This has been another great week here at the Inscription House. We had two teams here, and one was from a town near my home town, so it was kind of fun meeting people who knew my home area. I even found out that one of the team members was a friend of my uncle. So that was fun working with people from my home area.

Anyways this week shaped up to be one eventful week of service. We went back to Jean’s house this week to work on a few projects that could really help Jean out. One of these projects the team worked on was building a shade for Jean. Jean has a bad case of diabetes and has trouble walking around. So instead of moving around to shade, or finding ways to stay cool in the Arizona sun, she sits out in the open most days and bakes in the heat. So to lift her spirits even more and protect Jean from the sun we built a shade attached to her house so that she could enjoy the outdoors in comfort. We also patched up her roof to protect her house from the weather.

We also got the opportunity to help Grandma Mary repair her house. Mary is an elderly woman who has such bad arthritis that she can not walk upright and has to crawl around to get from place to place. Her family has been less than supportive and have torn up her house through vandalism and had put several holes in her walls.

So the team patched up the holes and then painted the walls. Mary was so pleased with everything that she showed the team how she spins wool. Mary was very inspiring to me. Even though she has such an intense handicap and very little help, she works so incredibly hard simply to make a little money. Mary left a lasting impact on my life as well I am sure on the team that worked to help her.

Chris

Our first mission trip has finally begun, and it is one we have been waiting, praying and working towards for weeks. Both churches arrived Sunday evening after long van rides through winding mountainous roads and were happy to unload and stretch their legs. The two eager groups dove right in with setting up home and helping prepare and clean up meals. Our first night of barbeque chicken would have never tasted so good without the help of Louise Riffle and Carolyn Cruitt from Woodruff Road Christian Church in the kitchen, and we were also blessed by Earl Nadeau leading worship for our evening session.

On Monday both groups put their best foot forward with construction projects, cleaning and kids club. Some of the men from both Pennsylvania and Woodruff Road Christian Church, along with intern Todd, were sent out to two different houses to begin sheet rock projects for families that are not able to do it all themselves. The work was somewhat slow as the experienced taught the beginners but they all proved to be very hard workers and by the time they returned for dinner both teams had accomplished more than expected for the day. The other part of Woodruff Road Christian Church’s group stayed at the school and hosted an elaborate Kids Club for children from the community. The group of children was on the smaller side, but they had interactive games, songs, crafts and Bible stories that the children learned form and loved.

By the end of the day we were already ahead of schedule and both teams were getting a taste of the community and atmosphere, and with that seemed to be connecting with the people and opening up to God’s work being done here.

Our Monday night concluded with an evening session of debriefing, worship and a devotional. During the debrief time Sam Farley from Woodruff Road Christian Church shared a little about his first day out at a construction site.

“Beth seemed to be so thankful that people would come to help her and her husband, though he has the ability to do a lot of the work we are doing, he doesn’t have the adequate time or help,” he said. “She was just so thankful that other people would take the time to come and help them, and she was so insistent to fix lunch for us even though I knew they didn’t have the money to spare, and that reflects the mountain culture of hospitality and graciousness to visitors.”

The family they are working for has two small children taken care of by their grandparents, who are trying to legally adopt them.

All of the work being done during this mission trip is not only making a tremendous physical impact, but a spiritual one as well. We are working to build up the kingdom of God in all we do, and we appreciate your prayers and support.

All for Him,

Leanna Malkowski

Our peaceful Sunday quickly became a frenzy of activity when the mission trips for the summer began, a team of ten from Montgomery, Texas, arrived over an hour ahead of the time we had scheduled. While this added some pressure, Team Pearlington enjoyed the surprise because it eliminated any potential nerves and prompted a pleasant alertness. For most of the Montgomery team, this is their second year serving in Pearlington through EM, and they have enjoyed reconnecting with people and projects from the last time they were here.

The team has been blessed with a few new volunteers, however, one of which is a contractor, David. This has enabled the team to meet most of their goals so far on the two houses to which they have been assigned: Joe Vince, whose home they helped construct last year, and Kendra McArthur. Both houses are almost finished and the future occupants are very eager to move in; the homes mostly require some electrical, plumbing, and painting final touches. Based on the statuses of both houses, it has been helpful to have a smaller, more experienced team working on them this week.

