The First Day of Road Trip Is Always So Exciting, Lots of Planning and Prayer Go Into The

Day 1 Saturday

The first day of road trip is always so exciting, lots of planning and prayer go into the day, lots of prep and shopping and organizing and meetings, and suddenly BAM there’s a bus in the parking lot and Roger shows up and off we go! I LOVE seeing all of the support for us as we leave, lots of people come just to say goodbye and to show that they are praying for us and loving us every day that we’re gone. THANK YOU to everyone who was able to make it this morning! We started the day with some time in the bus getting to know our seat buddies and having conversations, as we start every year. There were a lot of nervous or scared youth this year, exactly half of our youth are experiencing their first Road Trip ;) By the end of the trip they won’t’ even believe the transformation form nervous to confident.

Overall today, though, it was a weird day and not AT ALL what I had hoped for on the first day. Our service project today was helping out a camp, Camp Victory, near Zumbro Falls, Mn. They were hosting a HUGE Fundraiser and community celebration to raise money for several non-profit organizations in the area. The evening was to have a concert by the Afters, fireworks, huge inflatable games, and much more. When I had called they were in great need of volunteers, (which was great since I had just had a project cancelled on me at the last minute and I was scrambling to figure it out). So I thought it was going to be a perfect set up. But as we arrived and had lunch and started to work, we came to find out that they had gotton the majority of the projects done already, they were MUCH farther along than they anticipated. Their crew of staff and leaders did an incredible job. So while we worked on several things, we had half of the group or more always trying to find things to do. And we worked hard to find things to help out with! Tasks included setting up parking lots, a hay ride, the dunk tank, making popcorn, setting up tents, and much more. We also had a visit from Ian and Elizabeth Benoit, who live within a half hour or so of the camp WOOHOO! But despite all of that most of us filled our 4+ hours there looking for things to do and several youth were frustrated because they wanted to work (That’s an AWESOME problem to have!), and several of us feeling kinda useless. Of course we were NOT useless, we just had high hopes. It turned into time to bond as a group, and Ari spent some time tonight reminding us that even if our work seemed insignificant, that it was NOT. The camp appreciated our time and were super excited to have everything ready to go so early. The danger in this start to the trip is that we see our projects as time of and time to play around. I am not actually concerned about this, we have such a neat group they’ll totally step up at our next project, but it just wasn’t the start we hoped for. When we left we left a bit early and went to the mall in Rochester for an early supper. Then we jumped back on the bus to drive a few hours to Cedar Falls, IA. Along the way we ran into some storms. They weren’t bad, but it was raining hard! At one point we had to take a detour because an intersection was completely flooded but you couldn’t tell until you were right on top of it. There was a car that got caught up in it, and I’m thankful it wasn’t us! The church we got to tonight is AWESOME! There is plenty of space for us to spread out a bit. We ended the evening with worship led by Colter and Jenny, Quiet time led by Ari (it’s AWESOME stuff that she has planned for us!), and some small group time. Please pray for us tomorrow, we are traveling by US highway all day and it’ll be a long boring drive, and we don’t have anything else planned because we just aren’t sure how long it’ll take to travel. Again not the start I want (2 potential down days in a row). Pray for the group to stay upbeat and energized, and pray for our time as a community to grow closer to God and to each other!

