BSM UTPA Missions Blog 09 Recording our experiences as we serve God this Summer

It’s been quite the long weekend but things have finally calmed down a bit for us this morning. Praise God that we have had the energy for everything He has called us to do so far and for the rest He gave us on Monday.  So, what have we been up to that has caused this little break from blogging? It was Manifest Hope Camp.  On Thursday morning, we headed to South Padre Island to begin the camp. Months of back planning had been going on before we even knew about the camp. They had been setting up hotel reservations, scheduling our speaker, and getting a lot of other planning, event scheduling, and graphic work done. When we arrived at La Quinta, where the event was to be held, our team quickly unloaded our very very very packed bus and had everything including a full sound system set-up well under the time constraints we had. Students from all over the Valley soon started arriving and registering and we started to see the faces to the hearts that God would soon touch. The event started, we played some games, the band played, and Gabe Salazar, our guest speaker, spoke. We had no idea that in that first night, we would see lives touched. As Gabe finished his sermon with the invitation and the band began to play in the background, students began to come forward crying, happy, broken, and changed. For the next three days we saw this time and time again. By the end of the weekend, it seemed as though every young person that came realized something different was in store for their life. The three days were also filled with fun and excitement for all the youth and our group as well. We had some beautiful sand castles built including a huge whale, a very happy group of six youth that won a volleyball tournament, and plenty of quick games to get the blood flowing before the main sessions. Gabe Salazar even taught our group a new game called “Ninja.”  (Ask any of us about it and we will show you how to play.) Overall, through sleepiness, sunburns, and sand, God moved in ways we never could have expected. Sure, we expected a couple people to cry here and there, maybe someone to share a testimony about how bad they were before they met Jesus, but the overwhelming response from the youth that came forward really opened our eyes to how much God can do when a few of His servants get together to do His will.

-Brian Martinez

Whew!  This week has been quite an adventure!  The entire team is exhausted, but  more importantly, we are really and truly joyful for all that we have seen God do this week. 

In the past week, the Valley Summer Project Team has:

-Led a 12 year-old boy to Christ! =)
-Prepared for and led two four-day Vacation Bible Schools at Primera Iglesia Bautista, Hidalgo and Iglesia Bautista Cristo El Rey in Mission, respectively
-Led a two-day Kids’ Rally at Buckner Children’s Home in Mission
-Helped organize shoes that have been donated to Buckner’s Shoes for Orphan Souls program
-Red Door, our BSM band has faithfully practiced in preparation for leading worship at Manifest Hope Camp at South Padre Island
-Prepared a seminar, teambuilding activities, media, music, volleyball and sand castle-building tournaments, and helped with many administrative tasks that needed to be completed for Manifest Hope Camp

These are just a few of the things we have accomplished this week.  What has amazed me the most about this entire process is our team’s willingness to do whatever it takes to serve. 

During our second day at Buckner Children’s Home, several members of our team saw that there were more volunteers (13 from our team plus 30 from a local church) than children that day.  Instead of standing around keeping to ourselves so as not to overwhelm the kids, our team went and asked if there was anything else that we could do to help; a representative from Buckner told us that the only thing they needed help with was in the warehouse, but said that it would probably be too hot for us to work.  We told him that we would serve wherever we were needed, including inside the hot warehouse.  God used the short time it took for the seven of us to finish that  project to allow us to be a part of His plan for the children who will be receiving those shoes.

Honestly, we had fun serving God in the hot, dusty warehouse.  We knew that God was there with us, just as He was with the rest of our team ministering to the kids.  What God really impressed upon my heart that day was the fact that as servants of God, we must be willing to be hot and sweaty, freezing cold, smelly and dirty, etc. in order to share His love ith those around us.   Little did we know that God would use our running around playing tag with 8-10 year olds, dressing up as a bunny for preschoolers, or re-stacking big boxes to show us that what He is really looking for is a willing heart.   God gives us the opportunity to choose whether or not we want to serve;  He has proven and continues to prove to our team that choosing to serve is far more rewarding than being comfortable could ever be.

