Thursday, July 24th in Canada

Basketball is still up and running.... the enthusiasm is still strong... We have met some awesome kids that have blessed our lives. Pastor Brett's message during our "Cross training" time has reminded the campers that God knows all and that we have been created for specific purposes. He explained how important it is to be on "Jesus' Team" and following the Word of Truth.

Tomorrow we will wrap up the camp with special treats, games, and contests. We have been so blessed to be a part of this camp!

Last night we were a part of the Sanctuary's Life gathering (Bible Study). Studying the third chapter in James has so many life lessons. The people that we met there were so warm and welcoming.

Talk about fun!!! Tonight we grilled out hamburgers and hotdogs for the Toronto Argonauts from the CFL.These guys came in from a practice and were so appreciative and friendly. It was great working with Dave and Ruth Hudson as a part of the Athletes in Action ministry.

Again, we can't say thank you enough for this opportunity to serve. We have truly been blessed.

Pat and Mary Lee

Tuesday in Canada

Day 2

Last night was really special as we went with Dave Hudson to an Athletes in Action campus meeting. A defensive back for the CFL Argonauts gave his testimony. WOW! His inspiration touched the young adults who were there. His testimony included stories of poverty, drugs, and football before he gave his life to Christ. Since giving his life to Christ he's become an ambassador for the Lord on and off the field.

Today all basketball campers returned and made tremendous improvement. Each day is divided into 4 sessions with a devotional time and short life lesson given by Pastor Brett. Today he used masking tape to make his point. Ask Pat or me about it.... it was good. We are anxious to share how you can get involved with these two wonderful Canadian missions ( The Sanctuary and Athletes in Action).




After camp today, Ruth was so kind to take us to Niagara Falls and Niagara on the Lake. What an amazing experience. How can one not believe in an awesome GOD after seeing His artwork?

Pat and I want to thank Kevin and Allyson and all who made this trip possible. Thanks for your prayers and kind words.


Pat and Mary Lee

Canadian Basketball Camp-Monday, Day 1

We are resting this afternoon from an outstanding morning full of energy produced by 28 basketball players ranging in skill and age. Each camper received his or her own ball...that was a big deal! The high school gym was filled with bouncing balls, screeching shoes, and the constant roar of kids ranging in age from 5-14.

The Hudsons and the Porters have been incredible host families. Sunday service at the Sanctuary was overflowing with 92 young kids from Tenn. that were ON MISSION this past week doing incredible things for God.

We joined in with some of their church members and saw a breath-taking victory by the Toronto Argonauts. That was a real treat.

Please continue to keep us in prayer for God's guidance and will as we help support these dedicated families ON MISSION in Canada.

Pat and MaryLee

Our team is back home.

Tonight's post comes from the comfort of my house. Our entire team made it home with all of their luggage but without all of their normal energy. Please pray for us as we attempt to adjust to this time zone. We have basically just completed a 20 hour trip.

We are all thankful for the folks who helped us get home tonight after the bus had a tire blowout on the way to the airport. Ed Johnson and Ski Szymanski came to the rescue with our two smaller buses. Skip Tucker got the large bus fixed. Thanks to them, along with Allyson and Monty, for helping us get home with only a 30 minute delay. Thanks to God that we were not on the bus when it happened - being stuck on the side of the road after such a long day of travel would have been challenging!

You would probably enjoy knowing that as our plane landed in Orlando a recording came over the sound system saying that there was an emergency. There was a pause and then the message was given that we were going to land in the ocean. We were instructed how to get our life jacket and how to slide out of the plane. This was funny for most except those of us who had wings in the middle section next to the wings. Our only view was the glare off of the wing which looked like clouds. I kept looking out wondering why we were still in the clouds when we would be getting close to our landing time. When the emergency message came on the plane immediately touched down with the usual noise - but if you had my seat I had no idea that we were actually touching down. That experience will make your heart beat!!! David Galat said he was thinking that he wished he had paid more attention to the emergency directions at the first of the flight. Needless to say we were awake at that point of the flight!

Have a great night - I'll post more photos tomorrow when my brain starts functioning again.

On the way...

It seems almost impossible that our time here is finished. The team will be waking up in the next hour and will be making the trip to the airport. Last night as we met it was obvious that everything that we have in us was given during the week. It has been a privilege to serve with a group of people who have given of themselves so that others can come to know the awesome love of our Creator.

I am uploading several pictures for you to view. You will see photos of waterday (where the goal is to get wet), our team debrief here in Budapest, small group times and a couple of our team members doing laundry. You will also see a couple of photos of two young ladies that you will now meet in Heaven, too.