Day 2 Sunday

We had an excellent start to the morning, our place to serve breakfast was a little coffee house that we shared with the church, it was perfect! After packing up the bus we were off to worship. It was an AWESOME service! We felt very very welcomed throughout the morning, and they even let a few of our boys help greet people as they came into church and hold the doors for them. The music was very well done, along with the projection. It was clear that they communicated well as a team, and fit the topic of the morning perfectly. Most of the music was actually hymns done in a more contemporary style, they were super meaningful. The pastor welcomed our group, and later in the service they said a prayer for us. It could not have been more perfect, he prayed for safe travel, for us to grow closer as a community, for us to make an impact as we shared Christ’s love to those we served, and that we would also deepen our relationships with God. Today’s sermon was very impactful to us as well. The scripture was Isaiah 19:1-4 and John 15:15-16. The pastor started by talking about how there are times when we feel a futility about life or about our work. (EXACTLY what some of us felt yesterday!), but instead in those moments we need reminders that there is a lot of hope and that and that our labor for God is not in vain. He went on to make 3 mail points 1) I am a person of significance and worth 2) I am an instrument in the hands of God 3) I can trust God’s handling of tomorrow. WOW! We also saw a video about a man form their congregation who had polio as a youth and as a result has lived most of his life in an iron lung, but has fought to have times away from it. He has had opportunities to ravel the world and make speeches at high level events fighting to eradicate polio across the world. When most would have given up and seen futility, he pressed on. We left very encouraged and inspired both for our trip and in general. Today was mostly a travel day through US highways in Iowa, SUPER boring! So Alec (aka Alec Trebec) and Anders (aka Vanna Tan)decided to spice things up with a bus game of “Road Tripity” Each small group is competing against other for wonderful prizes (today’s was a spiderman yo-yo!). While we were traveling today we got ahead of schedule, so I started looking for a fun dessert place. Boy did I find a gem! After trading a few Facebook Messages we set up to go to Bonnidelli’s after a fast food supper. It was in a GORGEOUS location, almost like a picturesque part of town with a canal running through it, fancier homes, neat architecture and more. It’s hard to describe how awesome it was. It turns out that it was a very small ice cream shop run by a couple. They were THRILLED to have us there and were incredibly fast and patient, kind, and excited to have us! I was shocked at how fast they made treats for 36 people. Afterwards they came out to say thanks, to take our picture, and to tell our adults how impressed they were with how kind and friendly and patient that all of the youth were, I don’t think they expected that! I LOVE helping out small businesses on Road Trip, I know groups like ours can have a big impact! When we got to the church for the night we discovered a miscommunication and the church was locked and I had no cell numbers! It was a scary few minutes, but thankfully they had some numbers posted on the door of the preschool part of the church and I was able to get ahold of somebody to get ahold of the pastor who was able to let us in. I was OS THANKFUL to get in! WE have stayed here before a few times, there is a gym that we used to run around in for a bit and burn off some steam (YEA!). Tonight the low here is 77. GULP! Please pray for us to survive the heat tomorrow (have no fear we will push water, sunscreen, and hats!).

Day 3 Monday

We got to sleep in this morning until 8! It felt like luxury! The lox last night was 77, today’s high was 95 and muggy. Welcome to the South ;) After getting packed up we were off to the Bridge in St Louis, Mo. It is a homeless shelter that is also a church. We had an AMAZING education today from Patrick. He spent about 6 hours total with our group today and he is AWESOME! It was an incredible eye opening day for all of us, we learned SO MUCH about homelessness and what it looks like and what some of the very tricky issues and obstacles are that the homeless face. Our group split in half and for the first 2 hours. One group stayed back and did a lot around the shelter to clean and some odd jobs like sorting donations of shampoo and other personal care items. The other group got to have a longer time of being educated on homelessness and in taking a walk through downtown St. Louis to see for ourselves where some of the places are the help and support people who are homeless. Patrick shared a lot of very personal stories of his journey through homelessness and that of many of his friends. His stories were very poignant, and helped us to get a feeling of what it would be like to be in their shoes. A few key things he taught us were that there is no 1 cause for homelessness, there are many false stereotypes that some people fall into but certainly not all. He also reminded us that it is super important to get to know people and to take time to listen to their stories and use their names in conversation. An interesting lesson that he was adamant on was that giving people money when they ask is not the best approach. He feels it is best to go eat with them, and to connect them to the local resources . He encouraged all of the youth, especially the ones heading off to college, to learn where they can send people in need, and then to volunteer even every 1-2 months to give a few hours to make a difference. Definitely something we can all do. When we got back the groups ended up having lunch at the shelter and some of us got to eat with some people who were there. After lunch the other group got to go on the walk through St Louis, while the rest of us got to stay and play games (like checkers) with the people who had stayed and we got to hear their stories and encourage them. It is EXTREMELY RARE that we get the opportunity to interact directly with people who are homeless during Road Trip, often our group is just too large and overwhelms a group fast. Today was different. We broke off into smaller teams and spent time listening to people listening to their stories and to their lives. Some people wanted nothing to do with us, which was fine, others were glad to have someone to interact with their children and give them love and attention. I can’t tell you about all of the conversations because of space, but here are a few. Some conversations were very sad. Amanda talked with a woman who was really struggling, and Amanda asked if she could pray with her. It was a BEAUTIFUL moment that was completely led by the Spirit. Anders got to hang out with a man who had a ton of deep questions about God and about life, and Anders stuck with him on every one and encouraged him, laughed with him, and loved him. Another INCREDIBLE moment! Other groups got to talk with some real characters (like Tatum) who had a TON of joy, loved to make jokes, and remained super positive despite the circumstances they found themselves in. I have no words to express what a privilege it was to get to meet the people we met today, to get to hear their stories, to laugh with them, to encourage them, and to have the opportunity to be Jesus with skin on to them. I hope they all felt deeply loved and more importantly that they left with more hope in life and in their faith. We all left with a deeper sense of gratitude, thankful for ALL that we have. Sa Sara J put it on the bus, we are all guilty of being too materialistic and today was a good reminder of how blessed we are. Today is a day we will never forget! I am SO PROUD of the youth, many of them felt extremely uncomfortable today yet they pushed through and still jumped into conversations, without a single complaint. They had courage and compassion! What am AWESOME group!!!! It was hard to leave but we had some more miles to put on. We traveled to Evansville, IN, and the trip had an unexpected detour because of an accident on the interstate. So we ended up pretty behind. But my awesome leaders came up with a plan for supper that got us closer to being on track. (We had supper from the coolers, we had expected to have lunch form them but the shelter wanted to feed us so we could interact with the people there). We had to set up in a parking lot across form the YMCA that we were about to shower at and we ate and showered in shifts, but it worked great! The youth ended up on the bus a LOT tonight, far more than expected, but they handled it without complaint! As always these trips require us to be flexible and patient! The church we are at tonight is a GREAT setup! And we are here for 2 nights! Pray for good sleep for us tonight and for LOTS of energy for tomorrow, we are going to need it!

