The Day is Here!!!

Dear Family and friends,

The DAY is here!!!

Finely, after three years of waiting, the time & opportunity has come to return to the place that God has placed most on my heart:  ZAMBIA!!!    

Over the past three years God has taken me on a journey full of joy, tears, and sometimes pain,  but I never lost sight of the call God place on my life.  The call to go love His people anywhere, anytime, anyplace.

I will be going with Scrubs Medical mission in August 2-17^th going into schools doing medical education. We will teach hinge and basic first aid so that Zambia will be able to help each other after we leave.

When I was nine years old I went to Mexico with my family.  On that trip I was sitting at a work site while people from our church were building a house.  I was on a pile of dirt with some little children; we found some nails and string and crafted a cross to give to the new homeowner.  Looking back on my life this was the time I was wrecked for Missions no matter where God was going to send me.

As my year was unfolding… I made the following blog post (in fact it was earlier this month):

  “When I was sixteen I felt the call on my life to go and love in Africa…  I went back to Africa at seventeen.   This was a forever-changing trip from the second I stepped off the plane.  I was overwhelmed because I knew I was “home.”  One of the hardest things I ever had to do was leave my heart in a foreign land that became home. I had to leave the people I lost my heart to.  But God has bigger and better plans for me thou I am still unclear of what these are and soon enough I will know.  This April I had the possible opportunity to go to Africa.  My heart was saying “yes,” I will go; there was nothing I would not have given up to go… However, this was not God’s plan for now.  I am staying in America.  This has been one of the hardest things I have ever been through, but I know God is teaching me to be ready to go where he calls and to wait for his timing.  It is hard to be patient when my heart is not here in the states.  God knows what I need, I am grateful that I serve a God who gives me what I need over what I want… I may not ever get to go back to Africa, but I am ready to go wherever God wants me to go whenever this may be.  I want more then anything in the world to be in the hands of the king and love Him.  He has me exactly where He wants me. My job is just to be faithful to His call and rest in His arms; waiting for His voice to say it is time GO!”

Little did I know that I would be going back so soon after finally giving my hearts passion to the Lord. But now after all the waiting I am going be back to Zambia!!!! God said it is time to go back to the place that changed my heart forever. The trip cost $3500 I could not tell you all how humbled I am for God giving me the chance to go back to Zambia. But I cannot to this on my own I need your help to raise the money and in prayer. You can make all checks out to Bethel Bible Church and mail them to 2067 Rana Park Flint, TX, 75762

Prayers:

1.     That the trip will bless many people and that their medical needs will be met. We are going to be working with Scrubs Medical Mission. 

2.     That our team will bound and be able to work together well

3.     God will get hearts ready to hear his word

4.     That we will be ready to talk about the gospel and show the gospel to everyone we see from the people on the plan to the Zambians.

You can read my blog to see updates and read of what God is doing Followingjesusalloverworld.blogspot.com

In his name, 

Katie Rittenhouse

No One is too Far-Gone

No One is too far-gone

I am in the states, as you know. I am going to school for Social work, attending Tyler Junior College.  Here I meet many different people.  This campus is very lost many people need Jesus.  My heart breaks when I walk thru the halls and talk with people because I see their need for the Savior. When I started TJC I started helping with a ministry called the Baptist Student Ministry (BSM). The BSM has an event that is on Thursday nights called pancakes from 8-12pm we work in the kitchen making pancakes to not only feed the students,  but also the hearts of the people who come through the doors. I met someone at the BSM that I don’t think I will ever forget; a few weeks ago I guy came walking in asking if he could help us cook, so someone handed him a spoon and said, “have at it man. “  I was severing the bacon that night and we started talking.  Now you know when the spirit just puts someone heavy on your heart to pray for even of you never see him or her again.  He was this person for me.  My friend and I started praying for him.  We knew he was struggling we did not know the details. That was fine God was telling us to pray so we did.  The Lord told me not to preach the gospel to him because he already knew it.; I was told just show the gospel to him.  One day my friend and I were praying for him knowing the semester was almost over and there was little time left to serve this guy.  We wanted to see his life wrecked for Jesus to the point he could do nothing else then praise the Father with everything.  So we were praying for him before church. Praying that he would have an angel come to him and break the chains devil had on him because the enemy has no place in his life. We were asking for an angel to come to him and change him forever.  That night my friend picked him up for church (he almost did go).  They went to church and the prayer that was said over him hours before came true.  He had an encounter with God that night at church.  Later that night he called me sounding joyful.  He told me that he went out side of church to pray; at that moment he was praying, “Lord take my life! Take all of me! I give up”.  Then when he went back in a man came up and prayed over him. On the phone he said, “Katie, I think he was an angel.”  This blew me away because that was the prayer we were asking God to make Himself known through an angel and once again he came through.  There is now a guy that is wrecked for Jesus… praise God!!!!   

