Servanthood Auction:     hopefully sometime in March, connected with a dinner of some sort. Details need to be worked out…

Spring:    Camp clean-up. Hopefully we will be able to arrange a Friday / Saturday or a couple Saturdays to go up to Jackson’s Point and do some clean-up for them before camping season starts. This will give us an excellent opportunity to get some hands-on experience in some of the maintenance-type ministry we may be involved in on mission, as well as a possible fundraiser…

July 1:    hopefully we will be able to rent, organize and facilitate a divisional / regional Canada Day picnic and/or baseball tournament… We’ll see…

ReBORN:        Connect with Kevin and schedule dates (usually the 4th Friday evening of each month, except for March when it will be on the third Friday for Good Friday) for you to be involved in various worship elements for this new worship gathering designed for High School students. You should be involved (more than just attending) at least twice between February and July.

Small Group Bible Study Involvement:    Let Kevin know which small group Bible study you are involved in: Splinter Cells, talk2[me], or some other adult small group. Regular attendance and participation is part of each team member’s ongoing requirements.

Personal Discipleship:        It is important that we each develop good habits in our personal discipleship. Whether that includes using the HABITS tools, a personal reading plan, journaling, etc. Let us know what you’re doing by giving a short post (comment) to encourage each other and give each other ideas of what we can do in this area of personal development that will go far beyond the mission itself!

“Mission Trip Prep” Journal:    Some of you have your copy already; those who don’t, make sure you connect with Kevin to get yours. We will be working through some of this together prior to the mission, some during the mission, and some as part of a debriefing and processing time following the mission. Each journal is $10.

Basic Spanish Skills:        Team members needing to develop basic Spanish skills should pair up with a team member who knows the language to begin learning and developing basic conversational Spanish words and phrases that will be helpful on mission. We hope to have a guide to important phrases and words distributed to the team.

infanTree3173 Platoon:    Help out with one night at a newly developing Kids’ Klub event happening once on month on Friday evenings: Choose one of the following dates; no more than 3 people per date: March
7, April 4, May 2-3 (Junior Youth Councils – only those over 18), June 6, July 4.

infanTree3173 Kids’ USS Wor-ship:        Arrange one week before the end of June to meet with Sheryl and assist with the Large Group Lesson. Arrange a different week to lead a Small Group Lesson.

infanTree3173 Kids’ USS Wor-ship Summer Program:        Sign-up for at least one week as part of the Leadership Team.

Saturday, March 8: Team Meeting & Builder – Rock Climbing

Saturday, March 22: infanTree3173 Community Easter Egg Hunt

Sunday, March 30: Talents Challenge Money Due

Monday, March 31: First $100 personal payment portion due.

Friday & Saturday, April 4-5: Team Training & Famine Fundraiser

Saturday, May 10: Team Meeting & Training

Saturday, May 31: Second $100 personal payment portion due.

Sundays, June 1 & 8: Team Cultural Training

Friday, June 20: Set-up for Colossal Garage Sale, Bar-B-Q & Car Wash

Saturday, June 21: Colossal Garage Sale, Bar-B-Q & Car Wash

Sunday, July 13: Team Meeting & Training

Thursday, July 31: Third $100 personal payment portion due.

August 2-7: Final Preparations (as required).

August 8-17: GO (incognito) Mission to Acapulco Children’s Home, Mexico.

On Saturday, December 8, infanTree3173 (our Children’s Ministry) will be holding another Branch Event Community Outreach: Breakfast a la King! Family Christmas Breakfast!This is one of our team ministry opportunities, chance to grow closer and work with one another as a team, as well as to begin raising funds for our project. This is one of the dates that we gave out early in the Fall, so I would expect that unless you have already let me know that you are unable to make it, you’ll be there – unless there is some unexpected emergency of the greatest importance.

There are a number of areas where you can help:

Friday, December 7: Set-up in the evening, following Celebrate Recovery

Saturday, December 8: Serve, Host, help in kitchen, etc…

Please either post, or email me with when you are able to help. The breakfast starts at 9:30AM, but you’ll need to be here no later than 9AM. Team members should be prepared to stay until noon, in order to facilitate clean-up and the Royal Sweets Bake Sale.

We have invited families from Family Services, as well as sent out follow-ups from our Wild West Fall Fest, inviting children and their families back! We pray that this will be another chance for children to hear the good news of God’s love for them in Jesus.