One setback occurred yesterday when they turned on Joe Vince’s water and discovered that some previous work on the plumbing (before this team even arrived) had left a leak. The team is disappointed that this will delay the finish date even more, but thankful that they could be the ones to catch the leak because of David’s expertise. During debriefing in the evening, the team discussed God’s sovereignty and foreknowledge, recognizing that He has a bigger plan than any of us can see right now.

While half the group has been working on the construction described, the other half of the group has been helping cook and serve lunch at a church close by that prepares food for hundreds of volunteers each day. The meal is a tremendous treat for hot, tired volunteers and some locals, giving everyone a delicious taste of true southern cooking. These women are also spending their mornings painting a building, which they finished yesterday, for the Pearlington Recovery Center, cleaning PRC facilities such as showers and the kitchen, and washing laundry that has been sitting in wadded, bug-infested piles for probably months. In the afternoons these same volunteers are visiting a few elderly community members and listening to their stories. Everyone involved seems to enjoy the reciprocal impact.

-Cheryl Knowles

As I sit here in my room reminiscing about the past couple days, I can hear a rain storm rolling in. The clatter of the rain on the roof reminds me of the moments shared this week between the community and the team members. As it is the beginning of Costa Rica’s rainy season, the weather played an important part in each day’s work and progress. Many times work had to be halted  in order to take cover for the sudden bursts of pouring rain- more rain then I have ever experienced in my life. While the rain may have stalled work for a while, it also was the cause for many relationships to be formed and connections to be made.

One of the most touching effects of the rain took place at Crispin’s worksite. At this site, the teams are working hard to build a house for a family. They have the pleasure of working with Franklin, the maestro, who has been lovingly deemed the Clint Eastwood of Costa Rica. While the relationship between Franklin and the group has truly been a blessing, the real story is seen in the love that the family expressed for the students. After the first day of rain the team left wet and dirty, caked with mud from head to foot.

Granted, this is half the adventure and joy of working in Costa Rica. However, when they returned the next day they were surprised to find a shelter that the family made for them out of bamboo and leaves. The beautifully handcrafted structure not only provided shelter for future outbursts of rain but also from the beating rays from the sun. It doubled as a place to rest and eat lunch together, providing shade to keep their water supply from boiling.
            
I loved hearing about this shelter and being able to see it later in the week. More than the resourcefulness of the shelter and the people, I found the love of God that they expressed through it heart warming. They didn’t have to build a shelter from the rain and they don’t have to be at the worksite with the teams every day to help – but they are and they come to simply love and be loved. While we are out here to help families by building homes, painting schools, etc. the main reason we are here is to love God and love the Costa Rican people. The teams showed this love with every bag of sand they carried, every nail they hammered, and every smile they extended to the people. But the love of the community cannot be overlooked, for they too love unconditionally – through smiles, through hugs, through shelters, and through their willingness to welcome us into their lives.
In awe of God’s love,

Alex

The mission trips have started. Our first group of teams finally arrived in Baltimore and they are so excited for the week ahead. As we wrapped up orientation, Katherine, Kelly, and I really feel a sense of excitement from each one of the team members for the community and a passion for the people that they will serving.  As we approach our first day at the work sites, we’re beginning to see the incredible stories that the people of Baltimore have, and we couldn’t feel more blessed to be living life with and serving these people this summer.

One of the primary sites we have been working with is the Baltimore Christian Community Center.  The outreach of this place is absolutely incredible and it is moving to see the impact that it has on the local community. Tom Homans, the director of the center, welcomes kids from all over the inner city to the outreach to give them a place of joy and peace in a city that is so broken and poor. Right in the heart of the low-income district of the city, The Christian Community Center offers a place of refuge, fun, and spiritual encouragement to kids’ lives—many of whom have suffered more heartache than most people witness in their entire lives.

I was speaking with a young lady the other day that lost her brother to street violence a number of years ago. As she told me her story and began to share with me the hurt she has gone through with such an event, my heart broke. Even in all of the sadness however, there was something so beautiful about her story.  As she was talking to me about her brother, she shared how through such a devastating event, that she came to know Jesus and has given her life to Him. The joy that this young woman had was that of nothing I have ever seen—that even in heartache, something beautiful happened and changed her whole life. She has long been attending and still regularly attends the center to this day and will be going to Bob Jones University this fall. The impact of her story on me has been incredibly powerful ever since that day.

