Home Again, Home Again!

We arrived home safely on Wednesday evening. We were blessed with easy travel on the way home.

Everyone is recovering nicely, Amy has visited the Dr. and is still fighting broncitis. Please pray that this will heal...she has had it for nearly a month.

We were able to finish all the tasks the Lord called us to Scotland to do: Worship Teaching to the YWAM base students, teaching in the King's Kids ministry, renovating the lecture room.

Thank you for your prayers and giving, this work is an extension of our friends and family here in the States.

Blessings,

Travis, Amy and CJ

One Crazy Road Trip

We left early on Sunday for a worship experience at Queen's Park Baptist. It was a promotional service for all the children and that was fun for us to see. I met a minister from Uganda who invited me to bring a team to work with him and the children's ministry he has there. We'll just have to see about that!

After church we headed to Edinburgh for a day of site-seeing. We stormed the Edinburgh Castle and then had a chat with John Knox, did a bit of shopping on the Royal Mile. We then traveled quite a distance to St. Andrew's. Chris and Aryn enjoyed the course, while the rest of us took to the beach. Can we say freezing?! It was like winter! But we enjoyed ourselves...it was fun to see Jana enjoy the ocean for the first time:)

Kristi's maiden name is Dunning, so we Bev decided we should go back through Dunning, despite that it was out of the way and already 9pm (it is still light outside). Well, the road to Dunning turned out to be a one lane road like none other. Wow, the twists and turns we experienced were amazing. The scenery and landscape were absolutely breathtaking, we did come over a hill straight on with another car cresting at the same time. We narrowly missed an accident, there was much screaming in the white whale (as we call the 12 passenger van). Bev tends to drive a bit fast and we hadn't seen any cars for miles and miles. It will be better when I tell it at home:)

We arrived back at the base by midnight to a fresh pot of stew, which we were very grateful for!

Travis and I are teaching today, we have concluded the first session already this morning.

The rest of the team has finished painting the walls and will finish the ceiling after lunch. We need a bit of prayer in trying to figure out how to hang the curtains...

Blessings to all of you, we have recognized God's hand and provision all through the trip. We continue to experience great unity and smoothness in every work.

Pray for Aryn. The Lord told me that she was to teach the older kids at the King's Kid's Club tomorrow. All the boys have been kicked out, so it is just girls and she stepped up to teach the lesson without hesitation! It will be at 5pm on Tuesday, which is 11Am Tuesday for you guys.

For Christ and for you,

Amy

The Pics Speak for Themselves...

Thank you for leaving a comment...they are encouraging to us. Keep it up!

Click on the video of CJ jumping off the top of Wallace Monument. We did have a bit of fun at her expense.

Still Working!

We are still working! Priming is done, papering is done, now we are painting everything.

We did take an afternoon break and went into Paisley to see the Abbey and to get some fish and chips:)

We will not work this weekend. We are off to Stirling, Luss and the Highland Games. On Sunday we are going to church, Edinburgh castle and St. Andrews. Check out a map and you will gain perspective on how extensive these two days of travel will be.

Thanks for praying for us...we are experiencing God's graciousness at every turn. Travis and I will begin our teaching on Monday.

Amy

Much Work!

Brian started our day at 7am with stripping all the wallpaper from the walls in the lecture hall. We groaned, until we found out that a steamer was involved and scaffolding:) It came off really easy with the steamer. We breaked at 9am for office and 1pm of lunch...it was off by 2:30!

In Scotland, you hang textured wallpaper and then paint it...so, we started hanging wall paper until King's Kids ministry at 4pm. Brian spent the entire day carefully scraping the intricate trim so that it can be painted. It was an enormous job that he trusted to no one.

Jana, Kim and CJ play together like sisters...dancing, watching movies and rough-housing all day long. They take turns helping with baby Garrett (the other Amy's son).

CJ, Ryan and Kristi Holland went to King's Kids Ministry with Amy today and they led the craft time. The 8-11 yr old's were actually more challenging than the younger students. There was a young lady named Tracy who prayed with Amy to receive Christ after the club was over. (She is seated on the floor in the blue jacket next to CJ in the first picture). We understand that this kind of a decision is very few and far between. Praise the Lord!

