Month: April 2015

Morning Devo and off to Triple R

The morning started with a hot breakfast of biscuits with two types of gravy (country and another with sausage), cinnamon rolls, oatmeal and some fresh and homemade dried fruit.

Chris did a devotional on hearing and responding to God’s voice… and to have faith in the big picture…

A fifteen minute ride to Triple R ranch and it was deja vu all over again. A year ago, it was cold and rainy, but this time, we were able to work with Skip and the ranch.

We split up as three teams for three tasks:

Frank, Craig, Shirley, Virginia, Lorin and Chris worked on prepping a greenhouse. Moving pottery, soil and cinder blocks. They made work benches out of some metal shelving and cinder blocks, finding it crucial to remove mortar from the reclaimed cinder blocks, hence the chipping away.

Tommy, Kelly, Art and Peter cleaned up and painted a storage shed.

Gary, Paul, Denise, Jeff, Matthew, Pam worked on the “Eco House,” which when we visited last year was just four walls. Trimming out the ceiling joists, installed lighting and were the only warm, clean and dry team of the day.

The Ranch itself, is beautiful, and has horses, goats, alpacas and apparently frogs

It’s cold. And wet.

It was low 50’s today, and ranged from cloudy, cold and breezy to all-out storms that would appear in a matter of minutes.

Most of the team got soaked, except for the lucky Eco-House team. lucky lucky guys.

Devo and worship

After dinner, we had a time of evening worship led by Art and Pam, and Tommy’s Devo on discipling

Most everyone on the team went to Custard Factory, to celebrate Uncle Roy’s Birthday, even in his absence.

Click here for today’s Photo Album
And Here for today’s recap video

Having visited here last year, we were familiar with the setup at Hilltop Baptist. We knew Pastor Matt and we had even left some sleeping bags behind for their use.


Since we remembered them having some trouble with their wifi, and a good portion of our crew is technical, we offered to help them check it out. We brought our techy tools and some equipment as a contingency plan for the unknown problem.


Jeff found out pretty quickly that it was a misconfigured wire. A few minutes later, it was corrected and we had their wifi up and going on the gym side. Since we’re in a rural area, they are limited with their high speed options. No fiber, not even cable, but instead have a wireless connection that is good for a limited number of people, but difficult for the church to share with their congregation.

So, it was nice to help them with our professional talents and some donated equipment, but the greater problem is high speed data to this rural part of OK

Nice one Frank! You have to watch til the end.. 🙂

Commissioning

Most Evergreen Missions team
get sent off with a Commissioning Service, where the team goes up before
the whole church, their supporters (Missionary Support Groups), church
leaders and church staff, go and place their hands on them to pray for
them. It’s mutually beneficial for the team and the church to make this a
spiritual venture.


Yes, we’re on a mission of
mercy and relief for the OKC area, but as pastor Micah prayed for us, we
were reminded of our effort to bring hope both practical and spiritual
to the OKC area.

Commissioning Photo Album

Gary getting prayed for during service, click for the full album

Send-off

Unlike our trips to Missisiippi, we no longer take red-eye flights, but our flight was near noon. So before a quick dash directly to the airport, a more in-depth prayer session before hitting the road, a quick photo, and we’re off!

Matt’s Birthday

As we were reminded numerous times, it’s one of our teammate’s birthday!

Pam went out and got a Nothing Bundt Cake beforehand, and it was presented to him at the airport

Arrival

Our flight had a slight delay, and a temporarily inoperable lavatory, but we arrived to a cool, but humid OKC.


We reunited with Denise and Paul

Had dinner at The Garage
and headed to Hilltop Baptist, our home for the week.

The thunder rolled, and the lightning striked..
We heard from Pastor Matt about the strong storms they’ve experienced in the area, and we heard his gratefulness when he spoke. Another time where we hear Romans 8:28 being referenced.. here, at home, with the Thailand team.. there’s something going on…

Everything has a reason, and it can work for good.

Here’s today’s (2nd) photo album and video !

Tommy just sent this email to the team..

Mo, one of the guys that has been part of this ministry since the
beginning, has branched out a bit with other projects that you have to
think are inspired by his service in Mississippi as part of our team.

Steve, Peter, Tommy and Mo during the 2012 Mississippi trip

Art, Pam, Carol and Mo during the 2012 Mississippi trip

He’s spearheaded our first Co-ed team, he organized several teams to the East Coast in response to Superstorm Sandy, and this year, he went to Asia to work with Steve O. on water treatment solutions for those in need.

During part of their visit in this country, Mo slipped and injured himself, fracturing his leg and requiring surgery. He also had an unrelated family emergency.

So we ask if you could remember Mo at this time, as he’s about to head into surgery in a foreign country. Thanks for praying!