During my first activity with a group of sixth graders, one girl barely looked up from her desk. She hid her face behind her long black hair, and she had to be coaxed to give her short, memorized speech. Her friends told me that she never smiled; it hurt her cheeks. In one of the rare moments that she spoke, she told me with a sense of pride that she was the only one who never laughed when the class broke out in contagious laughter.

By the last day she not only smiled, but she even talked quite a bit. Her speeches were deep and thoughtful, and she understood the importance of communicating with other people.

She wasn’t an isolated case. The eighth graders, who didn’t seem thrilled to be in the conference right off the bat, approached their teacher after the last day. They ask if they could lead chapel for the younger students. We’ve been so encouraged to see such a tangible impact become visible so quickly.

~Avery

Friday, February 5, 2009

Gerald

My trip to Singapore has been a very interesting experience. I simply assumed that I would be going to Singapore due to the fact that I have been to all the conferences in the United States but , while we were at the Kays’ house, I heard Austin trying to decide whether to bring dress shoes or me.

My feelings were quite hurt that he would even ask such a question such but, of course, he chose to take me over the dress shoes, so life is good.

I was then packed into a suitcase and thrown into the belly of an airplane for a long, grueling 24 hour ride. I wound up talking to a girl gnome that was packed in the suit case that was next to mine. That was interesting, but…..of course, we went our separate ways as soon as we arrived in Singapore.

The rest of my trip in Singapore has been rather interesting. At ICS,  Austin stood me next to the banner, which was quite considerate of him considering the fact that lying on my nose back stage (as I did every night) became really depressing. It was incredible to watch the kids go from being unsure of themselves and unenthusiastic to being much more confident and even excited about communicating.

I think the highlight of my trip has been seeing how everyone responds to my adorableness, apparently it’s not very normal to see people carrying green garden gnomes though the streets of Singapore but so far everyone has fallen in love with me….

Monday we got to attend Focus on the Family in Singapore and I had a wonderful time seeing all the people there and getting my head patted. Once we left Focus on the Family, Kathryn held me up in the taxi and I was able to see out the window, which made me reach the conclusion that Singapore is a beautiful place. All in all, I have absolutely loved my trip and I’ve seen many amazing things though out this trip. I’m simply hoping Austin washes his clothes before he puts me in his suitcase for the return trip home.

We had an amazing time with the Young Life group! We started off just talking to the people at the Bible study. They were very friendly, outgoing, and down to earth. We ended just talking and hanging out for thirty minutes before we realized how much time had gone by! Then we transitioned to an activity that stressed the art of persuasion and applying to one’s audience. Each presentation was fun, upbeat and engaging! The IMPACT Team had a lot of fun seeing what the Young Life youth had to present. We followed that up with a real life simulation. Some of the IMPACT team members role-played characters of typical non-Christians that one might meet. The youth that attended the Bible study had a few minutes to talk to each of the characters. The Young Life youth were spot-on in their approach to our characters! The youth engaged the characters in conversation, showed them compassion, and presented truth to them in a relevant and respectful approach. We very much enjoyed the evening. The people that we met were just as much of an encouragement to us as we hoped to be to them! We are looking forward to working with Young Life even more in the future!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

We are leaving for the airport! Everything is in the car and ready to go. The whole team is very excited. We had some time to prepare and get some presentations ready and everything looks great. We can’t wait until we get to Singapore.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

We are in Singapore! At 3:00 AM in the morning we arrived at the Vosburgs apartment. They have been so amazing! Our rooms were ready when we arrived and they even had some snack food laid out on a table for us. We were all able to call our families and tell them that we arrived safely.

Later that day and after we all got some rest, we were able to visit the International Christian School where we met the staff and got a tour of the facility. The school looks great and the staff has been very helpful. We are so excited to see all the great things that will be happening here next week.

Friday, January 29, 2010

It has been a busy day! This morning, we went to Victory Life Christian School where we met 180 students, whose ages ranged from 4 to 17. Everybody was so great! We saw lots of participation from students of all ages. It was so great to see the students really get into the activities and have fun as they learn to be better communicators for Christ.

Shortly after our time with Victory Life ended, we went over to ICS to prepare for our evening program there. At 6 o’clock, more than 100 people were sitting in their chairs, ready for an American team called ‘ICC’ to begin the program. And with some announcements (from John David and Seth), the program began. The program was so much fun! Everybody gave presentations ranging from a speech about thankfulness to an interpretation about Shakespeare. But my favorite part of the program had to be when the team came together to perform our interpretation of Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree.” We were so glad were able to do this. Today has been a great day and we can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Today was our second day at Victory Life Christian. Although the younger students didn’t attend this time, we were busy all the same. The students learned all kinds of new things like bringing stories to life and communicating a message to specific audiences. It is so amazing how much all of these students have grown in their communication skills in such a short span of time. We can’t wait until we return next Saturday and see what God can do through this experience.

After Victory Life was over, we all went back to the Vosburgs to change and rest a bit. And at about 6 PM, we all went out to see Singapore. Our night out was so much fun! With George the taxi driver, we all went to Little India – one of the ethnic neighborhoods found in Singapore. There were all kinds of shops and restaurants, few of which we were able to see. We were all able to have some Indian food and some of us even got some coconuts. In all, the night was a lot of fun and we look forward to seeing more of Singapore.

