July 12, 2010

Student D.R. Team Update

Posted by Kristy-Lee

The Student Team made it to the D.R. safe and sound. Tim Harmon is keeping us updated on the team’s busy week in Barahona. Here’s the latest update:

Friday, July 09
All is well. After a long day of travel everyone arrived tired but ready to serve. So, we are hoping for a good night’s sleep and anticipating a great day on Saturday of visiting with some of the bateys and meeting the kids.

Thanks for all of your prayers for journey mercies; it was a smooth day of travel and for that we are grateful. Bless you all and keep praying for our team.

Saturday, July 10
Today was a great day. We spent the day touring 3 bateys and 2 villages.
The children in the villages loved all over us and everyone on the team really enjoyed their company. The time spent here is going really well and we are so grateful for the opportunity to be here.

Tomorrow we’ll be attending a local church in the morning and then heading to the beach after lunch. Thanks for all of your prayers, we so appreciate them.

Sunday, July 11
Today we spent the morning in one of the local churches. Service lasted nearly two and a half hours. We, of course, were the only Americans in attendance. With no translator, we were a bit like fish out of water! But all in all, it was a great time of fellowship and the congregation was super friendly. This afternoon we spent some time at the beach and really enjoyed simply resting and relaxing. A new team of 20 students and leaders from the Boston area joined us this evening at the Casa. They will be here the rest of the week, so it will be a full house here for remainder of our time.

Tomorrow morning we will be touring the COTN offices and medical clinic in addition to spending some time with the ILB (I Love Baseball) Team. After lunch, we will head back to Pueblo Nuevo to begin our work project. We will also spend some time playing games with the local children. We are continuing to enjoy our time here and the team is bonding quite well. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. We miss you all and look forward to seeing you at the end of the week!

November 5, 2009

Something We Can Get Behind

Posted by Ryan

You see them every year during the holidays – a Christmas tree or a large empty cardboard box asking for toy donations for children in need. This year Summit is connecting with Restore Orlando to provide the toys for the toy store that Restore Orlando will operate, allowing families in need to purchase toys for their kids this Christmas at a discounted rate. Parents retain the dignity of providing for the families instead of turning to a handout.

We think this is a pretty outstanding cause, and though this is a church-wide toy drive, we are really getting into the act at Surge. Our middle school students have the opportunity this season to serve other kids their own age by bringing in a new unwrapped toy on Tuesday nights for the next three weeks. I am excited to see how God works in the lives of our students and those whom they are serving in this project.

Oh, and hey, if a student participates in the toy drive, they get into the Vault for free. That’s pretty awesome.

July 9, 2009

Walk don't run

Posted by Ryan

As my wife and I were looking over the niceSERVE projects to sign up for, we had the brilliant idea of running a 5k to benefit Children of the Nations.

Let me say that raising money for Children of the Nations is a very good idea. Besides, didn’t Isaac say something back in January about this being the year of fitness? I should also say that running a 5k is not a great idea. At least it feels that way right now.

Apparently, if you haven’t been running in the last 7 years, you should give yourself more than 2 weeks to train for a 5k. Shocking, I know. As it turns out, a lot of good things take more than 2 weeks to develop. Having the patience to wait can be quite challenging. Getting up in the morning to run when you just did it yesterday and you don’t feel the least bit healthier for it often seems like a waste of good time and energy. But if the groundwork isn’t laid, the results will never come.

So this weekend, I’m going to find out how long it takes to walk 5 kilometers, because that’s further along than I was 2 weeks ago.

April 23, 2009

SERVE '09

Posted by Cheez

Have you ever seen the movie Hancock? In the movie there is a character played by Will Smith. He has all the powers of Superman, but he is missing one thing. He doesn’t use them like Superman. He just uses them when it is convenient for himself. This causes everyone to hate him and be very vocal about it. His life is miserable. Through the movie, we learn that it is not the other people’s reactions to him that make him miserable. It is the fact that he has these gifts, but no purpose. Lately, we have been talking about all the gifts that we have in Surge. But all the gifts in the world do not mean much if we do not see the purpose in them. We have learned that our gifts are given to us by God for the Kingdom. We can make it better. Those gifts are God’s way of blessing the Kingdom. That means that everyone of us is the answer and blessing for the Kingdom! We are going to use our gifts. On May 9th, Surge is traveling to the Orlando Children’s Church. Every middle school student has so many gifts, but they have at least one in common. They have the ability to play and have fun. So we are going to the Orlando Children’s Church to use that gift. We will be making crafts, reading to younger students, and playing games. These are the kinds of things middle schoolers are gifted with, and it helps build the Kingdom. That is amazing to me. How about you?

April 7, 2009

We Will, With God's Help

Posted by Josh

Believing in God is tough. As adults, especially those who grew up going to church like I did, we tend to forget that. But everywhere we turn, there’s a message out there that people with faith (any faith, but especially what we know as the Christian faith) are a little strange. And that’s even a good assessment—because at worst, we’re portrayed as delusional, angry, and even dangerous.

In my estimation, those messages are stronger than ever—on TV, in music, and we won’t even mention internet message boards and blog comments. In recent history, people with an anti-Christian slant have bigger and louder soapboxes than they’ve had in the past. (I mean, at least we’re not running from lions in the Colosseum any more.)

It’s easy for many of us to shrug it off and remind ourselves that this is just a product of a fallen world. But to a middle or high schooler, it’s not that simple. Like it or not, a kid’s universe is mostly centered around the questions of “Am I ok?” and, “Do people like me?” And when the outside world is trying to tell them that believers are not ok, and nobody will like them if they believe in God, it’s a tough pill to swallow.

That’s where we come in. And by “we”, I mean parents, the church family, and the student ministry leaders and volunteers. Cheez and Tim work very hard to create an inviting, loving environment where the kids find out that it’s ok to believe in God and then learn what it means to live out that belief. The volunteers are here doing the best we can to walk with them on this journey. My hope is that they see me and the rest of the leaders as, if nothing else, pretty normal. If they can visit with us once a week and come away with the impression that there are adults with faith that aren’t weird or delusional, then we’re off to a good start.

The trouble is, we only have a couple of hours each week. That’s where the rest of ‘we’ comes in. On Sunday, the church family stood together and promised to each do our part to help the young people in our church grow in the knowledge of God. That promise doesn’t end when they get to kindergarten or middle school. You’ll see Summit’s students a lot of places—helping in Base Camp, on your niceSERVE projects, and out in the community. Encourage these kids, and pray for them—they’re doing the best they can to live out their faith in a tough world.