CBSM MISSIONS TRIP
Last Updated: 03/09/03

Hello, everybody at home. We arrived at the airport OK, waited awhile for the vans, got a trailer, and headed up to Camp Rosalie, 4000 feet ABOVE Denver (that's right, we are at about 9000 feet above sea level!). The air is thinner, but all of the kids are doing OK. Friday morning we are heading down to Ship Rock, New Mexico to do ministry on the Navajo reservation. Conditions here are some what primitive, but the beauty of God's creation (see the pictures), inspires and strengthens everyone! We will TRY to update this site daily, but it is dependent on the charity of others for a phone line. If you wish to email any one, send a message to:
cedarbrk@his.com

with the recipients name in the subject, and we will see they get it.

Check back daily, and thanks for your support and prayers!

Click here for:
(each day opens in a new window)

BTW, please consider these photos as rough "field  notes". Much of the definition and resolution had to be sacrificed to send up as many as possible. We will provide all interested parties with a CD ROM of all of the pictures in full resolution after we return.

Day One (Mon., July 3rd)
We made it! At first, we were beginning to wonder! Our flight was delayed leaving BWI – leaving us waiting on the runway almost an hour. Once we got to Denver, our rental company took almost 2 hours to bring us our rental vans. Then they only brought ONE VAN! Doh! Once we crammed everyone and their luggage into these two vans, we quickly realized that Daren scrimped a little too much on transportation. So, we wasted some more time in Denver trying to rent a trailer for one of the vans.

Now the good news. Once we made it to Camp Rosalie, we discovered some really wonderful folks. The YWAM staff is almost too good to be true. They immediately bent over backwards to make us feel at home. The other youth group training with us is just as nice. We are blessed to be spending this trip with these people.

Day Two (Tues., July 4th)
We are totally enjoying the times of worship and teaching here. The YWAM philosophy is to make sure we tend to our own spiritual needs before they send us out to minister to others. It really makes sense! We have been spending a lot of time learning how to offer God our weaknesses – and to depend on prayer for everything. These are lessons needed by students and adults alike.

We did some team building exercises with members of the other youth group.

Today, we also started the process of learning the creative arts programming used during our Navajo outreach. Some of our group is learning drama. Others are learning a really cool dance to one of our favorite worship songs by Sonic Flood – "Open the Eyes of My Heart ." The rest of our group is learning to use puppets to teach. So far, all they are letting Daren do is walk around with a video camera.

Tonight we also experienced the YWAM staff performing the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. For many of our group, it was a needed reminder of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We were all challenged to remember the price that Jesus paid for each of our sins.

Day Three (Wed. July 5th)
The great teaching and worship continue. So do the aches, pains and mistakes of learning these creative arts skills.

We had an extended time of worship, silence and prayer. The goal was to listen for the voice of God to tell us what we needed in Him – and to pinpoint obstacles to our faithfully following him. The experience was so wonderful for many of our group. We all came away from that time a little differently than when we started.

Day Four (Thurs. July 6th)
We spent our morning worship/teaching time praying for the Navajo people and getting a crash course in Navajo culture. We leave early tomorrow morning for the LOOOOONG drive to Ship Rock, NM. We are all excited and a little nervous.

Tonight, we are taking all of our creative arts presentations to a middle school session of church camp up the road. We are part of the evening worship service there. This will give us a chance to get over our nervousness about performing in front of an audience before we get to Ship Rock.

PRAY FOR US!

Day Five (Friday, July 7th)
We drove to Ship Rock, New Mexico this morning. We left at 7:30 am and arrived at the Many Waters Mission at 7:30 PM! We were  all very tired from the drive, but excited to be in New Mexico. Captions will be added as we can.
Day Six (Saturday, July 8th)

We drove to the isolated spot on the Navajo Reservation to construct a brush arbor ( a outdoor meeting building), and to provide a Vacation Bible School to the Native American children. The buildings you will see are lived in year long. The poverty is extreme, in sharp contrast to God's beauty surrounding it. This was a busy day, and we have about 150 pictures to prove it!
We went to a tent revival offered by the Oho Encino Church after leaving the brush arbor construction site. There we sang songs, did skits, gave testimonies ( which were translated into Navajo for the audience), and prayed a lot. We then drove to another church( the one pictured), and slept on the floor in our sleeping bags.

