Stuck in my head

I get songs stuck in my head. Usually it is one song for like a month. This jingle has been locked on my mind for a while.

Copper4Cows

The Copper4Cows Penny Drive has officially kicked off and we are well on our way to purchasing a cow for the kids in Otutulu. Adventureland's goal is to help the kids at the orphanage by bringing pennies that will be used to purchase protein (hopefully beef).

When the team travels to Nigeria this summer, we will scour the land in search of a herdsman. Sounds easy enough but they are nomadic. According to the folks who have traveled to Nigeria before, cows are not on fenced-in ranches. There are no promises that we will find any cows but we are hopeful.

To give the kids a glimpse of the orphanage, I threw this video together real quick.

Questionable Food

To say I am excited about traveling to Nigeria would be a gross understatement. The last couple days I have been working with videos taken by last years team in Nigeria. I am making a couple of promo videos for upcoming Adventureland events. By looking at these videos, I feel like I'm getting to take peak at a birthday present early. Working through the videos have been glorious. I wanted to share with you a quick clip from the orphanage.



On Monday, we had our first of five mission's team meetings to prepare for Nigeria. Each one of us had to answer three questions as an icebreaker. You are my supporters and think it is fair for me to answer these questions for you...

1. Why travel to Nigeria now on this trip? Maybe it is my generation or it is my stage of life, but I want to be apart of something bigger than me. While I am young and have the energy to contribute to a missions team, I want to go, do, serve, & love. The timing is right.

2. What am I most excited about? Mignon McLaughlin said "Only where children gather is there any real chance of fun." I am a big kid that loves fun. We are going to an orphanage where I've been told some of the happiest kids in the world live and "gather." The kids are what I am most excited about.

3. What is my biggest fear? The food. I have watched a lot of video of questionable food from Nigeria. It looks intimidating. At the meeting last night, they assured me we would not be eating the food I saw in the videos. I'm not sure if I believe them...

Otutulu

From June 25-July 6, I will be on a mission trip, traveling to the village of Otutulu, Nigeria. It's hard for me to describe all the thoughts and emotions running through my head. However, I will do my best to inform you (my prayer warriors and financial supporters) about the details and prayer needs of our trip.

Am I excited? Very. I will have the chance to champion kids in another country. This will be a chance to get out of my comfort zone and waive the banner of Christ.

Am I nervous? Yes & no. I am not nervous about my interactions with the people or kids of Nigeria. I am nervous about the traveling (long flights & small cars) and food (foreign with lots of question marks).

What is our purpose? Cibolo Creek Community Church has invested time, money, labor & love to ensure the kids of Otutulu are cared for and fed throughout the calendar year. Our church makes sure the kids have food by raising enough funds to provide the kids with food that will last them an entire year. Our church has paid for a roof to go on their school building. Our church has installed solar panels to provide much needed power to the office.

During the annual visit to Nigeria, the agenda of the trip depends on the team traveling to the orphanage. This year we will have two doctors and a nurse that will enable our team to set up several medical clinics in the area. I have volunteered to take the lead on providing the kids of the orphanage with a kids "camp". I use the term "camp" loosely since we are uncertain what our activities will look like.

Starting this month in our Children's Ministry, we will start a campaign call "COPPER FOR COWS". The kids will bring pennies from home each Sunday for an entire month. To help motivate kids, it will be a competition between the boys and girls. At the end of the month, we are praying to collect enough pennies to purchase a cow for the kids of Otutulu to have much needed protein while we are on the trip. The entire process will be video recorded - from the kids bringing the pennies to us searching for a nomadic rancher to the kids seeing the cow come into the orphanage. The prayer is that our kids will see the impact they made in the lives of the kids of Otutulu by bringing pennies to church.

Again, I will continue to update this blog with new information as it comes up. At the end of each post related to Nigeria, I will list several prayer requests that you can start praying over.

Thanks for your support! Nothing but love.

PRAYER REQUESTS
- Pray for my preparations for the kids "camp".
- Start praying for Dev and Asa to be safe and strong while I am gone for 12 days.
- Pray we are able to find cheap airfare to Nigeria.

sick

I was sent this link by Jared and we both agree - this guy is sick. His name is Khalid Mohtaseb. It was all shot with a Canon 5D MKII using a Kessler Pocket Dolly which makes the videos ooze drama. I have a couple of additions to my wish list.

If your curious to see how he made this video or his HAITI video, click on this link for more info.

Egypt / Lebanon Montage from Khalid Mohtaseb on Vimeo.

something to do with kids

In a recent blog I read, it asked the question "Do you have a personal mission statement?" That got me thinking about what I know about mission statements.

I feel like I know "Mission Statements" well. I have taken multiple courses in college where I practiced writing mission statements, as well as objectives, and goals. Professors crammed it into my head that it is impossible to plan a good program without a well constructed mission statement. I have practiced writing and saying them in school, and even used them at work. For every project I've done at Cibolo, I have written a mission statement. If there is anything in world that I know...it's mission statements.

BUT I don't have a personal mission statement.

I want to change this.


I'm not sure what my mission statement is yet, but I know the theme would have something to do with kids. Possibly pertaining to the quality of life and their faith development. What happens during a kid's childhood affects the rest of their life. It is important to encourage and support kids early on. I recently read a book that said for every 100 people who do not follow Jesus by the time they reach age 18, only 6 of those individuals will commit their lives to Christ as an adult. This highlights for me the need to continue prioritizing the faith development of children.

Does this give me a personal mission statement? Not yet Chris Kinsley. But I am working towards it.

GUEST WRITER

Hello. My name is Jared and I am Stuart's brother. This is a picture of the two of us together. See how happy we are? It's because I just told stuart a really funny joke.
"Knock, knock", I said.
"Who's there?" he replied back.
"Me! Jared! You're brother! Don't you remember me?"
Then we went to the doctor to have him tested for dementia. Turns out, he was fine, just lazy.

Our beards make us look like pirates!
Booty!

Love, jared.