We will gather tonight for our last meeting before leaving for Costa Rica on Thanksgiving Day! This will culminate our preparations for the past several months. Weather forecast calls for scattered showers every day, highs about 80, lows around 60. We’re excited and anxious. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
Terri, Jim, and Jaimey
I have only been home for one day and I’m ready to go back again! What an awesome, life-changing trip! It was incredible to meet the people of Alajuelita, Costa Rica and see God working in their lives! I can’t say enough good things about 6:8 Ministries and Celebration Costa Rica! Pastor Jorge has an amazing spirit and I can’t wait to see what amazing things will happen there because of the gift God has given him!
One family in particular stood out to me. They are a family of 5 who live in a one room shack. They had many needs including prayer. Their daughter has asthma and was in the hospital on a breathing machine, which was probably worsened by the wood burning stove that filled their home with smoke. We were able to purchase him a 3 burner stove that uses gas, as well as a rice cooker and coffee maker . The look on his face was amazing- not a dry eye in the room! We continued to pray for the well being of his ill daughter and our team received word today that she is breathing on her own without the use of a ventilator!! God is great!
This is just one of many incredible memories I will have from my trip! Kim
Today was the second day of our mission trip in Costa Rica and it was completely “maravilla’ or wonderful!!! We started the day visiting Celebration Costa Rica. It was a simple structure, yet somewhat bold in appearance. The walls were decorated by local artists which really brightened up the place and gave it a very local and warm feel to it. It was awesome to see a piece of our Celebration Church Jacksonville planted here in Costa Rica.
After visiting the church we were on our way up the mountains to a place called Coyote where we were able to invite the people that live there to a service to hear God’s word. The place was absolutely beautiful and we all could sense God’s presence there. No words can really describe the depth of beauty of that surrounding. We went there with some members of Celebration Costa Rica and were welcomed by some of the sweetest and most adorable kids. They were so happy to see us “Gringas” and as they called the Asians of the group “las chinas”. They had not heard of filipinas so we were happy to just go with “chinas”. As we climbed up the steep mountain trying to reach all the families we could, struggling to keep our balance and not slip, I just couldn’t believe that people actually live up here and kids and families go up and down this same dangerous path as part of their every day life. And I can just imagine how it would be when it rains. The path would literally be like a river.
We started the service with some Spanish worship songs, then one of the locals started to preach. When we went up to invite the people, we had no idea if they would really come down to the service. In fact, when we began with the “Tico worship” (the people here refer to themselves as “Ticas” and “Ticos”), I looked around and saw only the people we came there with. But when the preaching started, I was in awe to look up and see the people we met at their patios come down the hills and into the seats and area around us! Some of them started at the edge of the hill and then eventually made their way closer to a seat towards the middle of the service. It was truly awesome to witness God calling to these people and them eager to hear. If we were able to even touch but one heart, it was worth it, but seeing the few other people around us made it even better. What made this an even special moment for me especially was that when we first arrived here, we didn’t really know exactly what we would be doing. But when I saw the mountains, it reminded me of something. I shared with the team that when I was little and living in Italy, I had always seen big mountains and have always wanted the chance to climb a mountain and pray. God definitely gave me that blessing of an opportunity today and I am ever so grateful for that life-changing experience.
Later that afternoon, we walked around a neigborhood inviting people to a “Tico Worship Service” in the evening. This is equivalent to Celebration Jacksonville’s Late Night Young Adult service. Omigoodness! Pastor Jorge told us we would be sweating at this worship and wow, he was right! I’ve never seen a worship service like this before. It was such an awesome and fun experience! We moved the chairs out of the way, and as the music played, everyone started moving around and dancing. We pretty much just followed everyone else. But this wasn’t just dancing around in place, there were songs where we would line up and run aound the room, act like we’re swimmming, jump up and down, jump side to side, and so much more. It was like “zumba worship” to me, definitely a great workout praise and worship! It was so great to see all the people from little toddlers to kids to adults all dancing around full of energy, full of life, full of the Holy Spirit, and just on fire for God! What an inspirational sight! It was so wonderful to see God up on the mountain, here at Celebration Church Costa Rica, and just all around this city where the people are so in dire need of Him. Some of them walk all the way from the mountain to this church to praise Him every weekend. The drive alone seemed so far. I can’t imagine how the walk would be. It really touched my heart to hear and see how hard these people live, and to see them still full of faith, hope, and trust in the Lord. I’ll never forget this experience and now will look at my own life and things a little more different now. I’m very excited and looking forward for whatever else God has in store for us on the rest of this mission! Please continue to pray for our team and the people of Alajuelita. Thanks so much! God Bless!
