El Salvador

Leaving for El Salvador in less than 24 hours!!!!! The excitement is in the air....Thanksgiving feast is complete...it's just time to wait until we fly! I'm looking forward to seeing the kids at the Children's Home and Pastor Ben and his wife Daisy.

The team has taken the last three days to rest, unwind, and get some packing in order. It has been very good for us since we haven't had many days off in the last 3 or 4 months. We have traveled from church to church to church. to church.

We've been to
Berrien Center, MI
Flushing, MI
Wabash, IN
Poplar Bluff, MO
Marion, IL
Olive Branch, MS
Slidell, LA
Rome, GA
Milton, FL

9 different churches that we were able to serve in from September to November. We literally go from church to church. It is a crazy life when I really think about it. In the last 3 and 1/2 years the longest I've been in one location was 10 weeks and that was this past summer. I never would have told you that this is what I would be doing. :) I love teaching the kids. Also being the lead Base Camp teacher it's been fun to be able to help our new Base Camp teacher how to improve in his lessons. The main thing I've continually tried to remind him was to make the lessons his own and not to try to copy what someone else does. He's done a great job and has improved by leaps and bounds since our first two churches. I am blessing with the co-teachers I have this year.

After El Salvador I'll be waiting in the airport for about 12 hours until my flight home for December. YES! I'm going home for December and am really excited about it. I haven't seen my family since December last year. Although Kira (my big sister) won't be there I'm hoping to see her during our spring break. We will be heading out west and I'm going to look into plane tickets or train tickets to get there. It would be really neat to see her. I haven't seen her since our first year on the road.

Well...I need to get going for now. Please pray for me as I'm in El Salvador. Oh yeah. I'll be teaching through an interpreter on Sunday and at the Children's Home sometime next week. Please, please pray!

Shawntay

Chapel

Elementary Chapel! In Brownsburg, IN our team of Children's Ministers (9 of us) we able to lead chapel for the school connected with the Church. I was able to narrate a skit and Emily applied it at the end. We also taught them two songs. Below is a picture of all of us leading the kids with the motions.

This morning a girl in Base Camp shared that she was almost done looking up each one of our rules in a concordance. Our rules that we explain is Obedience, Respect, Determination, Encouragement, and Reflection. She said that there were 50 some verses on Respect...and explained how she realized that if there were that many verses on respect....God most think it's very important.

It was so encouraging to me to hear her say that.

Update from Marion, IL

I thought I'd mention that I got a new phone number and my e-mail address is back up and running. Praise the Lord. And I'm still alive (I really don't like when my electronics give me problems)....actually I just celebrated my 28th birthday!!!! Can't believe it....also can't believe that in 2 years I'll also be 30! Such a crazy thought. Thank God for all the days I live. :)

I hope all is well with everyone but I know that's not always the case. I just found out a lady I know from Wisconsin is in the hospital. I'm praying for her. And if there is anything else going on with anyone please let me know so that I can be praying for you.

BTW I'm in Marion, IL till Monday and then will be heading to Olive Branch, MS and the week after that I'll be in Slidell, LA.

Here's a picture that was taken in Wabash, IN when Mountain Man Jack and Mollie were waiting to do a skit.

Technology Failures

So when it rains it pours right....Just wanted to let everyone know that this past week my cellphone stopped working and I may be losing my cell number. I'll keep you posted about that when I figure everything out. Also....my hotmail account got locked up so I have not been able to log into it. So sad since I just sent an email update through it and now will not be able to respond to any of the emails that I sent. So if you are reading this and got my email through my hotmail address please e-mail me at my gmail address which is the same as the hotmail one except it's @gmail.com

To be honest I got very frustrated today trying to get everything back and running. But it didn't work. So alas, I just have to be patient and wait through this whole thing.

Shawntay

Base Camp @ Berrien Center Bible Church

Berrien Center Bible Church

Berrien Center Bible Church is our location for the next 4 days. This is the first THIRST Conference of the 2011-2012 travel season. I'm staying with a family with 3 kids---a 3 year old, 1 year old and a 3 month old (nice to be with kids again). My roommate for the week is Anna Bommel whose from Jefferson City, Missouri--my team held a conference at her church in April 2010. Getting to know her has been fun...she plays the ukulele so of course I loved that.

We are hoping to have around 43 kids in Base Camp tomorrow. A few weeks ago all 3 team's Children's Ministers were there for a 3-day Vacation Bible School....we are looking forward to seeing them again. This week we are teaching lessons on Obedience, Sin, Pride & Humility, Prayer, and God's Word. And of course we have our mountain climbing theme so Mountain Man Jack and Molly will be doing skits all week too.

I am hoping to remember to take pictures so I can post them for everyone to see.

Staff Training 2011

Today is Day 4 of Staff Training! We have had our opening sessions and are in the swing of CM training (Children's Ministry Training). The Worship teams are practicing 3 times a day as the CMs meet for sessions as well.

God will do amazing things this year and I am looking forward to hearing about it and being a part of it. Our Ministry's mission is to ignite movements of authentic Christianity and as we discussed it I couldn't help but think about what an authentic Christian life would look like. I was challenged to look at my own life and evaluate whether or not I was living my life according to His Word. Hypocrisy is something that some people would say characterizes today's church... my prayer is that this year we would see more people turn from living a double life and live their lives as Christians. Not just in word but in all they do. Be ye doers of the word and not hears only.....

