Greetings and Blessings from Puerto Rico!
1 Thessalonians 2:8
This is a long overdue update on our missions here in PR and for that we apologize. Since our last blog, we were blessed to have been a part of Thanksgiving Puerto Rican style. We felt very welcomed and loved with our God giving PR family! We also had the opportunity to invite a new found friend and brother in Christ to spend thanksgiving with us. Not long after Thanksgiving we were informed that we were going to be able to come back to the States for Christmas to see our family! That was an awesome blessing and Christmas present!! The Lord had placed a desire in my (Chandi) sister's heart to try to bring us "home" for the holiday's. Thank you to everyone who helped make that possible for us. Also, to my parents for housing us for two weeks during our visit. It was just the boost we needed to get prepared for this year's mission teams.
In January we were blessed with yet another surprise, our daughter Whitney came to PR for a surprise visit!! Noah, Isabella and Micah were ecstatic that their big sis was down for a visit. After she left to go back to the States, we had a small mission team here helping out with some renovations at the bakery/guest house. Changes are being made at the bakery to help accommodate our growing number of mission teams and volume of team members. It's an awesome problem to have when you've got so many people with a hearts desire to serve with us here in Puerto Rico!
In February, Chad, Sadie, Harper and myself, along with Maribel and Cleo, began making preparations for the four mission teams that were coming the month of March. The first of the March teams was a team from a Vineyard Church in states. They were here in PR working with Maribel's Church in Mayaguez. Following them were three Campus Crusade teams from the States, who go to the college campuses here in PR and share God's word with college age population. Along with going to the college campuses during the day, we were also able to take them to serve at the homeless shelter, Casa San Gabriel, in Mayaguez. There they were able to meet, serve and pray with some of the homeless population in Mayaguez. Mixed in with the mission teams that were here, Chad was able to also take a group of 15 high school aged kids from Carib Christian School to Mayaguez to do a homeless out reach in the streets and alleyways of downtown Mayaguez. It was truly an eye opening experience for those kids. They were face to face with homelessness, drug addiction and prostitution, all problems that plague the people of PR, some which are only slightly older than the kids that were there serving.
In February, Chad, Sadie, Harper and myself, along with Maribel and Cleo, began making preparations for the four mission teams that were coming the month of March. The first of the March teams was a team from a Vineyard Church in states. They were here in PR working with Maribel's Church in Mayaguez. Following them were three Campus Crusade teams from the States, who go to the college campuses here in PR and share God's word with college age population. Along with going to the college campuses during the day, we were also able to take them to serve at the homeless shelter, Casa San Gabriel, in Mayaguez. There they were able to meet, serve and pray with some of the homeless population in Mayaguez. Mixed in with the mission teams that were here, Chad was able to also take a group of 15 high school aged kids from Carib Christian School to Mayaguez to do a homeless out reach in the streets and alleyways of downtown Mayaguez. It was truly an eye opening experience for those kids. They were face to face with homelessness, drug addiction and prostitution, all problems that plague the people of PR, some which are only slightly older than the kids that were there serving.
Now that we're up to speed with what's happened between October and now, I'll fill you in on what our summer is looking like. Beginning in May, we Kick off our summer with Athletes in Action. They will be here for 2 1/2 weeks playing basketball and sharing God's Word with high school and college age kids here on the island. Following them will be a team from Lincoln Co. who will working on a sports complex that the Lord has blessed us with. The complex is overgrown with vines and weeds. Its in desperate need of the love and attention it will get from the Lincoln Co. group who will be preparing it for the presence of the children who we will get ministered to through this place. This gets us to mid June with these 2 teams. Then 3rd team of June is Harrodsburg Baptist coupled with Calvary Baptist in Danville. July Brings another sports team called Sports Reach. Sports Reach will be here with 135 people to serve! Wow... isn't God good?! Following Sports Reach, we are excited to have a first time team from One Community Church in Douglasville, Georgia. Then the perfect ending to our summer will be with none other than our home church, Southside Christian Church.
At the end of the summer, we will have had approximately 350 people on the ground in Puerto Rico serving in some capacity, be it church/community outreach or sports outreach. Whew!! I told you God was good!!! I'm also going to get the privilege and blessing of having a 2nd annual women's team here in October!! Now that you have an idea of what 2014 is looking like for us, please be in prayer for these teams and for Gods divine appointments. Whatever we do, we NEVER want to miss a visitation from the Lord! He's our focus and our goal. If we're in line with Him, then we won't stumble or miss an opportunity to be Jesus to whomever He has placed in our path that day!
I'm sorry for such a lengthy blog. My plan is to blog weekly to keep everyone up to speed on what's going on in PR. I also plan to send out monthly emails so everyone who follows us, supports us, and prays for us will know whats going on and how God's moving here in PR.
1 Thessalonians 2:8
Blessings,
The Mayes Family
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