Day 7 Friday

Today will be travel day for the majority of the group.  Please keep our group in your prayers as they travel back home. 

We decided to travel one day earlier due to potential weather that is head that way, and basically no other work can be completed by the time we depart.

I want to thank everyone who supported this trip, not many people realize how large the need is in the Pecos Valley area.  These small communities need support and if it were not for churches such as ours many of them are not able to put on a VBS.  They do not have the money in many cases to maintain their buildings.  These trips to New Mexico over the last 3 years have been successful in different ways.

Please pray for the churches in this area, as they try to figure out how to reach the people in their areas to grow their churches.  Pray that they can partner together to go out and perform missions work, such as projects, vbs or providing for the needy.

Eric Dumatrait

Day 6 Thursday

Today we had 11 at VBS, They learned that the Bible is Gods Word and that their actions are important.  Today the children were able to wet Ron Hanks.  He was soaking wet when they finished with him, but they did have a little help from Cody Mather and Derek Duncan as they filled an ice chest full of water.  The children loved doing this.  The offering was counted up and for the week the change collected was $26.  This was great considering that only change was collected and the average daily headcount was 13 children.  This was a great response from the children, the church will be sending the money to a missionary of their choice.  Praise God!!!!

The hutch was completed today with a coat of primer and sealed all the holes with cauking.


Please continue to keep these children, church and community in your prayers.

Eric Dumatrait

Day 5 Wednesday

Today we had 14 children attend VBS, today they were taught the ABCs of becoming a Christian and that Jesus is The Only Way.  This time of teaching was very encouraging as several students were asking many questions, please pray for these children who heard and received answers to their questions.  Specifically pray for Sage, God is working in him as he is asking many questions and is understanding the Bible very well.  Please pray that God will knock on his heart further and he will be saved.  Please pray for the rest of the children as they heard this great news about Jesus.  The children are very excited as they are only two visitors away from getting Ron Hanks wet on Thursday.  Tonight is Family Night as all the children's family have been invited to attend a special event to see what they have learned, and I will speak to the congregation about Missions work.  Lake Arthur is going to cook hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, snowcones, and they will have a moonwalk for the kids.  This is was provide by the Pecos Valley Baptist Association.

The hutch was completed today, and the only thing left is to put a coat of primer on the hutch.  We will complete this on Thursday.

Today was delivery day for Operation Backpack.  63 backpacks with school supplies were delivered today.  Tracy Dumatrait and Sandra Talbert delivered them to the school and church with an overwhelming response.  The school nurse who is in charge of the effort, was very emotional to see how we were able to meet such a huge need in their community.  She was very appreciative and asked that in the future she would be willing to partner with us as it related to other efforts related to back to school needs.  She said that if we are looking for a mission project in the future she is connected with an organization who buys school clothing for families in need. 

We owe all these results to God.  Praise God!!!!


Please continue to pray for this trip.

Eric Dumatrait

Day 4 Tuesday

Today we had 16 children in VBS, and they learned that Jesus is God's Son.  We worshiped with songs from Outrigger Island.  Our worship team consisted of Melissa Nall, Cody Mather, Alyssa Bennett, Shelby Dumatrait, and Joshua Dumatrait, they all dressed the part as well with full hula skirts, flowers, etc.  The children were encourage to continue bringing offering and many of them brought pennies for penny day.  Tomorrow will be nickel day.

Missions projects continued today with more trimming of bushes and building of the hutch.  Our team for building the hutch for today was Russell Talbert, Ron Hanks, Eric Dumatrait, and Tracy Scott from Cavern Baptist Church. 

Operation backpack continued today as we spoke with the school about us providing them with these backpacks to give to the children in need in the area.  The school also gave us a few specific families who are in need.  Lake Arthur Baptist Church also provide names of children in need as well.  Tracy Dumatrait sorted, and packed all the 63 backpacks so delivery day can be on Wednesday.

God Bless

Eric Dumatrait

Day 3 Monday

Today we had 13 children for VBS that participated in Outrigger Island activties such as Story, Missions, Recreation, Crafts and Snowcones.  The children were also encouraged to bring an offering for Tuesday, and that was penny day.  All the children were given a lunch provided by Lake Arthur Baptist Church, they all received surfboard pizzas.  Ron Hanks challanged the children that if they were to bring a friend to VBS and reach a goal of 20 then they will be able to throw water balloons at him on the last day.  There were a few people whom showed up from Cavern Baptist Church to participate as well.

The special projects work began today as well, we pulled up the carpet in their worship center, we trimmed their bushes, and began working on the hutch that protects the bapistry warmer.  The main focus after Monday will be to complete the hutch, and this will be our major project for the week.

