Ball Camp Missions Blog

a little behind.

2011-07-02T12:55:00.001-04:00

Traffic has been bad and this lunch stop has taken a long time. We will probably be a little after 5 at this point. See you when we can

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the end is just a beginning

2011-07-01T22:08:00.001-04:00

We are settled into the hotel. The pool and the hot tub felt absolutely amazing. Some have crashed early. Others are still bouncing around. So here is a recap of the day. Stuff got loaded early followed by a little cleaning and then the last bible study and closing celebration. 3 more kids won camper of the day awards. Really cute pictures in the sideshow. We have a lot to show you once we get to a computer. We will leave the hotel between 815 and 830 which will put us home by 5. We look forward to seeing everyone. Great trip. Will update from the road tomorrow. We will be caravaning with our new friends from dalton Georgia. Peace.

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day is done

2011-07-01T00:03:00.001-04:00

Great stories to share from today. Erin had a teen open up with her on her site. J-los kid was encouraging her and telling her it would be ok. Jessie and christine had a kid telling them not to cry. Worship tonight was powerful. Really hit some of the kids. Will, austin, and Zach received honor camper award for the day. Group devo was good tonight as we processed the week. Austin was great in the variety show. We have to load up in the morning and then closing celebration. After that we will go to union station for lunch, walk through the capitol rotunda, go to the holocaust museum, and the american history museum. Hope to be to the hotel around 8. Tomorrow will be for goodbyes and for closure. I will update one more time tomorrow. Peace to you all.

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tears arent a bad thing

2011-06-30T16:49:00.001-04:00

Just got back from our sites. At my site tears flowed from both the kids and the youth. One girl in our group had a kid tell her that she was more like a mom than her own mother. We had a lot of frustration on our site about logistics but the relationships that were formed were so worth it. Austin is telling stories now about how hard it was for their team to leave their site. Joey says that they got a couple projects done at the church where they were working. Fils crew finished another project today. The lady they worked for gave them some money for hamburgers. The team voted to give it to the missions offering instead. We are tired. We have walked many miles and seen many things. We have seen the Lord in the faces and lives of many people. May others have seen God in our actions. Worship tonight and the packing begins. It will be hard to say goodbye to new friends. You have until 10 to leave comments. That's when they will be read to the group. Peace.

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day number i dont remember

2011-06-29T23:55:00.001-04:00

Fun day. We all worked today but I haven't had a chance to get all my stories from other crews. Tomorrow will be sad though as we leave the work sites for the last time. Our kids have certainly grown attached to their new little friends. So far joey and Jessie have won honor camper awards for their crew. Will doesn't know it yet but he will get the award in the morning from my crew. Tonight we ate@ the capital city brewery and walked the whole mall and passed the white house. Pray as we leave our young friends for the last time that they will know we love them and that god loves them too. We will not see finished projects this time. Just smiles and tear stained cheeks as we pull away. Blessed are the children for they are God's. May we have run a good race this week and been the presence of Christ in the lives of these children. Goodnight everyone.

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tuesday night

2011-06-28T23:21:00.001-04:00

It has been a long day for our group. Fatigue is setting in some and tempers are a little short. Pray that we rest well tonight and will be rejuvenated for another day of work and fun. Some stories of the day...my group went to the zoo and with minor issues had a good but hot time. Will spent time talking to a kid who hasn't worn socks in 2 weeks simply because he doesn't have any. Christine was recreation coordinator at her site and had kids already ask why the group has to leave. Eathan has little girls fighting over who gets to be his girlfriend. Fils crew has helped 2 more elderly folks clean their houses. Great work is being done. Joey, Brittany, hannah, and emily have all participated in worship leadership. I had to pinch hit for the song leader this morning because he's a little under the weather. We are in talks with the group from fbc dalton Georgia about doing a retreat together sometime. Happy birthday to Juli kirby! I hope u enjoyed your 30th bday :). All is quiet on the eastern front so I will try to rest now. Selfishly I ask that you pray for me. I haven't slept well the last three nights and its wearing on me. Grace and peace to you all. Tomorrow night we go out so ur kids may be in contact with u. Goodnight from d.c.