The chorus of the song “Little is Much” by Downhere sumarizes something that God has been revealing to our team these past two weeks:

“Little is much when God’s in it
And no one can fathom the plans He holds
Little is much when God’s in it
He changes the world with the seeds we sow”

Lord, we pray that You use the seeds we are sowing to change the world. 
We’re ready to work.

-Ali Cepeda

The Manifest Hope Camp has officially started.  It is awesome to be serving together with our BSM UTPA students.  They are an amazing team. They love God and are fully committed to seeing His name glorified. Sharon and I are privileged to serve alongside this team. They make us proud and show every day a love for God that is going to fuel them for the rest of their lives.

So our hearts and gratitude go out to these college students. You guys rock.  They will be posting more on the camp they have planned and are now serving at.

Robert

Friday, June 5, 2009:

We traveled to Weslaco to scrape paint and begin re-painting a woman’s home.  We even got to meet her!  She was so grateful, but really it was a blessing for us to be able to serve her. 

Saturday, June 6, 2009:

We went door-to-door inviting kids to Vacation Bible School at Iglesia Bautista Cristo el Rey in Mission, TX and then hosted another Block Party at One Way Road to Heaven Church in Donna, TX.

We’ll be working on mid-week photo recap.  Look for it coming soon!

Thursday, June 4, 2009:

We met with Robert & Sharon for lunch and hosted a block party at One Way Road to Heaven church in Donna, TX. Check out the puppet Robert is holding; the twin-ish moment was NOT planned. =)  -Ali

Wednesday, June 3, 2009:

We finished painting the interior and exterior of the semi-trailer/classroom, cooled off with delicious paletas, led the Wednesday night service at Memorial Baptist Church in Edinburg, TX, and prepared for our first block party on Thursday.  -Ali

The first week of missions has come to an end. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Many things occurred during this period and He provided the strength and perseverance to complete them all. The team painted a semi-trailer, prepared for VBS, hosted block parties and later painted a house, amongst other things. A few accompanied Robert to North Carolina and served the Hispanic youth. Indeed, all things are possible through Christ.

Week 1 was very encouraging altogether. Though we encountered trials since the beginning, we had the victory day after day. Praise God! Communication and a strong foundation in Christ has made the 2009 team strong and united.

I urge you to maintain this team and missionaries around the globe in prayer that we may continue to claim victory. We will fight back. We shall not yield.

Thank you,

Att. Martha Altamirano

Tuesday, June 2, 2009:

We painted the inside of the semi-trailer turned classroom at One Way Road to Heaven Church in Donna, TX, ate at Pizza Hut, and prepared for the Block Parties at which we’d be helping.  We’ll be posting more pictures from our eventful week soon, so keep checking for more BSM-er goodness!

We are so thankful to have blog & Twtter followers and want to thank you for ALL of your prayers, words of encouragement, and pictures you’re sending to our photo frame.  =)

God is truly working in our lives and in the lives of people around the Rio Grande Valley!  The following verses from Psalm 86 have really been resonating with me lately, so I thought I’d share them with you. 

Love, Ali Cepeda

 ⁸ Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord;
       no deeds can compare with yours.
⁹ All the nations you have made
       will come and worship before you, O Lord;
       they will bring glory to your name.
 ¹⁰ For you are great and do marvelous deeds;
       you alone are God.

Psalm 86:8-10 (NIV)

After six days of first experiences and working by painting, and scraping walls and ministering to kids of all ages at the Block parties,  we all have really seen God’s hand over us because of all the blessings that have come with doing His work.  This week some of us learned how hard it is to paint walls and even ceilings, and how you have to take care of all the little details when it comes to painting four walls (especially because we do it for the Glory of God).  Also some of us have conquered our stage fright, and others have mastered the puppet ministry, while the rest of us like me still try to work with those cool puppets.  We have done from singing, to Bible classes and recreation for kids and I want to congratulate all of you out there who are good with arts and crafts just like Ali because she is an expert at it. 

