El Salvador: Part III (Written right now, on a real laptop, and not on my iPod)

Today. Today, today, today.

I can't even tell you how much I'm learning, how much I'm enjoying my time here, how much I'm being encouraged.

Word of Life is such a special place.  It is such a blessing to be able to get away from "the real world" for a little while and go to...a bubble. Sometimes people refer to WOL as being bubble-esque (Bubblicious?) in a negative way...but I can only see it as a gift.  We aren't called to bubbles...we can't just spend the entirety of our Christian lives in total avoidance of unbelievers...but I do believe that we are called to periods of refreshment, fellowship, reprieve, focus...you know.  There is so much going on in our lives--work, school, socializing, sports, meetings, reunions, shopping, errands, banking, laundry--it can be so easy to get discouraged and distracted.  How beautiful a gift to be able to come to a setting where the Lord uses every conversation and song and meeting to re-direct my heart to the fact that I am here to serve Him, only.  That is my only purpose in life. Serving God.  Loving God.  Serving God by serving people, loving God by loving people.

That. Is. Why. I'm. Here. On this earth. I have no other purpose. Everything else I do (work, school, socializing, sports, meetings, reunions, shopping, errands, banking, laundry) should be a manifestation of my service to God.

I love being reminded of that. I need to be reminded of that.

So. In case you haven't caught on, I'm appreciating being back at Word of Life for a little bit of focus.

(And to clarify...WOL hardly avoids unbelievers.  It is currently filled with 400 campers, 66 of whom came forward on Saturday night to talk about making a salvation decision, and more of whom are asking questions about the Lord every day.  This isn't like The Village or anything, there is plenty of interaction with the outside world, plenty of ministry.  It's just nice to be in a place where the focus of the staff and the establishment is to glorify the Lord.)

Ahhhhh I have less than ten minutes before practice and SO MUCH MORE TO SAYYYY!!!!


(Did I just put extra letters in my word for emphasis? That's gross.)



Okay, well, I'll leave you with one very exciting tid-bit from today.


...



I LEARNED TO MAKE BALLOON ANIMALS!!!!!!

Well, "animal," actually. Just a dog. I can also make an apple, a pirate sword, and a regular sword...but none of those are animals.

How great is that? Now I can be a missionary/teacher/clown. :D

El Salvador....here we come. 

El Salvador: Part 2 1/2 (Written very very late on Monday, or very early on Tuesday...)

Details, details, details. It has occurred to me that there are just some things that you really need to know...like all of the Word of Life acronyms, the names of my team members, our trip dates...some of the details.  Well, consider this post a "Map Key" of sorts.

WOL acronyms. Know them, love them. (Or just know them...it's not particularly necessary that you have any feelings about them.)

WOL: Word of Life
HBPAC: Harry Bolback Performing Arts Center (One of the buildings on the FL campus, used for GP.)
CC: Conference Center
YC: Youth Camp
GP: Gospel Productions (WOL puts out two productions a year, "The Sights and Sounds of Christmas" and "Jesus, Behold the Man")
GTAC: George Theiss Assembly Center (The building in the YC which all of the BI classes are held during the schoolyear, and where the meetings and rallies are held during summer camp.)
BI or WOLBI: Word of Life Bible Institute

I think that list will give you enough to have a working acronym vocabulary to maneuver your way around this blog. :)

Now, my team members. I am traveling to El Salvador with the WOL 2010-11 Ensemble.  This consists of eight BI students, four boys and four girls, and their director and his wife.

Girls: Ashley Harwell, Brittany Shipton, Tori Emerson, Holley Vann
Guys: Micah, Ethan, Kyle, Josh (boys don't have last names...do they?)
Tom and Fay Phillips are the leaders of the ensemble.

(I was on the ensemble when I was a BI student in 2007-08.  It was an experience that left me with lifelong friends, tons of stories, and lots of growth.  Their going on this trip was what made me initially interested to go along.)

There are also three high school students traveling with us:

Lauren (from Ft. Wayne, Indiana)
Olivia (from Maryland)
Nate [the Great] (from Manasses, Virginia)

Matt Melville is a missionary who works at WOL New York with short term missions.  He has been teaching our classes and will be our fearless leader on the trip.

And then of course there's moi....serving as the "Unit Leader" for the girls.  I get to pour into the lives of these six ladies for the next three weeks in an uninhibited way.

It. Is. So. Awesome. Getting to know them, praying with them, encouraging them, teaching them, learning from them...praise the Lord for His family!!!

And the missing member of our team is Josiah.  He's currently in Argentina (because wouldn't you know it, there's a WOLBI down there, too!) and will meet us in El Salvador.

We will be leaving on Saturday, June 25th and coming back on July 9th.

Hoorah!


That's all, folks!

El Salvador: Part Two (Written on Monday, June 20th)

I apologize for not posting the next day like I said I would.  For ease of travel as well as focus-oriented purposes, I didn't bring a laptop with me to Florida.  I am therefore required to strike a beggar's pose for access to a computer.  If I do come across a generous soul with a laptop, I have to go up to the other end of campus, to the conference center, in order to use the Internet.  (The campus is divided into two sections, the youth camp [where I am being housed this training week in a cabin with the other girls from my trip] at one end, and the conference center at the other end [where the boys are being housed and where we have all of our Student Fusion meetings]. It is about a twelve minute walk from one end of campus to the other.) It all gets kind of difficult to work out with the borrowing and the walking and the writing and the posting when I'm trying to fit it into the already fairly strict schedule for Student Fusion.

