ISRAEL

Our team will be working in partnership with Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation at a weeklong camp for Palestinian youth in Bethlehem.  Watch this video to learn more about the camp.  The team will also be spending a week walking where Jesus walked on a tour of the Holy Land.  This is an amazing opportunity to see Israel while also getting the chance to serve and show the love of Jesus.

Dates: July 3rd-17th

Cost: $2,300 approx.

Contact: Elsa Navarro  elsan@amgen.com

Israel Trip Photo Gallery

Join the team from Calvary as we deliver shoe boxes filled with Christmas gifts and serve the community of Bella Vista in Ensenada, Mexico.  We will be staying at Mt. Zion Church serving alongside Pastor Luis & Mimi Ojeda and their ministry.  There will also be a day trip to the Kumeyaay Indian community.  This is a family-friendly trip for children 7 years and up.  Spots will fill up fast so make sure to sign up early!

Dates: December 11th-13th, 2009.    The team will depart Calvary at 6am on Friday morning and return Sunday evening.

Team Meetings: There will be two team meetings that you will need to attend in preparation for the trip.

1st Meeting: Sunday, November 15th, 12:30pm  (After the 11am service); Trip introduction, connect with team and organize projects for the trip.

2nd Meeting: Monday, December 7th, 6:30 Shoebox Wrapping Party and final preparations for trip.

Cost: $75 adult/$45 children, Checks made payable to Calvary Community Church, Write in memo: Mexico Shoebox Trip

Transportation: We are encouraging everyone to ride in Calvary vans.  There is no cost to you for transportation if you ride in one of our vans.  If you choose to take your own vehicle, you will be responsible for the cost of gas/insurance (approx. cost $100/gas & $45 Mexico insurance per vehicle www.bajabound.com ).  It will also be required that you pair off with another vehicle the entire way there and back.

Travel Documentation: Those 16 or older are required to carry a passport when traveling to Mexico.  Children under 16 may use an original or copy of their birth certificate.  Click here for official travel guidelines.

Applications: Applications are required to participate on the trip.  Download one Short Term Trip Application or pick up at the mission counter.  You are only required to fill out the first page of the application for weekend Mexico trips and sign the Release on page two.  Children’s info can be included on the parent/guardians application.  Completed applications should be turned into Brian Field in the Calvary Staff Offices or dropped off at the green Community/World drop box at the mission counter.

Distance to Ensenada: Approx. 220 miles.

What to Bring: Packing List

Contact: Brian Field, Mission Director, brian.field@calvarycc.org or 818 575-2266

Sunday: I preached both services at Kabalagala Pentecostal Church
while the rest of the team ran children’s ministry. It was a great
morning and our understanding of worship and liturgy were really
broadened. Inthe evening we participated in another service called
“Love Night” where we exchanged gifts with local youth and shared
testimonies, dramas, and worship. It was a FULL Sunday.

Monday and Tuesday: We traveled into a local slum and partnered with
Ever Increasing Miracles Church where we did door to door evangelism
and afternoon church services. We were really stretched out of our
comfort zone but it was amazing to see students share the gospel with
people who had never heard about Jesus, to Muslims, and to those who
laughed at us. I had an encounter with a lady who was suffering from
demonic influence. Claire Adams was leading a women named Rose to
Christ and the lady was yelling and saying confusing things about
Jesus. She started to confront me and it startled me when she started
calling me by my given name “David.” There was no explanation for this
and when I confronted her she told me that she walked with Satan and
he dwelled in her. Not used to that! We laid hands on her and started
praying and when we were done she ran off. I was honestly shaken up a
bit that she knew my name but praise God that He carried us through it
and Claire ended up leading Rose to Christ. It was a great 2
days…very challenging, but great. In those 2 days, over 50 people
came to Christ and were assigned to contacts in the church so they
could be followed up with.

Wednesday and Thursday: we did a mixture of street evangelism, chapel,
children’s ministry, and helping the staff at God Cares School. Brian
and I were able to meet with the leaders of Africa Renewal Ministries
and Bethany Village. We even met the on-site leader for Acres For
Life. It was a great two days and over 30 people came to Christ and
will be followed up with by the local church members.

