So now I must say farewell. ReCreation 2011 is over. I’m exhausted and so is everyone else. We’ve meet some of the greatest people on any mission trip, visited a hospital, Re-roofed a house, Painted, hammered, planted, White water rafted, Shouted (a lot), Scared every other group, and most importantly learned about serving and grew closer to our creator. This trip has been a awesome end to our summer mission program. After Rush Week David will post a recap of the summers adventures. Thanks for reading! -Alex Confer

Getting back to base we were greeted by hamburgers and hot dogs! They tasted extra good! This is where I have to apologize. I’ve forgotten to mention worship all week! ReCreation worship is very different then anything I’ve ever seen. Basically we worship God with movement, dancing and lots of noise. You might ask how that works. Well basically they play a song from a CD and we sing along and dance! And by dance I mean really dance! You are drenched in sweet at the end of it. Imagine 280 people jumping as hard as they can in a gym with no AC. Ya it’s hot. Well today they decided to film it for the first time. It was crazy!! Language is only one way to worship God. We certainly found another way!

After worship we went outside to play games. One game being frisbee. During this game LeAnne was hit in the head. She was fine at first and no one thought anything of it. We soon loaded the buses to go get desert and do our daily devotion at Cookout. They just so happened to have a very small parking lot and we had a very large bus. In the process of parking we tapped our back bumper to another car. Luckily there was very little damage to none. But we still decided to switch insurance information. While everyone was enjoying milkshakes and the adults of the trip handled the accident, LeAnne started to get a severe headache. It soon became evident that she should probably see a doctor. So we loaded up and drove to the ER. I have to say driving through downtown Asheville on a Friday night to the hospital is not very fun. I wouldn’t suggest it. Audra, Amy, David, and Lauren stayed with LeAnne at the hospital. We got back to base at 10:30. By 3:45 AM LeAnne had the all clear to head back. She had a minor concussion. I am happy to say she is doing great! We all got to hug it out this morning with smiles.

So now we are heading back home and planing on arriving around 10:00 tonight.

Now this brings us to a point I hinted at in a previous post. Who is serving who? The executive director here at ReCreation spoke this morning about John 13:1-17. In this passage Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. Often times we come into mission trips thinking of ourselves as the better man. Believing that I’m the good guy from Winter Park coming to serve the poor man in North Carolina. Thinking that it is he who needs my help. However, this is not what Jesus meant by washing his disciples feet. We can not lower ourselves to help others or regard ourselves as higher. We are all equal. As we are being taught and molded by the kids we came to serve, we ourselves are being served. We are getting as much in return as this family will from a new roof and better looking house. If we see the house work as the most important aspect of this trip, then we are not washing the feet of our fellow man. Thus we have failed. I can say with pride this is not the case with our high school group or adults. Many of us may have come into this trip planing on serving the less fortunate only to be served by those “under us.” We all have dirty feet and they’re in need of cleaning.

A question arose at the start of the week. It’s a question asked frequently in the church. “Why do we send out mission teams? Wouldn’t it be better to use the money and hire locals? Then we can help the economy too?” Below are two thank you notes from Madison. I think those should help answer that question.

David said I should sign the post at the end so I guess I will. But I don’t really know how so here’s my best shot: Hi I’m Alex Confer and I wrote this.

Now Something else also happened today. The area we are working in is owned by one big family. Somehow they are all related. Well all the kids started to join in on the fun. They are all cousins and love being with each other. We invited them to help plant some flowers and before long everyone had a paint brush in their hand. With the guidance of our group we all painted the back of the house. Soon Bronson, 9 years old, decided to become boss. Him and Richard, or witichard as he called him, had a perfectly smooth coat. After a quick glance at my section, which still had plenty of white, I was fired. Somehow though Lauren, Peyton, Richard, and Justin all made it to high ranks. I think the system was rigged. But it’s alright! At our debriefing tonight it became clear working with the children played a major role in everyone’s day. For many it was by far the highlight of their day. Just talking to them made such a major impact on us. The line of who’s serving who has been blurred. The work starts to lose meaning and the true reason we are all here is starting to become evident….

Once on base we ate dinner which included Pizza, Salad and an ice cream sandwich. Right after dinner we got our first assignment! We are finishing up a roofing job and then painting the house. We don’t know much more then that at this point. Tomorrow’s blog post will go over what we are doing in depth.

After our meeting we headed out to Walmart! Supplies such as paint brushes had to be purchased. Kyle Brown, Erik Wintercamp and Justin Mang decided to commence “Operation Arctic Storm.” The mission involved buying two coolers and sodas. Tomorrow they are hoping for ice cold drinks. We’ll see. Bridget and Ally got some serious shopping done. From the looks of it they found some groovy shirts.

Ok this brings to close our first night’s blog! Tomorrow will bring many new challenges for many of us who have never served in the mission field before.

Be sure to keep up with our buses GPS position at http://elevatesm.org/Short/c

But wait! There’s more! With this trip we will be keeping everyone well informed with what’s going on. Each night we will update this blog right here with the day’s activities and news. We will also be carrying around a GPS tracker that you can watch here: (http://elevatesm.org/Short/c) We will have it in the bus and it will update every 10 minutes. Join our facebook page too. There we will be putting pictures up when we can of the work site. (http://facebook.com/elevatesm). Feel free to comment on a blog post and we’ll read them out to the team!

No seriously. some of you may have already heard about adventurous journey up to alabama for those of you haven’t let me fill you in. we started our trip like any other mission trip. We loaded the bus at 6 am. We were making great time until about Lake City when we stopped for gas. While filling up we noticed the tires were a little bit low on air so we got them refilled. About 4 miles down the road one of our newly filled tires decided to not work anymore and exploded. Luckily it was the inside of the 2 tires on the back right so we still had a tire that we were able to drive on, albeit very slowly. With a little bit of help from Florida Highway Patrol and our smartphones, we located tire shop about 6 miles down the road. We slowly crept along until we got to Murray Tire.  There a nice gentleman named Joey changed all 4 of our back tires and sent us on our way. We were about 2 hours behind schedule but everything was good right ? Wrong. About 2 more hours down the road are transmission decided to act up on us. You know the whole thing were you push the pedal all the way to the floor in you can’t go over 50? Yeah that happened.

