We have 2 week, 3 week, 4 week, and 5 week trips all over the world! Locations include Philippines, Peru, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Cameroon, Jamaica, Mexico, Costa Rica, Romania, Nicaragua, Haiti, Scotland, and many more!
Check us out at http://adventures.org and you know how to do the rest! We also have a special code just for alumni (that's all of you who've been on an Ambassador trip before). If you enter it when you apply, it'll waive your application fee.
Last night was our last official night of ministry in Nauta. We decided to spend it in town doing ATLs (Ask The Lord). Here is how they work, we split up into 3 groups. Each group spends some time praying silently and asking the Lord to guide our ministry instead of ourselves. (I think it is funny how often we forget to allow God to lead us, even on a missions trip.) After a few minutes in silent prayer we share what the Lord put on our hearts. Sometimes God gives us things sometimes he does not, but one thing is for sure, he is leading us even if it doesnīt always make sense! God was definately at work last night! Group number one: Aaron, Benjamin, Stephanie, Mary Beth and Bess. After their prayer a couple of people thought they should go Left (that is all the Lord was speaking to them at that time), then Stephanie felt the Lord saying they should go where they went for Lukeīs birthday (which was to the left of where their team was). So they set off and when they arrived at the place Mary Beth ran into 2 girls she had met earlier in the trip and she began a conversation with them along with Bess and Stephanie. The two guys stood back and began covering that group with prayer. Ben and Aaron said after they were done praying they opened their eyes and several children were huddled all around the girls and they were all listening to them. The girls invited all the Children to come to the last day of VBS today and what a blessing because today for our bible school we are sharing about Jesus and giving the salvation message! Please pray that the children are able to come and hear the good news!
Group 2: Tara, Kyle, Emily, Ty and Naneth. During their individual prayer time they heard many things from the Lord. Ty got a specific street they were supposed to walk down. Emily got a picture of an elderly woman with dark hair and Tara had women on her heart as well. Kyle got the verse Phillipians 4:3. He had no idea what that verse said so he got a bible and it says: "Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel." They were pretty excited that the Lord gave them similar ideas, but they still were unsure of what they needed to do, but they left in faith. They went down the street Ty said and immediately two elderly women came out and invited them inside. The ladies bought them Kola and cookies and showed them great hospitality. They were able to have a wonderful conversation with the ladies and the team found out that they were both Christians! They were eager to hear about the teams ministry here in Peru then they were able to pray all together. The ladies were so excited and one of them said to the team that God had told her that someone would come and visit them tonight and she was so glad that the team was faithful and obeyed! Today the team is going back to return the favor and buy them cookies and spend some more time in fellowship.
Group 3: Kacie, Seve, John, Luke, Katie and Jheri. After our prayer time we felt the Lord calling us to stay in the Plaza and minister to the people there. I really felt the Lord calling us to cover the place in prayer. Luke and John felt that we should go over and talk to a couple women in one corner of the plaza. One lady was with her husband who was drunk. Jheri, John and Luke were able to talk to them and pour into them. Katie began a great conversation with some kids in the plaza and also a few teenagers. She was able to talk to them about our ministry and invite them to church. Seve and I were able to dive into a wonderful converstation with a woman from Germany who was here selling her jewlery. We asked her about her life and she is very much a free spirit. We asked her if she knew the Lord and who Jesus Christ is and she said yes, but she doesnīt have a relationship with Him. She said she is living here in a community that is based on Love and her goal is to live in complete peace with people and a very simple life. I told her that in some ways we have the same goal. Seve and I talked to her about our reason for being here was based on love as well. Except that our Love is from Jesus Christ and not on earthly things (nature is what she said). We asked her what her thoughts were on Heaven and she didnīt really know. She thought that there could be something. So God opened up the doors for us to share with her about Heaven and that our hope is not of this world but of our eternal home in Heaven! She liked the idea of that, but was not sure yet what she believed. She has a lot of passion and really seeks out wonderful things. I love that God is able to reveal himself in all things. We were able to use the beauty of nature and the rainforest to reveal Christ to her. Before we left she was so happy because she came to Nauta to sell some of her jewlery to buy food. But she didnīt know if she would sell any because she had already been here, but she came anyway. When our team pulled up some of the students bought her jewlery. She said she now had enough money for food and she was really sincerely thankful! Please be in prayer for her (Ruth is her name). We are going to meet with her again this afternoon and give her a bible.
