Wales MIssion Trip Sunday

We're off to Newbold College today. I think we'll be stopping in Windsor on the way. Tomorrow we are going to go on the London Eye. IF you don't know what that is look it up on the internet and I'm sure you will be excited for us. Hopefully I'll be able to post more blogs. If I don't it's because I don't have internet. Keep us in your prayers and we'll see you soon.
Stephanie Ferguson

Wales Mission Trip Sabbath

This was the last day of VBS or Holiday Bible Club. It was amazing to see how much the kids had bonded with the staff. At the Sketty Center there was a boy named Callum who had attended every day. Each day we gave them a paper with challenges on it and he had done every one every day. I had him come up to the front and I told everyone what he had done. Then I gave him a cowboy hat and a bandana. He was so happy. His parents were there afterward and told us how much they appreciated us doing this for him and that he was really excited about Jesus. They thanked as many staff kids as they could. This is why we came!
As I was talking about this being the last day, a boy named Sean told me that he was coming back next week. I had to tell him that this was the last day. That didn't matter though because he's planning to be back next year.
(By Stephanie Ferguson)
The Sketty SDA Church prepared lunch for us. It was quite a spread.
The Churches here are so quaint and cozy. Quite delightful! And the people?! Super friendly!
After lunch the group went and tore down camp. We tried to beat the rain....but missed it by just a titch. We ended up getting wet. The kids were real troopers though. Our vans took the suitcases and all the rest of the gear to the Sketty Church. (Benji got a flat tire on the way back...yikes!)
Most of the group stayed at the campgrounds while a select few of the strong ones went to unpack the vans. Some of the group actually went to the beach! They didn't let the rain detere them!
It was a great day! We'll miss our VBS group of children, the campsite and the people of Sketty! but it's time to move on...
We'll spend the night in the Sketty Church and head to London in the morning.
(By Barb Szaflarski)

Wales Mission Trip Friday

By Stephanie Ferguson

Today was the day that we presented the resurrection to the kids at Holiday Bible Club. Port Talbot has increased in attendance every day and had 6 today. Sketty has fluctuated quite a bit but we ended the day with about 15. At the first singing session we sang "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" The kids stayed seated for this song but when we sang, "Were you there when he rose up from the grave?" Everyone stood up. It gave me chills. They then went to drama where they were surprised by helium balloons flying out of the "tomb". At the closing program we talked about how God will take away your sins and make you bright again. I gave each child and staff a peg for a lite brite and they brought it up and put it onto the cross that was on the lite brite. As they did that we sang "Were You There". After the song ended, we saw the dark of our sins become bright when the light came on and Jesus took away our sins. It was quite powerful and I think at least a few of the kids will remember it.
After VBS we went to the Swansea City Center and handed out balloons, braided hair, and painted faces. Everyone seemed to enjoy that especially since it wasn't raining and was quite pleasant outside.
Ed and Shana kindly had everyone to their house for dinner which was delicious, as usual. Then everyone headed back to camp and down to the beach. What a beautiful place! It is a long sandy beach surrounded by hills and cliffs. We got there before sunset and watched the clouds rolling by. Worship began just as the moon was showing over the cliffs. God is Awesome! (Yee-haw) That's what we say at VBS.
Tomorrow is our last day of VBS. Please pray that God opens the hearts of each child that is there.

Mission Trip Pictures

Pictures

Wales Mission Trip Thursday

By Eloise Ravell

It was so exciting for us "Americans", as we are now known as, to come to a different country. We have had so much fun the last few days to do Holiday Bible club, go sightseeing , and making new friends. Most of our conversations with the Welsh kids are about the differences between here and the U.S. I'm still getting used to saying "toilet" instead of "bathroom" . :)
Today we went to the Caerfilly Castle and our Welsh friends were surprised that this was the first castle we've ever been to. It was pretty amazing for us. I managed to take some pictures despite my practically dead batteries in my camer because I had left all my extras at the tent. AT the end of they day, we all piled into the two big vans and headed back to the campground, singing our favorite Christian songs all the way.
Staying in tents is quite a challenge, I share a tent with Keila Cortes and Kaitlyn Aberle and we had to fit all our luggage into it along with our sleeping bags. The area where we are camping is on a hill and so during the night I find myself slipping downward so I have to pull my sleeping bag back up and go back to sleep. The wind and the rain are loud, but we are all so exhausted by the end of the day that we fall fast asleep and don't wakt up until seven minutes before we have to leave. And that's if Benji wakes us up. Or we just wake up from being cole. But it's all good. It's an adventure.
So we drive to the community center where the Holiday Bible Club is and eat breakfast. Half of us go to another location to do HBC there too. I stay at the center. We mess around before the kids come and when they do we sing the songs we've now come to memorize along with the motions. The kids go to drama, crafts, video and games, We sing again and talk about the lesson, the kids leave, and we go off to do our activity of the day. IT's amazing to be here in Wales and I can't wait to tell everyone about it when I get home. This is a wonderful experience for us "Americans".

