Happy Fourth of July!

July 4^th – Friday

Happy Independents Day!!!!

                We went to do devos at nine like scheduled but we were the only ones there. We figured everyone would show up when they were ready and just set up the chairs and waited. Children started showing up shortly after and as we all waited we started comparing Bibles. I would read a verse in English and then the young lady would read it in Spanish. Arielle’s would try and read it in Spanish and they would help her and then they would read it in English and she would help them. I eventually started helping them read it in English too. This was an enjoyable way to pass an hour.

                When we got started Jamin shared on David and Goliath and having trust in God. They all wanted to sing Trading Sorrows again so we tried that a few times, you could hear people singing this throughout the day. Then we were blessed to watch their dance team dance. Also one of the young boys, Christopher, was just given a guitar and he played and sang a couple of songs. It was a great devotional time.

                We all then spread out and did different things. Arielle had her hair done, she was told that she is a live Barbie J. One of the girls did a little braid in my bangs and then I helped make the ensalada for lunch. They gave me the name of all the vegetables in the ensalada and I tried really hard to commit them to memory but when they are throwing 50 ish words at you a day we are having a hard time keeping them straight. Saturday I’m going to put some paper in my pocket and write the words down. Oh the rolling R’s have also been a source of amusement. Jamin worked on mowing and trimming some trees. I prepared the craft for later in the day and talked some with the adults.

                While we were waiting for lunch the Hamana the youngest, three, decided my hair needed to be more up. Hamana was trying really hard to braid my hair and then getting frustrated when she realized she didn’t have a clip and that I didn’t have one, I’ve started putting extra bobby pins in my pocket. So one of the other girls took one of the burettes out of the Hamana’s hair for her to use, she couldn’t get it to stay though. Hamana was so serious she kept pulling my head up and lecturing me then putting my head back down ;-). She never did finish getting my hair up.

                After lunch Arielle and I went to do the dishes but we were almost out of water outside in the large bucket.

After a lot of work we were able to get enough water to start the dishes. Sucanea was helping us and we spent the next hour ish getting rather wet as we scrubbed the never ending supply of dishes. The water I was rinsing in kept getting really soapy, but we were pretty much out of water in the large bucket. At one point Sucanea went and got us more water from the bathroom to rinse the dishes in. The whole time we were working on learning the Spanish for each dish and teaching Sucanea the English. I would take the plate and lift it up and say plate then dip it in the water and pull it out and say plato! Arielle informed me that I looked ridiculous but I told her I didn’t care. We took a little break from the dishes to eat a popsicle. It was an exciting time of dish washing.

                It was then time for English class and we all sat in a circle in the grass and we learned: grass, chair, flower, tree, watch, popsicle, sandal, tennis shoe, croc, shoes, colors and 1 – 15. We played some different games to try and help these all stick. We then went and worked on the craft which was making beaded lizards. They all really enjoyed this crafts, unfortunately we ran out of time so we had to rush some to finish.

                17 of us then piled into the van and took off for another orphanage in Imuris where we were going so us ladies could do Zumba and Jamin could run. They have a lot larger compound. They had a small cement building with some exercise equipment that was the gym. There were a few windows but no fans or AC, the fact that they even had a gym is amazing. Us ladies all did some Zumba dancing it was a good workout we were already sweating before we even started so by the end we were rather drenched. Arielle and I provided some entertainment as we are not necessarily skilled dancers and we couldn’t move are hips right. At one point Arielle was windmilling her arms and marching in place, the ladies all thought it was great fun to watch.

                After this we walked back to the main area of the other orphanage and they have a radio station and had agreed to let Christopher play his guitar and sing. He did a very nice job. After he finished singing we went and played some futball in the dirt, we have been playing on a cement slab. The drive home was full of the fun driving adventures you would expect in a crowded Mexican town.

July 3rd

July 3^rd - Thursday

                Today was a great day! They are currently fasting in the morning until 1 pm and starting the day with two hours of prayer, devo and worship. They have asked that one of us share something each morning so this morning I shared about Ruth and Lilia translated. (Ladies, I thought of ya’ all,  I wasn’t able to go into all the amazing truths of a Kinsman Redeemer.) We then taught them Trading Sorrows in English and sang that a couple of times.

