yeeeehawwww......

That is how my boys ended the night and that is how I will end this amazing experience :) It was the last worship night and it was a great way to end our summer. We still have a couple of days with campers, but all the real work is over. Now we just clean up and head home. I won't conclude my whole summer now, but I will say that this has been en amazing adventure. God has taught me great things this summer. I will write a longer blog explaining the things I've learned and fond memories when I get home. Today after I finished my last work day I headed home with a great feeling of accomplishment. I did what I thought I couldn't and I leaned a lot along the way! Stacey, Matt, and Matt's friend John went hiking and swimming along some waterfalls in the area. It was sooo much fun, but Stacey lost her camera in the river....It was a great ending to a great workday. Then the staff went to a japanese restaurant and it was great. We had worship and then ate cupcakes. Now I'm hanging out for the last time with campers :( I love you all and thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers this summer. My country boys are learning how to hula and I MUST watch it unfold....

The last full work day...

This is beginning to be really really sad. We went back to build the deck and got all but the handrails done. I think the boys and I are beginning to be friends more and more haha! After a full day of building a staircase we headed home. I got to talk to my daddy! We stopped at a 7-11 to get snack and then made it back to the church. It was cook out time, so I loaded my car and headed to the park. We ate and hung out by the river. It rained a bit, but nothing serious. We came back and enjoyed worship and then had a small party for a guy in the band. He got a guitar and he was so excited! We ate cake and hung out with the campers some before lights out. Now Stacey, Matt, Josh and I are hanging out and soon going to be going to bed! One more small work day!

Well it was a yard work day!

Today I took the guys to do a little yard work for some disabled citizens. I got them out the door with all of our tools and we headed out. On the way as I was talking with Jamey our entire 5 gallon water cooler spilled in the back of my car!! It is now everywhere!! Everything is wet :( There was nothing I could do.... But we arrived safely and got started on our work. There were two small yards and I was really nervous about them finishing before lunch! One yard had a bit more work and it took us until well after lunch to finish. It took a bit more to keep them working because it was very hot and they did NOT enjoy yard work. They kept asking if we were going to be able to go back to building the deck tomorrow. We left and headed back home and arrived home at about the same time as the other work crews. I talked with Sarah and Josh a bit because they met with the Senator for Hawaii today. haha He was at the same food pantry as they were. Matt, Stacey and I went to Lowe's to get a few more supplies for my worksite tomorrow and then it was time for dinner. After dinner we made friendship bracelets with the campers until worship. Worship was great as always :) We had popsicles after service and continued to make friendship bracelets. I finished one for each of my boys on my worksite group. They were so excited haha only kidding. I'm pretty sure they could care less and they won't be wearing them long after this week! I at least made them brown and green for camouflage! Lights out has come and gone and I've been hanging out with staff, but it is time for bed now! Only one more full work day. That is weird to imagine....

It was interesting as suspected!!

Today breakfast happened as always :) My boys disappeared, to go smoke we all figured out as they returned....But I got them going after breakfast and we headed off to our worksite.(side note: I got to talk with Jamey all the way to the worksite) When we arrived at the worksite we just started working! It was great. The boys didn't let me down at all. I had to MAKE them stop for lunch. They will be finished in another day, so we will have to figure out another worksite for them. I pretty much just talked with all the boys as they worked away! They have interesting stories, so please please keep them in prayer. None of them actually want to be here. They are doing it for various reasons, but I'm so excited they came. I had a guy tell me today that he didn't want to come, but now he is glad he did! I would really love it if they left saying they has a great time!! One guy doesn't even believe in God :( I tried talking to him, but I'm not sure how much it actually helped.  Also, I've had to fuss at them a bit about tobacco use. They wouldn't stop dipping no matter what I said! At the end of the I was very happy with the work the guys did! One of the guys rode home with me and we had some great conversation. He was talking to me about his dad and their relationship. It was really great! The groups went off to the shower and Matt, Stacey and I went to Lowe's to get more supplies. Then another event happened. One of the ladies that was helping fix dinner  went to turn on the gas oven and when she lit it the flame blew up in her face! She went to the hospital and everything is fine se only had a few spots of 2nd degree burn. That was a scary experience for everyone involved. We also had a case of lice!!!! One of the girls in the groups had a bad case of lice and after checking everyone in the group she was found to be the only one. She went home shortly after the discovery. We have cleaned everything around her and the room she was in. Then we had a great worship experience. We had ice cream for dessert and the groups had group time. We all hung out and then the campers had lights out. Now it is time for me to head to bed!!

The last week :(

I already love my campers!! The first campers arrived at 7:00 am!! We were not up for their arrival and they didn't actually come to the church until around 11. They came to service with us. After service the girls and I ate lunch at a local pizza place with some members of the band. We then ran errands and headed back to the church to welcome the groups. One group never showed up....odd.....So we only have two groups this week! One from Pennsylvania, who I love already! The other is from Enterprise, AL! :) They are Auburn fans! We ate dinner then got ready for worship. Worship was fun as always! I video taped it so maybe I can put it on here when I get back home! The groups are really energetic so it is going to be a great week! Okay so after worship I hung out with the groups and found out who was going to be going to my worksite with me for the week. It is sooo funny because I have some pretty country boys! They are actually from PA, but they are very country. One of the guys had on a rebel flag t-shirt! They say they are awesome at construction, so we will see! It is going to be an interesting week. They bought a purple bear to be our mascot for the week! They are pretty crazy! It is all boys and one girl with me! I'll try to get some good pictures and video throughout the week. I played spoons with the group and had a blast! Now it is lights out and I'm soon going to bed! One week from today and I will be back at home! Crazy to think the summer is over! I'm going to be sad to leave DC! 

Wild n' Wonderful

Thast is what they call West Virgiani for those of you who didn't know. That is where we spent our day. White water rafting proved to be a bit out of our price range, so we met the West VA staff in Harper's Ferry to walk around and see some sites. For thsoe of you who don't remeber your American History Harper's Ferry was the site of John Brown's raid during the Civil War. It was tons of Historic museums and the main street in the town has cute little gift shops and restaurants. We ventured around the town and it's sites for several hours then headed back to the church that the W VA staff stays at for dinner. Stephanie the camp director cooked us a wonderful dinner of seasoned chicken tenderloins. We hung out a bit and then the staff wanted to take us to Jule's ice cream shop. We decided to leave from the ice cream shop becasue it was getting pretty late. The ice cream shop was actually a small teck from the church, so we were glad we made that decision. The W VA camp is pretty far from signs of civilization......Jule's turned out to be a small trailer type thing in a parking lot much to Stacey and my surprise. The group raved about how good the ice cream was and when we arrived they were very crowded. I had custard and it was pretty tasty. (PS. Stacey will eventually make a facebook album of all the food we have eaten over the summer to show everyone how big of fatties we have been....) After eating and bidding our farewells we drove back to Dranesville. We stayed up talking and then eventually hit the sack! Campers come soon!

A day to remember.....

Today we said farewell to the group, but this is not the reason it will be remembered. It will be remembered because shortly after saying goodbye to the group Stacey and I headed over to the worksite I will be working on next week. After inspecting the worksite we headed to the nearest Home Depot to figure out how to get wood to the worksite to complete the deck. Well after 2 hours of waiting at Home Depot, renting a truck, unloading 23 decking boards, filling up with one gallon of gas, and returning to Home Depot at 5:15, then driving through rush hour friday afternoon traffic back to the church we were exhausted and frustrated! This turmoil of probably the hardest longest day of all summer will be the reason it will be remembered. We had a hard, long day, so we decided to go to dinner and a movie. Our night has been relaxing and enjoyable and at the moment we are looking up fun things to do tomorrow. Hopefully we will catch a little rock climbing or white water rafting, at least maybe some museums. Then Sunday it is back to work! Pray for me this week! I have a challenging worksite! 

The last day with the group!

Today was the last day with the group. I took some of the boys and we finished up my work site from last week. I got back to the church and went to lunch and walmart with Sara and Sofia. Stacey, Matt, and I went to Tyson's Corner to go to the mall. I bought the cutest sunglasses! We headed back to the church and met Josh at Quiznos for dinner. We got back to the church and set up for worship. Worship was really great tonight. The group sang and sang with the band after they washed each other's feet. We had a bit of a situation after worship was over. Sofia was really upset so we prayed with her and I think she is finally doing a bit better. We are all tired and this summer is beginning to work on us. It is just a little nerves after not a lot of sleep and a lot of work. We all cried a bit and prayed and then Matt and Josh brought us ice cream. Matt then did a crash course with me on how to build a deck. Yes, next week I will be building a deck, but not only a deck. The deck is about eight feet off the ground so the steps will be a bit tricky. Pray for me because of twenty minutes ago I didn't really know what I was doing!! Keep us in our prayers this last week. We have our biggest crowd of the summer. It will be an adventure for sure!!

