link to briomag.com

"Never the Same"

The Brio 2002 Missions Trip to Quito, Ecuador
link to briomag.com

The Mission Trip
(updated 08/04/02)

Photos
(updated 08/04/02)

Newsletter
(updated 06/02/02)

Brio is an Italian word that means full of energy, life and enthusiasm. It is the name of our magazine because it is a terrific definition of our readers! For more than 11 years, Brio has been teaching, entertaining and challenging teen girls toward a healthy self-concept and closer relationship with Jesus Christ.
link to bible study: Hezekiah
link to bible study: Where is your heart
(click on map for information page on Ecuador)

History: Brio began taking students on missions trips in 1996 with our first trip to Bolivia. We have taken hundreds of teens to Rio de Janerio, Brazil, Costa Rica and Venezuela. This summer we will take between 400 and 500 to Quito, Ecuador. It is our prayer that God will work in the lives of our teens to produce eternal changes and even call some of them into full-time ministry.

 
We will be staying at the Embassy Suites in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. for our training (July first through third). Everyone will fly into Miami and will then be bussed to Ft. Lauderdale (about twenty-five minutes away). The address at the Embassy Suites is:
 
1100 SE 17th Street
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316
 
We leave Miami on the morning of July fourth for Quito, Ecuador.
Philippians 3: 7-9a
"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him."


Prayer requests for my trip:
 
1.) Pray that God will be doing His job of preparing hearts, both of people on the mission trip, and of the Ecuadorian people we will be ministering to
 
2.) Pray as details continue to work out and also for the leaders who are doing SO much work to make this trip possible
 
3.) Pray that this mission trip will draw me closer to my God and give me a good look into a different kind of ministry
 
4.) Pray for my health--Quito is a very high city. I was warned the high elevation will cause headaches and will make it harder to breath. Because I have a hole in my heart, it will be even easier for me to become out of breath or faint!
 

Brio Missions

Focus on the Family has used Big World Ventures to custom-design missions trips to my specifications.

What are those specifications?

  • We take a medical staff with us.
  • Every evening we have our own service - teens are not even given an option to visit the city or use public transportation.
  • Teens are encouraged to call home often.
  • Shower and toilet facilities are always available.
  • We recruit as many parents as possible to fill the sponsor roles, then we add to the sponsor list by using our own staff and Focus on the Family volunteers.
  • We all stay together in one large motel or housing facility that is kept sanitary and will provide for all the girls’ basic needs.
  • The participants know ahead of time what their money is going for - why the trip costs what it does, etc.
  • We also take a professional counselor with us just in case a teen needs to talk about any issues in her life that surfaces during the trip.

Big World Ventures also handles the details of lodging, food, sightseeing, flight reservations in and out of Ecuador, recruiting Christian interpreters for each team, reserving buses for ministry travel once in the country, recruiting representatives from local churches to follow up on new converts, scheduling ministry events for each day and arranging a shopping excursion.

From Day One . . . Here is how the trip will unfold:

All teen participants will meet in Miami on July 1, 2002. Our adult sponsors (between 50 and 60 people) will arrive two days earlier for leader training. Leaders will meet all teens as they come off their planes on July 1.

We will then take teens to get luggage and shuttle them to the hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel, teens will go directly to our own registration table and receive room key, information schedule for the next two days and find out what team they are on. They will be on this team the entire two weeks. They will stay in a room with five other teens (two double beds and a couch that makes a bed).

In Miami, we will train for two and a half days in an evangelistic drama ("Spellbound: Toymaker and Son"). We’ll also have our own evening services full of prizes, skits, praise and worship, prayer and a message from myself.

Once in Ecuador, students will have morning devotions, breakfast and lunch with their team. ALL of us will meet together each evening for dinner and our own service.

We will also have Brio girls in Quito who are missionary kids joining us for our evening activities.

Suppose it is July 5, and your daughter is on Team #2. Here is an example of what her schedule will look like: Breakfast and devotions with team, she is dressed in her costume with theatrical makeup on, she boards the Team #2 bus along with her adult sponsors, the interpreters and church representatives and departs for a day of drama ministry.

First stop - public school. (Yes, we are allowed to actually go in, present the Gospel and even give an invitation for students who want to give their lives to Christ!). After the drama, a few teens from the team will volunteer to give a testimony through the interpreter. And one teen will ask for folks to come forward if they want to have Jesus be their Lord and forgive their sins. At that point, several will come forward, and the students on the team will take them to the local church reps and have the reps pray with these folks in Spanish. The reps will also write down their names and addresses to get them plugged into a church and disciple them.

Then the students (in pods of 3 to 4) move out into the crowd and ask about 6 or 7 questions that they’ve learned in Spanish during our Miami training. Basic things like:
At that point, several more will want to make a spiritual commitment. Again, the teens will take them to the local church reps so they can be prayed for in their own language.

Many will still be standing around, so several students will pull out bubbles, jump ropes, etc. and start playing with the children. Doing the presentation and follow-up will take about two hours.

When they are finished, Team #2 will get back on their bus and go to the second place on their list.

Next stop: A busy neighborhood. After the drama and follow-up are done, it is lunchtime. Each teen brings her own peanut butter and jelly in her backpack every day. The adult sponsors provide bread and water, and the team has lunch together.

Third stop: A local park. (Same routine.)

Fourth stop: An open-air market or another school.

By the time Team #2 is finished with all four destinations, it will be close to 4 p.m. They will return to our "home," change clothes, take off their makeup and meet for dinner at 6 p.m.

Then at 7 p.m., we have our evening service together. By this time, many teens will want to share what happened during the day or testify to what God is doing in their hearts.

Our service will end around 9 p.m. Girls will have an hour to write in their journals, swim, sit around and talk, etc. Curfew is at 10 p.m. At that time, the female adults go into each room to do "tuck-ins." This is simply our chance as leaders to check up on each girl, make sure she is doing okay, encourage her to call home if she’s homesick, ask her what she’s learning, etc.

The next several days will be a rotation of drama ministry (as outlined above) and ministry to orphanages, slum areas, Compassion International projects and some work projects (painting, moving dirt, washing windows - whatever needs to be done).

Also mixed in with the above ministry days will be a day of shopping, a day of sightseeing and time at the equator.

Pam McDaniels
gurl_4god@yahoo.com