We did, in fact, make it home last night but did not get back to our respective apartments/dorms until after midnight. We are so thankful for this trip and all that we have been able to see and do through it. Thank you for your continued support and we truly can not wait to go back next March. As promised, here are the picture from the last bit of our trip to Puerto Rico.
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After having packed up almost everything last night, we started our day a little later this morning at 8:45 a.m. and had everything in the cars ready to go before the last event of the trip. The church hosted a small fair with some activities for children, a medical station, a clown show, and PLENTY of great food. We welcomed the boys from the children’s home we visited yesterday the same way the church welcomed us: a loud chorus of oles and by giving them a few gifts we were able to purchase with donations you gave for the trip. Once we finished passing out gifts, we got to play outside with them and throw a frisbee, play soccer and baseball, and even jump around in a bouncy house.
A clown showed up after we had been outside and put on a fantastic show for the kids that also incorporated a bible lesson. After this we ate lunch together and got to hang out with the kids before having prayer service were we and the members of the church got to pray over each the children. Following that, the church members asked to do the same for us before we said our (very hard) goodbyes and headed out to the airport at 1:15 p.m. We boarded our slightly delayed flight at about 4 pm heading to Tampa from San Juan. At 7:30 p.m. we arrived at the Tampa airport and are currently waiting to board our connection to RDU at 9 p.m. We are so thankful for safe travels and will keep you updated once we safely land in North Carolina and will post the pictures from today in that post as well. Today was our last full day we spent in Puerto Rico before we wrap up our trip and begin our journey home tomorrow. We began with a great breakfast cooked by our beloved Rafy, he is the church member that has made us gain a few pounds this week by cooking us such amazing meals. Following breakfast, we split into two groups to start our work for the day. One group stayed at the church, painted the fence surrounding the church, and started cooking for an AMAZING dinner. The other group went to a home for boys age 5-13 who are in need of housing and care. We brought donations and were able to hear more about their mission. After Hurricane Maria the home suffered some damage and is still in need of some repairs. As we are planning on returning to Puerto Rico for our mission trip next spring break, part of this visit to the boys home was to also hear from the staff their about what some of their needs are so that when we come back next year we are able to serve with them. We were able to meet a few of the boys that live in the home and play a few games with them before they left to go to enroll in school. Next, we all reconvened at the church for lunch together and then for a couple hours split off again in different groups so that some people could get one last trip to the beach in and so others could revisit some shops in Old San Juan. After this break, we came back to the church and begin to help set up for a service and the dinner with the church tonight by putting up tents and chairs. At about 7:45 we started the service which was an amazing time for both the church members and our team to share not only our talents, but some of our testimonies from the trip. The service ended at 9:30 which was when the dinner started. We had great "Boricua" (traditional Puerto Rican) food, cooked again by Rafy and with a little help from our team. It was also Lauren, one of our team members, birthday and they surprised all of us by bringing out a cake and singing Happy Birthday in both Spanish and English (we'll make sure to upload a video once we are home). Rafy also helped set up a little Wesley Watch Party for the second half of the UNC vs. Duke game and we got to cheer on the Tar Heels with the church here in Bayamón. Even though that game didn't go the way we wanted, we still ended the night singing our Alma Mater together, and continue to look forward to the great things that God still has in store for the remainder of our trip. Hi everyone, sorry for the delay, this is a double feature blog post for our past two days in Puerto Rico because a power outage prevented us from posting last night. On Wednesday the entire group went to El Yunque national rainforest in Río Grande. We were able to see (and swim under) a waterfall, go hiking, and climb a tower to see the rainforest in all of its beauty. After El Yunque, we went to another beach area suggested to us by Linda, one of our hosts, and played games while enjoying a locally made sorbet from a vender on the beach. When we got home we we were surprised with pizza and homemade chicken wings with a “coconut kiss” for dessert. Following dinner, the local church held a bi-lingual prayer service filled with music, a message about our purpose as God’s children to serve others, and a time of unity in prayer. This prayer service and spending time with the members of the church throughout the day really helped all of us, the members of Wesley and the members of the church, to connect with each other. We continued this and ended the night exchanging traditional dances between our two cultures, the swing dance for the salsa 💃. “Not everyone can dance, but everyone can try”
