l can't believe that it's over........but is it really????

So we haven't talked since wednesday night and we have a lot to share with you.  Starting on thursday morning with the morning run it was discovered that the weather was amazing again, thanks for the prayers for that to happen.  The work groups went out to most of the same places from wednesday except for 'Invasion' who went to an elementary school to help out with the summer work of moving furniture.  At the adult meeting in the evening there were so many stories of how great the kids did at work groups, vbs, and everywhere else we went to.  

Many funny stories were shared and we could have kept talking about how the kids really pulled it together and finished projects that didn't look like they could have been finished.  Thursday evening for dinner the community and church members were invited for a cookout and we all enjoyed hamburgers, hotdogs, pasta salad and chips along with the special treat of soda.  We also enjoyed a great game of ultimate frisbee for the second time of the week, which a couple of our adult leaders really really enjoyed. We ended frisbee and said our goodbyes to the people we had met throughout the week and that realization that this was the last night started sinking in as we headed into our evening club time. Club time was a little more emotional than usual with everyone starting to look toward the future and what would happen after we left Taylorsville.  We were realizing that our special time together was over and we would be leaving and going back to "real life" and that is usually a hard thing for so many kids and adults.  But I pray that instead of this being the end of our fun time together we can realize that our time is not over and instead our time is just beginning.  This is about to be the beginning of us going back to our lives and have our chance to share with everyone else who wasn't with us what kind of experience we had and why we went on the trip and our chance to share Christ with them.

After club time we were able to do a little stargazing outside and since these FL kids don't get to see that very often it was a nice treat.  Everyone got some much needed rest, maybe not enough, and we were up and ready to start our day at 6:30am on friday.

l guess that brings us to today.  Waking up at 6:30am and first thing was to pack our stuff into all of our vans and just hope that you packed everything you brought and find out later if you did.  The youthworks staff got us all together for a huge cleaning party, which was a hoot, and all the kids and adults cleaned our entire site in no time at all.  Then it was time to really say goodbye to the other church group and our incredibly amazing youthworks staff.  Some may wonder how it could be so hard to say goodbye after spending only 5 days with someone but when it is under these circumstances you can get to know someone very quickly.  Our youthworks staff took great care with all of our kids and knowing that they would take care of us made it easier as an adult for the week.  We give up a week of our year to be here and do this, but those staff members give up their whole summer to be doing this and that is an incredible sacrifice but l am so thankful for people like them so that we can have this sort of experience.
Anyways we took a very relaxing route to get to the Charlotte, SC area where we are staying for the next two nights.  We were able to stop at Starbucks AND Dunkin' Donuts and a little bagel cafe.  We arrived at Carowinds wilderness lodge camp ground area and got checked in a little early and spent the afternoon going out for lunch at various fast food venues and then relaxing/napping in our cabins.  Tonights dinner will consist of six different items and one item will be prepared by each cabin.  After dinner we'll have evening devotions and family group time and head off to bed to get ready for a fun day at Carowinds tomorrow.

Thank you for all the prayers and l can say that every single request was answered and we were very thankful for that.  l ask for continued prayers of safety and fun and to give the kids a chance to focus on what has happened in the past week and what going home will mean for them.


QOTD

"Rhonda we need to pull over cause our whole van is crying"


POTD

No one can ever guess what will happen out here
Only God knows what the plan is
The kids had their eyes opened in so many ways
Our Youthworks staff was absolutely amazing!!!!!!
Very much exhausted from the week, but still going
Every memory will be cherished
Ready, set, let's go spread the word