Pequea Church will begin our third worship service on Wednesday night, October 7. This service will be identical to our previous Sunday worship services and will include the same worship, and message. You are also welcome to join us for a community meal. The meal starts at 5:45 p.m. and our worship service, lasting one hour, will begin at 6:45 p.m. For more information visit churchonwednesday.com, call 717.872.5679 or email contact@pequeachurch.com.

Pequea Church has committed to donating money for 1000 meals this fall. You and your family can help by putting your donations in the collection bin in the Welcome Center or designating your gift to Water Street Ministries on your offering envelope. Help us reach our goal! You can watch our progress on “Mr. Fork” in the church Welcome Center! We need your monetary donation by October 7, 2009.

If you have questions or need more information please email contact@pequeachurch.com or call 717.872.5679.

Beginning Thursday, October 1, Pequea Preschool will begin our toddler gym program. This year we will hold two toddler gym sessions from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. & 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. each Thursday morning. Refreshments will be served in our 50’s style café between sessions from 10:00 – 10:30 a.m. Toddler gym is designed for walkers to Age 3. Toddler Gym is a weekly program of play and learning for toddlers and their caregivers. We have a large gym furnished with toys, wagons, teeter-totters, push toys and more. After free playtime, there is a circle time with puppets, finger plays and songs. Toddler Gym enhances the child’s mental and social development and provides moms/caregivers with adult conversation. We provide Toddler Gym as a service to the community. There is no fee for the program, however donations are accepted. Download, print, and fill out the registration form before you arrive! Click here to download.

If you have any questions please email contact@pequeachurch.com or call the church at 717.872.5679.

On Sunday mornings both Junior and Senior high youth will have a continued opportunity to connect. During the 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. worship hour Junior highers will meet based on the following schedule. 6th graders will meet in room 143. 7th & 8th grade girls will meet in room 142. 7th & 8th grade boys will meet in room 144. Senior highers are given an opportunity to connect with small groups. If you are interested in joining a small group or are looking for more information please email Pastor Robert Brody at RBrody@pequeachurch.com or call 717.872.5679.

Home groups are simply that – a grow group of people that get together to build their relationships with each other and with God in homes. In recent years, Pequea has offered home groups to our community as a way for folks to grow deeper in their relationship with God, outside of the weekly Sunday sermon. Throughout Pequea’s history, many have joined home groups and grown in their relationship with God, staying connected to a small community of people for several years.

After a year of research, we have become convinced that a few adjustments to our home group ministry will serve our church and community more effectively. Here are the major improvements that we will be launching in September:

The “church calendar” year will now be divided into three trimesters.

• September – November (first trimester)
• January – March (second trimester)
• April – June (third trimester)

Starting this fall our home groups will meet in three-month segments, or “trimesters.” There are other advantages to utilizing a trimester system for our groups. For example, research shows that people grow in short seasons or “spiritual sprints.” Many people find their spiritual growth reaches a plateau when studying one topic for many months. Trimesters will offer various topics every three months: from parenting to women’s studies to hot topics to books of the Bible. The majority of home groups that meet year after year also sometimes find their relationships with each other growing stale. Exposing ourselves to new groups of people every three months will help us to interact with the entire community at Pequea.

Perhaps the greatest advantage to trimester groups is this: leaders who want to lead only have to commit to three months at a time. Also, those who want to grow in a group of other people, likewise only have to commit to three months at a time. With most (if not all) of us having calendars that are overflowing, this will help all of us commit more fully to a short-term group.

What a week this has been!  We all awoke Sunday with an excitement to worship at La Montanita with our new friends at the church, which was now under major renovations.  While we were all excited, we were also prepared for the bitter sweet time that we knew it would be.  Due to our flight arrangements for our return trip the next day, we would not be able to worship with the church later in the evening.  After a great breakfast, shared with a large group of college kids from Costa Rica, we were off to church.  Earlier in the week, Pastor Jose had indicated that there were several surprises in the works for the service.

The service turned out to be one of the most moving experiences for many of us.  We sang many songs of worship, and even though we did know the words to most, the Spirit’s presence was obvious.  We did sing the Spanish version of “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” which many from our group had learned the words to while working with the children.  Pastor Dale gave his final message of the trip with Marshall translating once again – it was a pleasure to watch these two men of God speak together.  They have developed an excellent rapport with each other, which speaks highly for Marshall and his ability to translate the meaning of those Pastor Dale stories.  At the conclusion of the message, the church presented Pastor Dale with a hand-made hammock that was woven by one of the women in the church.  The words woven into the side of the hammock read ‘Brothers in Christ’.  The touching part of the day was just about to begin.

