Effingham Family

NO RAIN!!!

2011-03-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Praise the Lord for the perfect weather today! We woke up to blue skies and they lasted all day. It was perfect for finishing the roof. We got all the plywood nailed down, tar paper stapled, and shingles put on. Unfortunately the broadcasting room is not completely finished, but our team did as much work as possible in the few days we were here. We are praying for another team, funds, and supplies to finish this job so that it may be used to spread the love of Jesus Christ to the rest of the world. Jesus carries each of His children through to completion, and I believe He will do the same with this project. The rest is in His hands!
Tonight we will learn about Morocco, and have Moroccan food for dinner then tomorrow we will pack up and head home! Thank you all so much for your support through following this blog, and in prayer. Pray for our trip home, specifically for the drivers since we will be making the trip in one day instead of two this time.

Beginning to See Some Progress!

2011-03-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Yesterday was long and exhausting (mostly because of the rain!) We accomplished a lot though! The roof to the garage was completely torn off...one board at a time! We started building the trusses yesterday, and finished up today. Fred, Dwight, and their roofing crew got all 13 trusses put up, and hopefully tomorrow we will be able to put the plywood & shingles on. After many hours of hard work, we came home and made dinner..Iron Chef style! We split into 3 teams & competed to see who could make the best dish, and that was dinner! The girls won, of course. Yesterday and today were quite rainy and cold so keep good weather in your prayers! We're going to be tight on time to finish the project anyway, so if the weather could be on our side, that would be a blessing indeed. This evening after dinner we attended another youth group, and a few of us went back to the Gospel Mission to lead worship. Tomorrow is our last work day, so pray for safety and health as exhaustion is setting in! I'll blog again tomorrow as long as I don't have burnt fingers...that's a story for later!! :)

Busy day in Vancouver!

2011-03-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! SO much has happened since the last post! God is definitely present in this place. Last night we helped at Potters Place Gospel Mission. This is basically just a place for homeless people to come for a meal and to hear the Word. A few of us led worship and Paige, Chance, Brad, and Andrew each shared a message, along with the mime. Afterwards the meal was served. We got to see the evening, downtown, street-life of Vancouver. We were blessed to bless them with Jesus! This morning, we had breakfast at IKEA and headed to church! The youth and adults had two separate services. I think we've decided that the youth service pretty much XL2000 ROCKETH!! Our Sunday afternoon was spent doing a scavenger hunt all around Vancouver...plenty of priceless stories to come! :) After a chopstick lesson, and Sushi for dinner Louise (she's pretty much the secretary at the Shalom Home where we're staying) took us her church for a young adult evening service which we all enjoyed very much! Before this trip began, I felt like it was extremely unorganized, but so far everything has gone smoothly! Tomorrow we will go back to the work project in the morning, then have a few hours of free time in the afternoon. Thank you all who have been following, and for the prayers! We've had beautiful weather here so far so Praise the Lord for that! Pray that this will continue for us to complete the garage roof. Miss you all back home, but still enjoying Canada! Watch out for tomorrow's blog too :)

CANADA!!!

2011-03-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

Well, we finished the trip into Canada yesterday afternoon with a slight pause at the border (no really! it went rather well!), and arrived at the Hoffman's around 2 pm. We used the afternoon to settle into the house we will be staying in this week, and burn off some steam at the park down the street. After dinner, we got to spend some time at an Arabic church, specifically with their youth. What a blessing it was! We were expecting some awkwardness, but with Jesus Christ as a common denominator between us, everyone connected rather quickly! We would like to thank everyone for travel mercies; the trip up couldn't have gone better. Today we started the work project! We cleaned out and stripped the garage that we will be making into a broadcasting studio. This studio will be used to broadcast Christian ministries to the Muslim and Arab countries in the Middle East that shy on missionaries in their physical borders. Please continue to pray that the Lord will use our group to minister, encourage, and bless the Canadian people, as they have so far done the same to us! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SHELBY HOPKINS:)

A New Adventure!