Day Seven (Sunday, July 9th)

We awoke to another beautiful morning, ate a basic breakfast, and returned to the work site to finish the arbor. We then drove back across the Reservation to Many Waters Mission in Ship Rock. The lead car had a flat tire just before arriving, but we eventually got back to the Mission, and its' dining room and showers.
Just after we arrived, God provided us with a beautiful double rainbow directly over the mission. Sadly, by the time we got the camera out, the top rainbow had faded, but it didn't lessen the joy a bit!
God is Good!
All the Time!
Day Eight (Monday, July 10th)
Another beautiful morning in Ship Rock! We spent the morning helping with the chores around the Many Waters Mission. We weeded, cut the grass, (great job on the lawn, Jeremy!)
and started building a lockable storage room inside the mission.  In the early afternoon, we traveled to a nearby affluent Navajo neighborhood to distribute free Bible. We were amazed at the different standard of living there compared to the conditions where we had built the brush arbor. Everyone in this neighborhood had single family dwellings, water, electricity, satellite dishes, new cars, etc. We wondered how the message about depending on Christ rather than just ourselves would be received. Over 200 Bibles were eagerly accepted, and only 2 declined! We also prayed with those who received bibles. Each student or adult  who assisted in this bible outreach will have their own incredible story to tell about this experience, so be sure to ask them!
Later in the afternoon we went to the Ship Rock Boys and Girls Club. We did our dances, puppet shows, skits. and testimonies. After we had done all of our ministry, and brought at least one young person to Christ, we were told that we could do nothing of a "religious nature" inside the Club.
Too late! The Name of Christ had already been exhorted, exalted, and accepted!
We returned to Many Waters Mission for an evening of worship and fellowship, tired but happy.


Day Nine (Tuesday, July 11th)
We got up early this morning and packed for the ride to the Four Corners Monument. This is the only location in the United States where the borders of four different states meet, and tourists flock there for "photo ops". It is located in the middle of the Navajo reservation, which has territory in each of the four states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.  Since we were not sure if the authorities or some of the many vendors would prevent us from completing our ministry mission, we decided to distribute free bibles first. Not only did we distribute bibles and pray with several hundred people, we also found some people struggling to start churches on the Ute Indian Reservation, which is dominated by witchcraft and shamanism. We provided many bibles for their church, and also provided them with contacts for more support. Jan of Many Waters Mission discovered that one of the vendors was a long time friend and fellow Christian, and we were "officially invited" to perform our ministry skits, testimonies, puppets and dance directly in front of her vendor stall.  A patrol unit from the Navajo Tribal Police showed up to determine what was going on. They are the law at Four Corners Monument. Not only were their hearts opened to hear the truth about Christ, but they also asked for intercessory prayer from witchcraft and accepted several bibles for themselves and their families!

We returned exhausted and dirty to Many Waters Mission. The staff from Youth With a Mission surprised us with a Mission Celebration. For the first time in 10 days we enjoyed ice, pizza, soda pop,, and even ICE CREAM! The Youth With A Mission team that had been coordinating everything thanked and encouraged us, and had us  write letters to ourselves that they will mail back to us in six months, to remind us of what we had done, as well as of our plans and promises. Everyone except the drivers and their navigators stayed up, in order to sleep in the vans for the ride back to Denver Colorado. The vans were packed, the dorms were cleaned, and emotional good-byes to the other mission team from Colorado and the YWAM staff were made. We were ready to go home!
Day 10-11 (Wed.-Thurs., July 12-13th)
We left a 2AM Wednesday morning for the long drive back to Colorado. We were praying most of the way up the two steep mountain passes, due to the condition of the vans. We made it with God's help and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise in the mountain. Travel to Denver went quickly, and we arrived safely and ahead of schedule. We   returned the U-Haul trailer, and the owner of the rental place deeply discounted the rental cost, saying that we all were "working for the same boss"! In addition, Daren  found his keys that he presumed were lost at the airport. Do you want miracles? Then expect them!
We went to the airport and arrived just ahead of a large thunderstorm. We checked our baggage and relaxed and waited for the flight out to Houston. We played cards, caught up on sport news, and watched an impromptu  ballet performance by the "CBSM Swans" on the motorized walkway.
The first leg of our flight went without a hitch. Arriving at Houston, we hurried to another gate just in time to catch the second leg of the flight back to Baltimore. Some watched a movie, but most spent the 3 hour flight sleeping. We arrived back at BWI Airport eleven days after we had left, sleepy and tired, and happy to be safely back in the company of family and friends.
It is safe to say that this mission trip changed everyone who participated. We saw the power of prayer and dependence on God rather than ourselves  demonstrated many time.
A great big thank you to Daren Hull and all those involved for making this an experience of a lifetime.
We can't wait until next year's mission trip!