No one is ever to far from the kingdom.  Are job as believers is to love and be full of grace also to give love until it hurts.  God says come as you are, but he loves you too much to stay that way. Simply knowing and loving Jesus will change lives!!!                 

Faithfulness

Faithfulness

When I was nine years old I went to Mexico with my family.  On that trip I was sitting at a work site while people from our church were building a house.  I was on a pile of dirt with some little children; we found some nails and string and crafted a cross to give to the new homeowner.  Looking back on my life this was the time I was wrecked for Missions no matter where God was going to send me.  Time went on and the chance to go to Zambia, Africa came. The Lord showed me His power in raising the money.  When I was sixteen I felt the call on my life to go and love in Africa.  I went back to Africa at seventeen this was a forever-changing trip from the second I stepped off the plane I was overwhelmed because I knew I was home. One of the hardest things I ever had to do was leave my heart in a foreign land that became my home. I had to leave the people I lost my heart to.  But God has bigger and better plans for me I am still unclear of what these are and soon enough I will know.

            This April I had the possible opportunity to go to Africa.  My heart was saying “yes,” I will go; there was nothing I would not have given up to go.  This turned out to be my humanness talking because I want to go back and be where my heart rests. However, this was not God’s plan for now.  I am staying in America.  This has been one of the hardest things I have ever been through, but I know God is teaching me to be ready to go where he calls and to wait for his timing.  It is hard to be patient when my heart is not here in the states.  God knows what I need, I am grateful that I serve a God who gives me what I need over what I want.  After all, as people, we can think something is really good but if we run before God says to go, it is not in his perfect will.  So for now I’ll wait and seek the Lord for when he wants me to go.  I may not ever get to go back to Africa, but I am ready to go wherever God wants me to go whenever this may be.  I want more then anything in the world to be in the hands of the king and love Him.  He has me exactly where He wants me. My job is just to be faithful to His call and rest in His arms; waiting for His voice to say it is time GO! 

The First Camp in Honduras

The Lord is so faith to watch over these teens as they impacted Honduras.

God's Promises

This trip to Honduras has been a roller costar ride of the Lord telling me His promises and me watching them play out. As you all know the Lord has built in me an unshaken passion to go to the world and share the love and hope of Jesus. This trip to Honduras has been a sweet blessing because God has made promises to me and I have watched Him fulfill those promises.

I felt the call to fill out an application for the 2012 trip to Honduras with Pine Cove… so I followed that call. One day when I was working at camp (as a health transport) I stopped at the office to load more minutes on my camp phone. I know the Lord put me there because when I was in the office Elizabeth (the trip leader) was writing “accept” letters for the trip. I was about to leave the office when Elizabeth turned to me and asked me why I did not apply for the trip? I looked at her baffled because I put the application in her mailbox days before the deadline. I told her that I had already put it in her mailbox. She looked around the room but could not find it so she had me fill out a second application. Then, she gave me an accept letter right there on the spot.

Then there was Fund Raising. Wow God is good!!! I needed to have $1600 in by the December and I found that deadline sneaking up on me. The day came to have the money in and I did not have the need funds. So I called Elizabeth and told her I could not attend the trip due to money. She told me to keep praying and that she would call me back. So we got off the phone and I was fairly confident that I would NOT get the money in time. But little did I know what God was about to do. She calls me back and tells me that she got a three-day extension to get the money. So I start praying but had no idea how I was going to get the money. It came down to the last three hours till the deadline and I still needed $1100 to go so I started calling everyone I knew asking them to pray and give if they could. In those three hours the Lord reminded me of the call on my life to go to the world and love His people and of the promise that He would make a way for me to get there. In three hours, the money came in, and I made the deadline!!! We serve a huge God!