This is just one of the many beautiful stories that come from the people of the Christian Community Center and the city of Baltimore. Tom and the young lady that I spoke with are the true heroes of the community.  This summer isn’t about us as interns and what we can do as an organization, it’s not even about “doing missions;” this summer is about the people of the community—those who’s stories have yet to be told. We’re here to tell those stories as we work with teams from around the country.

For all of team Baltimore,

Blaine

Team Catadupa finally arrives! The day we thought would never come has come and gone, we’ve made it here. It took a lot of training, prep, prayer, packing, repacking, and a few customs issues but we are here. Josh Gray, Luke Clum, and Stuart Hoetger all made it fine into “MoBay” (Montego Bay, Jam.) while I, Nathan Heath, spent my time being tossed between departments in customs. I spent a couple of hours running around trying to find someone who would give the stamp to let me into the country. But we are all here now and things are Irie (… just Google it).
So, first impressions: Driving seems a lot like a mix of southern Mexico and England. Everyone drives on the left side of the road, steering wheels are on the right side of the car, and at a first glance it looks like total madness on the road. People are honking and yelling and waving, cars slide by inches from touching each other. It is a bit of a wake up after coming out of the American airport system. It was also interesting to just hop on a public transportation bus and take off, instantly thrown into the culture. Fortunately Josh, our EM Community Coordinator for Jamaica, was there to introduce us to the right people and pretty much answer the hundreds of questions we had concerning culture and our roles in the community. Josh, you are our hero.

So now, two days in, we are approaching Josh’s departure (Friday) and our first group’s arrival (Saturday). We have already accomplished so much, but the to-do list seems to be growing exponentially. We will get it done though. It has already been amazing to see God taking care of us in crazy ways. He has provided us with local people who are an invaluable asset, both in advice, help, and guidance, but more importantly in friendship.

So that is where we are right now–prepping for the incoming short term mission trips, establishing ourselves as a team and in the community, and figuring out how to do it all within a budget (without going crazy). We have an adventure ahead of us. It will be amazing. Keep praying and believing. Take care and God bless.

Until all know,

Nathan Heath

Team Pearlington is truly experiencing life in the deep south…and loving it. Cory and I arrived by car at the Pearlington recovery center late Friday night, while Mark Danielle flew into New Orleans the next day. Autumn Merritt, Trip Coordinator for the Pearlington EM site last summer and our Staff Advisor for this summer, accompanied them as well, and stayed until early Thursday morning to show us the ropes.

When I say “life in the deep south” I am referring to swimming in the Pearl River (the locals say alligators rarely come to that spot), rooting for a chicken to poop on the square for which you bid a dollar, looking forward to fried pickles after pouring concrete for three hours, and listening to hour upon hour of country songs sung by locals who sound just as if they could be on the radio. Of course those are classified as “highlights.” Also part of this reality is chasing cockroaches around the bunkhouse some nights before going to sleep and wondering if it’s worth showering when the humidity seems to eliminate its results ten minutes later anyway.

We are even more excited, however, about the relationships we have begun to build here, both with those who run the Recovery Center and also with some locals. Two of our very first contacts were Larry and Beth Randall, who have always lived in Pearlington and are helping realize plans to rebuild their hometown. Larry is one of the directors of the Recovery Center, the place where we all stay and through which we are working, and both he and Beth open their home daily to dozens of volunteers. The other director of the Pearlington Recovery Center is Glenn Locklin, also known as “Big Glenn.” He carries the title well, and still dresses in styles he learned from his biker days. Glenn has an incredible testimony and has definitely earned all of our respect; he left his home in Tennessee after Katrina to help out in Pearlington, and now his family lives here too. He oversees most of the construction along with Ricky, another local, whose church we visited on Sunday

Another highlight of the past week has been connecting with a returning volunteer, Tomyra Redman, who plans to help out in Pearlington until Thursday. She has joined us on all of our adventures since she arrived, helped us adjust to this foreign culture, and most importantly kept us laughing. The five of us, also joined by Larry, Beth, Glenn, and Ricky, enjoyed trying our voices at karaoke last night – a very serious pastime around here.