After a few stops to turn off and restart the engine we determined it was the cruise control acting up so we drove manually the rest of the way. We arrived at SIFAT at 8 pm eastern time, a full 14 hours after our journey began. We were tired, we were smelly, we were hot, we were exhausted and all we want to do was take a shower, change our clothes, and get something to eat. However, the staff here had other plans. We were told to pack all the stuff that we thought we would need for the next 24 hours or more and fit it all into a small potato sack. No showers, no food, no change of clothes, just as we were.

We then spent the next 2 days in an environment that challenged our physical, emotional, spiritual, hygiene, and dietary needs. I don’t wanna give too much away because this was an experience full of twists and turns, and is very much so a personal journey. But I can say this has been a life changing and eye opening experience for adults and students alike. We are having a wonderful time here at SIFAT, and we know that God is using the challenges in front of us, both presented here on campus, and all the way up as an opportunity for growth. For that we are so grateful. We now also have a new appreciation for showers and toothbrushes! We will try to blog as much as we can, but cell phone service is spotty at best. We hope and pray that all of you are well and we cannot wait to return and share our experiences with you. We love you all very much.

It was an epic, awesome, amazing, stellar, special, fun, growing, outrageous, scary-at-times, took-me-out-of-my-comfort-zone but still rockin’ and breath-taking week! Thank you God.”

Then we had free time to play ultimate frisbee, volleyball and cards. Lunch was delivered by Jason’s and we picnicked on the “lawn”.

Jayne joined us with Amazing Austin Coye And Marvelous Matt Eagle for worship and communion. Matt and Austin sounded beautiful. Thanks to both of you. We all served one another communion and was a wonderful way to tie in our service and communion thanks, Jayne!

Our youth delivered the sermon themselves. They got up one by one and talked about how serving impacted them this week. Some talked about how nice the homeless people were and how they didn’t realize that the homeless kids looked just like them. Others talked about when we have alot it’s important to share with those who have little. Someone mentioned that no matter how weak we are, God will give us strength we need. And another talked about how nervous they were to ride the bus. He talked about how God showed up when the man who sat next to him on the bus started praying in Greek/Latin and he knew God was with us on our trip. There were others who also shared Heart felt stories of how God moved in their life this week.

Thank you to all of you spoke. Thank you to also those of you who didn’t get up to share your stories in front of the group- God hears your stories even when you don’t say them out loud. Like Jayne said, consider sharing your stories with your loved ones. It was a lovely service that spoke of God’s wonderful blessings this week.

We had a blast cleaning up and letting loose during free time in the gym. Lots of guessing about our mystery outing—BOWLING!!!! At Aloma bowl. Gotta go. They are all waiting. Strike!

The sign makers and sign holders worked the busy corner. The were awesome.

Such a great group. After a long day of serving at IHN and covenant house, painting, car washing, etc, they still take time to meet in small groups.

We will be updating periodically, so be sure to check back!

I hope this e-mail tonight finds you all doing well. I realize that many of you were not able to make it to ELEVATE this evening. Word has probably spread to some degree but I wanted to let everyone know that in March I will be resigning as Director of Student Ministries. It has been a phenomenal 6 years to be with you all and there are memories and faith stories that will never cease to be part of who I am. You have each impacted me in more ways than you know and it has been a true honor to work and serve with each of you students and parents in different ways. I have seen many of you grow and mature, not just physically but more importantly in your walk with Christ. We serve an amazing, loving and merciful God who is at work in each of our lives and who provides for and directs each one of us. I truly feel as if God has called and directed me to this next chapter in my life in ministry and that He will continue to provide for us all.

Keri and I will be moving to Homewood, AL where I will be the Young Adult Minister at Dawson Family of Faith Church. This decision is one that has been surrounded by prayer, wise council, and discernment. We truly feel God’s call on our lives to join this community in ministry. While we are excited about this move for our family, we are also sad because FUMCWP has been our church home where we have raised our children for the past 5 years. We have built many life long relationships here and this church has become so dear to our hearts.

This is not a goodbye e-mail by any means as we will be here through March 13th and look forward to this next month with you all. If there is a time you would like to get together, I would welcome and treasure that time.

-Andy Cartee

On to more important things. SIFAT was an absolutely amazing experience. This year’s group was our “guinea pig” group. After having experienced SIFAT, my opinion is that all students should participate in this experience at least once, and that the church as a whole adopt more in-depth (more SIFAT-esq) training for all mission trips being sent out from the church. I call the trip an experience because that’s exactly what it is…we experienced different cultures and had a taste of what life is like for people around the world, and most importantly, we had a glimpse of what mission trips can look like from the receiving end. It really makes you think about what you do and how you do it, in terms of serving on a mission trip.

I don’t want to get too detailed for a couple of reasons: 1) if you have a student that went on the trip, you should really hear about the trip from their perspective and not from a blog post and; 2) if you are considering participating in SIFAT in a coming year, I don’t want to give too much away and ruin the experience for you. But I will share some of the more notable lessons that I learned while there.

What we consider “helping” can sometimes actually be doing more harm than good. Take, for instance, a street beggar in a 3rd world slum…an american missionary comes in, sees the beggar and has pity on them. So what do they do? They give that person the sandwich that they had brought for lunch that day. Seems like a good idea right? Well, what about the lady who makes her living by selling food just a few houses down? When the missionary “helped” the beggar by giving them some food, the lady who’s selling food loses business. It might not seem like a big deal, but for someone who’s just scraping by, the loss of just a customer or 2 can mean the difference between eating or not that night. Another way to go about this would have been for the missionary to purchase some food from the local business woman to give to the beggar. Simple things that we don’t give much thought to can make all the difference in the world. We just need to be careful when we are “bringing God” to places that we actually think through HOW we will be doing that, otherwise people might get a false sense of who this God is anyways.

