Champion Christian High School

After traveling all the way from PA we arrived in Sells, AZ. We are looking forward to learning and serving with the Tohono O'odham tribe this week. We'll be partnering with the local church First Papago Baptist Church and pastor Jay Juan. After arriving we were able to enjoy dinner with a few village kids that lived next door to the bunk house. We were able to learn about the vision of First Papago Baptist Church through a local missionary Eddie Ware. Stay tuned for some extraordinary ministry stories and to see how God works this week.

We had such an exciting day of ministry in Sells today which began by worshiping at the local church called First Papago Baptist Church. Pastor Jay Juan gave a message today about the measurements of love which included being servants, sincerity, of superficial love through the story of Mary and Martha. That was a great lesson to hear being on a mission trip where our main goal is to share God's love with the people we're serving. After church we ate lunch and headed to a different village of South Kimolick to have a block party. Part of us stayed to setup the bounce house while others went door to door inviting kids. We had over 30 kids come out to play. We served them snow cones, hot dogs, chips, and Kool-aid. We had an amazing time and have 2 more block parties setup for Monday and Tuesday night in different villages around the reservation.

Today we were able to visit Living Word Academy a Christian School in Sells, AZ. We acted out a few skits and then put on a puppet show about Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego. The students from the school loved it. Afterwards we did an interactive activity where we split into groups of 4 and cut out magazine pictures that represented themselves and then what it means to be a Christian. After lunch we headed up to Kitts Peak a national space Observatory. We got to go into 3 different telescopes. After dinner we were able to put on another block party in a different village. The were over 30 kids that came out to play with us.

We are loving the getting to know the local children at the evening block parties. They are so full of energy and joy!

Our group at Kitts Peak.

Today we went back to Living Word Academy for our second day of school ministry. We let their students help us with the puppet show. After lunch we began to build a "watto" which is the O'odham word for Ramada. We are helping build a Ramada that will be used for the school wood shop class during the summer when it gets to hot. We are not just building it but also using it as a teaching process for both their guys that are interested in construction and to build relationships through working together. We also had other projects going on such as weather proofing a wooden fence, trash pickup, working on the church van, and making pew cushions. After the work projects we setup our last block party in a village where 3 church members lived. The afternoon included kickball, snow cones, relay races, mesquite hotdogs, and bounce houses. Both Sarah and Marcus shared their testimonies with the group. After the block party pastor had mesquite burgers ready for us. We are looking forward to our last day of ministry. The school boys even challenged us to a basket ball game.