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Ok, so many of you are wanting to know exactly WHERE I went to for a total of 4 weeks (1 month). First off, I should explain a little about the group and orginization that we were with.
The group that I was on staff for, which is called King's Kids, is affiliated with a missionary orginization called YWAM (Youth With A Mission.) and me and my family have had ties with it for many years, thus we knew about these sort of programs for awhile. DTS's (Discipleship Training Schools) and other various programs like it are suited for long-term missionary trips for people fresh out of college, and then there are the youth programs, like King's Kids, for short-term missionary trips for kids and youth to participate in.
Youth With A Mission is the 2nd largest missionary orginization in the world, with over 500 bases located throughout the world, which in my opinion is pretty impressive. Of course, to know all about it (since I can't explain about it fully) just go to www.ywam.org
Or if you wanna know more about the local YWAM group that I went to this year (just like every year.), check out www.ywam.com and it'll get you to the group stationed in Orlando.
Well, we headed to a place called Guadalajara, Mexico and stayed there for a little more than a week, going out to marketplaces and run down neighborhoods and churches - ministering through performing arts and drama, and having each of the kids share testimonies about their faith and the lives that they've led, in hardship and in happiness. Also, every so-often, we'd hand out toothbrushes and toothpaste, as well as food to those who were less fortunate and couldn't afford those things on their own. It was pretty amazing to see how thankful the people of Mexico were towards us, just from these simple gifts.
Oh, I almost completely forgot. For those of you who don't know where Guadalajara is, I've included a little map right here for you.
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| Here's where we were! |
Well allow me to describe to you what happens each year. Kids from all over the United States, and sometimes from different parts of the world, come and gather in Orlando, Florida in a specific date of the year, usually sometime in July. When we all arrive, we get permission from a church to stay in their building and use it as a base. We have dormitories, mess halls, dance practice rooms, a chapel, and pretty much everything we need to run a program for -- in the case of this year, being as though the number of participants vary from year-to-year -- 20+ kids and 20+ staff for about a week or more. Every year, we have a theme to help us create a mindset that will keep us focused. This year, the theme was called, "Echo in Eternity.", and if you've seen the movie "Gladiator", that's where this quote is taken from. - "What we do in this lifetime will Echo in Eternity."
The first week is fun, but it's also the toughest... Through this week, stuff such as CD players, and other electronic devices are forbidden. The reason behind this is because kids tend to get distracted when they have this stuff available to them, and socializing will be the last thing on their minds. We encourage team unity, and communicating as much as possible. We encourage friendships above anything else, between everyone of all genders... which leads me to mention the next ticker. - Forming romantic relationships is a major no-no. Do I hear people throwing a fit right about now? You're like: Aw man, then what's the point!?
The point is that you set aside 3 weeks of your life to get close to God. You can be romantic for the other 50 or 60 years of your life. Plus, unity would be hard to maintain if we cut ourselves off from everyone else to be with just one person.... And it's hard to do, I know. But still, they get you to sign agreement forms, so before you go, just be in the right frame of mind and don't try anything. Us staff will get you if you do! *grins evilly*
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| A rather spiffy shot of the final song, El No Percio |
The list of friends I've made - Friends who are girls; not *girlfriends* mind you; just really good friends! :)
Katy Dease - Really cool to talk to, and enjoyed hanging out with everyone. Extremely outgoing.
Alexa Attila - A neat thing about her; my dad and her dad used to play in a band together. Definetly a unique friendship. She has a very cheerful attitude.
Michelle Denault - I took a lot of pictures for her for each performance, but really didn't get to know her as well as I would have liked to. However, she did comment that the pictures I took were very good, so it was very pleasent to hear, coming from her.
Kristen Berg - She's one of the kids that I've known for years, and she's still a very cool person to hang out with. I don't think she's changed much over the years, but I don't see her very often, sooo...
Stephanie Erickson - A real sweetheart, and probably one of the friends that I know more than anyone else on the team. I enjoyed talking to her, and sharing my thoughts about how well I thought the missions trip was going.
Polly Guymer - Again, I didn't get to know this person as well as I would have liked to, but she was definetly cool to hang out with, and she played guitar too.... probably even better than me, since all I knew how to play were lead parts, and she could play actual chords to the songs. *shrugs* She looks older than she really is, too - 14.