Great.

Yes, that’s my word for the Georgia Apprentices. “But that’s only one syllable” you may protest. Yes, that’s very true, and usually one syllable words are inferior to those of more syllables, but it starts with a “G” – same as “Georgia.” And it has a cool definition:

very good or satisfactory; excellent

So stop complaining about my choice of adjectives.

My Georgia Apprentices were (are and ever shall be) great. I walked by Jetpack (the designated Apprentice room) several times, and quite frequently I heard them singing worship songs as they worked. It made my day. I also greatly enjoyed the fun debate (and… no that doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that the resolution was about me. Not anything at all.) They were also greatly efficient and hard working. If I needed something done, I could ask just about any of them to work on it and didn’t have to worry about it anymore after that. So pretty much, my Georgia Apprentices were fabulous.

Oh. I meant Great.

Oh my goodness! Three cheers for the team! Hip hip, huzzah! Hip hip, huzzah! Hip hip, jolly good! Our last Evening Program performance was A-to-the-Mazing. No joke. We had such an amazing time in Atlanta, Georgia, that I’m sure we shall never forget it. The entire team put everything we had into the last performance, and by the grace of God it all came together and went off with a bang. As the team dropped their heads one last time to the applause of the audience I thought about how thankful I was for the way the Lord had brought each member of the team together to impact our culture with His love and joy. The performance far outranked all of our previous performances, and the conversations I had afterwards only confirmed for me how much the Lord was able to use the program to impact the people who saw it. And it didn’t just impact the audience, but every single intern who was a part of it. I will never be able to write in words how much the Lord’s grace and mercy and love were revealed to me through participating, not only in the Evening Program, but also in the entire national tour. I have been blessed.

My prayer for each of you is that the Lord will fill you with the same joy and love and hope that I was shown throughout tour. And I pray that each of you will be inspired to take that out into your everyday life, to everyone you come into contact with, and show your culture that you have the greatest message.

Walk in His light, in His love, in His hope, and in His joy. Be blessed.

Josh Craddock

The participants in Atlanta were fantastic! Some of them had debated before, so they were prepared for the topic and the format of debate. I was really excited to see how much they had learned and improved; even since the first time they had done it. Looking back over the last few months, I realized that I’ve learned a lot too… Since the first time I tried Public Forum for myself at ICC Camp, I’ve been privileged to learn more about the nature of persuasion alongside the students. With a vision for how Public Forum can be helpful for Christian communicators, I’m excited to take these skills back home and apply them for myself as well as preparing even more challenging and exciting opportunities for the students at Masters.

Kelsea Mort

Last Beginning Public Speaking conference of this tour…

*Sniff* But what a wonderful group to end with. We had the largest one-day conference this week, and every one of the students did a fantastic job. But there is no doubt about it, the apprentices made it all possible. With this many students, the apprentices all had an opportunity to work with the young students by leading breakout groups. I was extremely impressed with their competence and the love that they all displayed throughout the day. Not only were they a huge blessing to me, but also to the kids. Thanks to them for making this last BPS day a possibility and for making it a perfect note to end on.

Awesome. Yes, that’s the word. Awesome. My Apps were awesome in Naples, FL. I challenged them all in different ways and areas, and they did such an awesome job. Not only did they completely assemble the Evening Program playbills in 15 minutes flat, but they also rocked at the fashion show. I think they probably had the most attitude of any fashion show in CFC history. But aside from attitude and pizzaz, they also proved themselves proficient in all manner of leadership. I knew I could give any of them any task and they’d be… awesome.

Joshua Craddock

My Apple dictionary defines contentment as “a state of peaceful happiness.” That describes how I felt this week as I spent time with the Scofield family and the rest of my team. As it becomes more apparent to me that tour will soon be ending, I have begun to savor every moment of quality with the traveling team that has become like family to me. After the conference in Naples had ended, we went downtown for dinner and walked down to the end of the pier to look at the stars and look at the ocean. When we talked later, we marveled that God can number the stars in the sky and call each one of them by name!

The next day we went to the Scofield ranch to relax and have fun with the team. I was pretty proud of myself for hitting 9/10, but Eric, Janie and Austin outdid us all with their sharpshooting skills. Then Hannah and I decided to drive the go-kart around. That was a very bad idea. Hannah is bad luck for vehicles on tour. The back wheel flew off while we were speeding down the dirt road, leaving us to slide to a screeching halt. However, because it broke down we got to see an alligator swimming in the swamp (which is the other reason that I feel content right now; my wish to see an alligator while I was in Florida came true!). After escaping from the Alligator swamp with our lives and braving many other dangerous wildlife encounters (such as with banana spiders and baby rattlers) we all went on a Jeep ride in the swamp buggies. It was a lot of fun to pretend to be on an expedition while we drove through the jungle and swamps at sunset. Finally, we all returned to the cabin for dinner and s’mores. Even though the day was exciting and adventurous, I would still describe it as peaceful and relaxing. I guess if I had to wrap up all the random thoughts I’ve put into this post, I’d say that I’m thankful. I’m thankful for this ministry, for the people that put life into it, and thankful to God giving us this incredible opportunity. As I fell asleep in the car on the way back from the Scofield ranch that night, I’m pretty sure there was a smile on my face.