Hmm....it seems this summer is almost over

I just came to the realization that one week from today will be my last full work day. Okay so at the beginning of this summer it seemed it had been forever since I had seen my family, but now I feel like I just got here! It has been a whirlwind of emotions and blessings, but it has been amazing nonetheless! Today started with a ride over to Ms. Trutie (SP?) A new elderly lady we are helping out. We fixed up her yard for about an hour then headed over to the Arlington Food Bank. We had a great time movie around corn and tomato sauce! It seemed we had just gotten there and it was then time to leave! We headed back to the church and got slurpees along the way! Three of the middle school boys rode with me, let's just say that was an adventure!! I got back and it was time to get ready for the cookout. The cookout was a success :) Worship was great. I love Wednesday worship! They play my favorite songs! I don't know if I have mentioned (sorry if I have!), but they play Chasing Cars and ya'll should really listen to the words to that song it is great!  Now is free time/group time and soon will be lights out!! See you all soon!! Keep praying for me!!

If I don't return home....

It is because the Capitol Area Food Bank worked me too death... No really....Today we had breakfast and started on our way. I took 13 of the campers with Sofia to the food bank. There was a wreck on the highway so it took us a bit longer than usual to get there which made me sort of exhausted before I even began the work! When we finally got there we had a lot of work! We packed 450 boxes. All of those 450 boxes I sat on a concrete floor and put together! It was crazy, but I got to sleep for about an hour when I got back so I was refreshed. While riding home I heard this song called Hookers and Robbers by Charlie Hall. It is about Coming as you are before Christ with your guilt and shame. I started talking with God and just felt a call to change my talk and to take the come as you are to not just mean with your gift and talents, but with your guilt and shame also. So I sat down after dinner and just began to listen to the song and to talk to God and to read scripture. I didn't end up changing my talk completely, but I did talk more about coming to Christ with all your baggage and laying it down before Him. Then letting Him use you to bring Him glory. It ended up really well, so I was happy. After the talk one of the leaders came up to me and said that his daughter really needed to hear the talk and that he knew God was telling me to say the things that I did. SO i guess that goes to show what God can really do!! Not that I ever doubted!! Well that was about it worship went well and we ate banana pudding and dirt for dessert. Now it is lights out and I'm going to bed!!

Work Day ONE with a new group :)

Today was another wonderful work day. I love the work days because they are the times when I get to really know the kids the most! We had breakfast and then headed out on our way. I went to Sarah's worksite from last week. They didn't finish so we finished up today. I had a great crew! We worked very hard and got a lot done!! We put doors up on a storage unit and painted. the men were great with the doors and some boys put on the door knobs and all the girls painted. We have some siblings here from Haiti! The girl is so sweet I love her! After work we came back and Sofia took the crew to the showers. I took a quick nap that was much needed. We had dinner of spaghetti! A great crew from a methodist church in town made it for us and it was fabulous! Then it was time for worship. Jimmy our cook came to worship tonight and hung out with us! We had ice cream and now it is time for lights out!

Sunday.....A day of rest

We slept in until church today!! After church we went to this Mexican place with Josh and Matt. Then we pretty much rested until Sarah and Sofia came back. Sofia and I ran to Sam's to get a few things and when we returned the group was here! We ate dinner and got ready for Worship. Worship was fun! We danced and sang and everything was great! Now we are hanging out with the group. I am uploading photos on my computer and I will put some on here! :)

A fun filled day :)

This morning I woke up and went out to my car to find my car filled with balloons. Okay so the side story to this is that I mention that I am in a sorority in my talk I give on Tuesday nights, well the boys in my group thought this was funny so all week they have been saying a chant to  me every time they see me. It basically is them yelling DZ. Okay so this morning not only did I find my car filled with balloons, but each one was pink and had green DZ written on them. I didn't get a chance to take a picture, but maybe they will post the video because they took one. Anyway after that was taken care of I ate a quick breakfast and Stacey, Josh, Matt and I headed to King's Dominion, an amusement park that is near us. The rest of the day was filled with roller coasters and water slides. It was awesome, but we returned a little after midnight and were exhausted!! Tomorrow campers come and I will let you all know how that goes!!

Whew...

I am so full!!! WE just ate a huge meal at Olive Garden! Today was a work/play day. We had to say goodbye to the Korean church :( Then Stacey and I had to go to work! Sarah and Sofia went sightseeing with Aloma youth group. We also went to buy tickets to go to King's Dominion. They sale them cheaper at this grocery store, so we went to THREE just to find them! When we finally did it paid off because the woman gave us $25 off!! After that we had to go to meet with two different people about worksites and sadly neither of them turned out to be things that we could do. We met with the youth group in DC and went to a few sights. We came back to VA to eat dinner at Olive Garden and now I'm going to go to sleep, so that I will be rested for KING"S DOMION tomorrow! YAY! Can you tell I'm excited?? 

Work Hard, Play Hard

And that is exactly what we did......Today after having to stay an hour later than planned and still not getting all the work done we left Mr. Roberson's. The group worked really hard and got as much as feasibly possible done. There is only a little bit left to do! We headed to Taco Bell and got lunch then came back to the church. I took a little nap, and while I slept my group set up a 100 ft. slip-n-slide down a HUGE hill. They awoke me and I joined them them sliding down the hill. It was pretty much awesome. Only a few walked away injured. My worst injury was that I hit a rock while sliding once and was airborne.... After the fun adventure I got a shower and got ready for worship. Tonight was the servanthood foot washing. It was great. My group washed my feet. It was an amazing experience. Afterwards they invited the staff to affirmation, which is basically them telling the others in their group ways that they have seen Christ through them. They were super sweet to the staff and said some amazing things to us. I have thoroughly enjoyed them this week. They have worked hard and I have seen them grow. I must brag on two boys out of the group that stepped us this week and were great examples for not only the young boys, but for the guys in the other youth group as well. Tonight they took the initiative to not only wash their group's feet, but ours and the bands as well. It was great. They are such servants. Okay so that is all for tonight. I've been to Wendy's for ice cream and now it is bedtime. :)

Tired, but not regretful

Today as the alarm went off at 7 am. I almost regretted my decision....almost. I awoke though and headed to breakfast. After breakfast I took 23 of the the campers to my worksite. This is significant because I normally take 14. I was a little nervous about finding them all work to do, but when I arrived there was still a great deal to take care of. We worked and finally the boys actually needed my help in roofing! Up until now they knew jsut as much or more than I did about it, but they had never roll roofed, so I got to teach them! My entire afternoon and most of my morning was spent on the roof. We are almost done now! The others got a lot done also. One more day and we should be finished! After a full day on the roof and being completely covered in tar from head to toe we ended the day. I came back to the church and took a quick shower to TRY and get the tar off. After I had to run to the grocery store to get stuff for the cookout then headed to the cook out. After the cookout we came back for worship. It was pretty great tonight!! Then I skyped with Jamey for a bit and now I'm going to bed!! I'm exhausted!! I have to wake up early to go to Lowe's :( sad sad day.....Hopefully I can sleep some tomorrow....

A day late, but better than never!

Okay so again nothing too exciting happening today. Breakfast then off to a food pantry. We worked pretty pretty hard. The people were very particular about how everything was done. Not mean or anything just particular. After a long exhausting day of moving tons of canned goods (and meeting Canadian people who were also helping) We headed home. At home I  hung out, went to Lowe's and had dinner. Then Worship and after worship I learned that I had completely forgotten about the midnight release of HARRY POTTER!!! Matt and Becky (she needs a story,but I will wait until the end) invited me to join then, so after persuading Stacey that I would be okay with no sleep we left. We arrived at 10:15 but didn't line up until just before 11. We got into the theater that was of course super crowded. They had twelve theaters playing the midnight release, but every single one was packed!  There were some people dressed up and the whole deal. It was quite entertaining. The movie was really good, but the major climax of the movie was actually not so climatic, so I was a little disappointed. All was well and I returned to the church at about 3am. Sleep took control soon after.

Work Day ONE!!

Today we had breakfast. We headed off to our worksite, but when I got in my car I was left with no gas! I ran by the gas station and while I was at the gas station an entire cooler spilled in the church van, so they had to turn back around and get a new one. After that fiasco we finally got on the road. We had a full day. We began to roof and found out that all the plywood under the shingles was warped and had to be replaced. A few boys started on that project and the others did yard work. There was a ton of yard work to be done! They worked very hard and got a lot done! We headed back about three and stopped at chick-fil-a for ice cream. I took the group to get showers and just as we got back from showers the dinner was ready. During dinner I learned an Asian game!! It was so fun! After dinner it was Worship and nothing too exciting happened there. After worship we served the groups ice cream. Okay so I haven't mentioned this yet, but the Asians eat CRAZY amounts of food. The smaller they are the more they eat. Now we have just been hanging out and the Asians taught me another game! It is soon time for my lights out. I'm pretty exhausted.....Tomorrow is food pantry.

Another week of awesome campers!!!

