Guys Dorm!
Girls Dorm!
Guess whose bed is in the middle? :)
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Arrival Day
We made it to Tennessee safely and with very little
drama. (Just the way we like it! J) The day
started with mass at Saint Michaels and a Blessing/Sending Forth with Father
Cy. He promised to pray for us every day
we were gone and Father Norm even stopped us before mass to wish us the
best! (It’s pretty nice knowing that our
wonderful parish community and priests of the Archdiocese are praying for us!)
As we were
driving south on 75, we made it all the way to Tennessee before we hit a little
snag. Apparently, they had a land slide
back in early spring and it washed out most of the expressway. I75 is down to one lane and the nice lady at
the Welcome Center just inside the Tenn. State line gave us handwritten
directions to the detour. We saw some
wonderful scenery, missed the 2 hour delay, and got to laugh at the slooowwwww
driver in front of us. (Well, ok, we
complained about the driver in front of us, but then found it fun to legally
pass him on the country roads. J)
We arrived at
the dorms of Kings Academy and unloaded our gear. We met Matt, who would be our TeamEffort staffer
for the week, and then promptly left to get Zaxby’s for dinner. (Zaxby’s is a chicken restaurant that we got
acquainted with the last time we went on mission in Tennessee and the teens
wanted to eat there for ‘old times’ sake’.
They seemed to like it….I’ll stick with Chik-fil-A. hehe!)
We arrived back
in time for our ‘Club Time’ where we sang some worship songs, heard the message
of the day, and ended with prayer. The
theme of the week is “Baggage” and our scripture is Hebrews 12:1-3. It’s always fascinating to me to listen to
the Word and then look up the same scripture in my ‘Catholic’ bible to see the
differences. This one was closer than
most! “So then let’s also run the race
that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses
surrounding us. Let’s throw off any
extra baggage (lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely), get
rid of the sin that trips us up, and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and
perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring
the shame, for the sake of the Joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat
down at the right side of God’s throne.”
It was a good
message to hear and hopefully we will get to unpack it as the week goes
on. We are here with 9 different church
groups, and was surprised to see other Ohio vans in the parking lot! (The UMC from Montgomery & Kenwood Rd is
here with their junior high students!
Talk about close to home!) We are
excited to get started in the morning, and I hope to have lots more to
share. In the meantime, please keep us
in your prayers, and enjoy some pics from earlier in the day. . .if they post
for me. J
Friday, June 22, 2012
Welcome 2012 Mission Trip Attendees, Followers, and Friends! :) Looking over the past few posts from our last mission trip to Tennessee is getting me so excited to leave this Sunday! I can't wait to go spread some of our Saint Michael love to the people of the Appalachian Mountain region! Don't forget that we will be meeting at the 9:30 mass for a special blessing and 'sending off'. Can't wait to see you!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Well, it is now Monday and we have been home for about a day and a half. I miss seeing the teens everyday, but love taking a shower in privacy and sleeping in my own bed. :)
We got up on Saturday and ate donuts, bagels, and juice in the chapel as a group. Promise and Kelly met us there, so we got one last group photo with all of us in our new Team Effort shirts. After packing the van and truck, we drove down the park to see the rapids that were made by the dam release. We made it just in time to see the water level rise where we were swimming the day before. It was fun, but not as dramatic as they make it seem in the movies. hehe
After a sad goodbye, the teens and adults packed back into the vehicles and started the long trek back home. We ate lunch at Wendy's in Jellico and made it all the way back to Cincinnati before we had our first real incident with driving. Somebody in a mini van decided to play bumper cars between the high speed and middle lanes. After barely avoiding the accident, we turned into a blind corner and one of the drivers of a hit car decides to jump out of his moon roof into the high speed lane. I am sure God had his hand in my driving, because their was no room on either side of me to go and I had to make a split decision on whether to hit the one man or throw all of us into traffic. I chose the man (sorry sir) and God blessed us with not hitting anyone or anything. I haven't been that scared driving in forever!
We made it back to church with no other issues and everyone went home to their families. I want to say a huge thank you to all of the teens and adults who went to TN with me. They were respectful, hardworking, and lots of fun. It is the first time in 20 years that I can honestly say there wasn't any drama all week. . . .well, that I was aware of anyhow. :) I look forward to spending time with them next summer as well.
We got up on Saturday and ate donuts, bagels, and juice in the chapel as a group. Promise and Kelly met us there, so we got one last group photo with all of us in our new Team Effort shirts. After packing the van and truck, we drove down the park to see the rapids that were made by the dam release. We made it just in time to see the water level rise where we were swimming the day before. It was fun, but not as dramatic as they make it seem in the movies. hehe
After a sad goodbye, the teens and adults packed back into the vehicles and started the long trek back home. We ate lunch at Wendy's in Jellico and made it all the way back to Cincinnati before we had our first real incident with driving. Somebody in a mini van decided to play bumper cars between the high speed and middle lanes. After barely avoiding the accident, we turned into a blind corner and one of the drivers of a hit car decides to jump out of his moon roof into the high speed lane. I am sure God had his hand in my driving, because their was no room on either side of me to go and I had to make a split decision on whether to hit the one man or throw all of us into traffic. I chose the man (sorry sir) and God blessed us with not hitting anyone or anything. I haven't been that scared driving in forever!
We made it back to church with no other issues and everyone went home to their families. I want to say a huge thank you to all of the teens and adults who went to TN with me. They were respectful, hardworking, and lots of fun. It is the first time in 20 years that I can honestly say there wasn't any drama all week. . . .well, that I was aware of anyhow. :) I look forward to spending time with them next summer as well.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Rounding Third and Heading for Home. . . .
