Kaya Team Commissioning & we're OFF!!

Only 18 hours of travel time separates us from those amazing kiddos in La Paz, Bolivia!!!
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Last Sunday our Kaya Vision Trip team was blessed, prayed for and commissioned by our church family.  :-)
It was touching, moving and emotional.

Here's a link to the video that I had the pleasure of making.  It played during a special song that was sung by the beautiful Lauren Sveum.  The song "Gratitude" is perfect and very much fits what our trip is about.  It was awesome!

The video below is a compilation of several photographs taken by other Bethany friends (John, Christina, Lynn, Michelle & others) who have visited the children of La Paz over the last few years. 

And we're off...
feel free to follow along Pastor John's blog to stay in the loop with our happenings as we are in La Paz.
http://bethanyelkhorn.org/blog
here's what he had to say yesterday...

2012 Kaya Trip - Prayer Requests!

June 21, 2012 - 11:17am - jeggen Our 2012 Kaya Trip is just a day away. In about 24 hours we will be leaving for Bolivia and enjoying the pleasure of about 18 hours worth of travel. So pray for our travel. Our trip will have highs and lows and some joys and challenges. As 17 people come together to share life and spend our days together in a foreign country there are sure to be moments that strengthen and test relationships. So pray for patience, grace, generosity and trust. Many will meet for the first time children who have lived very different lives than most of us would even imagine. Pray for open hearts for open relationships. Most of the team doesn't speak Spanish. Pray for our team to speak through the language of play and love. We will eat new foods. Pray for health. We will be serving as the body of Christ. Pray for the Spirit to guide and empower us. Mostly pray that the Spirit opens our hearts to new things and enables us to live and relate in ways that honor each other and glorify God.
I've asked our team to pray to live as servants in the following way and ask you join in praying with and for our team.
-Pray for a servant's eyes to see the best in others.
-Pray for a servant's heart bring compassion and dignity to relationships.
-Pray for a servant's mind to overlook the negative and discover the positive.
-Pray for a servant's mouth to say things that honor others.
-Pray for a servant's hands to do God's work through you.
-Pray for a servant's feet that walk slow enough to see God at work and let others be first.
Every trip is different and every year in Kaya's history is different. Just to help you visualize where we are going and what we are doing here are some pictures from last year's trip. This year we will enjoy time with the kids during their winter break, we will celebrate Daniel Mamani graduating from the Kaya program and will build relationships that changes lives. Follow us here, be with us in prayer and ask questions of the team when they return. They will have stories to share!