2-4-1 bonus blog.......

Tuesday

Everyone woke up to a waffle breakfast that was just what we needed to start our hard day of work. Individual morning devotions set the theme for the whole day "Step In". The workgroups set out afterwards at about 8:30 to their worksites. The work for today was mostly finishing up yesterdays jobs. The floor was finally finished at the habitat for humanities home, and the other group finished up splitting wood, digging a duck pond and also bushwhacking. After a much needed shower we came back to church to leave once to a backyard water park. Everyone had a great time together hanging out and bonding with the other church (Good Shepherd). For dinner was a delicious pizza party and some lovely brownies made by our youthworks cook. Club was awesome! We sang a whole bunch of our favorite songs and talked about how to "step in" like jesus stepped in for us.  We finished off the night with family group time and a special treat in the form of delicious brownies!!!

Wednesday

WOW, you could tell we have been doing some hard work when the wake ups started today.  Almost everyone was a little bit slower to get out of bed and walk around.  The weather was a wonderful surprise today!!!!  lt was much cooler today than the last couple days and we had a nice breeze all day long.  l think the weather helped make the change of jobs go a little smoother today.  Everyone was changing jobs today.....Avalon Farms workers slowed down their pace a little bit.....Kids club workers got a little busier.....Habitat workers, well to be honest l am not sure what happened to them but l am sure they still had a good day.

Finishing up our work time involved trips to Mcdonalds and apparently a stop with someone making some homemade ice cream.  We got all showered up and headed over to an apple orchard for a slight uphill walk that went up and up and up, but at the top it was so worth the trip.  You could tell when we were getting to the tip because you could here each person pause and give their gasp of awe at the scenery that was set before them.  We took several pictures of groups, all groups of people that could pair together.  Many of the kids started heading back down and a small group of about 20 kinda lingered around and had 30 sec of silence and all that was heard was the wind and trees and it was an even more beautiful sight.(l promise that pictures will get put up but it is taking some time with the downloading process and to get through them)

There was some good stargazing going on and everyone was sitting around talking outside and just enjoying the wonderful weather, which to some Floridians was sweatshirt weather!!!  Now with Wednesday done we are waking up to thursday tomorrow.  This is the last full day of our week to be together and will be our last day of work groups.  

Some prayer requests would be for us to have the energy to finish out the last full day strong and with more effort put forth than any other day; for the weather to be amazing again; for us to finish some projects; and also a prayer request for the kids to realize that our time is ending and to try to get the most out of every opportunity that presents itself.

QOTD

"So have l showed you the video of the gorilla war yet"

POTD

So here we are coming closer to the end

Kids are all over with excitement

Everyone was in awe looking out over the mountain 

The stars were out in full force

Closing down the night with some good talks

How could we ever think of leaving such an amazing event as this

Still we must realize that it will come to an end

Lots of preparation must be made for our return

I don't know what will happen

Definitely lots of prayers will be needed

Exhausted but still going

Work Day #1

The morning running crew had an early start this morning with their five mile run at 5:20 this morning. Everyone else started their day at about 6:30 for a lovely breakfast of cereal, hard-boiled eggs, fruit and toast. Individual devotions kick started this morning off with personal reflection time.  The work groups did a short orientation to learn about the things we were about to work on for the day.  We left St. Luke's church in our separate vans in route for our service projects.

One group went to Habitat for Humanities and helped take part in building a home for an elderly couple. The group worked on constructing the foundation.

 Another group worked at Avalon Farm, some people weeded while others split wood. The big project was digging a duck pond for the 6 ducks.  Some new skills were learned today at all sites.

The kids camp group started off with flying colors and they had an amazing time playing with the kids and spreading the word to the little ones. Then after nice cool showers we all headed over to a cowboy church, where a live band performed (with a banjo) and the Pastor spoke about being lost and found. The congregation was very welcoming and even fed the whole group hot dogs and watermelon.  We made it back to St Luke after cowboy church in time for some oreos and milk for snack time and then jumped straight into club and then family group time.  Then all of a sudden it was already time for lights out.  Tomorrow the groups will be going to the same jobs we had today and very excited for more stories.  

Some prayer requests from today would be for a breeze in the air for the groups working outdoors; For our two church groups to continue to bond and continued safety; for the days to slow down or for more hrs to be added into each day.

