Happy New Year (and 7 weeks until we go!)

God continues to answer prayers for us as financial support continues to come in. Our team is getting ready now with urgency as we are seven weeks away! Until we go, we have a good set of work and training meetings coming up:

1/20 - Saturday - 9AM-Noon - VBS planning, schedule and work delegation morning
1/24 - Wednesday - 6PM-8PM - Cross Cultural and Spanish training
1/31 - Wednesday - 6PM-8PM - VBS & mini-MOPS preparation
2/3 - Saturday - 9AM-Noon - VBS & music preparation
2/10 - Saturday - 9AM-Noon - Final VBS preparation, home building training
2/21 - Wednesday - 6PM-8PM - Final trip instructions, "Paryer Walking", safety guidelines

All of these trainings will be in the Community Center (gym) at Essex Alliance Church.

We have secured Spanish language versions of the music we used at our Summer Kids Week back in July... so while the exact words will be different, at least we will know the beat and music!

Thanks for your support & prayers!
-Mike

God is great!

Our team has been blessed with substantial prayer and financial support so far. When our team signed up for the trip, we were estimating the cost to be $1500 per person. God has provided some ways for us to reduce this cost (we found greatly reduced airfare), but God has also blessed us abundantly with family, friends and other donors who have been willing to fund our trip.

In particular, we have two single moms on our team who have been trying to figure out how they were going to be able to come up with the funding. Each has sent out letters to family and friends who have responded generously. And both have had to write out some their own checks to make our payment schedule, even when they were not sure how they could put together the funds. Today God blessed our socks off with an anonymous donor who wanted to help out with "single moms and their kids" to be able to go on the mission. This donation provided the remaining funds for each of these families to now be 100% funded to go!

With the preparation and resources that God is providing for us, I cannot wait to see what happens on the trip! He has some major things planned for us... we just have to be faithful and follow His leading! This trip really is not about us anyways... we just get to be used by Him for His purposes. How cool is that!

God's Blessings and Merry Christmas!
-MJ

Welcome!

While we have been preparing for the trip since August of 2005, this is the first post we have on this blog. Many more to come as we get ready!

Melodee, Diana and I met last week and made a few important decisions for the trip. First, we have agreed to having the children's program be for three days - Tuesday to Thursday. On Wednesday, we will try to put together a program for the mom's of the kids... kind of a mini-MOPS at the same time as we minister to the kids. Our second decision was to have the children's program be a shortened version of Fiesta! for our Summer Kids Week. We will focus on Jesus being Our Friend (Amigo), Our Life (Vida) and Our Savior (Salvador).

Team members -- watch your email for updates on training during January and February. And if you are planning on getting passports... do it now!

God's Blessings!
-Mike