Michelle
Hey everybody! The October Costa Rica team has arrived safely and has already has amazing testimonies of God’s love and faithfulness. Our team is amazing…we woke up at 3:45am in Orlando to get to the airport at 5:00am and we are still going strong…and no complaining all day! After spending too much money at Dunkin Donuts on our layover in Panama City, we arrived in San Jose Costa Rica and were greeted by Dave, a member of 6:8’s great team. We went to the missions house and met Pastor Jorge of Celebration Costa Rica. This man simply exudes God’s love! After lunch we jumped right in to a prayer walk and brought some food to a very needy family.
Part of what made today so special was that we were strengthening and building on relationships that other Celebrationer’s have made on previous trips. Both of our moms took a trip here exactly a year ago and we’ve already been able to build on the experiences they shared with us and the relationships they formed. The first man we prayed for today was a gardener who came to the 6:8 house who, I believe, has not been heard of for some time. Both of our mom’s told us about this man and were concerned that he seemed to dissappear from the picture after their trip. He arrived less than an hour after we arrived and the team prayed for him and he said he would come to services on Sunday! On our first prayer walk we also were able to bring personal messages and gifts to people celebrationers are supporting. It is so cool that we can put an exclamation point on a sentence that God has already been writing through our church family!
One of the highlights of the day was visiting Jose Antonio, a young boy with many medical problems that Celebrationers and 6:8 have been praying for and supporting for a long time. Jose Antonio did not walk until about a month ago. Many teams have come and prayed for his ability to do so and it was awesome to see the little boy walking! Also, Jose Antonio had a hole in his heart. This was something he and his family have been dealing with for a long time and has been bathed in prayer. After speaking to Pastor Jorge, his mother showed us a medical report stating that his heart is fine!! God is so good and has been doing so much in this precious boy’s life!
The team is sooo excited about what God is going to do on the remainder of the trip! Please keep us in your prayers
Victor and Ashley
Jose Antonio with Victor
Celebration is sending our first quick-strike Disaster Relief team on Monday to ATL. As you have seen in the news, 
many parts of northern Georgia have been devastated from the recent storms. Homes are trashed and many are in need of supplies and help cleaning. We have a team of over 30 volunteers including our CLC interns and directors going to help clean up homes and bring supplies they have been able to collect.
For more info on how you can help, visit http://www.tinyurl.com/helpAtlanta – please keep this team and ATL in your prayers… that they can bring practical help and hope to everyone they come in contact with and that many will come to know the loving God who sent this team.
Blessings,
Kassie Fowler
A little more than halfway through our trip, we find ourselves at Sunday services. We have already been to a couple of midweek services and a Saturday night service. During worship there is this one song they sing that says Mabachi Mundenga (Throw your jackets in the air). The song continues to say because Jesus loves you. I can’t do justice to this song by writing about it, but I would say that it gets people fired up like Hillsong’s Take it All. As my brothers and sisters here worship to this song, I sit back in awe! The raw passion they have for God and during worship is amazing. God is moving in Zimbabwe!
PJ Ott, my African name
Somebody call somebody!! Zimbabwe is on fire for the Lord!!
What has happened this past week on our Zimbabwe mission trip has been unbelievable! I’m sitting here in Celebration offices in Bulawayo feeling at home and with my Celebration family. The team left yesterday to go back Florida, while my journey in Africa still continues on to Zambia. To my Africa teammates, I love you and everyone here keeps saying how much they love you and miss you, you are in their hearts forever. I saw many of the Celebration Chicks today and all they were talking about was YOU!