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day 1 part 2

2011-06-27T23:23:00.001-04:00

Karen's group is erin, chad, joey, Brittany, and cody. They worked a little with kids but mostly cleaned and prepped a place for painting. Karen got to go to home depot to help pick colors. Fils group is Morgan, jhi, Cass, emily, brandan, and Zach. They worked in the yards of 2 elderly ladies today. The last lady that they worked with was ms. Hamilton. After sharing her story with them she said goodbye with what she called Obama-bumps, aka fist bumps. Marys group is Jessie, Jaclyn, austin, Eathan, kelsey, and christine. They played with kids too. Kelsey spent the day drawing and coloring. Perfect fit. They said only one kid ran away. We have made good friendships already and im sure more will come. Post comments and I will read them to the group later when we meet. Joey appreciated his moms love a couple posts back. Peace to you and goodnight.

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day 1 part 1

2011-06-27T16:09:00.001-04:00

I will update with more stories as other groups come back but my group has made it back to the church. We worked at a children's center and played with kids all day. It took a little bit to get comfy but once we settled in with the kids it was great. My team was Shaun, will, Natalie, cheyenne, jordan smith, and hannah. Other teams starting to come back now. Looks like my crew will be at the zoo with the kids tomorrow. Will update with more stories later.

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day is done

2011-06-26T23:13:00.001-04:00

Goodnight all blog followers. Its been a long day. Ready for some rest. Pray for hannah. Her greatgrandfather is extremely ill. Pray for others in the group that god will show up in their lives this week. Love to all families.

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arrived

2011-06-26T17:01:00.001-04:00

Worship this morning was good but interesting. Much more high church than we are used to. Kids are now playing games, meeting new people, and some are preparing dinner. We had some fun with the parking lot attendant and are paying way too much to park but u do what u have to do. Looking forward to worship tonight and beginning a good week with passport. I think everyone I have met knows danielle. I am ready to sleep but all is well. May the peace of christ be with u and may the breath of christ be in u.

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night 1

2011-06-25T22:39:00.001-04:00

We are safe in the hotel. Thank goodness for hotels.com messing up initial reservation. The westin is pretty sweet. Some have hit the gym, others are relaxing, and the rest have gone clubbing. Just kidding. We will head to calvary baptist church tomorrow for worship and then to union station for lunch. Will update tomorrow once we get checked in with passport.

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dinner stop

2011-06-25T18:11:00.001-04:00

We have stopped for dinner in Lexington, Virginia. Trip is going well so far. Should be at tonights hotel around 930

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travel progress

2011-06-25T15:57:00.001-04:00

We have stopped in wytheville for a potty stop. All is well. Bus has been quiet so far. Dinner stop in a while.

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test

2011-06-24T11:01:00.001-04:00

This is a test to make sure the app on my phone works to update the blog

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Up and Running Again

2011-06-24T10:52:00.002-04:00

I decided to go back to blog-land since we are about to embark on another mission trip where cell phones aren't going to be able to be used. We will be in Washington, D.C. with Passport. We leave Knoxville tomorrow around 1 and will arrive at our hotel in Falls Church, Va around 10. I hope that all of the hotel issues that I've had this week are fixed. We were upgraded to the Westin which is cool. We will worship at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington on Sunday. It will be quite different from our experiences at Ball Camp. I will try to keep the blog updated while we are gone. Stay tuned for tales of our journey.

Parting was such sweet sorrow

2009-07-01T01:16:00.002-04:00

This morning we said our goodbyes, loaded up, and headed out a few minutes after 8. We will miss our new friends but are ready to see our families. The border crossing went without incident (even I got through w/ no problems). Many traffic delays led to us not getting to Hershey park until 6 but we still had a great time. A brief rain shower thinned out the crowd and left our group to get in tons of riding. The hotel had a problem w/ our rooms so it took a while to get settled. We will load the vehicles again at 8 and set sail toward Knoxville. If timing works the way it did on the way up here, we should arrive some time around 6 or 7. Will is sick so please pray for him. It will be a long ride tomorrow if he doesn't get to feeling better. Thanks to all those who followed the blog and a final apology to parents who didn't see pictures of their children. I attempted last night to add pictures and the internet kept cutting out and I simply didn't have the patience to stay up until it worked right. Peace to you all.

