Sunday, June 20, 2010

We arrived at Copperhill!

The teens did great and were quiet for a lot of the drive. (What is up with that?!) John’s magic truck needed to stop for air in the trailer tire (Thanks for the heads up Brett) but other than that, we didn’t have any issues.

We stopped around noon for lunch in Mt. Vernon and of course, had to stop at eight different restaurants. Everyone seemed to be happy with their choices, and we even did a little people watching. (We think we saw a wookie. . . .) Olivia spewed her soda all over, when we went to sit at a hot picnic table and John pulled a huge beach umbrella out of the magic truck. His new nickname is Mary Poppins. Hehe.

Samantha and Gertie (our garmin gps systems) worked like a charm and kept us all on the same path, even though the truck and the trailer fell a little behind going through the mountains. After lunch, the teens perked up and played some word games, talked, and sang along to the ipods. . . .no mountain music for them. J

After an extremely fast dinner at Hardee’s (because we thought we were running late), we arrived at the base camp and unloaded our van/truck. All of us are sharing cabins with other youth groups, so it is really really tight. The cabinet, I mean cabin we are sleeping in is very small. There is an overhead fan and that is it for air in the girls cabin. The boys had John’s magic truck to get them two other fans, and rope to rig them up to get the air circulating. (I see a stop at Walmart in the girls future.)

We met Promise and Kelly, our team leaders, and they seem very enthusiastic and fun. They told us we would be working in Georgia in the morning painting, working on a family’s landscape and patching their roof. Apparently, they have been working on this house for two weeks, and are hoping to get it finished tomorrow morning. (They said they weren’t sure what was wrong with the roof, and all of us immediately said, “John will fix it.” Poor Mary Poppins.)

After an initial walk around the camp, we met in the outdoor chapel for worship. (It is a walled, yet open wooden cabin. There are over 180 people here this week with us, so the beginning praise music was very loud and exciting. They did a skit to go over the rules (which made Erich and I very happy about our 20+ past skits. . . .ours were much better. Jk) They even have a dog named, Jack for a mascot. He hung out with Maureen and I during worship. He is really cute, but covered in white paint. Apparently, they work him like a dog. Haha.

They showed a video by the director of team effort that talked about scaffolding and how that will be our theme for the week. We need to use Jesus as our scaffolding and let him strip away all of our blemishes and fill us with his goals, and his love. It should be an interesting topic to work on this week. After the worship session, we had our small group time. It went well. We gave them each a folder to put their devotionals in and talked about the day. We discussed Hey God’s (prayers asking for help), Yah! Gods! (prayers of thanksgiving), and Mad props! (affirmations that we give to each other verbally for all of their great work.) It was hard to see because of it being so dark outside, so tomorrow we will move our group time to a lighted area. The directors said they would get us tiki torches if we wanted. We’ll have to see how it goes.

I am kind of disappointed in the devotionals because there isn’t much room for the teens to journal, and we all know how much I love to write, so I want them to have the opportunity to reflect on the gospel and journal if they want. Never fear, Erich and I came up with an idea to give them each colored construction paper to make their own notepad. Some may write, some may draw, and some may just use it to doodle while they reflect. Whatever way God touches their heart works for me. J

Before I forget, apparently Cincinnati Bell doesn’t have a cell tower around so my phone is not working. It was one of the numbers listed on the emergency contact page. If you need to get a hold of us, please call Erich’s cell. (Or Whitewater Express in Copperhill, TN) If you have lost the paper, contact Bernadette A and she will get it to you. If it isn’t an emergency, and you want to post a comment here, we would love to hear from you! I let the teens know every morning who has posted a note for us. J

It is getting late, and I want to get to the outpost and get this posted. Before I go to bed, I wanted to let you know how proud I am of our teens. They were respectful, took their hats off during worship, listened (even when the other groups weren’t) and participated fully. Thanks to all of the parents who have raised such loving and caring teens! Please know that we are keeping everyone who reads this in our prayers this week. We love you and miss you and will see you soon!

P.S. Hopefully we will have pictures to post tomorrow. I am sleepy. J

2 comments:

  1. Hope you had good weather today. We're thinking of you and looking forward to your updates.
    Oma

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  2. Hi! I'm glad you got there safely. I just wanted to give my blessings. I hope everything is going okay. Please stay safe !
    Taylor Fothergill

    ReplyDelete