Another wonderful day doing VBS on the reservation.  We were blessed with a cooler day and more rain! Working with the kids was great.

 Took time this morning to pray looking at God's beauty. Today the team will tile, paint, install lighting...in preparation for AICM's 30th anniversary celebration. Today the focus is serve in our devotions and my prayer has been that God connects with each team member.

At the cross of our Creator! We had the privilege this morning to worship with White Mountain Christian Church hearing Robert, from AICM, peach the word. He shared with us the necessity in being part of a body of believers in order to spur each toward love.

What a blessing to have a day to enjoy the beauty of God's creation and bond as a team before we jump into work and VBS on Monday.

Let the games begin...
Tracie

We have made it safe and sound to AICM. Thank you for the prayers. Right now it is 60 and just finished raining. Now we are off to dinner.  Check out my Facebook page for pictures.
Happy to be out of the car,
Tracie

Well, six hours down seventeen to go!

Bula from Fiji! After a tearful goodbye, a bumpy bus ride, and over 300 bug bites later we landed in Nadi, Fiji for our eight hour layover. Thankfully, we were able to leave the airport to get some fresh air and a quick nap on this fine Monday afternoon. Please be praying for our long flight home, and for the health of our team.

We’ll see you later today at LAX, wait, I mean tomorrow at 1:30pm-ish. DON’T FORGET TO PICK US UP.... please.

Hoping we make it,

Julia & Katie

picturessssss!

we survived the trip, but will we survive the plane ride home?

Each year our experience is different, but this year especially, we have been blessed.  It’s been such an amazing week to work with our Samoan friends to serve over 800 patients at the medical clinic and share Jesus with over 150 kids for our Bible camp/sports camp.  The last day for the clinic and camps are always hard, but our team is proud of the work that we did.  We said goodbye to our friends from Hawaii on Friday afternoon, but we are hopeful to work with them again sometime soon!

This year, we experienced the luxury of staying an extra few days after a week of hard work.  On Saturday, we took a trip into town to do our usual shopping at the flea market.  Afterwards, we were blessed beyond measure by a surprise trip to a private island.  We drove around this beautiful island of Apia to the other side to take a ten-minute boat ride to the Namua Resort on a small island.  We got to swim in the warm water, relax in the beach fales (huts), and our hosts BBQ-ed a delicious dinner for us.  Some of our team even took an epic barefoot hike up the mountain and mud-surfed on the way down. We have never experienced anything like that before, and it was such a blessing to relax and enjoy an afternoon with our new friends. 

Today (Sunday), we went to church at Great Harvest Ministry.  We sang some of our favorites (Lord, I Lift Your Name On High & Shout to the Lord).  As we were singing, I felt like that’s what heaven will be like – worshipping with brothers and sisters from different cultures and languages, but connected by a Great Love.  We shared a delicious meal after church, and are now fully embracing this Sabbath day.

As much as we hate to say good-bye to this community that has welcomed us with open arms and open hearts, we are excited to be coming home tomorrow.  We leave Apia at 11:30am, and land at LAX around 1:00pm.  DON’T FORGET TO PICK US UP ON MONDAY!!

Praying for a short customs line and healing of our countless mosquito bites,

Julia & Katie

 The team enjoying down time eating and playing volleyball with their hosts.

Still Kickin'

Wow!! I came to serve, and the people here in Samoa have served us ten-fold, opening their hearts and homes to us.  They are very hard working people, taking care of needs. 

My small contribution of helping optometry (pointing at pictures on the eye chart) felt so insignificant until I saw the faces of delight people had when the right glasses were presented to them.

It has been an amazing week, and we’ve had amazing fellowship, all doing God’s work together. Thanks to the Lord who made it possible to be a part of the team. His work is all around us, and has led me out of my comfort zone.

~Dawn Slowi

The Samoan hospitality is heart warming!Here they are working hard to prepare food to serve our team during the FiaFia.

Check out the Samoa Mission Team working hard during the medical clinic.

Dear Samoa Team Families~ 

                                                                                                                   I have changed the settings on the Blog so you can leave comments freely on any post. Thank you for letting me know this change was needed. Thank you for your prayers as the team works hard and I'm sure will need energy from the Lord for the final push through the week.                                                                                                                                                   We love you all Team Samoa!                                    ~ Tracie Cordle

Hey Mission team...we are unable to view the photos you've "posted". Do you perhaps have a bad connection? We'd love to see what you're doing!! :-)

The fruit of the Spirit's not a coconut!

THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT'S NOT A COCONUT! 

IF YOU WANT TO BE A COCONUT, YOU MIGHT AS WELL HEAR IT, YOU CAN'T BE A FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT!

'CAUSE THE FRUIT IS LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL

I once was blind, but now I see :)

Yesterday, a man from a local news station came to the medical clinic. He shared a story with Rob about an older lady who was waiting in line for glasses. He was waiting behind her for some time, and later walked out to see her sitting outside in the shade reading her bible with her new glasses. She looked up and said that she hadn't been able to read her Bible for many years. How amazing that the first thing she wanted to do was read she Word!

