Month: June 2009

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