Just like last week, we have been working hard to prepare the foundation of the bathrooms and also recover and painting a room behind the church. We dug holes taller than us–more than two meters deep! (that is 6.56 feet for you math wizards out there!) We finally finished up that started at nothing when we got there. We got a jackhammer for a day to break down a concrete path and yet again dig out more holes. It is tough work but doing it for the church and for God’s people makes it all worth it!

Monday we started our a morning devotional with Gusty about Marriage. We had an hour every morning Monday to Thursday to look at God’s plan and more specifically marriage within His plan. We used an illustration with orange halves and trying to put the halves together. We were then asked how we went about finding our other half. It was a good way to visualize finding our future husband or wife. We all agreed that it was very informational and interesting to hear about Gusty’s story on how he married his wife. It was something we all really enjoyed and got a lot out of.

This week Lisse and Mike had their workshops at night after we were finished with work for the day. Lisse’s was on photography and Mike’s was on guitar. The lessons went great! Some students even attended both the photography and guitar workshops. All the students really seemed to enjoy themselves and get a lot out of the classes. 

There have been so many things that we have done and so many places we have gone in the past week that it would impossible to mention them all as it would be impossible to tell of all the changes that have happened within each of our hearts.

This week we were forced to realize that this was the last of our time in this place we called home for a short time. We have each worked on things in our lives that needed to be fixed and challenged each other. Leaving will not be easy and we ask for your prayers as we prepare to leave on Monday night.

 April, Brent, Calvin, Courtney, Denise, Lisse, and Mike

Our apologies that we have not posted earlier than today. We have not been blessed with consistent time/ internet connectivity in order to catch everyone up with our trip. I will try my hardest to sum up the first 5.5 days of our trip.

Buckle your seatbelts…

Thursday:

Travel day. We woke up in Grand Rapids and fell asleep 5 miles from the Grand Canyon. Our first flight from GR left at around 8 A.M. (Michigan time) and arrived in Denver around 10:30. From there, we flew to Phoenix, and arrived at 2 (MI time, Noon AZ time). We blinked as the first few Arizona rays warmed our skin and all just stood on the sun-drenched sidewalk. It felt as though we skipped winter and ended up somewhere in mid-June. Then, we headed north towards the Grand Canyon…

Friday:

We spent the morning and early afternoon exploring the rim of the Grand Canyon. Because of the high elevation, the Canyon was actually colder and had more snow than Grand Rapids. This inhibited us from exploring anything inside the canyon, but didn’t stop any of us from getting as close as we could to the edge. Everyone’s safe, don’t worry.

After exploring, we headed back to Phoenix, where we spent the night in host homes. (Thanks, you all were awesome!)

Saturday:

We woke up, had breakfast, then prepared for an intense day of interviews. First, we interviewed Josh White, the Senior Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Phoenix. After lunch, we headed to the church and practiced our presentation for Sunday, a dress rehearsal of sorts. We then met up with Pastor Robert Renberg (Adam’s Grandpa) and had another interview. Afterwards, Bruce Kemper invited us all to go mini-golfing–his treat. Five of us had a competetion–which may or may not have required a 1 dollar entrance fee and included a 5 dollar prize. The winner shall remain nameless.

Bruce Kemper took us back to his house, fed us dinner and then allowed us to interview him. It was a wonderfully challenging time of discovering, investing in, and fellowshipping with one another.

Sunday:

The team presented at Grace Bible Church in Phoenix for the morning service. Before and after were riddled with new friends, old friends and plenty of God-honoring conversation. Sadly, however, the team had to get on the road and travel to Southern California… which was a long trip. A few hours into to California, we stopped and got the opportunity to eat dinner with Pastor Gary’s mother and father, who provided a wonderful meal for us (shout-out to Bonnie!), they instilled their ministry knowledge on us, and we loved our time with them. We then spent the night with Kevin and Tracy Spykerman.

Monday:

Our day started bright and early with an interview of the Maintenance Manager of Disneyland Park. It was incredible to hear his story and learn from his experience in business. Steve Spykerman (Pastor Gary’s brother) then gave us time to interview him and hear his story. God is good and works in amazing ways.

Again, this is a quick overview of the first 5 days of our trip. After we return, make sure to get a hold of any member of trip and feel free to ask them anything! We’d love to share with you how God is working.

We’ll keep you updated as we go…

…and don’t forget to keep up with us on twitter: #ministrytour2013.

Thanks for your prayers and your concern for us. God is doing amazing things!

In Christ,

GBC Ministry Team 2013

(Also, if you have an ipod, ipad, or iphone and have never played “Jetpack”, you’re missing out. We all love it.)

Denise, Lisse and Mike helped Shaggy with the music. A song of welcoming started us off and everyone got up to hug and kiss everyone in the room. The sense of family was overwhelming. Not a person was left without being greeted. The people then sang, prayed and worshiped.  Prayer is so important in the service. Their prayers are so strong and passionate as is everything they do.

