Mission Blog

This morning started out with a text message from Kelly Stanford about perseverance from the book of James. This couldn’t have come at a better time as my day was greeted with a snag about getting the food down to Matamoras. I received an email saying that we had to fill out a financial application before we could move forward with the transportation and pick up of the food. This was never discussed over the last two weeks of conversation with the trucking company and Feed My Starving Children. There was nothing wrong with having to fill out the application except that I was down in here in Mexico and had no financial information with me. So I forwarded the email to Billy Gann (our board of director’s secretary) and asked him to fill out the application and fax it to the trucking company. He texted me back and said he need the address for the food to be delivered… Which I did not have. At this moment I knew that the evil one was trying to trip me up for the day. I had to step back and not wig out. I asked God to take this problem and deal with it the only way that He knows how. Praise God before the day was out all paper work has been taken care of and prayerfully this problem is complete and the food will be on its way.

Today was another beautiful day out in the Colonias at Pastor Felipe’s Church. There were at least 12 more children today than yesterday. As always, word gets out and the crowd may be bigger tomorrow. Gabriel did another wonderful job with the lesson and Gulf Breeze youth group did another wonderful job with singing, snacks, crafts, and recreation. It is such a blessing to see all this pulled together. After this we headed for the orphanage to do VBS and play with the kids. All in all it was a great day and a joy to be part of it.
Kenny
GMSM

SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER! :c)

Hey! I’m Tori Payton. I go to First Baptist Church of Gulf Breeze. I’m 14 years old and going into the 9th grade at Aletheia Christian Academy.

This mission trip is my second out of the country mission trip but first to Nuevo Laredo! Today was my second day to visit Pastor Felipe’s church in the Colonias and the orphanage. God has really been showing and teaching me a lot!

Today I had two major realizations/blessings. First I love kids, so to be able to work with them is super cool! I learned so much from them. One of them being that we take a lot for granted. Those children have nothing compared to what we are blessed with in America and yet their attitudes reflect Christ so much more than ours sometimes. They are always smiling and laughing and it is so great to see that!

Another thing that was a huge blessing to me was that I got to do everything that I love and have a passion for but I got to do for the honor and glory of God! I had the opportunity to sing, play soccer, and play with kids! It really made me realize that serving God doesn’t have to be boring and repetitive. You can serve God doing the things you love the most! It’s amazing how we come here to serve and bless others but end up being blessed more than you can imagine! I have been having so much fun here and grown closer to God as well as the rest of my youth group!
Friends in Christ,
Tori <3

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Today is a day that I have been praying and waiting for a long time. I have prayed for so long that we would be able to hold a vacation bible school out in the Colonias. We’ve always held vacation bible school at the orphanage which is good, but I’ve always been in the Colonias building houses. There has always been a desire to have a VBS out of these areas. Today God answered that prayer through Gulf Breeze Baptist Church youth group. I cannot tell you how stoked I am to be a part of this mission trip with this group. God is always so gracious and loving. It is very true that when we call on his name and we seek his desires that he will answer our prayers.

Kenny
GMSM

SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER! :c)

Hello! I am Rachel Conte, currently a student at Southeastern University, and a member of First Baptist Church of Gulf Breeze. This is my first mission trip to Nuevo Laredo and I have seen more of God’s beautiful people.

We began our day with a delicious breakfast and a successful trip across the border to the Colonias. We walked in to the Mission Bautista Camino Nuevo and our interpreter began telling the children stories of the goodness of God. I don’t know Spanish, but the grins on the faces of the children showed me that they were filled with joy with what they heard.

There were songs, snacks, crafts, and laughs shared by everyone. I was taken out of my comfort zone and spoke to four lovely ladies who didn’t know one word of English. Having taken Spanish, I began with our names and simply talked. I was blessed by this small beginning of a friendship that I know I will have with these people.

Next we went to the orphanage. I have always heard of mission trips where children come running to the missionaries arms and they don’t even have to know their name. Today was my first experience of this. We hadn’t even pulled into the parking lot when children were running to and in our vans to give love and be loved. We played games and ate with the children. God once again has shown me how little you need to be happy.

These kids don’t have air conditioning, or ice, or parents, or iphones, or chick-fil-a, and they continually have smiles on their faces. I am always learning that love is most important and that joy can be found in any circumstance.

Today I have been stretched and blessed and I look forward to what God has for tomorrow!

Rachel Conte
FBCGB

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Derel and I drove up to Johnson’s Ins. to get insurance for the vans to cross the border. When that task was finished we headed back to the church for the worship service. I love worshiping in new fellowships, it is always so refreshing. God is so cool. He allows us to enjoy our brothers and sisters in Christ. The common thread for all believers is Christ Jesus. I cannot understand prejudice. After church we had a deliciouslunch made by our awesome cook.