Anna-Demelza Lee - She's also one of those people you can't guess the right age, because they look so much older than what they really are. She was only 13 and she looked 16! Hehe, but nonetheless, she was very groovy to be around.
Amanda Johnson - I liked her company a lot. She always brought a smile, and she's really down to earth. I have a hard time picturing her getting mad, because she's a really positive person, and I she speaks her mind clearly. Very rare, since most of the time the outspoken ones are the pessimists. Or at least, the noticeable ones anyway. :)
Grace McKinney - She's been coming to YWAM, Orlando for about 3 years now as far as I can tell, all the way from Spain. It's pretty amazing, but nonetheless I can honestly say that KK wouldn't be the same if she wasn't around. She never fails to bring that extra enthusiasm to the rest of the group.
Jessica Kim - I regret not taking time to really speak with her as well, but she was a very nice contribution to the team. Whenever I saw her, she was always encouraging unity and being a friend to everyone around her.
Cori Williams - She was one of us weird people, but the world needs that, and so we went unashamed. She's more like one of those cool sisters that we never had. She was always bringing a laugh and a smile to everyone who talked to her.
Kelli Rinkenberger - She was very easy to laugh, and that was one of the chief things that I really liked about her. Being that cheerful is a very rare thing in the world today, and I enjoyed talking to her because of that. She really bonded with everyone she had made friends with.
Jessica Wolf - Me and her had a few things in common. - One was that we had both felt the pressures of low self-esteem, and I knew how that felt because I was at a low point in my life at one time. She has so much potential, and I feel God has a special plan for her someday.
Michelle Ro - She was another one of those people that really supported everyone with words of encouragement, and helped out friends in need. I couldn't get to know her well enough, but I can say that it was great having her on the team!
Sierra White - She was definetly a team player. She encouraged team unity the most, by talking to all of us and sharing in on the laughs and causing them as well. :) Very outgoing, and not afraid to share what's on her mind.
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| The kids doing a performance to the remix of the song, "Wonder Why." - our only song in English. |
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday:
6:00 a.m. - Wake up. (Pretty self-explanatory. You wake up!)
6:15 a.m. - Aerobics. (Again, you run around and wake up some more!)
6:30 a.m. - Breakfast. (Pretty obvious, if you ask me!)
7:00 a.m. - Get ready for the day. (A period where, if you were too tired to change into new clothes or make your bed when you woke up, you could take care of it!)
7:15 a.m. - Quiet time. (A time set aside especially for a period where you could read your bible, talk to God, and pray. Most of the kids probably goofed off though, most of the time. *shakes head*)
7:35 a.m. - Worship. (We have a period of time where everyone gathers and we sing songs, and thank God for what he's done for us on that day.)
8:15 a.m. - Daniel Prayer Group. (We'd take a few moments to discuss an element of the ministry, and pray to God that it be provided for us. I.E.: Food, unity, transportation....ect.)
8:35 a.m. - Teaching. (Covering topics of various nature, such as faith, relationship with people, characteristics of God, applying the bible to every day life... ect.)
9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. - Dance practice. (This is when everyone gets assigned to a specific dance, and are then taught how to perform it.)
12:30 p.m. - Lunch. (Most of the kids hailed this time as "Heaven.")
1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. - More dance practice. (Boy, they were all REALLY glad when this period of the day came up.)
3:00 p.m. - End dance practice; showers. (Everyone was pretty thankful for this, since the day is long and rough, and we all feel icky after it.)
5:30 p.m. - Dinner. (Again, a glorious time of the day!)
6:30 p.m. - Work. (Various work duties, which included cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming rooms, sweeping hallways, ect. Every action group participated in helping out.)
7:00 p.m. - Worship. (A time where we could reflect on what happened earlier in the day, and express our thanks to God.)
7:30 p.m. - Teaching. (Same description as the one for the aforementioned Teaching.)
8:00 p.m. - Family time. (A time when we'd all gather, and do a fun group activity together. I.E.: Play a game.)
8:30 p.m. - Day in review. (We would perform what we learned in dance practice, in front of everyone on the team.)
9:00 p.m. - Ready for bed. (Obvious. We would get ready to sleep for as long as we could, until 6:00 a.m. the next morning.)
9:20 p.m. - Lights out. (Lights go out, and everyone goes to sleep.)
