Simple Suggestions (cont.)

Ministry Coupons

Simple suggestions

I've been doing a lot of research since Matt and I returned to the US, taking full advantage of having so many resources at my fingertips.  One of the topics I've been delving into has been how to train children's teachers or leaders.  One of the books I am reading is Teacher Training Smart…

Camping

FAQs about our transition

Maximizing Children’s Ministries

Frequently Asked Questions… about our transition

The Coming Changes!

There are many exciting changes on the horizon for MCMINTL.  We are about to change locations again!  We’ve put together a short 1 minute video about where we're headed next.  Just press play below to watch it: 

We are excited about our upcoming move, new positions, and the opportunity…

Pray with us!

The upcoming months hold lots of big things for Maximizing Children's Ministries.  The lack of communication on our part has been solely because we have been caught up in praying through and preparing for these upcoming events.  Please pray with us as we ask the Lord for wisdom in these…

Movement

It has been a great spring for MCMINTL in Arequipa, Peru.  Things are happening and advancing.  

In the month of March, we have continued working hard and moving forward.  We now have 4 months of new curriculum complete with object lessons, applications, and illustrations which is also…

Faces of Peru

These are the precious faces of the children we minister to in Peru.

Iglekids Camp 2012

So two Sundays ago we jumped into the trusty Toyota and headed up to church with little idea of what awaited us at the Comunidad Cristiana de Arequipa Kids Camp 2012.  We came equipped with sunscreen, bug spray, swimsuits, toothbrushes, pillows, and lots of energy for the week ahead.  

We…

An Epic Battle

So the other day we had a Peruvian family over for dinner.

Julio and Claudia and their four awesome girls lit up our house with great fun. They are a really loving and kind family and some of the first people to befriend us here in Arequipa. It was so fun hosting them! 

This sweet family…

Sunday Church

Matt and I serve as coordinators of one of the 5, yes 5! Sunday morning children's services at our church, Comunidad Cristiana de Arequipa here in Peru.  Here are some pictures of us (okay really me - Matt was behind the camera) preparing for Sunday morning and then teaching.  The pictures…

Tons of Love

On Christmas Day, we were able to participate in a great outreach that our church, Comunidad Cristiana de Arequipa, does here each year at Christmastime.  In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the church collects donations of nonperishable foods, clothing, food, and toys.  On Christmas day,…

The Weekly Skype

One of the things we are most passionate about is training children's ministry leaders and teahers so that they can reach children in their own language and culture.  Here we are in our weekly Skype meeting with one of the children's leaders at Alas de Fe church in El Alto, Bolivia.

Trip through the Mountains

The week before Christmas, we loaded up the car with Christmas presents and headed to Bolivia.  It is a 7 hour drive to the border. 

In the first hour and a half, you climb from 7500 to over 13,000 feet and for the rest of the drive, you remain above 13,000 feet, reaching altitudes up to…

KIDS SPACE OF THE WEEK!

And we are back. Happy New Year!  Stay tuned to our blog we have a bunch of stuff to write about. We have had an awesome year here at MCMINTL. But for now enjoy this way cool kids space. 

I love this space! Way cool chairs.  But, the best part about the whole room? Two words: gigantic…

Tons of Love

We invite you to be a part of something awesome this Christmas season!  It is called Toneladas (tons) de amor (of love).  Through Tons of Love, the poor in the high, mountainous regions around Arequipa will jump for joy as they receive food, clothing, and toys this Christmas. 

Our home…

KIDS SPACE OF THE WEEK!

Here at MCMINTL we love kids and we love creative and awesome kid spaces. In fact, this has been a part of who we are for a very long time. One of the first projects we embarked on was building a playground in Bolivia.

 One of our goals as we help churches do children's ministry better is to…

A Gang of Church-goers

We've been praising God for the consistent positive reports we've received since launching our curriculum at Alas de Fe church in Bolivia.  God is doing great things!  Since September, their children's ministry has grown by 40%!  Above is a picture of a gang (yes, real gang) of boys who…

Prayers in Bolivia

Photos courtesy of Gladys Salazar.  This is the next generation of El Alto, Bolivia talking to their Heavenly Father.  Please pray along with us for solid foundations in the Word for these kids, for teachable hearts, and that leaders may arise out of this group to lead Bolivia toward…

Faith like a child

This is one of my mom's neighbor's children.  She is right on!  She knows who her God is.  We trust that God has us here in Peru to raise up a generation of children such as these who know who they are in Christ, know the gifts that are theirs in Him, and will spread the Good News to all…

November Newsletter

It has been a great few months for Maximizing Children’s Ministries!

