Well, our adventure is officially underway. On Thursday the whole team arrived at the airport in Atlanta. We made our way back to Gainesville and spent the rest of the day getting to know each other, worshiping, and waiting for bedtime to come around.
Friday.
In the morning we learned about “Timelines.” Basically how to tell the stories of each of our lives and the way that God has changed our lives. As a team we’ve started sharing our timelines at night as a way to learn more about each other, and more about our team as a whole.
We sat in on another talk about children’s ministry. Alli Mellon walked us through effective ways to put together children’s programs – we even learned a few songs with some pretty spectacular hand motions. At the end each team was given 5 minutes to put together one day of a Vacation Bible School program, and at the end of 5 minutes we had to present our program in front of the entire training camp. Our team did really well. As leaders we were really impressed with the way that Team Philippines gave it everything they had. Each member pulled their weight, used a lot of energy in front of the group, and we all agreed that if we had been small children – we would have liked our program the best.
In other news – our team won a pretty intense dance competition and spent the rest of the day doing team building exercises.
Saturday.
Saturday morning we spent time learning how to minister cross-culturally. We compared our own American culture to other cultures around the world and even did an exercise where half of the camp pretended to be an indigenous tribe, while the other half was given the task of engaging culture and ministering. Luckily, our team was part of the indigenous tribe. We got to do strange things and act out some awkward indigenous traditions. We did a great job of frustrating the missionary teams, but in the end it was a good learning experience for everyone.
We spent the afternoon learning dramas that we can present and use as tools to break through language barriers. Last night we had a worship service and spent a lot of time letting God really deal with us and set us free from anything that might be holding us back from seeking Him more.
…We’ve had a little bit of rain, but mostly at night so we’ve stayed pretty dry. Today we are learning about Spiritual Warfare and going through a few more team builders. That’s all for now. We’ll blog again soon to keep you updated. Everyone is doing great and we are all getting more and more excited about all that lies ahead.