Today I got to sleep in a bit. Sarah and Stacey went to the airport to get Stacey's home church and Sofia and I stayed to attend church. I woke up and ran to Lowe's then got back just in time for church. Church was great and we had to introduce ourselves to the congregation. After church we went to meet Stacey and Sarah and the group at Wendy's. Well we didn't exactly make it because Sofia said she knew where she was going, but it turns out she didn't and we ended up WAY far away..... We ended up eating at the nearest place and then going to Walmart. Someone stole my razor out of my shower....no idea who, but one day it was there and the next day it was gone....So i bought a new one. After I came back and met my new group!! I hung out with them and played Man hunt. Took a quick nap and then went to Walmart and the grocery store. We cooked tacos for dinner! Then got ready for Worship and hung out with my group a little bit more. The other group got here a little bit later than planned so we pushed worship back a little bit. When worship did start it was great! We have an all Asian middle school youth group! They are awesome!! My group is awesome too! It is going to be great. Anyway though, Worship got over and it was pretty close to lights out so the groups had group time then went to bed. We hung out with Matt and Josh (my new best friend) and Matt brought us ice cream!! Now Josh just left and it is twelve so I MUST go to bed. I miss you all!! LOVE YOU!!

A day of rest...

Today was a great day of rest. We woke up after staying up WAY too late last night with the campers. We fed them breakfast and sent them on their way. I skyped with Jamey a bit and Stacey went to pick up her friend Yana (okay I have no idea how to spell her name, but that is what it sounds like) She is from the Czech Republic. We hung out a bit and a man from the church asked us all to come over and hang out by his pool and do laundry. We jumped on the oppurtunity, so the entire day was spent laying out and playing cards and such. He fed us Salmon for dinner, It was so great! I slept for hours out by the pool! Then we came back to the church after dinner and watched a movie and I painted some shoes I had bought! They are super cute! Then I talked with my mom for almost two hours! It had been awhile since we spoke! Now it is late and I'm headed to bed. Campers get here tomorrow YAY!! 

Crash Course in Roofing...

Yes that is right....I learned to roof today while sitting atop the roof over the telephone.....BUT now I'm pretty sure I can handle it! Today was the group's off day so that means that it was our work day! We made them a continental breakfast and went back to take a nap for about twenty minutes(I didn't really go back to sleep, but I tried) We got up and Stacey and I had to go to Mr. Roberson's house to make measurements on the roof I will be fixing this week. We grabbed a quick lunch at Chick-fil-a (PS It was cow appreciation day today and if you dressed up like a cow you got a free meal, we forgot, but tons of others didn't) We then headed to Lowe's. I got all the materials for my worksite!! No more Lowe's this weekend! Then we headed back to the church. I re-dyed my hair :) It is now purple purple instead of slightly pink. I then got ready to go to dinner. While I was getting ready Sofia found out that one of her close friend's mom died. She was really upset so keep her in special prayer!! She decided she wasn't up for dinner with us, so Stacey, Sarah and I went. We went to this cute French Cafe. I had quiche! Then we headed back and got back just at the same time the youth group got back from the city. They ordered pizza and we went and got ice cream. Ever since we have just been hanging out and playing music. I'm soon about to hit the bed. It is a sad morning tomorrow.....saying goodbye to such a great group that I've gotten to know and love so much!! Sunday brings in anew group...hope I love them just as much!!!

Last work day :(

Today we got up and had my favorite breakfast, CINNAMON ROLLS!! haha so Jimmy,the cook, and I had fun with the icing on the cinnamon rolls. Then I got my group together and we headed out for an awesome adventure. I took them to a soup kitchen and we went on the metro. They had fun! The people at the soup kitchen were great! We had dance lessons while serving haha! After serving we grabbed Wendy's for lunch. We headed back to the church and got some bathing suits and went to the nearby pool/water park. The group paid for my lunch and for the water park! I'm so spoiled! We had a great time but the pool was SO COLD! After the pool we came back to church and I got ready for worship. We were missing a Jesus for our skit so we had to change a few things around to make it work. We had a special worship and my group invited me into their devotional time :) It was sweet. Then I spent some time with Sarah and Stacey and now I'm watching Alice in Wonderland with my group! Looks like it is going to be a long night! haha Sorry nothing too exciting! Tomorrow is a work day for me!! I have to learn how to roof...joy joy...

Sad Day at Ms Rosa's

Today was the last day at Ms. Rosa's. I woke up and realized I had forgotten to get a hacksaw so during breakfast I had to run to Lowe's. I got there and got the saw and ran back. I had to throw down a biscuit and sausage and run out the door. While on the road I got to talk to Jamey for quite awhile which was nice! We got to our worksite and got busy. They finished their jobs so quickly! They are great workers! The best I've had this summer. They cleaned up some of Ms Rosa's dishes. They were very very dirty.....A roach crawled out of her coffee maker....It was bad, but we got everything done! We had a sad goodbye with her and took some cute pictures. I will have to post them this weekend! We came back to the church and as soon as I got back I had to start preparing for the cookout tonight. I cooked all the hotdogs and about half of the hamburgers. :) I was such a great cook! I grilled them on a charcoal grill even! We had to light it and everything!! I am rather proud of myself. After we finished eating we came back to the church for worship. I looked up some stuff about the soup kitchen I'm taking my group to tomorrow. It is going to be an adventure! It is going to take AWHILE to get there :( My group is going to all match tomorrow! YAY they bought TEAMeffort shirts! Then we had worship and now I am blogging of course and about to go to bed!! 

Another day of work work!

We got up today and got ready and I got my group out the door! I took them on a scenic route of Georgetown to Rosa's house and on the way I talked to my mom and got a text from Jamey. After arriving we just got straight to work. Rosa kept wanting us all to stop and watch Michael Jackson's funeral haha! I bet she asked me a hundred times to sit and watch! After we finished up work for the day (nothing too exciting happened while working...) we headed back to the church. I went to get gas and then made it back just in time to take my group to the showers. We got a new shower facility at a local park! It is so much better and we get to go before dinner which is much better. The park also has an awesome pool area with slides and everything. I think my group wants to go tomorrow so I'm pretty excited!! After showers we came back and had dinner then I had to run to Lowe's. We made it back for worship and worship was great! After worship we hung out with the band a bit and then gave ice cream to the campers. I took some of my group to walmart to get some things for Ms Rosa. We got back a little after lights out and I hung out with them for a bit. Now it is almost 12 so I'm headed to bed! 6:30 is pretty early!! Last Day at Rosa's tomorrow :(

Roads are closed....Now what?

We had breakfast this morning and then we set out on our way! When we started out everyone was excited and so was I! As we got closer to our destination we found out the road we were supposed to take was CLOSED! I was leading and all I knew to do was follow the GPS. We followed it and took quite a scenic tour of downtown DC. It took a little longer than planned, but everyone thought it was cool that we got to see all the sights. When we got there Ms. Rosa was at dialysis, so we started on all the outside work. My campers are great workers! They were excited and just jumped out there and got started on their tasks. It was hard for me to keep them busy. All went well though. We are working on several things. We are scraping and sanding fences and repainting them we are scraping and repainting steps and handrails. We are repainting her kitchen. We cut the grass and cleaned her yard up quite a bit. We also are fixing some storm doors and re-caulking windows. Overall we have a lot to do this week for Ms Rosa!. She is so so sweet! One of my campers who is about to be a freshmen watched All My Children for an hour with her today! It was so funny! After work was over for the day we cleaned up and headed back to the church. We had about an hour and a half before dinner, so I caught Sarah, Stacey, and Sofia up on my day and they caught me up on theirs. We headed up for dinner that was cooked by some sweet ladies of the church! They just volunteered their time for us! It was great. After dinner we got all the campers to the YMCA to get showers. My group went first, so I was the first to encounter the YMCA staff. We had problems of course...The YMCA staff said we could not shower until 7:30 and we were there at 6:45. They also said we could only go three at a time when they have about 8-10 showers! I called Stacey and in the mean time started sending my campers to the shower. Stacey immediately got on the phone and started to figure out other shower options for the rest of the week. Keep us in prayer that we will find a better place to shower! We got everyone showered and headed back for worship. We had wonderful worship and then as the groups were having group time we snuck away to get ice cream. We got back and hung out with the campers for a bit and now it is time for bed!

I think I'm in love....