I know we have said thanks before but I'd like to express it once again - to see that this many folks have been coming alongside us on this journey has blessed us incredibly.

As we return home please remember what we had shared in our last meeting with you before we left: 1. When we see you tonight it will seem like the middle of the night for us. Please be patient with us! We want to tell you "everything" but we are exhausted in many different ways. 2. It is hard to try to tell you about everything - sort of like seeing the Grand Canyon and trying to explain it to someone. 3. We have experienced God individually in some ways that will take us quite a while to process. We have not even really begun that process.

I know we can't wait to see our families... Soon.

Bedding in Budapest

We arrived in Budapest earlier this evening. We enjoyed some real pizza from Pizza Hut, debriefed with the Bullocks and are counting down the hours until we head to the airport in the morning.

Some of our team headed to downtown Budapest to see the palace and other sites. It is a beautiful city. Others of us stayed here since there is now only one van for transportation - we promise that it had nothing to do with the fact that we are exhausted!

It was very difficult to see the children returning to their villages but at the same time it was exciting because we know that we have been faithful with what God has called us to do this week. Their story will continue because of Him - not because of us. He just allowed us to be a part of the story for this one chapter. We are grateful for that.

God has done some incredible things this week and not only in the lives of the children. Several of the campers put their faith in Jesus.

We are so grateful for your prayers, posts and encouraging words. This has been a great, great week that we should all stop and thank God for allowing us to be His hands and feet to a lost, hurting and perishing world.

We will post more pictures upon our arrival this weekend.

Itinerary Update

Good Saturday Morning!!!

Many of you received phone calls from me this morning re: an updated flight arrival time into Orlando. For security reasons, I will not be posting that time here. However, the flight number from London has not changed. To stay posted on the teams arrival time, go to the airlines website and look on the bottom right corner of the page, you can enter the flight number and date of arrival to stay posted. Plan on the team arriving in Ocala about 3 hours after landing. You will receive a call with more updated info once the team is on the ground in Orlando. Thanks so much everyone!!!

Friday is Finished…

It is almost 2 a.m. and it is raining at the moment so you will not be getting much information now.

We just finished an incredible day of worship and fun. We had a blast on water day – everybody was wet! We then finished the day with a huge bonfire.

We have witnessed several kids coming to know Jesus today – it has been a great week.

We have some time in the morning – I’ll try to post before we leave in the morning for Oradea and then to Budapest.

I know that I am ready to see my family and I’m pretty certain the rest of the team feels the same way.

Excited about Canada

This is Mary Lee and I am so excited about traveling to Canada with Pat and meeting so many new and neat people. I'd love to hear from any of you...so I will be checking this blog often.
In His Name and for His service, Mary Lee

*** Note from the Missions Dept: As the team from Romania begins their travels back tomorrow (Saturday), we have a great team of 2 going to Mississauga, Ontario for a basketball camp. Our friends, the Porters and the Hudsons will be putting on a basketball camp with their church, The Sanctuary, next week. Please be in prayer for the team, the Porters, the Hudsons, the camp counselors and all of the kids that will be impacted next week. Thanks for checking in! ***

Big Day Friday

Good morning to us and happy sleeping to our friends in the USA.

We are getting ready for the beginning of our day here. Please be praying for us throughout today as we spend the last hours with these wonderful children.

In our teaching time today we will be focusing on salvation. It is our prayer that God would draw the children to Himself. Please join us in this prayer. They need Him (just like we do). It would be awesome to worship at the throne next to these Romanians...

We all miss our families and friends very much. We can't wait to make an attempt at sharing all that God is doing in our lives this week. (Remember to be patient with us when we return - we will be very, very tired. We commit to really make a great effort at sharing what God is doing in our lives.)

Thursday is done... and it was awesome.

Today has been awesome. We had a great day of worship and teaching. We then took a 3 hour hike up a mountain. The views were maginificent. God's creation is so incredible.

We finished with a "talent night." It is really very difficult to type anything to describe the evening. My brain is dead 'cause I laughed so hard when one boy got up with a talent of "ping-pong." Randy asked him if he was going to play a game of ping-pong by himself. It got more interesting when he asked for 2 balls. They scrambled to locate the ping-pong balls and gave them to the smiling boy. He then placed one in each arm pit, raised his arms and the balls fell to the floor. He smiled, the crowd celebrated and I'll never be the same. My mind can't figure out what was happening. I am not sure if this is funny to you but I am using these notes as a type of therapy to help me heal. :)

Everyone is doing great. We are starting to get a little tired but we only have one more day to give ourselves away here in Romania (at camp) so we are going to finish strong.