almost loaded and ready to head south

2009-06-30T00:19:00.002-04:00

not much to tell about today. we went to the market this afternoon after sleeping in. then we went to the royal canadian mounted police sunset ceremony. it was AWESOME! the vehicles are loaded with everything except our bedding and our overnight bags. it will be sad leaving our new friends. it will be sad to not be together in a couple of days (yes i know that i'm weird for enjoying being w/ this many kids for so long). but we will be glad to be in a place where our cell phones can be used normally and where we can be back with our family and friends. thanks to everyone for following the blog this week. the notes from home have been great. i am going to sit here and do a few pictures so that all parents can finally see their babies. i apologize again for not getting more up. time seems to fly when you have no sleep. i will post one last time from pennsylvania tomorrow and then i will keep the blog going with updates about our missions involvement at the church. peace to you all. it's been a fun week eh?

it is finished

2009-06-28T15:33:00.002-04:00

our work has been completed. we had great worship experiences today but we missed all of you being a part of it. one of the community leaders was at the friday service as well as this morning. he told jeff that he would be talking to the pastor more about christianity. what a blessing to know we have had a small impact. we have been told that the mayor of ottawa has asked about our group because he has heard about what we were doing both in the community and in the church. the service this morning began with baptism and ended with the congregation giving us gifts. we enjoyed a cookout with the congregation and we are now about to go swimming. we are all tired but i think everyone feels good about all the work we have done. Praise the Lord for all of our experiences. tomorrow we will relax and enjoy more of the city and tuesday we will load up and begin our journey home. we look forward to seeing you and sharing more stories. i apologize for not having posted more pictures but i seem to keep being too tired to take more time in the evenings. i will do my best to put some more up tonight. grace and peace to you all.

another day

2009-06-27T22:24:00.002-04:00

thanks to everyone for their comments. we enjoy every night reading them as a group. gary rochelle, you have set the bar high. we look forward to the next installment. this morning started very early for some as we began working at a yard sale at 7:00. Others got up a little later and got back to work. Lots of the projects were finished up today. Some of the group spent a while walking around the neighborhood handing out information about the church. tomorrow we will be worshiping with these congregations. the boys and the 3 girls who sing will be attending a worship service at the anglican church at 9 a.m. the rest will join us for worship at eastview baptist at 11:00. as you pray for us please remember us as we lead worship a final time. we have been blessed to have a couple of the youth from here hang out with us today as well as one of the youth leaders. we visited the parliament building today and also another great landmark of the town, the mall. everyone is tired. everyone could use a lot more sleep than we're getting ready to have. but everyone is keeping a good attitude and working hard. God has blessed us. We hope God is blessing this church. And we hope that God has been blessing you this week. goodnight all.

evening has come

2009-06-26T21:45:00.002-04:00

worship has just finished and the team is downstairs having a birthday party for jessica and devan. worship tonight was awesome for me. we heard three of our own share their testimonies. karen, julie and erin all talked about how they have experienced God in their own way. the dramas were excellent and all pointed toward each person needing to follow Christ. it is so great to worship with this group of youth. we got the refrigerator today and had a little down time as i mentioned earlier. we have another church member who is fixing us shrimp and pasta tomorrow night. wish you were here with us to experience what God is doing. peace to you all.

afternoon blog

2009-06-26T15:00:00.003-04:00

Howdy folks. Today has been a little slower. Some jobs have been finished. We have practiced for the worship service and are simply taking some time to relax. Before long we will go shower and get ready for worship. One of the church members has bought us pizza for dinner. After worship we will have a birthday party for devan and jessica. wish you all could be here. everyone seems to be feeling ok today. more pictures and blogging later.