The trip was amazing! We got there and had all our bags praise Him! The first camp we served was made up of 13-15 year olds. I was a counselor. My co-counselor Riana was so amazing! We had four sweet girls in our group. The girls told us about their home lives and how they came from extreme situations. It was a God thing how they even got to camp. Riana and I just loved on them like crazy and the last night of camp they did a heart walk where the campers were asked to look at their heart and where it was. Did they have a heart full of sin, a heart that was full of pain, a heart that was good in church but when they were with friends was full of sin, or did they have a heart desiring to follow Jesus. After the walk, all of my girls were in tears the Lord was moving in their hearts and the girls who had the hardest home lives joined the family of Jesus that night.

The second camp we had 16-18 year-olds. And, the enemy did not want them to hear the truth. Then one of the Honduran staffers Hector received a word the first night of camp saying that the Lord was going to open the heavens for us the next night. So as a team of Hondurans and Americans we prayed holding fast to the promise that the Lord made with us about opening the heavens for us. So the night came and the whole camp was at the bonfire and the truth of Jesus was shared. When you looked up in the night sky there was not one cloud above us but all around us the sky was full of clouds. The Lord opened the heavens on this camp because ALL of the campers joined the family of Jesus that night.

The whole trip, from the beginning to end, was full of His promises and God showing us ten-fold how He was filling them. He made Himself known. I believe that the Lord is starting a revival all over Honduras for His kingdom and power to be known.

Thank you all so much for your prayers without you most of the teens who were at camp would not be there because most of your money went to sending these kids to camp. Thank you and Bless you!!!

God is making Himself known!!!!!

God is more the Good!!!

God is more then Good!!! I just got home from Honduras and the Lord worked in many big ways! I have been blessed to see God promise to make himself known by opening the heavens and raining down his power. God showed up in such a sweet way; there will be a longer post soon keep your eyes open.

Dear Family and Friends,

I can’t fully put into words the wonderful works of Jesus Christ that have happened in my life this past year. I am so blessed to have strong God fearing people around me. It is because of how God has used all of you that I have been able to serve and see God move in amazing and powerful ways.

A quick overview of 2011 so far: I have gone on a missions trip to Honduras, spent the Summer working at Pine Cove camps, and been able to love families all over Texas. I have seen and done things that have encouraged me tremendously.

In January I spent 12 days in Honduras, helping trine leaders in a Christian Camp. I saw the Holy Spirit work so powerfully. I saw God work in big and mighty ways.

God has been placing me in camp ministry for some time now. At camps in Tyler, Zambia, and Honduras. God is continually putting me at international camps. I believe this may continue to come up again in my future.

I spent the summer serving/working at Pine Cove Camps. I have been over blessed to work there! I was serving. I was sharing. But the fact is I met so many families and staff that taught me so much. The staff and families who came to camp tought me so many different things such as, giving up everything for others and running after Christ every moment. Things I have grown up knowing but seeing them in such a real way was a blessing. Each of the staff and families that came to camp and worked at Pine cove but in the end they wound up blessing me.

Another note: Africa keeps coming up in my life!! It has such a strong pull on my heart. While I have not been traveling there, every summer I have worked at Pine Cove camps Africans have come as campers. Last summer there was one African family that came to camp I became close to, this summer there were three African families and four African missionary families. So I know God is using Africa in my life and not just in Africa.

Whether it’s Camp Hope in Zambia, Pine Cove Camp in East Texas or Camp in Central America… He is orchestrating and conducting my life all over the world.

And, now I have the opportunity, this coming January, to return to Honduras to continue the work God is doing there. This will be a continuing effort through Pine Cove and Christian Camping International to develop Camp Honduras. This is year two of three of training the Honduran people on how to run the camp and partner with them at discovering culturally appropriate ways to bring the gospel to kids through camping. I am asking for your partnership and support to help me, help them preach this goal to their community. The cost for this trip is $2400. You can make your checks out to Pine Cove.