Now, it's pretty hard to keep track of a whole bunch of kids, so our staff has been devising this system of Action groups for years. Whenever we gave a roll call, we'd ask the designated Action Group leaders to check their group and confirm that they were with them. On top of that, Action Groups were also assigned specific work tasks, so it made things easier.
Action Group 1
Leader - Grace McKinney
Matt Owen
Michelle Denault
Sierra White
Joshua Berg
Action Group 2
Leader - Alexa Attila
Kristen Berg
Beau Denton
Andrew Owen
Jessica Wolf
Action Group 3
Leader - Amanda Johnson
Corissa Williams
Anna Demelza-Lee
Justin Berg
Joseph Ahn
Action Group 4
Leader - Michelle Ro
Katy Dease
Peter Song
Stephanie Erickson
Action Group 5
Leader - Kelly Rinkenberger
Carter Phillips
Tony Kim
Polly Guymer
Jessica Kim
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| On our way to a performance site. |
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| The final song, at one of the performances at a church service on Sunday. |
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| A nice little shot of nearly everyone in the song, "Canta Senor." |
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| Us, taking a little break at a taco vendor! |
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| A teaching, which demonstrates how we should be as dedicated to God as the farmer is to his crops. |
Experiences in Mexico:
We have lots of exciting stories about what happens during each trip. A lot of the kids genuinely grow in their relationship with God, and a lot of them have fun stories to tell about them and the friends that they've made during the trip. A have some of the stories right here for you to see, as well!
I suppose I should start off with my own personal experience this year.
"This year had to be one of the most breakthrough ministries that I have ever been a part of in all my 9+ years of attending this particular program - even despite the fact that I wasn't actually "participating" actively in the performances. I know a lot of people might look at this and think we're doing this to show how well-to-do most Americans are compared to people in other countries, but I can assure you that we are not. My heart, and the hearts of all the people who were a part of this, go out to the poor people we met there in Mexico: From the homeless and imprisoned, to the sick and hopeless - we wanted to really see these people find the glimmer of hope in the message that we were delivering to them. Some will choose it, others will discard it. Whatever happens, we did so in the name of God, and we trust him that the things that take place are part of his master plan, whatever they may be." - Mike O.
Stephanie Erickson writes:
"Even though i've done King's Kids for two years now, i am still amazed by the mexicans. They are, as a whole, such wonderful, warm, and kind people. When one is in that kind of an atmosphere, they think about all that they have, and how blessed they are. It really puts things into perspective, and helps to be thankful for everything that they have. I think the place that affected me the most was, actually, it was two sites. I don't remember their names, but one of them was nicknamed "earwig central" (there were earwigs everywhere!) and then the other one, was the site before it. (these two sites were one's that no YWAM group had ever been to) The people at those two places were so open to what we had to say, and so accepting, it amazed me. At the one site, (not earwig central, but the other one) we were doing one of the mimes, El Puede, I think. but yeah, it was a mime with an extremely powerful message. In the middle of it, two busses pulled up. (we were on one side of the street, and the majority of the people were across the street on benches and stuff) When we saw that, we were all worried and started praying, because the people couldn't see, and would probably just leave. Well, when the busses left, all of the people were still there, and the people on the busses were able to see part of the mime as well. What we thought was a disaster turned out to be another way to share God, and His love. It is always amazing to see how God works, especially when He does it in a way that we weren't expecting." - Stephanie E.
(More stories are expected soon, hopefully!)
The results:
All in all, we had 24 kids participating, and spending 11 days in Mexico, not including the 3 weeks with Boot Camp and debriefing. We went to 17 locations, ranging from prisons, street corners, churches and hospitals. We ministered to a total of 1213 people, and we recorded about 207 lives that were influenced to take a big step in their life - accepting Jesus as their peronal savior.
The following highlights and the above information come from a recent newsletter I received from Mark Zubert at www.thebuzz.net. A special thanks goes out to him for this vital info!
Highlights:
- At a men's prison, over 90 percent of the attending inmates were "set free."
- At a parade celebrating a dead saint, dozens of people abandoned their whole reason for coming. They skipped the parade and met the alive savior instead.