Where to begin with what has gone on the past few days….I will try my best to highlight what I can. One of my favorite days was on Saturday when we went into Sauerstown to do home visits. I was on the team with Pastor Chipo and we went and visited 4 families to pray for them. Doing the home visits is one of my favorite things on mission trips. The thing I notice most about the people of Celebration Zim is that they are so kind and warm and always so unbelievably happy to see us. We visited one family that I was hoping we would get to meet and pray for. It’s the home of Webster, a 14 yr old boy with HIV and some other health problems. From looking at him you would think he was only about 6 yrs old. Pastor Mike Pier has blogged about him in the past. I was very honored to pray for him and his whole family. And I’m looking forward to spending more time with that family during my travels back to Africa. After the home visits we did a children’s event at the Sauerstown campus and we had over 600 kids attend. It was so much fun! The kids did dance and skit performances for us (they are amazing!, blew us out of the water!) and we showed them some of our Celebration kids worship songs and then we had various stations set up outside for them to play. We had games, face painting, coloring, making necklaces, soccer, etc…the kids had a blast! I just love the children here, so happy and joyful always.
I also praise God that he has given me so many opportunities here to speak at the various campuses. This is something I feel is part of my calling and instead of being nervous about public speaking I now get so excited about it. It’s as if I can’t contain it and I have to speak what God has put on my heart. I had the opportunity to speak at How Mine campus about God, our hope and healer in times of waiting, and then I got to speak about our God of grace at Sauerstown campus on Sunday afternoon. And just today I was invited to give an encouraging word about serving at the widow’s tea meeting. Thank you Jesus for always speaking through me!!
I need to give a shout out to the Celebration Zim worship team and choir! Wow, these guys rock! Heicha, Ed, and I were able to sing at the 2 Sunday morning Central campus services and what a blessing that was. The people here have such a heart to worship, I have learned so much from them. I was so encouraged to see that when we met before service we spent time in prayer lifting up the services here in Zim as well as lifting up Pastor Stovall and Kerri and the worship team in Jax and all other campuses. We are all so connected and one family, I love it. I can’t wait to share with the worship team in Jax all that we learned and I’ll be bringing back some new songs for us. There is one that is really going to blow the roof off!
On Sunday after service we drove 3 hrs to one of our other campuses, Masvingo. Here we met up with Pastor Sam and got to go to one of the schools to feed thousands of children on Monday. This is an experience I will never forget. I’ve been to feeding centers in Africa before but I’ve never been to one that has so many children. It was overwhelming. The kids welcomed us with songs and I just had tears of joy from how wonderful they were to us. They clung to me the whole time, I have never felt so loved in my whole life. Saying goodbye to them was very hard, both for us and for them. God is certainly doing a great work in Masvingo!
When we arrived back from Masvingo the whole Celebration Zim team was waiting for us at Ps Dixon’s house for a last send-off meal with us. It was incredible getting to fellowship with our family here. They grilled out for us and we had a feast. The hospitality team here is amazing, Felicity and the chicks- you have such servant’s hearts! Even though I wasn’t part of the team leaving the next day I couldn’t help getting emotional. The whole team got each team member a special gift and I was so touched by the love they have shown us. It will certainly be hard to leave here but I am confident and have a peace that God has a great plan for me and I now have a family in Zimbabwe I can always come home to. Thank you Jesus!