I ask for you prayers and support, as the team is fundraising and preparing:

Prayers:

1. That the team will be listening to God in all we do concerning the trip.

2. That we would start being unified.

3. That the Lord would shine through all we do.

4. That His name would be made known!

Thank you all so much for all your help over the years! I am blessed that you have come along side me in following the call of the Lord to go and love the people the world!!

Blessings,

Katie Rittenhouse

I have been blown away by God why he works, the way he works, and when he works.
He is such I big God teaching me new things each day. I want to sit at Your feet, drink from the cup in Your hands, lay back against you and breath, feel Your heartbeat. This love is so deep, it's more then I can stand, I melt in Your peace, it's overwhelming.


When I am found in him this is when my life makes sense. Lord fill me up so I can be poured out and all glory be to You alone. God is so Good!

The Holy Spirit

"It really is an astounding truth that the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. He lives in me. I do not know what the Spirit will do or where He'll lead me each time I invite Him to guide me. But I am tired of living in a way that looks exactly like people who do not have the Holy Spirit of God living in them. I want to consistently live with an awareness of his strength. I want to be different today from what I was yesterday as the fruit of the Spirit becomes more manifest in me. I want to live so that I am truly submitted to the Spirit's leading on a daily basis. Christ said it is better for us that the Spirit came, and I want to live like I know that is true. I don't want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly."
- Francis Chan


But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
1 Corinthians 14:24&25

This something God has been teaching me the whole time in Honduras, and to this day he is teaching me. To stand to the power and to be made new in the Holy Spirit of God.
God gave me these wards today. The way God works blows my mind.

Remember

Today as you walk through life, preach the gospel everyday; if necessary use words
- Francis of Assisi
remember all God has done over the years in your life. We love a BIG GOD!

God has taken me all over the world

It is so humbling to see were God has called me. Over the years to share his love and power to his people.

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. 1 Corinthians 7:17

I am always in awe that God has called me to deeply love people all over the world. Because I am so unworthy, but if the God of the universe says GO how can you say no? and like my mother has always told me God dose not call the equipped but he equips the called.
GOD IS GOOD!!!!

More to come!

These storys are from the trip I was just on to Honduras. There are going to be more soon. I can not wait to sher the many ways God worked, and touched my heart.
ALL glory to our holy and big God !!!!!!!!!

we"re hoooooome!!

we’re hooooome!!

13 Jan

Party in the USA!! We’re home!!

Friends and fam, glory to the Father! We’ve made it home!! We started at 9am this morning, had emotion-filled goodbyes to our new best friends in Honduras, flew to Miami, almost missed our Miami flight to DFW because we were enjoying eachother’s company so much (woops!), and made it home safely to DFW right on time… God is so good! We are a changed people by the work of the Spirit. We have tasted and seen that HE IS GOOD. We have been entrusted with SO much and have SO much to tell! We look forward to telling you personal testimony to what we have seen, what we have heard, and what we now KNOW concerning our God and Father. You have played a HUGE part in our experience and we are FOREVER thankful for YOU and the way you’ve supported us, prayed for us, and praised God with us for what He’s done and is doing.

There is much more detail to update, and that WILL happen soon.. but we just wanted to let you know that we’re back to Dallas safely! Pray for Josh as he flies back to CO tomorrow, and for the rest of the team driving back to Tyler and then home tomorrow as well.

More to come soon! We love you! Glory to the FATHER through JESUS alone!
the woods honduras team

Best last day...SO sad to leave

best last day… SO sad to leave

12 Jan

Hola friends and family!
We’ve made it safely back to Cofradia — praise the Lord! Our day was precious and so fun… the perfect weather, sweet sweet time with our campers, and solid debrief time with our own team as well as the Hondurans. It was SO hard to see our campers drive away on the bus… but we had to remind ourselves, mid-tears, that we are simply the ones who get to plant and water seeds… and we FULLY TRUST our God to grow those kids and continue to draw them to Himself.