Thursday already…

The week is really flying by quickly! We had a great day yesterday – Wednesdays always seem to be the most difficult days of camps (sore bodies, tired minds and the realization of what we can’t do as easily as earlier years) but our team did great yesterday.

Our teaching focus yesterday was on forgiveness. Pray that these children can understand that God sent His Son Jesus so that He could demonstrate that forgiveness. We naturally move onto the subject of God’s grace today.

We had our first day of recreation yesterday. I love watching the children and having the chance to encourage them. Our team members jumped in and participated when necessary. We laughed so much yesterday it hurt! To see Jeff Dofing spin around a bat 5 times, get up to run in the wrong direction and then fall down was hilarious. He later commented, “folks go to the car races to see the wrecks.” He has done a great job at hanging out with the children.

Ed and Sandi Lewis continue to do an outstanding job leading our team. Their gentle nature and lovable character has really rubbed off on the team. If Ed was fishing and caught a fish he would say “Bordeline 11” (on a scale of 1 to 10) – well Ed and Sandi have done a “Borderline 11” job at leading the team!

I’m out in the field with the ground’s crew this morning. The horses, pigs and cows mow the field every day. They also fertilize the field – for free. J

Thanks again for all of your participation in this blog. Your communication to the team is shared every morning during our devotion time.

Pictures from the last couple of days

From team members...

From Sarah Jo: Hello from Romania!! It has been an amazing time here- can't even begin to tell about it all. The kids are amazing, the weather has been good, and we all still have energy. Mom, Dad, Liz, James, and Hannah, I miss you all sooooooo much and am excited to see you in like- a week! Daniel, Patrick, Jdee, and everyone else- I miss you all and cant wait to tak to you and tell you about the awesome things God is doing in Romania. GOD BESS!!!

De Annie-Grace: Hola mi familia! TE AMO MUCHO MUCHO MUCHO! i miss y'all amost as much as i love you! i hope all is well in ocala and that you guys are at least having some fun without me. moma, i may break my promise and bring home some romanian children :) just one or two, don't worry. daddy, i love you and i miss you and i hope the grass doesn't look too bad. To my boy: gracias para las cartas y the posts you've left, pero you may have some competition with some of these boys here. on that note, it is amazing here and i am sooooooooo glad that He got me here and i KNOW that He is with y'all and keeping you safe. i love you daddy, kisses to you moma, y te amo boo. (tell los abuelos i'm safe, i love them, and i miss them)

No rain this morning - but still colder than Florida

Here are the photos from the first days of camp. The top photo is our group leaving Hotel Melody for the camp. The two girls on the bus are Anita and Andrea. Next is a picture of David hanging out with the students. Kelsey is tracing the hand of a girl on the Red Team - with help from Amanda.

A little more colder and a little more wetter...

(It is not feeling like summer camp right now! I am sitting in the back of Randy's van with the doors opened so that I can stay dry and the satellite modem can see the open sky. It is cold!)

We have now finished our first full day of camp – well, almost finished. I still hear the boys in the room above running around and laughing. /These kids know how to enjoy themselves!

Our large group and small group times today focused on the subject of acceptance. Our teaching goal was that the children would come to understand that God created them and loves them just as they are – regardless of how they may view themselves.

It has rained on-and-off for most of the day. Along with the rain came some very cool temperatures. We don’t quite have the weather channel here so I am guessing that the temperatures were in the low 60s today (for the high) and even colder if you got rained on!

The weather changed some of our recreation plans but that all came together when we got the 5 foot ball filled with air. Some of the team spent a large amount of time using a small compressor to air the ball but we finished airing it up the old-fashioned way – by using our own hot air. We placed a 1/2” piece of pvc pipe into the hole and took turns blowing in it. Within about 15 minutes it was game time!

I just need to tell you that we have some crazy team members. Lacie Martin is out-of-control! She had a break-away run toward the goal and then suddenly decided to jump on top of the ball and ride it. The ball won. Amanda Quinley would not be out-done. I am not sure where it came from but she came out like a crazy woman and she was knocking people everywhere! David Galat was all over the place, too. Even Randy and Debbie were involved in the craziness.

I've got some photos to send but the modem is working very, very slow tonight and I am very, very cold so I'll try sending them tomorrow. You might call me a sissy but some stray dog just came up to the van and helped convince me that it is time to get some sleep! :) Did I tell you it is cold????