                After an hour Lilia took us three to go discuss plans for the rest of the time that we are here, while the children finished up their prayer time. She showed us the craft/library room and explained what their schedule is like. We will be teaching English while we are here. She also showed us the sewing room, where they make the most adorable sock monkeys and aprons that they sell to raise money for the orphanage. I will be helping to teach the younger girls how to sew a couple times a week.

                We spent the next three hours planning English lessons for Friday, Saturday and next week. We also cleaned out and organized the craft/library room. This is a universal problem I have discovered; apparently craft supplies are very crafty and jump out of their places in all cultures!

                We then ate lunch, did some dishes and Jamin and I played some futball while Arielle had her hair done. Eventually Jamin and I snuck away and took a quick nap while Arielle continued to have her hair done and then watched Frozen (It is enjoyable in Spanish too). I came in near the beginning of Frozen and after watching a few minutes went and helped prepare Corzo  (that is problem spelled extremely wrong). I helped tinker around the kitchen and food pantry for a bit. Then Alex, one of the adult workers, and I went and dropped off some food to the neighbors. Jamin woke up and we all watched the end of Frozen.

                The rest of the afternoon/evening was filled with futball, volleyball and conversations. Alex has been helping us with our Spanish, he doesn’t speak English though. So we first nail down what we are talking about and then he tells us the Spanish word and we tell him the English word. This has been helpful, although I think I have forgotten most the words he has told me. But I am trying and it is defiantly emersion here so stuff will start sticking.

          Artura arrived back from taking some of the girls to play futball with another orphanage in the area. He then shared about his life and how the Emuris Kid’s Kingdom came about. It was enlightening and enjoyable to hear his heart and how God orchestrated the whole thing. We then had dinner and called it a night.

                For those of you who don’t keep tracking of such things it is Monsoon season in Mexico right now. So the first Monsoon of the season hit are yesterday, it wasn’t very large though. Followed by a slightly larger one today. The sky has been almost constantly overcast promising to dump rain at any minute. There has been sporadic lightning and thunder which is great. Alex taught us all the words involved in these storms, if I understood and am remembering them all right (he is night showing us spelling so these are me trying to interpret the sound using the English alaphabet); U-V is rain, nueve is the clouds, tunando is thunder, then there are two words for lightning depending on if it’s a strike or cloud to cloud but I know I’m confusing those in my head so I’m not even going to try. Anyways we had a nice rain fall in the afternoon. 

Traveling and Our First Day

June 30^th – Monday

                I started the day with a little later start than I had been planning due to some complications but I still was on the road at a decent hour (6:30am). The drive to Oliehurst was uneventful and I made it around 1:30 pm. I spent some time with the family and finished a few last details for Arielle. While we were eating dinner the topic of passport expirations came up, and there had been a slight mix up (minors expire every 5 years) and Arielle’s passport will expire while we are in Mexico. We started frantically searching the internet and contacting Joy to see what if any options were available. Eventually we learned that if the minor is traveling by land in an organized group with adults then they just need a birth certificate and ID to get back into America. After that round of fun we all headed to bed. Arielle’s and I had planned on driving straight to Rio Rico, 15 hours, the next day. But we knew we were going to have to wait in the morning for a call from Joy who was contacting the border to confirm all that was found. With all of this in consideration we decided to split the trip into two days, just make sure we were in Rio Rico no later than 10 am on Wednesday.

July 1^st – Tuesday

                We waited on pins and needles for the call, if the border had said no then we would have had to leave Arielle, In America, or figured out a way to get her picked up early. The call came and the border said that she was fine traveling with her birth certificate and ID they also said they would let her back with the expired passport. So with all that sorted out we jumped in our already stuffed car and headed out around 9 am. There is not a lot to say about the trip, it was a lot of desert, angry water related billboards and semi trucks. On a down note USA lost and are out of the World Cup but they at least made it to the group of 16. We decided to call it a night a little after 8 with just under 4 hours of driving left. Then began the hunt for a place to sleep. We eventually found a town, Tonopuh, in Arizona that had a clean Hotel.

