Mission Trip Photos are online

We now have some photos online at http://www.whbconline.org courtesy of HaLee Curtis. Thanks for the great photos.

Thursday - free time

Thursday was another day on our ministry sites followed by some free time in the evening in the city. We had a worship service when we returned to camp Half of our group went to King of Prussia Mall and the other half used the SEPTA train to ride into Center City Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and to get Philly Cheese steaks at Genos in South Philly. The SEPTA train system is a great way to visit the city.

I realize that I have not described our worship services so I have added a new post on the Worship Media and Technology blog that talks about our worship experience.

I'll have a longer post later today to talk about our last day at our ministry sites and Mega-Relay. Our last main camp-wide fellowship.

See you later

Snorting and Spelling Bees

Wednesday brought a change in the weather to the trip. Mostly the day was overcast with a few sprinkles, but in the evening we had a heavy rainstorm that changed the stream on campus in to a Class II whitewater rapid. In general, the weather was really good with a nice breeze.

At Carroll park our Bible story/Craft portion of day was the Battle of Jericho. Our children created "horns" from construction paper and acted out the marching around the walls of the city (the walls were three of our teenagers).

Our PCY group spent some time indoors painting at a woman's home. The room they were painting had green paint, which they have decided always peels. The other PCY team spent time clearing brush from an overgrown lot. They called home to make sure they knew how to identify poison ivy. One of the other groups went to a senior center and got to go line dancing and enjoyed talking to the seniors.

Last night's camp-wide fellowship was an elimination game. Each church had to provide two group leaders. Graham and I were selected. We advanced fairly far in the "competition". Two of the events were a snorting contest and a Bible spelling bee. The snorting content involved two people snorting at each other until one of the two laughed or showed their teeth. Apparently I am quite an accomplished snorter based on comments from breakfast this morning.

During the Bible spelling bee the first round had easy words such as peace, joy, and Jesus. My word was Luke. Having watched the National spelling bee, I asked "Can you repeat the word?" followed up by "Could you use the word in a sentence?". I was eliminated by the word Nebuchadrezzar and Graham was eliminated by Beelzebub

Tonight is our free night to visit Philadelphia. One group will be going downtown to see some of the historic sites and the rest of the group will be going to the King Of Prussia mall (2nd largest in America) We are getting lots of pictures which we will share when we get home.

Meeting Mrs Doris

Based on last night's church group devotion time our youth had a good day in Philly. There are 15 ministry track teams at Fuge this week. Most of our youth are in a group that has at least one other person from WHBC. Here are a sampling of comments from last nights sessions.

Our PCY (painting cleanup and yard work) groups had a fulfilling day working at some homes in the area. One group worked to clear ivy and debris from a yard and washed mold off of the side of a home. The homeowner is an elderly woman who is recovering from a recent hip surgery and is making plans to put her home on the market so she can relocate to NC. Due to her recovery she has been unable to maintain her yard.

Our creative ministries group went to Don Guanella School which is a residential facility for boys and young men who suffer from mental retardation or other developmental impairments. They had a great time playing basketball and soccer with the residents.

Yesterday our ministry track team spent the day in Carroll Park. There we met Mrs. Doris. She is one of the group of four women who were instrumental in reclaiming the park from drug dealers and other crime. We spent the day playing with the kids, making balloon animals, doing Bible stories, crafts, and songs.

While we were with the kids, Mrs. Doris spent the morning and afternoon going around
the park with a wheelbarrow and yard tools. I admire her silent service. She spends her day maintaining the park and is a presence for the kids in Carroll park. Mrs. Doris is the youngest of the four women who reclaimed the park and has has some health issues in recent years, but that doesn't deter her from service.

Our internet connectivity is a bit spotty, so keep checking for posts.

We're in Philly!

We arrived in Philadelphia today around 2:15. We had a great day in terms of traffic as we easily made it through both the Washington and Baltimore metro areas without significant delay. We had a brief rain shower this afternoon during our check in time, but in general the weather has been warm and humid.

