Last night on the trip.

I can not believe that today is our last day! Well, today we drove to New Orleans. When we got here, we settled in our really big hotel. After that, we walked all the way to the French Quarters. We saw a lot of people playing their interments and selling art work. After walking and taking a lot of pictures we went to the French Market. It was filled with store after store. I bought a lot of really cool stuff. They had the best tasting strawberry lemonade. It was really hot, so we walked back and had a pool party. For dinner we had pizza, it was really good. Now we are watching Mississippi Son. I can't wait to go back to my own bed. So, we will see you all tomorrow.

By: Rhyana Steffen

Last Day of Work

Today has been a great day! In the morning we all helped out the people of Lakeshore, Mississippi with a seminar on "How to Stretch Your Grocery Budget" by setting up for it, doing a childcare service, and carrying food items of the visitors. We also made some friends from Alabama that were trying to teach us how to say "ya'll". For lunch we had hot pink hot dogs, pink lemonade, and potato chips. Then, we met on the deck where the Alabama group taught us how to do some Alabama dance moves. After all that, we did some odd cleaning jobs around camp, including the bathrooms. Instead of eating dinner at camp, we went out to eat at BB's BBQ and had some good ribs. Now we are going to see Toy Story 3 and are wondering how it will turn out: good, bad, or somewhere inbetween. We are so excited about the movie and free day in New Orleans tomorrow. Have a great night!

By: Dawson Rubin and Cameron Berglund

Just some of our adventures this week

It has been an amazing week so far for us and I am so excited for each and every one of your students to come home and tell you about what they've experienced here. (Though I really have enjoyed spending the week so far with them all and will miss everyone of them!) More thoughts in a few days but for now here are some pictures of SOME of the things we've been up to. Enjoy! : )

Robin

Work day 3 (6/23)

Hi everyone!
Today was another work day. After a breakfasts of scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits and toast, we split up. One group went to Walmart to get supplies. Another group stacked soap in the church bathrooms after getting the sanctuary ready for the service. Yet another group moved a tree a couple feet away from the house. The last group cleaned out the area under the bunkhouse. Later we did a bunch of small of small projects, like planting iris bulbs using only our feet. Super fun!! Other people moved tarps, etc. onto a truck. While moving stuff, some people got bitten by fire ants, including Jessie and Rebecca. That was an experience we could've done without. For lunch we had sandwiches, watermelon, and a cheese dish. Now we are sitting in the cafeteria writing this blog entry for you to read. Duh. What else? Then we are going back out to work. But for now, Jessie and Rebecca are tired so we are now going to end the entry. We hope you have a nice rest of the day:)

Your beloved family members,
Jessie and Rebecca

A blog for the day...

Today we started out normal. We ate breakfast (frosted flakes for Tanner) and got to work. We congregated in a room together and talked about the bible story where Nehemiah’s city wall was crumbling. Her assigned all the peeps of the city a section by their house to build the was so they would build it strongly. They explained that we would be rebuilding a path around where we are now and we would have to build it strong for it to last. We split up into 3 groups. Dawson, Eric (co-blogger), Brad, and Jordan were working on replacing some bad boards on the deck.

We don't have an after picture for the boards, Megan dropped the ball on it

Tanner (co-blogger), Rhyana, Carols, Jessica, Lindsey, Morgan, Lynette, Wes, Jeff, Megan and Rebecca were working on remaking the path, it looks good now!



Nick, Cameron, Scott, Rubin- I mean Robin , Joe, Maddie, Jenna, and Brock were working on setting up the tent (its harder than it sounds!) by the kitchen.



Everybody worked hard, really hard, really really hard until lunch. Then we went to lunch, which was PINK hotdogs, probably worse that the worst meal you moms have ever made. Afterwards, we went back to work; finished remodeling the path, finished replacing the boards, and finished putting up the tent. Then we took some time to write in out journals before going to the Mockingbird Café for some drinks and devotional by Eric, Brad, and Jordan. They talked about the gifts God gave you and how we can use them to the best of our ability and about facing our fears with our gifts. Then at the end of the devotional, Eric did face his hear and prayed out loud in front of the whole group. It was awesome. Then we went for a walk before getting back in the cars and going home. Straight to bed from there after writing the blog!

SOME OTHER THOUGHTS AND DISCOVERIES
• We made sure Carlos had tons of sunscreen on and he drank about a million bottles of water
• Rhyana really likes Paramore, ask her about it later.
• Whoopie cushions have been a big hit with Lindsey, Morgan, Jessica, and Maddie.
• Jenna has the most hilarious funny face
• Cameron conquered the power tools and was going to town screwing boards into the deck with a sledgehammer- I mean drill
• Jordan really likes to videotape things
• Tanner & Eric are awesome 

-Tanner & Eric

The Mockingbird Cafe

Untitled from wes wilson on Vimeo.