Chris and Travis led base worship tonight with some other students and staff. It was a sweet time with the Lord.

Tomorrow will be spent wallpapering and painting...our bodies are very tired and we have been working with chemicals that are a bit harmful and outdated (lead).

Our bags are here and the room is being made around the color of the new curtains. It will be a very lovely room by the time we leave.

For Christ and for you,
Amy

We finally arrived...

We arrived in Edinburgh today, unfortunately there was no transportation arranged and our bags were nowhere to be found. We arranged for a bus to take us to Glasgow, where we sat and waited for over an hour in George Square. When someone finally came to pick us up to take us to the base, we were all a bit "done" with the traveling thing. (The only two people who really slept on the plane were Jeri and CJ:) We were rear-ended as we left the parking garage, much to CJ's chagrin (she wasn't in a carseat, since we had no bags). Anyway, no harm to anyone.

We arrived at the base at 1:15pm to a very excited group, ate lunch and immediately started planning out our week. Gary, Bev and Kim were speechless by the church's generosity and thoughtful giving. Kim will go to public school in the fall and she and Jana had a wonderful afternoon as Kim went through the clothes Jana brought to her and Kim planned how to spend the money she had received.

At 3:30pm, we all were briefed on the King's Kids Ministry and Amy, Corrie Jane, Brian and Chris went to lead the club for the 5-7 yr old's from 4-7pm. The kids responded very well to Amy's interactive Bible storytelling and Brian's unconditionally love. Chris organized and direct traffic, while CJ participated like one of the club members, offering her thoughts and suggestions to help other's focus and understand better. The director said that she had never seen some of the kid's sit through a lesson before!

We are all crashing now, it is 8pm. We will be up and working at 7am on the room renovations tomorrow.

Thank you for your prayer support, our flight last night was pretty miserable and there has been confusion at every turn until we arrived on the base.

Travis and Chris will be leading worship tomorrow evening and Amy and Brian will be taking another group back to the King's Kids Ministry to work with the 8-11yr olds.


Until tomorrow,

Amy

Detained in New Jersey

Well, everything has not been going according to plan. We didn't leave KC until 6:30pm Monday evening and then we were not booked on the next leg of the flight to Scotland. After much ado, we arrived at a hotel at 3am and were able to sleep in beds.

Ryan is doing a great job of negotiating our travel arrangements, it has been very difficult. We are expecting to fly out of Newark sometime tonight (7:30pm or 10pm) and arrive in Edinburgh (not Glasgow) sometime on Wednesday morning.

We continue to trust that God is working His plan for this trip. Our team is unified and working very well together, despite exhaustion!

For the good of the Kingdom!

And...we're off!

We leave KC at 2:15pm on Monday and change planes in Newark, arriving in Glasgow at 7:35am Tuesday.

Praising My Savior All the Day Long!

I cannot begin to tell you of all the miraculous ways that God has been providing for our family. Thank you for all your prayer support, as that is the the fuel that is keeping us going.

To catch you up on our God's financial provision I have listed the checks that have been cut to take with us to the base in Scotland. Praise the Lord for this powerful provision. This list does not include the beautiful new curtains that are complete and completely paid for ($500) to hang in the lecture hall that we will be working on renovating.

Kim Killingsworth (5th grader): $100 from DRBC 3rd-5th graders
Bev and Gary Killingsworth (base directors): $1658 love offering from DRBC
YWAM Scotland: $2380 room and board for the entire team
YWAM Scotland: $300 mattress covers from DRBC Youth Group

Jana Wilson's foot has healed beautifully and she is ready to traverse Scotland.

We are excited about teaching in the King's Kids Ministry while we are there. We have gathered supplies for teaching, games and crafts for 5yr-12yr old students. Please pray that we follow the Lord's direction during that time with the kids in the city of Glasgow.

Travis, Amy and Aryn Wilson had an incredible mission experience with the youth. Out of God's provision, Chris Keyser was also able to work alongside us in the mission the last two days of camp. This was a real faith-building time for these four members of our Scotland team.