2011-03-17T23:11:00.000-07:00

We just arrived at the Feener's in Vancouver where we'll be staying tonight. Many thanks to the Troutman family for feeding us dinner on the way. So far it's been a very uneventful day of travel...unlike going to Mexico! :) Tomorrow we'll finish the last leg of the trip into Canada. Thanks to everyone following this blog. We'll try to post everyday or as often as possible. Prayers are appreciated. We're excited to see what God has in store for us, and for those we will be ministering to.

We are Home!

2009-03-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

We arrived home in Christmas Valley Saturday night about 6PM. Everybody was glad to be home, but disappointed to see wind, snow and 30 degree weather. Everybody was healthy the entire trip and all went as planned. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Back in Yuma

2009-03-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

March 25 & 26, 2009
The new church in Nayarit was finished enough for us to dedicate it last night. We had a very nice ceremony with many in attendance. The community and even locals from Delta were there to pray with us and to hear a review from those who built the church. We filled the church, and also had people standing in the back and outside.
Don told us that 80% of the children that attended VBS were from unchurched families. One prayer request for this church is that the men of the community will be drawn to the Lord & will be attending church with their families.
We went back to the Narayit this morning to finish a few things on the new church, and the parsonage, which was the old church. When we got back to Delta to pack, eat lunch, and say our goodbyes, we were surprised with a going away party from the friends we made while staying there. They decorated with balloons, streamers, fancy table cloths, and made us a huge sign on the wall that read, “Thank you for sharing your love with us.” We were so surprised! It was tough to say goodbye, but we were encouraged to know that the Lord’s will was done, and that we were able to touch lives in the way that we did.
Thank you for your prayers! They are so much more than appreciated! Dios le Bendiga (God Bless You!)

March 24, 2009

2009-03-25T20:51:00.000-07:00

March 24, 2009
We started the morning off with breakfast burritos being delivered for us. We then headed out to Nayarit to work on the Church. We started Stuccoing the outside and finished the majority of the sheetrock and taping.
We went back to Delta and was served a wonderful meal for lunch. Don & Ilene joined us.
In the afternoon we went back to Nayarit for VBS. One of the young men from the Delta Church joined us to help with translation & music. We had about 30 kids. The lesson was Daniel & the lions den. One of the crafts was a lion face drawn on ritz crackers with canned cheese.
The Lord has been so faithful to us. He has provided so much for us and we have so much to be thankful for.

2009-03-24T21:52:00.000-07:00

March 23, 2009
Today, Monday, was our first full day of work followed by VBS. We Were surprisedjust before we left for the worksite with breakfast burritos made by one of the ladies of the church. Of course we had already eaten, but we didn't complain about having to eat them! All went VERY well! We managed to cover the entire outside of the house in tar paper even after the wind tore it off the night before. We start our work day at 7:30 A.M., and finish at 1 P.M. After taking a break for a wonderful tamale lunch served by the women of the Delta Church , we go back to Nayarit, and gather the kids for VBS. Fred played the guitar, and lead music while Kathy lead the opening. The rest of our group helped in acting out the Bible story, and taking the kids to different stations (crafts, snacks, Bible verses, games). We had 30 kids from both communities (Delta and Nayarit) attend our VBS.
We then headed back to Nayarit to worship the Lord in music with the Delta Church Worship Team. It was great. The Lord was indeed worshiped.

