Commissioning and Team Building

Hi Everyone!  So, it is officially less than FIVE (5) days, especially by the time you read this ... WOW, we are really getting down to the wire now!!! 

Yesterday (Sunday), our church "commissioned" us for our mission trip to Honduras; members of the mission committee, Elders and even our "team leader" was there to officially send us out on mission.  We all stood up as the commissioning words were stated and then they prayed over and for us. 

During the past few weeks, 3x5 index cards have been set out on our Welcome Center that people could take in order to write down words of encouragement, Bible verses, quotes, etc ... for the whole mission team.  At the commissioning service, we were given these cards in a little carrying bag that was almost completely full!! 

So, I did what you would expect me to do ... I spread them all out and took a photo of them, of course!!!

Great verse!

My new mantra!!

... so sweet ...

We always need this reminder ... AND IT HAS ALWAYS PROVEN TRUE!

In the afternoon, we went back to our church for some "team-building" exercises.  One of the men from our church is skilled and experienced in providing team-building sessions for military missions and youth. 

We tried a few things that he had for us to do for a bit ... all fun and pretty simple as far as working as a team.

The first exercise that had a little "bite" to it, though, was the one shown below. 

All of us had to stand along the yellow parking line, staggering ourselves on either side and simply hold our two pointer fingers out.  Then, a "helium stick" was placed along all of our fingers.  The rule was that our two fingers had to be touching the bottom of the stick at all times (no other fingers) and we had to work as a team to get the stick to the ground. 

Sound simple enough?? 

Not so much!!  This activity took us quite a bit to acclimate to ... all of us were talking at the same time, doing the opposite of what we should have been doing and basically working against one another instead of together. 

We DID finally get it and by counting together and moving the stick downwards in unison, we everntually made it to the ground.  I'm sure it was a bit painful for our facilitator. :-)

Our second 'rather difficult' activity involved all of us making a bridge with the colored discs provided and making it across to the "goal".  The thing is ... we only received half our team number in discs, all of us had to be planted on one or more discs at the same time and we all had to be connected.  If at any time, we lost contact with one another or stepped off a disc and onto the plain ground, we would LOSE one of our discs.  We spent at least a GOOD ten minutes discussing this and trying to come up with the appropriate strategy and while we started out with everyone talking at once, spouting our ideas at the same time again, we eventually worked it out, designated a leader and we made it through on the first time!!!  Do I hear a "WOO HOO"???   

The last activity we did was not quite as difficult/challenging but it was fun, definitely less stressful in my opinion.  We were each given a little trough-like/half baton "thingy-majig" and we had to connect them as we staggered one another again.  See photo below ...

A tiny orange whiffle ball was placed in the first trough and the rules were that the ball had to move forward at all times, could not hit the ground and had to end up in the bucket at the end of all of us.

After the ball passed along each person's trough, we had to run down and re-connect at the end of the line for the ball to continue along until reaching the bucket, where the trough could be tipped downwards so the ball would drop in.

After our team-building exercises, we all went in the church where there were loads of people are there to share a fellowship meal together and share in a time of prayer for the mission team.

A group photo was taken, of course, ... all of us were there except Ben and Stacy who were both unable to attend.  It will be great to get one giant group photo of all of us in Honduras!

Thank-you Paul, for the "team-building" exercises!

Thank-you, Pastor Bob, for taking our photo!

Thank-you, everyone at our church, for your love, support, encouragement, yummy food and fellowship, etc ... we are so thrilled to serve our LORD JESUS and to share the blessings of God with you!!