With my new youth group of course!!! Today brought another week of campers. We got up and said goodbye to the West VA group and got ready for church. After we got ready we went upstairs and the church here has breakfast on Sundays! We had these colossal doughnuts! They were as big as my face, it was awesome!! Then I got to chat with Jamey a bit. It was time for church. The preacher was out of town this sunday and VBS had just concluded for the week, so worship was lead by the children from VBS and Matt (a 21 yr. old who is in college and who is also on the worship band at the church) preached. His sermon was really great! We went to lunch at this smoothie place (Jamey, I ate a sandwich AND drank a smoothie, you could do half of each!) We got back to the church and started to set up. We have The Capitol, which is the location where we sell t-shirts and snacks and drinks. We set that up and the room where all the campers would sleep. We then just hung out until the campers showed up. They finally showed up about 4:30 and we hung out with them and got to know them for a bit. We went to dinner and then headed back here to get ready for worship. Matt and his brother led worship tonight for us and it went well. Starting tomorrow we will have a full band, but the group had some stuff going on tonight. After worship I hung out with my group, and I fell in love!! They are great! They are all high school and above. By above I mean some are in college. There is a girl my age majoring in medicine! They are super cool and I am so excited to have them with me this week!! It is going to be wonderful I can already tell!! I will keep you all updated. Now it is after lights out for the campers so we are meeting and guess what!!! Watching yet again another movie!! haha I threw that in there for you Mallory and Mom!!

4th On The Steps :)

Today was a day of significance, but not for what you think. I went to Lowe’s to get all the materials for my first ever construction worksite!! YAY! It was so exciting. Eric went with us because as surprising as this is Stacey has never really gone to Lowe’s before to get a bunch of materials. She has always had a contractor who did it for her haha! No contractor this time, just us! Eric went with us so he could tell us about how much of everything to get so we could get an idea for every other time we have to go. We were buying specifically for my worksite which meant that I had to discuss what I would need for the particular work we were doing and how much and all that. Next time I will have to do it on my own! SCARY! I think I have the hang of it now though! We got all my materials and loaded them into my car. I will also add that at my worksite I needed a 16’ extension ladder! That also had to fit in my car. It did but now no one can ride with me! After that we went to lunch then Walmart for a few materials that we could find cheaper there. We rushed back to the church because we had to pick up Beth at 1:30 at the Metro station. We left right after we picked her up for DC. When we got there we walked around a bit and went to the Library of Congress. It was cool. The Bibles were the best thing there. It was so neat to see something that has survived through years and years and still has remained just as important! Something that changed the course of history! Anyway after we left there we went to check out the Capitol to see how crowded it was. The gates opened at 3:00 and it was 4:00 and it was already swarming with people! So we decided to go ahead and get seats on the steps. Stacey, Beth and I left to go get food for everyone and we snuck a little gelato for ourselves ;) We got everyone’s food and made our way back, but by this time it was almost six and the lines for security had gotten ridiculously LONG. SO we stood for awhile and then finally got inside to everyone else. We all ate and chatted and then about 7:30 the show started. It was cool. We had Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Natasha Beddingfield, and the cast of Sesame Street. At about nine the fireworks started. They were really fantastic! They went on for awhile and close to the end we went ahead and left so that we could get a head start on the traffic at the metro. Turned out to be a good move! We got on and got seats and at each stop people would pack on! The stops were crazy full! We made it to our stop and got back to the church. Everyone that stayed behind was still up so we all hung out then it was bedtime! Campers tomorrow!

With FDR at his memorial. We had some fun with it!

An Alababama fan in DC :( (PS you can see my hair...)

Our last Max Brenner dessert :)

Touring and Laundry..

We woke up and I Skyped with Jamey a little bit :) Then I ran to get ready because I was running a bit late! We made sandwiches and hit the road! We had to run out to the post office and then get to the metro. We figured out while on the metro that we couldn't take our food into the Capitol. So we ate all of our food at 11:00 when we were not hungry at all haha! Then we got there just in time to get through security and get in line for our tickets. We went through the tour. It was a good tour, but very short. When we got done we decided to head back because we all desperately needed to do laundry! We stopped by the church and grabbed our dirty clothes and ran to the laundromat. We washed all of our clothes then decided to go to Target to get Sarah an outfit for 4th of July. Stacey is making us all wear red white and blue. Then we went and grabbed dinner at Chipotle. We decided to do a walmart run. I got new shoes and Sarah and I are going to paint them! After walmart we went back to the church and have been hanging out ever since. We lost power about 10:00, so we reported it to the power company. It has come back on now, but I'm heading to bed. We get to sleep in late tomorrow!! YAY! 

Museums and more movies!

Today we woke up at nine to head out. We were a bit late and didn't leave until ten. We rode the metro into the city. We didn't want to risk driving because of all the 4th of July traffic. We got in about 11:15 and went to the Holocaust Museum. We had to get tickets to enter the exhibit and our tour time wasn't until 1:30! We decided to walk to Union Station to get lunch. It was about a forty minute walk, so by the time we walked over there and ate and came back we were right on time for our exhibit. We took about 3 hours to tour through everything there. Me and some others were done after about an hour and a half, but some of the others were a bit slower... It was good there was lots to look out! I thought for sure I would cry, but it wasn't that bad. I did get chills a couple of times though. Everyone was tired after all that time on our feet, so everyone wanted to head back to the church. We got back and Stacey and I went to the grocery store to get dinner for everyone. When we got back we cooked it. (yes, I cooked dinner for everyone!) We all ate and then sat around and chatted a bit. A few people went to Walgreens and ran a few errands and I got to Skype a bit with my sister.  Stacey and I had gotten a movie while we were out, so we all got ready to watch Madagascar 2!! So now that is what we are doing watching a movie (yes again!) When this is ever we are all hitting the sack! We stayed up a bit too late last night!

PS Today I said the devil was beating his wife and the floridians had never heard of that! I didn't know that was a southern thing?? Anyone else reading my blog that doesn't know what that is it is when it rains and the sun is still shining!! 

More Worksites!

Today we woke up about nine. We got up and started working on more worksites. At the end of today we have all the worksites we will need for the entire summer! We actually have more we could do, but we don't think we have enough people or time!! It is sad not being able to help all the people we know of that need it :( Everything just fell into place today. It was an awesome turn of events for us after all that happened in NY! We then came back to the church just in time to take about a twenty minute nap then get ready real quick to eat dinner with our praise band Upon This Rock! They were super cool and super nice. They took us to a local pizza restaurant. We then came back to the church so they could teach Sarah some things about the sound system and projector stuff. We had this crazy idea. Sarah, Sofia and I decided to dye our hair different colors. (Mom and Jamey don't kill me!!) So by the end of the night Sarah now has blue hair I have purple hair and Sofia has red hair. Don't worry it is just on the bottom so it is very inconspicuous! I'll post pictures so everyone can see us! Now it is almost two am!! The dying process took a while... We are tired and we have to be ready to go by 9:30! Love you all!!! 

Work and Fun!

Today we had a lot of worksites to figure out and visit. We found a couple tat are really great. There is this cute little lady named Rosa :) We are going to do a couple of food pantries and them a good bit of yard work and small repairs for elderly and mentally handicapped. That took us several hours throughout the day. Eric and Stephanie (two camp directors for a camp in West Virginia) have been helping us set up our camp so they left today to head to Ohio for a few days to help there also. They left their West Virginia staff here with us so we all went to check our the monuments at night. I went in to town a little bit earlier then everyone else so I could eat dinner with Mom. Then I met up with them at the Lincoln Memorial. We did all the monuments and WWII and FDR were my favorite! That is pretty much all we did. We came back to the church and passed out! 

Travel Travel Travel

We spent our last day in NY going to museums, eating out, getting dessert, and walking around Times Square. Nothing too exciting. We got to be d and woke up and packed EVERYTHING back in the car. It was again very packed. The four hour drive turned into six and I got Stacey and the girls to drop me off at a metro in DC so I could meet mom and mallory! We went to dinner and then crashed! Today we woke up and I got football tickets yay!! Then we wandered around the zoo. I had to head back to VA to get with my group because we had to get to work. The only bad part was by the time I got there they were done :( SO we have just been hanging out. We moved in! yay we are here for five weeks!! Finally some sort of permanency :) We ate dinner (steaks, potatoes, and asparagus) YUM! Then of course ice cream....Now time for a movie and bed! Nothing too exciting these past few days!!

DC Here we come!

Today was a day of sleeping late. Well not too late...I slept until 8:30. Then got ready and hit the town. Sarah, Sofia, and I went to Kleinfelds and took a tour. Of course I fell in love with a wedding dress...too bad it only cost about $2,500. Then we went to this really great burger joint. We headed up to Canal St. to Chinatown to get the last of our souvenirs. Then we headed back to the church to get ready for the cookout. I cleaned up a bit then we had another successful cookout! We then finished cleaning up and watched this really great skit by a youth group staying here with us. I'll try to upload it on here.....Then our group went out to look around the streets and we went to get slurpees and a movie. Today was a relaxing day with no drama Sorry there isn't much to tell!! We needed that! Now we are watching a movie and just hanging out. We have to wake up at about 5:30 tomorrow ugh! But on Sunday we will be headed to DC!

Last Work Day in NY!