In America we are so spoiled with our jobs. I know it might be a touchy subject right now considering the economy, but for a lot of Americans, we have jobs (and pretty comfortable ones at that). A lot of the time we take them for granted too. We complain about “long” hours, we complain about uncomfy chairs, and the jerk who works adjacent to us, but for many people around the world, they are so happy just to have a job for the day. We did some jobs that were physically demanding and we got paid our “daily wage” from them, which we took back to our families so we could buy food to feed them that night. When having a job that day means food on the table, and not having one means going hungry…when it’s that closely tied…not “I have some rainy day funds in the bank, so I’m good for a few weeks or months”, but when today matters for tonight, you are soooo happy just to have a job. Even when it’s physically exhausting and you come home completely wiped out.

If there was a general trend of the week, I would say that it was the entitlement breaking away. All of the “I want…”, “I need…”, “I should get…” type of statements or thoughts began to disappear. Some of the week was very difficult and they were working hard, but I heard very few, if any, complaints.

The last thing I’ll share is this. We were in RURAL Alabama. We were in relatively unspoiled creation. Our worship location, called the Quonset Hut, had bay doors that opened up behind the stage. The view was overlooking mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking. In fact one morning, Nate, the leader of the camp, had us just sit and enjoy God’s creation. There’s something about being in the woods, something about being surrounded by lots of trees, something about being rained on, something about getting your water that you use from a stream that connects you with God. You’re connecting with the creator of all of this, and I loved it!

Well….. we are driving back from NC and will be in late tonight. What an incredible week.  I am not even sure if the word Incredible can adequately explain this week. God has been so faithful and worked so powerfully through our group this week.  Yesterday was our final day of work.  We were not able to finish our roof unfortunately because the recreation folks did not bring enough shingles.  We were a little disappointed but came to the conclusion that it was not about us and that another group would come in and finish up the work.  The roof was a beast to work on.  The angle and landscape made it very difficult but we made it work.

Amy Vance was fearless and was scaling a ladder that was almost perpendicular to the ground over 10 feet.  Alex, Chris (AKA Steve), and myself had to hold the ladder for safety.  It was funny that while we were working on the roof the group that had been running septic lines up a mountain worked there way close to the house.  We were all quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  We have decided that we are all going to get together and have a Monty Python party since several people have not seen it.  We all voted to have it at “Steves” house….. although Austin said he did not want us to because he would have to clean up.  Thanks Robin…. we are looking forward to coming over even th0ough you were unaware of that decision!!  I cant wait for you all to see the pictures of the house and especially the septic line that a lot of our students worked on all week.  It literally was a long line up a mountain to a drainage field that our students dug.  It was not sand like we have in florida but clay and stone.  One of the aspects of our groups assignment this year was that it was the biggest jobs ReCreation has ever had.  It was a collaboration of many organizations both non profit and government.  In fact, yesterday all of the different heads of the groups (15 people) showed up at the sight to see what was going on and discuss strategies for all of the other details that needed to take place to complete Mr. Hughes house.  Tracy Ball was walking by the group in their discussion and they invited her to join them in praying over this house.  So here is a group of government officials and others praying!! How powerful!!! God truly used our group to impact Mr. Hughes and I am so thankful that we got to be part of this.

I have to say that favorite part of this trip was each night during our team time where as a group we talked about issues of faith,shared our hearts, and prayed together.  I can’t help but think that this is what Acts chapter 2 talks about as what it means to be part of the church. We really seemed so close and connected, it just felt amazing. We get so caught up in the workings of life, school,entertainment, and all of the other distractions in life that we forget about what it means to be a community of believers who reach out to others, pray together, and worship together.  I hope that all of the things we talked about this week…we actually follow through with.  ReCreation 2010 students and adults…may the God of the Universe continue to use each one of you in powerful ways and may we continue to be open to his leading.  Thanks for a great week and for blessing Mr. Hughes!!

Here is some perceptions about our adults and students….

Our adult leaders are amazing.  I cannot begin to tell you have great it is to have a wonderful group of adults who love the Lord, communicate in a healthy way with students, and understand our call to minister to others.  They have really engaged with our students and I am so thankful for their presence here.

Tracy Ball-  Despite being an University of Alabama grad Tracy is amazing.  Just kidding ….about the college…not about the amazing part!  If you do not know Tracy she has a wonderful personality and is one of those people that our students and others connect to very quickly.  She was such a positive part of our trip and just dove right in to our painting of the house.  Even after getting stung by a hornet on the top of her head several times she just kept on plugging on. LeAnne joked about her bad driving but she is driving the bus right now and doing a great job!!

Chris Layne-  Chris is now “Steve”.  We all call him Steve now because Alex Confer kept calling him that in our blog.  It is one of those things that just stuck and he is such a great sport and just went with it. He may just have his name changed!!  Chris is one of those guys that I see as being such a great father and exemplifying what a true man of God looks like.  I hope to one day go on a mission trip with my son and hopefully I have as good of a relationship as he and Austin do.  I have been through confirmation with Chris and now on this trip and I love to see his heart and the emotions that come from him.  He is a great guy and I would love to serve on another mission trip with him.

Audra Croup- Audra and I both drove the suburban and got to spend a lot of time talking on this trip.  Audra is awesome!  She has a wonderful heart for Christ and I have thoroughly enjoyed our conversations.  She and her family attend All Saints Episcopal but her kids go to both of our youth programs and I love the fact that our churches interact and work together.  We talked about the importance of being Kingdom focused and not so much on denominations. It is sad to me that so many people get caught up in that and not on what unites us. She is a hard worker and is so loving and compassionate.  she spent a great deal of time speaking with Mr. Hughes and he so enjoyed that and I believe he was moved by her companionship this week.

Brenda Stauffer-  Brenda is the adult on this trip that I have known the longest.  She was a youth volunteer for a number of years at our church and was also a Youth Minister herself several years ago.  She has a true heart for ministry and it is obvious in the ways that she interacts with our students.  She also is a really hard worker!  She scaled that steep roof and pulled off the hot metal roofing that was on there.  It was amazing and I was impressed with her spider man abilities.  I am thankful that she is working with our students again and it was great to have her on this trip.