So like I said before after six days of hard work we finally came to the seventh where we can rejoice in our Lord’s house.  Today we want to thank Calvary Baptist Church for having us at their 11:00 a.m. service where we were able to delight ourselves in beautiful worship and received great spiritual food to last for a while by Pastor Sergio Ramos.  We also want to thank all the church members for praying for us today and for their warm welcome.

Later, we prepared for VBS at “Iglesia Cristo del Rey” at Mission and also at “Iglesia Primera Bautista de Hidalgo” at Hidalgo”.  It was a challenge because our team had to divide in half because both VBS are at the same time and they are so far apart but God provided help from others BSM’rs like Jessica, Suheily, and Yara, and it was amazing how God even provided for another puppet stage so that we won’t have to alternate our original one.  Today was a blessing working with the kids and we are really happy that we get to work with those kids from today until Wednesday.

I thank you our readers again for keeping up, tell others about our blog, and please don’t stop praying for us; we need prayer for this upcoming busy week, we will minister to kids at Buckner Children’s Home in some mornings while doing two VBS in the afternoons, then we also will be attending UTPA’s freshman orientation so that they can know about our organization on Wednesday, and we will close the week by ministering to high schoolers at a camp, and attending a children’s home again.  So as you can see we need lots and lots of prayer, so that we can be prepared and have sensitive ears to God’s voice in order to do his will.  I thank you again and I close this week and start the next one with this verse of encouragement and confirmation from God’s Word:

Acts 13: 47

For this is as the Lord commanded us when He said:                                                                                                                                    “I have made you a light to the gentiles, to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth”

                                                                                                                                                                                                          God Bless   

                                                                                                                                                                                            Att: Zaira J. Heredia

Today was a beautiful day in the Lord.  It is incredible how God knows all twelve of us so well.  Today we had the task of painting a lady’s home. We were very confident about it because we already had practice from the trailer that we painted earlier this week.  Plus we only had to paint the outside.  We arrived at the home at 9 a.m. and we found out that we had to scrape the old paint from the entire house. We thought it would be impossible because we only had today from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to finish.  Thankfully J.R. the Buckner representative told us that we only had to scrape and paint two of the walls and that he is going to have another team to finish tomorrow.  But it was not over then; to our surprise we only had one scraper for ten people so we did what we could with brushes and wooden sticks we were tired, no we were exhausted.  Just when some of us were starting to get frustrated the owner of the home got arrived from her job and when she saw what we were doing she busted into tears and said just one phrase over and over again “Thank you so much.”  After taking a picture with her we all felt very encouraged to continue working because we realized how God uses us to impact other people’s life.  “She told me that no one has ever done anything like this for her in her entire life,” said J.R.  It was a blessing to see that woman’s reaction and God knew that we would be encouraged as soon as we saw her, so now we know that he sent her on time; later J.R was able to provide us with more scrapes and the job was finished.

After lunch we started preparing for the second Block Party at “One Way Road to Heaven” church and for both of the VBS that start this Sunday.  Even though that we struggled without Ali, Arnold, Brian, Belinda, and Martha we were able to do just fine and God allowed us to have a wonderful fellowship time over dinner.  We are really excited about tomorrow and finishing small details about the VBS but we really know that God is with us throughout this whole path.

Today’s scripture was 1st Corinthians 1:24-31

24 But to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  25  For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 26  Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.   27 Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, 28 and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, 29 so that no human being might boast  before God. 30 It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,  31 so that, as it is written, “Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.” 

Another reminder that all glory belongs to Him and only Him and that without him we would have never been what, and where we are today.

Again thank you, make sure to look at the pictures and keep us in your prayers. Specially pray for those who are out and will be back on Sunday

                                                                                                                                                                                            God Bless

                                                                                                                                                                                           Att: Zaira J. Heredia