book Report presentations.  The time requirement was 4-5 minutes, mine turned out to be 4 minutes 59 seconds.  The book that we were doing the report on was fasting by Jentezen Franklin - a very good book, highly recommended!  I used my microscope and a 1936 Canadian penny to illustrate how when we worship Him as He deserves it magnifies God.  All ten of us SLI's had three "judges/critics" (last time we only had one) who told us what we did good and what we could improve on.  There was Bryce, Heidi and Nathan.  I have actually started to enjoy and look forward to these oral reports - how crazy is that!  I normally don't like speaking in public or giving presentations, but God is slowly scraping that dislike off my life.

After the 2-3 hours of presentations and learning from our "judges", we joined the rest of the KCF staff in their noon-time worship and prayer. This is a one-hour worship and prayer time at the Church that they have this week Tuesday through Thursday.  As I was walking out afterwards I kept telling myself that it hadn't been an hour yet, it seemed like only 10 or 20 minutes. I guess it's true, time flies when your having fun!

Also today is the first day that anyone has ever told me that God had given me a gift of presenting!!  That shocked me since I have never been, nor liked being, a presenter.  It's strange how God works like that.

Fasting: Day #3

Fasting: Day #3

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Matthew 6:5

I am really seeing this verse come to life! I have eaten no food for the past 3 days and I am satisfied.  All I have had is water, juice and 2 protein shakes (protein powder, peanut butter, honey, and juice blended together).  I have just about as much energy as normal, I am not "craving" food, and I have tons of time to pray!  My stomach will rumble ever once in a while, and I have to pee nearly ever hour, but otherwise it hasn't been as difficult as I was expecting. Let God's will be done!

Twenty20 Interview/God Working

So tonight at Twenty20 (the college age group at Koinonia) was themed on fasting, since Koinonia as a whole is doing a 7-day fast.  The leader, also my mentor, Brian, interviewed me as someone who has never fasted before and then interviewed someone else (Tony) who has had experience with it.  It actually went very well.  I was not nervous beforehand; I wasn't shaky; I didn't really prepare much for it (he told me the questions he was going to ask); and I was able to speak comfortably in front of the group.  As I was sitting back down, I thought "Wow! Where did this come from! I've never been able to comfortably talk in front of a lot of people, I've never been able to talk in front of a lot of people and not shake, or stutter.  Praise God! He blessed me indeed tonight.

A time at the end was reserved for those who were participating in the fast. Time was set aside for worship, praying, and communion.  It was very powerful.  God touched my heart in new ways, He opened the eyes of my heart a little bit more, and He showed me great things.  For one, He showed me how much I am a true part of His family: that I belong to His family, my Father's family.  I've known this for quite some time, but I've never really felt the belonging that I felt tonight.  God is moving! Praise God!

Parking

So this month I am serving as a parking assistant.  It is a lot of fun.  It was raining today, but it was still a lot of fun. Our main dress-code requirement is a pure straight-from-the-heart smile.  We wave at everyone who comes in, we welcome them and make the whole (short) parking experience for them a God loving moment.  We also sometimes wave at cars driving by that aren't coming to Koinonia, and we even got some waves back and a friendly honk accompanied by a wave. We just want everyone to feel welcome, cared for and loved by God!

Prayer Request

Prayer Request:  Our church body at Koinonia is participating in a 7-day fast this week.  I have started mine today, and am already hungry :)   I ask for prayer that I can stay focused on what God wants to show me.  I know that satan will try to distract me from God with the temptation of food or the reminder of the lack of food, but I don't want to fall into his trap.  I want God's will and work to be done in my life.

19th Birthday

As a personal tradition, I enjoy bringing some sort of food for the people I am going to be with on my Birthday. Lucky SLI classmates, and whoever else may wonder into the SLI room, for I will be bringing Gaming and Lego Cakes tomorrow. For the past two afternoons. evenings, and nights, I have been working on some fun cakes. Six cakes, several tubes of cookie decorating gel and three and a half bottles of food coloring later, I have Old Game Council Controller Cakes and 2x2 Lego Block Cakes - both were a lot of fun to make (Though I found that the molds are extremely difficult and time consuming to clean when you don't have a dishwasher). 

Jonathan, Thank you for you Christmas Gift of the Molds, they are being put to good use.

Business and What's Next

Today after our Budgeting and Ministry review time with Bryce, we had two people come in (Perter and Zack) to talk to us about business and what comes next for us. It was very helpful and such. Below are the notes I took from the "session".  I found it even more helpful since I would love to start my own business or at least go into the business field.

1.     How do I define “Success”? (Money, time, family, etc…)

a.     My view

                                               i.     Being happy and satisfied with what I am doing

                                              ii.     Accomplishing my original goal in business.

