The Power of Testimonies and Using Drama to Glorify God

Howdy everyone!! I’m Jordyn Chaimiti, a 10th grade student going on this mission trip. As the blog post manager, it has been such a joy looking back on the ways God has been working in our team and at our meetings. Just this past Sunday on March 19, we had our 2nd to last meeting until our trip. Isn’t that crazy?!?! Time is flying. Anyways, we had a wonderful meeting that consisted of a short drama skit rehearsal, students (including meee) sharing testimonies, and a teaching done by Pastor Jared Sorber about being culturally respectful as we go to Mexico. In this blog post I specifically wanted to talk about testimony sharing and the power of worshiping God through skits/productions, as that’s what really struck a chord in me in our last meeting. 

So a few meetings back, Cody, our missions leader, assigned all of the students to put together a 2-3 minute testimony about a way God has worked in our life. Throughout the course of our meetings, we were to get up in front of the whole team and share. For me, and for a lot of my peers on this trip, this was extremely nerve wracking. In fact, I was actually one of the last people to go, because of how nervous I was. After seeing my friends go up and share their testimonies, it gradually got less intimidating and I finally went. My testimony was about my experience with volleyball and anxiety, and how God’s plan for us may not look like the plan we have for ourselves. This testimony took place at a low point in my life that was filled with insecurities, anxiousness, and sadness, so being able to look back and realize how God was working the entire time was incredible. Although it was hard to build the courage to share my testimony, it’s important that we all do so. We will be using our testimonies to sometimes connect with people in Mexico, and being able to reflect on what God has done in our lives can possibly have a large impact on someone else who can relate. Bridging these gaps could bring someone closer to God, or give them a perspective they did not have before. So even though it can be terrifying to stand up in front of 16 people and share a piece of your life, God gave us all stories for a reason. I’m so proud of all of us for sharing, and I hope God may use our testimonies to bring others closer to Him. 

Another thing that really touched me at our meeting was our skit rehearsal. The skit we are doing is called the Lifehouse “Everything” skit, and I LOVE IT! The skit depicts a girl who starts out with solely God and everything is perfect at first, until temptors that represent different sins (lust, envy, greed, temptation, etc.) start to make their way into her life one by one. At the end, Jesus defeats all the types of sin and peace is restored with Jesus and the girl. In the skit, I play the main girl, I play this role along with my friend, Katie. I have a very big passion for theater and drama, so doing this skit has been an amazing time for me. But although I love acting, I never quite understood the power behind using theater to glorify God. Now, I can confidently say, it is one of my favorite ways to worship Him. There’s something about literally watching God’s amazing works being depicted that really moves me. I can’t quite explain it, but I can say that even after several weeks of working on this play, seeing the finished product has quite literally brought me to tears. I can not wait to see how God will use this way of ministry to connect with the people in Mexico, but I have no doubt that it’ll be wonderful. 

It has been a joy working with this mission team, and with only 9 days left until our trip, I ask you all to continue praying for us. Thank you all for your love and support and please keep tuning in because we will be posting blog posts while we are on our trip!!

Stay blessed y’all,

Jordyn

Sabrina Discusses Our Student Lead Program at 3/11 Missions Meeting!!

Hello everybody! My name is Sabrina Ritchie, and I am in the 11^th grade. Ever since I was in BridgeKids, I have wanted to go on the Mexico mission trip, so I am incredibly humbled to now have this opportunity. I am thrilled to see how God will use the team to further His kingdom in Mexico.

In this blog post, I’ll be focusing on the students’ program. To give a little more background, this past Saturday, the students on the Mexico team took on the challenge of creating and putting on a 75-minute program. I might be a bit biased, but I think we absolutely crushed it. Aside from running a bit longer than expected, each and every single one of us did an incredible job in the role that we were given. To kick off the program, Grady and Katie facilitated a game that tested the adult team members’ trust in one another. The adults paired up, and one partner wore a blindfold, while the other did not. The object of the game was for the blindfolded partner to navigate their way through a hallway full of chairs without dropping the ping-pong ball in their spoon, and then sit down in a chair, all while being guided by only the voice of their partner. Cody and Ms.Susan won the game since they had the quickest time. They earned banana chips as a prize. Both Katie and Grady did a stellar job choosing the game and executing it in a way that was both fun and easy to follow.