Day 2 - a little cool and a little wet

We are off to a great start today! We survived the all-night thunderstorms to wake up with much colder weather. I have not heard anyone complain about the change in temperatures – it was hot yesterday!

Our small group times continue to be incredible. To hear the Romanian children quote verses in both English and Romanian is awesome. It sounds much, much better than the Americans stumbling through the Romanian version. It is quite humbling to hear little children laugh when you try but in the end it is well worth the effort. Annie Grace just quoted a verse in Romanian to the entire group. That was impressive! A Romanian girl also said the verse in English. How awesome it is to serve a God who has no language barriers. He heard them both the same!

We will have our first afternoon of crafts and recreation here in the next couple of hours. As you get your day started we are halfway through the 2nd day of camp!

We thank you so much for your participation in this blog. To see how many folks had viewed this site encourages our team. Your posts are being shared every day with the team.

I'll post some photos later - they take longer to upload through the satellite modem and it is still raining a little (misting) so I'll try again tonight.

These kids are incredible...

Wow... what a long day! I am sitting in the middle of a field in Romania - in between shower storms - to tell you that our God has granted us a special privilege to be here. Thanks for sharing in this journey with us!

We made the long drive out here without any real problems. Only a couple of the children got sick on the bus. The weather cooperated and we had a great first day at camp.

Our small groups met together and we spent the afternoon just trying to learn names and find new ways to communicate. Love really does cross all barriers!

Walter did a great job tonight by challenging the students from the Bible. The kids were very attentive to everything that happened tonight.

We wake up in the morning and start our first full day of camp. Pleae pray for our strength and attitudes.

I gotta go... it is lightning and starting to rain. Thanks again for the prayers.

Our last night with comfort...

Tonight marks the end of our time with normal comforts called air conditioning and normal hot water showers. No more cool drinks, quiet rooms or private bathrooms. At 8 in the morning we will begin the long journey to the mountain range to begin our time at camp. Over 40 youth and children will become our family for the week. Please continue to pray that God gives us the ability to love beyond the language and culture barriers.

The time on the bus could be challenging since many of these children have never been on a bus ride. They usually get car sick and spend much of the trip filling up barf bags. Yep... sounds exciting, I know. You are calling the church office at this moment signing up for next year's trip. But here is the great part - we get to serve these precious children all week long so that they can experience God's love. Might as well start with the hard stuff!

We really do have a great team. Everyone did a great job sharing at the church this morning. We spent the evening with our translators and other Romanians. It was great to watch Annie Grace and Angela O'John playing volleyball. They are both really sweet young ladies who play a very good game of volleyball.

This morning Jana and Lacie sang the Chris Tomlin version of Amazing Grace. Once they got started our team joined them. Even a Romanian playing the keyboard was singing with us. It was a very awesome moment for our team.

We will arrive at the camp tomorrow and begin setting everything up for the week. I will do my best to post tomorrow night (our time) so that you can continue to pray specifically for us. Words cannot do a very good job at explaining how excited our team is about your comments on the blog. Just to know so many people are viewing the blog is incredible to us.

Here is a picture of some our fans from our volleyball game. (Margie Johnson, Adelina, Debbie Bullock, Peyton Hall and Amy Ergle) Susan Ergle and Bonnie Weeks are talking behind this first group.

Please know that Amy really does still have 2 arms. I don't recall anyone letting me know that she lost it over here in Romania. If she did, however, we will exhaust all of our means to locate it. :)

Our prayer for tomorrow is that God would continue to shape our hearts to be used by Him to communicate His great love to these children.

Have a great night!

From Alyssa...

Hey guys! Alyssa here . . . So it's been awesome to read all of your comments. They are so encouraging and uplifting. It's cool that even across the world we know that people are praying for us right now. So keep posting! And that means you too Mom and Dad! I am highly offended that every youth's parents and/or family has left a comment and you haven't. I know you are technologically challenged but I mean, come on. I am your FAVORITE child and I feel so unloved right now.

Now for an update on us. We have had a fabulous day today in the holy hut. Although it is quite hot here I think everyone had an awesome experience worshiping with others in a different language. This year we were even able to to take part in the Lord's supper. It was just another reminder of how big our God is. He's not just in Ocala, but He's here in Oradea.

So, it's our last night in downtown Oradea. We're off to play volleyball, Romanian style. David Galat and I are going to dominate . . . in the name of Jesus of course. We'll enjoy one last warm Coke and the air conditioning. Keep up the prayers and the comments.