Bolivia & Curriculum Launch

So this blog has been a long time coming… and it’s finally here! As some of you may or may not know, Kelly and I were Bolivia the last weeks of September. One of the reasons that we chose the great city of Arequipa as our base is that MCMINTL is partnered with Alas de Fe church in La Paz,…

MCMINTL Moving Forward

So Kelly and I have had a very awesome past couple of weeks. The best part is a new partnership between MCMINTL and Comunidad Cristiana. We could not be more thrilled!  Comunidad Cristiana is a powerful and growing church that has a huge vision for reaching Arequipa (the department, not…

Prayer for our neighbors

We'd like to ask you to pray with us for our neighbors in Bolivia.  They have an election coming up in October and we'd like to pray safety with all involved in the Lord's work in Bolivia.  We work closely with Alas de Fe Ministries in El Alto where the protests and demonstrations have been…

August Newsletter

Greetings from Peru!

We are doing well in Arequipa and have had a great summer.  Here are some of the things we've been a part of.

Everyday Uniqueness

Here are some interesting things that are a part of everyday life for us:

boiling water before we drink it
riding in taxis - not so much these days with a car, thank you Lord!
disinfecting fruit & vegetables
2 hours of meal preparation
planning an appointment 3 times before it actually happens

Prayer points

As we serve the Lord, we rely on Him in everything and recognize that every good thing comes from Him.  We are passionate about kids knowing our great God!  Thanks for partnering with us to see this vision through.  Here are some ways you can agree with us in prayer:

wisdom
continued vision…

Kids Camp 2011

I love Sundays

I do - I love Sundays.  And, I have missed them so much.  It's not that we've been somehow skipping over Sundays down here in Peru, but I've missed truly being a part of a church.  I love having a home church and love even the thought of serving again.

This past Sunday, we arrived early to…

May Newsletter

The LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting.  Psalm 100:5

Dear friends & family,

It has been a good month.  We are so grateful to be doing the work God has put on our hearts.  This month, we’ve had many meetings with missionaries, pastors, and locals to discuss children and children’s…

Attitude

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more…

We are excited to announce...

Kelly and I have some fantastic news to share!  We serve a God who answers prayers, and we have recently seen the answer to a big one of ours.  Thank you for praying with us as we sought a home church.  We are excited to announce... we have found a church home!  After searching the city for…

Quick Trip

Last weekend, we took a quick trip to the capital of Peru, Lima, to purchase some things we haven't been able to find here in Arequipa.

It began with a 16 hour bus trip.  Yes, you read that right.  I guess Matt and I are seasoned travelers when we don't think anything of a 16 hour bus trip. …

Great meeting

We're getting plugged in here in Peru.  We just met with a pastor's wife of a church in the part of town we live in, chatting over coffee for two hours and gaining great insight into the culture of Arequipa and the current state of the church.  It was SO beneficial. 

The lady we talked with…

A Busy Weekend

We had a great weekend!  It was packed with such a variety of events.

On Friday, the language institute we're attending hosted a tour of the outskirts of the city we're studying in, Arequipa.  We visited some parts that don't exist on Google maps and got a little closer to the beautiful…

A few photos of late

As I mentioned in the last blog, we got to host our first visitors last week at our MCMINTL Arequipa base.  We did a lot of work, but a little play too.  It's hard to stay inside when you live in a place this beautiful!  Here are a few photos of the week.

Matt & I and the beautiful Arequipa…

The couple!

BIG NEWS!  BIG NEWS!

We recently enjoyed the visit of Travis Gasper and Emily Maddock to the Maximizing Children's Ministries International base in Arequipa, Peru.  They came to Peru on a scouting trip, and now we are pleased to announce they are moving forward in preparing to join MCMINTL…

March Newsletter

Hi there, colaborers in Christ,

Thank you for believing in the power of the Gospel in the lives of children and for partnering with us to train nationals to better reach the kids around them with the Word of God.

We have arrived in Arequipa and are dedicating ourselves to diligently studying…

Cartoon Characters

Some of you may have heard me talking about injecting creativity and life into our Sunday morning children’s church curriculum. Well we have been working with a dear friend and great illustrator, Clay Hestilow. By using a new technology they call the “internet” we have been collaborating…

The Speed of Light

Why it is such a God thing...

Recently, God has answered some big prayers and provided us with a great base of operations for MCMINTL.  I'd like to share some of the answers to prayer and a bit about our vision for the MCMINTL base.  Some of the things we'd been praying that the Lord provide in our house/mission base…

MCMINTL BASE!