Then, Christian did an awesome job giving a heart-felt testimony about his journey to feel again. It was so inspiring to hear how God has worked in his life, even in the event of a tragedy. After Christian’s testimony, I gave a message on emotional self-control to teach us how to handle the many emotions we may encounter on our trip and daily life. I was pretty nervous before I spoke, but all my nerves went away once I started speaking, and I really enjoyed teaching. Next up, Charlie bravely shared his testimony about overcoming social anxiety and coming back to God. He was vulnerable and expressed himself excellently. Following Charlie’s testimony was Jordyn’s message called “Refocusing Your Center on God.” She absolutely killed it and couldn’t have done any better. Her message was not only applicable to our Mexico trip, but also to our everyday life. After that, our project team leader, Jacob, facilitated the worship section where we had a moment of silence to worship God. Though this was not what he had planned, he truly showed his leadership skills by sacrificing his part for the sake of time. Then, Myles gave an awesome gospel message. He was a total natural up there and made the message applicable to non-believers and people who are already Christians. Last but not least, Sanaa prayed a beautiful prayer to wrap up our program. She articulated her words clearly and everything she said flowed wonderfully. Our last section was supposed to be the closing, but because of time constraints, Joel also gave up his part. Although he didn’t get to do the closing, he did a phenomenal job facilitating the affirmations, prompting prayer after testimonies, and introducing the events. Because of him, all of the transitions were completely seamless.

Overall, this was a great learning experience. This has made me all the more excited to do our actual programs in Mexico. Thank you to everyone who has supported us financially and/or through prayer. We could not do this without you!

-Sabrina

What a Weekend! – Derek Robinson, Team Leader

Hey there! If you’re reading this, we appreciate you keeping up with our Mexico Missions team. Your prayers and support means everything to us as we prep and get ready to go on this trip! My name is Derek Robinson – I serve as an employee at Bridgeway on our Ministry Support team and am so blessed to be a part of this trip leadership team, and team as a whole. I was an intern with Bridgeway Student Ministries in 2013 but was never able to go on the yearly Mexico trip, so being asked to go now 10 years later is an honor. Let me tell you about our jam-packed weekend!

We had a team dinner at the Apahnis household on Friday night along with the parents of the students. It was nice to have a chance to connect “informally” and just hang out without any drama practices or team prep – just pizza, dessert, and good company. While the whole team was not able to attend due to prior commitments, getting to connect with those that did come was a lot of fun. A special shout out to the parents of all of our students for trusting this team of leaders, and Bridgeway, with their children. We do not take for granted the adjustments and flexibility needed to make this trip happen and we honor you in this process! Thank you for praying over all of us and supporting the mission.

Saturday kicked off a long training day at 11 am with the students getting ready to put on their “program.” I’m sure you’ll read all about it in Sabrina’s recap blog! Once the students were set, Mrs. Amber Anderson led us in a devotional about prayer which took us right into an early lunch. Then it was program time! Every student had the chance to be involved from sharing their testimony to games to prayer. Well done students! You all showed a lot of maturity, but I was especially impressed by the teaching segments. Sabrina’s teaching on emotional checkins and Jordyn’s segment on focusing on God were definite highlights and showed me how ready the students are to take this trip. Following the teaching and a debrief, Cody led a time of communion and worshipful reflection before jumping right back into drama practice. Over the rest of our meeting time the students ran through “the Lifehouse skit” from beginning to end. I’m excited to see it all come together!

Many of us continued the festivities at the Michener household for the “Afterparty,” more time to fellowship and get to know each other personally. After crushing some Chipotle and playing a couple VERY tense games of Werewolf (otherwise known as Mafia), I think our team feels like a team! There is nothing like laughing and breaking bread together to build team unity.

