It\’s been a whirlwind of a week!! We got back from FL late Monday night after meeting up with some friends along the way and we were exhausted. It was well worth it though because we had such a terrific week with First Baptist Church Central Florida.
I\’ll try to pick up where I left off and give a brief overview of the week:
Day 2 (Thursday)
Thursday morning all of the missionaries were assigned a class to share with at the Christian School. We were given the Kindergartners and First Graders. To be honest we felt completely clueless on what to say to this age group! Neither of us have a lot of interaction with children so we were racking our brains trying to come up with ideas. Before we left my co-worker suggested having a coloring sheet. That sounded good to me so I made a simple one with an airplane on it along with our names and where we are going to be missionaries. That was a huge hit! Turns out, it doesn\’t take much at all to entertain 5 and 6 year olds. It was actually a lot of fun. Of course we had some funny moments when they starting asking questions and telling their stories. Things like: \”Are there opossums in the jungles?\” and \”One time I had a dream that I ate a hot dog on an airplane.\” Kids can come up with some very interesting things. But it was a real blessing after the class when several of the kids came up and hugged us and said they loved us and would pray for us. One little boy said, \”Will you come back and tell us what it was like? I\’m gonna miss you guys.\” It was neat to see the passion in their hearts.
After we wrapped that up, we had the afternoon free which we spent with our host family. They have two sweet kids who we hung out with and played the Wii.
That evening we met up with the Pastor a little before the service to share with him our vision. Then we were able to share a little in front of the church about what God has called us to do and the tremendous need for aviation missions in South America. Bro Ron Bishop (SCORE\’s Director and Founder) spoke that night and it was a vey powerful message about how we are each ONE voice but we can each have a HUGE impact… someone had to lead Billy Graham to the Lord right?
Afterward we went to our booth and talked with a lot of people about taking short term trips and about missions in general. Everyone at this church seemed to love missions!
Day 3 (Friday)
Friday morning we didn\’t have anything planned with the church so we were able to meet up with some missionaries from Mission Aviation Fellowship that we had met at the conference the first day (Mark and Jana Faus). We met them at Chic-fil-a around 9:30 and ended up staying til after 12 that afternoon! It was a great time of sharing our visions and getting some advice from them since Mark had done for years what we plan to do. They were very helpful and encouraging and have provided us with some potential contacts in Brazil near where we plan to minister oneday.
Here is a link to see the ministry that Mark and Jana will be coordinating in Honduras:
http://www.mafc.org/Honduras_Radio/index.htm
After leaving there we met up with a friend of ours we had met in Argentina at the BI (Mike Caibio). It was a lot of fun to catch up with him and see how God has been working since our days abroad.
That night we had the awesome privilege of sharing with the young married couples Sunday School class in a more personal environment in one of their homes. It was great to be able to share with them our vision to reach the indigenous people of Central and South America, mainly in the Northern Brazil area. They were all very interested and excited about our calling.
Day 4 (Saturday)
In the morning Richard headed off to the church for a men\’s prayer breakfast. It was a good time to fellowship with the church members and fellow missionaries.
The ladies had a luncheon and it was awesome to hear how God was working in different ways through various ministries. I was able to share with several ladies about what we planned to do. It was a lot of fun.
That afternoon was free and the Youth Pastor of the church who we had met on Thursday had arranged for us to go to Disney World… for free!! We were very excited because neither of us had been there before. We got there around 3 in the afternoon and enjoyed the rest of the day walking around the park, taking in the sights, and riding a few rides. We had a great time! It\’s awesome to see how God provides too. A quick story, we were supposed to meet the lady with the tickets around 1:00 but my luncheon ran over so we were running late. While I was at the luncheon, one of the ladies I was sitting with found out we were going to Disney and before I left gave me some cash and told me to use it at the park. She was so sweet. Then when Richard picked me up we were running really late and he said he didn\’t have cash on him to pay for parking. But God had already provided for it! It\’s so cool to see God work out the little details in our day to day life.
Day 5(Sunday)
This was probably our busiest day, but one of the best ones too. We started off early at an 8:30 Sunday School class. We were lined up to share with the Youth Group. That was awesome because our heart is for the young people of today to see the need for missions. Richard presented a challenge on pursuing our passion for God. The teens were very attentive (especially for that early in the morning!) We got a great response from them and they seemed to all be mission minded just like the rest of the church. That\’s very unsual from our experience with most young people!
After that class we went to the main service. One of the greatest things about FBCCF is the diversity of people. It was so cool to see people from every walk of life and every race mingled together worshipping God.
Then at 11:00 we shared with the 55 and Up class. This was the opposite of our first class, but proved to be just as much fun. The members of this class were very interested and had a lot of great questions.
That afternoon we hung out with our host family and headed back to the church at 5:00 for an International Food Fair. It was fun to try out the different foods from various parts of the world. Then we went to our booths and talked with a lot of great people about the ministry of SCORE and what we would be doing with aviation. It\’s so awesome to hear how God is working in different people\’s lives in regards missions.
After the evening service, 4 young people went forward to surrender to full time missions… Praise the Lord for their open hearts! One girl in particular was a blessing to us because we had talked with her a few times about missions and you could see her passion… and she is only 13!
At the end of the night it was time to say our goodbyes. We had decided to head up to Tallahassee and stay with a friend of ours that night to get some of our trip out of the way. It was difficult to say bye to our host family because they had been such a blessing throughout the week! We took some pics with them, hugged them bye, and hit the road.
We stopped to get some rest about 4 hours north in Tallahassee but only after staying up til 4 am talking with our friend Kim! It was so much fun to catch up with her. The next day we headed back, stopping for dinner with our friend Jerry in Atlanta and getting home around 10 PM.
To sum it all up, God is so good! Throughout our time in Orlando not only were we able to share the passion that God has given us, we were able to feed that passion and gain new motivation. We left feeling refreshed and ready to take on the challenges ahead.
Thanks so much for your prayers! We have a big task ahead, but we serve a BIG GOD and with Him all things are possible.
If you have any questions or would like to contact us, please e-mail us at:
richardandashley_score@hotmail.com
Stay tuned for more updates!
S T R E A M S + T H O R N S 