And We're Off!

Hard to believe that is has been almost 2 months since we returned from Bluefields... and it is now our departure day! This trip will be unique from our recent trip in February - instead of 44 members which was combination of teens and adults, we now have 7 members - with only one young adult! There will be more Nicaraguans there than North Americans... this is a good thing as the building project is not ours... it belongs to God and the people of Bluefields!

We departed from Main Street Baptist in Oneonta at 3:15 AM to catch a 6:00 AM flight to Atlanta where we will meet up with Greg from Tulsa... we then will fly to Managua, here we will be have a 9 hour layover before we board a bus to El Rama, then have three hours to wait for our Escondido river journey to Bluefields, where we will arrive sometime Friday morning.

Our February Nicaragua trip's retrospective service Sunday night was well attended and I believe our stories and photo and video presentations were a blessing to many who attended. I pray that God continues to move in all our hearts to to encourage us to step outside our comfort zones as we examine how God can use what is left of our lives. From young children to teens to senior citizens, He has a plan... we just have to tap into it!

SAVE THE DATE - April 22, 2007

SAVE THE DATE - April 22, 2007

We have a special presentation scheduled for this coming weekend - Back to Bluefields, a Retrospective on Sunday April 22nd at The Crossing worship service at Main Street Baptist Church, 333 Main Street, Oneonta, NY from 6-8:00 PM. There will be videos and stories from team members as well as a praise and worship service. Invite your friends and family to share our experiences!

Speaking of heading back... we are going...

GREAT NEWS!!

We now have a total of 7 folks - with 5 "veterans" from the February trip! Final travel arrangements are complete so now we can focus on bonding as a team. We will use email and maybe even Skype to conference all of us together to share our pre-trip experiences. The outpouring of love and support from those who previously went in February and are unable to make this return trip has been amazing. Our February trip's reunion meeting on March 30th at the Z's home in Oneonta just re-ignited our passion for the people in Bluefields - but we were also challenged to be the light in our own towns and villages where we live!

Six of us will leave from Albany, NY on April 26th and we will meet up with Greg from Tulsa in Atlanta. Cherith will be postponing her horse camp ministry until she gets home, so she will not travel from Bend, Oregon! Once we arrive in Managua, we will head east through Nicaragua - first by bus to El Rama, then by boat down the Escondido River to Bluefields.


We will meet up with 5-6 American volunteers from other parts of Central America and as many as 10-15 Nicaraguans to forge ahead with the project we started in February. The latest report from Mike Najjar is that e will finish the part of the building where Pastor William will live as well as maybe finish the roof on the Sanctuary - awesome!


The trip will last until Saturday May 5th... we look forward to our return to Bluefields and seeing the villagers we left just over 2 months ago!






To glorify God, of course!

Farewell to Johnny Hart

We were saddened by the news of the passing of Johnny Hart... this is from MSNBC.com...

For millions of comic strip readers, the prehistoric era was a hoot: Cavemen played baseball, ants went to school, birds rode on the back of turtles and snakes made quips. All of it was thanks to cartoonist Johnny Hart, who died Saturday at age 76 while working at his home in the nearby hamlet of Nineveh. “He had a stroke,” his wife, Bobby, said Sunday. “He died at his storyboard.”

Hart’s “B.C.” strip was launched in 1958 and eventually appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers with an audience of 100 million, according to Creators Syndicate Inc., which distributes it.

“He was generally regarded as one of the best cartoonists we’ve ever had,” Hart’s friend Mell Lazarus, creator of the “Momma” and “Miss Peach” comic strips, said from his California home. “He was totally original. ’B.C’ broke ground and led the way for a number of imitators, none of which ever came close.” Hart, who also co-created “The Wizard of Id,” won numerous awards for his work, including the National Cartoonist Society’s prestigious Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year and an award from the International Congress of Comics. Richard Newcombe, founder and president of Creators Syndicate said “B.C.” and “Wizard of Id” would continue. Family members have been helping produce the strips for years, and they have an extensive computer archive of Hart’s drawings to work with, he said.