Michael Strange-Poison Ivy- So far Michael Strange is the only one who got some poison ivy. He has some on his face which looks like a scratch. He is a trooper though and has been labeled as the hero of the trip.  When we were rafting Leanne got pinned under some rafts on this one rapid.  Michael truly stepped in and helped Leanne refusing to let her go and made sure that she was safe while pushing the other rafts out of the way.  His attention to and attitude to others has been amazing and what a great personality and spirit he has. God has gifted him with a compassionate and loving heart for others.  I am looking forward to seeing how God uses him in the future!

Austin Layne- Austin has now received the nick name of “Purple”.  Let me explain why.  First off we have three Austins on this trip.  When they were going over the rules they explained that guys could not go in the girls area and vice versa.  There would be no purple (combineing boys (blue) and girls (Pink) to make purple.  Austin did not understand this….. so he is now “Purple”.  Austin was one of our ditch diggers and worked hard to get through North Carolina clay and rocks. I love his attitude towards everything and laid back personality that puts people at ease and easily connect with him. Amanda and Amy made him a hat that has his nickname “Purple” on it too….so hopefully he wears it!!

Rush Kimball-  Rush brought so much to our trip with his positive attitude and great work ethic.  He spent most of his time digging trenches and jack hammering through huge stones.  He was very determined and never gave up.  Rush joined our youth group this year and this is the third mission trip I have been on with him this summer.  I see God really building him up and will use him in powerful ways.  He is feeling a leading into ministry and I believe God will continue to build him up and use him in powerful ways in ministry.

Amy Vance- Amy was such a hard worker and definitely our group daredevil!  She was willing to do whatever was asked of her even if it meant scaling a very steep roof.  She is one of our roofing queens and spent the majority of time on the roof but beyond that was such a servant to others too.  One of the things that really stood out to me with Amy was her heart for others.  For those of you that know Amy you realize that she does not have a shy bone in her body!!  She is so wonderful to talk to and gets along with everyone and includes and reaches out to everyone making them feel part of our group very quickly. I have loved to see Amy grow in her faith from being a 6th grader to now a sophomore in High School!

LeAnne Ball-  I am going to name LeAnne as our student minister of the trip.  Each night at team time she had some great analogies of how God had been at work.  We basically got preached to each night from her…in a good way!!  The other students did not want to sit next to her because they did not want to follow up what she had to say when we went around the circle.  God is doing a mighty work in her life.  She had a couple of scary times on this trip with injuries but she is a trooper and made it through safely.  She brings a great attitude to our team and it has been wonderful to hear her heart and the ways in which God has used this trip to bring her peace in life and the things that are going on with her.

Lauren Nicholas-  It was so great to have Lauren on this trip.  She has a great sense of humor that makes me laugh and smile and she brought so much to our team.  She was willing to do whatever was asked of her and did it with a big smile on her face.  I loved hearing her share at team time because of the sincerity of her words as she spoke from her heart.  During our hang out times I loved hearing her speak with other students and what a sweet spirit she has and she always seemed so positive…even at 6am!! She was a ditch digger too all week and worked hard moving dirt and rocks!!

Amanda Finnell-  Amanda was our only senior on the trip this year and over the years I have grown to love her humor.  She is one of the funniest people i know…..and can burp louder than almost anyone!!  Amanda was a true leader on this trip in many regards and it she brought the UMBRELLA together…..ask your child about the umbrella!!  God is going to use her in powerful ways as she ventures off to FSU this fall.  She will be greatly missed but I know that she will stay connected to us and make a difference in the kingdom of God in Tallahassee.

Peyton Bailey-  Peyton is a young man of deep faith and conviction.  I am always amazed when I listen to him speak and the maturity of faith that he possesses.  He unashamedly expresses his faith to us and is an inspiration to us all in his wisdom that he brings.  He also has another gift that we discovered…. While painting in a very small room I think the fumes were getting to him and he came up with the cheesiest and corniest jokes ever.  I think he could send them to Laffy Taffy and actually get one published and a piece of candy!!  He even had Mr. Hughes, who does not have a voice box, laugh!

Austin Coye-  Another of our Austins that we have begun to call “Coyefish”.  I  cant remember who came up with it but it stuck.  Austin was another of our roofing queens and as soon as we arrived on the sight from the first day she was up the ladder laying shingles.  She worked hard this week but unfortunately got sick on our last day.  Even through her sickness she had a great attitude and brought so much to our group.  Austin is one of our strong leaders in our student ministry and brought so much to our team with her sparkalicious personality.(Sparkalicious is the slogan for cheerwine…..a wonderful drink they should carry in florida!!)

Austin Croup- Our other Austin we just decided to go with the last name and call him “Croup”.  Austin did an amazing job all week and brought so much to our team as well.  I have to say that I have a great admiration for Austin with his attitude in life.  He has type 1 diabetes or has explained it do us in simple terms to go with stereotypes (Skinny people diabetes).  We learned a lot about this and to see him all day long check on his blood sugar and keep up with this.  He has a tremendous attitude about it and maturity in handling it. I am not sure how I would handle this but he handles it so well.  I love his heart and hearing him each night share about the workings of God in his life. He speaks with a depth and conviction that is inspiring.

Alex Confer- Alex has an amazing gift with other people and including them and reaching out to them in a sincere and authentic way.  All week long Alex and i have harassed each other (which is the nature of our relationship!)  I joke with him but have a tremendous respect and appreciation for his commitment to Christ.  He has a true servants heart that I wish more people had.  One of the many funny things this week with Alex was his great attention to detail… Karen and Mark i know you know what I am talking about!!! How do you deal with that every day???!!. My check engine light has been on in my suburban for over a year.  I know what the issue is but don’t want or need to get it fixed.  This drives alex crazy as he wants to take my engine apart and fix it. Also, my back top brake light is broken and to appease him we had to take it out and go to a parts store.  It cost too much to replace…so once again he is frustrated…I love that he feels that way!