July 2^nd – Wednesday

                We were up bright and early and on the road by 6 am. The travel was fairly uneventful. When we were within a couple mile of our stopping point, had just pulled off the interstate and were starting the neighborhood search, the GPS just shut off. I had mapquest directions but they were to the other peoples house. We were about to call Joy when Del, her husband drove by and guessed it was was, two girls in a car with OR plates, he let us follow him home. At long last the three Gerkins were all in one location! Joy was working on preparing a lunch to take with them to the women’s prison. We jumped in and in no time the lunch was ready to go. We then transferred the 8 garbage bags, 3 boxes and 4 balls that people had donated to the orphanage into their van, oh we also transferred our clothes, water and food. Then we were off to the border, the crossing was uneventful, we went with them all to the women’s prison and helped out with the ministry there. We had a great time eating with and then sharing some of our story with the ladies. The ladies then all shared their stories and some of their heart and it was very touching to hear what God has been doing in all their lives. Be praying for all these dear sisters in Christ who are in the middle of the justice system here. Once we had finished at the prison, Del and Joy drove us all to the orphanage.

                Lilia and her husband run the Emuris Kid’s Kingdom, there are currently 25 children here mostly teenage girls. They seem like a very nice couple and I look forward to getting to know them better. They have provided us with one of the dorm rooms. It is spacious and nice. After we unpacked everything and discussed a few details, us Americano did our best to play games. It was always funa dn enjoyable but also slightly confusing. We never were sure what was happening when we started a game, they would all just have a conversation and then split us up and point at where they wanted us. But we always figured it out! First we were all taking turns shooting on the goal, then we switched to kickball and lastly we played a small futball scrimmage. After the kickball the girls all decided to set to on fixing Arielle’s hair, they worked on it for at least a half hour. When they finished she had a lovely mixture of cornrows and braids.

                It was now a little after 6 pm and we had Wednesday night service at 7 so we all decided to go put our room in order and freshen up a little bit for the service. The service seemed really good, it was all in Spanish so I’m not sure what was being said, but it was great to be able to worship with brothers and sisters in Christ in another place. There is something special about being able to see the love that others have for Christ. When the sermon started they asked us Americanos to take the little ones outside. We had a great time playing with the children. Although from the American perspective it was slightly scary because we never were sure how many children we were suppose to have and communication was a challenge. But we al, children included,l had an amazing time. At one point the children were using the monkey bars while sitting on our shoulders it was hilarious how tangled up we all could get! Eventually service ended and we all had some rice pudding and lemon bread and headed for bed.

                On a funny note when I went to use the restroom the faucet is a PVC concoction. Well I got it turned on just fine but it didn’t seem to matter how many times or ways I turned the switch I could not get it to stop. One of the girls came in and I tried asking how to turn it off and showing that I couldn’t. I tried using my hand to stop the water I tried staring it into submission but it was not working. Eventually she showed me that you have to push down on the PVC faucet and have the knob just right and it will turn off.

A Few Pictures from VBS

Yellow Group on water day!




Day One Opening Session




Day Two Opening Session



 
Day Three Closing Session



Building Towers

Minecraft Vacation Bible School

This was my churches fifth year of putting on a Vacation Bible School (vbs), and I have to say that each year I'm blown away by my church. We are a small church with very little money but somehow we always manage to put on a great vbs that the children love. I would say we have a 100% support from the congregation everyone either helps before, during, after, or all three!

This year we chose to do Minecraft, which is a very popular a video/computer game. This was a fun undertaking in that maybe one of the adults involved had ever played the game ;-). But everyone was troopers and set to work researching the game and creating the event. We chose to do our theme on creation, because Minecraft is about creating.

We had a great turn out from our community which has always been our hope. We had a great time the first night learning how God created the heavens and the earth. As well as coloring LARGE Minecraft characters. Plus doing a crazy relay. This was all proceeded with a whole group game of limbo, worship, skits, offering, and small group discussion. We had 100+ wrapped boxes in the sanctuary for the children to create houses and castles with. The boxes were a huge success.