The fun surprise of the day was waiting for us when we got back to Cofradia. We pulled up, and as we got off the bus we were greeted by people of the church, some dressed in traditional latin dress, cheering for us Pine Cove style. We walked into the church and plated tables were waiting for us… with candle centerpieces and everything! They did a little (HILARIOUS) drama for us, we ate, learned how to dance, and got to hug the necks of the people we’ve fallen in love with while we’ve been here. It was goodbye for many of them, a few we’ll see tomorrow morning before we leave for the airport. We are SO SO blessed by the relationships and friendships that God has given us here… we are literally grieving as we leave them. However, we are excited to see yall when we’re back… there is LOTS of processing to do between now and then, so we can give you full yet concise (is that possible? haha) details on all the things we’ve seen God do here. We are SO excited to testify to His work!

We leave tomorrow (Thursday) at 9am to go to the airport, depart time is 2:10… and then be back home by tomorrow night — another update then! I really am so sorry that these are getting shorter and shorter… but know that Friday there is going to be some major blogging going on… and hopefully a TON of pictures (we have over 1500 to choose from!… woops! haha!)

We love you and are VERY thankful for the way you’ve faithfully prayed for us and supported us as we’ve been here. Please keep praying as we travel, debrief, process, and walk where God takes us! We love you!

because of the grace given us by JESUS,
the woods honduras team

Last full-day of camp...soaking it up!

last full-day of camp… soaking it up!

11 Jan

Hola and Happy Tuesday!

Wow, today has been an INCREDIBLE day – SO full of the Spirit and of SWEET SWEET time with the kids! It was our last full day here at camp, tomorrow (Wednesday) the kids leave at 1:00ish and we’ll leave in the later afternoon. We have been trying our best to be faithful processors of all that God is doing here – processing individually, seeking God’s Word, praying, and talking with eachother, and are excited for the time we’ll have tomorrow afternoon to process more…. But we are so so sad to think that these kids are leaving! It has been AWEsome to see how quickly and strong God has formed relationships with the campers and staff – solely of the Spirit! We are SO excited to tell you about how specifically God is dealing with us and revealing Himself to us. Our faith is being strengthened and our trust in Him is only growing…. Glory to HIM!

Today at breakfast one of the Honduran leaders thought it would be good to have the boys serve the girls breakfast – teaching a tangible way to have a servant’s heart to the campers. Elizabeth gave the morning devo to the kids after breakfast, and had already planned to talk about having a Phil2/Christ-like heart of servant hood – coincident? We think not! God is soo good in the way He orchestrates things! Then post-talk, Jeff lead a purposeful time of competition… girl vs. guys trash run… basura run here in Honduras J We had all the campers split up, guys and girls, and run around camp for 10 minutes to see who could pick up as much trash as possible – a way to give back and serve the camp. Maybe a small step in stewardship and Christ-like service… but baby steps are good! Our staff has had sweet time together in prayer with other Honduran staff, with each other, and over the camp and campers today – we are learning SO much about the power of prayer! We ended the morning by playing in el rio (the river) here at camp, and were all thrown in by the campers by the end of it – hilarious to see these kids carry the guys into the river!! We then had lunch down at the river… SO FUN! We got to cook our lunch over the fires… ham, cheese and beef – the kids LOVED it!! We enjoyed activity classes today too! Girls did archery, boys ventured in the world of orienteering, and we’ll switch activities tomorrow! Now it’s club/worship time, then we’re off to the ampitheatre to hear Chance’s talk, and then show the kids that when they are following Jesus, they are lights to the world (it’s glow stick time!)

Please pray for new Jesus-followers tonight… that these children would see the truth of the Gospel of JESUS as the Spirit calls them to Himself. Please pray for God’s protection as the campers, and as we, travel tomorrow. For our debrief time with our staff and the nationals, for our last night in the host homes in Cofradia, and whatever else the Spirit leads you to pray! We are DEEPLY thankful to you for walking with us as we’re here!! We love you each VERY much!

because of JESUS alone,
the woods honduras team

ps, here are a few pictures… they stopped uploading at 3… hahaha more to come tomorrow (hopefully!) when we’re back in Cofradia

Monday...Fun day!!!

Monday… fun day!!!

10 Jan

Hola familia y amigos!!

This is going to be short but nevertheless, an update! Because I know there are also list-lovers in this world, bullet-point style is the way to go tonight! In the past day…..

….we have:
1. been to church in Cofradia with our host homes. We saw a lot of our campers from session 1, which was SO sweet, and was blessed with some powerful teaching. We also got ice cream at the church after the service — on a warmer Honduran day, it was perfect!

