Village Bible Church || Aurora | Indian Creek | Sugar Grove | IL

From July 5-13, a team from our Refuge group (Sr. High) went to the deep-woods of North Carolina for "Jungle Jump-Off", where they experienced a week long simulation of missionary life in a 'remote village'.

The team united as they "skywalked" on the high-ropes course. They dined as never before on food prepared on mud stoves, and even better, underground! They were stretched as they heard words spoken from a new language. They worked together to accomplish tasks that they usually take for granted. And guess what, they loved it, and they'll never be the same again!

After a day blending challenges and fun, sleep was sweet for some on a wooden floor in a champa (house built on stilts), and for others, in a hammock strung between trees in a heavily wooded area at the Jungle Jump Off site.

These experiences will helped explode some myths about missions and exposed our team to the realities of missionary life.

Tuesday morning was a work time and we pulled weeds and put down some new mulch.

Tuesday afternoon we learned about "Vernacular Media Services". They showed us how the means to communicate the gospel through different media. As part of the lesson they showed us how they will doub a movie with a new language. We paticipated in doubing a section of a movie. Look for a move clip with our voicec doubed in when we return :)

In the evening we cooked spegettie for supper and then headed off for more training. Martin taught us about the tough choice that poor third world people have to make.

Then we listened to testomony from a MK ( missionary kid). He was in the Ivory Coast Africa until his second grade and then came to the states for a few years then returnd to the Sehara Africa. He can speak Swedish, French, and english fluently, and parts of some other launges.

Monday started out with instuctions on how to set up our hamocks and then took rest of morning to set them up. Most of the kids slept in them.

Then in the afternoon we the afternoon we toured Jaars. We saw the avatiation center where they repair and service the aircraft.

In the late afternoon we were got a chance to enjoy the pool. Monday evening we made burgers on the open campfire.

In the evening then Dean gave us a lesson on how and why Wycliffe translates the bible to other languages.

After the lesson we built a campfire and enjoyed some smores.