Today we woke up and had to go to the grocery store to pick up breakfast for the group. We ate and got started on work projects. We did sanding and prayer table today until lunch. Then we got the group headed out to the city. The guy that we have bought pizzas from in the past gave us free philly cheese steak sandwiches for the homeless, so we went and got the sandwiches and delivered them. We then ate lunch and I took a quick nap before we headed out to the city. We left for the city and headed to a jungle gym. Well it was really just those rings where you do the monkey bar deal. I don’t really think I explained that well, but oh well I might try to post a picture of it at a later date. I was actually not too shabby at it and Mark was impressed haha! Then we walked over to Tom’s Restaurant, which is the restaurant on Seinfeld. I ordered a great milkshake and we had a lady waitress from Greece be really mean. We then went to this great Catholic Church. It was beautiful!!! We then got back on the subway to head to China town, but never quite made it because we accidentally missed our stop and then ended up running out of time so we just had to head back to the church. We ate Thai food. It was my first time and I really enjoyed it! As we were heading back we got a call from our group and one of the girls had hurt her foot and they needed to take her to the hospital. We figured we would not be having worship so we decided to head back to the church and just hang out until they made it back. We were almost to the church and we got another phone call from our group. They were headed back, a couple of them stayed behind to cool down. I don’t have the whole story, but because of the girl with the hurt foot one of the chaperones and a student got into a fight….So the chaperone and his wife stayed behind and everyone else came back to the church. When they got back to the church all the girls had been crying and very upset. A couple of us hung out and calmed down the girls and they ended up taking the girl to the hospital near by. They stayed at the hospital until 4:30 am. She only had a slight sprain of that ankle….Then they all went to Good Morning America…This concludes today and I will write and the conclusion of tomorrow! 

Today has been a day to remember!

I will spare most of the gory details of this day, but here is the gist. We woke up and made breakfast for the group. During breakfast we got a phone call from the office. There were some problems with the group staying with us here. They didn't appreciate some things that were completely out of our control, so our office talked to them and tried to help them out as much as possible (which wasn't much). Well we headed off for the soup kitchen and because of missing a subway we were about ten minutes late. This did not make the guys at the soup kitchen happy...Well we got our jobs and everything was fine. While serving one member from the group got very angry with the soup kitchen and embarrassed me very much. We left with much fan fare. The group when to get lunch and Stacey and the rest met me and we left the restaurant. I am sitting on the side of 32nd street i think and crying as Stacey is praying over me. I'm sure we were quite a site! haha! Well I was then feeling better so we walked a bit until the group had lunch and then we took them to Times Square. The rest of the day has been fine. We came back to the church and grabbed dinner for the group from a great pizzeria down the street. While we were there the owner offered to make us free philly cheese steak sandwhiches to feed the homeless tomorrow!! So we were pretty excited about that. We ate then had Worship a bit early. During my skit Jamey called haha It kind of interrupted because without thinking I stopped right in the middle and said who is that? Is it Jamey? Then I was like oh yeah I'm in the middle of a skit and kept going! When I finished up a few minutes later I ran outside to talk to him a bit. Worship then ended and I moved my car back to the street with the church. I don't know if I mentioned this in my last blog, but Bruce Willis is filming a movie here where we are. It is great! SOme of the youth saw him and took pictures haha! The rest of the night we have just been hanging out and resting. :) It has been a pretty good end to a hectic day. Only a few more then off to DC!! 

Wow What a full day!

Today was an incredibly awesome but full day! We woke up and ate a quick breakfast and packed sack lunches. We headed out and made our wonderful subway adventure with our new group. They were great at it! We met The Journey church and passed out granola bars on the street in Union Square. People were really sweet and I handed out about 5 boxes of bars! I had a great time!! Then we headed over to Verdi Park to eat lunch. We ate lunch then went to this frozen yogurt place called Pinkberry. It was so so so incredible! I put oreos and strawberries on top! Pinkberry is this really trendy and really cute yogurt places so we of course had to go. Anything dessert in NY we have to try! Then we passed out more granola bars. My group was finished rather early so they showed us to this great bakery where we could get awesome cookies. It was a bakery that was on Food Network and in a cookie contest against Bobby Flay (sp?) they won! I got a chocolate cookie with peanut butter on the inside (of course). I saved it for later since I had already had dessert. We headed over to Bryant park which is near Times Square. This was a bit more interesting then the other places. People were way more rude and would go from person to person just getting bars.....and they would ask for like four at a time...I had a taxi driver pull over on the side of the road with a passenger in the car and stopped the meter to get five bars!! At the other places we went people were nothing like that they were so super nice and grateful! Well, the group wanted to check out Central Park so we walked over there and got them dinner from a famous hot dog stand in the area. We had dinner in the park and then had worship! It was so fun and people would stop and watch us! I spoke tonight and it went well :) Then we headed back to the church. When we got back to the church we found out we had to move our car for the hundredth time for a filming of a movie!! The extras our staying in the church with us during the day :) It is a Bruce Willis (sp?) movie! We moved our car then went to Blockbuster to rent a movie. We rented Confessions of a Shopaholic because Beth our worship leader is in it!! YAY! We are watching that now and I am eating my wonderful cookie! Bed as soon as it is over. We have another full day tomorrow!!!

Pray Pray Pray!

Today was our first work day with our new group. We have a bit of a situation….We have another group similar to ours called AIM. Which means that we must work around each other for breakfast, dinner and all kinds of other things. For breakfast we must eat in the community room, which isn’t a huge deal, but not ideal. We are fine though and after breakfast we got started on missions around the church. I was in charge of the prayer table again for this group. It was different than last week because this group adults included were VERY nervous about praying and talking with people. They are Lutheran (which I have no clue what that means…..) but they told me that in their church no one prays out loud or tries to talk with people they don’t know. Well from a Baptist church this is so foreign to me!! I worked with them though and although they never prayed by themselves with people they did get to where they would talk to the people. They had a great time also! I was very happy with their progress I couldn’t even describe the change they made. We took a break for lunch then back out there for the afternoon! We quit for the day about 3:00 and Stacey and Sarah gave us freeze pops! I had a horrible headache all day because the night before Mark decided it would be funny to pull my feet out from under me. Well the result was I hit my head and had a headache from then until this afternoon about 9! So I took a nap for about an hour and a half before dinner. We ate dinner with AIM and then cleaned up before Worship. Worship was great! Sofia gave her talk and we had amazing praise. Then the praise team and our staff ate ice cream and socialized while the group had devotion time. We had a meeting with some of the adults from the group because they were having some issues with the kids with AIM, so we resolved those and then ate ice cream again with the youth group. Now it is lights out time for them and I’m also heading to bed soon to get some more sleep!! We will be having Worship tomorrow in Central Park YAY! Pray for me as always it is my time to speak!! 

Sunday brings in new campers!

Today we had to wake up pretty early for church. We traveled into Manhattan to go to The Journey church with Beth our worship leader. It was a great church and we had a lot of fun! They were talking about relationships and dating and such. It was funny because with us all being girls and everyone being single except me we talk about dating A LOT! It was great! Oh and I bet no one has ever sang Sweet Child of Mine in church have you?? Well we did this morning! haha Aimee if you are reading this I thought of you and how you find God in all kinds of songs! After church we went to lunch and a little shopping around town. I had an amazing waffle with all kinds of fruit! We came back to the church and I napped! I slept for about an hour then woke up to go to the grocery store. The new youth group got here and we hung out for a while. We went to this deli to grab supper then headed back to get worship together. We had a nice intimate worship because there are only nine people this week! It is going to be fun because we never have to split up this week!! After worship we gave them group time and then they headed straight to bed. They left Michigan at 2:00 am and they hadn't been to sleep since! None of the girls slept on the way here! So now we are watching a movie.....Bed will come soon!!

A day off!

Today was a sad day....We sent the campers on their way back home! We of course took tons of pictures then sent them on their way. We had to wake up at 6:45 to feed the first group and the second group ate at 8:30. Everyone was gone a bit after nine. I was able to talk to Jamey for awhile! Then Sarah, Sofia and I went and did laundry. We left about 11:30 and didn't get back until almost two. We spent twenty dollars on doing laundry!!! AH!! We then headed back to get ready and head into town. Another camp just like ours is staying with us this week. They are called AIM (adventures in missions). Stacy had to meet with their leader and it might be a tough week trying to figure everything out. We both have worship at eight so we will have to figure out where we are going to have it and all that. We headed to Manhattan and were going to stop by David's Bridal very quickly because Sarah is going to be a bridesmaid and she needed to be fitted for a dress. One problem...we realized as we got on the subway (with no cell service) we didn't know where we were going. We just decided to guess and get off at a busy shopping area. When we got off we  called Mark and got him to look it up on the net. He gave us the address and luckily we weren't too far off. So we head in the direction of 40th street. Well we get there and there is no David's Bridal so we ask around and found out it was actually 25th street!! So we walked all the way there and got her fitted. We then met Mark for dinner at a place called Elmo's that was suggested by a friend. It was great food! Then Mark had an idea of a Cafe to get dessert so we headed there and I must say he was right on with his suggestion! We had wonderful desserts and I got amazing coffee, fixed exactly like I like it! We headed back to the church and decided to get a movie. So here we are now watching a movie and then headed to bed! Not too much today, but tomorrow start another busy week! We have a very small grop coming in tomorrow. Nine people, five high school girls and two men and two women. Should be fun!! 