2. experienced SWEET unity with the Honduran team. We decorated the Dining Hall Sunday night and laughed and goofed around with them as we crafted — it was SO precious to see the Holy Spirit bridge the gap of the language barrier by quick language learning and laughter — SUCH a blessing! We really do LOVE the Honduran team… it’s going to be SO hard to leave them!

3. had a birthday party for one of the women who has been cooking for us — and what other way to celebrate than a pinata!! We were AMAZED at how serious these people are about their pinata parties — watch out! They’re divin’ and swingin’ and LOVIN’ some pinatas!

4. ate dinner across the creek. Bonfire, dinner, sweet fellowship… all with the delightful sound of the bubbling brook in the background. And don’t forget the CLEAREST stars EVER!

5. got to BE stars…. yes, the Hondurans took us to their outdoor worship area, told us to close our eyes, and then broke glow sticks all over us…. we opened our eyes and we had glowing specks ALL over us — we glowed like the stars in the sky! It was one of the COOLEST experiences for us. We had the sweet opportunity to worship together with our Honduran team afterwards — we have a renewed excitement for heaven after singing the same songs side by side — english and espanol!

6. welcomed a new group of campers!!!! About 60+, 9-14yr olds are here and we are LOVING our time with them so far! We’re learning about searching for treasure that will last… and what a JOY it is to follow that treasure, to follow JESUS!!

7. drank cantaloupe juice… yes, they brought in a ton of cantaloupes and juiced them — quite the treat!

There is always more to tell, but that is all we have time for now — please be praying for Tuesday… that we will utilize EVERY minute and opportunity to love these campers and counselors well. Pray for Chance as he speaks Tuesday night to the campers — he’ll be sharing the gospel of JESUS — pray for soft hearts and that the Spirit will call people to repentance and trust in JESUS as Savior and Lord!

Thank you for praying, for your comments, and for walking with us as we follow what God has put in front of us! We LOVE you!
the woods honduras team

ps, so sorry for no pictures today — we’ve got GREAT ones… but the internet is too slow to upload… i promise you’ll see them all someday soon!! (remember that flickr album i talked about? it’s totally going to happen post-thursday!)

A New Day

We are leaving Cofradia again today, and off to a new session of camp!! We are really excited to meet the new kids.. they are 9-14 years old this session. We are anticipating what God will do and how He will reveal Himself to us and the campers. We have learned and seen what joy comes from trusting the Lord, and are expectant of BIG things this coming week. Please be praying that the Holy Spirit would move in us and through us… in our words, our actions, and the way we teach, love, and learn. Please pray for energy and strength, for supernatural understanding despite the language barrier (although the barrier is smaller now than when we first got here – praise the Lord!!), and join us as we rejoice and give thanks to the Father for incredible translators, protection against illness, team unity, seeing the Spirit move and change lives (ours and the Hondurans), for new friends, and for the gift of JESUS… for from HIM and through HIM and to HIM are ALL things; to HIM be the glory FOREVER! Thank you for praying with us and for us — we are seeing the fruit of your faithfulness to partner with us!

We hope to update daily, but the internet connection at camp is come-and-go… so if the updates are shorter or late, please don’t worry… but we are going to do our best to keep you up to date on the happenings of Honduras-life! We love you each and are VERY VERY thankful for the way you are joining with us in what God has entrusted us with and set before us! May He continue to bless you and may you walk in the freedom and grace of JESUS!!

excited and expectant,
the woods Honduras team

Day trip in paradise

day trip in paradise

9 Jan

Hello from a delightfully tired team! We could not be more thankful for the reasons we are tired, but tired we are… “Why?” you might ask?… because we’ve had an INCREDIBLE day… at a Honduran BEACH! There is a 2-day gap (today (Saturday) and Sunday) where camp with the kids is not going on… so our host leaders took us to the beach! As you can see below, it was entirely picturesque! We had the sweet chance to debrief the past few days of camp, invest in each other, be still before the Lord, and process some of the things we’ve experienced Him doing – in, through, and around us. Each day is a gift, and we were blown away at the scenery and sweetness of today as a gift!