Brent also had the opportunity to preach God’s Word in the service. While the language was a little bit of a difficulty, the congregation was very warm and attentive to what he had to say. God was there and He was working in the hearts of everyone. At the end of the service the kids played with the new toys they got from Three Kings Day. Plates and plates of snacks were passed around as people talked and said their goodbyes. It wasn’t until 10pm when things seemed to settle down. We played with babies, danced, snacked, and talked. Then at 11pm we had dinner.

Everyone was linked together somehow and even through the huge barrier of language the team was able to communicate and feel like a part of the church without clinging to each other. Through our conversation we discussed how we all longed for a church like this in the States. Even if there was one, we know it would never be the same. The people we have met here in this church have reach out to us and touched our hearts in a way that is special. It will make saying goodbye more emotional but it also is making our growth greater and this adventure more impactful on our lives.

We all feel the growth in our hearts and our lives. We ask for your prayers as we continue to grow and develop our identity in Christ and as Satan tries to attack us every day and stop that growth. We are not discouraged and we thank you for your support and prayers daily.

With Love,
April, Brent, Calvin, Courtney, Denise, Lisse, and Mike

Calvin stayed with Talo’s (a GMI missionary) parents. Talo is also brothers with Gusty who is the pastor here. Calvin’s experience was a lot of talking as well as have great food with the people he stayed with. He also was encouraged to have his “first food” for the day to be God’s Word by the father of the family.

Group devotions at 9 where we decided our theme for the day was going to be encouragement. We then worked from 9:30 until lunch which was around 2:30. We are digging the foundation for an addition to the church. When we arrived and looked at the back yard it was a massive pile of rocks, clay, mud, dirt, sand and holes. Some of our first jobs were to move the piles of sand to make a path to the large dumpster for  the already demolished building pieces and the rocky innards of the holes. We were all lacking energy by lunch. We all worked hard to encourage each other and  help each other get through the day. Lunch was a much needed physical and emotional break for us all. Then it was back for work until snack time.

Then Ricki Anne surprised us with a trip to the beach! We fell asleep on the shore, took walks, swam, and had lovely conversations to relax from the work day. We all slept good that night!
On day 2 we decided to work not only on encouragement but also on patience. In the 80 degree weather and under the hot sun our tempers can be tested and it is easy to snap without thinking. Our patience was tested but we worked hard, paced ourselves and did well with our patience challenge.
Everyday we choose a new challenge for ourselves to help us grow as individuals and as a group.
We are working more towards interacting with the Uruguans we are in close contact with every day and developing those connections despite the language barrier.

We thank you for your prayers and continued support while we are here serving God and the people of Uruguay.
Until next time,
April, Brent, Calvin, Courtney, Denise, Lisse, and Mike.

Prof. Gary Spykerman, chairman of the pastoral ministries division is taking a unique group of men, along with his wife Susan, to the Southwest USA.  These are pastoral interns seeking to progress in their call to ministry by working and visiting with Pastors, church boards, leading worship and interviewing a number of different organizations, including Rick Warren’s church- Saddleback. The other members are Adam Renberg, Joe Johnson, Chris Anderson, Josh Befus, Jared Kusz and Jon Caprari.

“This is a special aspect of the Grace Bible College educational objective in combining practical, field experience with classroom instruction.  All these students are gaining valuable insights and challenging their commitment in striving to serve Christ in Church and Society.  There is nothing else that compares to actually being in the true classroom of life experiences.  It’s even more exciting to realize how God can use this to challenge them to a full time commitment to ministry.”  John Spooner, Director of Campus Minsitries said.

Check out this site for periodical updates for both teams.  Thank you to the many supporters who have made these trips possible.  Any donations can be made directly to Grace Bible College in the name of Ministry Teams.

More to come on our adventures in Montevideo, Uruguay
The work starts in the next few days! Adios!

April, Brent, Calvin, Courtney, Denise, Lisse, and Mike

If you know of or have any needs that Grace Bible College can respond too, contact John Spooner.  jspooner@gbcol.edu

Courtney Glinka, Kaylee Cline and Sami Argutto help with refuge clothing supplies.

We then headed out to Post Falls, Idaho which was only about a half an hour away. We picked up Maggie Segalla on the way, to reunite us all, making us a full band again! We set up and practiced through the set with Maggie, before having a bit more down time at the church. Around 5:30 we had a potluck and then started the service. There was a great turnout, with a lot of kids, which was a blast. It was amazing playing with Maggie again, and we will all miss her dearly these next few days.

Afterwards, It was time to tear down, and with the help of the whole Segalla family, we did it in record time! We then headed out with our host families for the night, before our long journey home.