The last day of campers :(

Today we got to sleep in!! Yay! We slept until 9:00. Sarah and Sofia went to the Statue of Liberty with one of the youth groups. Stacey and I were supposed to go to Costco to get food for the cookout for the community, but when we got up the pastor had already gone. We were off the hook and had a free morning. We went with Mark to Barnes & Nobles to look around and get coffee. When we got to the Barnes & Nobles we discovered that it was located in a really cute part of town with lots of shops and restaurants. We walked around and shopped and ate Chinese. We got back to the church in time for Kidz Klub and hung around and helped out. Then the two other choirs that were helping out around the church and putting together the cookout with us showed up. There were 140 of us which is a lot in a small church, but we all started working on jobs and got the cookout pulled together!! At six people started showing up and we ate and had a great time. The two choirs put on concerts. One of the choirs was an a cappella group and they were great! After the concert we went to a diner and ate ice cream! We then came back and chilled with the youth groups. It was great fun! Right now I am sitting with my two favorite girls of the week!! Tonight is a sad night :( Thanks for all your prayers this week! Hopefully next week will be just as great!

Not Much happened....

Which was a great thing! We got breakfast for everyone then sent them on their way! Sarah went with one group to the mall and Stacy and Mark (the intern) went to the movies. The other group went to Central Park. It was just me and Sofia at the church. I rested up and talked to my mom for two hours! The whole afternoon was great and relaxing. One group arrived  back about 1:30 for Kidz Klub and I helped them out with that. Then the staff went to dinner and it was time for Worship. We had to quickly practice our skit with Mark because he was playing Jesus. Everything went great for the worship. I'm not sure if I have told ya'll, but we have a big worship night on Thursday where the kids all wash each other's feet. It was very meaningful for all the kids. Then Beth, Stacy, Sarah, Sofia, Mark, and I all ate banana pudding and chatted until 2! Well we all didn't make it that late but most of us did! Then I crashed after that!!

Some pictures....

Below some of the group helping out with Kidz Klub

The Kids praying with someone!!! They were so great!!
The Wall St. Bull!!
On the Staten Island Ferry. Quite possibly my favorite picture of this summer.
In Times Square!!

The last work day....and I'm not sure if we could have handled much more

Wow! I didn’t think that I could be so tired when I woke up this morning. Six was way too early!!! I got in the shower and got ready and was fixing breakfast by seven. We ate breakfast and my team got on the road as quick as possible! We rode the subway for about an hour and a nice lady helped us out! We sort of knew where we were going, but we got to talking about it all and the lady over heard us and she told us a faster way to get there. We arrived a bit early, but went ahead in and got settled with the volunteer coordinator. The people were so incredibly nice! They gave us free breakfast. It was wonderful doughnuts! Then we received our jobs. Brian (one of the chaperones for the youth group) and I didn’t have jobs because they wanted us to look over the kids while they were working, We did that and I got in a conversation with a guy named John, It was very interesting to say the least….We talked about his inventions and all his friends (He said he ate lunch regularly with a screen writer of Diary of a Mad Black Woman). They volunteer coordinator drug him away from me because they said he would talk to me forever if they let him. Then we ate lunch with Steve (the head volunteer coordinator) I was so happy. It was so great! Steve was so nice and I can’t wait to return back next week! Then we all gave out, but before we headed back to the church I took the kids to Times Square to look around. At this point we were all very tired and I was just shot. I caught a girl smoking and I didn’t even know what to do. I was too tired to even know the correct response. I called her youth pastor out there to deal with her. Then we headed back to the church. I got dinner ready with Stacy and we ate. Then we cleaned and I talked with my sister. We were all very very tired and I actually had a skit tonight about how tired I was. I think I’ve described the skit before on here…. We always laughed about the skit and everything, but tonight the skit was real life! I just didn’t know if I could make it much more. After worship Sarah and I had a good cry. Which sounds bad, but it was really only because we are so tired. We both actually had great days! Then to make us feel better some of the kids took us to the seven eleven and got slurpees! Haha they are so sweet! Now it is lights out and off to bed! Tomorrow we get to sleep in a bit later Yay!!

WOW...Today was a trying day

Okay so this morning I woke up and hurried to get ready. I started breakfast with Stacy (We made waffles!) After breakfast Sofia and Sarah had to hurry out the door with their group to make it to their worksite on time. They had about a two hour subway ride. The parents of the youth group had a meeting so we cleaned up dishes and hung out until they finished. I missed a call from Jamey in the process which left me very sad :( I then called my mom which made me miss home and I cried right as I was walking in to head up our first worksite of the day with my group. Bad start to my morning.....homesickness....Well I dried it up as quickly as possible. Stacy covered for me in the mean time. I then put on my happy face and got the kids working on cleaning the bathrooms and making lunches for the homeless. We headed out to feed the homeless and that was very interesting to say the least. The homeless are like a family. They all hang out together all day. We got to hear a bit of their stories and that was neat. We handed out lunches and talked for awhile and then everyone started to get cold and complain a little (which didn't help my nerves much) so we went back to the church. On the way to the church I got a call from Stacy. Okay side story for a second....When the churches arrived they had to park their buses at the Lowe's parking lot down the street because there is no parking  anywhere!! The pastor told us to park them there because he had a deal worked out with Lowe's and it was fine. Okay so now back to today...well Stacy called me and informed me that both of the vans had been towed. Churches have been parking there for seven years, but last night someone torched an ambulance and so Corporate got involved and towed everyone there.  Several of the adults had to travel with Stacy to get the vans, so that left me and two adults with about twenty kids at the church. I got them back to the church and had them fix everyone's lunch. There was a group at a prayer table, so i got them back at the church also to eat lunch. We all ate lunch and I gave a short devotional. Okay at this point I had twenty kids and no worksites planed for the afternoon. We had to work on Kidz Klub because the adults that help out with that were getting the vans. We let them have free time for a few minutes while we got things together, but I got a bit of attitude from the groups because they wanted longer free time. We had a lot to do, so I couldn't really do that. I also planed on them doing a bit of odd jobs around the church, but that didn't quite work out so the kids got a bit angry about that as well. All of it was out of my hands, but I was still the one in charge so of course I was to blame. By this time I was almost in tears because I just wasn't sure I could handle this. I began to pray as much as possible. We then got the kids started on Kidz Klub skits and crafts and such. While they worked on that I was trying to find a doctor's office because one girl had gotten a spider bite and it was turning purple. While I was trying to find a doctor in the area a camper made a remark that made an adult mad and when the camper was fussed at she stormed out. Her sister soon followed. This is the point when I walked in. So I tried to deal with that as best I could. At this point I texted Stacy to please come rescue me!! She was walking back to the church so I was extremely happy!! They got here and Kidz Klub started. I volunteered to go to the grocery store, so I could regain my sanity. The day was starting to look up now. I had to lead the Bible Study in Kidz Klub (yes everyone be proud I hung out with the kids!) I then started to make dinner for everyone. We ate dinner and then ice cream! The day was definitely looking better!! I then worked on my talk and we had to practice a skit. Worship was awesome and I was really happy with my talk. Beth brought us cupcakes from Cupcake Cafe. They were beautiful and tasted amazing! I hung out with the campers until lights out. Now it is blog time!! Tomorrow I'm headed out to a soup kitchen! I'm braving the city on my on while leading a group of kids! No one can really tell me how to get to the location either, so keep me in prayers! Thanks for all the ones so far! 

PS I say none of this to complain about my day. Only to fill you guys in! I hope you all understand! I love what I do, but I'm sure you all know sometimes we just have off days!!

Our first work day was quite a hit!

Today I woke up at about 7:15 got a quick shower and then started making breakfast for the campers. We had two ovens so we got one going and started cooking then started on the other one. Well...it was a lot hotter than the first, so we ended up burning a few french toast sticks, but not too many so it wasn't a big deal. We did set off the smoke alarm though so we had to take it a=off the wall and take the batteries out....Stacy had to go to the grocery store again, so she wasn't around to help us figure everything out. I'm proud to say nothing TOO major happened and we served breakfast on time! Then we split our groups up into three and had them doing little tasks. Sarah's group made sandwiches for everyone's lunch, Sofia's group put away the breakfast dishes, and my group cleaned the bathrooms. I'm pretty sure they were all a little upset when they found out what they had to do. I felt bad a bit for them, but someone has to do it!! It only took about fifteen minutes then we broke into different groups to start on our real jobs for the day! I was in charge of the prayer table today which was quite exciting! I did a devotional with my group then we hit the streets!! When we started everyone was a bit apprehensive so I started off the process and after a couple of people allowing us to pray with them a few just telling us prayer request and one very rude remark they were all very excited and stepped out on their on to ask and pray with others. I was so excited they all got comfortable and I wold say it is safe to say we prayed with over thirty people today!! We got relief about one to eat lunch so we ate lunch for about an hour then and free time for about an hour. We then set up kidz klub and as kids started coming in I ran to the grocery store for some things for tomorrow. (Yes I did run away from the kids....) Right as I was getting back from the grocery store it was time to start working on preparing dinner. We made dinner and served it at six then it was free time until worship at eight. Sofia's talked about prayer tonight and it was great! She was super nervous and even cried several times before worship, but when she finally got up there she did a wonderful job!! Everyone told her how great it was! I only hope tomorrow I can do as great of a job. Everyone remember to pray for me at eight eastern time!! I'm not nervous yet, but I am sure I will be tomorrow! Okay so I swear I have pictures, but I have to wake up at 6:30 tomorrow so I'm headed to bed! When I get a free moment (maybe not until this weekend....) I will post this week's pictures! I love you all! Remember to "Pray as you go!" 