While on our ‘day of rest at the beach’ , we ate a DELICIOUS lunch… tortillas, fajita-ish steak, chicken, and pork, beans, rice, and plantains…. a very common, yet delicious, meal in Honduras. After lunch we spent a little more time in the sun (and most of us are paying for it now… we might be a little more “sun-kissed” now than we were this morning…), and then we drove to San Pedro Sula to do a little souvenir shopping. After a quick stop we were on our way back to our host homes. We each ate and showered at our own homes and then met at the house were Katie and Elizabeth are staying, conveniently located across the street from Robbie, Daniel and Jeff, and around the corner from the rest of our team members’ homes. Robbie and Elizabeth met with the camp director and translator for a meeting about this upcoming week’s camp program, talked through improvements and changes from last week’s camp to this coming week, and made sure everything was in line. Afterwards we all left for a tour of Cofradia (the town where we’re staying when we’re at our host homes). We ended up driving around for about an hour and then stopping at our camp director’s quintessential home for a really sweet time of worship and prayer. This time was really pivotal for our team – God is good to provide such sweet fellowship, both among our team and with our Honduran brothers and sisters. We have truly experienced sweet together-time and rest today as we’ve been able to fellowship and reflect on God’s movement in our time here thus far.

We are really excited to do camp again with a new set of kids, this Monday through Wednesday, because we have been able to teach the Honduran team while learning from them as well, so we’re trusting the Lord for an even more fruitful time in the second go-around of camp. We are now able to encourage them on details to make camp go more smoothly, because they already have such a solid grasp on the basics of Christian camping. We have been so impressed at how much the Honduran team knows and how they lead — we have been able to learn SO MUCH from them! We have taken note of many things to add to our summer program to make it even more fun — what a gift to learn from a body of believers… in another country!

We have taken over 500 pictures thus far, and not that you need to see all of them, but please know that Elizabeth has every intention to attach a flicker picture account to this page when we get back to the US. This way you’ll be able to have a picture tour of our time. The internet is a slow connection when we have it, so uploading pictures is a bit time consuming. Yesterday the upload was quick, today it is slow.. hence no pictures However, she will do her best to get some pictures up tomorrow… and then upload tons when we get back — for a real ‘arm chair tour’ of our time here!

Off to sleep – church in the morning! More to come soon – Sunday afternoon!
We hope you see God’s love for you in every moment of your day — we follow a VERY intentional Father, all praise and glory to HIM!

love,
the woods honduras team

A long awaited-for update

A long awaited-for update

7 Jan

Family and friends!

We are SO SO SORRY that there has been no update… we have no internet or phone connection at the camp we are at… but know that we are GREAT and LOVING where we are, who we are with, and what we’re getting to do. There is so much to tell — where to begin?

1. Our luggage arrived!! We are SO thankful and take nothing for granted now. It was the sweetest reminder that we really don’t need a lot of the things that we think we need… we didn’t have anything but our carry-ons for the first night and day, and we were just fine. We actually loved the simplicity of it — and many of us have been learning a lot about the joy of simplistic living…. AND we’re learning it’s all over Scripture…. therefore life-change is happening.

2. We’ve already had one session of camp – from Wednesday to Friday. We had around 45, 7-9 year olds. The children heard about camp because our Honduran friends have gone door-to-door for the past 3 months, asking children to come to camp. We fell in love with the kids — THE MOST PRECIOUS (pictures to come, we promise!) KIDS, EVER! We really struggled communicating with them at first, and have often felt useless because we can’t talk to them as we’d like and because they get frustrated with us because we don’t understand them, HOWEVER, God is STILL good and has shown us through their responses and through the testimonies of the Honduran counselors that they learned a lot about Jesus, had a GREAT time at camp, and that God IS moving in their lives. We have been humbled by the testimonies of the kids’ life stories and are honored by the fact our HOLY God uses us for HIS Kingdom work in them. Sure, we are teaching the counselors a lot about Christian camping, but more than anything we are being transformed by the Spirit — KNOW that your prayers and support are being felt here and that God is moving MIGHTILY. We can see JOY in the children’s faces… especially in the kids who weren’t very excited about being there at the beginning, but then within 2.5 days were JUMPING and smiling, ear-t0-ear when they’d see us. We are so humbled and thankful to be here and being used. Also, since a lot of the kids aren’t “churched” kids, they had never heard about Jesus… but through the Hondurans’ teaching and the Spirit’s way of calling people to Himself, and GLORY TO THE FATHER, MANY of them came to know Jesus in the past two days — the Holy Spirit is moving and eternity for many kids is being CHANGED!! Glory glory glory!!

