The Best is Yet to Come

And so it comes to a close.

Saturday was our last day in Poland, and Dave and Sandy, our partners and guides, made sure it was a memorable last day. We left early from Ostróda and took a bus back to Warsaw. Most of us slept on the bus after staying up late on Friday with the Polish students. A couple of us, though, had a few interesting conversations. I ended up using the Wi-Fi provided on the bus to have a conversation with a Polish man traveling home from Gdańsk. I had to use my iPod Touch and Google Translate, and surprisingly, it worked! I personally felt overjoyed that, this time, I had found a way to get past the language barrier. Drew Neuenschwander also had an interesting conversation with royaly! (No wonder he was the last one off the bus.) He and his neighbor had fun talking about philosophy, ethics, and other topics. But it was only at the end that the woman revealed she was royalty.

After that we dropped our luggage at the Hotel and had fun gallivanting around Old Town Warsaw.

We went to the old Palace near Chopin’s memorial garden. (Gardens are a big thing in Warsaw, apparently.) Then we went to the really old part of Old Town, where all the friendly tourist traps were. We saw the President’s Palace (akin to The White House) another palace, and a few old churches. Musicians and people dressed in costumes lined the streets.

We came to the main square and had a little time to buy last minute souvenirs for our friends back home( or for ourselves, as was most often the case.) Street vendors lined the Square with paintings, carvings, and many other things. I was impressed by everything available.

Finally, we took a walking tour, led by Dave and Sandy, of the Ghetto wall, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and back to the Square. We almost ended the evening by eating a multi-course Polish meal at a restaurant. However, the group made plans throughout the day for other activities.

The Hunger Games came out in theaters this weekend in Poland. We weren’t able to see it before we left, the group (minus Mike and Ann) went to the local movie theater and got tickets for it, almost at the last second! It was strange to watch a movie in English with Polish subtitles. But the movie was very well done. Finally, all of us exhausted after our trip, we came back here to America by way of Warsaw, Dusseldorf, Chicago and Indianapolis.

Our international journey during Spring Break is over. But the effects are continuing to show themselves in our lives. We have made new friends, both in Poland, and on the team. We have grown. We have loved.

I’m excited to see what God has next for us.

Now, for the last time, our Prayer Requests:

• Recovery from jet lag
• Joy in our hearts
• Continuing Ministry of Dave and Sandy Hatfield

To God Be the Glory,

Nathan Sturgis

Standing In Awe

I am currently zipping down the highway just outside Indianapolis, and as I reflect on the past week, I am overwhelmed with the places where Jesus appeared. A humble dinner with Dominican families, a handful of skits and songs for school children, and ten tons of concrete later, I have the joy of bearing the testimony that Jesus was, indeed, present on this trip. Conflicts were overcome and glory given to God. As I get closer and closer to Upland, I stand in wondrous awe of our savior, Jesus.

The End of the Road

Friday—Almost Done

Today was very similar to every other weekday at Shepherd. We split up and worked both in the classrooms at the academy and on work projects. In the classroom, we worked on creating binders with activities for Shepherd’s new reading club and watched an episode of Magic School Bus with the kids during their recess time since it was raining outside. Meanwhile, the rest of us continued to work on moving books and creating a library.

After lunch, we heard from Cameron, the Shepherd staff member in charge of the intern and fellowship programs. He described each of the programs and then encouraged us to consider whether this was something God might want us to do. Since then, several people on our team have mentioned that they think they might be called to further involvement with Shepherd in the future.

Friday afternoon, we had a double session of Poverty 101 to make up for going on the bus tour the day before. In class, we took quizzes to see if we could survive in poverty, the middle class, and wealth. Overall, our team was much more prepared to live in the middle class than anywhere else. Tim Streett ended our last session by describing ways that we could effectively help the poor and challenging us to become planters of “oaks of righteousness” (see Isaiah 61:1-4).

After dinner, we watched a documentary called Pruitt-Igoe, which described the rise and fall of the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis. Then, several team members went to the Indianapolis Art Museum for a little while, while everyone else hung out at the church and finished a few cleaning/work projects there. 

Saturday—Last Day

We began our Saturday by doing a few last work projects around Shepherd. We cleaned the church, finished organizing books in the library, helped in Shepherd’s Saturday morning medical clinic, and made the answer circles neater on the academy kids’ standardized achievement tests. Then Ryan, our host Shepherd staff member, took us to Jireh, Shepherd’s sports and activities center where we had about forty-five minutes to do whatever we wanted on Jireh’s gymnastics equipment. Team pictures and videos show the entertaining results!

After a quick lunch at the church, we headed over to Christian Park to play soccer for a couple of hours with Shepherd kids. Quite a few kids showed up, and we had a good time playing, despite the very muddy and slippery field.

When the game was over, we said goodbye to the kids and to Shepherd and headed back to our vans to drive to Noblesville for dinner. There, we enjoyed some team bonding while eating dinner at Logan’s and then going to see a couple different movies—Hunger Games and This Means War. Finally, we headed back to the Freers’ house where we spent the night. 