More Work

We woke up early again to another hot day. We had a delicious breakfast that consisted of eggs, bacon, toast, and cereal. After that we split up into three groups to work on projects on the campus. Half of us were working on repairing a pathway that was completely overgrown by grass. They had to take out all the old bricks, pull weeds, even out the ground, and lay out new bricks and gravel. The second group worked together to build a very complex tent. It was made by a ninety year old man who welded everything himself and was really hard to figure out. A couple kids were repairing broken floorboards by the bathroom. Half the path is done, the top half of the tent is done, and the floorboards are coming along great! As of now lunch is being served so we'd like to finish up and go eat. We're hungry.

We're exited for the rest of the day even though we're not sure what projects we'll be doing. Thanks for praying for us!

Maddie and Jenna

Bibles...Bibles...Bibles

After an exciting morning of handing out Bibles we made our way back for lunch. Lunch conversation consisted of countless stories about the people we met while handing out Bibles. After a delicious meal of pulled pork, it was back to the streets for more Bible distribution. Right away we noticed a change in the level of confidence. At the beginning of the day we were not sure how people would respond to us offering them free Bibles. By the end of the day we found ourselves racing from the vans with a new excitement about what new story we were going to hear next. Some of the stories that we heard were quite moving. For example one man came to the door and told us that his family was going through some rough times. He admitted that he had whipped his son with a belt and DCFS took his son away. We were blown away by the level of honesty he shared. It was almost as though he wanted to be heard. We were honored to be there for him and then offer our prayers. Another example was a man that told about the water level during Katrina being as high as the telephone poles! Some of us even encountered a women that told about her cat that saved her daughter's life by breathing into her mouth?! Worn out from a hot, humid, sticky day in the sun we headed to the Golden Arches for some ice cream and a brake. We kept our self entertained by making up silly new names for everyone. Carlos is now T-bone Enrique. Jordan's name is Jo Bo Edward Napoleon. Everybody got one! After experiencing a coastal thunderstorm, we finished up on the streets. Showered and fed, we head to the Golf of Mexico (the beach) for our daily devotional and share time. The stories of the day seemed to have no end. It felt so good to help people and to share God's word. After praying for the people we met, we headed home to go to bed. We are currently typing this blog. Carlos just said "We should wrap this up". Jordan is tired and wants to go to bed. And so we shall. Goodnight now.

Carlos and Jordan

The First Day at Work

We woke up about 6:50(at least the boys did.) Then we ate pancakes, cereal, bacon, and fruit salad while Wes told stories in the grandpa chair. Then we went back to the cabins to get ready for the first work project. The first mission was to give out Bibles to the people in the neighborhood that needed or wanted one. In our car, (Brock and Nick's)we talked about chihuahuas and then saw 14 of them.(people like small dogs.) While we were doing our job, we met a lady who wanted to know where the church was, we told her it was by a casino and she knew where we were talking about right away.In the middle of the job we gave a Bible to a farmer (Kenny) and he asked if we wanted to see his farm,we saw horses, a cow and a buffalo. Then we finished a couple more roads and then we came back to eat lunch.


thank for praying for us ...... Nick and Brock

Father's Day at the Beach

Today we woke up after a good nights rest. We headed off to McDonald's for a delicious breakfast for 23. We went back to camp to go to Lakeshore Baptist Church. It was a small, cute church with a friendly community. Pastor Gary taught a good sermon about the characteristics of a true disciple. After that we drove to Walmart to pickup up some food for lunch, beach toys, and Whoopie-Cushions! Then we hit the beautiful beach and ate a great lunch. After lunch we went for a swim for several hours. While in the water we saw and felt tons of little jellyfish. Before we even started our first work day we saw devastation from hurricane Katrina. The piers are all knocked down, and all that is left is their wooden pillars. All the houses are built on stilts to protect them from future hurricanes. At the beach we saw this sign, check out the picture all the way at the bottom of this blog page, it is the same location and if you look in the background of the picture we took, you can see the progress that St. Claire Parish has made in rebuilding their church in the past 3 years. We are now on our way back to camp to take showers and go to dinner.

