Teens are off to Mexico!

Just a quick note to remind everybody to pray for our teens who are off in Mexico working to help build houses outside of Tijuana, Mexico. Although I hear that they almost missed their flight to San Diego (from there is was a bus ride to Mexico), they did make. But some of their luggage didn't (fortunately only one bag).

The conditions are quite rustic: cold showers, latrines, and such. But they have been kept very busy.

A couple of things to pray for: continued safety of the group, success in making an impact on the people they encounter and in the work that they do, and healing for Kathy Harris (she has an infected cut that has was bad enough to have to seek medical treatment). I'll pass along any additional updates as I get them.

Updated Prayer Request from the Kensels

Here is a revised prayer request that the Kensels sent me yesterday (the original can be found here). I've blanked out the names because I'm not sure if they are OK with passing them along, but I'm pretty sure that will not limit the effectiveness of your prayers. Please keep this couple in your prayers:

Dear friends,

Please pray for the wife of a believer. We think she is a believer too. She has had a couple years of off and on illnesses that remained undiagnosed and has been very sick these last few months. In the last month she was diagnosed with TB. She is emotionally and physically pretty tired. With the meds and separation from her family, she is having some pretty severe emotional problems with fear. Some would call them panic attacks. Pray that God would give her peace of mind and would heal her of these things. The husband is one of the stronger believers and is continuing to pray and look to God for healing for his wife.
Tomorrow they go in to see the doctor to see if they can return home and continue taking the medication there (the TB meds are supposed to be taken in the presence of a doctor). It is a 6 month course of treatment for TB so she would be separated from her family (7 kids) for the next 5 months otherwise. Their names are B__ (the husband) and N__ ___ __ (wife).
In Him,
The Kensels

Update from the Kelly Schaeffer

I got this yesterday, but was out of the office and not diligently checking email. Kelly's promised update has arrived. Read on:

Good morning mark,
Thanks to everyone for all the prayers! We arrived safely in Guatemala on Tuesday and spent Wednesday in Antigua Guatemala before spending a five hour bus ride to Chiquimula. There was so much traffic in Guatemala City and then there was a protest/strike among the school teachers on Thursday morning that had traffic tied up for hours. We finally made it here to Myra's home in Chiquimula.

We sorted all the clothes, shoes, socks, and toys into boys and girls and then went to the market for food. What an experience -- rows and rows of fresh fruits and vegetables, chicken, etc. We bought chicken and fruits and vegetables for our food for the weekend.

The kids are really amazed at everything they are seeing. Here in Chiquimula, water is very precious -- we don't waste a drop! Also, there is no hot water -- so last night we all took cool water showers--that's okay though, it is very hot here. Each afternoon we have experienced the afternooon storms and rains of the "rainy season". Yesterday I saw three young girls that went down the mountain to the road where there is a public well. one of the little girls carrying a jug of water wasn't any more than 4 or 5 years old. I blew them each a balloon -- you should have seen their eyes as i was blowing it up. Then I got out some bubbles we had brought for the children. I had tears in my eyes watching them catch their first bubbles in the air.

Today (Friday), we went up the mountain to a very poor village to meet some families and let them know that we have lots of children's clothes and shoes. The first home we visited, we prayed with the wife and husband. Alicia, the wife, prays daily for her husband because he drinks a lot and beats her. They have ten children. The second home we visited, they also have 10 children and the husband has some disability so he asked us if we could find him a wheelchair so he could get to his therapy in Chiquimula proper. Later, in our visits, we went to another home where they had three wheelchairs--what a Blessing! After a lot of bargaining, we took the oldest wheelchair and delivered it to the family that needed it.

I have seen poverty but i am always blown away when i actually see people living in it. Many of the families do the best they can with dirt floors, no plumbing or latrines, no water. Tomorrow, we visit the most poor in this area. Sunday we will deliver the corn and beans. It is actually much more expensive here to provide rice than corn. Rice is three times as much as corn. I would never have thought that.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers -- they are much appreciated! I will provide another update on Sunday after services.

God Bless,
Kelly

The Schaeffers Leave Tomorrow

So for those of you who missed our service yesterday (Sunday July 23rd) and recent blog posts - Kelly and her family are headed to Guatamala starting tomorrow.

