Are those new glasses?

Before I left for the trip, my eye doctor (who is also one of my closest friends) helped me find a pair of sunglasses that he could have put together with my prescription lenses in them. What a huge help it is to be able to read things (and see small things) quickly even when I am in the blazing hot sun!

But that is not the only purpose they have served on this trip! Last night, I explained how these 2 pairs of glasses can help us understand some pretty incredible things about our trip. My everyday pair of glasses help me to see things the way any person with good vision sees them - the way they are physically. The second pair (my prescription sunglasses) help me to see things in focus, but see them through lenses with a different tint. As we unpacked the day, I explained how each student has the opportunity to choose which glasses they will see the day through - the pair that sees things in natural light or the pair that allows them to see the people, places and activities of the day through "supernatural" lenses. As we started our day on the bus this morning, I held up both pairs of glasses and asked everyone "Which pair of glasses are we wearing today?" they responded in unison... "SUNGLASSES!"

Following our 45 minute bus ride through some of the most beautiful countryside many of us have ever seen, we arrived at the community of Nicaragua (not the country - dont worry). We worked in a very small school (thank you Lord! btw - yesterday only turned out to be about 140 kids... calm down, commenters :-)

Student played soccer, made crafts, sang songs and made bracelets. Today was amazing! One of the highlights of the day was the craft that we planned - before we began, we got the entire group together and took a quick snapshot with a digital camera. While our students worked with the children to make and decorate picture frames out of popsicle sticks, I went to the church next door and hooked up a small digital printer to the only electical outlet in the entire community! (the power was supplied by a solar panel that fed a car battery - it was hooked up to a power inverter which powered a small audio amplifier that the church usues for their electic keyboard and microphone... see the picture below). After I printed out the pictures on the printer, I took it over to the group to fill the frames... you should have seen the faces of these children when they saw the pictures!

Ok... now for the top 5 things that I loved about today:

5. Watching some of our students choose selfless wisdom over their own desires and comfort!

4. Watching the amazement on their faces as we drove through miles of dirt roads and one lane bridges to get to Nicaragua

3. Seeing 30+ beautiful Honduran children smile while they play "Red Rover"

2. Watching a 9 year old boy out manuver several of our high school boys (some soccer players) on the soccer field!

1... hearing the voice of my beautiful wife... I love you Sheila!!!!! I can't wait to see you!

Here are some pics... have fun! Btw - they loved hearing the comments!!!!

Jeremy

Our band reception from day 1 - this band is the Central American Champion!

What a first day!

I must say that no matter how much you plan, you can't cover it all!

Let's start with last night. Did you know that cockroaches can be nearly the size of cats? Neither did I, but to hear our girls explain it, that is the case! (don't worry - that was the only one we saw). After everyone was finally settling in and I was just laying down, I heard blood curdling (spelling?) screams from the girls room. I shot up and quickly made my way downstairs to see who had lost a limb (I thought that there might have been some large animal in their room)... one of our girls saw a Geco on the wall in the shower - she screamed - the girls in the showers on either side of her screamed because they didn't know why the first one screamed... mass choas broke out... all was fine in moments.

Today was sinply incredible! It almost brings tears to my eyes to think of how amazing our students are! Each and every one of them has taken each task and idea with the greatest of ease and the best attitude! Did I mention that it is incredibly hot here? (The weather channel was dead wrong - the heat and humidity are nothing like at home!)

After our morning devotion (Is. 1:4-20) our students loved on kids in the community of "Sambo Creek." It was amazing to watch these students play soccer and Simon Says, construct "wordless book bracelets," make "stain-glass" crosses, sing "Father Abraham" in "espanol" and generally just love on kids! I can't say enough about how amazing your students are!

After lunch, several students spent the afternoon playing soccer and other games with some students from the school where we are staying while some other students worked tirelessly at building the first couple of "protoype" bunkbeds that we will be working on tomorrow.

Chris Weaver and I (without Chris and his wife, we would probably have come home already!) are now sitting at Pizza Hut posting this and will head back in moments to work through some time of reflection and worship with students, then it's off to bed... fans a blazin!

Keep praying!

Jeremy

Sleep deprived, but alive and well

Sorry this took so long to get out. We arrived in La Ceiba @ 11:55 AM, left the airport at 1:45 (after a lengthy process involving our luggage)... 5 hours later (after a flat tire on the bus) we arrived in La Ceiba to a full marching band reception! (I will explain more tomorrow)

As I write this, our group is across the street loading the bus while I find a free internet connection!

The last time most of these kids slept was during my sermon on Sunday (It's 11:15 PM on Monday Ohio time)!

I will take time to write much more tomorrow - I just wanted to get the safe arrival news out tonight!

Btw - when we arrived, the heat hit us like a ton of bricks... $140 and 4 fans later, we hope to make the sleeping a success! Also, the VBS we planned for 60 in the morning is anticipated to have over 200! PRAY FOR MIRACULOUS PROVISION OF VBS SUPPLIES!