Our second day was water day and God decided to help us out with some rain ;-). The children and game people were such troopers, they all continued to have fun even though it was raining and a bit on the chilly side. That night I taught on how God created the heavens and the earth (emphasis on water). The children also made amazing Minecraft scenes. We were honored to have Bre and three of her interns show up and hang out with us this night.  We also enjoyed the game Sammy/Sally walker, worship, an amusing skit, offering, and small group discussions.

Our third day was animal day and the children bout different stuffed animals to show everyone. After the children were signed in we gave them cat whiskers and a nose with face paint. We then played a fun game of three banners. Followed by our talented worship team. The skit people were fun and creative as always. The children really did a great job bring offering for the orphanage we support in Romainia. The crew leaders blew me away this year with how great they did with their children and how they handled their small group discussion time. I taught on how God created the animals. The children made mask in crafts and played a bunch of party games at game time.

Our fourth and final day was people day, the children were encouraged to bring pictures of themselves or their families. We played a rousing game of freeze dance and had a great time with worship, skits, and discussion. For teaching I taught how God created the humans in His image. In crafts they made Minecraft boxes and characters. For games they played some game that involved the boxes in the sanctuary it sounded like they were having a blast! We ended the evening with a parent service where the children showed their parents the songs and verse they had learned. We also raffled off some bigger prizes.

I cannot say thank you enough for all the amazing people who helped me before, during and after this event! But I do want to mention some of the people.

Before hand we had the tireless help of Dorothy, Melanie, Maria, Jacki, Devin, Jan, Francie, John, Cody, Jackson, and Marcus.

Then their were three ladies who created fabulous murals, Bobbie, Brenda and Genna.

Pastor John made incredible shirts for all the kiddos.

Enroot (the young adult group headed by P. John and Francie) created the skits and Cody, JJ and Mathew did a great job performing them. Francie also created the set for the skits and it was masterfully done.

The worship team got together and learned some fun energetic songs that the children loved! This group was led by Pastor Kent and his very talented crew was Dave, Eric, and Cody. Thank you all for the great worship!

I cannot brag on Melody at registration enough! Every year she handles the crazy job of getting everything ready at registration. She gets all the children signed in and makes sure that they are safe and only going home with the right person ;-). She has the amazing help of Melanie in this task.

Then there is Jan and Maria in the kitchen. I know that as long as they are on the job everything will come together for the snacks. They also provide a meal for the volunteers who usually are coming from work.

Maria and Jackie ran our prize store this year and they did a fabulous job. I loved their creativity and the children enjoyed getting to buy stuff with the tokens they earned.

Brenda ran with our crafts and she is such an artsy person. The children all loved craft time and getting to make such fun items.

We outsourced our game leader this year to David, he was kind enough to come and plan and lead all the games. He had the awesome help of Mathew and Cody! The children sounded like they were always having so much fun.

Then we had Pastor John and Devin back in the sound booth running the sound and slides for worship. Well done you two!

Then there are the crew leaders. They absolutely blew me out of the water with how great they did. I have to admit I was a little concerned at first but they proved to be an exceptional group of leaders.In the yellow group which were the 3 year olds - Kinder we had Lori, Carmen and Mollie. In the blue group we had Eric and JJ. Then in the green group we had Michaela, Kyle and Jay.

Lastly I want to thank Pastor Kent. He is my right hand man and helped create the entire vbs. We had many brain storming sessions/email exchanges. He also does an incredible job with the whole opening/closing session. The children love him and they listen and follow his instruction so well. He also is the one that makes sure everything is flowing well and takes care of all issues that arise during our rotation times.

A quick update

Hello All,

I know I haven't written in a long time so here is a quick update as to what I have been up to.

The last couple of weeks I have had work and then have also been starting to plan VBS.

I'm excited for VBS, we are doing a few things differently and I pray that it will be changes for the better. Our theme is Minecraft. This has led to me studying this game, I have never played, I feel a bit like a nerd studying a computer game so intently. We are still nailing down what the teaching theme will be but I think we are close!

