We made it!
Day one at the mission is winding down and we are settling in to a long (ha ha) night's sleep before we get up to be at chapel at 7:30 sharp. Following the long days of driving that we've had I wouldn't be surprised if some of the teenagers wanted the 7:30 to be pm and not am.
Actually, that is unfair. I am ceaselessly impressed with the youth that choose to give up their free time to go on a mission trip and do work for the Kingdom of God. Together we endured, eighteen plus hours of driving, potty breaks (that even included one on the side of the road), motion sickness, spending the first night in a strange place, robotic cigar selling statues, exploding shoe polish bottles, windshield caking bug storms, and even impromptu karaoke battles on walkie talkies! And even with all of that, when we drove up and met with the advance team who surveyed the jobs to be done, these awesome high schoolers jumped at the chance to scrub a bathroom, move furniture, sweep, and wipe construction debris off of the beds we were to use. I was ready for a nap and these kids leapt at the chance to help. When they asked for four volunteers, fourteen hands went up! I would say that I was surprised but I am becoming more accustomed to awesomeness.
As I lay here on my bunk trying to process the events of the day and condense them into a hopefully coherent account of our trip, I am struck by how the bunk seems to be moving a bit. Nobody is in the top bunk yet (and it would take a winch and some scaffolding to get me up there) but still the bed is swaying. I think it is similar to having spent the day on a boat...when you get onto land again it takes a while to not feel the waves. Possibly related to that, two of our travelers are feeling a little under the weather. They are being taken care if by a mom, a grandmother, and our emt...not necessarily in that order. If it was anything serious we would have called, no worries.
We met with pastor Audrey and she welcomed us with open arms. The group was given a bit of a lesson about the culture, their needs, and some of the nuts and bolts of a mission trip. We all had about a half hour of free time before dinner. Tonight we were fed "Navajo Tacos" by Cheryl, the pastor's daughter. If I were mean spirited and I wanted you to feel bad, I would mention that you should be angry that you didn't get to experience these treats! In the interest of public relations, I will simply say they were yummy.
After dinner and a little cleanup time we had our first chapel time. The band led songs, Matt discussed some of the do's and don'ts, and Rachael led us in the first discussion of Love is... (our theme for the week) She talked about the difference between the Bible and Webster's definition of love. We all agreed, the Bible won the definition contest.
And finally, I had asked all the leaders to keep their eyes open and tell me about things that might be interesting to folks back home. I was inundated with funny things that happened in the vans on the way here...and I promptly forgot most of them. One story, however, stuck in my memory. We were all wearing our matching t-shirts on day one. A few people went out to the vans to get breakfast ready for us when they met a lady allowing her dogs to...ahem...do their business. The sight of everyone wearing the same shirt caught her eye. She looked over, mentioned the shirts, and then asked if we had "just come back from The Price Is Right!" There in the middle of the California desert, confronted by matching shirts, and this woman made the leap to game show contestants. They explained our purpose and she went about her business since the dogs were done with theirs. I'm disappointed though...I wanted to play Plinko!
Day one at the mission is winding down and we are settling in to a long (ha ha) night's sleep before we get up to be at chapel at 7:30 sharp. Following the long days of driving that we've had I wouldn't be surprised if some of the teenagers wanted the 7:30 to be pm and not am.
Actually, that is unfair. I am ceaselessly impressed with the youth that choose to give up their free time to go on a mission trip and do work for the Kingdom of God. Together we endured, eighteen plus hours of driving, potty breaks (that even included one on the side of the road), motion sickness, spending the first night in a strange place, robotic cigar selling statues, exploding shoe polish bottles, windshield caking bug storms, and even impromptu karaoke battles on walkie talkies! And even with all of that, when we drove up and met with the advance team who surveyed the jobs to be done, these awesome high schoolers jumped at the chance to scrub a bathroom, move furniture, sweep, and wipe construction debris off of the beds we were to use. I was ready for a nap and these kids leapt at the chance to help. When they asked for four volunteers, fourteen hands went up! I would say that I was surprised but I am becoming more accustomed to awesomeness.
As I lay here on my bunk trying to process the events of the day and condense them into a hopefully coherent account of our trip, I am struck by how the bunk seems to be moving a bit. Nobody is in the top bunk yet (and it would take a winch and some scaffolding to get me up there) but still the bed is swaying. I think it is similar to having spent the day on a boat...when you get onto land again it takes a while to not feel the waves. Possibly related to that, two of our travelers are feeling a little under the weather. They are being taken care if by a mom, a grandmother, and our emt...not necessarily in that order. If it was anything serious we would have called, no worries.
We met with pastor Audrey and she welcomed us with open arms. The group was given a bit of a lesson about the culture, their needs, and some of the nuts and bolts of a mission trip. We all had about a half hour of free time before dinner. Tonight we were fed "Navajo Tacos" by Cheryl, the pastor's daughter. If I were mean spirited and I wanted you to feel bad, I would mention that you should be angry that you didn't get to experience these treats! In the interest of public relations, I will simply say they were yummy.
After dinner and a little cleanup time we had our first chapel time. The band led songs, Matt discussed some of the do's and don'ts, and Rachael led us in the first discussion of Love is... (our theme for the week) She talked about the difference between the Bible and Webster's definition of love. We all agreed, the Bible won the definition contest.
And finally, I had asked all the leaders to keep their eyes open and tell me about things that might be interesting to folks back home. I was inundated with funny things that happened in the vans on the way here...and I promptly forgot most of them. One story, however, stuck in my memory. We were all wearing our matching t-shirts on day one. A few people went out to the vans to get breakfast ready for us when they met a lady allowing her dogs to...ahem...do their business. The sight of everyone wearing the same shirt caught her eye. She looked over, mentioned the shirts, and then asked if we had "just come back from The Price Is Right!" There in the middle of the California desert, confronted by matching shirts, and this woman made the leap to game show contestants. They explained our purpose and she went about her business since the dogs were done with theirs. I'm disappointed though...I wanted to play Plinko!
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