As you can clearly see the Lord is doing amazing things in Nauta. After talking with the students about all of their experiences, Kyle brought up a great point. He said "it was cool what we see when we are LOOKING for God to do great things and we allow ourselves to see him move." We could have done all of the things tonight and missed God completely. Yet we decided to stop and let go of the control and let God lead us! Once he opened our eyes to his great work, we were truly blessed to be a part of it.
The Lord gave our team an amazing glipse of the sacrifice he made for us today. This morning we were working at a new site to build a missionary base for the pastors of Nauta. Pastor William had several boards for us to bring up from the bottom of a very steep hill that winded around several houses. As we were looking at the pile of boards and the amount of workers it seemed almost impossible. We began slowly moving the heavy boards up the hill 2 at a time. Our backs were beginning to ache and our shoulders were sore. The whole way up the hill we were praying "Lord let you be glorified in this, may the people see you and not us through our work." After our 3rd or 4th trip down we came around the corner and saw 20 to 25 children spread out across the hill carrying boards up for us, a group of about 4 kids had a board and they each had a huge smile on their face the whole time. It filled my heart with Joy!
After we brought the last board up we sat in the shade and Pastor William shared an message with us that I know I will never forget. He said when we were carrying our boards up the hill it reminded him of Christ. Christ had to carry his cross the way that we were carrying the boards. Today we got to feel what he felt and see a tiny glimpse of the sacrifice he made. Pastor William continued speaking and he told us to look at the Children. He said that no one had asked the kids to help they just came willingly on their own with joyful hearts! It was exactly what Christ meant when he said we could come to him with the faith of a Child. It was beautiful.
I hope that all of you are well! We have been able to get back on a sort of schedule since we came back to Nauta. A typical day for us consists of team prayer time at 7am then quiet time with the Lord until breakfast at 8am. At 9 we start our work for the day. The girls have been cutting grass and weeds with machetes and the guys have been digging wells down at the bottom of the hill. I am going to try and put a picture of them up under ĻphotosĻ on the left hand side of our page. I am going to pre-apologize if it doesnīt work (this blog alone takes about an hour to post, itīs very very slow here). At lunch we come in, wash up, and eat lunch. We have free time (it has turned into nap time) after lunch until 2 or 3. Around 3 we either go out and invite the children in our area to our VBS program (Mon/Wed/Fri) or we head into Nauta to do ATLīs (ask the Lord) or sports ministries. We head back in for dinner and then change for various church services. At each church service we sing together, two people give their testimonies, one of the guys will preach, and we alternate our three groups to do one of their dramas. By the time all of that is over we are exhausted, but we still have made time to do a scavenger hunt all over Nauta for the students. We took everyone to get ice cream after that! I think we have eaten that little ice cream store out of every chocolate ice cream bar there was. We have a team time to debrief the day and hear their hearts. Then we head off to bed. Tomorrow is Sunday and I think we are going to take them to a soccer game in between church services. I just wanted to give you a clue as to what our days here in Nauta look like. We celebrated the last of our three birthdays today. Seve turned 17! There is a tradition here in Peru where someone smashes an egg on your head on your birthday. Luke, Stephanie, and Seve have all been egged! Seve tried to get the pastor with one this morning, but she got two eggs smashed in her hair instead of one! We love our team and have truly enjoyed getting to know them. Love to all!
We are all safely back in Nauta. Our stay in the river village called Bagazan was a day longer than we had anticipated. The Real Life team met us there and we were able to celebrate the 4th of July with them. We had a BBQ and played volleyball and soccer with the people there. The Lord really blessed our ministry in Bagazan. We were a part of church services several times where the students really stepped up and got out of their comfort zones. Severin taught many of the children to make rope bracelets and they loved it! Katie was amazing with the children, she was constantly playing games and loving on them. Ty brought all of his duct tape and gorilla tape and it was very useful, we were very thankful for it! Luke and Jon both preached at two church services with our translator, Naneth, they did very well. Stephanie, Emily, Kyle, and Mary Beth all shared their testimony during the church services. Bess, Jheri, and Kyle went to the school and sang for the children and invited them to our VBS. Our other translator, Cesar, Jon, Stephanie, Bess, and Aaron helped to lead a young lady to the Lord!! Ben has constantly blessed us with his heart to serve. He has been a great help to us! One night while we were out in the square in Bagazan a man who had formerly not wanted to come to church came to our worship circle we were having by the playground. He accepted the Lord that night and with tears in his eyes, gave his heart to Jesus! Our boat trip back took all day because our motor broke and we had to make a pit stop at another village after a man with his boat towed us to it. We were able to get another motor and continue our trip back to Nauta. We saw the most incredible sunset on the river that night. Everyone is thankful and praising the Lord for what He is doing in Bagazan and in Nauta.
