A Week of Refreshment and Spiritual Replenishment

I prayed last week for a week of refreshment and replenishment - and I was not expecting it to come to fruition like I wanted; however, I had one of the most spiritually rejuvenating weeks of my life!! While I am still physically tired (I really need to just go bed earlier mosts nights), I have entered this week confidently and with a sense of spiritual courage new to me.
The week started off pretty typically, but we had speaker from Kenya named Clair Good. Clair shared a lot of this message from personal experience and stories. I really enjoyed this and it changed many of my opinions on foreign tribal missions and the culture encountered there. Though the traditions (both savage and very spiritual and more "Christian" than you might imagine) had profound impact on me, the speaker that really impacted my faith on a deeper level was yet to come.
Gustavo Ramirez came on Wednesday to share on the topic of "The Father Heart of God". He stay from Wednesday morning through Thursday evening and was a true blessing to the entire group here at HDC. Gustavo has had one of those experiences that makes me really appreciate my family in a new light, I ended up writing them a thank you note I was so touched. He had a major falling out with an abusive and alcoholic father that left him as a child. To make a long story short, Gustavo was able to forgive his father after many years of pain and saw his father on the street one day. He invited him home and told him he forgave him - his father and the rest of his family became Christians (Gustavo's mother was the only other Christian at this time) due to this love and forgiveness (including a drug addict brother). During one of his personal stories about his daughter and some medical issues he had to walk with her through recently, something very strange happened; I had a tear form. Now this may sound goofy to you, but the ability to cry for anything like that has eluded me for so long and my team has been praying for me to be able and open to being broken and humble before the Lord (and I wanted to release the emotion in that way). I shared this with HDC that night and it actually opened the door for me to minister to several others guys that felt the same way.
That evening I talked to Gustavo personally for about two hours. I have also had the prayer of being confirmed by the Lord in my calling to pray boldly and with passion for others and be able to minister in a prophetic way. I feel called and blessed by God this way and I will wholly submit myself to Him to develop these gifts as He sees fit.
That was my last week in a nutshell. I would like to share more with you if you ask sometime, but I need to be finishing now.
Also, in response to previous blogs about the kids that come to play at HDC, we had a yard party here at the center for the community. We had games, bike repair for the children (professional), music (I was one of two DJ's!!), and BBQ chicken for the rest of the community to come and enjoy. This was really a blessing to us and the community. My only issue was talking to one of the kids (about 5 years old I would guess) and asking him to come off the stairway he was not permitted on and it ended by me getting spit on directly in my right eye. This is the respect the kids have grown up with and show - and they know we can't do anything to punish them (which is good since none of us really have authority and discernment in that area).
Sorry to end a great news blog with a negative note, but I wanted to get in some news of the weekend.

Blessings and thanks to all of you!!

Camp Hebron

Well, this is a blog that didn’t come out nearly as soon as I had hoped, but here it is!

At the beginning of last week my team along with several others teams (half of training) went to a beautiful campground for some “teambuilding” exercises. We went to Camp Hebron from Monday morning until Tuesday mid-morning. What we did were the standard obstacle and thinking exercises to develop as a team, create conflict, and find leadership and “follower-ship” abilities when the times are appropriate. Although the night was busy, the biggest impact on me was the hike the next morning – I think (we were not permitted to have watches of any kind of time keeping device with us; even clocks in the eating areas and public areas were removed, but it’s pretty easy to identify morning). We were woken up early (well before daylight) and hiked close to an hour to a beautiful place in the mountains called “Table Rock”. I got to do devotions, eat breakfast, and watch the sunrise in its entirety (usually I only catch the tale end). I found a nice, personal spot on the face of the rock. It was just big enough for me to lie back comfortably, but completely secluded. I had to climb up part of the rock to get there and it was a significant drop on all sides, but the risk was worth the reward. I read my Bible and dozed in and out of sleep for about 2 hours (a very refreshing thing). After that and being very cold part of the time, I returned to the fire I had built with a friend earlier and then the group of about 20 of us hiked down the mountain and back to camp.

After processing the overall weekend for a while (we didn’t have to do process the details of every event then because we had been processing and discussing after EVERY event throughout the day and night), we packed up and headed home to HDC. I got back and slept for a lot of the afternoon (we had “recovery time” because we had hardly rested at all the night before – maybe 2 or 3 hours tops).

It’s funny to realize that was a week ago already because time has flown by. I continue to be challenged daily by the speakers and enjoy the fellowship and deep discussions with my colleagues here.

Please pray that I continue to find refreshment as the training is beginning to wear – I’d like to finish strong! And yes, check back soon for another quick update - and some pictures... hopefully!!

Family Weekend!

Things here at HDC are continuing to go smoothly, but they also remain busy and intense. A great break was this weekend when my father, mother, and sister came for family weekend. They arrived Friday evening and stayed at my Uncle Dave and Aunt Bonnie's home in Mechanicsburg (just outside of Harrisburg). Saturday morning they arrived in S. Allison Hill Harrisburg for the day.

The day started with me giving them a brief personal tour of the training facilities and then proceeded with presentation from each team to the parents - the presentations varied from personal and get-to-know you information to information about the country to which each team was going. To save time, we split into two sets of teams and my set consisted of my Honduras team, the Venezuela and Hong-Kong teams, along with the Missions Interns that train with us.

Our STEP team used a Jeopardy game to present information about us and Honduras - I thought it was pretty clever and worked out well, but that's just one man's opinion. After lunch (which was much better than usual- obviously), I took my family on a tour of the Beef house (where I live a few blocks away) and for a walk around the city that their legs won't soon forget. We parked by the state museum and toured it for part of the early afternoon. We then walked around the capital building which is absolutely beautiful - and as far as I know, one of the most decorated and ornate capital complexes in the states. After that I took them to city island and then we headed back - all in all we walked most of the afternoon and were very relieved to make it back to the van.

For dinner we went to my Uncle Dave's and Aunt Bonnie's home - and it was AMAZING! We had my family, my Mailloux cousins (Matt was up from Virginia and Kelsey was home from Niagara while Phil was home from college!), and nine others from HDC - it's a good thing my uncle had just purchased a new grill earlier in the week (see the pic and be amazed!). Apparently, the 22 total people at there house was a new record for them.

After that truly refreshing evening and getting to watch Ohio State football, I returned to HDC and got to talk on the phone to Joel, my brother, which was also another great part of the day. The next morning I went to church with my family at McBIC (Mechanicsburg Brethren in Christ) where my Uncle Dave is the worship pastor. After church we had a great Irish meal in downtown Harrisburg and then my family left to return to Ohio.

Thanks for reading this, but a special thanks to Dave and Bonnie for their hospitality and thanks to my family for coming out and making this an amazing weekend as well.