2009-06-25T23:10:00.003-04:00

More pictures

2009-06-25T22:50:00.002-04:00

A fun filled visit to the Inuit community. The kidshad fun playing games, beating and dancing with the cultural drums, and modeling the traditional dress.

inuit community and work update

2009-06-25T22:35:00.002-04:00

greetings folks. our trip is basically halfway over. today we've had a few recover from their headaches that had bugged them. a few have sore throats from the possible allergens. we went this morning to the inuit community and learned a lot. we heard from a lady who lived in an igloo. we saw some of our folks try to play the inuit drums. we spent some time listening throat singing which was quite amazing. some of the group went to help the community center again while others worked more on the projects at church. today was the first day with the group on the scaffolding having harnesses. they enjoyed having an extra annoyance up there. a lot of the projects seem to be coming together and we can see the end in sight. the refrigerator went out today so since we had budgeted well and weren't spending as much as we thought we have purchased a new refrigerator for the church. the pastor keeps telling me how amazed he is at the groups willingness to be helpful. tomorrow we will be working with a new community campaign and working on more of the projects. it's been a long day of blessings. today is jessica's 16th birthday. we went out to eat at the byward market place tonight. fil had a lady about sit in his lap. a great time was had by all. sad day that michael jackson died. we saw shirts in the market with his death date on it! dang! we will be singing thriller tomorrow night at the worship in remembrance of him. just kidding! goodnight all. i will try to put up some pictures. the kids are enjoying getting messages from home so keep posting comments.

great days

2009-06-24T23:13:00.002-04:00

folks, the trip has been amazing so far. we really appreciate the opportunity to come here. the church people have been so gracious and even though we get frustrated at times, everyone is getting along and doing well. parents, your children are cooking, cleaning, and being generally good. we miss you guys and will be excited to see you but sad to have the trip end. i hope to keep up with the blogs now that the internet is fixed. i passed on all of your messages to the kids so feel free to keep them coming.

2009-06-24T23:07:00.001-04:00

2009-06-24T22:54:00.000-04:00

2009-06-24T22:44:00.001-04:00

worship service

2009-06-24T22:38:00.002-04:00

tonight's service was great. i haven't mentioned before but the church does not have air conditioning. the sanctuary was very warm but we had a great time. the band did well and the music was great. great participation from the congregation. only a handful from eastview but all that were here were blessed. drama went well, slideshow worked, and video worked like it was supposed to. it's great to hear voices of the congregaton raise to the rafters praising god. 2 more services to go! we ended with i saw the light tonight and it was a blast. sorry for the rambling thoughts but i'm trying to get as much info on as possible before heading to bed. tomorrow starts earlier than usual. we are going to an inuit community to learn about them.

work projects

2009-06-24T22:32:00.002-04:00

third time trying this post. yesterday we sent fil to home depot to get some things with his counterpart from here. they spent 3 hours gone so we decided to start a new project. we assembled 5 levels of scaffolding that goes up about 30 feet. jessica, jasmine, andrew, leslie, will and chad all helped to assemble the stack. chad is afraid of heights but phyllis, he survived and did great. we have done a good bit of painting windows, working on flooring, and started a new flower bed in front. we have begun to paint the front door and have lots of other projects in the works. we will post pictures hopefully tonight. some sunburns, some cuts and scrapes but all are safe. more work to come tomorrow.

National House of Prayer

2009-06-24T22:15:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was a great great great day! We started out our day by going to the National House of Prayer. The ministry there is to pray for the country and for the governmental leaders. We got a brief introduction to their ministry and then went to their prayer room for a time of worship and prayer. We sang some worship songs with their leaders and some visitors who were in the room. The three ladies had been there for an hour praying for us. One of the ladies was jumping up and down during our songs. She was probably around 70 years old. She was so excited about God. After hearing lots of stories about how prayers have been answered we headed out, leaving Jeff, Cheyenne, Kate, David, and Will to do some work. They painted the handrails and some flower pots. They started to talk about how they would really like a coke and Fran, the director's wife, walked out with cokes for them. Prayers work and it was great to see people that spend their life praying for their nation. Maybe we should pray more often for our leaders, whether we like them or not.

Apology

2009-06-24T21:47:00.000-04:00

Greetings folks! The internet has finally been fixed!!!!!!!!! Sorry for the lack of info. I will spend a good bit of time tonight online telling stories and posting some pictures. We are safe and we have had a great time. We need to have our group debriefing time and then I will get back on in order to post more. Love you guys and miss you.

