We are very pleased to welcome Elyssa VanGilst to the Global Encounters staff team as the new curriculum development intern. Elyssa brings excellent writing skills and lots of experience working with various children’s programs to her new position. We still have one last Global Encounters internship position open. Take a look at the job descriptions and send in an application if you are interested.
Comments Off
It was great being at my home church (Heritage Bible Church in Riverside, CA) yesterday morning! During the Sunday school hour I gave an update on Global Encounters in 2011. Here’s a link to the quick slideshow I put together for that. If you traveled with me to Chiapas, Romania, or Ecuador in 2011 there’s a good chance you’re in there somewhere. - Elizabeth
Comments Off
This summer Global Encounters worked with Christina Dickson to host a missions photojournalism team that traveled with the Ecuador mission team. These are some of my favorites of their images from the summer…
One of the best things about good photographers: they know how to capture motion and energy!
Amanda Forman adding color and sparkle to kids' faces. They loved it!
We had about the craziest skit crew ever, but good luck trying to catch them in motion, especially since the lighting was often terrible. Great job getting this image, photo team!
Enjoying the skits
Sometimes you have to be creative to communicate and build relationships when you don't speak the same language.
Tim, what are you doing here? Is this baseball without the bat?
I love this picture! Although I have to admit, when I saw it afterwards my first thought (after admiring the picture) was "Why are they playing this game on concrete?!?" Yikes!
Something was funny!
I'm not the world's greatest artist, but when you add trying to paint moving targets surrounded by other moving targets it definitely increases the challenge factor. Bring on the challenge! This was totally a blast!
Awwwww! (We ran a one-week camp right near the beach, hence the beach pictures.)
Kudos to the photographer for capturing motion at night. Yeah, I'm impressed by stuff like that since I can't do it.
Energy!
I think this might be my favorite picture from the whole trip.
Impressive vertical action!
What photojournalism class would be complete without a selection of fabulous black and whites?
A cathedral in downtown Quito
I didn't think black and white could capture the look of the tropics, but the photographers got some amazing images with their effects.
Massive game time! Imagine playing games with about 40 kids at a time... none of whom speak English. Now imagine that you're the photographer trying to get a good pictures of all that action happening at once.
Besides just being a great shot of teaching in action, this is also a good representation of Crystal's Spanish skills! She was the only team member who was truly fluent. The rest of us loved our translators!
Just look at those amazing eyes!
Photographers go to cool places (like 12,000 ft above sea level in the Andes Mountains).
And they do it with super cool people! (Nice photo effects, David!)
Flying! We tried out a zipline on one of our days off. Made for some cool photos. You should have seen the photographers trying to figure out how to do the zipline WITH their cameras withOUT endangering their equipment.
Hold up that world there, Daniel! (Taken at the equator.)
The equator! There we are, on the line. Cool angle on the shot, Christina.
The Ecuador trip was about building relationships - with the kids, with other team members, with the Lord. The photographers did a great job of capturing those relationships. By the way, this is Marissa, who was one of the amazing photographers.
OK, besides being a great picture of Nani and her little friend, I love all the orange in this picture.
Building relationships often starts with practical small steps - like helping a kid make his crown fit...
or put together his craft...
or laughing with him...
or giving her a hug...
or listening to his funny little stories...
or giving him the gift of your attention...
until, by the end of the trip, you have learned to love those kids, and they love you, and both of you have grown in your love for the Lord. It's hard to say goodbye!
Sometimes, people provide you with those priceless looks, faces, and moments. So glad there was a photographer there to capture these!
Yeah, that's definitely a look. Not sure what kind...
And some of them are absolutely adorable...
while others are just too cute for words.
And here are the awesome photographers themselves: Hannah Brandau, Christina Dickson, Marissa Boles, David Fox, Ashlyn Ours, and Faith DiPasquale.
Calling all writers for the first ever Global Encounters essay contest! In partnership with CollegePlus and the Institute for Excellence in Writing, Global Encounters is thrilled to offer over $2,500 in prizes toward mission trips! Click here for all the information, including how to enter and contest rules. With exciting destinations this year like Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Romania, and South Africa, there’s never been a better time to go on a mission trip with Global Encounters!
Comments Off
2010 was a year of great opportunities for the Global Encounters teams! Everywhere they went, God was at work through them reaching hearts, encouraging local believers, and spreading the gospel. To all the 2010 team members, congratulations on a job well done!
To help keep those memories fresh, we have free downloadable photo mug inserts for each team this year, available here. Team photo books are ready to be ordered as well. Enjoy!