 

"Melissa, want to so drugs with Rob in Samoa?"

Thursday, June 11

The medical clinic has been amazing! There is nothing as powerful as the look of thankfulness ion a mother's face when you have provided her child with an antibiotic or fever medicine. 

Seeing the medical issues that are just accepted - the pain and suffering that people accept daily - it's such a far cry from what we would even accept or deal with as normal. At the same time even though we are giving people medicine for such big issues, they are joyful and pleasant. They are willing to wait for hours, al day even, just to be seen. Again something we wouldn't tolerate with a smile. 

I guess it's a good thing. Patience is one of the fruits of the spirit we are learning to live. 

It was great to see sports camp and vbs come back enthused by the bigger numbers of kids yesterday. 

In our evening devotion we spoke how we are all being stretched and growing on this trip. Even though this is my 4th Samoa trip, I have found there is still so much to learn and ways to grow. 

We are looking forward to the fia fia, and I know I am personally excited to join the other half of our team at VBS/Sports Camp on Friday!

The Pharmacist, 

~Melissa 

Little Hands, Big Hearts

Fa'a Samoa

Being in Samoa has been an incredible experience. The people have been such a reminder of some of things that get forgotten in America. The people care so much for each other it's amazing. They work together and immediately volunteer, never complaining and always working to the maximum of their strength and ability. At the Sports Camp, the volunteers from Samoa rushed around, doing the heavy lifting, playing tirelessly with the kids, and always laughing. Honestly, it's hard to go a day in America without complaining.

The team has galvanized behind this Samoan spirit, everyone searching for work, everyone finding their place, and no matter how tired we are we never quit and we never complain. It's truly been amazing. As the days go on and we get more worn down I know keeping hold of this spirit may be hard so prayers will be appreciated, but I have nothing but faith in this team. Today already looks to be busier than any day thus far, but everyone is upbeat and everyone is excited. Fa'a Samoa is their way of doing things and it has become ours.

Thank you for praying for us and keep them coming. Tofa for now (that's Samoan for goodbye) .

-Justin

And so it begins...

I just wanted to reach out to all our family and friends from Samoa! This has been an awesome-amazing experience! All the things I was so concerned about are turning out to be not so important after all. The traveling was definitely overwhelming and at the same time a confirmation that God is in charge of this trip! 

On our first full day we were setting up for medical clinic and more than 100 people came through! It's awesome to see how appreciative the Samoan people are to have us visiting their country. They are so kind and loving.

Today (Tuesday), we officially opened our medical clinic and served more than 200. Some really great opportunities were presented to all the team to show God's love. The opening day of the sports camp and VBS was really fun and the facility we used (a local school) was great. The kids and workers had so much fun. It really was a blessing for all of us. 

Oh and by the way, we lived through our first earthquake in Samoa! Many of our team woke up early in the morning to the tremors. Good thing we're used for that in California! 

Thank you for praying for us.  Please continue to pray for wisdom and compassion, and the reminder that it's not about us. Pray that we would have confidence that your prayers are covering us in ways that we don't even know we need yet. 

And please pray for Diet Coke. :) 

-Kaye 

Happy Birthday, Mamo!!

Dearly beloved, we have gathered you here today to let you know that we are indeed alive and mostly well. After twenty-four hours, two planes, and lots of sleeping in the airport, we arrived at our village Lotopa to a traditional kava ceremony and a delicious mea. We re so blessed and cared for; our village pulled out all the stops to make us feel welcome and comfortable. They even built four new fales (huts), a shower, and two restrooms for the ladies! The gentlemen are all together in a "European" house, being graciously hosted by a local family. We fell asleep last night to the sound of rain and refreshing island breeze, but thankfully the sunshine came out to greet us in the morning. Please continue to pray that the sun will come out tomorrow.

Although the medical clinic was not planned to official open until Tuesday, we were able to serve over 40 unplanned patients this morning (Monday).  We were joined by two doctors and two nurses and their accompanying families from Hawaii to serve in our clinic. We hope to add two Samoan doctors and a dentist to our numbers tomorrow. The number one news crew came to see what we were up to and interviewed Pastor Rob to advertise the clinic and kids camp this week!

Our mosquito bite count is at a relatively low number, and our spirits are still high. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we begin the Kids Bible Camp, Sports Camp, and officially kick off the Medical  Clinic tomorrow.  We are expecting over 200 kids and teenagers in our camps!!

Until we can find a computer and convince someone to drive us to a hotspot, bye!!

Julia & Katie

I just heard from Albert (our Hawaii South Seas leader) 

that the team has safely arrived at the village of Lotopa in Apia. 

I have asked them to send a picture so you can see all their smiling faces.

GOD IS GOOD!

The Mission Team is now in Apia, Samoa. 

When I hear from them I will post it right away. It will take time for them to access a computer.