- Children encountered the love of Christ, the sick were healed, and good news was brought to broken people. (Mark Zubert; August, 2002)
If I had an opportunity to go back, or go to another country, and do exactly what we did this year, I would most definetly do it. There's no greater glory than seeing the lies of the devil fall apart on himself, when we come in and show the people he's manipulating that there is a way out of the twisted web he's got them caught in. Pray that the lives of these Mexican people will be forever changed at some point in time. Also pray that there will be many more missions trip into that country, and other countries around the world, especially those in Asia. - They're the hardest countries to minister to, because of strict laws about religion. Overall, I think this year was a great success! There were many fun times, and many times of revelation about ourselves, the people around us, and the world in general.
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| L to R: Andrew, myself, and Matt making goofy faces. |
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| After getting dogpiled on, I get up just in time to get my picture taken..... |
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| Me, doing my patented "super-disco-what-in-God's-name-is-that-scrawny-white-boy-doing!?" dance. |
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| Hanging out with my friends. L to R: Matt, Me, Katy, and Andrew. |
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| Me supervising the dance practices. L to R: Anna, Cori, Andrew, and Me! |
As you can tell from up above, you see a lot of shots of us just hanging out and having a good time. However, don't let that fool you into thinking that all of us had it easy. There was a lot of working to be done, and most of this was the very first week that the program started in which all of us have unanimously called: "Boot Camp.", and it all started from 6:00 in the morning, and ended at around 11:00 at night. In between there were about 7 or 8 hours of dance practice (sanctioned off, since all that running together would kill anyone, no matter how durable they are.) and other such things. However, dance practice was the most straining of the activities.
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| The entire staff, including the worship band, for King's Kids 2002. |
The list of friends I've made - My fellow dudes, and fellow pranksters whom I would spend the most of the day, cutting up with:
Tony Kim - Really down to earth type of guy. I enjoyed hanging out with him and joking around about various things. Plus, he was always out there talking to all the kids in Mexico, and making them laugh. He helped to draw a lot of crowds to us.
Joseph Ahn - Very hilarious, and kept us all laughing. I can honestly say that he was one of the best friends I made on the trip. His comments were a bit predictable, but fit in perfectly for every situation, and ALWAYS got a few smiles and some laughter for it.
Peter Song - Another crazy friend of mine, and all of us in the group loved to emulate the couple of things that he was famous for. His catch phrase is now a household saying - "Oh no!"
Justin Berg - My friend of many years. In fact, one of the very first friends I made. It's excellent to see that he's maturing so much these days. Kind of makes me blink, look again and say: Was this the same person I knew years ago?
Beau Denton - Very wise for his age. I sometimes forgot he was only 15. He's very opinionated on things, and it's one of the many things I admired about him.
Andrew Owen - My cousin, and one of my fellow compadres in prankster's anonymous. :D
Matt Owen - My brother, and another one of my close partners in crime. *jokes*
Carter Philips - He was one of the younger kids there, but a metal head nonetheless... Plus, he beat the tar out of me in Chess. Grr!
Joshua Berg - He was one of the younger kids there as well, but I've known him for quite some time. Since he was born, actually.
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| Seeing the fruits of our labor pay off, as everyone here gave their lives to God. |
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| People actually live like this, all over Mexico... and it's even worse in other parts of the world. |
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| Inside joke: Too many Koreans! |
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| A fun day at Sea World, one day before boarding the plane to Mexico. |
Typical daily schedule.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday:
6:00 a.m. - Wake up. (Pretty self-explanatory. You wake up!)
6:15 a.m. - Aerobics. (Again, you run around and wake up some more!)
6:30 a.m. - Breakfast. (Pretty obvious, if you ask me!)
7:00 a.m. - Get ready for the day. (A period where, if you were too tired to change into new clothes or make your bed when you woke up, you could take care of it!)
7:15 a.m. - Quiet time. (A time set aside especially for a period where you could read your bible, talk to God, and pray. Most of the kids probably goofed off though, most of the time. *shakes head*)
7:35 a.m. - Worship. (We have a period of time where everyone gathers and we sing songs, and thank God for what he's done for us on that day.)
8:15 a.m. - Teaching. (Covering topics of various nature, such as faith, relationship with people, characteristics of God, applying the bible to every day life... ect.)
8:40 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. - Dance Practice. (This is when everyone gets assigned to a specific dance, and are then taught how to perform it.)
12:30 p.m. - Lunch. (Most of the kids hailed this time as "Heaven.")