4. Our team is seeing how sweet community is — we love being together! We have laughed since our bus ride from Tyler to Dallas… and ever since then! Thankfully we have all stayed healthy, minus a few stomach issues… but we’ve connected that to food differences …Know though that the food, even CAMP food, has been INCREDIBLE. Homemade EVERYTHING!! It’s delicious!! Keep praying for healthy bodies and focused minds, not being distracted by things at home.

… Oh I’m so sorry — we must be leaving the church, and church is were the Internet is at — more to come tomorrow hopefully! Ps, we’re taking a ‘rest day’ tomorrow, and our sweet Honduran friends are taking us to THE BEACH!!! (potentially GREAT pictures of that to follow! Yiipppeeee!!)

we love you all, and are SO THANKFUL to you and for you! Adios!!

Hello, World!

Hello, World!

JAN 4TH

Greetings from our Honduras-bound team! Here we are – ready to rock: Jeff, Jared, Matthew, Chance, Robbie, Tara, Daniel, Missy, Josh, Elizabeth, Maggie, Maddie, Katie.

Last night, Sunday Jan 2nd, we all met up, all but Josh (he got stuck in the Denver airport), spent time together as we trained, and were oriented to some of the things we might be exposed to. Our orientation was really beneficial, individually and as a team. The vision of our trip was cast; to equip the saints and give them vision. We’re so excited about the mission in front of us – to love on God’s people, encourage them, grow together as a body of believers, walk by the Spirit, and learn as we go. We are praying against the strategies of the enemy… like division amongst the team and a critical spirit or complaining…. And praying FOR unity, wisdom, love, to be Spirit-led, to create worship and ignite a Jesus-loving culture wherever we go. Please pray for us and the people we’ll see – at the airport, on the plane, in Honduras, everywhere!

We’ve had a lot of fun, a lot of adventure, and a lot of fun adventure already! We left Pine Cove at 9:00ish this morning (January 3rd), rode with the Towers Peru team to DFW, flew to Miami after a REALLY long delay on the runway in Dallas, made it to the gate in Miami and immediately jumped on the plane to Honduras. We have seen God’s fingerprints SO MANY times today and are HONORED and HUMBLED to be a part of His work. Miracle 1 was Missy’s aunt who came to visit at DFW, only to turn around and go get us more suitcases… because the desk at DFW told us that we weren’t allowed to bring boxes in. Ms. Aunt Susie ALSO blessed Maddie by housing her car for the next week – saving her a MAJOR about of cash – praise the Lord! Miracle 2 was how God provided for us making it to our connecting flight from Miami to Honduras. We got to the gate 45 minutes after our Honduras flight boarded… but get this: we arrived at gate 50 and our plane was boarding at gate 47…. PRAAISE THE FATHER!! We walked in, and got in line, boarded the plane, and we were off!! God is GOOD! We had a great flight to Honduras, and when we got there we realized we didn’t have luggage, and God is GOOD! We prayed for provision, Robbie talked with the airport people, and now we wait until tomorrow to see if our luggage comes in. Please pray it comes soon – things aren’t necessary but we’d love to have our bags and camp supplies , and we’re trusting the Lord with confidence that we will have them soon.

We’re now at a really nice church in Cofradia, Honduras. We just ate a DELICIOSO meal of chicken and pepper shish-ka-bobs, beans, cheese, and guacomole – at 12:00am!! When in Honduras do as the sweet and hospitable Hondurans do, si? Si! We have been warmly welcomed and are so thankful to and for these people!! It’s off to bed now – each of us paired up and going to different host homes. Tomorrow is a new day, with camp in sight!

Thank you for praying – God is so faithful and hears your prayers – we are experiencing the blessing of your prayers and petitions on our behalf – we are SO THANKFUL!!

More soon! Love you each!

Because of JESUS alone,
team woods honduras