Kelly did send me a picture of the whole clan from last Christmas. Here they are:

Our church is partnering with her and will be funding the construction of a new stove for a needy family down there. This will allow a family to go from inhaling all of the smoke associated with cooking indoors like the picture below:

To this:

You can get more details at the Watchmen on the Walls website.

Pray for their safety as they travel to Myra's tomorrow.

Operation Waveland: (Not) Final Report

Operation Waveland was a success! Thanks to everybody who worked hard volunteering time to man the collection station (PackRat) and organizing the donated materials and then finally, loading the truck for shipment to Mississippi.

My apologies for my slowness in publishing the final report of our efforts to fill up the PackRat (generously donated) and send needed materials down to Lakeshore Baptist Church in Waveland, MS. But here it is.

Gene Clarke and Larry Warren's dad headed down to Lakeshore on the weekend of July 1st. The trip went without a hitch. Here are a couple of pictures from Sunday June 18th after church.


I'm not sure Gene was back even a day before he started thinking about what is next. He felt lead to be looking into providing Lakeshore a water purification system that could be used instead of relying on (expensive to transport) bottled water. Gene has been spending time on this and a water sample from Lakeshore is on its way to a company in Lakeland, FL for testing to ensure that the filtration system he is thinking will, actually will. Just as a note, and something to think about, the system will probably be in the range of $2,000. The next challenge will be to try to get donated plastic jugs for people to use, and figure out how to set it up in a more permanent fashion so it could be used for years, instead of quickly forgotten.

So the reason that this is not a final report is that we will likely work toward raising funds to purchase the filtration system. Anybody with expertise or interest in this matter, please let me know.

Update on the Schaeffer Family Missions Trip

July 25 is fast approaching. Our own Kelly Schaeffer, her mom and three children will be heading down to Chiquimula, Guatemala to volunteer time and serve with a missionary (Myra Smith). Details are available here if you missed the orginal post. They are planning on working hard with a ministry that is serving the poorest and most needy.

Some of you may not know Kelly, but you'd probably recognize her. Sadly, she didn't send me a picture of herself, but rather one of her kids.

She also wanted to send along a picture of her mother of which there are few digital photos excepting those with a young Elvis included. Carol (Kelly's mom) is below:

Keep this family in your prayers. They leave July 25th! Kelly has promised to take many pictures and will report back to us when she returns. I look forward to hearing about her trip.

New PVC Missionaries = The Williams

Last week we were fortunate to have the Williams family visiting with us. The Williams are currently planting a church in the Nicaraguan city of Leon which a was northwest of the capital city of Managua, roughly on the west coast (Pacific side) of the country. They are focusing on reaching the young professionals in that city, of which there are quite a few given that this is the "University Town" of Nicaragua. Below is a picture (somewhat recent Tony tells me) of their family:

Pastor Barry has known Tony for some time and has kept in touch with him over the years as the Williams went first to Costa Rica for language school and then made their way to Leon to begin their ministry. I hope to get more pictures of their church (currently meeting in their home) and their most recent newsletter posted as soon as I have them. Please keep the Williams in your prayers.

OK, I know you are thinking that I just posted that we are adding the Deakynes for support - and now we are adding yet another. That's probably what the trustees are thinking too. If you feel led to be directly supporting our missionary families (of which we now have five: the Williams (Peru), the Williams (Nicaragua), the Kensels (Thailand), the Halls (Toronto), and the Deakynes (Paris) ), please feel free to provide support through the church. Just designate your gift as "PVC Missions" and we will know where to direct it.

Maybe even more importantly, keep these families in your prayers. Each has special challenges that they are facing and a unique way that they are spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. You can be part of their ministry by regularly praying for them.

New PVC Missionaries = The Deakynes

I hope you all remember Chad and Kim that joined in our morning services two weeks ago. To help jog your memory, I've pasted in a picture below. They are currently serving as missionaries to France with a group called World Team. Park Valley Church has begun to support them in their work in France (outside of Paris) and are excited about what the opportunities will be going forward.