I am sitting in an internet cafe in Nauta at the moment. We just saw Luke, Emily, Katie, Kyle, Jheri, and Ben perform one of our dramas, it was really powerful. We are in the town square at a campaign which here is like an outdoor christian rally. Mary Beth explained our drama to a pretty big crowd. This is the second night the students have performed here at the square. As Kacie has said we are leaving to go upriver at 5:00 am tomorrow moring. It will be about 10hrs to get upriver and we will return on the 4th (I hope to blog again on the 5th). The team has been an immense blessing to me the past two days (I have been a little under the weather) and they are a constant source of encouragement! I am so thankful for this amazing group of people that have already become like my family. Please be in prayer for our health, safety, and what the Lord is doing here in Nauta and in the villages upriver. I will be posting blogs from the students each time I get the chance to blog. Stephanie was the only one to actually write herīs down for me. Stephanie shared her amazing testimony/timeline with the team today.
Love to my family and friends! I miss you very much! Please keep praying for us.
-Tara
Here is what she gave me to write to you:
Hola! This is Stephanie. I love our lodging here in Nauta. We get to bathe using buckets and sleep in mosquito net forts! We share the estate with very nice locals, a perro (dog) name Manchas, and various chickens. We have a beautiful view of the jungle. I am having a blast learning spanish from the kids who go to the school below us. Estoy emocionada decirle a ustedes mas!
Dear
friends and family'
Thank you for all of you prayers we can really feel them as we
have started our work in Nauta. We have been in Nauta for a few days now
and the students are really starting to fall in love with the people
here. Pastor William and his family have generously opened up their arms
to us and and have showered us with their hospitality.
The students have been very busy running church services, Childrenīs
ministry, street ministry and sports ministry. Ben, Luke and Stephanie
made a baseball field because it has never been introduced to the people here
and when we all started playing we had 2 full teams in no time! The
Peruvians loved it! Mary Beth and Jheri have been so resourceful with
their Spanish skills. We have really come to rely on them for help
speaking.
All of the students have performed at least one Drama and did
excellent. The Peruvianīs eyes were watching them with awe and I know the
Lord was speaking to their hearts.
John and Katie were able to open up their hearts and share their
testimonies with the members of the church. The people were very
receptive and the Lord definately was moving through them. Ben even
delivered the message for the first time and did excellent. The Lord used
him as a vessel to speak to all of us.
Tuesday night we are having a big Conference in the center of Nauta and
the students are going to be given the opportunity to share more dramas.
Please pray for the Peruvians who get to see it that they are given a clear
message of Jesus through the drama. Also, we leave on July 1 for a four day
trip up river to visit Crystal and the real life AIM team. All of the
students are looking forward to that trip up the Amazon!
It is officially 12:49am and we are sitting in Lima, Peru. We are excited to finally be in Peru, but the team is very worn out with all of the traveling. We left Gainsville this morning at 3:00am and we haven`t stopped traveling yet! The Lord has blessed our team with safe travels and we have one more flight to go. We should arrive in Iquitos around 6am. Please pray for strength and that we may rest in the Lord.
God is already beginning a great work, he has taught our team about trust, patience, and His will. This afternoon we received the knews that one of our dear team members Charis Riner will not be able to join us in Peru. She came to training camp with out her passport (it was being processed) in faith that God would guide her steps. He has been very faithful to Charis. Her passport was lost only a few weeks ago and we had 4 days to process her a new one. God opened every door to make sure that was done and our team prayed non-stop for it. Her passport arrived this morning at 10:30 am. Unfortunately, that was not in time for her to make our first flight. We prayed still that the Lord`s Will would be done for Her and our team. We also asked that he make his Will clear to us adn this afternoon he did. She missed her first flight and was unable to get a second flight in time. Charis is still in Gainsville with the AIM staff praying and waiting to hear from the Lord as to what his Will is for her at this point. Even though it was a very emotional afternoon, because Charis is an amazing person and she blessed our team so much, we know that she was chosen to be in Gainsville with us for training camp. Our team has learned so much from Charisīs ability to step out in faith and come to training camp and be a part of our team. It is very clear that God is working in her life and has great plans for her. Please pray that we will not let the enemy attack us by forgetting that it was God who decided to keep her back because he has Bigger plans for Charis that we did! (Jeremiah 29:11)
Charis, we will be praying for you and your ministry. May the Lord use the wisdom he gave you to be a blessing to so many lives! Continue to let your light shine and connect others to our Savior. We love you.