Comments Off
The Global Encounters office has just completed a coast to coast change of location! Instead of the high mountains of California, it’s now located in hot and sunny South Carolina. Here is the new contact information:
151 Mitchell Rd, Unit S8
Greenville, SC 29615
Phone: 864-248-0711
After a whirlwind transition, the dust is beginning to settle and all activities are resuming as normal. The 2011 trip schedule is already underway, and there are lots of exciting things planned, so don’t miss out! Check back throughout the fall for more details and start preparing now for another great year.
Comments Off
Global Encounters had a booth at the SCOPE homeschool convention in Sacramento, CA this past weekend. It was a great chance to meet new people!
Ruth Fox
Medical student preparing for the mission field
I had it all worked out when I was ten. I was going to be a missionary and serve God! In the mind of a ten year old, that was it. I never thought about where I would go or what I would do once I got there; I was just sure about the missionary part.
As I got older and went on a few international mission trips, I realized that there is a little more that goes into getting to the mission field. I slowly started working though the plethora of decisions that needed to be made. I’ll go to China! Or not. After going to South America with Global Encounters I knew that was the region to which God was calling me. So I settled on WHERE, but WHAT was I supposed to do once I got down there? In seeking the Lord I realized that He was calling me to medical missions. Each mission trip I went on, it was the medical needs that both broke my heart and drew me to help. Okay, God. No problem. I’ll become a nurse and be down in my mission field in a few years. I had it all figured out.
But the plans that I had made for God weren’t the plans that He had made for me. The region of South America to which I was headed, the kind of training that I was pursuing, and the timing of hitting the mission field have all changed and changed again. God doesn’t always show us the whole pathway. He was just showing me one step at a time. I wanted to take that step and then keep right on running even though He hadn’t shown me His whole path. Sometimes God asks us to slow down, be patient, and wait on him.
I began to realize that my medical training is going to take a while… a long while. Why God? I’m ready to serve you now. Why should I wait? God has had to remind me repeatedly that I can serve Him anywhere. I know that God wants me on a foreign field in the future, but right now my mission field is here, at school, on the job, with friends, and at my church. I don’t need to wait to serve God till I’m in South America with my medical degree. God can use people all the time, here and now. Where is your mission field?
Click here for all the stories from the May, 2010 newsletter.
Amy Cook
GE Staff Member, exploring options for long-term international ministry
I’ve known for several years that the Lord was calling me into full-time international missions. But, that doesn’t mean that I’m automatically prepared! I remember sitting in team devotions day one of my first Global Encounters trip and suddenly thinking “what in the world am I doing?!” Here I was with 23 strangers to spend three weeks in a strange country far away from all my family and friends. Was I crazy?!
But, the best preparation comes through practical experience. Get out of your comfort zone and follow Jesus wherever He leads you. Through it all, I’ve found my faith challenged, my personal “safety net” stretched (and stretched, and stretched…), and my relationship with God greatly deepened. Experiences like 8.0 magnitude earthquakes have just added to it.
Six trips and three years later, I’m writing from San Cristobal, Chiapas, Mexico, living with Nathan and Julie Terrell for three months to assist them in their ministry. It’s an experience that only God could have arranged! My interest has always been in Bible translation and getting God’s Word into the hands and hearts of those living in more remote locations. And that’s exactly what the Terrells do! I get to work side by side with them learning what everyday missions is like, from creating audio Scripture CD’s, to printing study Bible portions, to translating kid’s curriculum for GE, to taking care of precious kiddos, to sewing curtains, to navigating the grocery store. It’s absolutely true that life is ministry, and ministry is life. In it all, let God be glorified! I can only imagine what He has planned next.
For more about Amy’s trip this summer, take a look at her personal blog. Click here for all the stories from the May, 2010 newsletter.
Jacob Matchak
Protestant chaplain with the California Department of Juvenile Justice
I believe that short-term mission trips can become a part of the full-time ministry to which God has called you, even if He hasn’t called you to be a missionary. Short-term trips are unique in that they provide intense bursts of opportunities to learn more of God and His character in ways that push us out of our comfortable complacency. Rather then looking at them as time-outs from a personal work and ministry at home, they can be viewed as classrooms in which God personally tutors us in areas where we need to learn more of Him and His Kingdom. These classrooms open our senses to more of God and His truth than we perhaps would normally observe in the “routine” of a ministry that is full-time.
During each trip that I’ve been on, certain passages of God’s Word have taken on new meaning as I have read and experienced them in ways that I may not have if I had remained in the normal routine. Upon returning home, I’ve been grateful to see how the truth that I learned during the short-term has had a long-term impact in God’s continued maturing of my life and the ministry He has called me to.
Whether you feel called to the mission field or not, a short-term trip can be used by the Lord to teach us that we are His ministry. Through street evangelism, children’s ministry, work projects, and much more, He works in our lives, perfecting in us the life of Christ. I have seen the classroom of the short-term serve this purpose in my life as He continues to mold me more and more into His image.
Click here for all the stories from the May, 2010 newsletter.