After his discharge from the military in 1954, Hart worked in the art department at General Electric while selling cartoons on the side. He began reading Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” and was inspired to start his own strip. “Caveman gags, for reasons which I still cannot explain, were an obsession in those days,” Hart told Creators. “One day, a friend jokingly suggested I create a strip revolving around prehistoric times.”

Later in his career, some of Hart’s cartoons had religious themes, a reflection of his own Christian faith. That sometimes led to controversy. A strip published on Easter in 2001 drew protests from Jewish groups and led several newspapers to drop the strip. The cartoon depicted a menorah transforming into a cross, with accompanying text quoting some of Jesus Christ’s dying words. Critics said it implied that Christianity supersedes Judaism. Hart said he intended the strip as a tribute to both faiths. “He had such an emphasis on kindness, generosity, and patience,” Newcombe said.

“B.C.” was filled with puns and sly digs at modern society. One recent strip showed an ant teacher asking her class, “Who can tell me what secondhand smoke is?” One pupil raised his hand with an answer: “A political speech made by a vice presidential candidate.”

After he graduated from Union-Endicott High School, Hart met Brant Parker, a young cartoonist who became a prime influence and eventual co-creator with Hart of “The Wizard of Id” in 1964. Hart enlisted in the Air Force and began producing cartoons for Pacific Stars and Stripes. He sold his first freelance cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post after his discharge from the military in 1954.

Many of Hart’s characters were patterned after his friends. “He was a free spirit who loved everybody, and everything,” Jack Caprio, a childhood friend and model for “Clumsy Carp” in the “B.C.” strip, told the Press & Sun-Bulletin of Binghamton. “He was never embarrassed by doing silly things.”

Besides his wife, Hart is survived by two daughters, Patti and Perri. He was a native of Endicott, about 135 miles northwest of New York City, and drew his comic strip at a studio in his home there until the day he died.

To read about others' thoughts on this awesome comic creator... http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?BoardID=507&ThreadID=251237&BoardsParam=HIPDelay%3d1

Good Friday and Easter - The Real Deal

We learn a lot about how Jesus affected and influenced the disciples and onlookers who followed Him during his life and time of teaching. As described in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and in the book of Acts, His life and ministry on earth changed history forever!

Jesus can relate to the despair in our lives... the night before he as crucified, he spent a lot of time praying in the Garden Of Gethsemane. He realized his fate was in the God's hands and that He must suffer the next day. In the book of Luke, chapter 22, verse 44 the Bible says he sweat blood because of his anguish. He took on all the wrath and sin for all and because of that we can experience eternal life with him, if we believe He did this for us.

The day Jesus was brutally beaten and crucified was a dark day for sure. If He was truly the Son of God, why couldn't He save Himself? Why did He have to suffer in such a way? I imagine that the disciples, especially, who spent many days with Jesus, watching Him teach and preach boldly, heal the sick and crippled and brought some back from the dead, were in such deep despair. The following couple days must have been so hard and unexplainable - they hid themselves not knowing how to proceed.

But, just as Jesus predicted, He was triumphant over death and was resurrected on the Third Day and now sits again in glory with God. When He appeared to Mary Magdalene and Mary, then the 11 disciples, he assured them to not be afraid and began with some of his most important teachings as told in Matthew 28: 18-20...

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Regardless of where you are in your spiritual journey - think about this... Jesus came down from the highest of high places to live on Earth to live a perfect example for us, then suffered and died on all of our behalf in order for us to receive this gift... to give an chance to have eternal life with God. It is up to us to accept this gift... take some time to consider where you stand.

John 3:16 is one of the most widely used and read passages, but continue on to verse 17 and as Paul Harvey says, is the rest of the story...

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

WANTED: Baseball Equipment & Musical Instruments

I just received notice from the folks serving the ministry in Bluefields Nicaragua and they have made some needs known to us. Sports and music are two activities that the children naturally were drawn to - it would be a special blessing to the villages we serve if we could respond to this need!

If you are interested in locating, donating or offering these items or can provide financial support to this effort, please let me know!