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Hosting 32 student volunteers involves a lot of preparation. Thankfully, IWC sends a staff ahead of time to get things ready. Here is the Project Coordinator, Vicki; the Ministry Coordinator, Lorie; the Office Manager, Sheila; and the Worship Speaker, Jason. The day before the students arrived we made shopping trip #1 of the week. We made the check-out clerks stop and stare at the amount of toilet paper, bread, ham and turkey, chips, and drinks we bought. They wanted to know where the party was and how they could be invited! 
IWC was split into 4 "crews". Each crew was able to experience a different type of ministry each morning and we all worked together in the evenings. One of the morning ministries was teaching kids English. Above we are using a game (Elbow tag) to keep the students involved and speaking English. 
Two evenings we hosted "Family Fairs". These are block parties where the student volunteers play with the kids (make crafts, etc) while we adults go around and try to get into good conversations with their parents. We have made some very good contacts with this method and are able to invite them to Bible studies and/or worship services. 
And what mission trip would be complete without dancing? We did enough Cha-cha slide this summer to kill ourselves. I bet the guy who sings that never dreamed it would be such a crowd draw-er for mission teams!
One ministry that Chanelle has been doing for a few years is called "merienda". In the past she has hosted this snack time (as well as breakfasts) at her home. These days, others who attend have started to host at their homes and the group is growing.
Each month ladies meet together to share a light meal and a devotion time. To date one very precious lady has come to faith as a result of these meetings! She is now involved in a weekly Bible study and is praying for her husband and children to follow Christ as well. We praise God for her decision and ask that you would pray that God would continue to use these times to draw others to himself.
The church that started in February just had its first baptism!!! We were so excited to celebrate with new believer, Nieves! She was baptized a couple Sundays ago and, like good Baptists, we followed it with a pot-luck lunch! We have two more new believers who want to be baptized but are struggling to commit to it. I admire them in that they don't want to do it lightly, but we're praying that they will take this step of faith and we know the Lord will bless them for it when they do. Please pray with us for new believers, C and A.
As a thank you to our team for volunteering in their English classes and helping them, the teachers from Los Alamos took the interns and I out to eat last week. This semester's interns have worked hard at both schools where we volunteer and it has been a blessing to have them on our team.
Here we are with the teachers who took us to lunch. There were several who were not able to make it, but we were so surprised by the number who did and by the gifts they gave us! It is nice to be appreciated.
In our after school English club the other day, we had the kids play "2 truths and a lie". Its a game where you have to say 3 things about yourself and people have to figure out which of the 3 is a lie. The week before, JoHelen had mentioned that in Louisiana, where she is from, it is common to eat turtle. They kids freaked out. This week, one girl's "truth" was that JoHelen scares her because she eats turtle! We had to take the photo. It was too good to pass up.
On a side note, it makes me laugh that eating turtle is strange to them, but frying up a pan of chicken BLOOD (no chicken, just blood) and onions is good ole' down home cookin'!
I introduced you recently to JoHelen and Andrea, our Hands On volunteers who are here for a bit over 4 months. Now, let me introduce Aryn (middle). She just arrived last week and will be staying with us for about 3 months. All three girls are volunteering in the high schools teaching English with both students and teachers. They also do dance classes, university work, children's ministry and one on one English practice. It is so fun to have energetic, fun girls to work with! They keep us "long-timers" pumped up!
Hosting 32 student volunteers involves a lot of preparation. Thankfully, IWC sends a staff ahead of time to get things ready. Here is the Project Coordinator, Vicki; the Ministry Coordinator, Lorie; the Office Manager, Sheila; and the Worship Speaker, Jason. The day before the students arrived we made shopping trip #1 of the week. We made the check-out clerks stop and stare at the amount of toilet paper, bread, ham and turkey, chips, and drinks we bought. They wanted to know where the party was and how they could be invited! 
IWC was split into 4 "crews". Each crew was able to experience a different type of ministry each morning and we all worked together in the evenings. One of the morning ministries was teaching kids English. Above we are using a game (Elbow tag) to keep the students involved and speaking English. 
Two evenings we hosted "Family Fairs". These are block parties where the student volunteers play with the kids (make crafts, etc) while we adults go around and try to get into good conversations with their parents. We have made some very good contacts with this method and are able to invite them to Bible studies and/or worship services. 
And what mission trip would be complete without dancing? We did enough Cha-cha slide this summer to kill ourselves. I bet the guy who sings that never dreamed it would be such a crowd draw-er for mission teams!