We have 24 folks on the trip. They are: Dave Bolt, Graham Cheek, HaLee Curtis, JoRay Johnson, William Parks, Carrie Parks, Jeff Buffkin, Briana Bennett, Andrew Colley, Mary Beth Colley, Tessa Curtis, Dave Hornby, Sarah Lau, Vincent Lau, Stephen Perkins, Ashton Queen, Emily Johnson, Kellen Flowers, Kenley Flowers, Lindsey Babcock, Nicole Snyder, Oriana McGee, Kurt Berckmueller, Casey Holmes, & Josh Holmes.

Our students and adults will be participating in the following ministry tracks:

• Children's ministry in city parks (Carroll Park, Malcolm X Park)
  
• Games and Recreation ministry in city parks
• Social Ministry
• Creative Ministry
• Painting, Cleanup, & Yardwork (aka PCY)

These ministries will cover the Philadelphia metro (including portions of New Jersey) and will cover 45 sites over the week. We will spend four days at our various ministry sites. Some teams remain in a fixed location while others travel to two sites each day. We will work in parks, nursing homes, homes for disabled children and adults, and at various social ministries such as thrift stores and food banks. We also will spend time daily in Bible Study and Worship.

We spent Monday evening planning for tomorrow when we go out to our sites. Now everyone is going to bed until tomorrow AM. 6:00 AM comes early!

Stan Hicks Touring with The CenturyMen

Our own Stan Hicks will be touring with The CenturyMen Chorus for the first two weeks of July. Do you know anything about this Grammy Award-winning group? They are made up of Baptist ministers of music and musicians who give their time to sing to the glory of God. You can learn more about them by going to their website.

http://thecenturymen.com

Stan and Carrie need your prayers for health, safety and good voices as they travel. Pray especially for the Baptist Churches where they will be singing. Pray for encouragement of the congregation so they can use these concerts as a means of evangelism.

Here is a brief outline of their tour schedule:

Baptist Heritage Mission Tour, England, Scotland, & Wales, July 3-15, 2008 featuringThe CenturyMen

July 6, 2008
Concert - All Souls Church Langham Place, London, England 9:30 & 11:00 AM

July 7, 2008
Concert 8:00 PM Coventry, England

July 8, 2008
Concert - Parish Church of St.Peter and St. Paul 7:00 PM Olney, England

July 9, 2008
Concert - Fuller Baptist Church 7:00 PM Kettering, England

July 10, 2008
Concert - Outdoors in front of the castle at statue of Lloyd George 4:00 PM Caernarfon, Wales

July 11, 2008
Concerts in various schools during the day Concert - Joint Concert with Caernarfon Male Chorus 7:00 PM Pritchard Hall, University of Bangor, Caernarfon, Wales

July 12, 2008
Morning Concert - Yorkminster Cathedral York, England Concert - Tabernacle Baptist
Church 7:00 PM Stockton-On-Tees, England

July 13, 2008
Concert - St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland) 6:00 PM Edinburgh, Scotland

July 14, 2008
Mini-Concert - St. Margarets Chapel, Edinburgh Castle Morning Edinburgh, Scotland

15th Anniversary of Grace Baptist Church

This is a view of the congregation spilling out of the front of Grace Baptist Church, Odessa, Ukraine on June 22, 2008 after the celebration of their 15th anniversary. The congregation also included members of the 5 mission churches planted by Grace and other digntaries from sister Baptist Churches in the Odessa Oblast as well as the President of the Baptist Convention from Kiev.

The congregation and guests actually posed on the front steps while a photographer on a very high ladder took a picture of the group. It was quite an impressive view! The building on the left is the Children's Shelter. The children and this ministry is in clear view of the front door of the church so that all who come can know that these children are loved by the entire church body.

Can you imagine preparing dinner on the grounds for close to 500 people without the help of a caterer! That is exactly what the kitchen staff of Grace Baptist did along with the help of volunteers. You can see the picnic lunches on the table as Victoria prepares to hand them out to people. In each container were boiled potatoes, a chicken cutlet (think chicken fingers) as well as a half tomato and cumcumber slices. We also were given a bottle of water and the ladies of the church supplied the desserts. We ate under the trees and around picnic tables.

Over the next few weeks you will see picture albums around the church, on the WMU table and circulating through Sunday School classes. Please take time to look through this picture diary of the work that is taking place at Grace. Also, please pray for the Joshua Team preparing to leave on September 23 to go and meet with the leadership of Grace to determine how we can learn from each other to further the Kingdom of God.

Blessings to you all,

KJ and John Proctor