                                            iii.     I don’t always think money is the biggest factor (eg: the numbers)

                                            iv.     Family and relationships

2.     Having a backup plan isn’t always the best option

a.     If you have a backup plan you will be more okay with failing on what your doing

b.     You need to be focused on completely on what your doing

                                               i.     Don’t focus on what you will do if you fail,

                                              ii.     But focus on what you are going to do to ensure you won’t fail

c.      Never give up – if you do fail, just get back up and try again (and again and again until you succeed) – it will be hard, but you find it more satisfying and rewarding – it’ll make you stronger

d.     There is no backup plan, no what if!!! 

                                               i.     No plan B

                                              ii.     A back up plan will distract me

                                            iii.     If your able to get it going, it’s not a problem in general

1.     There will be peaks and valleys

3.     Am I going to work for someone else or am I going to work for myself??????

a.     If I work for myself, it’s very risky

b.     How long can I go to support myself before I run out?

c.      I can be broke, I will rebuild

d.      

4.      Don’t live paycheck to paycheck

a.     You HAVE to BUDGET

b.     You cant spend all your money every paycheck

c.      (If you are running a business you should be multiple months ahead in your budget)

5.     20% / 80%

a.     Example: real-estate

                                               i.     If there are 100 retaliators in an area only about 20% of them will be doing most of the selling – only about 20% of the people in an area will do most of the work

                                              ii.     Only about 20% know what there doing or are actually doing it

                                            iii.     The remaining 80% wont last 2 years

6.     Do your homework

a.     Get to know the area of business

b.     Know what you have to do to stay competitive

c.      Know how to draw others

d.     KNOW your stuff!!!!

e.     Check the prices of sold near-by houses

f.      Check the neighborhood

7.     A business is going to be harder that it looks

a.     Each step of the process gets harder and harder

                                               i.     The first 2 years will be one of the largest hurdles in that specific career/business

8.     Find a mentor for what your going to do

9.     When looking for land/houses, check area population – a growing population will drive land values up.  Population is key! 

10.    “There is a difference between what you want and what you need“ (Zack)

11.   Remember: A realtor is not working for you, they are working for the person who hired them: the seller – they are trying to sell the house for as much as they can. 

a.     You don’t have to pay a realtor when your buying a house, only the seller has to pay a realtor

Returned to Canada

I made it back to Canada safely today. I rode up with Laura and Julia Baxter and it only took 10 hours. The border was very smooth, no lines, no questions - thank you all for your prayers.  I am already homesick. I feel like before I went back for break, I was homesick but I just didn't realize it.  Now I realize it and it is hitting me now.

I have lots to do now. I've got a full week ahead, and with only a week left to read my book and prepare a few minute speech on it, I am running low on time.  My schedule is quite mixed up to. I plan to talk to Bryce this week about it - it is confusing me a lot.  Also I've got to continue to work on preparing for the Missions Trip Fundraiser (coming up January 1st) and the week of fasting (next week - I think).  My sleep schedule is also quite a bit off and my budget is no debatably off which confused me all the more.

I think this week is going to be very frustrating and tough. If you could pray that God would bless me with peace and comfort, the ability to stay calm, focus and to overcome my habit of laziness (especially the next few weeks), I would greatly appreciate it.

Boarding

I am boarding in 20 minutes.   My flight is suppose to land in Chicago around  9:30 central time.   I am hoping to be back in the central Illinois area around 1:00 - ish.    Can't wait!!!

Dream

So the other night I had a dream that I was Skylines Nursing Home (where Grandpa Baurer and Aunt Jane are at) decided to move to Tremont IL and moved into the house we were living in. But it wasn't quite out house it was a random house we were renting but that I didn't recognize (the odd way dreams are). Anyways it turned out that Skylines moved into the same building that we were living in I was really excited about that. I was thrilled because I didn't have to worry about time, gas and anything like that any more - I could just go visit aunt Jane and Grandpa anytime I wanted.  Then I woke up.  I have to be honest, I have never felt so disappointed - never so sad from waking up from a dream.   It was odd, I've never been so excited about something in a dream before - it's very odd.

Devotions at McDonalds

So in our SLI class today we had Mike Beecraft.  He finally decided to try something with our (huge) class that he as done with previous classes. He took us to McDonalds to do our daily devotions.  Twas a lot of fun, though McDonalds was a bit full, but all worked out and we got good food while we dug into The Word.

Hair Cut

So last night I got finally decided that I didn't want to deal with my hair any longer. It was a pain to comb and especially a pain to wash.  I didn't want to waste the money of going to a professional so I figured that my razor should do just fine. This first picture is the before hand hair:

So, after I attempted to use my razor on a small-ish portion on the side of my head, I found out that it was going to make me completely bald.  This next picture is the side of my head that I tried cutting with my razor - all of the hair next-to and above (to the right) is gone:

I decided that I could deal with being bald, but Laura didn't think so. She went and got Jim's mom's clippers (she use to be a hair dresser) and volunteered to cut my hair.   Now it's not quite a low as I would of liked it, but I can say I am pretty sure that it's way better than being bald.  I love not having several inches of hair sitting onto of my head, and now my hair is so easy to wash.  This picture is the final result. It's hard to tell how short it really is from this angle. Currently it's only about an inch long (it use to be at least 3 inches long before).

