From early on, this mission trip
has been a battle with the enemy. From filling the team, to getting housing and
meals finalized, to sickness, to flights messed up, to our flight into McGrath
being canceled a day due to hundreds of wildfires burning around the flight
path…I think you get the picture! Personally, he never let up on me and the
planning. It seemed that I was constantly hearing him telling me this mission
trip was not going to make it. The only thing we could think to do was to do as
Jesus did when He said to Peter, “Get behind Me Satan! You are a hindrance to
Me!” I have felt, and told the team and everyone I shared this trip with, God
has some great things planned for this trip. And we might as well expect the
ole enemy to give us his best shot! He did, and we left him in the dust!
“There
is nothing special that happens to you on a 757 crossing the ocean” (Harry Gebert, M.D., medical
missionary) The truth is, if you are not
praying regularly and spending time in God’s word before you go, you won’t do
so once you are there. We must remember that missions are ultimately a
spiritual activity. You may have a specific task to do on your mission, but the
reason for your trip is to make God’s name known among the people you are going
to serve. Jesus told His disciples in John
15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in
him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” We
need to cultivate the habit of abiding in Him before we go. The lessons we
learn in the time spent with Him before we go will make a huge difference when
we are on the trip.
Our
team spent two weeks prior to the trip in a devotion created for this trip. As
I prepared the devotion I kept sensing this trip was all about a “heart
attack”! Not that someone was going to have one physically, but I believed
that God wanted to really work on our hearts on this trip. The devotion was a
collection of devotions that address having a heart for God, a heart that we
willing offered up to the Father, giving Him full access to do whatever He
needed to do, with no part of our hearts being “off-limits” to Him.
I opened the devotion with a
story about Dr. David Livingstone, the great missionary to Africa. After he
died, his best African friend, Chuma, took his body 1,500 miles for burial.
Before Chuma left on that journey, he took out the heart of David Livingstone.
He buried it under a tree in Africa because he said, “That’s where his heart
really was!” A monument has been erected on the spot where his heart was
buried.
I challenged each of us to ask
these questions: Where will they bury your heart? What is the most important
thing to you? Who are you most
passionate about? Who does your heart beat for?
I believe these two weeks, and
the focus on our “heart preparation”, was a huge part of the success of this
trip. From the day we set foot in McGrath, things just worked out! Every
mission team has its own “identity”, and also its share of “difficulties”, but
from day one this team just rolled! By the time the kids started to come into
the church on day one, God was at work in so many ways. And He did not quit
even as we left McGrath to start the long trip home. In fact He is still
working as I am leading weekly Bible clubs in the village through August while
Christie (my wife) and I fill in for Pastor Wayne who is out of the village for
the summer. I will be continuing the blog while we are here so stayed tuned.
We were very encouraged by the
number of kids on the first day. I am not a “numbers” person, but the numbers
in the McGrath VBS tend to drop after the first day. The real encouragement was
the number of kids in the older ages (10-12) that came, and came back. Each day
we saw a big group of kids, and when one didn’t show up one day, a new one did!
We had our hands full all week, and oh, what a joy it was.
This was my fourth year to be a
part of the VBS team. After each VBS, I have tried to step back and see what
did and didn’t work. The one thing that year after year did not work was
one-on-one time; having enough time to get to know the kids, to talk to them
and with them. This year we decided to really shake up the usual routine and
daily format. We decided to divide the Bible story time into two sections; a
summary of the story in a large group, and then divide the kids by ages into
two smaller groups to focus on the details of the story. We were not really
sure how all this was going to work, but God knew and had a PLAN!
As part of the Bible story time,
we had some special friends of ours tell the story…modern day style. We brought
6 big puppets, and the kids loved them! You can check-out the daily blogs for
pictures. But a bigger impact of this change was the small groups. Ms. Lynett
led the younger kids and Ms. Melynda led the older kids. On day one, Ms. Lynett
told me we needed to revamp the younger kids agenda. I said, “You make any changes you need to make and go with it.” Day two was amazing!
Ms. Lynett put on her “child creative mind” and for the last three days had
those younger kids eating out of her hands…LITERALLY…sour patch gummy worms and
all! Ms. Melynda, being the teacher that she is, made a few adjustments also,
and really made the daily passages come alive. I was really moved the day she
had the kids take a piece of paper and write a prayer request on it. Then she
took them outside to make a visual point. "When you ask God for something, as a
believer, and give it to Him, He will help you." Then she had them put the paper
in the shovel part of a snow shovel and took out some matches. (I have to admit
I was getting a little nervous because there was/is a mandatory STATEWIDE
burning ban! All I was thinking was someone will see the smoke, call DNR, and
they would come and arrest me! Headlines in local McGrath news the next
morning: Visiting missionary team arrested and run out of town for violating
burn order!) All I know is that I trust this very special lady, so I gave her a
little rope and hope she did not burn the church down! But seriously, after all
the pieces of paper were put in the shovel Ms. Melynda explained how God takes
those cares off of us and takes them Himself. It got very quiet and I watched
as these older kids really listened, and I think started to get a little of
what we had been talking about.
It never fails, when you bring
teenagers along on a VBS mission trip the trip takes on a whole other flair!
Haley and Jay were a big hit with the kids. They really loved it when Haley did
her calf roping practice using Jay as the calf! These guys really connected
with the older kids and spent some good time with them.
The last day of VBS has become a
FUN DAY. The kids just play games, enjoy a cookout with their parents, and end
the day with a closing program where they show off the songs they learned and
what they learned about Jesus. At the end we always tie the Gospel into what
they learned for the week. The church was full and the kids did an outstanding
job.
I could not end these thoughts
without thanking the incredible people of McGrath Community Church for inviting us back for another VBS. We always have an awesome time when we come each year. We are already planning for next year. To our host homes, Josh and Kellie Peirce and Ray and Sally Collins, your guys heaped real Alaskan hospitality on our team. And we could not leave out the amazing Joyce Turner who brought us an amazing lunch each day and snacks for the kids. She also baked a birthday cake and cupcakes for Jay Cowan's birthday.
And last but not least, I want to thank our amazing team for an incredible job the entire trip. This group of folks worked, and played, together for ten days and not once did we have any potholes to deal with. To Melynda Cowan, Lynett Smith, Haley Polk, and Jay Cowan, I love you guys and this trip was the best one yet!
To all you that supported this team with prayers and financial support, God left an incredible mark on these kids , and this village because you cared enough to support this team.
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