What is your desire? What is your burden? What do you want to see God do? Pray to that end!!!!

Life Action Camp

This is the Weeks Family....my first family this summer. We had lots of FUN!!!!!!

Life Action Camp is one of the ministries of Life Action and we are down to our last 2 weeks of Family Camp. In June I was in Wisconsin for a month break and am back in Michigan until the beginning of September.

This month I am teaching in Base Camp as well as being a Family Assistant. Every family that comes to Family Camp gets an assistant for the week. We help them mostly with their kids and just to hang out with them too. In the past two weeks I have been swimming, blobbing, tubing, and boating with my camp family. In Base Camp we have had almost 50 kids my first week and about 30 kids my second week.

Right now I am waiting for my new camp family. All I know is that they have 4 kids and one is 1 years old. So it will be a different week. Pray that God would do a work in their lives and transform them into His image.

Sasha with her camp kids

Catie (one of our Base Camp kids) and I before.....

&

Catie and I after...... :)


Yes I got pied because she said all 10 verses for the week



A great family from Holland....that's Holland, Michigan!!!!





On Tuesday night we have Pretzel night where everyone makes their own pretzel!


My favorite pretzel of the night...A NINJA!!!

Luke and Sarah Johnson's Wedding

On July 2, 2011 our team was able to celebrate the marriage of two of our teammates. Luke is our team's Youth Revivalist and Sarah is our Business Manager. And yes they will be traveling this year! Here are just a few pictures from the wedding.

End of Year #3

I just got to Wisconsin this weekend. Looking forward to reconnecting with people and getting some rest. This summer will be very busy: Wisconsin in June, Michigan in July and August, back on the road in September.

Pictures from September 2010-June 2011

Lexington, SC

It's been a week since we finished our conference in Lexington, SC. I don't want to miss the opportunity to share with you all what happened there. On Wednesday we had an extraordinary chapel time as a team. We started at 10 am and ended somewhere between 1:30 and 2. We spent time in the word and then watched some videos about what was happening at a church in Arkansas. We then spend time in prayer asking God to work and it turned into a time of confession and seeking forgiveness from one another. One team member was impressed to make the comment "with a group as big as ours I wouldn't be surprised if there was someone in our group that wasn't truly saved." One of our girls responded to God after that comment was made and shared with the team how she was living a lie and had just gotten saved. We then rejoiced with her and began to pray for her. While we were doing that another one of our team members that was struggling began to deal with her doubts. And another one of our guys had shared with our team Revivalist that he wasn't sure if he was genuinely saved. Ryan and the rest of our team guys were praying for him as they walked him through the book of I John. He realized he needed to be saved. Praise God for these 3. They were then baptized in the evening service.

That's not it. God kept moving. I don't know what had happened because I was with the kids in Base Camp. But they had people giving testimonies and 8 people got baptized because they never did or were baptized before they were really saved. One of them just got saved that night in the Youth meeting. He then told his dad and went back to the sanctuary to get baptized. It was so neat to see God work.

God is always faithful!

Fifteen years ago today I had my last conversation with my mom. And that’s no April Fool’s joke. There are things that I can clearly remember from that day. The accident happen close to where we live and I remember hearing the sirens and the helicopter and someone coming to our house telling us what happened and Dad leaving to go see for himself. God has taken care of me all these years. He has been my comfort for all the tears I’ve shed and will shed. He tells me that “All things work together for good….” in Romans 8:28. (I didn’t know how this could be good but I knew somehow it was for good). I can still remember having that verse run through my head while I went back to school the day after she died. She had been in ICU for a week and didn’t make it. God was with me back then and He is the same God now and is still with me now!

What will your last conversation be? What would you want your loved ones to know if you knew you were at your last breath?

At 12 years old I had an understanding of God and that had helped me so much. So much that it’s why I think it’s so important to teach children the truth of God’s Word. If I didn’t know God’s Word before losing Mom what hope would I have had 15 years ago.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

Hey ya'll!

I'm in Savannah, GA.

A passage that has been on my mind today is I Thessalonians 5:14-15 "And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone."

How much do I actually admonish those who are idle? Do I encourage those who are fainthearted? Do I help those who are weak? And am I patient with those who are idle, fainthearted, and weak?

Too many times I can find myself busy with my schedule, the things that I have to do that I don't see those who are faint in heart or are weak. And I'm too busy to stop and take time to admonish those who are idle.

Lord, please help me to be aware of those around me. I want to encourage and bear the burdens of those I work with.

You may now support me financially through www.lifeaction.org

To get there from the main page, put your curser over “Donate” and hit “Support a Staff Member. Once you’re on that page, hit the arrow button next to “Staff member” and look for "Celestino, Shawntay"

I still need around $3,000 for my 2010-2011 travel year.

Also if you would like to receive my e-mail updates please e-mail me at Smichic01@gmail.com or comment here and leave your e-mail address.

Thanks,
Shawntay

Back on the Road

Yes the White Team is back on the road. But we are getting pretty ill. Please pray for us.