This morning we slept in till 7:30!! After another jumpy screamy time we headed out to Bojangles where Andy bought us breakfast. We all got to experience cheerwine for breakfast. It was great. One of the top dogs here at recreation told us to visit a rope swing into a river. Some of us were nervous to make the 10 foot high swing. Everyone got over their fears and jumped!! Sadly though on the last swing Leanne jumped the wrong way and hurt her ankle. Everyone was so worried we had another Michael Saxton accident on our hands. Andy and steve carried her to the car as we were leaving for white water rafting. After an hour drive through a “shortcut” Leanne was walking and ready for rafting.

It was raining on and off through our river trip. It was about a 3 hour tour. Ha. It was an adventurous trip to say the least. Plenty of people got to experience the cold of the river. We were certainly glad to make it safely to dry land. We drove back to recreation and hung out for the rest of the night.

So here we are now playing spoons as the sun is setting enjoy the night. Tomorrow morning we awake at 6:00 to start work again. I got to run. There’s a game of spoons to win.

Today was a great day! As usual we started the day with jumpy screamy time. I have to say it’s an intense worship. I was sweating more during worship than on the work site!  After a great motivational sermon to our work site. We then took our hour bus ride at 8:30AM. Today we dug and roofed. Digging was continuing on another groups work from last week. Basically we were using pick axes to break through solid rock, then scooping it out. The septic line runs about 300 feet and up an elevation of 75 feet. Rush and micheal had to opertaing the jack hammer at the top of the hill. They also got to carry it up. LeAnne, the two boy austins, Lauren, audra, and tracy tackled the dig project.

As for the roof girl austin, andy, steve, Amanda, Amy, Breanda, peyton, and yours truly handled it. One part of the roof is about a 45 degree angle. There’s a ditch that’s about 7 feet deep and 4 feet wide around the back under the steep roof. So the ladders and either near vertical or horrizantal used as a walk way. It’s intense. Amy and girl austin placed the shingles on half the roof with one of the ReCreation staff. The rest of us tackled placing new boards on the steep roof. Amanda learned to use a circular saw and cut the wood! Amanda handled the cutting and steve and I carryied the wood up to andy and peyton on the roof. It was frustrating work but we go it done and ready to place shingles for thursday! Our client mr. hughs has enjoyed our company so much. We’ll talk more about him in a latter post.

For dinner to night we had lazianna, bread, and pudding. Afterwards we ventured to walmart for the 3rd time (we like walmart). After a small accident in the drink isle we decided we should leave while we still could chose to. Back on base we had a great group time and discussed how we saw God today. It was very power and some of the girls came to tears. LeAnne has made sure everyone has had a letter each day. I can tell you all of them have been greatly appreciated!

Tomorrow is white watter rafting and sleeping in! Peyton’s and I’s fish is still going strong! Everyone loves him! Now we just need someone to change his water…. Check out our facebook page for photos and videos. Heres the link: http://Facebook.com/ElevateSM

And heres a video of the guys room:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1549401498970&ref=mf

Sorry for any misspellings it’s 30 minutes after lights out and I can’t see the keyboard and don’t want to proof read. I’m tired. Oh and hi mom and dad!

Also If your write a comment to the group we’ll read it to everyone!

There are 160 students here this week and it is a bit crazy.  Last night when all of the other groups arrived we had a time of worship, information, and a message. AFterwards we made a trip to the local wal-mart to get some supplies that we needed and get some items that some of our students forgot.  The students also bought some random things. Peyton Bailey bought a beta fish for our room so that we have a pet.  I did not even notice it till we were about to go to bed. So imagine walking into this messy room full of 17 guys and there is a small fish tank with a fish named Laqueesha.  I have done a lot of retreats and mission trips but never had a student buy a fish.  Everyone loves Laqueesha though and our group has connected with this fish.  Peyton will be taking him home though!! It was a lot of fun, but we were all tired.  We went to bed around 10:30ish and were ready for our day today.

This morning we woke up to pouring down rain!! We went to breakfast (Bacon, eggs, and nasty tasting fruit), When we were done eating our group had clean up duty so we all cleaned up the floors, kitchen, tables, and everything.  When we were done we were off to our work site.  We are working this week on a house that belongs to a guy named Michael Hughes.  Michael is a 57 year old man who has some very serious medical issues.  As an infant Mike suffered a severe stroke, and has suffered his whole life with severe mobility issues.  7 years ago mike was diagnosed with throat cancer and had to have his voice box removed.  He uses an electrical device to speak with.  The house he lives in is very sad and dilapidated.  The entire foundation had to be worked on before we arrived because it was falling down.  This week we are going to be replacing the entire roof, helping with the septic system replacement, putting new walls on the outside of the house and paiting the inside and outside.  He did not have a septic system and had the drainage going into the creek nearby.  He is basically going to have a new house.  What a blessing it is for us to have this opportunit¥ to help him.  OUr students worked very hard today on the roof, digging, painting, and whatever else we needed them to do.  We are excited about the ways in which God is going to work this week.  Keep praying for us!

We were painting today and our group totally rocked it! We worked hard all day (fortunately it was overcast most of the day) and got the vast majority of the house painted. There is some trip and touch ups left. As we were cleaning up it started pouring rain, so we’ll see how much of our paint job has to be redone tomorrow.

We came back had an awesome dinner…Jamie tried watermelon for the first time…and loved it! We then had a time of worship, and Chad talked about Nicodemus which prompted a great discussion on why we feel like Nicodemus sometimes and will only come to Jesus “at night” when no one else will see us. We talked about why it’s hard to live as a Christian even around friends who also are Christians.

Then more dodgeball and now bed time. One more day! Keep praying for us and for Ms. Dora!

Yesterday day we pushed through and finished priming the house. We worked hard and then had a great discussion during family group time, kinda springboarding off of the energy of the day. We talked about why we even bother serving, and why it’s difficult sometimes to receive because of our pride. Very deep thinkers!

Today was our day off, we went to blizzard beach, which was amazing. We got there as it opened and got to do a lot of the rides before it got too crowded. Dinner at millenia and back to the church, where a killer game of uno ensued. Back to work tomorrow, keep praying for us and our resident, Dora!