The service was concluded with a first for the church at La Montanita.  Much to our surprise, our hosts were about to enter into a time of ‘Foot-washing’.  Now most everyone in our group had experienced this symbolic ritual of humility and servant-hood, but none of us was prepared for what was to come.  Our experience with Foot-washing goes something like this… held at an evening service at church, everyone wears fresh socks and makes sure their toe nails are trimmed neatly, we all sit in a neat circle and remove our own shoes and socks, we take turns washing someone’s feet and then having our feet washed, we put our own socks and shoes back on, and the ritual ends.  Well, today there was no neat circle, just a row of chairs for the men on one side of the dirt pavilion, and a row on the other side for the women.  The leaders and a select group from the church were chosen to wash our feet.  As most of us sat in our chair sobbing with emotion, our Nicaraguan hosts proceeded to wash our feet.  While dressed in their nicest pants, dresses and skirts, they knelt before us in the dirt.  They untied our shoes, removed our socks, and very lovingly washed our feet.  This was not the usual two or three hands full of water that we are accustom to, but this was a wash complete with soap and water.  After our feet were dried, they were sprayed with perfume.  Finally, our socks were replaced, and our shoes were put back on.  The emotion and Spiritual significance of this act was evident in the many tears shed by all.  Even our La Montanita brothers and sisters were moved to tears as a result of being involved in this new experience.  We were not to wash their feet, but to simply sit in humbled silence while our feet were washed.  Many of us experienced for the first time what it must have been like for the Disciples when Jesus washed their feet.  Personally, I will never wash feet the same way again. The passage that came to mind was Isaiah 52:7.  With the service over, we shared a time of taking photos with each other.  Many handshakes and hugs were shared with man, woman, and child alike.  We did not want the time to end, but needed to be on our way.  We slowly made our way to the van, and everyone followed for the tearful wave goodbye.

For lunch we headed off to the market at Masaya.  We enjoyed one last meal with Pastor Jose and his wife Auru.  They accompanied us to the market for lunch, but also to help us with a bit of shopping.  Many of us wanted a few items to remember our time in Nicaragua, and the market in Masaya was just the place.  Items of interest included Machete’s, coffee, pottery, leather handbags, hand-woven items, and many other trinkets.  It was a bit of a challenge with language and doing the math to figure the exchange rate, but we all managed.  Having concluded our time of shopping, we made an early day of it to head back to our hotel in order to pack all our things for our travel day.  All the tools and children’s ministry items needed to be reorganized for the ride home.  It was early to bed for all.

It had been an awesome stay in Nicaragua, but we were all anxious to get home.  The only bad thing was the 3 am wake-up call to get rolling.  The staff was kind enough to get a pot of coffee going for us, which was a blessing.  We headed to the airport at 4 am, and by 5 am we were ready to check in.  There were many smiles in our departure photo in the airport, but if you look closely, you will see many very tired eyes.  We cleared all the immigration issues and were ready to go.  Both flights from Nicaragua to Houston, and Houston to BWI went without a hitch.  We were even ahead of schedule on both flights.  The Rineer’s met us at the airport and we piled into the van for the ride home.  Herr’s chips and Turkey Hill Iced Teas were passed around…already feeling like home.  We were a bit disappointed that they did not bring along Herrs’ newest flavor…’Rice and Bean’ flavored chips.  Oh well.   It was good to be home.  Cheeseburgers awaited numerous members of the team.

Epilogue

Marshall remained in Nicaragua for several days.  Before returning home, he stopped back at La Montanita to check on the progress.  See the pics…the roof is ON!!  Also, the following is an email that arrived from Pastor Jose concerning a young girl that we prayed for.  She was supposed to have surgery the week we were there to repair a hernia in her side.  Pastor Jose’s email explains the rest…

Saludos cordiales desde Nicaragua, les  escribo para decirles que por acá los hermanos están muy contentos por el trabajo que se hizo por la iglesia de parte de ustedes. Ha caído la lluvia y nosotros estamos seguros y secos en el templo que ustedes entecharon.  (Cordial greetings from Nicaragua. I write you to tell you that the brothers and sisters are very happy for the work you did for the church. Rain has fallen and we are secure and dry in the building which you roofed.)

