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Winter Camp 2011
Location: Bethel in the Hills, Frasier Woods, CA
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which room spoke the most to you tonight? WHy? and what will you do to stay un-Buried?
New Pictures, http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=90900335237&view=all
hey pastor ryan! I had so much fun tonight.. I am so glad that I came, I really needed that boost of encouragement! God really touched me when we sang everything will be okay. Something just came over me and I just felt so much peace. I love you p ryan! thanks for always being there
The Haiti team is in the USA all alive and well. The are in Florida waiting for their trip to Cali.
They are almost home.
The children that our group has been ministering to live in what has been called by the UN,”the most dangerous city on EARTH.” Our team in doing great works for the kingdom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cité_Soleil
Here is a movie trailer about the people they have been ministering to: Please don’t let this scare you… they have not been in the middle of this kind of violence, but this is where the kids they have been playing soccer with come from.
The plain lands in LAX tomorrow at 8:40pm, so I would say that the team should be at the church around 11pm. So please make your plans.
Hey what’s up family sorry we haven’t updated in a few days, we’ve been SUPER BUSY and our Internet has been down. So were all ok and safe and having a good time!
Let’s start with Sunday. Sunday morning we went to a Haitian assemblies of God church which was so amazing. We thought the church was gonna be small but the church had about 500-600 people there! It was awesome, when we hot there they were sitting us in the front row and that was honoring but then they ran out of space so they sat a few of us up on the stage where all the pastors and deacons sit. So all the pastors moved to fold out chairs so we can have their nice chairs. It was a huge honor! Worship was so amazing, the people love to worship and praise God. Then as were sitting there they asked if kellen can do a sermon so kellen being the awesome flexible person that he is opened up his bible and got a sermon together and gave it within 10 minutes of being asked. Gonna shine the light on our team a little bit and say that is a great example of how flexible and willing and serving our team is. And I say that to honor our leaders (PR&etc.) who have taught us to be that way.
After service the missionary took us to pourta prince where the earthquake did the most devastation and it shocked us big time. As soon as we got off the bus we had people coming up to us and asking for money and food and just help. A lay came up to one of our girls and was holding a baby no older that 10 months and saying she can’t feed her,that she’s not able to and was asking her to feed her. It showed our team first hand how much help these people really needed. We all have seen the news and magazines BUT nothing compares to being here and seeing the brokenness of the city and the peoples lives. Lets just say the bus ride back to the house was quite…. Alot of the team was taken back and was just overwhelmed with emotion and frustration that we couldn’t do more. But God is without a doubt at work in this country. He is evidently seen here!! That night we went to a youth group at a village and did some dramas and worship and it was amazing. So much fun learning their worship songs and seeing the youth have fun. A disaster did happen here but people still smile and praise God and love people. Seeing all the youths different personalities was so funny. They were writing poems and doing it as a girls against guys contest which was super funny also.
Monday we went to a refugee camp and did some soccer clinic stuff there. We played these big games of soccer that EVERYONE would come out to watch. The people and kids would get so happy when they would see us coming. No matter where we went as soon as our bus was seen people would come out of no where and start to flock around us. We loved driving into the towns and seeing peoples faces light up.
Tuesday we went to another village where we put on a soccer clinic at a school. Oh wow these kids were so so excited to play soccer and just have fun. We had several groups set up all the time. The skills group, the soccer match, the fun group, (all the groups were fun haha) and the bible group. The kids enjoyed every group. Their laughter brought such joy to us and we were very impressed with a few of the students who can speak atleast 3 different langueges. This country might be a third world county but they are smart and hard working. Their days start at 4 a.m. and go till about 9 p.m. They work so hard and and they still have the energy and joy to smile and wave at us when we smile and wave at them.
Tuesday we went back to the school where we put on a soccer clinic for all the girls. About 60-70 girls showed up. It was alot of fun the night before making bracelets for the girls. We made the thread bracelets, and some of the guys learned how to braid so they can make the bracelets and when we learned we were excited to tell our daughters later on in life when were brading their hair that we learned how to brade when we were in Haiti on a missions trip haha.
So at the soccer clinic they were playing toby mac and some of the guys started slow dancing/ball room haha dancing with the girls during the game and the girls were loving and so were the guys. It was an awesome time to show these girls love in a healthy fun way. And show them a glimpse of how men should treat them. We were calling them princesses. That night we got to play a soccer game against some of the haitian nationals that were part of the missionaries who were good at soccer and we put our team together and we played a USA vs. Haiti soccer game, which was alot of fun! Jaide totally did a flip throw that wowed the kids and us haha and of corse our star player Robyn Estrada scored 2 goals which gave the U.S. team a win over the Haitian team. Lots of fun.
So tuesday night the missionaries told us we have to get to bed early and drink ALOT of water because were waking up at 4:45 a.m. wednesday to go on a 4 mile hike in the jungles of Haiti to go to a village and and do some ministry up there. So we woke up and drove for about an hour deep into Haiti and up some CRAZY steep I’m not to sure if this road is safe kind of roads haha. With every steep up hill there was a steep downhill….. oooo talk about praying for good brakes and leaning to make sure you don’t tip over like some “other” missions trips we’ve been on haha. So we got to a certain part in the road where the missionaries said ok here’s we go and there was a path on the side of the road that lead into the jungle and we started going for it. Haha ok if you want to have a great time going on a 4 mile hike you go with Lancaster first assembly missions crew. Haha Marcellus was our gospel singer/encourager/poop on the road police/Marcellus and it was so funny. He would be so far away and you would still hear “saints your doing great” “keep going for the Lord” “praise him” haha aahh fun times. And this hike wasn’t like oh hey let’s walk over that hill. NOOO it was a oh see that MOUNTAIN with all the rocks and steep paths ya were going up that haha. But it was so so so beautiful. Seeing all the small homes in the bush with people who would look at you with so much joy and sincere love just when you would wave to them and say good morning. At one of the parts of the hike going up we were on this thin path and these DONKEYS started coming down just loaded up with stuff so we had to move into the bushes and balance on small rocks as it walked by. People were getting knocked over when it walked buy. Oh and Robyn Estrada was the person who let made sure everyone knew that a donkey was coming down hahaha super funny. So we got the village and started playing and praying and watching God do some amazing things in these people. We found out that we were the 2nd team and very first american missions team to go this village. That is so awesome! History makers at work for sure! We prayed for a few people and God did some awesome spiritual stuff inside these people hearts. So we spent about 4 hours there and started heading back down the mountain. Shaina had hurt her knee prior to the trip so she couldn’t fully walk on her own the way down,so she got to ride on the donkey part of the way down, haha it was a little scary for her but she totally rocked it.
Alright were going to bed. Were having a team hang out day tomorrow and gonna go to some shops and buy some stuff. But that doesn’t mean we stop doing what God has called us to do. Were still open to Gods heart and spirit. And moving through him. We love you all and we will be home soon, thanks for all the prayers and support it’s truly helped us all. Love you!
Sorry for the long email bro. And for taking a while.
Ryan A. Swanson
On Jul 14, 2010, at 4:57 PM, “Latham, Ryan” <rlatham@lancasterchurch.com> wrote:
> Hope that everything is OK, have not heard from you guys in a couple days so looking forward to some updates if we can.
>