Later in the day, we discovered that the refrigerator in the church kitchen died. So Derel, Gabriel and I went to Home Depot and bought a new one for the church. On our way to get this thing we realized that we had no way to carry this thing back. What’s a missionary to do? So I called Reuben and he said that he would make a few phone calls but could make no promises.

We decided to do the only thing we could do and that was put it in Gods hand. As Gabriel prayed and asked for guidance my phone began to ring before the prayer was over. A deacon from Ruebans church, Benito would come and rescue us and take the new fridge to the church. How cool is that? Score one for the Big Dude. God provided for our need because we asked in his name and He new that this was an important part of His mission plan.

With the fridge all hooked up, I took Jesse, Tracy and Gabriel across the border to Felipe’s church so they could see the lay out for VBS. After talking strategy with Ana, the pastor’s wife, and visiting with Felipe, we headed back to the states and the persecution of the dreaded border line.

Neither of these guys had been across before and it was so cool introducing them to this mission effort God has been so gracious to allow me to be a part of. I took them on a tour of some of the houses that we have built in the past. We also stopped by Gloria and Marcos house. We built this house about two and a half years ago. I always stop in and see this couple when I am in Nuevo Laredo. We made it back across, Emily and Sara made it in, we ate and went to a praise and worship service at the church. I am beat. Tomorrow we all go across to do VBS at Felipe’s church and then at Casa Hagar Elam orphanage. I am looking forward to seeing how God is going to stretch this team.

Kenny

I am always amazed at what God continues to allow us to do with GMSM. This mission trip is really special, as one of our main goals is to help people get involved in mission work in Mexico and Haiti.

This trip is Gulf Breeze Baptist Church’s first mission with us to Nuevo Laredo. We brought Deryl Hatt, the youth pastor, down this past January in hopes of getting his church involved. Well, praise the Lord they are fired up and we are all serving in Mexico less than six months later.

After a long journey to Laredo we arrived at the host church Iglesia Bautista Emanuel. This will be our home for the next 5 days.

We will cross the border each day and do Vacation Bible School in the morning at the colonias and VBS in the afternoon at Casa Hogar Elim orphanage. I will say, this church is in a very rough part of town. Tomorrow I will take a small group over the border and let them see what God has gotten them into.

Praise God for the safe journey. Thank you to all supporters for keeping us in your prayers this week.

Kenny

GMSM

Give Me Shelter Ministries is returning to Nuevo Laredo twice this summer, once with Gulf Breeze Baptist Church on June 12 and again with First Baptist Church Ft. Walton Beach on our annual mission June 27.

We will be working on building one shelter during our trip. We have more than one needy family down in Nuevo Laredo, but each trip makes a difference.

We ask for your prayers as these volunteers help our neighbors who have very little. If you can make any contribution to helping us build homes for the members of Pastor Felipe’s church, please do so. God bless you and we thank you for your support.

May 29, 2009

Today is the day that is always met with mixed emotions. This is break down day when part of says “I wish we had another week and the other part of me says its time to go back to the land of human chaos. In any event there is much work that needs to be done where ever the Lord will allow us to work. As with every morning, it is cool to watch the village come alive. People start to scurry around doing their daily chores, children start showing up for school and life starts a new day in Z’Orange. Just like home there is always something to do. What they do down here is survival. We do not have to worry about survival unless you consider survival being worried that that guy’s boat is bigger than yours. As we say our goodbyes and get things packed, we start the trek back towards Port and then on to Love a Child to drop the truck off. I drove the whole time and that was a nice break for Chuck. Once we dropped the truck off we headed for CSI guest house to stay the night. Tomorrow we head to the land of plenty

May 28, 3009

We finally started assembling the pews. Work began about 6:30 and ended over 12 hours later. There was plenty of local help, and once we got our system down we were beginning to look like that we knew what we were doing.

Twenty pews were built and I know Pastor Fanilus will be stoked. He was supposed to have his surgery today. I will not know anything until we come back to Port Au Prince.

All in all it was a great day of hammering and banging with my brothers in Christ. This may very well have been one of the hardest days of work that I have put in here in Haiti. Chuck worked us hard today and I know we all felt it. God protected us and gave us strength.