Sunday—Heading Back to Taylor

This morning we spent a restful morning at the Freers, enjoying the time we had to sleep in and our first hot showers of the week. We ate breakfast, sang several worship songs, and did team devos and then spent some time reflecting on the week and what we had learned.

Now, we’re back at Taylor and plan to put up a few more pictures of the trip as soon as we can. I think we all would agree that we had a wonderful time at Shepherd and learned a lot. Thank you so much for your prayers, and please continue to pray as we process what we’ve learned. Feel free to ask us about our trips when you see us, too—we’ll be glad to talk about it!

Grant County

Well tonight concludes our final post, and thus our final night in Marion. Again, I think we all agree we are not wanting to leave our “new life” here in Grant County. We have been blessed by the workers and volunteers at St. Martins and the community, and we have loved partnering with them to help our neighbors. It’s striking to realize how drastically different life can be only fifteen minutes away from campus,  and are excited with the opportunity we have to sustain relationships due to the short distance. Our team has grown accustomed to living in a home together, sharing everything,  and its weird to think we will be back to our old routines on Monday.

Yesterday was a typical workday. Some individuals worked all day at St. Martins while others went to the house projects to finish them up. At four o’clock, most of us headed over to the Boys and Girls Club to hang out with the kids again. Today, we served mainly at St. Martins, finishing up odd jobs, helping Diane (featured above), and serving one final meal for the week at the community center.

Tomorrow, we are attending church, cooking out for the lunchbox meal, and heading back to our other home in Upland. No doubt it will be strange adjusting back to our regular routine. Continued prayer for our transition, the faithful workers at St. Martins, and the residents of Grant County, specifically Marion, is welcomed and much appreciated. Thank you for your prayer this past week; we have definitely felt the hand of God as we have been serving in various capacities.

Heading Home

Yesterday ended another week at Daytona, and like every other year, this was different. We learned a lot about the body and how to care for and learn from each other. We explored God’s heart of compassion as we shared conversation and cokes with our friends from the halfway house. We saw joy being expressed in a game of cards with homeless men and the testimony of James (from the halfway house) that he is one of the “lucky ones”. We saw lives transformed, body’s healed and questions asked. We were confronted by darkness and brokenness that seemed overwhelming…

But in the end we were more amazed by God’s goodness and compassion than we were at the brokenness we saw. As a team we desire to be changed from our time in Daytona…more compassionate, more authentic and more in love with Jesus and the people created in his image.

Pray for us as we begin the long drive home. That we will stay alert through the night and that the time together will cement the work God has done in our lives.

P.S. forgot to mention that we had our very own Baywatch moment as Stephen and Lindsay actually saved a man from drowning (seriously drowning).

Tarantulas, pick axes, and bucket baths

In case you haven’t realized it yet, every day is basically the same thing. So, sorry if this bores you : )

As usual, we headed to the work site to continue building up the walls that we have been working on all week. Some of the team laid bricks and the others used pick axes to tear up the front yard to level it off. While doing so, we found some treasures! Among glass, rocks, and garbage, we found two big tarantulas! Luckily, we’re all safe and there were no casualties (yet). ; )

After lunch we headed back to the work site for a couple more hours. Because we knew it was our last day at work, we decided to give it our all. It was really sad knowing we had to say goodbye to all of the kids that we had been playing with all week, but we feel that we left a lasting impact on them as well as them on us.

We had a little bit of time to rest and take (bucket) showers before our evening performance. We arrived in the village where we were performing right before sundown, and it was completely dark by the time we began. We did our whole performance and it was a great way to finish the week. All of the kids were incredibly sweet and were very engaged.

We had dinner after our performance and had our devotions after a bit of hang out time. The Hawks shared their story with us and it was incredible to hear how God has worked in their lives.

This morning we woke up at 4:45am to go to the top of a mountain overlooking Jucuapa to pray together and watch the sun rise. It was a great bonding experience for the team and was an awesome way to start our last day here. In about an hour we are heading to a private beach to enjoy the sun and our last hours together in El Salvador.

Please pray for our hearts as it will be difficult to say goodbye to the people we have built close friendships with and pray that we would stay safe in all of our travels.

The Sun comes out

The day began cloudy and overcast on the outside; but inside the conference room the team spent another wonderful time of individual devotions and corporate worship. Then, after celebrating the 22nd birthday of Mr Nate Estelle, we loaded up the vans prepared for bad weather but excited to see how God would work.

The homeless ministry van had a great time talking with a group of men and were even encouraged that the formally grumpy “buck” seemed to be opening up! It was just an amazing and encouraging time for the team.

Meanwhile, as the team set up on the beach, we were thrilled to see our old friend Tammi again. Especially to hear how faithful God has been to her during the past year as we celebrated with her more than one year of sobriety. It was good to be reminded of the long term impact that God is having on these precious lives.

The rest of the day was a testimony of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Great conversations with fellow believers…hard but productive conversations with lost individuals…and even the wonderful opportunity to help a wonderful young girl enter the kingdom!

Hard to believe it is half way over, but we are excited to see how this week will end up. Pray for strength and boldness as we finish strong!