{"id":13,"date":"2008-11-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-11T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-08-31T10:15:40","modified_gmt":"2009-08-31T14:15:40","slug":"october-florida-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/2008\/11\/11\/october-florida-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"October Florida Trip!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--StartImportPhoto--><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47713.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"margin-right: 10px;margin-bottom: 5px\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47713.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"216\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportPhoto--><\/p>\n<p>This October I took my first trip to Florida!\u00a0 As I left the fall colors in Oregon, I wondered what Florida would be like.\u00a0 I knew there would be palm trees, and moss, but there was so much more.\u00a0 I tried to enjoy the fall colors, but there was only one tree that changed colors, and it wasn&#8217;t even the leaves, it was a flowery looking thing.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><!--StartImportThumbnail--><a rel=\"thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47707.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"float:left;margin-right:5px;border: 0.5pt solid #BCC4C8\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47707.jpg\" alt=\"Amy &amp; Crystal\" width=\"150\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportThumbnail-->The big reason why I traveled to Florida was to see my co-worker <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ntm.org\/amy_heckman\" target=\"_blank\">Amy Heckman<\/a>!\u00a0 We were invited to share at a missions conference at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hopefulbaptist.com\" target=\"_blank\">Hopeful Baptist Church<\/a> in Lake City, Florida!\u00a0 We had such an amazing time sharing in this 5 day missions conference.\u00a0 We loved sharing about our desire to be involved in tribal <!--StartImportThumbnail--><a rel=\"thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47955.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"float:left;margin-right:5px;border: 0.5pt solid #BCC4C8\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47955.jpg\" alt=\"Hailey &amp; Amy\" width=\"150\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportThumbnail-->church planting in Mexico!\u00a0 Amy &amp; I shared with: a homeschool co-op group, a Christian club at a High School, Adult Bible Study, teen girls from the youth group, at our display board, with a group of kids, an adult Sunday school class, families in their homes, and an adult Bible study.\u00a0 <!--StartImportThumbnail--><a rel=\"thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47708.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"float:left;margin-right:5px;border: 0.5pt solid #BCC4C8\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47708.jpg\" alt=\"Aiden &amp; Crystal\" width=\"150\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportThumbnail-->But I think one of the most fun groups we got to share with was an Awana Sparkie group!\u00a0 The reason why that is so exciting, is because that&#8217;s where Amy &amp; I met each other when we were little kids!!\u00a0 I had a great time meeting all these new people in Lake City &amp; I came away from the time extremely encouraged!<\/p>\n<p><!--StartImportThumbnail--><a rel=\"thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47960.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"float:left;margin-right:5px;border: 0.5pt solid #BCC4C8\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47960.jpg\" alt=\"NTM Home Office, Sanford Florida\" width=\"150\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportThumbnail-->Then the second week that I was in Florida, Amy &amp; I spent a lot of time at NTM Home Office!\u00a0 Some people wonder if the missionaries here in the states are &#8220;<span class=\"boldText-blue\">real missionaries<\/span>&#8220;?\u00a0 I would have to say YES!!\u00a0 My next article is going to share more about that!<\/p>\n<p><!--StartImportThumbnail--><a rel=\"thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47709.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"float:left;margin-right:5px;border: 0.5pt solid #BCC4C8\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47709.jpg\" alt=\"Amy &amp; Crystal at the beach!\" width=\"150\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportThumbnail-->We also took a trip with the whole Heckman family down to somewhere around Fort Lauderdale to visit Amy&#8217;s grandparents!\u00a0 We got up on Saturday, went to a craft fair, and then to Wal-Mart.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever been to Wal-Mart so many times than on my trip in Florida.\u00a0 We went almost every single day.\u00a0 Which is very different for a girl that lives 42 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart!\u00a0 And while I was at Amy&#8217;s grandparents, I was able to go swimming in their pool!\u00a0 Awesome!\u00a0 That&#8217;s something that doesn&#8217;t happen in Oregon especially in October!<\/p>\n<p><!--StartImportThumbnail--><a rel=\"thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47958.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"float:left;margin-right:5px;border: 0.5pt solid #BCC4C8\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47958.jpg\" alt=\"Moses &amp; the High Priest\" width=\"150\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportThumbnail-->And week three found us doing a couple more tourist things.\u00a0 I was able to visit Downtown Disney,\u00a0 go to the Holy Land Experience, the Wycliffe discovery center, the beach, and also an Orlando Magic Game!!!<\/p>\n<p><!--StartImportThumbnail--><a rel=\"thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47962.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"float:left;margin-right:5px;border: 0.5pt solid #BCC4C8\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47962.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportThumbnail-->The Holy Land Experience was great because we got to see some of Jesus&#8217; Life &amp; Ministry acted out.\u00a0 I got to see the miracle that Jesus performed at the Wedding Feast in Cana, which was great because we&#8217;ve been going through the book of John in my Bible study group!\u00a0 And we got to see the Passion play acted out!\u00a0 Oh my goodness, it amazes me every time I think about what Christ went through physically &amp; emotionally to redeem the whole world back into a right relationship with God.\u00a0 Another part of the Holy Land Experience is called the Scriptorium.\u00a0 We got to see how the Bible went from being written on stone, and the transformation through the centuries that eventually led it into being made available today in English!<\/p>\n<p>Then the next day we went to the Wycliffe Discover Center, which is great for hands on learners!\u00a0 It shows that while we have the Bible in our own language (English), there are over 4400 languages without any Scripture!\u00a0 Which is amazing since the complete Bible has been around for almost 2000 years!\u00a0 Actually in the English language, we have the option of choosing a Bible from over 500 different translations!<\/p>\n<p><!--StartImportThumbnail--><a rel=\"thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47959.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"float:left;margin-right:5px;border: 0.5pt solid #BCC4C8\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47959.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportThumbnail-->The Friday before I left, Amy &amp; I put on our own version of a Mexican Fiesta for a youth group!!!\u00a0 It was awesome.\u00a0 We made lots of Mexican food, played some games, sang some songs in Spanish, and we were able to share about Mexico and how we&#8217;ll be involved in communicating the Truth of God&#8217;s Word to people that won&#8217;t ever have a chance to hear!<\/p>\n<p>I stayed extremely busy at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ntm.org\/george_heckman\" target=\"_blank\">Heckman <\/a>home and so much living with them!<\/p>\n<p><!--StartImportThumbnail--><a rel=\"thumbnail\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47712.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-104\" style=\"float:left;margin-right:5px;border: 0.5pt solid #BCC4C8\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/files\/2008\/11\/2313_47712.jpg\" alt=\"Flooding in Florida\" width=\"150\" \/><\/a><!--EndImportThumbnail-->Florida was fun.\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t expect it to be, but I met amazing people, and was able to reconnect with lots of friends.\u00a0 And I suppose, that one day I will travel back to Florida.\u00a0 But when I go back, I want to go fishing and see an alligator!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My first trip to Florida!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":383,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3810],"tags":[129,754,753,152],"class_list":{"0":"post-13","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ministry","7":"category-news-article","8":"tag-add-new-tag","9":"tag-amy-heckman","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-partnership-development","12":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/383"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/crystal-pierce\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}