A note from Hannah!

Some of you may know that last year I did my DTS with YWAM in Mazatlán Mexico. For me that was a life changing experience. That was where I started a more intimate relationship with Jesus, I made lifelong friends, where I found myself, impacted others life, and had my own life impacted as well. Now, I have the amazing opportunity to lead a team of 15 people (from the Grace Baptist Church) back to that place. 

During our time there, we will be working with a team called Homes of Hope. We will be building a house for a family in need down there. That will take us about three days to build, and then we will be doing other ministries around the city. As a leader for this team I do have many responsibilities, but I am very excited about this. I get to lead a team back to a place that I am pleased to call home to go back and do God’s work. I am excited to see how God will use me in every way that he can, for Him to use us as a team, and as individuals. I know that God can do amazing things, and has amazing things planned for this team. Each member of the team has a special gift, and I am excited to see how God will use them during our days there. 

I have always had a huge heart to help and serve people and have always wanted to go on a mission’s trip to love on people and help those in need. When I got back from Mexico I just had a strong feeling to go back and take a team with me, to serve a family there in need. At first, I did not know if this was just a feeling I had, because I had always wanted to do a mission’s trip, or if it was God putting this desire on my heart. I brought it before my youth pastor and we started planning a little bit of it, organizing a few things, and seeing who all would be interested in going. Once things started to fall into place I knew that it wasn’t just a desire in my heart, that it was God who has leading me to lead a team. After many months of planning and prepping for this trip, I am excited to see what God has in store during the time down in Mexico.

Mazatlan, Mexico... YWAM (where we will be staying)
 is about a 5 minute walk from this beach 

Our Mazatlan family!!!

http://www.ywamhomesofhope.org

We received an email yesterday with a bit of info and background on our family in Mazatlan that we are building house for! It was so thrilling to read and learn a little about them! I don't know if we are allowed to share that information, so I won't, but I will say this; they are a family of 7 and Dennis, Hannah and I are so eager to meet them! 
As we are putting the final preparations in gear for our trip, I pray that you will all pray for this beautiful family with us and our mission team! My heart is brimming for them and I can not wait to meet them and see where God has moved in their lives! 
There is still time to donate if you are feeling lead to do so via our GoFund Me page! 
We want to say a big thank you everyone who has texted, sent well wishes and love during this first ever time on missions! We didn't (and still don't) know what to expect of it all, but so far seeing how God our Father works is so exhilarating and breathless that it is just a huge blessing! Thank you again to those who have donated money and time to our efforts! We are truly blessed! 

And just like that....

... prayers are answered!! Mountains were moved!!


The house is paid for and so is the furniture!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! God is good, all the time!

You can still donate and the money would to the team,  as there are still travel expenses that you can help with for the team and as always we need your prayers!

The adventures in getting ready to go...

So!!! We are now 35 days from leaving for Mazatlan! (EEEEKK!) and we have been quite busy with our fundraisers!
The Bigger & Better auction took a change in plans: we have been set up at 2 local malls and have had a rainbow auction with the amazingly generous prizes that were donated by local businesses from Dauphin, Ste.Rose, Riding Mountain, Neepawa and Minnedosa! There are prizes that are ranging from hats and travel mugs to two cases of frozen chickens to local artisan work and electronic accessories to very generous gift cards to local car dealerships! The surprise donation was from Ruff's in Dauphin who donated a brand new rocker recliner!! So we decided to have a silent auction with it!

Ste Rose Mall set up... we were a bit squishy
 but a great day was had!

The Recliner is on site to try out too!!
(I highly recommend it!)

This was the set up at Dauphin Place Mall
when Hannah and other team members were
sharing our mission trip plans

 We are still working on removing envelopes from the "house" which when all envelopes are gone we will officially have the money for the supplies for the house!! We are also hoping to raise funds to purchase furniture for the family as well -- to make their new house a home - this will be an extra $1600USD approximately.


The tables will be set up this Saturday at the Dauphin Place Mall and on Sunday at Grace Baptist Church during our Grey Cup party! Tickets for the rainbow auction or 4 for $5 or 10 for $10 ... or you can try your luck to bid on the fantastically comfy rocker recliner!
If you would like to make a donation you can visit our GoFund me page and receive a tax receipt for it!

Our next fundraiser is this Sunday at Grace Baptist Church! We are having a Grey Cup Party. There is no set charge for tickets, a donation at your discretion, and not only will we be cheering on either the Ottawa Red Blacks (go RED BLACKS!!!) or the Calgary Stampeders but there will be all you can eat Mexican food (tacos, nachos, beans, rice and drinks). Come on out and have a fun night of fellowship, food and fun! Even if you don't follow or like football, come out and bring a game or two, sit and visit and enjoy some food!! Doors will be open at 5:15!

Dennis and I have been enjoying preparing for the mission trip in a way we never expected. God has asked us both to step out of our comfort zones and amazingly enough we survived! We have spoke to many people in regards to the trip (both believers and non believers) and the questions we have been asked and we were able to answer (thank YOU God!) have really helped us to prepare our hearts! We have encountered some people who are not in favour of away from home mission trips and I feel that our responses were ones that left the people with a better understanding of our trip, missions and hopefully God.  Before this trip I know I probably would have been a bit more shy inn y responses but God seems to have filled my heart (and mouth) with words to share AND not shy away with those words! With this being said I am sure there are many more times I could have said something and didn't, so I am praying for the Holy Spirit to work more in me on it!

