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| Bloomingdale Church Missions Team & the Beards July 2017 |
A recent
highlight for us at Rancho Oasis was hosting the first ever team from Bloomingdale Church, my original
home church.
Over three decades ago, I, Jon, started attending the church with my family before
entering junior high and accepted Christ as my Savior before my senior year of
high school!
Rather than share my perspective on the trip, one of the short-term team members gave me permission to share his first time experience.
Rather than share my perspective on the trip, one of the short-term team members gave me permission to share his first time experience.
Enjoy & be blessed!
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| Short-termer John Wilkes with Mathias. |
Our trip began a few months before we actually
set foot on Honduran soil. Seven of us from Bloomingdale Church in suburban
Chicago gathered together on a regular basis to learn how a successful trip is
achieved. Some of us already had mission trip experience and others none; I was
in the “none” category. We learned about the Honduran culture and each
other during these meetings. So many subjects spin off of these two main
topics and the missions guide book, “Help! We're Going on a Short-term Trip”,
was used to help keep things on track. Regardless of prior missions experience,
this group had never traveled together before. We came together well and by the
time we departed I felt very much accepted and the group had become a team. When we loaded the bus from the church parking
lot I remember feeling so relieved to finally be going and the fear I
had months before when I committed to actually do the trip was
gone.
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| Almuerzo @ Las Tejitas! Que Rico! |
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| The retreat center, La Posada del Pescador. |
I would wake up around 0500 and spend time alone with the Lord in one of the many places available to do so. When everyone was up and about we would meet for group prayer for the day and the Ranch then have an awesome breakfast. (Did I mention the great chow?) We would then load up in the van and head to the ranch which I is about 40 minutes up the mountain. Many times this drive was through the cloud as in we were actually driving into a cloud. Each day we would depart the ranch around 1730- 1800 and head back to the retreat center for dinner, group discussion/ prayer and turn into bed around 2000-2100.
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| RO4Y Prayer & Property Tour |
- The ministry building
- The staff building (under construction)
- The soccer field
- The horse training ring
- The barn and chicken coop
- The work shop (If I HAD to pick a
favorite...)
- The Beard home
Along the way we prayed for each ministry.
Once we completed the prayer hike, we went into the house and were able to meet
Marillyn, Jon’s wife, who was working away with preparing lunch for this big
group of people. It was a fine meal and gathering, yes indeed.
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| Practicing "Canciones" de VBS!!! |
We spent each of the first few days tackling the list of facility maintenance and system upgrades to keep the Ranch in bounds and moving forward. Painting, door and hardware repair, septic system installations which are actually a bio-digester system for the staff housing. There was some demanding manual labor involved and I will admit to wishing I had not enjoyed those last couple of milk shakes before I left the States... but all was good. We came together well as a unit during these days of labor for Jesus and the Ranch, the actions of faith in place of the words about faith were in full motion.
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| Installing Staff Housing "Bio-digestor", a human waste composting septic system. |
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| Back filing dirt over sand & gravel leech field. |
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| Yah! Projected completed! |
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| Karen Julisa preps her VBS craft! |
I
learned that children are children everywhere.
When we sang the songs and the skits were performed, the faces were cheerful
and laughter was present. The kids truly love the Ranch. When the lessons
turned to activities (either crafts or games) the facial expressions and
laughter were those of truly excited and happy kids. These children brought me
back to when times were simpler and interaction was itself an activity to
anticipate with excitement. I did not see any smart phones interfering with
their fun… except mine... but, hey, I was documenting! The last couple of days
there were so many kids and I believe the last day had close to sixty.
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| Final photo with afternoon VBS kids! |
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| John shares from the Word & his testimony. |
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| John teaches the afternoon "readers" VBS group! |
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| El Picachu |
My
perspective was changed one day when I was asked by Jon if I would like to go
with him to drop off the kids at their homes. We
made our way up and down the very rough terrain roads. Up to this point, I had
just been playing activities like soccer and group races with these kids. I see
their spirit and laughing faces and genuine enthusiasm for life through all of
these things. Now, outside the Ranch, we pull up to a small structure made of
miscellaneous materials and not big enough for two motorcycles. Jon calls out
for three kids that we are here and they hop out and walk down the trail to
this place, their home. My heart
sank and I know this is a fine place for people to live who don't mind figuring
out how to cultivate and manage the meager resources available.
However, I saw young lives with not much
more to hope for, but the RO4Y mission offers them as a way to real hope! Their
other options are hard to comprehend, especially for a person who has so
much at their disposal, like myself.
The
contrast of the joy at RO4Y and the reality of their daily struggle hit
home for me this moment and I will never forget the seriousness of Gods calling
on the Beard family in Honduras.
The reflections I have from the trip are clear
as a bell and also not so clear.
It is very clear to me that scripture speaks
very loudly on a mission trip,
particularly Matthew 9:37-38:
particularly Matthew 9:37-38:
[Jesus] said to his
disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to
the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his
fields.”
NLT
NLT
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| "La Cosecha" |
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| Las Cinco Barbas worship band |
Mil gracias, John!
It is awesome to see that God continues to use short-term missions experiences to not only "lengthen our reach" into the community & build up the Ranch's infrastructure, but to touch the lives and hearts of the short-term missionaries; ultimately, strengthening their faith and emboldening them to continue to serve Christ in their own "backyard" mission field.
Thank you, Jesus!
If you, you're family and/or a small team are interested in visiting & serving at the Ranch, please don't hesitate to contact us to began discussing dates, cost and projects!
We look forward to seeing whom God brings to Honduras in 2017 & 2018!!!
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| Please continue to PRAY for Rancho Oasis & the Beard fammily! |