Work is always different. I think that is one, of the many reasons, that I enjoy working in the public schools. A few interesting thing from the past week. The children have been learning how to type using typingclub.com, its a good program if you are looking for one. So I decided to go ahead and try using the program, its never bad to refresh and all that. Well i have discovered that I learned to type without my pinkies and it is taking a lot of work to learn to use them ;-)

Also the children in my class room our really obsessed with unicorns right now, it goes through phases at one point it was Bob their imaginary classmate until Bob had an accident on Halloween because he wasn't being safe. Anyways, I asked the young lady I worked with to draw me a unicorn on the back of my soccer shirt, she loves to draw and I figured it would make her happy. Also my soccer teams name is the Fluffy Pink Unicorns so I thought it would be fun. Well she was all for it and insisted on taking the shirt home and drawing and painting it herself. When she brought it back to school the next day the whole class was jealous and a couple asked to play on my team. It was kind of sad to have to tell them they had about 8 years before they were old enough. But they weren't to be discouraged that easy they said when they are old enough they will play on my team ;-)

Yesterday at work we did an egg drop. The children were all suppose to create something that would prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from about 15 feet. There were many creative inventions, there were ziplines, balloon cases, parachutes, boxes, trampolines, soda bottles, and most commonly containers of peanut butter. This was a fun experiment the children were really into it! in the process of doing this though I ended up with egg and peanut butter splattered all over my pants.

Anyways that a quick update as to what I have been up to.

Imuris Kid's Kingdom

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope you are all doing well. It has been a couple of years since I have written so let me take a minute to tell you what I have been up to. This is my second year working for the Springfield School District. I’m a one on one aide for a young lady with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (Brittle Bone Disease, like from the M. Night Shyamalan movie Unbreakable). This is an amazing job that allows me access to the elementary schools and next year to a middle school. I really believe that God has me working with this precious young lady for a reason.

Last year I had the honor to serve as the Children’s Pastor for my church, Lively Stone Fellowship. I also worked with our youth. Additionally, I was able to help with the Willamette Branch of Campus Life. I am currently taking a break from these ministries.

This summer, at the end of June, I will be leading my church’s efforts in Vacation Bible School. This year’s theme will be Minecraft and I am excited to see what the Lord chooses to do this year. Last year we had a Lego themed VBS and were able to reach many new children in our neighborhood.

At the beginning of July my sister, Arielle, and brother, Jamin, and I will be heading down to Mexico to spend 7 ½ weeks working at the Imuris Kid’s Kingdom Orphanage. This is an amazing ministry that is a part of God is on the Move, which is a ministry affiliated with Open Bible Churches. God is on the Move ministers to three different prisons, a men’s rehab, an orphanage, outreach projects, a church, a daycare, and convalescent care. The orphanage has mainly older children and ranges from 15-30 children at a time. Through this orphanage, they also run a daycare center for the mothers in the community as well as a feeding ministry. Additionally, they are building a church in the town of Imuris.

My name is Arielle Goecker, I'm Krista's little sister. My Dad serves as a Chaplain in the United States Air Force. In August, we moved from Japan to California. I've spent my time since then doing school, babysitting, visiting family and settling into our new home. In May, I will be turning seventeen and finishing up my third year in High school. I'm super excited about this opportunity to go to Mexico this summer.

Hi, I’m Jamin! I look forward to my time in Mexico because it is a chance to share the hope of Christ with people from another culture. Currently, I am a graduate student at Angelo State University and am preparing to be a diplomat or ambassador. This trip will be an excellent opportunity for me to not only represent my country and immerse myself in another society but also to be an ambassador for Christ. If I can be used to positively impact just one life on this trip, then I will consider it a success!

We are truly excited to see what God is going to do this summer in Mexico. It should be a

God filled time of ministry and relationship building. Please be in prayer for Arielle, Jamin and I and all the ministries of God is on the Move. If you would like to financially support us in addition to praying for us, you can send your tax deductible contribution to:

Lively Stone Fellowship

3791 Pattison St

Eugene, OR 97401

If you would like to follow us this summer, go to www.awalkinthewild.blogspot.com.

In Christ,

Krista, Jamin & Arielle Goecker