We decided to not go with a “Breakfast in Bethlehem” but rather to center on the Three Kings… or should I say “Four Kings”… the fourth being baby King Jesus.

As for the fundraising aspect of this event… we will not go with the whole afternoon of babysitting, as was one of our ideas for this day, but rather simply go with a Royal Sweets Sale (a bake sale). Please do what you can to bring as many items to donate to this sale as possible. If every team member brought 3 items (an item being things like: a dozen cookies or squares, a pie, cake, loaf, etc…) then we would have about 60 items to sell. What we don’t sell at the Breakfast, we can make available following the service the next day.

As we knew, the primary place of our ministry will be the Acapulco Children’s Home. This is a facility that is the home for about 75 children between the ages of 4 and 18. They are quite excited about our team’s interest in coming down to minister with and to them in the summer. They have indicated that the opportunities for ministry will entail (but may not be limited to – we’ll see, as the schedule develops) Children’s Ministry programming, helping with some of the regular programming of the home, including serving meals (and eating with the children). We will very likely be involved in outreach in the city (either at the malls or the beaches, or both – and no this is not an opportunity to sunbath and check out the “sights”). Apparently the Children’s Home is a large facility and because of heavy humidity, there are many needs for minor repairs and painting on an ongoing basis, due to easy and regular rusting.

We will very likely stay at the home, which will increase our ability to minister to and build relationships with the staff and children there. This will also allow us to eat, right at the home, and help with their ongoing service to the children. The hospitality of the home to us is greatly appreciated, and we will more closely experience their lifestyle, as we also experience how it will be to live in the climate (August is the hottest time of the year – 35-40 degrees) with no air conditioning, as this is an extra cost and expense considered a luxury that is not needed when so many other needs are more important.

We’ll keep you up to date as more details come in. But put these items on your prayer lists as we prepare!

And so it begins…

She sent me a link to the Army’s site in Mexico, and I have added it to this site. Check it out. (It will be a lot easier for those of you who speak Spanish to navigate your way around, since it is a Spanish site…) For thos of you who don’t speak or read Spanish, it’s a great time for you to connect with someone from the team who is bilingual!

This will be our first Team Ministry Opportunity, which is also really some hands-on training in kids ministry.

If you haven’t signed up for a time slot yet, make sure you get in touch with Sheryl: 905.279.7525 ext.226 or s.slous@mississaugatemple.com We’ve got need for set-up and clean-up crews, as well as manning stations.

We’re hoping and praying that this will be a great entry point event for families in our city. It’s gonna be fun for the kids, they’ll hear Bible stories, get a clear gospel presentation, as well as playing a ton of games, doing crafts and getting lots of treats and snacks.

This event is part of our Children’s Ministry’s - infanTree3173 - Branch Event community outreach programs. It is the first time that all the invitations have been specifically targeted to homes with children. Family Services has been giving out flyers, other flyers have gone out to over 350 children in a school, and over 1900 trick-or-treat invitations have gone out to be handed out on Halloween to children all around the city! What an awesome opportunity to minister to the kids in our own city and share the love of Jesus with them!! And imagine… we’ve got the privilege of being a part of it!

See you there!

Here’s the list of everyone on the team:

Leaders:

Kevin Slous, Sheryl Slous, Nancy Elford, Tom Elford, Mario Tobon, Liliana Tobon, Carolyn Howells, Michelle Anderson

Team Members:

Juan Carlos Moreno, Sharon Galloway, Patricia Ochoa, Adam Taylor, Natalia Tobon, Jessica Trujillo, Sebastian Castro, Jessica Pena, Stefani Diaz, Juan Pablo Jimenez, Sashoy Wilson, Kathleen McIntosh, and Emily Robertson.

We’ve got a diverse group, made up of different cultures, talents, skills and ages. I believe that as we seek God’s will first in our preparations – His kingdom and His righteousness (see Matthew 6:33), that we will be sure to see Him working in and through us in ways we never imagined (check out Ephesians 3:21)!

Like we talked about on Friday night, I’ve begun developing a blog site that will let us stay connected between Team Meetings. Once we get rolling with this, we’ll add upcoming dates, Team expectations, assigned readings, devotionals… you name it… If it will help us further develop our GO (incognito) Team, we’ll try and get it on this site!

Keep checking back! And don’t forget to comment!