Nicaragua on Saturday

On Friday the Nicaragua medical mission team is heading back to Nicaragua.
This time to a new site near Leon north of Managua.
I am not going on this trip. I know it is part of God's plan and i am very much at peace.
Josh leaves for Mercer this weekend so there is never a dull moment
at our house. Please keep him in your prayers. A golf scholarship is
awesome but it is like having a full time job and going to school full time.


Please pray for the team as they prepare themselves to be ready to do God's will
in Nica and all along the way. Pray for divine appointments for them and for each of us. Pray for safety for their going out and coming in. Pray for mamas and daddies leaving families to do what God has called them to do. Pray for the people
taking care of the families that are staying here.

Laura Pike has agreed to keep the blog going on the trip. Thanks Laura :)

Helen wrap up

On Thursday we went to our VBS sights. This was a very challenging
day for the Youth. The kids were very tired and the two brothers
only wanted to play noodle tag--except they wanted to hit each other
really hard.
Thursday afternoon everybody headed downtown to pick up trash in or around the
river. This was a great ministry project. People were really surprised that
our kids were cleaning up trash for Jesus.
Thursday night we did two shows in Helen. The GaTour with Tommy Harrison
stopped by for the first show. We were happy to see all those friendly
faces--especially David and Jacob. Reid and Josh took turns clearly sharing
the gospel message. You could really feel the presence of God when the
choir sang Jesus Messiah acapella.

Friday was our last day at VBS--we got a sweet sweet note from a little girls
mama thanking us for sharing Jesus. that was the highlight of our week.
The afternoon was free.....then we did our last show--was supposed to be two
but the second show was rained out. But our band did a great job of leading
worship on their own while the rain fell.

The highlight of the trip had to be the girl getting saved. Jacob S. led her in
the sinners prayer after talking with her. She was soo excited.



Tonight at church we did our mission trip sharing service. It was amazing.
I always hear things that i did not know from the week.
Tonight i heard the story of Karen Swann ministering to some one
in prayer. Our Youth are planting seeds wherever they go. Some new
commitments were made to share the gospel on the mission field of the
schools and around Thomasville. I cannot wait to see what Jesus
does with our Youth.

Helen Youth trip days 2 and 3

Tuesday and Wednesday were awesome days :)

The groups divided into their groups and went to VBS.
Each group shared last night about how much smoother
things went. Every group had more kids.

My group--Brooks' group is amazing. The kids just take over
and run the VBS. Ben and Jacob D are doing recreation and all the kids
love the games--Marshmallow dodge ball was the best. Elizabeth
and Mary Claire have done a wonderful job with missions.
Today was about cowboy church. Kristen and Mariah are in charge of
crafts and made a necklace with a cross and beads on it today to help
explain the gospel. This was after Brooks' bible story on the the gospel.
Payton and Mary B are in charge of the music--route 254---and have soo much
energy.

Today i got to go to see where two of the other groups meet. I took a few pictures
but hopefully tomorrow i will get to take a few more.

Tuesday afternoon was our off afternoon. We spent the time tubing. It was a great
way to spend a couple of hours.

For supper Tuesday night we went to Unicoi Lodge and ate mtn trout with the head
on--it was yummy but i didnt like it looking at me!!

Josh Cone and Karen Swann have led devotions at night. They are amazing and so
bold in their faith. Especially sweet was Monday afternoon when the kids asked for prayer requests from merchants after they had washed the windows of the store.
The kids were so excited to pray for these people. I think this will be an idea
that they take back to Tville and do. People everywhere are hurting and
are in need of prayer.

Keep praying for our team. Today, and Thursday and Friday are busy days for us--
vbs in the morning, mission project in the afternoon and then two programs each night. The youth have the best spirit and attitudes. it is awesome to watch them.

Mission Helen

In Helen

Awesome cabins, amazing food prepared by Jill and Donnie Powell, a little sleep,
and then it is Monday.....


We left the cabins about 8:30 to go to the 4 VBS sites.....my group our rather Brooks' group did a fantastic job today.......games,songs fun and sharing of the birth
of Jesus Christ, a nativity scene for the activity.

Then to lunch--spaghetti-yummy

and to downtown helen to wash windows and pray for the prayer needs of the merchants.

tonight--our first Believe show performance :)

Pray that God uses each one of us.