We are all very excited for our first team who is arriving on Sunday evening. Although a small team, we know God will work through them and us for His glory, and that relationships and Pearlington homes will continue to be built.

-Cheryl Knowles

Last Sunday, 57 junior highers and 9 adults finished a trek across America in a charter bus, rented vans in San Diego, and crossed the border into Tecate.  The sheer size of this group enabled us to plan a massive project in an inner-city neighborhood in Tecate.  No other mission organizations or social programs have ever worked in this neighborhood besides Experience Mission, and our contacts in the area were extremely excited to have this group paint and refresh parts of their community. 

During the week so far the group has transformed a drab, rundown neighborhood into a brightly colored, cheerful place for children to play and people to gather and socialize in the evenings.  The basketball court has been freshly painted, two playgrounds have been renovated with fresh paint, wall murals, sand, new swings, and fences.  The group even thought to use old tires as stair steps down a steep hill. 

While it is exciting to observe the work the group has down in this community, even more importantly it is extraordinary how many relationships have been formed with the locals.  Children have helped paint the walls, adults have opened their homes for us to use their restrooms and store our supplies overnight.  Several youth have begun attending the evening programs, and we have been able to translate the messages.  During free time, there is always a soccer game going on in the street with both youth from the community and the church group. 

We have been able to help a community in need this week, which is exciting and a privilege to be a part of God’s work, but the lessons that both us as an EM staff have learned this week and this group has experienced has reminded us that through love we can all learn from one another.  The generosity the people of Tecate have extended to our group this week has been tremendous and a powerful lesson for these youth to experience and strive to model with everyone they meet. 

We’ve had a great first week – thank you for your prayers, and we are excited to see what God has in store for the remainder of this week.

We arrived in Atlanta on the night of June 2nd and have been running ever since! Our week of preparation for the summer mission trips included hours of navigation on the seven lanes of the deadly Atlanta interstate, some sightseeing in the city, getting every detail imaginable in order for the summer, and of course meeting our new best friends for the summer.

Jason Pope and Daynes Viera are both soldiers in the Salvation Army and are going to be our closest contacts for the time that we are here. We also met Captain Platt, who is the pastor of Lakewood, the small community church we will be spending time at.

Throughout the week, we spent nights at Jason’s sister’s house, Jason and his wife’s house, Daynes’ house, and a small house that the church uses for offices. We are so blessed to have each and every one of these people on our team. They are some of the most self-sacrificing, accommodating people we have ever met. During the last few days we have also gotten to spend some time with Miss Lynn, the lady who graciously agreed to cook for our teams every dinner for eight weeks.

We also spent a few days meeting the specific people each of us would be working with in our areas. Matt and Krista have five outreach locations: the 24/7 Gateway Center, which is a sort of half-way house for homeless people, giving them a chance to find jobs or just get a break from the streets in order to get back on their feet; the Atlanta Food Bank, one of the largest in the state, where food and other supplies are sorted and distributed to other shelters; Capitol View Kid’s Club, a program for children that live in the Capitol View Apartments, mostly refugee Vietnamese families; Jonesboro Kid’s Club, a trailer park community mostly Hispanic, Black and Vietnamese; and a DayCamp that is run at Lakewood Church. 
 I will be overseeing two different construction sites; one at Capitol View Apartments, and one at Sol Luna Apartments. Capitol View is associated with Salvation Army, who has been running the Kid’s Club that Krista will be coordinating this summer. As I said before, it is mostly Vietnamese refugee families, and low-income black families. The manager is Bob Leathers – I have never seen a manager with such a heart for his tenants. Mr. Leathers has been very helpful and giving in his willingness to help supply us with things that we need.

We will be doing some painting of dumpsters, retaining walls, and the apartments themselves. The Sol Luna Apartments are owned and operated by The Initiative for Affordable Housing, run by Lisa Wise lives with the mission to provide housing for extremely low-income and low-income families. They own four apartment complexes and 20 houses that are available to these families. Here we will be clearing a walking trail for the residents. This will involve building a bridge and clearing about a half mile of overgrown bushes and vines. 

Every day we became more and more excited about our time here, the upcomin mission trips and all the teams from accross the country who will be serving here.

-Adrienne