P.S. Our showers are 20 pents (around 40 cents) and are only 3 and a half minutes. But on the bright side, the Welsh kids here love learning about God.

P.P.S. By Stephanie Ferguson
We also went to some Roman Ruins today. We saw some old barracks and an old Ampitheater. They were built around 90 A.D. It is absolutely amazing to be standing in something old and imagining all the things that could have happened in that exact spot! We made a stop in Cardiff, too, the Capital of Wales.

Wales Mission Trip Wednesdsay

By Eloise Ravell

It was so exciting for us "Americans", as we are now known as, to come to a different country. We have had so much fun the last few days to do Holiday Bible club, go sightseeing , and making new friends. Most of our conversations with the Welsh kids are about the differences between here and the U.S. I'm still getting used to saying "toilet" instead of "bathroom" . :)
Today we went to the Caerfilly Castle and our Welsh friends were surprised that this was the first castle we've ever been to. It was pretty amazing for us. I managed to take some pictures despite my practically dead batteries in my camer because I had left all my extras at the tent. AT the end of they day, we all piled into the two big vans and headed back to the campground, singing our favorite Christian songs all the way.
Staying in tents is quite a challenge, I share a tent with Keila Cortes and Kaitlyn Aberle and we had to fit all our luggage into it along with our sleeping bags. The area where we are camping is on a hill and so during the night I find myself slipping downward so I have to pull my sleeping bag back up and go back to sleep. The wind and the rain are loud, but we are all so exhausted by the end of the day that we fall fast asleep and don't wakt up until seven minutes before we have to leave. And that's if Benji wakes us up. Or we just wake up from being cole. But it's all good. It's an adventure.
So we drive to the community center where the Holiday Bible Club is and eat breakfast. Half of us go to another location to do HBC there too. I stay at the center. We mess around before the kids come and when they do we sing the songs we've now come to memorize along with the motions. The kids go to drama, crafts, video and games, We sing again and talk about the lesson, the kids leave, and we go off to do our activity of the day. IT's amazing to be here in Wales and I can't wait to tell everyone about it when I get home. This is a wonderful experience for us "Americans".

P.S. Our showers are 20 pents (around 40 cents) and are only 3 and a half minutes. But on the bright side, the Welsh kids here love learning about God.

P.P.S. By Stephanie Ferguson
We also went to some Roman Ruins today. We saw some old barracks and an old Ampitheater. They were built around 90 A.D. It is absolutely amazing to be standing in something old and imagining all the things that could have happened in that exact spot! We made a stop in Cardiff, too, the Capital of Wales.

Wales Mission Trip Wednesday

Today I awoke to the sound of rain outside my window the rest of the group woke up to the sound of rain on their tents, and some had been awakened several times in the middle of the night by the wind. Cassie's tent had somehow inverted itself but she was still dry. John and Shari Baxter's tent partially collapsed but luckily only Shari's shoes got wet. Melissa didn't sleep well but made up for it later by taking a nap in one of the buses. As Benji was leaving the shower he mentioned to the caretaker of the campground that they were experiencing some high wind. The "chap" looked at him and said, "What wind?" Apparently things can be worse and hopefully they don't get there.
Despite the wind and rain, the group has very high spirits. We had breakfast at the Sketty Park Community Center and separated for VBS. The Sketty crowd was a lot smaller, we went from 18 kids down to 7. Most of the kids had walked the day before so we think the rain kept them at home. The Port Talbot crowd, however, grew from 3 to 4.
The kids who are coming are wonderful, though. One little guy, Callum, did every "daily challenge" that we had sent home with him the day before. He listed 10 things that God made. Our craft today was a prayer journal. After he had decorated it he told me that he was going to write down all the things that God had made in it. He is the reason we are here!
After lunch the kids separated into three different groups. Some went to a school and did face painting, some went to a nursing home and pulled weeds and painted, and some picked up "rubbish" around the community. They had a great time bonding with each other and the kids from Wales. I knew immediately who had done face painting when they returned. Marvin's face was completely covered with black and white paint. I couldn't tell who he was at first. Keila was covered with glitter and Barb had pretty red stars on her cheek.
When they returned from that they went on an outing to Tesco's, the Target of the United Kingdom. The kids had a great time looking around at the different foods and trinkets. Not much was purchased, though, since every pound is worth two dollars. I did see Corbin with a new Rugby ball.
After a wonderful dinner of pasta, salad and garlic bread the group headed down to the beach to play some games. It's awesome to be so close to the ocean. We're looking forward to more time down there.
The best part of the day for me was trying a bunch of new chocolate bars. If you didn't know this, the chocolate is way better over here. I've heard it's because there isn't as much wax in it. Whatever it is, I enjoyed it and I'll bet that most of the others did too.
Dylan has been taking everything in stride. He is as happy as ever. Maybe just a bit more tired but still smiling at everyone he sees.
We're having a "fab" time so far so keep checking to find out more about what's going on over here in the UK. Eloise Ravell will be writing the blog tomorrow.