Please pray for the following:

1. God's travel mercies for the entire team, but especially the Velder family...we are so tired and our bodies are sore from camp last week.

2. Pray for safety and wisdom as we work on the ceiling and floors in the lecture hall.

3. Travis and Amy to have God's vision for teaching the young people at the base about worship.

4. We were reminded at youth camp that God has divine appointments for us, we don't want to miss these appointments in Scotland. Pray that we will know and follow God's plan for each day.

5. Pray that the resources and talents we have will be multiplied each day and that the money we are bringing to the base will also be multiplied.

School is Out-Let the Games Begin!

Corrie Jane and I have finished school today. Finally! We are so thankful for the many teachers and administrators that love us and encourage us throughout the school year. We are truly blessed.

These past weeks have been full of celebrating graduations with friends and planning camps and trips. Our dear friends Eric and Rachel have graduated from med school and moved to Detriot. Travis is there now helping them to move into their new apartment.

This week has been a stressful one for our team. Purchasing the tickets was a less than smooth process with many twists and turns. We are excited for our trip, but getting there seems daunting at the moment.

We are trying to get together the fabric to be able to sew the curtains that are needed for the lecture hall that we are renovating in Scotland. That is turning into a big task, due to the amount of fabric that is needed.

Also, there was a glitch in scheduling our teaching time, so we were scheduled to teach the week that we are leaving. We have looked into changing our tickets and the cost is over $700 a person to make a change.

Jana Wilson cut her ankle on Tuesday night and received stitches. She had an MRI today to discover the damage done to the soft tissue.

Good news: We are going to be working in the King's Kids ministry to the inner-city of Glasgow. Now we need to get a background check for each team member.

Details to pray regarding:

1. Continued financial provision. The tickets were more expensive than originally thought and the exchange rate continues to change, not in our favor.

2. Healing for Jana's ankle. Pray that she does not need surgery to repair her ankle (Jana is the youngest Wilson child (5th grader).

3. Background Checks. We need a direction from the YWAM base regarding exactly what they need in a background check, this will also be an additional cost to the team.

4. Fabric provision. We are trusting God to provide the fabric to make and take the curtains for the lecture hall with us.

5. Youth Camp. Travis and Amy will be leading youth camp next week. It is a mission camp to Kansas City. Aryn Wilson will be attending the camp June 3-10.

6. Amy's graduate work. Amy is working on a graduate degree and will need to stay working on it during the Youth Camp and Scotland trip. This is the most labor intensive class yet!

7. Transportation. Our tickets have not been right in price or name...we have made adjustments, but has been a headache. Thank you, Dale for your hardwork on our behalf. We will also be traveling by rail and bus once we get to Scotland. Pray for direction and safety.

Only 53 more days....

After meeting with our Scotland team on Saturday, April 19th, we are more enthusiastic than ever about the upcoming physical and spiritual journey. We are all feeling a little overwhelmed with logistics at this point! I meant to take a picture of the team and forgot this week. I will work towards getting that done next time we meet.

We continue to pray for God's financial provision for our trip. We originally felt the Lord lead us to raise only our airfare ($4000) and then pay for the rest of our expenses ourselves ($3000). We are still raising money towards the airfare goal until May 4th. We know that God is making a provision for this trip and we continue to trust Him. Thank you for praying for us to wait patiently and faithfully.

We ask for your prayers regarding the following:
1. That the remaining airfare amount is raised.

2. We have about a dozen questions that need to be answered by the YWAM base staff.

3. That God will open the doors for our team to minister in the King's Kids ministry in the innercity of Glasgow.

4. We hope that we will be able to take already made curtains for the lecture hall we are renovating.

5. Our church is working on several ways to collaborate with our team. Pray that DRBC will know what God is asking them to do to be part of this trip and that they will courageously obey.

Velder Travel Expenses: $4000
Total as of 4/24/08: $3050

Prayer Requests

Thank you to our friends and family that are supporting our mission through their prayers and giving. We are getting very excited about our upcoming trip. We will have a planning meeting in our home on April 12th to formulate what our supply list needs to be for the trip and any questions that we still need the Killingsworths to answer for us.

