Skate Missions: Sep 4, 2009

Here is a little ReCap From Josh....
"Guatemala in a word, was AMAZING! God's blessing and favor were felt everywhere we went in Guatemala and Steven and Maribel were such a blessing to us! They opened up their home and made sure we were well fed and took us where we needed to be every step of the way. This was my first trip out of the country and it was a real eye opener to this culture. The skate scene was a little underdeveloped to say the least but we were able to fellowship with the kids leading by Christ's example of love and just being real with them. we showed them how to do tricks, played never ending games of "s.k.a.t.e" and overall made tons of new friends. I think we each got a little crash-course in speaking Spanish as well, it definitely made me appreciate the language in a whole different light.

All the skaters couldn't wait to ride the ramps we helped build, apparently it had been a long time coming and it was extremely gratifying to help provide decent ramps for the locals to skate on. We don't realize how good we have it here until we step out into a place less fortunate. I believe that we not only helped them advance on a skateboard but more importantly introduced them to a side of Christianity that they never knew existed. As Steven explained, they've never met Christian skateboarders before and didn't think it was possible to have fun and be a Christian at the same time. It was such a blessing to be used by God in this way, I look forward to going back to water the many seeds that were planted on this trip.
This scripture keeps resounding in my mind....

Mark 4:26-29 "He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces ...grain-first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

People literally came "out of the woodwork" that Steven barely even knew to help us. One guy by the name of Gustavo let us use part of his warehouse in which to build the ramps to keep them (and us) dry from the random downpours of rain. He not only provided us with this shelter, but he bent over backwards and let us use his huge work truck to help haul the ramps to and from the 5 demos we put on while there. We were originally going to use Steven's van (which would've been nowhere even close to fitting these massive ramps) but God provided better and better! Gustavo would go out before us and be waiting with his truck containing the ramps inside, and as soon as we would show up crowds of people would just be there to help us unload them. He even went to the extent of opening up his house to us and fed us dinner one night with these amazing Guatemala style tacos and plantains.
Also, while at the warehouse one of the top 3 radio stations in Coban came by to interview Steven on what we were doing, not to mention a couple of our group members being put in the major newspaper perfectly describing what we were doing there. Steven couldn't have been happier and I could see that he was so blessed by all of this, it was amazing to be a part of the vision that God has given him.

We got to be a part of Steven's cell group and they made us feel such a warm welcome, opening their home and allowing us to fellowship with them. it felt like we had all known each other for years. We also attended a church service with them and it was just so cool to see their style of worship to God! It was the kind of thing that just overly inspires you and brings tears to your eyes.

I'm sure as soon as I send this e-mail 20 more things will pop into my head to write about, but this pretty much covers the gist of what went down in Guatemala last week. The pictures that I took can be found on my Facebook page, but they will barely even scratch the surface of everything that went on, I look forward to seeing everyone else's pictures as soon as the become available!

Blessings!

Josh Hudson
Sales Rep.
Joshua 1:9
Ocean Avenue Distribution"

Here is what Dave Tinker had to say....

"There are so many things I could say but I think the key of the trip for me was to live like there is no tomorrow. God is so much bigger than anything we can imagine and if we'll just take Him out of the box that we try to keep Him in some really cool things would happen in our lives. God wants to use us, He wants to fellowship with us but it seems we push Him away and choose not to acknowledge His power. Steven is a living example of living by faith, a subject that I have been studying since 4 weeks prior to partaking in the mission. We witnessed God provide for us time and time again, from transportation, to building/storage location, to event locations, to helping and willing hands, to physical healing, to all out stoke of the kids we were there to serve. God did it all and completely blew me away. Our assistance in helping Steven unlock the vision by building ramps and skating demos was just the crust, I can't wait to see what God has inside for the people of Coban and any of those who are willing to serve these people."