For the past few months and weeks, we've been having our meetings to prepare ourselves for Africa this summer. The meetings have been nothing but very productive and beneficial for us! We're very proud of our teammates for their initiative, commitment, motivation and leadership. We are definitely not a quantity but a quality team :) Most of our meetings include preparing our agenda and activities for the 3 weeks camp (YLC style) twice in June and July, vaccinations, what to watch out for, what to pack, stuff to donate, updates on fundraising, getting to know the orphans, and lots of prayers, too!
Jason taking lead in this meeting.
Alex and Moises with their serious meeting face.
Dallas with his serious meeting face.
Kristina and her serious meeting face.
Javier and his serious meeting face.
Mistie taking notes of our meeting.
Because we had so many questions we wanted to ask Lance from Lance's Deaf Orphans so we decided to set up a VP date with him to get to know him too. It was such a fun and pleasing time for the team to meet him and we were able to get all the answers we wanted! (Sorry you can't really see Lance.)
Team Picture!
(with Kat Roberts next to Kristina in spirit)
Jason grilling away.
We agreed that all work no play was applicable for us so we decided to get together at Moises and Kristina's house and just chill!
Alex and Moises are beyond chilling with their wrestling fits.
The fire is burning and so are we for our trip to Africa. ;)
Click play to view a little video we wanted to share.
Click on the link if you prefer to view it full screen.
We've been meeting quite a few times to plan for our summer camp. We also made a few trips where we were able to share news about ODO and fundraise for the summer camp. We wanted to share some pictures, so enjoy! The first group is our trip to Cincinnati the first weekend of March with IBTC students for a deaf children's fair and the second group of pictures is our trip to Kansas City last weekend :)
DM Van - its got miles and miles on it! We went to Cincinnati for Deaf Institute (an organization)'s annual "All About Deaf Kids" fair. It is a great event where the focus is on encouraging families with deaf children to communicate each other and put Jesus first in everything.
Alexa made this booth display. It really helped with clearly telling others what ODO is all about. On the left you will see us talking about our Eastern Europe trip, and on the right part it is focused on our upcoming trip to Africa this summer.
This is Vicki, a long-time missionary to deaf children.
We had the opportunity to meet Austin and Victoria, from Ghana, Africa! They are hearing graduate students at Cincinnati Christian University. Alex complimented Austin on his nice clothes, and Austin promptly gave it to Alex!
Lookin' like a true African!
Jason and Mistie, a married couple who are IBTC students - leading a Pictionary game. They will be going with us to Africa this summer.
Javier Reyes, another IBTC student who also will go to Africa - signing stories to deaf children.
Nice, pulsating music!
Dallas Brock, an IBTC student, giving an A-Z performance in front of all the children. He also is going to Africa!
Jason Suhr giving another A-Z performance.
David Gomez, an IBTC student, giving an one-man drama about Noah's Ark.
We went to one of our favorite Cincinnati haunts - Skyline's Chili! Alexa can't wait to eat! We ate with a great group of Ozark Christian College students.
That weekend, there was a huge tornado system that hit the Eastern US. We found out that Henryville, IN was hit, and it was only two hours south of Cincinnati. We decided to go to Henryville to see the damage and bring some water bottles.
Its all we could do. We really wish we could do more and help with the clean-up, but it is unrealistic if you are just passing through. Coming here and seeing the effort there really made us want to go to the next disaster zone and help out. But to really make a difference, you'd have to stay there for a few days.
We met a girl who is a CODA. She was at a gas station in Henryville when the tornado hit. She took a picture of it with her iPhone. She said that the tornado was across the street and that large hail severely damaged her car and hit her head. She's blessed to be still alive.
This is the girl. In the background you can see the tornado devastation.
This school was hit hard.
School bus in a bank! Notice the damage from hail on the car to your right.
We couldn't believe the power of a tornado.
What was once a gas staion.
We also took the chance to visit the Creation Museum. Its a great museum! We really enjoyed ourselves there and benefit spiritually with affirmations that God created this universe.
We had a run-in with some saurs! From left - Javier Reyes, Dallas Brock, Alexa, Alex, Mistie, Pam Eubanks, Jason Suhr, Bryan Eubanks, and David Gomez.
Long drive back home!
Now, the Kansas City trip
We decided to bring Jason and Mistie with us for the three-hour trip to Kansas City so we could spend some time together and so that they could see how we fundraise with our speeches, trips. This is a great couple and they really do have a heart to be full-time missionaries in the future after their IBTC program. Notice that Jason is using an ODO shirt!
Alex talking about ODO. Check out James 1:27 if you don't what this verse says!
This is the sign for "Uganda"
Jason talking about what we will do at Lance's Deaf Orphans
Mistie is six months pregnant. She will give birth in Africa. Please pray for the safety of all of us and especially for the unborn child!
Us! Thanks for reading this blog :) Please keep on praying for ODO, the team, and our fundraising effort.