Campers are FINALLY Here!

So today was a big day for us! We woke up this morning and went to prayer meeting at 9:30 then Sunday School at 10 The church service started at 11 at continued until 1. Very long morning and the church service was not quite what I was used to so it seemed like it took a lot longer, but good nevertheless. The Pastor is really sweet so it makes it all worthwhile! Oh something cool...They have a Russian service here that starts at 9:30 and it is so awesome! It is totally rocking! They sing great contemporary songs, but of course in Russian. The weird thing is when you walk in you would swear you where in a Asian church service, but then you listen for a second and realize they are not speaking an Asian language. They are basically a large number of Koreans and some other Asian background, but they are all from countries that were a part of the Soviet Union so they can all speak Russian. Anyway their service is awesome and it was so cool to listen to them rock out. I wished that I could speak Russian so I could join in! After church we went to a diner and had lunch with Mark the intern. Then we took some crazy fun pictures with camera timers. I will post them when I get them on my computer. We then had to get set up for the campers to arrive here at the church. After we felt set up we had to run to the store yet again to finish getting things for tomorrow!! Guess what! We forgot somethings, so Stacy has to get up tomorrow and while we are cooking breakfast she has to go yet again!!! AHH!! You would think we would have gotte our acts together, but there is always something...The crazy thing is I don't think if we actually remembered while we were there it would help because we pretty much max out on what we can carry each and every time! After the grocery trip we came back and by this time (because it took us a really really long time! The store was packed I guess New Yorkers do their grocery shopping on Sunday...)campers had arrived!  Finally finally! It was so exciting! We got them situated and talked with them a bit and then prepared for worship. We had a great worship service! I think everyone enjoyed us making fools of ourselves in our silly skits! It was great fun! Then after worship we hung out with the kids until lights out. WE had a group meeting to make sure we all knew our duties for tomorrow. Pray for my group we are setting up prayer tables on street corners and praying with people!! I'm really excited, but also a little nervous. I feel like I'm the example for this and I've never even done it before!! So pray for me and my group! Now it is blogging and soon bed 7:30 will be very very early tomorrow!! Love you all! Thanks for reading!

A New Church and only one more day until campers!

Today was bright and early with a move to a new church! We drove to the new church, but it wasn't bad at all because on Saturday there is not nearly as much traffic on the roads! What that does mean is that there is no parking!!! So we drove around for fifteen minutes and finally found a spot about two blocks away. We got a tour of the church from Pastor Charlie then settled in and got ready to shop for food!!! It took us two trips to the grocery store to get all we needed. Okay and when I say all we needed I mean it took us two trips and as we were unloading we remembered that we had forgotten about four items. Oh and the groceries we did get will only last us one day....I guess the natives here may know of a better way then we do, but it seems that going to the grocery store would be such a pain. I already hate it and we have only been twice!!! You can't buy enough because there is no way to get it home!! We even had a cart thing, but it didn't hold enough. After traveling to the grocery store we headed to the $.99 store. Okay this was quite an adventure. I thought it would be like a Dollar General, but not quite there was stuff everywhere. Just thrown haphazardly. Very frustrating, but we got what we needed and got out. Also, I guess this is my small town roots showing through, but I'm so sick of being rushed around in this city!!! I feel like I'm rushed onto the subway, off of the subway, around the grocery store, across the streets. Okay, you get it now. I know it is probably a lifestyle you get used to, but right now it is just tiring. So we made it back to the church and we all took showers and got ready. We met this guy that is staying here at the church also this summer. He is actually interning for the summer in the city as a personal trainer or something. He knew someone that went to church here or something and knew they has an available room so he rented it out to do his internship. I think his name is Mark and I think he is from Texas. As you can tell we didn't talk to him long.... We decided to go to the Staten Island ferry because someone told us that it had an awesome view of the Statue of Liberty. Which it did and I will post pictures, but it is late now and I haven't put them on my computer yet. Sorry! The ferry was also very very cold. I did not pack properly for this weather. It has been cold and rainy the entire time we have been here. Hopefully it will warm up before too long though...After the ferry we walked around Wallstreet and took pictures by the bull. It started to rain so we headed back to the subway. We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn near where we are staying. Then it was back to the church to practice skits for tomorrow! Campers come tomorrow at 4:00 so be praying for us!!! Now it is bedtime. We have a full week coming up!!! Love you all!

A Few Pictures from our New York Days....

Above is my wonderful dessert from Max Brenner!

In Times Square!! This is Sarah!

In our VERY packed car! Poor things had to ride in the bckseat :(

Today Today!!

Okay, so I had to go buy internet again today so lucky you guys I get to post blogs!! Someone has decided to hack into my email account for school while I have been away!!! So I’m trying to fix that issue so I can get football tickets in a couple of weeks J! Auburn decided to shut down my whole internet account!! I will of course have issues if I can’t get it back running before June 29 (the first day I get to order tickets)!!! Today we are working on camp stuff. I know I know we are finally doing our job!! We have to work on skits, talks and food things. Hopefully, I can continue to get internet periodically to post blogs. I will try my best! If not, well I guess you guys will have a lot to read once I get in DC!!! I love you thanks for all your prayers God definitely answered them!  

A Few Things I have learned in the past few days.....

New York is busy then I imagined…

There are a few people nice here in the city….

If you are in Manhattan expect NOTHING to be cheap….

Not everywhere in New York has internet….

Sometimes Mom always makes things better (even if I was still crying when we hung I felt tons better J thanks so much!!!)….

Everything looks better in the morning even when you think it is the end…..

Friends can text you the exact right things even if they have no idea what is going on (yes Hannah I’m pretty sure I never even texted you back, but that verse was the best. I showed to my whole team and we all felt encouraged!! I love you!)

Girl time and shopping makes all things look a little better J (although I pretty much already knew that!)

Sometimes hearing that special voice on the other end of the line when you didn’t expect it lets you know the day is going to awesome J

I now appreciate being from the south because it takes me fifteen minutes or less to get anywhere in town in stead of hours….

God will always provide ALWAYS……

Of Course God provides!!

We had a long day ahead because of all our anticipation for our meeting at 2! We got up and headed to McDonalds for Internet and breakfast and then came back to Beth’s to get ready and head into the city. Sarah, Sofia, and I went in to Manhattan and met Sarah’s friend for lunch while Stacy had a meeting with another housing facility. We ate a wonderful lunch shopped around and impatiently waited for a phone call. A bit after lunch and coffee Stacy finally called and of course God provided once again as He always does!! Okay so some background….after we found out our bad news we pretty much called everyone and asked for prayer. That was also the deal with my post asking for prayer, We were really not sure what God wanted in this situation. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to stay where we were and make things do or what, so we bathed the situation in prayer and of course shopped until Stacy could meet with the other housing. When she called it was the best thing ever! She called and told us the church was in a super nice part of town (the other church was in a very dirty and little sketchy part of town) and had super nice facilities. A wonderful kitchen and worship center. Pretty much everything we could ask for and more! So we all thanked God and waited a bit to more until we could move out of the other church. While we were waiting for Stacy to situate everything Sarah, Sofia and I headed to Chinatown to do what else but shop to celebrate! Haha As you can tell we have taken full advantage of the wonderful New York shopping areas. We then headed to the church and moved out (oh just in time because after staying one night in the church we were informed that a group from Pennsylvania was moving in the next night) As we put our last bag in my car the group began to knock on the church door. God always has perfect timing J We headed over to Beth’s to stay another couple of nights because we can’t move into the new church until Saturday morning. It took about an hour to get from the church to Beth’s driving, We ordered Chinese and went down the street to a bakery for what else DESSERT! We ate chatted and listened to music. A perfect end to a wonderful day! 

