Thursday, June 24, 2010

Our Day from a Different Perspective

Good Night! (Well, it is here anyways.) Today was a really busy day, and I just couldn't stand the thought of waiting until 1am to get a shower, so I took some time in the middle of the day to get in the cold water and rinse down. Usually, I will 'pre-write' part of the blog so we aren't up all night, but the teens told me they would help with the blog so tonight, you get their perspective. . .Thanks Caitlin & Emily for writing it, and all of our teens for the input. (Anything in blue is added by me.)

So this morning we got up super early and had nasty cheese omelets waiting for us. We got up earlier than normal so we could finish the Galloway's house before going white water rafting. At the Galloway's, we finished priming and painting the front porch. Once we got as far as we could, we departed (and came back to eat lunch) and prepared to white water raft. Rafting was so much fun and everyone loved it. There are tons of funny stories.

As soon as safety precautions were told to us, we headed into the water. As the river guide said, "This is the worst part to fall out in", Emily goes under and comes up to the laughing of everyone in her boat. (I was in her boat, and we made sure she was ok. . . .then we laughed with her!) Of course the Sara/h's didn't notice much as they were chatting it up in the front of the boat as the key paddlers. As their raft dipped into the water, Sara became flustered and somehow her paddle left her hands. In rough waters the guide would make us scurry to the middle with our paddles up. Every time Lori Anne would either get tackled by Brady, tackle Brady, or get beaten with a paddle by Emily all the while laughing hysterically. As they continued down the river the other raft got stuck in the 'hydraulics' and was pancaked by another raft as we watched. Our lives flashed before us and Maureen swallowed half of the river. All of the guides during the roughest waters would jump around flying in the air leaving us in awe of their crazy skill. During one crazy incident Caitlin and Olivia gracefully tumbled into the river almost dragging Alanna with them. Luckily Daniel rescued them safely and all was good, as John C. laughed in their soaking wet faces. While little has been told about Erich and John's boat, sources have confirmed that they for sure tipped intentionally, got stuck between rocks, and allowed John to ride the bull at the front of the raft. To sum up all of our thoughts and feelings about our rafting adventure, Olivia says, "It was amazingly awesome!" It was loads of fun and we can't wait to do it all again sometime.

After we rafted, John, Erich, Lori Anne, and four teens went back to the Galloway's to finish up while the others stayed back and chilled. The hard working John and Erich stayed even longer to put the finishing touches on the screened in front porch. Job Well done! Woooo Hooo!!! We all came together to eat pulled pork sandwiches and Maureen's favorite, peach cobbler.

(Don't you think they did a great job!) They wrote this before free time, so I get to tell you about the rest of the night. We were all sitting around getting kind of bored and had plenty of time until worship (or so we thought) so we all got in the van and headed to Walmart to get some beach toys for the park tomorrow. (And of course, some water balloons and paint to have a water fight between Team Sara/h and Team Alpha Dogs. . . .Don't ask. I'm not sure about it myself.) We plugged in the GPS and it was short about 10 miles. It took a long time to find something open at 7pm at night to give us directions, so we were almost late for worship.

The Team Effort counselors led prayer again tonight and Promise led the music. They had the screen working again, so our teens could follow the words. He does a great job! After the opening of stupid human tricks and a closing video, Promise played his guitar and sang while the TE staff painted a really neat banner with Christ's heart in the center. They discussed taking away our scaffolding and letting the new, improved, stronger Christian shine. They then led us to the outdoor field and as we were leaving, handed each of us a piece of metal scaffolding. As we made it to our tiki torch (small group area) we were asked if their was anything we wanted to leave behind and make ourselves 'anew' for God. When they were ready, they could drop the piece of metal into the bucket at the foot of the cross and were handed a blood red ribbon to remind them of Jesus taking away our sins and making us anew. When we got back to the chapel, we then split into small groups of two and three and took a walk around the grounds discussing the closing scripture and what we felt about this week. Butch, the contractor came and sat with us and shared some fun stories with the teens. He was wonderful to listen to and asked us to pray for a friend of his, so that he will come to know our Lord.

Tonight's 'lights out' was a little later, so the teens took showers and went to bed. I'm sure they will have lots more to share with you when they get home.

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