Today, on Thursday, we spent the day in Old San Juan. We we given a religious tour of the city that highlighted monuments, statues and cathedrals. San Juan and Puerto Rico have a rich Chistian History because the country was the first place that Christianity reached the Americas. A fun fact for you, Columbus originally named the whole island of Puerto Rico San Juan Bautista after St. John the Baptist and where San Juan the city is today used to be called Puerto Rico. These names switched in the 1520s. We also revisited El Morro when we went through the tour of Old San Juan before going to see one of the oldest Methodist Churches and having lunch with them. We got to hear more about their churches mission of evangelizing more in the city and spend time with church members there. We also went to the Governors Palace and the Capital Building. Our team is sunburnt but we have learned a lot about Puerto Rican culture and Christian History today. After dinner we packed bags for the children in the Children's home we will be visiting tomorrow. The groups switched volunteer and recreational sites today so that we could all get the full experience. The group that went to Comedor de la Kennedy today also went to Walmart to shop for the boys home. We were able to buy 24 sheet sets, bug spray, a respiratory machine, and toys for the boys. We didn’t fly kites, but we were able to see El Morro and get snow cones in Old San Juan. In the afternoon at Comedor de la Kennedy, we packaged rice and beans, bagged groceries, cleaned, and went to hand out meals with Pastor Ivan, Carla, and Sulyn. The other group was at San Pablo church where we were again able to cook for and fellowship with the community of Barrio Obrero. We led a devotion and sang songs with them, and gave a donation to the church to help with their feeding program and other ministries. Then we went to hippie beach to have some fun. In the evening we walked around the neighborhood surrounding Igelsia Metodista Obispo Francis Asbury and passed out flyers for a neighborhood party at the church on Saturday for the surrounding community. Today we split up into two groups to work with different feeding centers and different cultural aspects of Puerto Rico. One group of 11 first went to El Morro, a fort in San Juan. We flew kites, found a guitar, and got to spend time with Rafy and Linda from Igelsia Metodista Obispo Francis Asbury. Following that we went to work en El Comedor de la Kennedy (“The Kennedy Dinning Room” in english) where we packed 176 bags of food to give to children and elderly experiencing food insecurity in 16 different parts of the island. We passed out some of these bags and meals in one of the biggest neighborhoods they visit each week. This program is run by 3 volunteers who together feed 1,000 children and 2,000 elderly each week. They started 10 years ago and since Hurricane Maria alone, they have given 150,000 hot meals and 105,000 bags of food. The other group of 7 went to the church San Pablo in the community, Barrio Obrero, a small church with a feeding ministry for the community, run by Pastor Nilka. This community was devastated by hurricanes Irma and Maria and the feeding ministry has been a reliable source of food for community members since the disasters. Our group was impacted by the passion of Pastor Nilka and her several volunteers to help their community despite the challenges they face daily. We were able to assist Pastor Nilka in preparing the food, organizing clothes, cleaning up and talking with the people in church and community. After spending the morning at San Pablo Church, we went to Hippie Beach, a beach that is preserved and set apart from the large resorts. We landed in San Juan at about 4:15 and managed to get all of our luggage (woohooooo!!!!) I don’t know about y’all but both of those flights went by in what felt like the blink of an eye. It is a great, sunny 82 degrees here and we managed to meet up with Pastor Jorge from Iglesia Metodista Obispo Francis Asbury. We made it to the church at 6:30pm and were welcomed to many of the church members singing olé and then ate the most amazing dinner! Tomorrow we will be splitting into two different groups and for half the day each group will be working with one feeding center in the morning and another in the afternoon. The other half the day we will take a bit to rest and rejuvenate for the rest of the week at Hippie Beach.
We are one leg of our trip down and currently waiting to board in Baltimore for the last 4 hour leg of the trip. We stopped for lunch and to debrief and will be boarding at 12:05pm!
Hey friends! We made it to RDU this morning (after that amazing game last night!), got through security, and even managed to get some breakfast! We are super excited to head out on this trip and to share this journey with you. We'll be sure to keep you updated!
Hi everyone! We are excited to officially launch this blog to keep everyone who is supporting and praying for our Spring Break Mission Trip to Bayamón, Puerto Rico updated about our progress. Our trip is just a few short weeks away - March 10th-16th - but we still have some very important events coming up. Fundraising is in full swing and and we are all eager to go to Bayamón!
In January, some members of our Mission Team went to Bayamón to connect with Iglesia Metodista Obispo Francis Asbury and begin building relationships with the congregation and it’s ministry leaders. (see the pictures below!) The trip in January was the first of what we hope will be a continued ministry partnership between UNC Wesley and Iglesia Metodista Obispo Francis Asbury. The team also engaged with some ministries that we will be working with on our trip in March such as la Iglesia Metodista San Pablo in Barrio Obrero in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and el Comedor de la Kennedy. For more information about the amazing work that these ministries are doing please check out these links: la Iglesia Metodista San Pablo in Barrio Obrero el Comedor de la Kennedy (also check out this video!) The people of Iglesia Metodista Obispo Francis Asbury Thank you all for your support and prayers as we prepare for our spring break mission trip to Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Be sure to check back in with this blog for more updates about our fundraising journey and the trip itself. Thanks for reading!!! God Bless, UNC Wesley 2019 Spring Break Mission Team If you haven't already, please consider donating through our GiveCampus Campaign here! |
AuthorCheck out Who are we? to learn more about our team Archives |