Training, treehouses and time

So...here's the deal...I am changing my blogging schedule!  :)  Looking ahead at what the rest of my summer looks like, there are going to be multiple Fridays when I am traveling for work and will not be able to post (like last Friday).  That said, I am going to begin blogging on Mondays and see how that works (hopefully much better!).

Last weekend, Nathan, Gene, Joseph and I all traveled to Portland for a Mission51 Retreat where we helped train about 65 students to go out on mission trips this summer.  Most of the teams are going on domestic trips, and one church is gearing up to go to Costa Rica.  We got to run their team building exercises as well as teach them about how to relate cross-culturally for the purposes of ministry.  It was great fun!  Here are some pictures of training:

One of the training exercises we do is called "Spaghetti Towers" and the kids have to build the tallest structure using just dry spaghetti noodles and candy Dots....without talking!

Do you see what I see???

 A DEER!!!

 As Nathan and I were walking around camp exploring, we came across a family of deer!  They just stared at us as we walked closer and closer to them.  Once we got about 15 feet away, they darted off into the woods!  It was pretty cool.

While exploring, we stumbled upon the most incredible treehouse I have ever seen!  It was two stories and the top story had a whole bunch of bunks!  It was a cabin in a tree!!

The front door to the treehouse.

The stairs to the treehouse were around one tree and then you walked across a bridge to get to the main treehouse section.

 We had fun being trainers together for the first time since we both started working for YMI.

All of that to say that our weekend away was fun and most importantly, it was packed with ministry.  We had the opportunity to teach kids about how important it is for everyone to play their part on a team and how God is glorified when we all work together for His purposes.  

Nathan and I are looking forward to getting to do more trainings together and see how God works through the ministry of YMI.

Praises:

1. We are pretty set with volunteers through August!  Sports camps are filled and host homes are almost full!

2. Out of the Mission51 training over the weekend, we were able to get three sign ups for trips in 2014.

3. Nathan and I were able to do our first donor visit together last week!  It was really fun.

Prayers:

1. Please pray that we will be able to do some more donor visits soon.  We still have a ways to go in our funding before we are married.  Our goals is to be 100% support raised by the end of 2013.

2. Please pray that we are able to secure one more host home for our Japan team's launch (June 30-July 1) and debrief (July 11-12).

3. Please pray that we are able to secure housing for one of our interns for the rest of the summer.

*If you are interested in helping us meet any of these needs (both organizational needs and personal needs), please let me know at morgann@ymimissions.org or by commenting on this post.

1, 2, skip a few...

For all of you faithful followers, you may have noticed that I skipped a week of blogging last week...my bad!  Last weekend was my first weekend of Mission51 Training and time got away from me before I realized that I needed to plan to blog earlier so that I would have last week's post up!  Sorry, friends!

Speaking of Mission51, I am headed out this evening to another Mission51 Church Training as a Trainer.  YMI helps train these churches by running team-building exercises.  Last weekend's training was about 250 kids and this weekend will be about 150 kids.  I am excited!

When I got to Mission51 last weekend,  I saw a few familiar faces!  This picture is with one of our good family friends, De'Nysha.  My family has known her family for a long time and it was so cool to see her at this training in preparation for her youth group's trip to Mexico this summer.

This weekend I am looking forward to getting to train students for the trips they are going on this summer!

Another exciting thing that has happened in the last couple weeks is that I am at my NEW DESK!!  Up until this point, I have been in the back of the office, kind of hidden.  It was simply an issue of space and available resources.  As we have expanded our office space and done some rearranging, a desk area more central in the office has opened up and I am now occupying it!  My new desk is clear glass, open and really professional!  I am so thankful for my new office space  :)

Praises:

1. My NEW DESK!!!

2. Mission51 Trainings are going well.

3. Nathan and I have recently hit 75% of being fully-funded!!!

Prayers:

1. Pray that Mission51 would go really well this weekend.

2. Pray for Joseph as he is out training a church in New York this weekend.

3. Pray that we will continue to fill our leader spots on our teams in 2014.