And...We're off!

Let me begin by saying, He is Risen!  Happy Easter Everyone!

In addition to this being the most important day for our faith, it is a very important day in the lives of 36 youth and leaders who are going to Ganado, Arizona, for our short term mission project.  We leave after first service this fine Easter morning and even though we have approximately twelve hours of driving ahead of us today, I am up an hour before my alarm clock says I should be.  Like the boy in the Disneyland commercial years ago, "I'm too excited to sleep!"

We will have to wait and see this tomorrow.

For all of our planning and preparations we have been rewarded with detours and hiccups.  Despite list after list of who's who for the Ganado trip, some of the players have changed.  There have been additions and substitutions, injuries and school troubles, illnesses and cleared schedules...and with all of the juggling and rearranging we are faithful that this final list is representative of precisely who is supposed to go.  It is quite often the case that people do not realize why exactly they have gone on a trip like this until they are actually on it.  The last trip I went on, people said as much.  One person even stating, "I wasn't quite sure why I was supposed to go, or even if I was supposed to go, but I know now!"  I am hopeful that I will be able to relay some of what people are sharing from this trip.  Our schedule is pretty tight and we are going to be exhausted (I'm sure) but I have committed to being the liaison via this blog so everyone will know a small portion of what we are accomplishing, the relationships we are building, and the fun we are having!

In approximately five hours at 10:30 A.M. we will load into three rented vans, "Blanca Beauty", "Milkman", and (a player to be named later) and begin the travel toward Kingman, Arizona, for the first stop on our trip.  I had written before that the church we were planning on staying at could not host us this time and we had no alternative.  We kept planning, praying, and preparing to stop in Kingman without any hesitation.  Even when we hadn't heard back from any of the other churches we asked we pressed on.  Then one day we heard back from ALL of the churches we asked within 45 minutes of each other...all of them offered to host us for our trip.  See, no problem for those who have faith.  It all worked out.

One of the beautiful windows in the church.

At approximately eleven o'clock tonight, after too many miles, hours, and bathroom stops to mention, we will fall asleep in the gym of a church in Kingman.  After too short a night's rest, we will get up, load up, and continue on to the Presbyterian mission, in the Navajo Reservation, at Ganado, Arizona.  We appreciate all of your prayers for safety and good travel and we are looking forward to a week that will fly by, I'm certain, much too quickly.