Friday: after spending the morning at God Cares School we traveled to
Kawempe where we did door to door evangelism. It was a heavily Muslim
area and there was even a shrine in the village where people came from
all over Uganda to practice black magic. There was a spiritual
heaviness to the place and we felt a lot of resistance to our sharing.
There was another encounter with a girl who was experiencing demonic
influence, there were many Muslims who laughed at the thought of Jesus
being more than just a prophet but God in the flesh, and many who did
not care to hear what we had to share. It was by far the hardest time
sharing the gospel but I was so impressed and proud of the students
who continued to share te hope and joy they have in Jesus despite the
continual rejection. We were able to plant many seeds and hope and
pray that the Holy Spirit would lead them to choose to follow Jesus.
10 people chose to follow Jesus and will be followed up with. We ended
with a church service where a handful of students and leaders shared
their testimonies and I preached. At the end of the service, they
presented generous gifts to us of sugar cane, bananas, and pineapples!
Truly a humbling experence as we received so much generosity from them.

Saturday: we visited the new 14 acre satellite site for God Cares
School. We heard Pastor Dongo’s vision for the land and prayed that
God would continue to bless the entire process. We returned to the
school and said our tearful goodbyes to the new friends we made and
the existing friends that some had met on previous visits. As I type
this in the Entebbe airport in Uganda I look around at a team that has
been challenged, stretched, and used in tremendous ways over the last
2 weeks. They are filled with so much joy, compassion, and boldness
and I am honored to be one of the leaders of this team.

We look forward to getting through the long journey home because it
means that we will be home with our loved ones. Please pray for our
last leg of the journey and we loom forward to sharing more details
with you face to face!

Drew
To view archived blogs click on africa below. KH

We arrived at Nairobi International Airport early Tuesday
morning…and with all of our luggage!

Exhausted yet excited after 36+ hours of travel, we loaded up the bus
and vans and drove through the heart of Nairobi to our hotel in Limuru
through heavy traffic and street vendors selling everything from
newspapers and soccer balls to a 3D version of the “Last Supper.”

Deanna Bjork, the founder of the Miracle House Orphanage and our host
while in Kenya, was a great tour guide as we drove north through the
city. The Nairobi University, Embassy Row, Parliament, and the sky
rises of Nairobi gave way to corn fields, rich red soil, and tea
plantations as we continued traveling north to our destination.
Monkeys in the parks and gigantic scavenger birds on billboards
reminded us that we were a long way from home.

We finally arrived at the Conference Center that we will be staying at
while in Kenya and were able to freshen up and drop our bags off in
our rooms before going through an orientation, led by Deanna and her
staff.

After a history of the Miracle House (which can be viewed at http://miracle-house.org) and some essential safety guidelines we prayed in anticipation for God’s guidance and boldness.

15 minutes later, as we were winding through tea plantations in our
vans, we rounded a bend and were confronted with the stark reality
ofthe Misri Slum.

The 10 acre shanty village is the home to a few thousand
residents…including roughly 500 orphans. We were greeted with broad
smiles and questions of “how-you?” as we navigated down the narrow,
red muddy roads on our way to the Miracle House in the center of Misri
(an appropriate name for the slum as it means Egypt – specifically the
Egypt in which the people of Israel were slaves and cried out under
the heavy hand of their oppressors.)

As we we reflected on the story of the Exodus, we were reminded that
God hears the cries of the oppressed and asks us to seek justice.
Isaiah 58:10, which I asked the high school students back home to read
daily while we were in Africa became very tangible as we stepped out
of the vans and into the slum. Orphans were everywhere running up to
us, holding our hands, and chanting over and over “how-you, how-you,
how-you?”

Over the next 2 hours we rotated as teams between leading children’s
programming inside the orphanage and walking the streets of the slum,
going door to door and talking with and praying for everyone we came
into contact with. Generally, people were thankful that we were there
and appreciated our prayers. A young Taylor named Jackson said that he
felt like our meeting was a divine appointment from God as he had been
discouraged lately. Our arrival, he said,   was a reminder that God
hears prayers.

The students on our team were amazing as they led prayers, asking
questions, giving hugs, and playing with the young kids.

It was apparent that their maturity and subsequent months of training
had prepared them for this moment. I was so impressed by each of them
and I am proud to be one of their leaders. I wish that each of you
could be hear to witness it all unfold.

Continued prayers are appreciated…everyone is healthy, happy, and
excited for another day of joining God in what God is doing here in
Kenya.

Drew

First stop Miracle House in Nairobi, Kenya.

Click  here to read more about the trip.