It is my great pleasure to announce the official MCMINTL BASE PERU. Its a great house in a secure location, with space to accomodate a growing ministry and an upstairs office of us to work out of. This is a huge blessing, because it is more than we could of asked for and a total God thing.…

Beauty

This was the view outside our window this morning. 

Our friendly neighbor, dormant volcano Misti.

TIA: This is Arequipa

He Folks, 

We're just settling in our new home. We love it here.  We snapped some pictures that we thought you might like to see. They are of our home, the city, the joys of the market, and a couple things that we love.

There are plenty more to come. 

Enjoy! 

Matt and I made it to Arequipa and are settling into our language school routine.  Here is a look at a normal day for us:

6:00     wake up, breakfast, Bible reading, showers

8:00     out the door, walking to school

8:30     classes begin

10:00   short break

10:20   classes resume

11:50  …

End of one Year, Start of a New

Our God is a great God!  We praise the Lord for all the great things He accomplished because of your generous giving to Maximizing Children’s Ministries International (MCMINTL) this year.  Together we have impacted the lives of hundreds of children in North and South America and Africa.  

In…

December Newsletter

It's Arequipa!

It is official, folks. We are moving to Arequipa, Peru.

Why Arequipa?

- Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru with a population of almost 1 million people.

- Arequipa has good infrastructure, easy access to paved roads, and an international airport.

- Arequipa is the economic…

South America Part 1

We just got back from South America and had an amazing time. God really confirmed some things for us, and we could not be more excited about the future.

Currently we are back in Texas and will be in the US for another two months. If you want to get together with us, please let us know. We…

El Alto, Bolivia

Adventures in Missions

Maximizing Children’s Ministries is very excited about this material. During our stint in the United States, MCMINTL partnered with Ark Kids, the children’s program of The Ark Church, to develop a Missions Month curriculum. Authored from scratch, Adventures in Missions is a one month…

September 2010 Newsletter

To our treasured friends, supporters, and co-laborers,

Thank you so much for investing in MCM International.  Much has been happening in the past few months.  Spending a bit of time in the United States has proved to be very beneficial for us.  We’ve gotten to touch base with churches and…

Sunday School teacher

This past Sunday, after a long absence, I was back up front teaching again… and I LOVED it!  I miss teaching.  It’s a part of me and I get so energized being back in that gifting.

We studied the story of Jacob and Esau.  There was dress up and acting and a little guy playing an old old…

These days

Since we returned to the US, we’ve spent some time with family; enjoyed dish washers and air conditioners; written curriculum; met with pastors, friends, and supporters; and have been filling up on good preaching, teaching, and worship. 

We’ve been working out of an office at The Ark…

Saying Goodbye to Africa

It was tough to tell the little ones we were leaving, so we did it in the best way we knew how: we threw them a party!  We brought in jumping castles and played at the park.  We handed out goodie bags and told them how much we love them.  They were sad and we got a lot of hugs.  At points,…

How we came to be in the USA

On July 10, 2010, Matt and I packed all we own into 5 bags and jumped on a plane.  This plane deposited us in Houston, TX.

It came as a surprise to us.  Our plan was to remain in Botswana until October, take a quick trip down to South America, and then a short furlough in the US.  But, here…

Summer 2010

Greetings from us and many, many children whose lives you have directly impacted in Maun, Botswana.  We pray God returns to you 100 times the blessing you have been to us and them.

Praise the Lord!  He is doing great things.  We are so thankful to get to do what we love.  Our lives recently…

The Children's Pastor

God has been doing quite the awesome work in our hearts here in Africa. I don’t think we would have learned the things we are learning here in another situation. Africa has this unique way of making things very bold and obvious. It seems to magnify issues in ways unseen by my eyes before.…

Walking 4 miles to church

The past two Sundays, as we were finishing packing everything up and saying goodbye to all the little church stragglers, a handful of kids hung around the car.  Although they spoke not more than 10 words to us, we figured out that they needed a ride and lived on the ‘Boro,’ just down the…

IT Guy

Matt in the office helping everyone with computer issues!

Translation Project

Meet Nompz: a young adult who has seen the power of God in her own life and is capturing her transition time to invest in God’s Kingdom.

Nompz is our translation and video intern.  She is half Motswana (from Botswana) and half Zulu (from South Africa).  She grew up most of her life in South…

2009 Year in Review

Greetings from Africa!