When they were with us in the morning service they talked about kindness (in keeping with Barry's message) and how it was so important for them, and how much they have felt from the people they have met and grown close to in France. They are currently working to start a church in the southwest suburbs of Paris, not far from Versailles. I was excited to hear from them after the service that there were a number of people with close ties to France (grew up there, flies there every week, etc.) that they were able to get to know. God has a neat way of connecting people all across the world!

Chad and Kim are good friends of Chirsta and mine. We've known them for some time (when they were teachers at a Christian school in Fairfax and living in Warrenton). They love to hike - while they were visiting us we were able to take a hike up "Old Rag" in the Shenandoahs. It was a good hike except for the whole bear incident. Here's a pic of Kim with the kids taking a quick break.

Prayer Request from the Kensels

I was chatting via Skype with my sister (Deb Kensel) today and she wanted me to pass along this prayer request to the church:

Please pray for a lady who is the wife of a young believer - we are not sure if she has believed. She is having medical problems and psychiatric problems, she has been sick for the last two weeks and not really well for the last 3 years, please pray God would see fit to heal her.

Please do pray and I will keep you up to speed on any progress of this situation. Deb also mentioned that the van that they purchased a while back (with help from PVC):

... on a related subject the van has been a tremendous help, not only did we still have wheels while the truck was stuck in the village we have been able to help the orphanage and a halfway house with transportation and suppies.

Finally, here is a quick picture of the boys - Stephen, John and James on John's recent birthday working hard at their pumpkin pie (John prefers it to cake).

A PVC Family's Mission Trip: Introduction

Kelly Schaeffer, her mom and family will be heading to Central America. She recently provided me some of the details. It is a great trip! I'll keep people posted along the way, but here are the details to pray for. From a recent email from Kelly:

On July 25, 2006, we will begin our journey to work with the people in Chiquimula, Guatemala. I will be traveling with my mother, Carol, and my three children - Nicholas (age 10), Renee (age 8) and Zoë (age 21 months). For me, this trip will be fulfilling a promise I made two years ago. It was in December 2004 that I had my first encounter with beautiful Guatemala, and her people, through the adoption of my youngest daughter, Zoë. During my week long visit in 2004, I met many people in some of the poorest living conditions that I had ever seen--many were women and children. I vowed to return someday to Guatemala and volunteer my time helping the Guatemalan children.

In January 2006, I began researching volunteer organizations/opportunities, where I found many opportunities for my mom and me, but I really wanted to be able to travel with my children and have them also experience serving others. I found Myra Smith, of Watchmen on the Walls Ministry in Guatemala. How I found Myra is truly a blessing from God. Myra actually raised a friend's two Guatemalan children while they were in an orphanage waiting for their adoption process to be complete. My friend told me about Myra and what she was doing in Chiqumiula. Myra is originally from Baltimore, MD and she has has been living in Guatemala for 10 years, and sharing the word of God with some of the poorest people in Guatemala, many of whom have learned what God can do in their lives and have accepted Christ as their Savior. I decided to see if Myra would be willing to allow my whole family to volunteer with her mission in Chiquimula, Guatemala. Myra said, "absolutely", and so began the planning for our trip to Guatemala.

Chiquimula is located about three hours by road (improved and unimproved) from Guatemala City. It is typically hot and dry, although Guatemala is about to enter into their "rainy" season beginning in early August through November. While in Chiquimula, we will be bagging vegetables, rice, and beans and delivering them to the homes of some of the local people that Myra knows are either without any support (i.e., husbands that are working), are sick or injured, or have just had babies. While at these homes, we will talk and pray with the people. Nicholas and Renee will be in charge of introducing the kids to bubbles, playing games, and reading. Renee has been practicing reading books in Spanish, such as "Where the Wild Things Are".

In addition, some local Guatemalan people are constructing a large building that will serve as a large kitchen (Comedor), school and part time clinic. The kitchen will serve hot meals to mostly women and children that might not otherwise eat. we are hopeful to have some opportunity to work some on the Comedor. Finally, on Sunday, we will participate with the 40-60 women that regularly attend church services and their collective 220 children! I am looking forward to trying to sing worship songs in Spanish:-)

More details to come . . .