The days are counting down and with Christmas and life roaring as well, I ask for prayer not only for our trip, but for our hearts to be softened through the hustle and bustle towards those who are here at home in our community. I pray that my eyes will be opened to where God wants me to speak up or serve. I ask for your prayers in this as well!

Thank you so much for all the prayers and donations of prizes, funds and time that you have all bestowed to us for this mission trip so far! Please know that we count ourselves very blessed with your friendships and love!

other help needed:

Would you like to do a bit extra along with praying!? We have learned we are able to take clothing and things to Mexico to share with the people there!










Hannah noticed that when she was in Mazatlan last year that they love soccer! So we want to take some balls (deflated of course) and so we will also need a few pumps to blow them up (and leave them) again once there.
A few other ideas of things we would like to take are clothing, personal hygiene items, shoes - all for men, women and children, school supplies. basically things you would put into an Operation Christmas Child box.
There is not much there in Mazatlan for these items (or else we would take down money to purchase in that area to aid in their economy).

If you are wanting to help in this area let us know! I will make arrangements for pick up!

Silent Auction and Donations!!

I thought I would take a moment to share one of our other fundraising efforts that will be happening in the near future!

We are going to 'play' a game of 

Bigger or Better Challenge! 

The idea is that local businesses (from Dauphin to Neepawa (and other surrounding towns if they want to play as well) will challenge another business (or 2 or 3... as many as they want actually) to donate a gift that is "Bigger or Better" than what they have donated. There will be a letter from the church explaining our mission intent and another small note that is the challenge to another business. the note will state their name (the challenger), their business name and what their donation is! Businesses that choose to play with us can be given a tax receipt if they wish (that is the actual cost of the donation).
All the gifts will be collected and then auctioned off for our trip with a silent auction.
We aren't 100% sure of the date of the auction but I will keep y'all posted!

This is a "fun for everyone" fundraiser, as it not only helps us to go and build the house in Mazatlan, but it also helps encourage local businesses to be a part of it in a unique way; it is a fun opportunity to  have a friendly rivalry with businesses, trying to out give each other! And it will help bring free advertising to the businesses and hopefully new customers!
We will be making sure that the businesses participating are made known at the silent auction and other avenues as well!

If you are a business (large, small or if you want to participate with a new item donation for the silent auction) and you would like to be a part of our Bigger and Better Challenge, please let me know and I will make sure to get you the necessary paper work!

a great place to start!

Hi!! If you have found our blog page it is most likely (we hope) it is because you want to partner with us for our family mission trip to Mazatlan, Mexico in December!

Hannah, Dennis, Jodi - 1/2 of the Ginter family 

We are going with others from our church (Grace Baptist Church in Ochre River) and we are going to build a home! We have teamed up with YWAM

(Youth with a Mission) and they are through with Homes of Hope, to help us build a family a home!

The plan is to build the home in three days and then the remainder of the week will be spent spreading the gospel and the love of God in many ways like: handing out bibles, interacting with local kids through soccer, visiting area of need, doing prayer walks, etc.

Wonder how YOU can help?! For starters — PRAY!! Please for Dennis, Hannah and I as we are trying to listen to hear what God wants from us. WE are needing prayer for many other areas: preparing for the trip, being in Mexico, leaving Mexico, things on our farm will be uneventful while we are gone, raising enough money to get the materials (and hopefully furniture as well) for the home, money for the travel to and from Mexico and I am sure there are tonnes of other things to pray for and as they are brought to our mind we will add them to a running Prayers and Praise list!

If you feel lead to do so you can help support our trip financially. There is a Go Fund me page set up for our group or you can send a cheque to our church and a receipt will be mailed to you. (mailing address will be in the side link along with the go fund me link).

If you have any good ideas or want to help in fundraising in a physical way let us know! With that said we have a few fundraiser ideas in the works as of right now and we are praying they go off well! Some plans are a Grey Cup Party at the church – watch the football game on the big screen!  The evening will include the large screen game, taco bar and pop!  We are also preparing for a Big&Better auction where we will ask local businesses (from Neepawa and area and Dauphin and area) to challenge another business to donate a Bigger or Better prize for us to auction off at a local play.  There will also be an ongoing envelope pull where you can pull the envelope of the donation you want to make towards the building of the house! Tomorrow we are going to be having a hotdog sale in Dauphin at the Co-op from 11-1 and 3-5.

The bible verse that is keeping us going and encouraged is “For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Hebrews 3:4 — so please playfully consider partnering with in whatever manner you feel you are being called to and lets see where God will take us all on this journey!

We are very excited to be going and doing this work! Some of you will already know why we are heading to Mazatlan – but some won’t. Our daughter Hannah was with YWAM MAzatlan last year and experienced such amazing things that when she returned from her schooling and outreach, she strongly felt God calling her back to Mexico to do something more… enter Home of Hope!! so with others who were also excited to follow God’s calling, she and our Associate Pastor began digging into it and setting up what was needed! AND now we begin the task of making it a reality as we follow His nudging and whispers!

Please keep checking in with us to see where we are at in prayer requests, praises and fundraising as we only have about 101 days until we leave for our mission trip!

Thank you for your time and prayers!!

can you tell we're a bit excited!? 

Your family in Christ,

Jodi, Dennis & Hannah