The Sus Manos team met during the first week of Christmas break to prepare for our Cuba trip. We began with a short video by John Piper. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tty5Npur-Vc) and discussed his statement that "missions exist because worship doesn´t." What does that mean to you?
Our first priority for preparation is our individual walk with Christ. Students chose "accountabilibuddies" to hold them accountable for consistent morning quiet time with God. What is "quiet time" and why does it have to be in the morning? "Quiet time" is reading God´s word and responding back to Him in prayer. It has been said that you cannot find any mighty man or woman of God in history who waited till evening to connect with God. We want to be "connected to the vine" first thing each day, because we know we can do nothing without Jesus, yet we confess it is easy to miss that morning time. It makes me happy that these students desire to make this habit a reality and are willing to hold each other accountable until it is.
Team members received bilingual Bibles and hard-bound journals to keep quiet time and trip prep notes, prayer lists, and a journal of their time in Cuba. I´m encouraging students to listen to the audio Bible in Spanish for a few minutes a day. Besides the spiritual benefit, I know this is going to help them improve their listening skills and their vocabulary on spiritual topics. We are also reading Steps to Christ, by Ellen White. There are 13 chapters in this book, just right for the 13 weeks before we leave for Cuba.
Students will do a skit or puppets each night of the evangelistic series, on the following topics:
Students chose topics for presentations about Cuba for our cultural immersion day in February.
Other business
Our first priority for preparation is our individual walk with Christ. Students chose "accountabilibuddies" to hold them accountable for consistent morning quiet time with God. What is "quiet time" and why does it have to be in the morning? "Quiet time" is reading God´s word and responding back to Him in prayer. It has been said that you cannot find any mighty man or woman of God in history who waited till evening to connect with God. We want to be "connected to the vine" first thing each day, because we know we can do nothing without Jesus, yet we confess it is easy to miss that morning time. It makes me happy that these students desire to make this habit a reality and are willing to hold each other accountable until it is.
Team members received bilingual Bibles and hard-bound journals to keep quiet time and trip prep notes, prayer lists, and a journal of their time in Cuba. I´m encouraging students to listen to the audio Bible in Spanish for a few minutes a day. Besides the spiritual benefit, I know this is going to help them improve their listening skills and their vocabulary on spiritual topics. We are also reading Steps to Christ, by Ellen White. There are 13 chapters in this book, just right for the 13 weeks before we leave for Cuba.
Students will do a skit or puppets each night of the evangelistic series, on the following topics:
- Scriptures
- Salvation / Cross
- The Great Controversy
- Law / Sabbath
- Baptism
- Growing in Christ & Christian Lifestyle
- State of the Dead / Hell
- Second Coming / Signs
Students chose topics for presentations about Cuba for our cultural immersion day in February.
- Marcel--economy, currency
- Andrés--art
- Ryan--religion
- Josué--SDA church in Cuba
- Adonías--Cuba today
- Mariela--food (bonus points if she brings us something to try!)
- Profe--differences between Mexican and Cuban Spanish
Other business
- Ryan´s role as Sus Manos 2017 student leader--oversee accountabilibuddy system, make sure Profe doesn´t have students sit too long during meeting, etc.
- Voted t-shirt verse (Romans 13:10)--Mariela is ordering shirts
- We are searching for used instruments for band ministry in Cuba: saxophones, oboe, clarinete, flute, trumpet, French horn, trombone
- Recruit 10 prayer partners by retreat weekend, send update letter to friends and family, send thank you´s for donations
- Next Skype appointment with Dr. Ortiz of Andrews--will check availability for Thursday, Jan. 12, since we are out early that day.
- Each team member needs to register for Mission Connexion (Jan. 21-22), email tickets to me
- Use Care for Cuba promo video in churches if possible (see link below)