Buckingham Palace!

Last Day!

Our Kid's Club Ministry Team!

We had a bittersweet day as we finished our last day of Kid's Camp but had to say goodbye to a lot of new friends both from Kid's Camp and from New Life Masih Gahr.  Because of that, we are all both excited and sad to leave all at the same time.

After a family pizza party after Kid's Club and cleanup, we were able to make one last trip into Central London to shop and take a tour of Buckingham Palace.  You are going to ask one of the team members about that because words here cannot express how absolutely blown away we were by the tour.  It was a great end to a great week.  We even figured out the underground system enough to get to see Piccadilly Circus (the closest thing London has to Times Square).  

Our flight leaves tomorrow at noon, so this may be our last post.  So, thanks again for following our trip, for praying and for supporting us to make this trip possible.  I am excited for you to hear from the team what God has done in us and through us!

Brett

Day 8

HELLO OH MY GOSH I WILL SEE YOU ALL SO SOON! Which is happy but, I'm also extremely sad I'm leaving at the same time.  I feel like I'm still getting used to the fact that I am in a whole different country. It has been a crazy experience. Everything that happened this week was used by God to change us, or at least me, in some way.  New Life Masih Gahr is truly a wonderful church and environment to be a part of. Okay, with all of that said, how about I move into what we all did today? Okay?  Sounds good.

This morning, we had Kid's Camp as usual, and I don’t have any specific stories but, as always I have something to say. (if you haven’t figured it out by now…It is Natalie) Kid's Camp overall has been a complete blessing in my life. The kids here are so friendly and willing to talk. They are so enthusiastic and getting to lead music here has been great. All the kids get so into the music and enjoy the songs so much. It's super encouraging to be able to stand in the front and see all the kids having so much fun. (Probably even more fun than me hahaha). So yeah, we did Kid's Camp.

            Alright!!! NEXT. So after that we ate a traditional Indian lunch (WHICH WAS SO DELICIOUS). After lunch, we headed on our way to Southall to set up for another prayer walk and book table. Today, heading into it was a little bit easier. I didn’t feel as uneasy about it. Although, I didn’t have any superlong conversations, I know God is working in people. The tables in general had some encouraging conversations. I love when we have our debrief time and get to talk with the team about our interactions. I just love it all.

            Finally we all went to a burger pub which if anyone knows me, WAS SO GOOD AND I
LOVED IT.  It was very old (it has been in operation since the 1500's!)  Though there is something about England, they
don’t really have free refills so there is that. Haha. Anyway after we all finished eating we talked about the week and the difference God has made in our lives. It was really great. I love you Mom and Dad and Gillian and Cameron. I will see you all soon.

~Natalie S. 

Service Day at the Church

Hey everyone it’s me Micah.  I’m going to tell you about all of the work we did at the church this afternoon.  Mrs. W, Mindee, Mollie, Allayna, Matthew, Natalie and I all painted a big Sunday school room.  At first the room was covered with scribbles on the walls and random marks all over the place. (I think the kids at the church like to draw on the walls). But when we painted it, it looked 10 out of 10. The others painted a large foyer of the church and the men’s restroom.  (The men painted that room. I think that can be assumed, so why am I typing this?) Charlotte, Pastor Brett, Andy, Elise, and Carson did the outdoor work in the yard. They laid mulch and weeded and it looked really nice after it was all done. They also trimmed bushes and painted the exterior.  Then we set up the youth room like a movie theater and watched a movie with the kids and families from VBS.  We were going to watch Kung Fu Panda 3, but then we couldn’t because of technical difficulties.  Barry was going to explain the Gospel message within the movie’s plot, but that didn’t work out.  So we watched the third Ice Age movie which Barry’s son Quinn and I rated 2 out of 10.

Then we had to clean up because there was popcorn everywhere.

Kid's Club Day 3

I’m going to start my blog by backtracking to last night when we were handing out the bibles. I was in a group with Keren from New Life Masih Ghar and Mrs. W. We started to talk about a young boy in the youngest group of kids at Kids Camp, the group Keren helps in. He had been having trouble understanding and communicating what he’d been doing. So I told Keren and Mrs. W that I thought he might have a type of developmental disability I am fairly familiar with.  So, I used the little sign language and non-verbal communication I know from working with those who have similar disabilities and tried to communicate with him. It was a great success! I saw him come more and more out of his shell throughout the day. So much so that by the time it came to sing Jesus Loves Me he was willing to sing it as well as do all the hand motions, which are actually Sign Language!  I was up lifted by what seemed like a little task at first and the staff of New Life Masih Ghar were very grateful because they finally know how to communicate a little bit better with him. It is truly amazing how God uses us in ways we truly don’t expect.  As for the rest of Kid’s Camp, the games group played Gaga Ball (inside because of the weather sadly), and the craft and story teams did amazing like always.

Matthew B.

Visitation

Hello American Folk, I’m here on the blog for the first time, and I’m dead tired. Today we went delivering bibles to people who had asked for one during surveys done by a previous team.  It was brilliant. Simply lovely.  My group, which consisted of Lindsay, (An intern of New Life Masih Ghar) and Allayna, met a man named Thomas who was a Jehovah’s Witness, It was brilliant because we had a really great conversation, we talked about our similarities and differences when it came to the gospel.  He believed that God was above Jesus, and that Jesus wasn’t all too different than us! After some quick reactions and good, meaningful conversation we made it clear that the bible taught that Jesus is God and that we would love to see him again. It was all in good faith! J

Also, Peebs saw rats. Two of them. Similar to the Rodents of Unusual Size from the Princess Bride movie.

Rats.

God bless the UK, God bless rats, and God Bless the USA.

Goodnight everyone,

-Alec

Kickball Outreach

Today we went to this incredible park to play kickball. The whole point to this game was to invite others to play with us and expand our network. We were about halfway through the game when I decide to join in. (Disclaimer: I’m really good at kickball) I started to play and noticed a teen and a father and son sitting watching us play. So me being the carefree person that I am, I walked over and invited them to play. They said they would watch because they didn’t quite understand the game yet. So I stayed to explain as the game was going. After a minute of explanation, they decided to join us.
They did amazing and really got into the game. Then of course, the game came down to a tie and the next run would win. I was up to kick and it was a perfect kick. I run to first, second, third, and was waiting for the next kicker. I was the only one on bases and Joe, a leader here, leans over and said, “You know you don’t have to run… But… Next point wins it. No pressure.” The ball was kicked I wait for it to drop and took off running. I made it home, won the game and everyone dog piled on top of me. It was a fantastic game. Told you I was good at kickball. ;)

~Mollie

P.S.  We invited the teen and the child to Kid's Club so please pray we will see them again!