July 2009 Archives

Well, as you can tell I was unable to make entries for Day 3 and 4 of VBS.  We had technical difficulties with the internet.  We did complete VBS today and we had a wonderful time.  I don't know of any specifice decisions, but Pastor Tim knows of some and he is going to follow-up this next week with the parents and the children.  As you can see with some of the pictures, the children had a great time and also the pastor.  For this last time assembly time, the pastor asked all the parents to come up front with their children and have them sing and do the motions of the songs for this week.  A lot of fun was had by all.  You can also see in the pictures that our group also participated in the songs and motions.  They filled up the canoe with school supplies for the church in Brazil that Nagatuck Valley Community Church sponsors.  We are working on a shared mission trip for next year with our adults and our youth.  More information will be forthcoming.  We will be leaving for home tomorrow afternoon.  We look forward to sleeping a little later for tomorrow morning.  We hope to see you all in church on Sunday morning.  We love you and thank you for your support this week.

We had a very eventful day today.  We, of course, had the VBS day 2 and the kids were very excited and they brought school supplies for the kids in Brazil.  They even brought some friends along.  We had a total of 65 today but they added 9 new students.  Dr. Edwards played Pharoh today.  We are teaching the Moses story in case you didn't know.  When VBS ended we traveled to New Boston and met up with the George West team that is doing construction for a Spanish church.  We also visited the Western Connecticut Baptist Association building.  At each place we had a prayer meeting in encourage the work in New England.  We then traveled to Waterbury and visited with the pastor that works in the downtown area and works a lot with the street people in Waterbury.  He also has a food pantry.  We had a prayer meeting with him also.  It is very discouraging to be in the New England area where our country was founded and see the lack of Christianity here.  There are a lot of old church buildings that were started in the early 1700's, but yet are empty.  There is a sense of religion in New England, but not a sense of Christianity.  So the fields are "white with harvest".  The missionaries really need our prayers.  Until tomorrow...

Well, we reached the end of a very long day of VBS and prayer walking.  We originally were to only assist, but soon found out that we were in charge of stations.  Robert, Bob, & Carole were in charge of snacks and Bible stories.  Mary and I were in charge of recreation.  Annette was in charge of showing a video and having interaction with the children.  They were hoping for 70 children and had 62.  So, I look to seeing more than 70 showing up tomorrow.  We had a great day yesterday participating in English church service, Spanish church service, and finishing up with a Portuguese church service.  We went to Sheldon this afternoon and did a prayer walk around the old part of town seeking God's guidance in what ministering opportunities are available.  Keep praying for us as we continue our work here.  More updates each day.

Saturday, July 25

Well we made it.  All went well and we will be in church tomorrow morning.  In the A.M. we will be at Naugatuck Valley Community Church and then we will go to Primera Iglesia Baptista at 4:00 pm and then to Igreja Comunidade Baptista for evening worship.  We are tired but excited.  Please be in prayer for us as we minister to the people in Connecticut.

Well, we leave for Connecticut on Saturday, July 25.  We will be serving in Naugatuck for the week and returning on August 1.  We will be helping with VBS in the morning times.  They are using Goup's Crococile Dock with a Louisiana Bayou Back woods theme.  We will be using our puppets and helping with their games and Bible studies.  Dr. Robert Edwards will be sharing in the missions emphasis time.  Then in the afternoons we will be conducting community surveys and participating in prayer walks.  Our team consists of Dr. Robert Edwards, Annette Gardner, Bob and Carole Crawford, and Gains and Mary Gardner.  Please be in prayer for us as we travel and as we participate in what God wants us to do.  Pray that God will be glorified this week in Connecticut.  Hopefully, If I can get the technology correct, I will be posting pictures and short stories to the website this next week.  See you all on Sunday August 2. 

/Gains