Women's Night

The women on the trip all went to Palm Desert/Indian Wells for the night. Lynne hosted everyone at her home. The hot weather was a great chance to sit by the pool and have some fun in the sun.

Spiritual and Physical Needs

During the last training I read a Franklin Graham quote and a few people asked if I could send it to them. I also decided to post it here since it is so relevant to the work we are doing.

If you only see the physical needs, you will become a humanitarian. If you only see his mental need, you will become an educator. If you only see his political oppression, you will become a revolutionary or a politician. And if you only see his spiritual needs, you will become a religionist. It is seeing the whole man, with a strong emphasis on the spiritual, when you become a Christian witness, a missionary, and evangelist and communicator of God's words.
Franklin Graham at Amsterdam '83

Training #6

We held our sixth training today. Only two more trainings until we leave and one of those is a packing meeting. The trip is really getting close now.

We spent some time with a few Bridges of Hope exercises on spiritual and physical needs and the differences between relief and development.

One of the topics we covered was Conflict Resolution. We split into smaller groups and each group performed a short skit on the right way and wrong way to handle conflict. The leaders were unsure if this was even going to work and it turned out to be one of the best exercises we have done so far. Everyone came up with hilarious skits and had a great time with it.

Our next memory verse is Colossians 3:12-14

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and
dearly loved, clothe yourselves with
compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness
and patience. Bear with each other and
forgive whatever grievances you may have
against on another. Forgive as the Lord
forgave you. And over all these virtues put on
love which binds them all together in perfect
unity.
Colossians 3:12-14

Angels Game

The guys spent the evening tonight at the Angels game. Another opportunity to get to know each other better and a good excuse to get out. The Angels played the Atlanta braves.

Game Night

Claire and Lailanie hosted a game night. About half the team showed up to play various board games and have some general fun.

Training #5 - Watts Service Trip

Our team served in Watts today with Powerhouse church. Powerhouse is a new church in Watts and has been in partnership with ROCKHarbor. We split our team into three groups and helped lead worship, cooked a meal for everyone at the church, and served in children's ministry. It was an amazing experience that was much like we have seen on our previous trips to Africa in that you never really know what you are going to be doing until you get there. One team ventured out into the local neighborhood to invite people to the church service.

These service trips are a great way to see if everyone works together well. This was a very long and hard day and I have to say this is one of the best teams I have seen. We are really looking forward to see what God has in store for this team in Africa.

Aaron took a lot of great photos and has a gallery/blog where you can see them.