Marisol and Omar De Los Santos Valencia are from Tabasco. They have three children. Omar is 15, Moises is 13 and Their youngest daughter, Yolibeth (7), was born with a hearing and speech disability. Yolibeth goes to a specialist school. When they lived in Tabasco they had a house. Omar had a pick up truck that he used fro work. But his daughter got sick with pneumonia and was in the hospital for some time. When she recovered, the owed the hospital a lot of money. So they had to sell the house. A short time later, Yolibeth got sick for a second time with Pneumonia. For 1 year she was entering and exiting hospitals. Omar had to sell his truck for work. He was very desperate about their economic situation and decided to come to Ensenada, looking for a better job. He came alone. Later on he sent money for his wife and Children to come. They have been here for 5 years now. Omar bought some land, on credit, which he is still paying off. The school for Yolibeth is far from the house. They have to pay for 4 buses daily to get her there and back. The sons also catch a bus to school. Omar worked in a car body shop, but has lost his job. Now he does some cleaning work and also works in construction or whatever he can find. Basically, at this point he is unemployed and doing whatever he can to provide for his family. His wife Marisol works cleaning and makes around $30 per week.

This is a little info about this family but what I can also tell you is what a beautiful family they are. Omar and the boys helped us a ton on the house and really worked hard alongside us. Yolibeth has a smile that would break through the hardest heart and is so affectionate and loves to hug every person on our team

For two days our group worked hard building a home for this family. Every single student worked relentlessly to make sure that we accomplished what we had set out to do. But beyond completing our house relationships were made. This family will remember our group for the rest of their lives and I believe that we too will remember them. It was a powerful and special time.

Yesterday afternoon when we had completed the house we made a circle in the front of the house and went around the circle and as each person took possession of the keys to the house they would share with the family. It was a touching time and finally the keys were handed to Omar, Marisol, Omar, Moises, & Yolibeth. Then the family shared with us and many tears were shed. It was such a powerful time that even as I write about this my eyes are tearing up. To think that we have been able to provide for this family in a way that will impact generations is hard to fathom but we are so thankful to have had this opportunity. God is so good and faithful.

Last night we ended our day with a powerful team time. Let me just say that your children were impacted and beyond that they impacted the life of a family and others whom we have met and have been faithful followers of Christ. Our prayer and discussion centered around what next. Do we return to Winter Park and go right back to the same way of living? How do we live a life that brings Glory to God? What do we do the battle the injustices in our world? Our hope is that for each of us it is not just a one time a year we go do missions but that we understand our call to live a life of obedience where we are bold in our faith and truly live it out unashamedly. That is my prayer for our students is that they embrace their call and see there gifts and use them to reach others.

Evanne – Hi moms and dads and whoever else is interested! – Let me just say that this has been an absolutely terrific trip and our team has risen to every occasion and task with smiles and a positive attitude. You wouldn’t recognize the boys singing at worship, dancing and doing dramas in front of strangers and talking during group time !! Girls also are working together and are such a sweet group. Your letters have been a great ending to each day and I’ve heard some youth saying how much they like receiving them. I was just overwhelmed yesterday as we handed the house keys over to the Mexican family we had built a home for. I sat there looking at this lovely couple with their 3 children (2 teenaged sons and one younger daughter) and knew that we had given them the possibility of a new start and a security of owning a home which is something we all take for granted. They blessed our group by helping us realize how God uses us to show his love to all of his children throughout the world. I hope that all of you have this same opportunity some time. Everyone agrees that this week has gone by super fast – see you all back in the states!! J

And heres the links if the videos fail to play:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1522215939348
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1522215579339

Our resident, Dora, is the sweetest lady and she asks for our prayers. The family is Christian, and they even joined us for prayer this morning; I thought it was awesome to pray with them. We also met several family members, 2 daughters and 2 grandkids. I hear Dora has 12 children! And you thought your family was big and/or crazy!

After our worksite, we came back to the church to take showers…yeah so there’s about 70 people and 3 showers for each sex…it took…a while. But it was cool talking with folks as we stood in line together.

Dinner was awesome: pasta. I think Jace and Em each had 4 pieces of Texas toast. Then we had worship, message, family time and then we hurled dodgeballs at each other for about an hour. And there you have the end of work day 1!

Grace and peace to you.

Buenos Dias! So today was another good day. We woke up and had a great breakfast of pancakes and sausage. It was yummy!! Sunday’s on the YWAM base are very laid back as that is just part of this culture. We spent the morning taking our time and getting ready for the church service in which we were to lead. Around 10am we all loaded up on the buses and headed to Pastor Phillipes church in an area of town. When you think of a church we automatically think of the beautiful building in which we worship each Sunday. This church was a building that looked like it was thrown together by whatever they could find. It was a building approximately 30 feet by 12 feet and we wondered how we would even fit in there and have room for others to come in. This church was started by Pastor Phillippe who is a young guy. He is from this area and became part of the YWAM staff years ago where he went to a DTS (Discipleship Training School). He was serving as one of the pastors at a large church in the area but felt the lord leading him to this poor area to start a church. He rents the 30 X 12 space each month for the price of $60. There are about 10 members right now so he pays for it by once a month getting up at 4am and making tamales to sale in the area so that he can pay the rent. Very humbling to even think about having to do this. His heart is to reach this neighborhood and he is willing to do what he needs to do.

The service this morning was great. Pastor Phillippe and another YWAM staffer Ivan led the music. After the music I got up and introduced our group and shared where we were from. Molly Matheson shared her testimony and did a great job….although when working with a translator that is a new experience and she had to repeat herself quite a bit. After her testimony we did our drama called Molding Jesus or as we have affectionately began to call it “Moldy Cheeses” because JP our speaker says it like that with his Swiss accent. Funny huh!! Nick George was going to share afterwards but did not feel well and needed to sit down (he is OK though Kristen and Kris, just needed to rest!) I shared and then introduced our next drama “Everything”. It was once again very powerful and touching. I can’t wait for you all to see it. Alex Confer is trying to help me post it but technology here is difficult. Thanks though Alex for all your help. As Nick George said earlier, “Alex is here and part of the team in Spirit and technology.” After the drama Amy Vance shared her testimony and did it very boldly and did a great job…it is her Birthday today too!!