1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. - More dance practice. (Boy, they were all REALLY glad when this period of the day came up.)
3:00 p.m. - End dance practice; showers. (Everyone was pretty thankful for this, since the day is long and rough, and we all feel icky after it.)
5:30 p.m. - Dinner. (Again, a glorious time of the day!)
6:30 p.m. - Work. (Various work duties, which included cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming rooms, sweeping hallways, ect. Every action group participated in helping out.)
7:00 p.m. - Worship. (A time where we could reflect on what happened earlier in the day, and express our thanks to God.)
7:30 p.m. - Teaching. (Same description as the one for the aforementioned Teaching.)
8:00 p.m. - TLT/Pre Teen time. (A time when all the teens could gather and discuss topics of interest. Mostly dating, sex, music, politics.)
8:30 p.m. - Day in review. (We would perform what we learned in dance practice, in front of everyone on the team.)
9:00 p.m. - Ready for bed. (Obvious. We would get ready to sleep for as long as we could, until 6:00 a.m. the next morning.)
9:20 p.m. - Lights out. (Lights go out, and everyone goes to sleep.)
The Staff:
I must say that without the people we had on staff with us, these kids might have run amok and destroyed themselves! I would like to take some time to acknowledge my fellow staff members!
Michael and Darla Berg - These two are some of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure of being on a trip with. They've known me since I was in YWAM many years ago, and they both have a strong influence of leadership and positive strength. They were in charge of overseeing everything.
Buck (Jason Buckwalter) - My buddy throughout the trip. He was in charge of overseeing the work duties, and making sure we had plenty of ice. He also oversaw the dance practices, when there wasn't anything else to be done.
Chaille' Goldman - A very outgoing lady, and she really enjoys hanging out with the kids and encouraging them. However, she's all business when work needs to be done. She was one of the dance instructors, and conducted several ice breaker games for welcome night.
Ezra and Rhonda Griffiths - Even though I pick on Ezra a lot, he's one of the guys that I respect more than anyone else in the world. Rhonda too; she's like the nicest woman I know, and always seems to want what is best for me. I can't compare her to anyone else. They were both the main leaders of the outreach. Rhonda oversaw props, as well.
Ryan and Kristi Moody - This is my first year of working on staff with them, and this is the year I first came to know both of them, but they are honest hard-working people. Kristi was in charge of keeping our group journal, and taking care of the administrative details. She also was in charge of waking up our sleeping kids. Ryan was in charge of Lost and Found, and the morning Aerobics. Also, he assisted Buck with work-duties.
Melissa Pena Vidal - She was the main person in charge of the dancing instruction department. I respect her as a performing arts teacher, so much. In all honesty, from the stories she's told me of her times in KK, I understand why she'd be where she is today. She was also in charge of being our team nurse, helping our kids when they were sick - which was often. She also helped to wake up the participants on time.
Rachel Kieffaber - She's an extremely nice lady, and I enjoyed being on staff with her. She was in charge of the props, overseeing showers for the girls, and helping out with the work duties. I didn't get to know her real well, but I enjoyed the times when we were able to talk.
Mark Zubert - This guy is one class act comedy show, all the time. He was like a brother to me, allowing me to play his guitar at times, and helping everyone on the team to laugh and express themselves openly. He'd often ride his unicycle out on the streets of the places we went to, showing off to Mexican kids and having them laugh and follow him about. He was in charge of helping with work duties, overseeing showers for the guys, and overseeing the dance practices.
Tanique Williams - She was a real friend to me, and I've known her for a couple of years now. I always enjoy her presence, and she never failed to say a quick, "Hello." or "How are you doing?" to me when she walked by. She helped me to feel welcome as a staff person on my first year. She was in charge of props, and overseeing food preparations.
Margaret Phillips - She was one of the coolest ladies on staff this year, just like last year. My conversations with her were sparse, but when they occured, it was always fun. She was totally in charge of getting out the performance T-shirts to all of us, before we headed out to do a show.
The songs that we did:
Kings Kids Song List
Song: Group:
Avivanos Blest
Canta al Senor Nitro Praise 4
El no Percio Julissa (CD = Alas del Amor)
El Puede Patty Cabrera
Wonder Why Avalon Remix (CD = Oxygen)
Estar Contigo Shirley Lo Presti (CD = Estar Contigo)
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| We hope to see ya, next year! |
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