-Morgan Parcel and Lindsey Vanden Bos
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TIM AND LEN!! :)

G'Morning from Mississippi

Hello! We are up and ready to go for our day after a good night's sleep in our bunks with fans blowing and the air conditioners on as well. Thanks for your prayers for our travels - everything went smoothly and we had some interesting conversations on our way to our destination. I (Lynette) will tell you about two of them.

I had the opportunity to sit next to another mom (Jenny) on our flight down. Jenny spent about half the flight telling me of the adventures of being in early labor with their second child and having to evacuate their home in 15 minutes. She shared about lessons she learned as they had to count on friends and family for everything after their house was destroyed by the water. She talks about how "stuff" has less value to her now than people. But I think her most powerful thought was this: "As I was waiting in line for our insurance check with all kinds of other people from every walk of life, I realized how everyone really is more the same than different...no matter who they were, we were all in the same situation...it was very humbling."

Our second conversation came at dinner...with our waitress. She was about as southern and sweet as can be, and we had the chance to ask her about her story. She, too, lived near the area when the hurricane hit, and had not evacuated with her family. They ended up having to live in the attic for 4 days in waist high water while waiting for rescue. And, her community has never really recovered. She drives about 45 minutes for a waitressing job, as there is nothing available in her town for work. In her town, a Wal-Mart and McDonalds just came back to the area this year, 5 years since the hurricane's hit.

As we head out to get some breakfast, we are excited to see what God might want to show us today. It's nice and HOT already...what an adventure we are on. THANKS for your support for us!

And HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

We're Here!

Sorry for the late notice but we made it! Got to camp about an hour ago after stopping for some yummy food in New Orleans. Everyone is settled into bed and most of the girls and writing in their journals before the lights go out.

Just a quick note to let you know we are here and safe...but more stories to come tomorrow. : )

Robin

We made it through security!

The first task to conquer was getting the bags checked, all the students watched carefully to see if their bag would be under the 50lb limit. There were several fist pumps and the gentlemen behind the counter received several high fives. After all the bags were checked, we got to the serious stuff- Jessie and Brad won the contest for student and leader- bags closest to 50lbs (without going over) Jessie has an astounding 47.5 and Brad kicked everyone's butt with 49.5 lbs. Jeff gets an honorable mention at 50.5 to bad he went over :(. For the least weight competition, Rhyana took the prize with no competitor even coming close with only a 22 lb bag checked.

We then split into our groups with a very important task... each small group is currently working hard to come up with their "squadron code name", stay tuned as the names will be revealed at dinner tonight.

The fine staff at O'hare airport opened an entire new security section so that we could get through quickly. Too bad Brad held us up a bit- he forgot he had packed his laptop apparently, and had to go back, put it in a bin, and go through security a second time. After that we split for lunch the McDonalds group and the Pizza group, which one do you think your kid was in

We all sit now at gate K-13 I am pretty sure that the other people waiting for our flight are shaking their heads and wondering how they possibly ended up on a flight with this many hyper students, we even had someone comment "here comes the 3rd grade class" I don't think our students are that short :)

Now that we are checked in, body scanned, and fed. Next task- get on the plane and get to seats.

- Megan Angle

Almost here!

After months of interviews, planning, preparation, team meetings and lot's of prayer we are finally here! Saturday morning our team will meet at O'Hare and begin our journey to Mississippi. Would you join us in prayer the week we are in Mississippi? I've attached a calendar of what you can pray for each day along with a list of our team members if you would like to pray by name for our team.

Saturday, June 19th:: Safe Travels

Sunday, June 20th:: Openess to what God has in store for us!

Monday, June 21st:: Individual and families who are still recovering from the hurricane

Tuesday, June 22nd:: Ability to see where and how God is at work

Wednesday, June 23rd:: Physical health and strength as we work long days outside

Thursday, June 24th:: Team unity and deepened relationships

Friday, June 25th:: Wisdom for the government and authorities that are making decisions

Saturday, June 26th:: God to use our experience to inform and impact the rest of our community.

Our Team Members are...
Jeff Angle
Megan Angle
Cameron Berglund
Brad Dedina
Jordan Ehlers
Maddie Hinkle
Eric Huster
Rebecca Jakopin
Nick Mesmer
Morgan Parcel
Robin Perko
Brock Rubin
Dawson Rubin
Lynette Rubin
Scott Rubin
Tanner Rubin
Carlos Santiago
Rhyana Steffen
Jenna Stitt
Jessica Terrill
Lindsey VandenBos
Wes Wilson


THANK YOU for your support for our team members. For your prayers, support and financially making this trip a reality. I know that God has big things planned for each team member and I can't wait for Saturday to begin this journey.

Robin