Thursday, June 30, 2011

Mission Offering

Thursday morning is one of the most difficult mornings of the week. Coming back to a 6 am breakfast and a 7 am sendoff to the worksite after a carefree night off can be nearly unbearable. However, the squads went back today, some even finishing and ready to assist other squads in their wrapping up on Friday.

Tonight in worship the mission offering was collected. This year, the offering is taken up in efforts to help in the rebuilding of the disaster stricken Alabama. The Alabama Disaster Relief team is providing the food for camp this week, so they were able to share their experience with exactly what they dealt with in the days immediately following the storm. The offering collected totaled over $3000, one step closer to the $20,000 goal!

Keep these folks in your prayers as they head out to site one last time and prepare to return home, much different as they started, bringing back different outlooks and hearts of service. 

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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Free Night

After spending the morning at the work sites, everyone ate lunch and headed back to the school in preparations for various free night activities. A few groups went white water rafting or tubing down the different rivers in the mountains, while others had a peaceful evening out to dinner. Having the evening to relax makes it harder to jump back into the early morning labor, but they are also that much closer to finishing what they started.

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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Concert of Prayer

Today was much hotter than the last, but that didn't stifle the workers' spirits, some even finished projects and are moving on to the next big thing. The Cherokee Chief was able to make it out to one of the work sites and meet the squad working there. It was also the concert of prayer and the main prayer of the night was to have the Lord fill us up and have his glory pour out of us as a result. Everyone then went to youth group debriefing and finally headed to bed, ready for a relaxing Wednesday night off.

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Monday, June 27, 2011

First Day on Site

Monday morning everyone wakes up to a hardy breakfast and perfect weather conditions to start their new projects. Upon return, they all adorned their Grounded T-Shirts for the group photos. During worship, we learned about the calling God has for us: to be holy. Andrew, the speaker, gave a demonstration of how, when laced together page by page, phonebooks can not be humanly pulled apart. And so when we make good decisions, everyday, one on top of another, we are much less easily broken than if we have a few good decisions here and there, such as one week at Mission Serve. 

 

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Sunday, June 26, 2011

Welcome to Cherokee Nation!

On Sunday, groups began arriving around 1:30 pm, along with guests looking to attend the Pow Wow held on the football field. Because of the rain, both groups had to share Old Cherokee High School. There were many Pow Wow guests and many opportunities to share the gospel. Later during the adult meeting, Justin Teseniar led the kids in songs and games were played, like eating bananas with their feet, or Gorilla Gun Man. Pizza followed these shenanigans and later everyone attended worship and found the fate of their squad for the week. After discussing the individual squads' game plans for the week, everyone withdrew to their rooms in preparation for the work to come during the week. Let's see what God has in store for us here in Cherokee, NC!