Monday June 27th

Good morning readers! Brent again!

Yesterday our team finished another packed training! We’re beginning to ready ourselves for our trip in just little over a month… It will be here before we know it!

We were joined yesterday by Kathi Winter who will be joining us during the second week of the trip. The team is so excited to have her knowledge and expertise of HIV/AIDS education. We’ve have the privilege of collaborating with Kathi in designing curriculum to teach the students at Bridge of Hope while we are in South Africa. The team is very excited and prayerful to see what God is going to do as we approach teaching the very culturally sensitive subject of HIV/AIDS.

Our training was concluded with some Watts debriefing and reflection, then we met within our smaller teams to discuss lesson planning and activities we are going to do with the students of Bridges Academy. Emily created flash cards with the name and picture of each of the students. We all had fun trying to practice pronouncing the names of each student! Thank goodness they’ll all be wearing nametags when we first arrive!

After each training a sense of excitement seems to build as our departure dates draws closer and closer. The team is beginning to connect on deeper levels and it already feels like we’re close friends! We ask for continued prayers for preparation and for fund raising.

Powerhouse Church!

Hi readers! Brent here!

This past Sunday our team had the opportunity to serve together at Powerhouse Church in Watts. What a privileged it was to join in the amazing things that God is already doing in Watts through pastor Todd and his incredible family! We learned that church at Powerhouse is an all day event including breakfast for the local students in the community, a church service, Sunday school, followed by a lunch gathering for the entire congregation. What seemed like a whirl-wind morning and afternoon was just another Sunday for the Powerhouse congregation! So excited we got to be apart of it!

Our team had the opportunity to serve together for the first time. Some of the team spent time in childrens ministry, teaching Sunday school, others went out into the surrounding community and personally invited people to the day's activities. But what might have been the most laborious job was the amazing cooks we had in the kitchen, cooken up some good eats for a hungry congregation! Props to Evelyn, Jessica B, Monica, and Meghan for the delicious Mexican cuisine! I'm feeling pretty confident we'll all be well fed and taken care from now on!

As our day at Powerhouse came to a close, our team has grown so much closer to one another. We learned how to be flexible, intentional with one another, and how to give ourselves wherever needed. Just from serving together this one time, I'm so confident and excited that God is going to use our team in BIG way this August when we arrive in South Africa!