Prayer Needs:
1. We need to raise $1000 by May 4th. Due to a clerical error at church, we thought we had reached our goal last week. Pray that the remaining money will be provided for our airline tickets.

2. Pray that God will provide all the supplies that we need to do the work that needs to be done in renovating the base in Paisley.

3. Pray for continued good health for our family as we finish school and look toward the long travel time to Scotland.

4. Pray that God will continue to give us His vision for teaching the course on "worship" at the base.

5. Pray that we will recognize and follow the order that God has for the trip (there are more opportunities than we have time for).

Velder Travel Expenses: $4000
Total as of 4/10/08: $3050

Spring Break News

We all enjoyed a very blessed Easter Celebration last week. Corrie Jane and Amy have been spending the past two weeks of spring break from Pembroke Hill enjoying favorite activies such as painting pottery, swimming (indoors) and reading lots of books. They head back for the last eight weeks of school on Monday:)

Amy also stripped wallpaper and painted walls and floorboards to "flip" our study, this has helped all of us get enthused about the upcoming renovations to the YWAM house in Scotland.

God has been giving us vision of what we are to teach while we are in Scotland during these weeks and we were excited to know that the Killingsworths are going to be stripping and sanding the ceiling before we get to Scotland. That will be a big help and make our task more manageable in the time we are there of repairing and painting the ceiling and refinishing the floor.

Less than 3 months to wait!

Velder Travel Expenses: $4000
Total as of 3/29/08: $3300

March Update

The Velder family has made it to Spring Break 2008!

We are getting more and more excited about our trip to Scotland. The team has been meeting in our home once a month for prayer and planning. There are many things going on in the lives of the team members to try and discourage and dissuade us from our focus. Please pray for God's peace and his clarity regarding his purposes for our trip.

These are the general issues per family that we are currently holding up in prayer:

Velder family: health issues and process of buying a car

Wilson family: finances regarding trip

Holland family: school issues

Keyser: direction regarding band and school

Each family will be sharing with the church in the next month about how we feel God led us to go on this trip to Scotland. Please pray that God would create unity in DRBC regarding this trip and identify ways the church can support the trip and its participants.

Velder Travel Expenses: $4000

Total as of 3/17/08: $2100

Praying for Team Unity

Our mission team is comprised of 11 people. We range in age from 4 years old to mid-40's. Some of us know each other like family and others are new to our congregation. We are praying for the unity of the Spirit to be overpowering each time we meet together to prepare for our trip. Our next prep meeting is Saturday, February 9th. Please pray that God gives us unity in the Spirit.

Romans 15:5

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Velder's travel expenses: $4000
Total raised as of 2/06/08: $1000

Airline Ticket Provision...

We have been praying for over a week for a good price and clear direction for how to purchase group tickets. It seems like God has directed us to the lowest price and a group payment system that will work for our team. Praise the Lord for answering this specific prayer about the airline tickets.

We accept the call...

Since our first trip in 2006, we have been anxiously awaiting another call to minister in Paisley, Scotland. We are pleased that God is calling us back to Scotland for a June 2008 trip to teach the students at the Youth With a Mission base in Paisley about worship and the arts.

This trip will be very different for us. In 2005, we traveled as a family to minister to the students on the base and spent a great deal of time learning about Scotland. The 2008 trip will include twelve fellow church members that are committed to going to Scotland to minister to the Killingsworth clan and base by doing some repairs. We look forward to also outreaching through the established Christian ministries in Paisley and Glasgow. Those ministries include serving food and handing out clothing at shelters, loving on people in mobile coffee houses that serve the poor and addicted, and working with children at day camps in some of the impoverished housing areas in Glasgow.

• Pray for us as we accept this call and begin to prepare spiritually, emotionally and physically for this trip with our young daughter and fellow church members.
• Pray that God will provide financially for each member of the team (Each team member is raising about $2500).
• Pray that we have God's direction for the group purchase of our tickets to Scotland.

Velder's travel expenses: $4000
Total raised as of 1/26/08: $500