Day 4 Tuesday

We woke up to the most AMAZING breakfast! Michael, our host and worship pastor here at the church, came in early to cook us breakfast by himself. It was pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and bacon, plus milk, OJ, fresh coffee, and even chocolate milk, DELICIOUS!!!! We were so touched by his time and generosity!! It was super important to get a good meal too, because today we spent the day at the Boys and Girls Club working with some very high energy children! This was the best run BGC that we have ever been to, their staff was trained well, they engaged with the children, and they had an excellent facility! All of our youth were INCREDIBLE throughout the day! They gave so much of their energy all day long. They played all kinds of games like basketball, some scooter races, board games etc, but their favorite game was to find one of our youth to jump on and see how many they could drag at 1 time! (really it was an excuse for a much needed hug). The children we worked with today definitely needed love and attention, and being able to have so many people to get it from made a HUGE difference! As you can tell by the pictures there were a LOT of smiles! I was VERY impressed by how intentional our youth were to get to know names, to spend individual time with children who often got ignored, and for how genuine they were in giving affirmations and encouragement. They also did a GREAT job of letting the children be the heroes by helping(letting) them win in games. Several of them also took time to teach come kids how to shoot a basketball right and they helped them dunk the basketball by lifting them up high enough. Our youth just instinctually knew what to do to help the children feel special and loved! Colter even got the opportunity to share about Jesus with a child who had never heard of him before!!! And a few others got opportunities to pray with kids at meals or before facing one of their fears. No words can really express how incredible each of our youth are and what an AWESOME job they did today in serving!! I want to say WAY more about this so I hope you do ask them about this day! After we left we got back to church to change quickly and head out to Biaggi’s, a fancy Italian restaurant. We were served an EXCELLENT meal! The waiters and waitresses were very attentive and we got refills quite often (some youth drank 6 refills of pop… not gonna lie that scared me!). They sat in their small groups and had a LOT of fun and good conversation. We had Caesar salad, spaghetti and meatballs, and chicken parmesan, along with some delicious bread! MMMMMMMMMM!! After supper we went bowling. It was a blast! Lexi got a turkey in her first game and Matt Markman had the high score at 132 barely edging Lexi out. Several youth did some crazy throws, they are pretty much impossible to describe, and all were hilarious and fun. 1 example I can describe is when 3 boys threw the ball together, they each had 1 finger in the ball, and I believe they even got a strike, it was AWESOME! We got back to the church for QT and small groups, and then we let them know that tomorrow we are heading to a cave, it’s gonna be a GREAT day! We have a short night so please pray for good sleep, good travel, and for youth to overcome some fears tomorrow as a community!!!