Operation backpack also began today as our team went out to purchase all the supplies and backpack.  This was a fun and exciting challenge to say the least.  We were also surprised that God did more work on operation backpack as Cavern Baptist Church raised $300.  As a result we were able to buy supplies and backpacks for 63 children in the Lake Arthur Community. 

God Bless

Eric Dumatrait

Saturday was a day of travel and most of our team have made it safe to the Lake Arthur Area.  A couple more people will arrive on Monday. 

Sunday our team already in the area have attended church services and started the decorating process.  Decorations were complete.  We heard from Cavern Baptist Church and they will meet us on Monday morning at around 8:30.  They plan to send 3 to 4 people on this trip plus their pastor, this is great as last year we provided encouragement to this church to go out in the mission field and they have taken up the challenge. 

The remainder of our team will arrive on Monday.

Please continue to pray for us on this trip and the trip in general.  Please pray for the church in Lake Arthur and the town as some tragic events have happened in this small community over the last couple weeks.  Please pray for the children who will her the Gospel this week.

God Bless

Eric Dumatrait

Our goal was to be able to support 40 children in the Lake Arthur New Mexico area.  God is good and he has been able to provide enough support for this cause because of the generous support from Deer Park First Baptist members.  We collected $1,345.82 within the month of July, as a result of the school supply list given to us over the last couple weeks not only will we be able to meet our goal of 40 children we will be able to support nearly 50 children.  This is awesome and we all owe it to God.  Praise God!!!!!!

Eric Dumatrait

Hello All,

We are only a few days away from starting our trip to Lake Arthur, New Mexico.  Preparation is coming to an end and some of our group have headed that way already and will arrive on Saturday August 2, 2008.  Many of us will be leaving on Saturday and Sunday.  We currently have 14 people going on this trip 8 adults, 1 six year old, 1 10 year old, 4 from our youth group with ages ranging from 12 to 17.  This is great as we will have a wide range of diversity on this trip.  God knows me very well as he has made me to understand the importance of diversity, and that is what we will have.  We also will have roughly 4 to 5 people from Cavern Baptist Church, Carlsbad NM helping with this work as well.

Our current schedule will be to teach VBS Monday to Friday in the morning, and in the afternoon we will perform mission projects.  On Monday after dinner we will go shopping for the school supplies needed for the Operation Backpack, this should be a fun outing for our team.  Wednesday evening we will have Family Night, and we will have a chance to provide encouragement to the church in Lake Arthur about perfoming Missions work themselves and partnering with other churches to perform these acts.  That will also be a night to show the families of the children what we have been learning for the week, and then we will have a feast and some fellowship with a block party.  Lunch will be served by Lake Arthur Baptist each day.  Friday will be dedicated to a day of missions projects.

We will be posting to this blog daily of our events and happenings for each day.  I know God has great things in store for us in New Mexico.

Thanks

Eric Dumatrait

Collection of Donations are underway for Operation Backpack New Mexico.  Deer Park First Baptist have set a goal of $1,600 and this could support up to 40 children in the Lake Arthur, New Mexico area.  After two weeks of collection we have received at total of $662 in donations and another $300 committed, this totals $962, and only $638 aware from meeting our goal.

The church in Lake Arthur have committed to collect Kleenex and Hand Sanatizer, this is great that they are committed to this effort also, this is a great way for them to start in a type of missions ministry, and it also is a good start to achieving our goal in the area of encouraging them to do missions projects right in the backyard.  This is also a great fresh start with its new Pastor.

We will continue to look forward as to what God has in store for this Operation Backpack, and as a good friend of mine says "You Can't Outgive God".

If you are interested in donating to this wonderful cause call the Deer Park Church Office at 281-479-2391, and they can assist you in giving to this cause.

Thanks for your support.

God Bless

Eric Dumatrait

Starting next week the 1st week in July we will start our collection for New Mexico Operation Backpack.  Our goal is to support 40 children in the Lake Arthur Area with a full set of school supplies to start the school year.  As a result of this goal it will take roughly $1,600 to support the 40 students. 

When attending your ABF class if you are a Deer Park First Baptist Member or Visitor please help us in this effort by contributing to the Operation Backpack cause during this collection drive, we will be supplying collection cans in each ABF.  If you are not a member of Deer Park First Baptist feel free to contribute by contacting us at eric@ericdumatrait.com and arrangements can be made to submit your contribution to the church designated to this effort.

Keep in mind if you are not able to attend this Mission Trip, this is a wonderful way to contribute to the effort of Missions Work on this trip.

We thank you for your support in advance.

Eric & Tracy Dumatrait