I had the pleasure of wrapping up the weekend with my “Accountability Group.” These groups were piloted by Cody to not only make sure that students had logistical check ins, like being at meetings on time, but so they also had personal and spiritual check ins. My accountability group students are Grady and Sabrina, two students that I was able to work with during our Outreach and Evangelism time in Baltimore during the team overnight meeting. We left from the Columbia Campus and went to Bibibop at the Columbia mall, a Korean-founded and inspired chain of fast casual bibimbap. Over lunch our team discussed highlights of our weeks and our preparation for the trip. Last week Pastor Will Eastham recommended that the members of the Mexico Team do spiritual check ins and journaling, so I asked my group to start this week with noting where they saw God working in their lives. It was so encouraging to hear how these teenagers are so steeped in God’s presence and word that they had opportunities to share the Gospel just this past week! Before wrapping up and heading back to the church, I shared my testimony with them and we left feeling a greater bond. I am so proud of all of our students, but getting the chance to work closely with Grady and Sabrina has also been a blessing back to me.

Can you believe we’re just a few weeks away? Keep up with these blog posts and share this link with those who might want to read it while we’re away! www.bridgeway.cc/missions

Colossians 3:23 ESV – “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”

Sanaa’s Moving Outlook on 3/5/2023 Missions Meeting!!

Hi there everyone! 

My name is Sanaa Thomas and I’m in 12th grade. I have been at Bridgeway since I was born and I’m excited to have the wonderful privilege of being able to serve on this year’s student ministries Mexico missions team. I’m ready to see how God will work through our team on this trip.

This past Sunday March 5th 2023, we had another team training meeting. We started out our meeting with a silent reflection to prepare ourselves before the Lord and each of us shared a one word description on how we were entering the meeting. We then had a time of worship where we listened to the worship song Yeshua by Maverick City Música. After our time of worship, we had 10 minutes with just us students to work on our 75 minute program we will be presenting to our team at our next meeting. Jacob, our team leader for this project, led us through a time of brainstorming ideas and assigning roles. After this, we had the wonderful opportunity of receiving a theological teaching from newly anointed pastor, Will Eastham. His teaching was called “Cultivating a ‘With-God’ life (Together)”. One thing that stuck out to me in pastor Easthams teaching was a question he posed near the end of his presentation. The question asked what would happen if we viewed the places in our lives that God has placed us in as “gardens” that He is working in and if we were to “partner” with Him in these “gardens”.For me, this really opened up my mind to thinking about how I can be so much more intentional with sharing the Gospel. This viewpoint helped to remind me that God is working in all the places I go in life and I should share the Gospel and practice God’s Word everywhere I go and not just in church or just in places I feel will be more “accepting”. After the teaching, we then closed out the meeting with another one word reflection this time on how we were leaving the space.

After our formal team meeting was over, all of us students went over to Katie’s house and had an informal team gathering to continue our planning of our 75 minute program. We ate delicious food, and discussed the elements of the program. We were able to get some of the time frames down and finalize the things we had brainstormed about in the 10 minutes we had at the meeting earlier but weren’t sure about yet. It’ll be exciting for us to be able to share with you soon how the program went. During this gathering we also got to fellowship with one another. We got to know each other better and I feel that we’ve grown closer as a team.

Thank you everyone for your continued support! Whether you’ve supported financially or through prayer, you truly have helped our team more than you may know. I ask that you continue to pray for our trip in the days leading up to it and that you may pray for us when we are on our trip as well. 

Blessings,

Sanaa 🙂

Christian Gives Glimpse into 02/26/2023 Mexico Meeting!!

Hello, My name is Christian Greene and I am a 10th grade homeschooler. I have been involved in Bridgeway Student Ministries for about 4 years and the opportunity to go on this mission trip has a been huge blessing in my life recently and I can’t wait to see how God uses me.

Last Sunday, the 26th, we had another meeting with our team. We started off as we always do by reflecting in a time of silence to put ourselves before the lord and get ourselves ready for the rest of the meeting. We followed this up by taking some time to worship the Lord. We then received a training from a child care EXPERT!! Mrs. Rachel gave us a very informative and thorough training on how to talk to children while not making it feel like we are talking down to them but still keeping the utmost importance of the message. She taught us how even the smallest thing that might seem trivial to us such as: getting down on their level or just taking the time to address them as you or they might walk by can have an enormous impact on how receptive they will be to what you are saying. Mrs. Rachel’s tips and pointers especially stuck out to me, because of my lack of experience with children in my life. This is actually something that had me very nervous throughout this process because of my lack of experience but after hearing from Mrs. Rachel my anxiety about this has greatly reduced. Due to her great amount of experience dealing with kids, she was the perfect person to learn from on this subject. After our training we went into our drama practice of the Lifehouse “Everything” skit. My role in the play is Jesus and because of this I have a lot of moves to memorize. After the first couple of practices I was sure I wouldn’t be able to remember all of the moves, but as the weeks go on I am starting to feel confident in my memorization of the moves. We also got to get more people who are in the skit to be involved. Ending off our meeting, we were informed that us students would be responsible for constructing an hour long program that we will present in about a week and a half. This is to give us practice for evangelizing when we are in Mexico. There are a few due dates we have to make sure we are on track. The 1st goal was to appoint a leader of the operation by March 1. We as a team decided that Jacob would be the overseer of the operation. This entire meeting ran very smoothly even though we were missing 2 of our very important leaders Cody and Sydney Michener. The smooth running operation was in large part to another of our amazing leaders Raven. She was very good at kicking off the meeting and closing the meeting. Sadly at the end of our meeting we were given homework.

