We made it to LA! We’re on our way to Reality Ventura and should be home around 3 a.m.
We are so stoked on what the Lord did in Roatan! He truly did above & beyond! (Eph. 3:20) Thank you all for praying & supporting the team! P.s. We have so much more to tell than we wrote on this blog, so next time you see one of us - ask us to tell you more stories of how the Lord moved! Love, The Roatan Team
Our last full day here!!! Debrief day at Parrot Tree… We spent time at a beautiful resort about 45 minutes away from our home base. Delicious burgers at the hotel grill, and then the kids were exhorted to spend time in the word with Jesus and to reflect on all that the Lord has done on the trip. They were sent off on their own to spread out and commune with Jesus. It was such a sweet time to spend worshiping the Lord in spirit and truth and for the kids to hear from Him on gearing up to go back home in full force. Quick showers at home and then off to the Saturday night youth service in Pandytown. We printed pictures of our kids with the Pandys and we signed the backs of the pictures to give to the Pandy kids as memoirs. The time of exchanging pictures and sharing affections was so sweet and relational. Worship and the word were opened up and Kevin Waldron had the privilege to teach on Luke 11- Jesus’ direction of how to pray… We then broke into small groups and our team led the discussions and a time of group prayer! It was so awesome to see the team step out in faith and encourage the Pandy kids with zeal to pray, pray, PRAY!!! The power of prayer is AMAZING! The Lord was so faithful to fill today with times of reflection, and ended it with the night of reaching out to the youth of the town. God is good!!! Tomorrow is our last day. We will be attending church where our team will share testimonies. Lunch to follow and then it’s off to the airport! The next time you hear from us will be back in the states! Bittersweet… Bitter to leave the people of Roatan where our team has built these sweet, godly relationships with… and sweet to be “sent back” home bursting with stories and God’s glory to share! See you all soon!!!
Love, The Roatan Team
Wow… day 7! The Lord is good!
Lets chat a bit about the day! With the continual breeze of the tropics and the smell of salt in the air, the team was ready for another morning devotion with Ben. The spirit completely led, and rather than have an exhortation, the team was called to share out loud with each other scripture and insight that the Lord had given them along the trip. Our ears tickled with the Joy of the Lord ringing from the vocal chords of our young warriors. They proclaimed the word and encouraged each person, listening to their words of juicy & ripe gospel. After devo’s we headed to Oak Ridge dock where the island clear waters and local young laughs gathered to play. Our kids snorkeled and threw Pandy kids into the bright blue sky. After a time of fun in the water, the team loaded back into our boats to prepare for the next adventure of Roatan… French Harbor Church Youth Outreach. Our kids transformed from salty sand-people into a bright, excited & handsome gospel-bringin crew. French Harbor was sweet and provided the dinner that would fill our bellies with satisfaction… Tuna sandwiches! One hundred or so locals gathered for worship and the gospel was preached by Rizz. Zoe gave her testimony and was able to share a few of the songs that the Lord had given her. Team members and others from the island teared up as it was truly a touching moment from the Lord. The second set of worship began and Rizz told the team to go mobile. This means approaching the local people and asking if they need prayer. This required a step of faith and boldness. It was sweet to see the team answering the call and step beyond their comfort zone. We all heard so many stories about how God had spoke through each team member and had given them words of love to proclaim to God’s people in French Harbor. After a long day we headed back to our camp, started a fire and cooked a red snapper. Not sure how it all happened… but it did and let me say it was tasty! Thank you so much for all your prayers! The teams hearts are getting knit to Roatan & we are so blessed on what the Lord has done through us!
Love, The Roatan Team
The team woke up refreshed and ready to tackle a new day of service. After breakfast, we got together for worship and a morning devotion by Rizz. We then all embarked to the church for lunch and to finish painting the church. With an evening open-air outreach looming, part of the team left ahead to set up the sound equipment. Battling rolling blackouts, wrong locations, and mosquitoes, we were able to set up a stage. Ben preached an evangelistic message, and we finished up with worship. Very fruitful and spirit led day. Thanks for your continued prayers. The kids are in good spirits. Continue to pray for stamina and health; as we want to finish strong in these last days that we have here.
Love.
Today was super sweet & relational. We rented a bus and invited all of the Pandytown kids to come with us to Camp Bay Beach. We spent time playing in the beautiful ocean water, tossed around some volleyballs, sang songs and made MANY delicious PB&J Sandwiches! It was great getting to know the kids on a new level and blessing them with a field trip to a place of fun and play.
We then came back home and got ready for a fun night! The guys hung at the church and held a men’s bible study-something the church has recently started doing on Wednesday nights- and the girls spent some sweet time with the Pandytown women and traveled around to a few towns to pray over the land and the people. The girl’s stopped at French Harbor and were all treated to familiar Frosties!!! The night was finished off with a delicious Birthday Cake made by the Pandytown ladies and celebration for Chris Paola’s Birthday! Enjoy the pics!!!!
The team woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to tackle a new day of ministry and service. The teams were able to swap roles today – widow ministry, sports, and church painting were all done by different people. Towards the end of the day, our entire group walked up to the soccer field to fellowship and watch the locals play.