Thank you a ton Laura for taking the time out of your evening to cut my hair!

Christmas in Concert - Woodstock

Here is a video I made that gives a very quick summary-Preview of Christmas in Concert (at the Woodstock Campus - at the Bloomingdale Campus we had lots of different costumes, a much larger stage and many other things, but the shows are the same).   It was a lot of fun  -  this one, the Woodstock Campus, is from Yesterday (Saturday).  The whole show was 15 songs/pieces, plus 4 singalong carol songs, plus a number of short videos (as transitions), totaling about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  This video is only about an 18th of that:

Christmas in Concert -Bloomingdale

Here are some of the pictures of last weekends performances at Koinonia Bloomingdale's Christmas in Concert:

Backstage with Olaf:

Go Pro's view from behind the drums. All four showings were 'sold' out 

(it was a free show though), they had to turn down hundreds of people every

show because 1) there wasn't room and 2) more people would have broken the

fire code for the auditorium. Each show we had 700-800 people in the audience:

What people think Backstage always looks like:

What Backstage normally looks like:

Above the stage views:

Here you can see the Choir on the far side of the room next to the stage. 

The orchestra was on the other side of the stage (hidden from this view of the camera):

Notice Olaf on the screen (they were showing the teaser for

Frozen where Olaf blows his nose off)

Notice Olaf and Anna dancing on the far side of the stage.

"Let it Snow" was being sung at this time:

Update

Well, I've been a bit busy this past week (again).  It is starting to hit that I have lots to do and very little time to do them.  This past weekend was Christmas in Concert (I am hoping to have a few pictures soon).  It was a lot of fun to put on, and since I am working backstage, I have seen the show nearly a dozen times - and I would love to see it more. Tomorrow is my chance to see it a few more times. Koinonia's other "branch" in Woodstock is hosting their Christmas in Concert and I will be working backstage again.  I'm looking forward to it in most ways except that it will take up my entire Saturday - which I need to read my book.  Oh, my book. It has hit me that I have procrastinated again and now I have till Thursday to read the 247 page book (Understanding the purpose and power of Prayer Earthly License for Heavenly Interference by Dr. Myles Munroe) and write a book report on it (about 4-6 pages long).

Sunday I started serving in the Cafe.  It's actually kind of fun - I had a really easy job of just filling up  coffees when people ordered them (thankfully I wasn't put on something like Mocha's or Hot Chocolate where you actually have to do a lot of work - but this week I might have to).

Today I will be serving in Grades 5 & 6 in Koinonia's Christian Academy (KCA).  I don't know what to expect since last Friday I was exempt from it to help set up for Christmas in Concert.  Last month I was suppose to be in Grades 3 & 4 but I din't do grades 3 & 4 at all - the first week in November we were doing something that I don't remember, the second week we were at Axis, the third Friday I was moved to Grades 1 & 2 because they need more help and the last Friday in November I was again move because of the need for more help else where, but this time it was to the Kindergarten class.

Fundraiser

So today has been a bit stressful. In addition to the lack of sleep (was at the church till midnight last night doing C in C practice), several things happened.  Well, we (our SLI class) had a meeting after class about our Missions Trip Fundraiser coming up in January. It was suppose to be a family/activities night type thing.  We got together today and discussed what activities, games and food we will be doing/serving, along with that we all got roles that we were responsible for and who is speaking about what at the event.  We left (it seemed everyone was a kind of excited about it) with that we will be meeting again with our leaders on Tuesday.  By then we are suppose to have talked to people in our area to get things more figured out for each of our rolls.  After the meeting was dismissed Daniel and I went up to talk to Oto to get some information about our Trip. 5 minutes later we come down to find that more than half the class no longer wants to do the event, and instead just want to do a movie night.  Their thought was that the amount of work put into the event isn't likely to get enough money coming in, whereas a movie night - with, say, 5 movies playing and $15 tickets would be less work and more likely to get the money.

Personally I was, and am really looking forward to the activities event. I think it is a wonderful idea and kids will love it (some of our thoughts include pie in the face, cardboard tunnel maze, games in the gym, cake walk, and much more).  It will actually attract kids and parents.  There are other things involved in my petition too, but this is a big part of it. I don't think that a movie night
1) is as inviting (yes we may get a wider range of people, but we would loose some direct focus - I think)
2) it doesn't seem as personal to be supporting the cause
3) I don't think that we will raise that much money (the event is in the afternoon on a Saturday plus we will have the tickets somewhat high)
4) there is little to none personal interaction for the supporters to interact with us going on the trip.  You don't go to a movie to bond, you do activities together to bond.

I think the plan right now is to present both opinions to our leaders on Tuesday and get their opinions.

I would love to hear your thoughts...

Your Comments

Just a quick not to all you who are following my blog. I have had some trouble lately with someone spamming the comments of my blog. Because of this I have turned on "Comment Moderation" which filters all comments through me before they are published.  I love to hear what all y'all have to say and I will try to get you comments published asap.  - Just so you know why your comments may not appear right away.