Ergo (is that really how you spell that?!) I don't have a lot of opportunities to use a computer and/or post.  This whole post is being thumb-typed into a note on my iPod touch.  I'll post it when I go up to the CC (conference center, that is. WOL runs on acronyms...) in a little while for practice.  This way, I can write whenever I get a few spare minutes, and not try and find time in my schedule for borrowing, walking, and posting to all happen at once.

Have I clarified Student Fusion yet?  That is the name of the WOL program that runs short term mission trips.

And speaking of schedules, I'm sure you're all dying to know what a day in the life of a typical Student Fusion member looks like during training week. Right? Right. Well let me tell you.

7:45--8:45am ----------Breakfast
8:45--9:15am ----------Quiet Time
9:30--10:30am ---------Bible Hour (I'm not sure what happens in the fifteen minutes between Quiet Time and Bible Hour...anything is possible, really.) (Oh yeah. Bible Hour is actually part of summer camp. We're conveniently located in a cabin, while camp is going on...so we take advantage of the opportunities to hear the Word of God taught. Fist pump, it's good stuff.)
11;30--12:30pm--------Student Fusion class
12:30pm----------------Lunch
1:00--2~3:00-----------Student Fusion class
2~3:00--4:00pm--------Free Time/walkingborrowingbloggingtime/devo-planning time
4:15--5:30pm-----------Student Fusion practice
5:30--6:30pm-----------Dinner
(The rest of the evening is full of camp activities--an evening meeting, a rally, a game--in which we generally take part...because we can. :) )
11:00pm----------------In dorms/Devos
11:30~12:00pm---------Lights out

And there it is.  With the exception of Wednesday, our day off, that is what our days will consist of all week. In our classes we get to know one another, discuss and prepare ourselves for the cross-cultural encounters we'll have in El Salvador (because you know how annoying those uninformed, loud Americans can be in a foreign country...), go over a daily group devo that prepares our hearts for the trip, and learn how to implement the tools we'll be using to share the gospel.  Today we started working with the Evangecube...the Gospel message displayed in unfolding boxes of universally understood, colorful pictures. Huzzah for crossing  language barriers!

The practices are where we learn our songs and skits we'll be performingin El Salvador.  I can't tell you much about those yet because I...haven't yet experienced one.  However, the first one starts in about twenty minutes.  I had better get going...after all, I've got a twelve minute walk up to the CC.

Continue to pray for us! I will post again as soon as possible.

El Salvador: The Pioneer Post

Hello all!

Some of you (most of you, probably) know that my summer plans for twenty-eleven include a mission trip to El Salvador.

I am currently on that mission trip. :) Huzzah!!

Our instructions were to be at the Word of Life campus in Hudson, Florida by Saturday, June 18th.  In order to have a leg up on the rest of the group, I decided to fly in a day early. Or maybe that's just the way it worked out with booking flights in a convenient and affordable manner...I really can't be sure.  Either way, my plane landed in Clearwater around five this afternoon, where I was met by a good friend--my escort back from the airport. We grabbed dinner at Chick-fil-a (a Christian trip should start with Christian food) and made it back to campus just in time for the dedication campfire.

This was a special thing for me to take in. :)

Those of you familiar with the way that Word of Life (hereafter referred to as WOL ;) ) runs their summer camps are no strangers to the campfire.  Each week at the fire the campers gather and listen to a stirring sermon that ultimately gives them the a challenge to completely lay down their lives before the Lord.  If the campers come forward at the end of this service and offer themselves to this challenge, they are given a stick. The campers then throw these sticks into the fire, symbolizing their commitment that it is time for them to throw off the old man and allow God's refining fire to form the new man.  It is always moving.

Tonight's campfire service was especially touching for me, however.  The youth gathered around this fire were not campers, but rather the counselors and volunteer workers for the camp.  This dedication was to live this summer as unto the Lord.  I watched many young men and women make their way forward and cast their sticks into the fire and couldn't help but get really excited for what God is going to do this summer.

It's exciting to see committed people living out their commitments. Whoosh.

Tomorrow I'll really be getting into the work that is involved with my short term mission team, and I'll be sure to give a detailed post about all of that. I will offer the information that I'll be serving as a Unit Leader for the girls on the team--a sort of counselor's counselor--and that assignment of service is coming as a total blessing for me. Please pray for me, that I will have many opportunities to pour into the lives of these young women over the next three weeks.  Pray that God gives me wisdom, love, and the ability to glorify Him continually.  I feel so inadequate when it comes to serving sometimes...

ach.

God has me here. He will use me. I am here for a purpose. Right right right.


:)


Oh, what's that you ask? You want to know how I'm doing with my support? Thanks for reminding me, I almost forgot. :) I have raised about fifty percent of my financial support. (Wahoo!!!) Several hundred dollars were raised through a garage sale last Saturday, and some more has come in from much-appreciated givers.  The total cost of the trip is at about $2,300.  If you feel led to give, please contact me at jmariebrondyke@gmail.com.  I am so thankful for the support that has come in thus far, but am mindful that it's not all in yet. :)


Will post again tomorrow. Miss you if I'm not with you!


-jmarie

Sorry...

I know.

I know that it has been FOREVER since I've posted, and that I'm not even close to staying on top of my once-a-week deal that I made with myself.

I know.

And I'm sorry.

Things have been super crazy lately, what with graduation coming up and all, but I promise, as soon as I get through next week and past that major life milestone...I will post.

And you will find out who the winners of the Hint Fiction thing are.

And you will hear from me, again, on a [fairly] regular basis.



I miss you, too.