A Brighter Day :)

The new day brought better hope! We woke up and Stacy contacted some other housing areas and got a meeting for Thursday at 2. It sounds very promising, so we are praying that it will turn out!! The place also has worksites for us, which is great!!! Stacy’s best friend and also our worship leader for the camp lives in NY and so we made out way back to Manhattan and had a wonderful day looking around the city and visiting with Beth. We ate at a diner (much more reasonably priced..) then walked to some great stores! We went to Macy’s and it was very very very crowded. Also, in this city there is no store that you can go into without having to wait in line for a dressing room and to check out. Everything is crowded….all restaurants, all stores, and all streets! We stopped by the Rockefeller Center and met some very nice people from West Virginia. J We chatted a bit and Beth told them some good places to eat. PS Beth works at Klinefeld’s Bridal store (the one on Say Yes to the Dress) so look out for her!! Then we took the Subway to a restaurant called Max Brenner. Okay this place is Heaven on earth!!!! It is a chocolate restaurant!! They have regular food, but they are known for their chocolate, which is oh so heavenly!! I had an amazing chocolate and peanut butter cake!! After dessert for dinner (PS we have dessert A LOT. I’m pretty much going to gain crazy amounts of weight after this summer!) We went back to the church to grab an over night bag because we had a slumber party at Beth’s. We grabbed our bags as quickly as possible and headed back to the subway. Okay, so we are girls, which means we carry massive amounts of clothes for overnight stays. What this also means is that we looked a lot like hobos on the subway. Not to mention by the time we got on the subway it was after eight. To add to this look we rode the subway for 2 HOURS!! In our two hours we ran into a few sketchy people (of course we are a few southerners on a subway so sketchy to us is just the norm for New Yorkers haha) and some couples saying goodnight. We got on a bit after eight and after 2 hours and 4 subway changes we finally made it to Beth’s. Let me also say that we were going from one part of Brooklyn to another not into Manhattan or anything…. It was frustrating, but I must say we laughed quite a bit and just made a night of it. We got to Beth’s and she had us Brooklyn style pizza waiting. It was awesome after our adventure! We watched a movie chatted and then went to bed. 

Not the arrival we expected.....

We found the church with no problems, but when we got there we didn’t anticipate all that would happen next. We arrived there at were let in and given a tour by the pastor’s wife. The pastor was not available because he was sick. The pastor had recently had surgery and was given morphine for 8 weeks. The weekend before we arrived was the time he was to stop taking the morphine and he was going through terrible withdrawals. Then as the pastor’s wife showed us around she showed us where we would sleep. The Sanctuary. This is not what we expected… When TEAMeffort made reservations they went to NY to meet with the pastor and he showed them around the facilities where we would be staying. There are three floors to the church and the second and third floor contain rooms with bunk beds and bathrooms with showers. Very nice facility. Well at some point between March and the time we arrived they got into trouble for housing volunteers on the floors with no fire escape. They now have to do several construction projects on their church to reach fire code. They did not inform us of this before we arrived and this is not the best situation. We decided to go outside and try to unpack a little and figure something out. When we got back to our car there was a ticket for $115!!! PS you cannot park within fifteen feet of a fire hydrant on the street (we parked about ten feet away from it….) We talked to some of the TEAMeffort office staff and decided to start looking for better housing in the morning (it was after six so we couldn’t get a hold of anyone that day) We were all stressing a bit, so we decided to go into Manhattan and eat dinner and look around. Try to take our minds off the situation. We had a lot of fun and paid WAY too much for dinner then headed back to the church to sleep. 

The Long Travel Days.....

There isn’t much to say about the days we spent traveling. We drove A LOT! It was ten and a half hours from Brunswick, GA to Washington DC. Our trip went very very smoothly. The best part of the trip was when we past this placed in South Carolina that was called South of the Border. It was so funny. It was very brightly colored and we had so much fun just taking pictures! We got into VA and got stuck in traffic for about an hour! We traveled less than 10 miles in I hour!! There was a wreck, but not a bad one it was just around five thirty so there was still so much rush hour traffic it took longer….. We arrived in VA (which is about 20 min. outside of DC) and we spent the night there at the church where we will be holding the DC camp in July. It was great fun! The pastor had arranged a cookout for us at one of the church member’s houses. They had a pool and Jacuzzi, which was a much-needed relaxation time! The next day we were on the road by 9:30 in an effort to miss all traffic. We drove for about four hours from DC to Brooklyn, NY. The traffic wasn’t bad at all so we made very good time.

SORRY EVERYONE!!!!

Hey! Sorry I haven't posted I have no internet here! We are buying McDonalds internet right now....I would post, but everyone has to use this net and we only have it for a short while. I will post. I promise I promise! You just might have a lot to read at once! I will post ASAP!! Love you all so much! VERY IMPORTANT: Today we have a meeting at 2:00 with a new housing facility (I will explain why when I post later) Please Please Pray for us at this meeting. We need a better place to stay....I know that sound shady, but it isn't as bad as it sounds. I love you all and I will explain all later! Thanks for Reading!

Oh what a beach day it was.

We woke up and hung out around the camp and then decided since we were just hanging out we would head to Jekyll Island. We walked around the shops and checked out the beach, but the Golden Isles crew had a meeting at 1:00 so we headed back to town. Our group ran to Wal-mart (As you can see Wal-mart is a staple in our lives…) to help out the other group. We then returned back here just in time for a downpour. We decided it was a good day for a movie, so we headed out to see what was on. We ended up splitting into groups. My group watched My Life in Ruins (very very cute and funny chick-flick) while a couple of others watched Land of the Lost. I’m pretty sure everyone in the movie theatre was laughing at our group and not at the actual movie because we were being so loud. We of course were the typical group of girls who laughed at every even remotely funny part and cried aaaawwweee at all the sweet moments. After movies we went out to dinner at a very cute restaurant in downtown Brunswick. It was the 4^th of May named after the three owner’s birthdays J. We went shopping in downtown Brunswick then headed over to St. Simons Island to look around a little. Then back to the camp because we were all pretty beat…. Only two more nights in the Golden Isles then off to NY!

Finding worksites isn’t as easy as you think……

 

We woke up this morning on a mission! We had to find worksites for the youth groups coming in on Sunday. We went to meet with a guy at a local church who has made up his mind to help out his community and make it a safer place. He had a list of several blocks and streets that he had scoped out as needing repairs and yard work. We rode around the town and looked at several places that were job sites we could handle. We then ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant that was quite possibly the worst Chinese restaurant that I have ever been to. We haven’t seen a restaurant so far that has higher than a 80 health rating if you can fathom that…. We returned back to Morning Star to rest up and wait on Stacy, my camp director, to arrive here. She finally got here, after much waiting and anticipation! We then all headed out. Stacy and my group went to Wal-mart while the other group visited more worksites. We then came back and played this really awesome game called Banana-grams!! It is so fun and I’m pretty sure we are all addicted!! It is a game of speed scrabble where each person has there own board and points aren’t kept. It is just the first person to run out of letter tiles. So we played several hours of that then headed to town to get internet and run to Wal-mart again. Bed time came and it was the end of a busy day. 

A few pictures...

The picture below is the pavilion where the Dragonfly is and where everyone will eat this summer!

This is the Dragon Fly set up. We decorated it :) It is where the guys in Brunswick will sell merchandise and candy and drinks and such! This isn't a very good picture, but you get the drift...

This is the staff for NY and DC! We look "ghetto" because we were doing a skit! No worries we don't always look like this!! haha!

First Bomb threat ever...

Yes, that is what we woke up to this morning, a bomb threat....The first one the Morning Star campus has ever had. We had to evacuate the campus and the people who evacuated us were not to happy because we had no clue what to do and so we sort of just walked around trying to figure it out. Meanwhile someone came and started fussing that we were not in a secure place.... Well after about an hour we got to return to our facilities and we ate breakfast and got started working! We had to trailers to clean out. These trailers are where the campers will sleep and they had not been used in awhile so they had to have a full scrub down. They were so so dirty! It took us hours! Now they look great, well compared at least.... Then we hung out Sarah and I went to find somewhere she could get her haircut. It looks very cute now :) Then the bottom fell out and we got completely soaking wet!! We got in the shower because we were sooo cold! Then I cooked dinner for everyone :) Fettucini Alfredo!  Okay so it was really spaghetti noodles with alfredo sauce so I'm not sure if it counts, but I was working with what I had!! Then it was off to get internet of course haha! Tomorrow we are supposed to have internet at Morning Star. We will see how that goes.... 

Okay so I will tell you what the deal is with Morning Star because I'm not sure if I have explained it yet or not. Morning Star is where we and the youth groups will be staying. We don't necessarily do any work there we just rent out rooms. They might help out a bit around the campus some, but not much. They will work more in the community. Mornig Star is a safe place to live for kids, anywhere from small kids to high school age kids, that have an IQ below 70 (most around 50) that have at one point in their lives been sexually, mentally, or physically abused. The courts have found their parents unfit to keep the kids so this is a place they can go to live and to have school. 

Stacy, my camp director for NY and DC, comes in tomorrow around lunchtime so that will be grand! The sooner she gets here the sooner we get to head to NY!!!

PS. I hope this is a little better Mom and Jana!! 

I love you all!! Pray for me and my staff!!