Stephanie Ferguson

Wales Mission Trip Tuesday

We took of at 7:30pm Minneapolis time and landed 8:30 London time (2:30 Minneapolis time) making it the shortest night we have ever experienced. Some of us slept, including Dylan in a bassinet, but most of us just tried to sleep. Fortunately, each of us had our own tv set that played shows and movies and games. Our passports were checked quickly and we headed to customs. We walked straight through customs without being stopped. In fact, no one was there at all. After we got our many large, heavy bags, we met up with John and Shari Baxter. They had our train tickets. We discovered that we had to take a train Victoria station in London, take the tube to Paddington station in London, and then catch our train to Swansea, Wales. I mentioned this before, but we had many large, heavy bags. It was quite an ordeal moving around all those stations. We split up into smaller groups so it would be easier to keep track of everyone. We made sure to have someone familiar with London in each group. Almost all of us made it to the Wales train on time. Linda Rise, Melissa Westmore and Cassie Arneson, who had some of the largest and heaviest luggage, didn't make it. Benji decided to wait for them at the train station while the rest of us took the train to Wales. As we boarded the train the workers said that the train was full so we may as well go sit up in first class. Not such a bad deal. Linda, Melissa and Cassie, after a complicated trip, met Benji at Paddington station at 1:37pm. They barely caught the 1:45 train to Wales, just 1 hour behind the first group. It was actually a good thing that we were on separtate trains because the first group to arrive in Wales barely fit into the bus that picked us up. We were picked up by Shana Sammons, whose husband , Ed, has been working with Benji on planning this trip. She drove us to the Sketty Park Community Center where we met the 22 Welsh kids we will be spending the week with. We had dinner and then began preparing for Vacation Bible School, known as Holiday Bible Club here in the UK. After that the group went to the campsite to go to bed. Our group was definitely ready for this since we had been up for most of two days. The tents had already been pitched by the Wales crew so off to bed they went (Dylan and I are staying with Shana at her house so we went there).
This morning we woke up to a beautiful blue, sunshine filled sky. It couldn't have been a better day. We can all pray that we get a few more of those even though it is supposed to rain tomorrow.
We slit up into two groups, one in Sketty and one in Port Talbot, for VBS or HBC. At the Sketty site we had 18 kids show up, only 4 of them were from the church so that was a great turnout. There had been a lot of advertising in that area. The kids seemed to have a great time as did the mission trip kids. Corbin, Eloise, Keila and Marvin were at this site. Lundy, Zulma, Cassie and Kaitlyn went to the Port Talbot site. It was apparent that there had not been as much advertising because only 3 kids showed up. Everyone said they had fun, though, but Benji messed up the motions of the songs so Kaitlyn had to help him out. Good thing she was there.
After that we all met up again at the Sketty Park Community Center for lunch. Then the kids joined with another church for some community outreach. Some kids picked up trash and some handed out pamphlets door to door.
The fun continued at 4:30 when a game of rounders was played. I'm still not sure of all the rules but it is similar to baseball. The difference is that you hit a tennis like ball with a flat bat and have to run around all the bases at one time to get a point. If an outfielder catches the ball with two hands the player is out. If they catch it with one hand the whole team is out.
Tonight brought together our group with the adventist churches and the other church we were working with this afternoon for an international night. People brought food from different countries. The highlight was the welsh dancing we got to do. It is very similar to square or line dancing.
Tomorrow we have VBS again and then we go to a school to do a nature craft and face painting with the children there.
It has been exhausting so far. I think we are running on fumes. Hopefully after tonight our group will be rested and ready to enjoy the fun. We have met some great people and are proud to be the "genuine americans" who are putting on a Holiday Bible Club.