Hello from our Last Day in Tennessee! What a great day it was. We got to sleep a little later (7:30. woo hoo!) and then had breakfast. (They ran out of milk. How do you run out of milk?) We left camp and went back one last time to Minister Galloway's to put all of his stuff back on the porch. (Swing, plants, glider, rugs, etc.) While we were putting away his things, John ran some caulking down the seams between the corner posts and the house. When he saw the finished project, he was very excited and thanked us profusely.
We then left the work site and headed to the Cherokee National Forest and the 'Blue Holes'. After many times being told "you can't miss it", we finally found the blue holes they were talking about. The Cherokee National Forest was the site for the 1996 Olympic Rafting games. The park still runs the route on the weekends, but during the weekdays, it is low water and you can swim between all of the rafting rocks. (Some are man made and some are natural.) The guides told us that when the dam is plugged, the river runs at 1100 cubic feet per second. When they release the dam on the weekends, the river runs at 2500 cubic feet per second! That is a huge difference!
We found the blue hole site and dove right in. The water was awesome and it was so hot out today that it truly was refreshing. I just realized I never told you what the blue holes were! They are rafting rocks that have holes in them you can swim through. (The teens looked like gophers popping up everywhere!) It was so fun! The whole swimming area is called the blue holes, and when you are in the water, you can see over 6 feet down clearly. It is easily the cleanest river I have ever swam in!
We left the park and went to grab a quick snack since we skipped lunch in order to swim longer. After our snack we did the high ropes course at camp. Ok, the teens, Erich, & John did the high ropes course. Maureen and I took pictures and cheered them on! It was scary looking at them up so high even though the guides were wonderful. They caught everyone that 'slipped' and were encouraging to everyone. We took lots of pictures, so we will try to post a couple of them on here.
After the ropes course, we cleaned up and left for lunch at Subway. Promise and Kelly met us there and we walked to the Georgia/Tennessee line. After much picture taking of all of us being in two places at once, we went back to the van and drove to Mercier Orchards. What a fun place. They let us try their fresh off the tree peaches. Yum! We did a little shopping and decided we wanted to rock out to some music while finding a park for all 16 of us to run around in. We ended up going to an elementary school not far from the orchard that had massive amounts of swings and toys. We played ladder ball and ultimate flip flop (because we
didn't have a frisbee. hehe) It was a lot of fun and we got packed up just in time for the rain to come.
We proceeded to Pat's Kountry Kitchen for dinner and to ride out the rain. It was a little like a cracker barrel back home, except everything is homemade in the store. (I tried turnip greens for the first time. They were ok, especially after I doused them in salt and butter. haha!)
After dinner we went back to camp for fellowship (free time with all the groups around a campfire) and had our closing prayer service. It will be sad to say goodbye to Kelly and Promise tomorrow because the teens (and the adults!) have gotten really attached to them. They did a great job!
We are planning on driving by the Olympic site on the way home tomorrow to see the river at it's high point. Hopefully we should be on the road home by eleven. We promise to call when we get close to home since I know many of you are dying to see your children. (And they missed you too!)
Thanks for praying for us all week. Please keep the prayers coming for a safe trip home. See you soon!
We then left the work site and headed to the Cherokee National Forest and the 'Blue Holes'. After many times being told "you can't miss it", we finally found the blue holes they were talking about. The Cherokee National Forest was the site for the 1996 Olympic Rafting games. The park still runs the route on the weekends, but during the weekdays, it is low water and you can swim between all of the rafting rocks. (Some are man made and some are natural.) The guides told us that when the dam is plugged, the river runs at 1100 cubic feet per second. When they release the dam on the weekends, the river runs at 2500 cubic feet per second! That is a huge difference!
We found the blue hole site and dove right in. The water was awesome and it was so hot out today that it truly was refreshing. I just realized I never told you what the blue holes were! They are rafting rocks that have holes in them you can swim through. (The teens looked like gophers popping up everywhere!) It was so fun! The whole swimming area is called the blue holes, and when you are in the water, you can see over 6 feet down clearly. It is easily the cleanest river I have ever swam in!
We left the park and went to grab a quick snack since we skipped lunch in order to swim longer. After our snack we did the high ropes course at camp. Ok, the teens, Erich, & John did the high ropes course. Maureen and I took pictures and cheered them on! It was scary looking at them up so high even though the guides were wonderful. They caught everyone that 'slipped' and were encouraging to everyone. We took lots of pictures, so we will try to post a couple of them on here.
After the ropes course, we cleaned up and left for lunch at Subway. Promise and Kelly met us there and we walked to the Georgia/Tennessee line. After much picture taking of all of us being in two places at once, we went back to the van and drove to Mercier Orchards. What a fun place. They let us try their fresh off the tree peaches. Yum! We did a little shopping and decided we wanted to rock out to some music while finding a park for all 16 of us to run around in. We ended up going to an elementary school not far from the orchard that had massive amounts of swings and toys. We played ladder ball and ultimate flip flop (because we
didn't have a frisbee. hehe) It was a lot of fun and we got packed up just in time for the rain to come.
We proceeded to Pat's Kountry Kitchen for dinner and to ride out the rain. It was a little like a cracker barrel back home, except everything is homemade in the store. (I tried turnip greens for the first time. They were ok, especially after I doused them in salt and butter. haha!)
After dinner we went back to camp for fellowship (free time with all the groups around a campfire) and had our closing prayer service. It will be sad to say goodbye to Kelly and Promise tomorrow because the teens (and the adults!) have gotten really attached to them. They did a great job!
We are planning on driving by the Olympic site on the way home tomorrow to see the river at it's high point. Hopefully we should be on the road home by eleven. We promise to call when we get close to home since I know many of you are dying to see your children. (And they missed you too!)
Thanks for praying for us all week. Please keep the prayers coming for a safe trip home. See you soon!
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