After Amy, Richard got up to preach to us all. He did a wonderful Job!!! Emily Parkins was our scripture reader and 3-4 scriptures during the message. This was his first time preaching and it was great. He shared about our call as Christians to go beyond the walls of the church and not get so wrapped up in being in the church that we lose sight what being the church looks like. For those of you who do not know Richard, he grew up in South America and is fluent in Spanish. He had to help the translator many times!!! It was great though and I am so thankful for Richard and his many gifts that he brings to our team. He has also been getting up at 6am each morning to run with our overzealous runners…Hunter, Stephen & Coleman!! 6am…no thanks for me!! After the service Pastor Phillippe asked us to help him on Wednesday to help some people by painting their house and doing some other work for some people who are in need. We agreed.

While the service was going on we did have one of our students make a visit to the doctor. Danielle DiClemente got bit by some creature on her hand it began to have some kind of allergic reaction. We gave her benedryll but it began to get worse and spread to her other hand. Evanne along with the staff nurse on base took her to the doctor. He prescribed her some antibiotics and told her she would be fine. Getting a prescription here is basically writing down what she needs and saying go get it. The pharmacy’s just give you what you want and a prescriptions is really not necessary…..don’t worry though we are not bringing anything back!! She is a trooper and has been great about it all. She said the doctor visit was quite different then in the states. The doctor had to come in and look at her while the Mexico/Argentina game was going on so he was dressed in a Mexican jersey and was quick to get back to the game.

Wednesday was supposed to be our day to go to the Market but since Pastor Phillippe asked us to help we shifted our day off to this afternoon and went to La Bufadora (Translation: Blow Hole) This is a market place that at the end of the walk through all of the vendors there is some kind of hole in the rocks that when the ocean waves hit sends water up in the air like a blow hole in a whale. There is some special name for but I don’t know what it is. It is worth watching for about 3 minutes and that is it. Everyone went and haggled and negotiated all the trinkets and such. Most everyone bought a poncho….we look like a crazy white Mexican want to be gang. Loco Gringos as we were called by some of the Mexican staff…..and probably somewhat accurate!!

As I said earlier Sundays around here and very laid back so we did not have any ministry plans available so this was a laid back day. For dinner we had the most amazing fish and shrimp tacos at a stand on “Goodness Street” and what an appropriate name with those tacos!! We came back to the base and several of the YWAM staff were going to the movies since they have Sunday’s off. Several of our students went to go see the A Team. It was in English with Spanish subtitles. Not a great movie coming from someone old like me who used to love the tv show. Of course we had students who asked the question, The A Team was a tv show? I almost felt like denying that I used to watch it. Ever feel that way!!

Everyone is in bed now and we are ready to get started tomorrow with building the house. The next two days are going to be amazing but hard. We will leave tomorrow morning around 9am and get back the base at 5pm. It is going to be awesome an I am looking forward to meeting the family whom we will be building a house for. I wonder what that family is thinking right now? Are they lying awake like we used to do thinking about Santa brining us presents as kids? What is it like to not have a house and to know that someone is coming to build an entire house for you? I can’t even wrap my mind around that but I have been thinking about that a lot attempting to gain some perspective…although it really is impossible for any of us to truly know. God, give us all perspective on true life and allow us to not ever become so calloused with our own pleasantries that we tune out what is happening in the world around us to your children. They matter to you and therefore should matter to us. Thank you for this opportunity to change the lives of generations with this family.

When we came back to the church we moved all of our stuff in and met all the staff, kristen and katie are our job site leaders, they seem pretty cool. Then it was time for some worship, and chad (the founder) spoke about our theme, “collide”, which is all about how our world collides with God’s.

There are 5 groups here: groups from Pennsylvania, Kentucky, north Carolina, Perry Fl and us. There are about 70 people here this week, it’s their busiest week this summer.

Crazy thing, one of the group leaders from the nc group is a girl I went to the Wesley foundation at UF with…small world!

If you know Lanie Weber, she got back tonight after being in Germany for 2 weeks!

Everyone is doing well, and it should be an awesome week with.this group. Tomorrow is our first day of work, pray for us!

The British are coming!!! The British are coming!! I will begin the post today with part of the friendly banter that has begun between our group and all of the British folks here. Those are the words screamed last night by Donna Bailey’s room last after a battle began when they were up too late being loud. Amy Vance was actually the loud one and we will credit her with this new war between the Brits and the Americans. It did not help either that they Brits were pulling today for Ghana. A war has begun and we will be cheering tomorrow for Germany. Futbol down here is so popular and we are having a good time talking smack. I am very tired today so this may be short….sorry!

Our day began with a wonderful breakfast and good conversation around the tables. It is truly very refreshing to not have electronics so readily available. Everyone is actually having some great conversations and getting to know one another. After breakfast everyone headed off to for 30 minutes of quiet time. When Quiet time was over we headed into our session where JP shared with us. His illustration was interesting. He talked about how cows and camels when they eat regurgitate their food and taste it again and continue to chew on it. Disgusting I know but what he was talking about was that we need to continue chewing on scripture and bring it back up and as the Bible is referred to as the living word there are great insights that we can continue to learn. It was better than that might sound!!

After our session we went to practice our dances and dramas. Hopefully you all saw part of the dance on the blog and yes those are your kids!!! They have been wonderful and willing to dive in and do whatever. As silly as those songs are they are a great tool to minister to kids….as we found out today. After lunch we went to our first outreach and it was a church in the middle of a very poor colonia (village). We arrived and split our group into teams. We went door to door inviting adults and children to come with us. In the US people would freak out about someone coming to their door but this culture embraces relationships and getting to know people. Our students were amazing and bold in their faith. Many of them actually learned some Spanish today.