2009 has been a great year for MCMINTL.  It has been a year of growth and a year of vision.  This year, God has shown us that His plans are so much bigger than ours! 

CHILDRENS WORLD

One of our primary responsibilities is serving as childrens pastors at All Nations…

Rural Church Visits

It was a different Christmas this year; a Christmas to remember. 

On Sunday, December 20, we began the week with a Christmas celebration with the kiddos at church.  We spent the morning playing at the park and then brought all the kids back and distributed Samaritan’s Purse gift…

1st Ever Balloon Ride

God is so great!  We had an awesome Christmas surprise a couple weeks ago. 

Matt and I were sitting at a local restaurant drinking coffee and writing curriculum with our newly hired translator and video teacher guru, Nompendulo. We’re doing our thing with our Bibles and computers out,…

Maun Children's Christmas Party

A week ago today, we opened up the gates and invited 250 orphaned and vulnerable children from the Maun area into our tent for a grand Christmas celebration.

With nearly 500 guests in attendance, we enjoyed a skit put on by a team of youth from Baylor Medical Hospital in Gaberone,…

Feelin Like a Proud Parent

All week I’ve been feeling like a proud parent, or “popping my buttons” as my daddy would say.  I’m so proud of our youth leadership team! 

Matt and I, along with a gal named Andrea who works with us, started a discipleship program for 11 youth leaders that we handpicked this term.  God…

Fire by Night & Kids Sunday

Kelly and I just had one of the best weekends yet here in Botswana. It is an exciting time.  We praise God for all He is doing.

On Friday, we held our weekly youth service, called Fire by Night, and this week was the best one we have had yet! We had the most kids (150) that we have ever…

October Newsletter

To all of our co-laborers in Christ,

I have a hard time expressing the joy I have in my heart when I think of each of you.  Your prayers, friendship, encouragement, and support bless Matt and I immensely and the greatest joy is seeing how those gifts pour forth into the lives of young…

Prayer for Missionaries

Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. 
1 Thessalonians 3:1

I hear often from people that they want to pray for missionaries but don’t really know what to pray or where to start.  I own this wonderful…

Conference/Camp Meeting

There’s been a lot going on at The Village Church and things are starting back up at Okavango International School on Monday.  Last week, the bulk of our time was spent at church at our annual conference. 

Matt designed the posters and flyers for the meeting.

The theme was…

A Trip up North

This weekend we were asked to help in the transportation of a team from Maun, Botswana to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.  I don’t know if I can communicate what a huge blessing it was.

First off, Victoria Falls is a well known, beautiful waterfall that flows just 7 hours (Yay! The newly graveled…

Summer Update

Dear friends and co-laborers for Christ,

We praise God for a great summer! He has given us so much to be
thankful for.

In June, we were able to spend a few fun, productive, and renewing weeks in the US. We enjoyed special moments with family, the encouragement of friends, and the superb…

Sunday Mornings

We’ve loved being children’s church pastors lately.  We’ve had plenty of help (thanks to the teams who have been passing in and out), fun games and crafts, and great lesson leaders.  The kids have been excited we are back and the weather has been awesome. There are even 4 or 5 precious…

The London Layover

Matt and I had a great, fast paced, very productive trip to the US.  It was topped off with Ark Kids Camp and then at the end, we enjoyed some beach days with his family.

On the way back to Africa, we split up our trip by laying over in London for 9 hours during the day on Sunday.  Ok,…

May Update

Dumelang!

Although we haven’t been able to achieve fluency in Setswana, the local language, we do know some of the basics :).  Dumelang is the local greeting.

The past two months for us have been action packed!  In April, we were able to participate in a kids camp for kids from all over…

Out & Around Town

Sprint through the US

In one week, we will begin the looooooooooooong journey back to the US and try to stay in our seats for the trip that begins at 10:00 am Sunday morning and doesn’t end until 7:20 Monday night when we land in OKC.

We are thrilled to get to take a few days and treasure some time with our…

Long Overdue House Renovations #3

Our house renovations have been a work in progress.  However, in the past couple months, we’ve made significant progress in our bedroom.  I didn’t show one corner of the room because we still have our washing machine in there, but like I said, it’ll get moved to the closet/utility room soon…

Random Weekend Road Trip

Last weekend Matt and I decided to take a random weekend road trip into our big backyard.  We’d heard that you can see loads of elephants even just on the way to a town called Kasane, which is about 6 hours away from where we live… and I have been REALLY wanting to see some exotic African…

Update from Botswana

Blessings and happy greetings to all!