There have already been reports around town of how much the team is blessing Pandy Town. It has truly been sweet to minister to the people here, but even sweeter to see the work and growth that God is accomplishing amongst our team.
Continue to pray for health – our kids are getting better, but we obviously don’t want any one else catching the little stomach bug that is going around. We are starting to feel fatigued, so prayer for endurance and rest would be great. Also pray for continued spiritual growth and unity in the team.
Love
Hey Everyone,
Just wanted to send a prayer request out. Our team has been going, going, going & doing such an amazing job serving Jesus & some of the team is feeling exhausted & under the weather. A few of the team stayed back home today & are taking it easy to relax, get rested & hopefully feel better. Nobody is seriously sick at all, just exhausted & need to give their body time to rest to climate, different food,etc. Pray for stomachs to do well with foreign food, and for all our bodies to adjust to the very hot & humid weather!
Other than that, pray for us today as we are once again pouring into the pandytown community in the form of widow ministry, sports outreach & finish up painting the church.
We love you guys & do feel covered in pray & are so thankful for all your support! Blessings, The Roatan Team!
Palm fronds shook ever so gently outside the compound window as eyes peeked open to reveal the light of the day. With a bible in hand each team member choose from the thousands of beautiful places to spend time with Him. Kevin Waldron lead the team in a morning devotion in which he said in a Scottish accent ” Do you really know the savior… and do you know him experientially?” With encouraging words to find Jesus and experience Him in ministry the team looked to the heavens with a glimmer of hope… “I will find Jesus!” Grabbing the appropriate garments for the day the team jumped into our dirt covered wagon truck beds. Our speedy horse truck galloped swiftly to our location…. Pandytown. Team one and two painted the church. The pallet that was chosen for the church was soft pastels of green - Mente Verde ( MINT GREEN). Team three headed to the basketball court and rallied the Pandy’s into a game of sport, basketball. Team four went to the market and collected 10 boxes of supplies for the ministry that would take place after lunch. The Ministry would be to the widows of Pandytown. Singing songs of Joy, sharing scripture, the team was ministered to more that they believed they would be. Each lady was filled with encouraging words for the team that will forever be remembered. After a hard painting of the top story of the church the team all bought ice cream from a local man. The flavor of the day would be a pink and white, carnival tastin, bubble gum. The team then refreshed themselves after a hard day of work and returned to the church around the dusk of day. A Pandy soccer team was gathering at the church; the men of the town had finally come together and all agreed to pray, and study the word, and play soccer. After the meeting had adjourned dinner was served. The air was moist, the dust of the day had finally settled, and it was time to return to our oasis. What a day. We were about ready to go to bed and SHRIEK filled our ears with horror! What could it be??? Oh…. it was just another boy putting a crab on Bobbie. Lets go to bed Amen.(Written by Ben Marshall)
As we open the door to our rooms we found ourselves in the land of fresh coconuts and clear blue waters. Yes, this was our first morning with Jesus in Roatan. The team quick to devotions found themselves in the presents of the Lord with a renewed sense of realness in Christ. A bit of Worship with the team and a word from Pastor Rizz we then split into three teams. Team one took crayons and craft materials and led a Vacation Bible School. Marina took charge of crafts, Kaden became the human jungle gym and YES man, Marcus taught the word of God, and Tiffany transformed into the lover of all children. Team two headed off to the airport to retrieve the 20 bags of “misguided” luggage. We were pleased and blessed to find our lost luggage found… PTL. When kids and leaders finally saw their luggage at our Roatan home they were filled with Christmas Joy! Team Three organized bags and fed the 5000 children of Roatan…. well probably like 100 kids. Once lunch was complete the team headed back to our compound and we readied for church in our Sunday best clothes. Parents your children were transformed into beautiful ambassadors for Christ. A Roatan service was on its way by 3pm where kids experience a new way to worship Jesus. Dancing, loud singing, and shouts of Joy filled the room where Rizz preached the word of God. Individuals were getting healed and receiving the spirit… very sweet time. After church we ate, spent time developing relationships, and headed back to our home. Ben closed out the evening with worship and an exhortation of the word… Philippians 2. As we headed to bed team members look across the dark moon lit ocean and anticipated what God had for them next.
Our flight was awesome….The team is tired but flights went well! The only thing was that out of the 52 bags we packed on the plane in LAX, only 32 arrived = meaning 20 are missing! They are supposed to be on the flight tmrw the same time….but pray bc most of the team is missing all their clothes, stuff & gear. Despite all these things, the team is doing well and the Lord is really blessing us with a kingdom mindset!
The first thing we did; was eat lunch at the church, then had the afternoon to rest & acclimate to Roatan culture & climate. Our house is awesome, on the water, & perfect for the team! We got refreshed & then were off to put on a youth service for over 100 teenagers!
Mansi/Zo & the team led worship, Marshall threw down the word, Markus & Natalie shared their testimonies & the Lord worked in powerful ways!!!! The team got to engage in some pretty gnarly spiritual warfare & with the authority we have in Christ cast out a few demons!!! it was crazy, but incredible to see the Lord get victory, save souls & the team was unbelievably encouraged & strengthened!!!!
We are undone that it’s only Day 1, but God has been so faithful already! Please Pray for rest after a long first day & that the Lord protects & equips us for tmrw!