Love, Alyssa

(Important Note from Kevin: The expressed views of this author do not necessarily represent the views of this blog. :) Just kidding - we really do love Alyssa. Her enthusiasm really adds to our team. The picture above was from tonight's volleyball game. This girl is intense. I'm pretty sure that if she kept that face and asked every child at camp if they knew Jesus - the whole camp would probably get saved. Some may already be saved and would do it again just 'cause they were scared)

Gettin' ready...

We had a great day today preparing for next week. We have an incredible team! In the photos you will see most of our team as we get ready to leave the church. Due to technical difficulties our star member in the other photo (David Galat) joined the team after the first team picture was taken. Please do not re-distribute this photo - David may charge us for the unauthorized use of his image.

Tomorrow we will go to church in one of the villages. We are responsible for the morning gathering of believers in a village church on the other side of the planet from our home. Several team members will be singing and others will be sharing testimonies. David Galat and Ed Lewis will be speaking. Please pray for God to use our team to encourage this church. Apparently they have had some tough times recently so we are praying that God would use us to encourage them. Only God can take all of those dynamics and make something great happen. That is our prayer.

Please continue to pray as we transition to the Romanian time zone and the Romanian food. Our prayer is that God would help us to feel like we have always slept during these times and that our bodies will handle the different diet.

God has already brought this team far down the journey of creating strong team dynamics. I watched team members today have a great servant spirit as they made final preparations for the crafts. Margie Johnson has done a great job leading us with the crafts. I heard the ladies group working on a song that they will be doing in sign language - it was awesome. Ed and Sandi Lewis continue to lead us towards Jesus with their positive and fun attitude. We have several high school students with us - they have brought lots of energy and laughter to our team.

Thanks for joining us on this mission trip - the number of folks reading and praying has provided tremendous encouragement to us.

We continue to pray for you, too.

Checking out the town...

Today we have been working on our final camp details. Our different teams have now been able to meet with the translators to work through any questions we have had with our materials and plans. We are blessed to have such a wonderful group of friends here who love Jesus. They are a great encouragement to us.

We took a couple of hours today to walk around the community here in Oradea. It was a great time of learning about the local culture.

Please continue to pray for us as we adjust to now being awake during our normal middle of the night time. We are 7 hours ahead of the time zone in Ocala.

Roaming in Romania

This picture of Ed Lewis shows much of what today was like for us - on a plane appreciating the opportunity to be on this team. After spending the last 24 hours traveling we can finally say these words - "we are here." We are over 6000 miles from home but have been greeted by family members from our church.

It has been an incredible day. Jessica Bullock surprised her parents and Romanian friends by joining us on this trip. To say that they were surprised would be an understatement. We will never forget the love that we witnessed today!

We are so grateful for the many prayers. There is no doubt that God is going to do some incredilbe things in the days ahead. Please pray for us to rest tonight - most of us have slept very little since we left home.

Tomorrow will be spent adjusting to this new time zone and working to complete preparations for the camp next week.

Have a great rest of the day - we are going to sleep!

We made it... to the Orlando Airport!

Well, the long, long journey to the Orlando International Airport has been completed. All of our luggage and tubs made it, too. We have made it through the security checkpoints and the language barrier has not been a problem.

Thanks to Allyson and all of our families for helping us through the packing and planning process.

Our flight leaves here at 5:25 p.m. - we will be flying for several hours into London. Our next leg will take us to Budapest and we will then drive 4 hours into Oradea, Romania! Our next post will hopefully be from Romania.

We have taken a group photo - please notice the new team member we are taking with us. It will be quite the surprise to those in Romania!

The countdown is on...

Wow - in 24 hours we will be on the bus heading to the airport. Every team member I have spoken to is either ready or really close to being finished. At this point it kind of feels like studying for a big test and thinking you have done as much as possible to be ready.

Ed and Sandi Lewis have done an incredible job preparing our team. They have done a wonderful job building on the experiences of the last two summer teams. Thanks to all who have gone before us - you have made our efforts more effective.

Here are some photos that Randy Bullock sent us. You will be able to see some of the children that we will work with next week. The first picture is from the Valani village. The one below is from Geipu. The two children are Abbie & Stefan - the pastor's kids. They are awesome!

Romania Team 2008 Getting Ready

Our team is making the final preparations to leave for Romania. We leave on July 10th for Oradea, Romania. Over 40 Romanian children are getting ready to have a camp experience - most of them for the very first time. Our prayer is that many of them come to know the love of Jesus during this week. Thanks for praying for the team.