We went to an open dirt area and set up a fun environment for families with a bounce house, music , and of course futbol. Lots of children came and we spent a great deal of time with the kids just loving on them. There was one girl named Azule (Translated is “Blue”) and she was not interested in anyone there. For some reason though she connected strongly to Claire Baldocchi and would not let her go. She would not allow anyone else to talk to her and was afraid of everyone but Claire. I think Claire held her for 2 hours. It was powerful to see God at work in that girls life because what I saw as the work of the Holy Spirit through Claire. It was pretty amazing.

After all of the fun we gathered everyone around and did our dramas and dances. The children loved it and God moved in powerful ways in their lives. I am trying to get those videos online so you can see.

It was a great day of outreach and there is no doubt that God used our students. Tomorrow we will be leading a church service and doing our dramas and sharing testimonies. Tomorrow Nick George, Amy Vance, and Molly Matheson will be sharing about how God has impacted their lives. Typically I am the one who preaches but I have lost my voice after a week of Choir Tour and a lack of sleep moving to our Mexico trip so Richard Brelsford will be preaching tomorrow morning. He is going to do a wonderful job!!

Our night ended with team time. Team time is my favorite part of our mission trips because it is where we share how we have seen God at work. I wish I could share with you the things our students said and how they are gaining more of a global perspective of life and the call of Christ in our lives as opposed to our typical American approach to things in that we get what we want, when we want it. One student shared tonight about a kid who had terrible ripped clothes and she commented on how we would simply go buy more clothes if ours were ripped or grab another of our 20 pairs lying around. These kids can’t do that. Someone else commented on perspective and wondered do these people envy us as Americans or pity us as they have more of a focus on what is truly of value in life than we do. Good things to ponder and for all of us to think about. I will end on that.

PS. INTERNET IS FLAKY HERE SO SOME DAYS IT MAY BE DIFFICULT TO SEND THE BLOG. Like yesterday

Heres the link if the video fails to play:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1518988818672

After our session our students were instructed to get on some clothes on for some games that they would end up getting wet. Our students were split into teams and we did several team building activites. The one that was the most fun was a four way tug of war on the beach. Four people are in tires that are all tied together and they each have to pull in four different directions to grab item. It was fun by tiresome. They did really well. I had the great idea to have our four adults give it a try. I will tell you that I have cuts on my belly,David Matheson messed up his back, Richard brelsford legs are hurting, and Brian Vann got pulled out of his tire and it did not feel good. We are all just getting old!! The students were fine though. OUr last game was a huge water balloon fight in which everyone got wet…imagine that.

After the games it was time for lunch. We had a salad for lunch and then the majority of our team went to the taco stand. Coleman, Matt, and myself have made it a priority to go to the taco stand at least once a day….or like today twice. These are the best tacos in the world and you would understand if you could have some. It is like a fiesta in your mouth with each bite. After lunch our creative arts training began…..and this is where the day began to get interesting……

I tried to prepare our students to be fat on this trip meaning flexible adaptable and teachable….essentially come ready to do whatever you are asked to do. The did just that and had a great attitude. No joke….we had to learn three dances!! There is another youth group from Oregon with us today and they joined us in these dances. These were not just move your hands dances but required some really moving. It was pretty funny to see our guys dance and i video taped the whole thing!! They are not going to like me but the footage is going on facebook when I get back. Peter Andros actually has some amazing moves and got on the stage to help lead the group with our british leaders.Because most of the staff are british Peter is not Peter but Petaaa. Everyone had a great time dancing…..they may tell you differently but every one of them had fun doing it and really got into it.

After that we went to split the group into our dramas. We are doing the drama that we saw this morning and Eric Warner is Jesus and Alex felsing is the girl who gets tempted by all sorts of people like Coleman Leggett her boyfriend, Matt Mines the drunkard, Annie Brkich the bulimic model, Amy Vance the money temptress, and Stephen Clayton who is death and suicide. You will have to see this drama but it is powerful. The rest of the group did another skit about trying to mold God to fit their life instead of allowing Him to mold them into who He has called them to be. They will be doing these skits tomorrow in front of people and several other times throughout the week.

After this we had more tacos and went to our last session for the night. JP shared again about chocolate and talked about how sometimes we leave candy or things in our pockets and forget about them. They get washed and leave a big mess in our pockets and lives. He proceeded to address how God wants to clean those things that we see as a mess and uncleanable. We had a commitment service that ended with a live Passion Play. It was very powerful and moving to see Jesus die on a cross in the play that was outside and very realistic. We then split into smaller groups and talked and prayed for each other . God really moved tonight in so many ways and I know he will continue to do so this week.

Going to bed tonight very thankful for the movement of the Holy Spirit and confident that He has called everyone of us to live a life that is countercultural and bold in a world that places priority on so many things that are not important so far from where God desires us to be.

We arrived on base and after getting settled in we all went to the taco stand…. I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful those tacos are. Almost all of the students and adult indulged in this wonderful delicacy….yummy! We came back to the base and began to meet with all of the YWAM staff. The majority of staff here are from England so we get to hear that wonderful British accent for the next week. We have other staff from Switzerland, Norway, Mexico, and California…which is like another country too. The staff are wonderful and we all went down to the beach to play some Futbol (Soccer for those of you are not experienced in the knowledge of sports…ha) Afterwards, we came back up to the base for dinner….and we had tacos for dinner. You can never have too many tacos and it looks like we will be having them everyday!! One of the things here is that you cannot flush your toilet paper or it stops up the system. We are taking bets on who the first person will be that will have to dig it out. Feel free to chime in with your bets! After dinner we went to our first session and it was amazing. OUr speaker this year is Jean Phillippe from Switzerland and he shared with us all about choices and that we can choose to hear from God this week or we can choose not to. That our God loves us so much He has given us the ability to make choices. He did a great job and is going to really challenge us all this week. Everyone is so tired and we are off to bed!!

I will blog when i am able but the posts earlier were done from my cell phone so i am limited in what i can write. I will try to continue to keep you all up to date. Our students are amazing!! They have been tremendous and I am so looking forward to seeing how God will work this week. later!!