😦 The good thing is that the homework is memorizing bible verses. Psalm 118:6 we have to memorize this one in Spanish so it evens out. The other verse is Jeremiah 29:11.

Thank you everyone who is praying for us and donated to this trip, I along with you can’t wait to see how this trip will affect this team

-Christian

Mexico Team Takes the Stage! 2/19/23

Myles Gives Breakdown on 02/19/2023 Meeting!!

Hey, everybody!

My name is Myles Thurston, I am an 11th grader at St.Frances Academy. I have been involved
in Bridgeway student ministries for about 5 years now, and I am extremely excited to get the
opportunity to be a part of this year’s Mexico Missions. The group of students we have are
amazing and I’m excited to share this experience with them. I can’t wait to see how God uses us
on this trip.

Today, February 19th, we had a very special but long meeting at both campuses. We got the
opportunity to share on stage about our mission trip at all three services. The day started at 7:30
with a sound check as we dust off the sleepiness and prepare for being on stage. Then we went
back to our meeting area and had breakfast together. It was great spending time with each
other connecting with one another before the long day ahead. As we finished up with breakfast
we got into our seats to get ready to go up for the first service. Sabrina was in charge of
spreading the word of our mission. She did an amazing job taking the brave role for us. She was
quick but also very informative with what she said. She portrayed the view of our mission very
well. We are all so proud of her. Once we finished with our first service we went into the lobby
and got the chance to connect with some of the members of the church. Then we did it all again
in service number two. This time when we went back into our meeting area we got the chance
to listen to Jacob’s testimony. He shared about how he felt he wasn’t connected with the
worship because he did music for his love of music. He realized he should use his God given
gift for his love of God and not just music. After, we rushed out of the Columbia service to get to
the OMR service. For the third time we got on stage and Sabrina talked about our mission. This
service we sat in and got the chance to listen To Dr. Elona Prroj’s message on how to be a
follower of Jesus and not just an admirer. When service ended we again got the chance to
connect with the people of the church. It was great talking to them and seeing how excited they
were for me to be going on this trip. We then finished off the day at this amazing taco spot
where we ate together and shared our experiences on the day.

Thank you so much for all the support and prayer you all have been giving us. I am so excited
for this trip and this experience with this group of students

-Myles

God is Always Working: Grady’s POV on 2/19/23 Meeting!!

My name is Grady Apahnis and I’m excited to share about today’s preparation for the Mexico Missions Trip! I attend Catonsville High School, as a freshman, and my brother, Charlie is a junior. We both are excited for this coming trip and have thoroughly enjoyed the process so far.

This Sunday, February 19th, we experienced one of our most exciting and memorable preparation days yet. Our training took place from 7:30AM and extended till 3:00PM. Although we spent only a fraction of the day training, I feel as if God did more than I could have imagined.

At each of the services, we went up on stage and Sabrina shared a bit about what we were going to do in Mexico. Although I don’t think she was expecting the responsibility of speaking in front of hundreds of people, she absolutely crushed it! She did a great job of explaining to the church what we are all about and what we hope to do. On top of that, she was very consistent and knew exactly what to say at each service. However, at the last service we attended, I felt the presence of God in a special way. When we were taking our seats after talking, I noticed that there was a random dime on my chair. I knew it wasn’t mine because I wasn’t carrying money with me, nor did it belong to Christian who was sitting next to me. It still puzzles me because there wasn’t a dime in my chair just minutes ago, and suddenly it’s just there. While ten cents may not be alot, it’s as if God was giving me a little reminder saying that “God’s got this”. I believe that the randomness of this sign from God only goes to show how he works in ways we will never understand. I have no doubt that God will help supply our needs financially through what he has done today.