2009 has already been a great year!  We praise the Lord for all He is doing.  Thank you for your generous and cheerful giving; we are seeing the goodness of God directly.  Thanks for letting Him bless us through you.

We have had a very good first term…

Childrens World Outreach

Saturday we hosted an outreach event for all the kids of All Nations Village Church, their friends, and the kids of the surrounding community.  250 people showed up!!

We had a great time playing together.

We even saw a 50% increase in the number of children at…

The birthday trip of a lifetime

For my birthday, Matt planned a little getaway to our neighboring country, Namibia.  Have you heard of it?  Yeah, Brad & Angelina put it on the map. 

It is a country of only 2 million total inhabitants, colonized by the Germans and just recently given independence from South Africa.  So,…

Nurture Women's Conference

This past weekend, we helped plan a women’s conference hosted by All Nations Village Church.  The theme was empowering women through the generations and it was touching to see the generations come together!  There were panels, much dancing, beautiful Setswana singing, hugs exchanged, gifts…

House Renovations #2

this is our cozy little kitchen before

...and after!  yay for color!

and this is our den area with the lovely French doors before

and before

...and after!!!  I love this picture because it shows the warm, coffee house, cozy home atmosphere we’re trying to create AND it has…

BUSY

Yes this is the first time that I, Matt, have written on the MCMINTL blog. And I do have my reasons; Kelly is far better at it, and the second reason is Kelly is far better at it. Despite this, you can look forward to hearing from me more often right here.

The past two months have been…

Our favorite

Oh my!  It’s been so busy lately!  It’s mid February and all of our responsibilities have kicked off and we are running to keep pace with all that’s going on here.

In this blog, though, I don’t want to address the multitude of activities that keep us going, but I want to focus on one thing…

You might need to sit down for this

January 2009 Newsletter

Happy New Year!

At the start of a brand new year, we look back and realize just how much we have to be thankful for.  God is at work and we are amazed!  He keeps heaping blessing upon blessing upon us.

In just one year, so much has happened. 

BOLIVIA
At the start of the year, Matt…

Christmas in South Africa

Matt and I had the opportunity to spend Christmas in Cape Town, South Africa!  It was an awesome first Christmas together.  South Africa was gorgeous.  It really surprised me.  I felt like I was in Southern Europe.  It was very different than the Kalahari Desert we drove through in Botswana…

Hospital Christmas Party / Samaritan's Purse

House Renovations #1

The bathroom!

I have to say, Matt and I make a pretty good team.  He’s the creativity and I’m the functionality.  We’re the Claytons :).

Before…

After!

I love my job!

I’ve had some good days lately.  To my surprise, I’ve been doing a lot of counseling and small group Bible studies with the girls here.  I LOVE IT!  Most of the counseling boils down to me listening while the girl shares what is on her heart or the difficulty she’s facing and me saying a few…

Bible School Banquet

Wednesday night Matt and I dressed up and headed out to support the Love Botswana Bible Institute students as they celebrated the culmination of their studies and all God has done. 

Getting to Know the Villagers

Last week we got to visit the homes of some of the local children that Love Botswana supports.  One of our current projects is creating portfolios for each of the children and families who are a part of the Sponsor a Child and Sponsor a Family programs we are launching.  This picture shows…

A Lesson in Humility & Generosity

Today we celebrated Christmas Okavango International School style. There were songs and dances performed by the precious first graders, awards presented to all students, a charismatic Christmas story by Pastor Matt, and enthusiastic reception of Samaritan’s Purse boxes by all.

The school’s…

Wisdom & Peace: They are ours

“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” James 3:17

There are two things the Lord has been emphasizing to me over and over lately: ask for wisdom and it will be given to you…

Quite the trip

GABS
On the 26th of September, Matt and I along with another lady we work for and her granddaughter set off on a trek across the Kalahari Desert en route to the capital city of Botswana, Gaberone. Our primary purposes in making the trip to Gabs were to finalize the purchase of our long…

A trip through the desert

This weekend Matt and I got to attend the Form 4 (Equivalent of junior year) Life Skills trip to the Debswana diamond mine in Orapa. It began at 10 am on Thursday morning as we somehow fit 27 of us into a small bus. Allow me to explain: This bus has 6ish rows of seats including the row the…

Arrival in Africa!

Yay!  Our website is up and running.  Expect frequent blog updates and beautiful pictures.

For those of you I haven’t seen in awhile, here’s a quick update. Summer was a whirlwind of wedding planning, marriage preparation, supplying ourselves for Africa, preparing for a world move, visiting…