May 26, 2009

After leaving the guest house we had e few more errands to run before we headed up the mountain. Chuck and I drove in the big truck and George and Joe drove together, we all met at the lumber store to get the supplies for the pews for the Jerusalem II. After the lumber run we had some lunch and picked up food supplies. From that point we split up. Joe, myself, Ginette and Simon took Gabriel up the mountain while Chuck and George stayed in Port to take care of some business. I drove all through town and up the mountain to Z’Orange. Praise God for a new path. The new road makes things a whole lot easier. I am glad that Chuck feels comfortable with me to help with the ministry. Once we arrived in Z’Orange we unloaded the truck and set up camp. It was neat to see the kids helping us to unload the lumber and set things up. It started raining and stopped us from working so we ate supper and chilled.

May 27, 2009

Praise god from whom all blessings flow. What a night it was. After the rain it got so cool that I even got a little chilly a couple of times. Trust me, that is a good thing when the days are blistering. Ginette gave us a nice breakfast and we began the wait for gas to put in the generator. Chuck, George and Simon went back to Port to take care of a few things. Once the gas arrived we started pre-fabricating the lumber to be be used to make the new pews for Pastor Fanilus and Jerusalem II. It was so cool to have some of the young men help us out. Even Ginette was a tremendous help. Although there was a language barrier of sorts they caught on quick to Joe’s and my plan. Before long we had a cool assembly line going, the work went so smooth and it was great fun fellowshipping with my brother and sisters.

There is a lot that goes on during the day around the church. One of the main things is the school. It is so neat to see the children in dress uniforms and learning. School costs money so there are a lot of children that do not attend school. We spent many hours ripping and cutting lumber to get it ready and I think without the help the Lord provided for us, we would not have gotten as much done as we did.

You know something I was thinking about today was that I have not even seen John Wesley (the voodoo priest). I am not even sure if he ever rented the house that Chuck and I gave him the money for so he and his family could be together.

When the guys returned from Port Au Prince I learned that Pastor Fani had gotten some much needed blood from the Red Cross so he could have his surgery. I am still not sure when this surgery is going to take place but I do know that if he was in the U.S. this would have been taken care of long ago. We will all continue to pray and lift him up .Tomorrow we will start mass-producing the pews.

May 25, 09 Haiti

After a great night sleep we prepared to see what the Lord had in store for us on this day. This place is a very nice place. It is like a kitchenette where you can cook your own food.

It is only $10.00 per day. Once we set out for the day, George and Joe dropped Chuck and I off in town where we waited for Harry and Joe Joe the driver to pick us up. There were several things that we wanted to accomplish today before we headed up the mountain. We went to the hospital to see Pastor Fani and his wife. I can promise you one thing; you do not want to be stuck in a Haitian hospital. Everything is open and patients are piled into a big room with no privacy what so ever. When we walked in and he saw us he started crying. As we visited he would look up at me and tears would fill his eyes. From the flesh part of me I am bummed that he is this way. But the spiritual part of me knows that God is in complete control and He knows what is best for His children. We were informed that if he would not have come to the hospital he surely would have died.

After a short visit we spoke to Sister Fani and I gave her some money that Vance Baptist Church, Al had provided. We prayed and then we left. After running several more errands, which at times can be an adventure in itself we grabbed some lunch and headed off to Love A Child to pick up the truck. I logged some good drive time driving back to the guest house. I think tomorrow I will drive up the mountain to Z’Orange.

May 24, 2009

Once again we head off to Haiti to see what the Lord will allow us to do. Things we have planned on are seeing Pastor Fanilus in the hospital and to build pews for the new church on the mountain, Jerusalem II.

We are experimenting with a new airline called Spirit and hit our first glitch of the trip when we arrived in Atlanta. At the ticket counter they informed us that we can only have one check in bag due to an embargo they have with Port Au Prince. Well Chuck and I had two trunks apiece that had tools that would be needed to perform the task for the pews. Wow, what a curve ball. We looked at each other and said what we do. The only thing we could do was just pray for wisdom on what to do. God is so gracious and guided us through this mess. So we decide to pack all our stuff in one trunk each and deal with the over weight charges. We ended up with only one trunk being over the weight limit.

I am traveling with Chuck Martindale and Joe Hutchinson. We will meet fellow brother in Christ and missionary George Truelove in Port. We will be staying at a new guest house in Port named Blue Ridge/ Keys for Life Ministries. Once we arrived and George picked us up and we headed off to Blue Ridge guest house. Chuck will be preaching tonight at Pastor Harry’s church in Port. I am looking so forward seeing Harry. He is such a warrior in Haiti. I love church in Haiti it is always so refreshing. As always Chuck did a wonderful job in the pulpit and Harry did a great job translating. I am beat and it will be good to rest.

Kenny Phillips

GMSM