Another takeaway from today was from our Guest Speaker, Dr. Elona Projj. She is both the Vice President of Evangelical Alliance of Albania and the lead pastor of Word of Christ Church. While her message was very inspirational and taught us about the difference between a follower and admirer of Christ, I was very moved by something else. It occurred to me that just like how our team will soon evangelize in Mexico, Dr. Elona Projj was preaching to us. I found it amazing that the same church who is devoted to sharing the love of God, has also received it through others. This just goes to show that the love of Jesus is needed everywhere, no matter who receives it.

To conclude this blog I want to thank everyone who has supported our team both through prayers and financial support. I pray that you would continue to support us because we would be nowhere without the loving support of others and God. And I also want to remind you that you might never know where God will be in your life, but you can always count on Him to be there. Thanks so much!

-Grady Apahnis

Charlie’s Take on Mexico Prep Meeting 02/12/2023

My name is Charlie Apahnis, and I am a junior at Catonsville High School. Me and my brother have attended Bridgeway for as long as I can remember, and have the honor of calling it home. This year, me and my brother are absolutely enthralled to be a part of this year’s Mexico Missions team.

Today, February 12, we held another meeting at the Columbia campus with everyone! We always begin our meeting like we always do: with two minutes of silence, followed with a bit of worship to center ourselves in the Lord. Today, we listened to Firm Foundation by Cody Carnes (I would totally recommend it if you haven’t heard it yet). Afterwards, we were lucky enough to have Pastor Jared Sorber as a guest speaker today, and he gave a very crunched version of a zoom presentation he will be giving this Thursday, February 16. He talked about how most of us consider missions to be traveling out of the country to speak to those who haven’t heard of them or have not been “reached”. In reality, missions can be done through many avenues, whether that is our school, our work, or social media. God has called us to go on a mission with him; to love Him by loving others. After that, Katie volunteered to be the first one to read her testimony. Despite having it all written down, she decided instead to ignore it completely. We all felt the emotion and nervousness she felt while sharing, which added to the feeling of the testimony as a whole. We are all really proud of her for having the courage to share first, and are all inspired by her beautiful testimony. Lastly, we continued with our practice of out Lifehouse “Everything” skit. After we finished up the first minute, it was my turn to begin. My role is one of the tempters, the love interest. The temptations, throughout the skit, will one by one, come at our protagonist, slowly drawing her away from Jesus, until she can finally reunite with him. So far, its turning out well, and I can’t wait to see how it develops.

Thanks everyone for the support and prayer you’ve given, and ask for continued prayer throughout our time of preparation. Thanks so much!

-Charlie Apahnis

02/05/2023 Mexico Prep Meeting: Joel’s Perspective!!

Hi, everybody!

My name is Joel Sorber, I am a 12th grader and have the privilege of being a part of this year’s Mexico missions team. Most of you probably know my father, Pastor Jared Sorber. He has taken my brother and I to Mexico a couple times on previous trips as a young child, and I am very excited to go back and serve the Lord even more. 

Today, February 5th, we had our first meeting since the Overnighter in late January. We started off the meeting with our leader Ms.Raven showing us our final draft of our covenant, and allowing us all to sign it. After that, Ms.Amber gave us a devotional about the fruit of the spirit; and she gave us the task of focusing on one of the fruits to improve on in the next week or so. After that, we went to work on the skit that we will be performing while in Mexico. I have seen the older students preparing and performing these skits before when I was younger, and I am very excited to be a part of one. The skit we are doing is called the Lifehouse “Everything” skit; and it’s about choosing Jesus over all of the temptations in our life. I like this skit particularly as a teenager because these past few years are when the temptations really start to come at you, and it is important to keep God with you always to protect you from these temptations. We chose our roles, and our student director, Sanaa, started walking us through the steps. We didn’t get too far yet, but I am excited for the finished project. 

Thank you all for supporting us leading up to and through this trip! I very much look forward to the rest of the trip.

– Joel Sorber