I've tried adding pictures but I'm not sure it worked. If not I will get them on tomorrow.

Wales Mission Trip Tuesday

We took of at 7:30pm Minneapolis time and landed 8:30 London time (2:30 Minneapolis time) making it the shortest night we have ever experienced. Some of us slept, including Dylan in a bassinet, but most of us just tried to sleep. Fortunately, each of us had our own tv set that played shows and movies and games. Our passports were checked quickly and we headed to customs. We walked straight through customs without being stopped. In fact, no one was there at all. After we got our many large, heavy bags, we met up with John and Shari Baxter. They had our train tickets. We discovered that we had to take a train Victoria station in London, take the tube to Paddington station in London, and then catch our train to Swansea, Wales. I mentioned this before, but we had many large, heavy bags. It was quite an ordeal moving around all those stations. We split up into smaller groups so it would be easier to keep track of everyone. We made sure to have someone familiar with London in each group. Almost all of us made it to the Wales train on time. Linda Rise, Melissa Westmore and Cassie Arneson, who had some of the largest and heaviest luggage, didn't make it. Benji decided to wait for them at the train station while the rest of us took the train to Wales. As we boarded the train the workers said that the train was full so we may as well go sit up in first class. Not such a bad deal. Linda, Melissa and Cassie, after a complicated trip, met Benji at Paddington station at 1:37pm. They barely caught the 1:45 train to Wales, just 1 hour behind the first group. It was actually a good thing that we were on separtate trains because the first group to arrive in Wales barely fit into the bus that picked us up. We were picked up by Shana Sammons, whose husband , Ed, has been working with Benji on planning this trip. She drove us to the Sketty Park Community Center where we met the 22 Welsh kids we will be spending the week with. We had dinner and then began preparing for Vacation Bible School, known as Holiday Bible Club here in the UK. After that the group went to the campsite to go to bed. Our group was definitely ready for this since we had been up for most of two days. The tents had already been pitched by the Wales crew so off to bed they went (Dylan and I are staying with Shana at her house so we went there).
This morning we woke up to a beautiful blue, sunshine filled sky. It couldn't have been a better day. We can all pray that we get a few more of those even though it is supposed to rain tomorrow.
We slit up into two groups, one in Sketty and one in Port Talbot, for VBS or HBC. At the Sketty site we had 18 kids show up, only 4 of them were from the church so that was a great turnout. There had been a lot of advertising in that area. The kids seemed to have a great time as did the mission trip kids. Corbin, Eloise, Keila and Marvin were at this site. Lundy, Zulma, Cassie and Kaitlyn went to the Port Talbot site. It was apparent that there had not been as much advertising because only 3 kids showed up. Everyone said they had fun, though, but Benji messed up the motions of the songs so Kaitlyn had to help him out. Good thing she was there.
After that we all met up again at the Sketty Park Community Center for lunch. Then the kids joined with another church for some community outreach. Some kids picked up trash and some handed out pamphlets door to door.
The fun continued at 4:30 when a game of rounders was played. I'm still not sure of all the rules but it is similar to baseball. The difference is that you hit a tennis like ball with a flat bat and have to run around all the bases at one time to get a point. If an outfielder catches the ball with two hands the player is out. If they catch it with one hand the whole team is out.
Tonight brought together our group with the adventist churches and the other church we were working with this afternoon for an international night. People brought food from different countries. The highlight was the welsh dancing we got to do. It is very similar to square or line dancing.
Tomorrow we have VBS again and then we go to a school to do a nature craft and face painting with the children there.
It has been exhausting so far. I think we are running on fumes. Hopefully after tonight our group will be rested and ready to enjoy the fun. We have met some great people and are proud to be the "genuine americans" who are putting on a Holiday Bible Club.


I've tried adding pictures but I'm not sure it worked. If not I will get them on tomorrow.

Start Looking for Wales Trips updates!

Hey parents and youths! We leave for Wales in just over a week! I am going to be using this blog to show photos and also to let everybody know what's happening on the trip. My wife, Stephanie will be the reporter so I hope you all look forward to this new and exciting technological adventure!

Pastor Benji