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