Shannon Routzahn
It seems like just yesterday we were getting off the plane in Zimbabwe to start our journey. Little did we know we were all in for the experience of a lifetime and it will leave us forever changed. We all are saddened that tonight was our last night with our Zimbabwe family, but I Thank God every day for allowing me to be one of the chosen ones to come on this trip. As I go home and still try to process what just happened in the last 10 days I can not thank the staff of Celebration Zimbabwe enough for all they have done for us. As Pastor Dixon said this week we have the same DNA. They poured out their hearts so much to us this week. The Zimbabwe staff has “IT” That Celebration DNA… We have all learned so much from each other and I know that Gods divine appointments definitely took place with each and every one of us. Listening to God speak to me has allowed me to have this experience and to see a family I knew existed but didn’t truly know till I came here. It is so much bigger than just Celebration Zimbabwe. These people have a heart and passion for God and their people that I have never seen before. They are truly Gods Humbled servants following their calling and furthering their kingdom. One of many things that just had me in awe this week, Was the amount of youth that are active in serving in the church. They come under the younger children and help teach them and raise them to be God first children. They have such a passion for God that I have never seen… I enjoyed all the time we were able to spend with the children and love on them but I am at peace leaving. Knowing we have a family here in Zimbabwe that loves Gods children and is making such a difference not only in the children, and families of Zimbabwe but all over Africa…. God is going to transform Zimbabwe We saw so many people get saved this week and it was exciting to see how God has changed so many lives and is continually impacting Zimbabwe. Although I am very saddened that I have to go I have to rest in the hands of God and know that my purpose here has been fulfilled. I know we will meet again and will never forget this week and Thank God for giving me the time I had here in Zimbabwe. Psalm 65:4 Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house.
I love you Celebration Zimbabwe Family
Shellie McCary
Yesterday was an unbelievable day. We started out with a hike at Matopos with some of the staff and Pastors from Celebration Zimbabwe. Just being in the presence of Gods creation we all were in awe. How the rocks were placed just so, some looked like if you just touched them they would roll right off the edge down the cliff. We hiked down a few cliffs and then went up on an old wooden look out to Pray as a family for the first ever Celebration Zimbabwe Chick night Tonight for all the campuses.
We all have literally hit the ground running since we have been here and are doing Gods work 16 hours a day and for some of us only a few hours of sleep every night as we prepare through the night for this event. We knew the enemy was not going to allow Chick night to happen with out putting up a fight so when we went into the cottage for lunch in Matopos the bus got a flat tire. But God had our backs and blessed us with amazing men and had the tire fixed by the time we were done eating lunch.
So now the part that I am going to try to convey without crying is I have never seen anything like what happened tonight. Here we are coming along side our family in Zimbabwe and we have only had four days together before Chick night and saw the same serving values as we have. The Celebration Zimbabwe team owned Chick Night tonight. As we all came along side each other to get the sanctuary ready I saw the faces light up in the teams from Zimbabwe. These trips here still leaves us all in awe that we can come all this way to our sister church and feel like we are home. God answered our prayers with the abundance of servers that showed up to make this night happen and for the amount of women that showed up to just get a fresh touch from God and have an experience they have never witnessed before. Being Valued…. This is something these women need. They are special just like each and every one of us.
We had bus loads of women coming from all the campuses to get these women to the first ever Chick night. One of our mission team members Brandon said as all of us witnessed. “They came in with just a look of the un known and excited. But leaving clearly a changed women.” They left with hug smiles, a glow and a sense of I am important…. Clearly our point to let them know that we are Gods daughters and each and every one of us are truly special in his eyes. We left feeling uplifted that we had the honor and privilege to come here with the support and confidence of our Celebration family back home to join with our Sisters from Zimbabwe and let them know how special they truly are and we love them just as much as God does…. The bonds we have each made here are going to be hard to leave but knowing that our time here will produce more fruit for them in the future and they are going to grow so much. I will never forget this night. My prayer for Zimbabwe is that God would lift this country back up and that women will become more respected and valued.
Shellie McCary
Our theology of “One Church” met our reality the minute we arrived in Zim. It’s has been an overwhelming reality! When we arrived at the airport we were greeted with a roar and cheer that you probably heard back in the US and the hospitality has been BETTER than the Ritz Carlton. Pastor Dixon and Pastor Chipo have done a great job of teaching the people God has entrusted them with how to have a servant’s heart.
We have been on the run with projects and seeing what God has supernaturally done between all of our campuses (world wide). Being part of Shine 2008, I had the priviledge in seeing the sewing machines that money was raised for. It was an awesome experience to see the ladies and to know that they are on their way to make a better way for themselves and their church. Not only have they been equipped spiritually but also vocationally!
I feel like God is doing this in Zim and all over our campuses (world wide): Isaiah 54: Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lenghten your cords, strenghten your stakes. Foryou will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
Thank you Jesus that you have made us a part of such a special part of this!
Rick and Heicha