Safe in Ottawa

2009-06-22T23:48:00.002-04:00

We are tired. We are safe. We got here about 5:45 and the church had fixed us dinner. We didn't have to go out to eat like we thought we were going to have to. The girls got unloaded and the guys eventually got our stuff across the road to the anglican church. We ended up showering in the wrong spot but didn't know until we were partially done. OOPS. We know where we're gonna shower tomorrow so all is well. The Pastor and the church have been very welcoming. No one seems to be ill. Tomorrow will be long given that we won't get much sleep. Pray that we will find ways to spruce up the church so that the community will be drawn to it. Pray for the team that we will be ok with the things that don't work out perfectly. We will begin practice for the worship services tomorrow. We will work at the National House of Prayer tomorrow morning and basically at the church tomorrow afternoon. If you have messages for your children post them and I will pass them along. I have to get off so the guys can head across the road to our sleeping location. Thank you to all those that helped us to get here. I hope we will represent those that sent us well. Goodnight folks.

In Safe for the night

2009-06-21T23:41:00.003-04:00

Howdy folks. Thanks to everyone for such a great service this morning and for everyone who wished us well as we left. We have arrived at the Hotel Carlisle for the evening in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The ride was fairly uneventful. Our big bus had a slight air conditioner problem in that it was condensing all over our luggage but we solved that problem by taking the caps off of the drain lines. The van has been running warm and the crew in it has been rolling with the windows down so they have been a little warmer than those of us in the bus. We plan to leave out of the hotel between 7:30 and 8:00 in the morning. We got one extra room for the night so that Karen and Fil wouldn't have to celebrate their anniversary in different rooms. Those in the bus were graced by Courtney and Jessica singing and then dancing up and down the aisle. I will do my best to post as soon as we get to the church in Ottawa. Everyone is safe and seemingly happy. Peace from Pa.

Eastview Baptist Church's Website

2009-06-20T20:55:00.002-04:00

Just thought you might be interested to see the church website from Eastview and their comments about our trip. Also I received an email from Pastor Santos tonight and they told me that they would be praying for our team at the time of our departure. Thanks for everyone being there tonight and for helping to make this trip a reality.

http://www.eastviewbaptistchurch.net/english.html

Preparing and Praying

2009-06-11T14:25:00.003-04:00

With only 238 hours left until we load the vehicles and leave from Ball Camp Baptist Church there is still a lot going on. There will be 35 participants on this trip (as long as the last one can finish jumping through passport hoops). 27 of those going on the trip are youth, 2 are college students, and 6 are adults. Several of the leadership teams have already begun to meet. The music team and drama team have set up the worship services for the trip. The ministry support team met to discuss the meals and other jobs that they have. The renovation team leader has begun to look at what projects will be done first. Next week we will begin the process of packing and attempting to remember everything that needs to go. Saturday night, June 20, we will pack the vehicles and eat together. Finally, Sunday morning we will commission our team during worship and leave immediately after worship. We hope to arrive in Ottawa, Canada, around 4:00 p.m. on Monday afternoon. These are the preparations that are ongoing.

Several weeks ago we began a prayer emphasis. Along with the congregations at Eastview Baptist Church and St. Margaret's Anglican Church of Ottawa, Canada, we have been praying for this trip. Here are the ways that you can partner with us and pray for the trip, both before we go and while we are gone.
- Pray for the logistics of the trip. Pray that of the arrangements that ahve been made will work out and athat those still being made will come together.
- Prayer for those who will be left behind. Pray for the families that will be missing their loved ones and pray that Ball Camp Baptist Church will be dilgent in supporting the team in prayer.
- Pray for the community (Vanier) and churches (Eastview Baptist Church and St. Margaret's Anglican Church) where the team will be serving. Also pray for the pastors of those congregations (Pastor Santos and Canon Fairlie).
- Pray for the individual team members. Pray that they will have a servant attitude and that each individual will be blessed for giving of themselves.
- Pray for the safety of the team throughout the trip.

As we prepare and as we pray, may God bless the efforts and continue to prepare the way for us.