Sunday in Mexico

2009-03-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

March 22, 2009
So far, on this beautiful Sunday morning, our day has started with waking up an hour early to the rooster’s crow. Everyone has eaten, and we are now ready for church. We will leave at 8:30, and attend a church service in Nayarit at 9. Pastor Catalino will be preaching in Nayarit. I’m not too sure how much we will be able to understand; Pastor Catalino does not speak English. Pastor Joel has been our translator various times on the trip, and is actually very fluent in speaking English. After church we were invited to walk through one of the church people’s garden. We then went back to Delta to have lunch. Lunch every day is served by the local women of the church in Delta, and that meal for today consisted of tamales, beans, pasta, and jello. Lunch is one of the most exciting times of each day since they all taste so good! At 5 we went to church here in Delta, and got to hear their worship team perform. It was very cool! We even knew some of the songs in English! Pastor Catalino and his wife Isela dedicated their son Marcus, who is 4 months old. Pastor Joel also asked us if we could perform our mime and skits at this service, so we did, of course!
When the service was done, we got together with the Mexican Worship team and played and sang songs with them for about an hour. They were so intrigued by Alyssa’s drum! Unplanned, of course, but it was so fun that we managed to work up enough Spanish to invite them back the next night.

Crossing the Border

2009-03-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

March 21, 2009
Today we left Yuma at about 7 A.M. and headed to Delta, Mexico. Delta is the town in which the church we are staying is located. After we arrived at approximately 9:30 A.M., we unloaded our vehicles of luggage, and headed out to Niyarit , which is where we are going to be working for the next few days. Our group of 25 with the aid of Pastor Joel from Delta managed to accomplish a great deal of work in just 5 hours with a break for lunch…must I add? Lunch was cooked and provided by the locals, and was muy delicioso! I believe Fred said he ended on his sixth taco??? Let’s just say it was great!
Saturday nights at Delta’s church swarms with kids who were junior high and high school ages. All the kids had a blast! To begin with we played a mixer game, which was intended to allow everyone to get acquainted with one another. Christmas Valley’s youth then lead all groups ( Christmas Valley, Oakland, and Mexico) in a set of worship songs which we did sing in Spanish. Yes, I noticed that we translated some words wrong, but they were close enough and everyone seemed to get the point! It was amazing to see the Lord bring so many people with so many boundaries between them together for one reason. The language barrier didn’t seem to be a problem at all. All three teams performed skits and several people spoke in front of the whole group. Of course, we couldn’t end the night without a bite to eat! Three hours of worship and fellowship was great and definitely relaxing after two very full days of traveling! Some of the Mexican boys, Billy, and Fred played and sang ‘Come Now is the Time to Worship’, one thing we all understood, and had in common. We had an AWESOME, and very productive first day here in Mexico.
We thank you so greatly for your unceasing prayers, and so graciously ask you to continue praying for us, our health, and for the good Lord’s Will to be accomplished while we’re here.

We have arrived in Yuma!!

2009-03-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

We have arrived in Yuma. It is 90 degrees and the kids are all swimming. The Lord has been so gracious to us. We have traveled 1088 miles and have had no issues at all. We were so blessed when when arrived in Tonopah last night. We stayed at the First Baptist Church of Tonopah. They had plenty of room and were so willing to let us use their church. They even had ice cream for us to eat.

We are now a group of 25. We added 11 from Oakland Church of Christ: Chet Miller,Jeff Miller, Carol Miller, Amanda Humphreys, Sierra Spencer, Chelsey Spencer, Mykayla Young, Bob & Kathy Young and Aaron & Jami Baimbridge.

Also joining us from Christmas Valley is Tim Warkentin, Tim Russell, Mellissa Roth and Andrea, Julie & Lucas.

As we were traveling we talked about today was equinox and that eggs would stand on end and it did.

Please continue to pray for travel mercies, safety and an easy border crossing tommorrow. Please also pray that the Lord will go before us and prepare the hearts of the teens that will attend the Youth Rally tomorrow night.

More to follow later.

2009-03-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

Here is the 1/2 of Team Mexico from Christmas Valley Community Church.
Alyssa Ward, Jessica Hand, Billy Effingham, Patty Effingham, Mary Effingham, Fred Chugg, Paige Ward, Daniel Miles, and Dwight Roth. Please be praying for us.

Team Mexico 2009

2009-03-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

Team Mexico will leave for Delta, Mexico on March 19th. Watch for updates of the project we will be working on.