Heading to Helen

It is time to head out on the road again and leave the comfort of our "home" mission field to share Jesus on another mission field. Sunday morning our Youth bus out to Helen to share Jesus with vacationer and locals in and around Helen.

We will spend mornings doing VBS at 5 different sites. Then at night we will put on the program that we shared with church at the Coffee House. During the day we will go into Helen and have a chance to talk with business owners and visitors...asking for prayer needs and washing windows and any other things that people might need.


I ask for your prayers as we go that God would go before us and arrange those divine appointments for our Youth. Also that we would gladly and cheerfully leave our comfort zones to be Jesus' hands and feet in Helen.

Final thoughts on Costa Trip

On this final morning in Costa Rica i wanted to remember some things that were really special to this trip.

The devotions each morning....this was done by out team...Paul talked about Gideon and being bold in our faith, Jacob talked about how much Veronica's testimony meant to all of us--how she is so bold to share the gospel everywhere she goes and how so many have accepted Jesus ---why dont we share???--....Reid talked about pouring yourselves our and finishing strong and not growing weary...... and we did that yesterday :)

The devotions in the evening....Mark led the first and last night, Arriel shared his testimony about being part of a gang and being led out of that into the arms of Jesus and how he is now part of the leadership team. Last night marked shared some words of wisdom with us. How we have to go back and follow this up at home. How the team here has gone into difficult and dangerous areas where God has led them and he asked where is our difficult area?? is it at school at the other lunchroom table where the "other" kids sits. Why cant we go share there????
God is not going to excuse us from not sharing in Thomasville just because we went on a mission trip to Costa Rica to help people.
Reid shared that we have to continue the Acts 1:8 challenge at home--we have to do something!! as "good" as it makes us feel to help the poor in Costa there are poor unreached people in Thomasville. We will be missing the whole point of missions if we go home and do not do something to keep this going.

Prayer circles......we gathered around Arriel and prayed for him after he shared his testimony. We prayed for him to have strength and supernatural power especially when dealing with other gang members and working in his home place. The kids loved it when he took out his guitar and we sang while he played.
We also prayed yesterday in a prayer circle around Rafa who is the architect for the La Finca project. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and was heading for the hospital for tests. The power of prayer is so strong. It is awesome to see our youth be a part of this.

Mark and Meg are just awesome! They have our team of 23 plus three other teams overlapping. Everything is so smoothly run you know that God is in the middle of it. The mission house was great, the food was delicious and we so enjoyed the fellowship!

The other teams that worked with our youth were so complimentary.....the yes maams and no maams, the extra hard work, the great attitudes, and the way our whole team got along.....each person on the other team had great things to say.

Praying for clear guidance for the next steps for the youth.....let God open the door wide in Thomasville that he wants us to go through.......

COSTA RICA DAY 6

What a day :)

It has been a long long time since i have done so much physical work as i did today---the youth worked incredibly hard!!

i think it will be a very long time before any of the youth want to hold a shovel or dig a hole! Again they worked to build the foundation for the gym/multipurpose building. It was hard physical work but no complaints were heard.

We started the day with pancakes, eggs and fresh fruit--yummy :)

Then we headed to La Finca around 8:30 and worked till 4:30.......

Thomas and Paul tied rebarb for two days--they made 6 on day 5 and 13 on day 6!!! they worked nonstop for two days--i am so proud of them.

Reid, Brooks and Nelson dug out a second trench and Jeremiah jumped in and helped today.

Brooke painted....and the rest of the team dug out the dirt hill and then after lunch today we dug another trench for a drainage pipe.
I saw kids swinging axes, picks, shovel, and haul dirt in wheelbarrows(not the kind you have at your house).....you cannot imagine how hard they worked or how proud i am of them :)

Tomorrow ....home.......we leave a part of ourselved here in Costa Rica. I pray that God will allow us another trip to see the continued progress on the building. I pray that God will let the youth see the purpose for their hard work.
I pray the God will bless the Louderbacks and their mission here and in Panama.
It is such a joy to see them so happy and so close in their walk with the Lord..... but my heart is heavy tonight as we say goodbye to them....until the next visit :)

Pray for us as we fly out at 1:11 (Costa time) tomorrow. orlando at 6:30---then a 4 hour bus ride home:)