Jeremy

There is such a thing as over-planning!

Well, it looks like the planning thing was a bit overdone! In 15 years of student ministry, I have always struggled to get groups to leave on time!

When we planned the registration and loading process, we assumed that it would take at least an hour and a half! Well... not so much! I guess when you have parents come to the church when they have yet to go to bed, it encourages everyone to be on time!

As a result, we were registered and loaded up in less than an hour... and now we are waiting for the ticket counters to open! Students are laying all over the floors playing cards and talking.... the are so anxious!

I will write more later... just wanted to let everyone know that we arrived safely... AND EARLY!!!!

Don't forget to read the previous article (below) about comments - it is very important!!!!

Jeremy

Comments on the Blog!

Ok - just one important thought that I would like all of you to consider. Each night while we are gone, we get together to debrief and discuss the day's events. During that time, we go through any "comments" that parents or others who are following the blog might post! I have to tell you that this is MAJOR encouragement to our students!

So, here is my challenge for you... as you are following the blog throughout this week, please consider leaving a comment as often as you can! Your comment can be a little note directly to your student, or a prayer for the team that you simply write out, a verse that God is laying on your heart or a quote that impacts you... ANYTHING that could even remotely be encouraging to our kids!

All you have to do to leave a comment is go to the actual blog page (you can't do it from the emails). So, visit http://www.godeepblog.com/ and go to the bottom of the post on which you would like to comment (we read the comments from the most recent post each night) - - click on the word "comments." From there, you can view the comments left by others as well as post your comment.

Listen - comments can be left by ANYONE... parents, friends, family, people from the church, strangers, ANYONE WHO WANTS TO ENCOURAGE OUR KIDS!

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT... it can be as simple as "I am so glad you arrived safely" or "I love you, _______" to a full paragraph with an update on how the cat is doing.

WE LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!!!

Thanks!

Jeremy

My heart for this trip

Even as I write these words, the vast majority of our team is watching an important video. Today, I have asked our students to watch (and in some cases, re-watch) the sermon that our Church experienced together at the close of the "One Prayer" series ("Make us Wise by Wayne Cordierro). This is probably the 5th or 6th time I have seen this sermon - it is still challenging me!



As I am listening, I find myself running over the most important things I would love to see accomplished on this trip. The funny thing is that Nate and I have spent countless hours working on the most ridiculous minute details...



To make a long story short - here are the things that I am praying... will you join me?



~ Spend time with Jesus. Life goes by too fast - we are hoping that students will have a chance to begin to develop the habit of spending quality time with the Master. Each day student will be given a tool that we have developed to coordinate with the day's activity that will help them discover truth from Scripture, apply it to their lives and then see life through the goggles of Wisdom.



~ See what God is doing when they are not looking. One of the repetitive questions that I have asked kids on missions trips like this one is "What on earth is God doing?" My hope is that students will have a chance to experience the truth that God is at work on a timeless, spaceless mission to bring Himself glory - - even when they aren't looking!



~ Give something away! I am excited about all that our Church is doing in Honduras. Over and above the unexpected costs of the trip, our church has given well over $3000 the building of bunk beds that will help the mission in La Ceiba house more volunteers in the future (we will be building those beds in the afternoon). My hope is that students will leave something of themselves behind... selfishness!

Please join me in praying for this trip - it is so much more than a chance to do something nice for someone else - so much more than a "do gooder" trip - this is a chance to show the love of Christ to the world He died to save!

Jeremy

ALERT TO EMAIL UPDATERS!!!

Just a short note to all of you who are getting this information through the email subscrption!

I know that it is much more convenient to get the updates through email, but that is not a 'real time' connection to the blog. When I submit a post, the email doesn't go out to you until our service provider (feed burner) decides to blast it out.

So, since the information on this blog will be coming at you quite quickly over the next few days, and much of it is VITAL, it will be very important for you to check this blog as often as you possibly can!

If you are considering that the idea of trying to remember to check this blog that often is a really daunting task, here are couple of options.

- make www.godeepblog.com your home page. That way, whenever you open your internet explorer, you will get the most recent page (you might want to hit the F5 key to refresh that every time you open it to make sure you are actually getting a 'refreshed' page)

- Try a "feed aggregator." I know that sounds difficult, but it is REALLY simple. At my house, we use a service (free) called bloglines. All you have to do is go to www.bloglines.com and sign up for an account (I never get junk mail from them). Once you do that, add a feed from the website www.godeepblog.com and then every time a blog is posted - you will get the info immediately. If you have trouble, feel free to give me a call.

- Do you use Microsoft Outlook for your email? If you do, most versions of outlook support what is called an RSS feed. All you need to do it connect Outlook to the feed at www.godeepblog.com and you will get them immediately.

In the end, I just want to make sure that you get the most up-to-date information as possible!

Thanks!

Jeremy