Les escribo además para testificarles que la Niña Maziel , la niña por la que oraron los hermanos cerca de la iglesia. Su mamá nos contó que cuando fue al médico para consultarle sobre la salud de la niña el doctor estaba sorprendido porque en el lugar donde estaba la hernia parecía que jamás había tenido nada la pequeña. Gloria a Dios porque Jesucristo es el mismo ayer, hoy y por los siglos. La mamá de la niña estaba emocionada porque asistió con mas regularidad al templo y dio gracias a ustedes por haber hecho esta labor de fe de orar por su hija y que ahora este completamente sana.  (I also write to testify about the child Maziel which you prayed for here near the church. Her mother told us that when she went for a medical checkup, the Doctor was surprised because in the area where the hernia was, now there was nothing amiss. Glory to God, because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.  The mother of the girl was very much affected by this and now attends the church regularly. I thank you for doing this labor of faith in praying for this girl who now is completely healthy.)

Antes de visitarla la niña había dicho por medio de su abuela que deseaba que el pastor orara por ella para ser sanada y esto fue lo que sucedió.  (Before you visited the child the grandmother sent word that she wanted the pastor to pray for the child to be healed and this is what happened.)

Gloria a Dios por siempre!!  (Glory to God forever.)

Dios les bendiga por todo lo que hacen por su reino engrandecido.  (May God bless you in all that you do to extend His Kingdom.)

View Slideshow

View Slideshow

VBS what can ya say about that…we had an amazing week with it…Thursday was no change,,,things started alittle slow on Thursday. we had a hard time gathering kids. we started a “Congo Line” didn’t go as planned but was still random and fun. in the end we gathered about 9 kids and had a great VBS. We had to honor of talking to and helping bring 3 more of God’s children to Him, making that a total of 9 (I think) Praise the Lord. Once VBS was over we headed back to headquarters…we had some awesome dinner again…thanks Bonnie, then had our debriefing and worship time. We had the teens begin packing their stuff. once we got that finished 20 of us (3 Pequea Leaders, and 2 Priority 1 interns) headed for town. We got on the subway (again…5 hours on the subway in one day…CHO CHO. Once we reached Times Square we had a good time sight seeing and just being goofy. Some of our teens had the privalegde of having their first Starbucks…not sure how that went, but didn’t hear any complaints…we went to the M&M Store…3 floors of M&M stuff who would have thought. We also went to the MTV STORE…What a joke that was..tshirts…who cares. ESPN ZONE was ok some of the boys got their sports fix…but not so much….I think that is all we looked at while there this time…we then headed back to the subway for anyother hour long ride…man the teens do so well with it…once we got back to the house everyone eventually went to bed. we had some late night cake eating and pranks, but it was good.

Now it is morning on Friday…the teens are slowly showing up to eat, and I mean slowly….then we pack, clean and head to the subway again…then the train and home…more update to come if anything exciting happens…more pictures to come as well.

Thanks for traveling with us and keeping us in your prayers…

Group A went to Manhattan Bible to help run their street outreach. We played with the kids and just hung out. This is where they close a road off for the day so the kids can have a place to play. We played baseball, kickball, Frisbee football, four square. There was a pretty good group of kids there. There was also a couple tables for coloring and we had a coloring contest. The games got pretty close at times. We did sidewalk chalk and hopscotch too. The kids there are so sweet. They are so appreciative too. The parents love having us there just as much as the kids do because the kids aren’t bothering them.

Today at VBS we had nearly 40 kids come out to hangout with us. Group B was late so Group A had to start without them. We sang a couple songs. Then Tosha and Emily R did a rope trick for the kids. After that we did a bible verse in a jigsaw form. Victoria (an intern) did the bible story. We the talked about the bible story and had an open invitation to the kids to talk to an adult about Christ and His love…in doing so we had 3 kids come to Christ…oh what a joyous day…following the invitation we did crafts with the kids. Some of them made crosses and others made angels… We then sang some songs and played some games. We ended VBS in prayer and sent the kids on their way.

Once we returned to our home in the Bronx we partook in another amazing dinner. we followed this up with some debriefing and worship. Then about an hour or so after we finished eating we took a trip to White Castle…yummy burgers…Once we returned back to the house again we just hung out til bed time and there is where we are now. more to come tomorrow about our sight seeing day.

Enjoy the photos

Hello mommy and daddy..miss you and love you guys so much xoxoxo