QOTD

"We should cook Emily"

(don't worry, we did not follow through with this)

POTD

We have got one day down

Hot Hot Hot it was

Exciting first day of work

Ready for a nap

Eric is awesome

Sunburn. . . .

Monday fun-day it was 

Youthworks is great

Jeannelle is awesome

On our way to cowboy church

Evening devotions are done so have a good night

Sunday night arrival

lt was an early morning wake up in Peachtree City so we could have our stuff packed up before 8am service.  The kids did a great job getting everything packed up and getting it all cleaned up.  l would say no one could even tell that we stayed there except that you would have noticed 48 extra people sitting around waiting for church to start and the fact that we more than doubled the attendance for the early service.  We were blessed to hear the very first sermon by their new pastor and it felt like they are in very good hands for the future.

We got on the road and stopped at a National Park in South Carolina for lunch where we made sandwiches and had a chance to relax with some beautiful scenery and explore a little bit of nature with the walking trails.

 After lunch we continued on into our destination state and found a nice warm welcome waiting for us at St Luke Lutheran Church in Taylorsville.  We spent the next several hours busy unpacking vans, setting up the sleeping quarters, playing on the swing set and meeting people from the other group.  Dinner was a wonderful spread of pulled pork, mac n cheese, baked beans and salad.  Finishing off the night with club time, which is like a large group praise/devo time and then split up into family/small group time.

 What a long couple days leading up to us getting here and we are glad to have arrived safely and are thankful for all the prayers so far and look forward the week.  For now we bid you goodnight as we need our rest and jump right into the week full swing at 7am tomorrow.

QOTD

"Why did we not bring any cheese balls"

POTD

Forty-eight went on a trip
Into the blue Ridge mountains
Ready to spread the word throughout
Everywhere we went
Forty-eight went on a trip
Loving the low humidity
Into NC we went
Enough excitement for one day
Sleep sleep sleep we all go now

Just a quick update....

We have arrived at our church home in Taylorsville, NC.  We are busy unloading bags and setting up our sleeping quarters and meeting the staff and other group we are staying with.  There will be a full update of our day later tonight.

Saturday Travel

Well we had quite the day of travel.....leaving St. Lukes at 8am and arrived at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Peachtree city, GA at 5pm.  We had plenty of stops on the way and everyone enjoyed lots of music and singing along the way.  Upon arrival to St. Paul we had some much needed running around time playing soccer with some kids from the area and enjoyed a good buffet of pizza and salad.  Finally finishing off the night with some large group devotion time and family group time.  We will be waking up for 8am church and then packing back up in the vans and headed to Taylorsville, NC to start our week with the Youthworks staff that is there and waiting for us.  

Thank you for all the prayers for safe travels.

And don't forget we have the Quote of the Day (QOTD) and Poem of the Day (POTD) !!!!

QOTD

"Get your cheese out of my vents"

POTD

The meeting time was 730am
How come you have to go to the bathroom again
Everyone cramming into vans
Peachtree city is the overnight stop
Til we get to the stop for the week
Coming tomorrow will be more fun, fun, fun

Getting Started

Good Morning from van #4,
We are on the road to Peachtree City, Georgia!! It's amazing all these kid got up at 7:00am to head off. It'll be about an eight hour journey ahead of us and the amount of excitement is incredible!!

We are heading to North Carolina!

St. Luke’s is blessed to have 41 youth and 7 adult mentors traveling to Taylorsville, NC for our annual summer mission trip from July 12-20.  There is NOTHING like spending a week away with your Christian brothers and sisters in service to others.  This summer, high school students have the opportunity to spend a week in the rural setting in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

We will be working with YouthWorks while in Taylorsville. They have been present in the community since 2006 and have built strong relationships with its members. Our group will focus on two primary areas of ministry: children and community service organizations. Our work with children consists of a hands-on afternoon program, known as Kids Club. Kids Club offers high-energy games, crafts, skits, songs and interactive lessons all designed to help kids learn about Jesus.  Community organizations could be Salvation Army, Goodwill, senior living communities, etc.


Thank you all so much for supporting our youth and helping to make this trip possible.  Please keep this group in your prayers for safe travel.