Puerto Rico: Day 7

Friday...:

That morning we got up early to clean the church and get everything packed up to head home.

We spent the morning walking around Old San Juan...which is definitely a different experience in the day than at night. We had an opportunity to just walk around and enjoy PR a little more and get souvenirs...which I must say, I didn't really buy many...with intention...I wanted my souvenirs to be my pictures. Hope noone hates me for that. Oh well.

But we got to the airport and almost missed our plane. It was crazy...but the San Juan airport is definitely different from any airport I've been to in the states.

In the end, it was very strange when we landed in Charlotte to think that we had been walking around in Old San Juan that morning.

I wanted to do a blog for each day and tomorrow I'll probably post after our sharing service at church more about how God worked in my life and share the group video and some other experiences....so that's all for now =)

Puerto Rico: Day 6

Thursday...:

Thursday was our last full day in PR and our last day of ministry....

I forgot to say that I didn't have coffee AT ALL on Sunday, Monday OR Tuesday...I know, I know...I'm surprised too, but it happened. The ladies that cooked lunch for us all week were amazing and they made some BANGIN' cafe!!! =) It was so amazing!! It definitely made up for not having any for 3 days =)

We did VBS again...which was even more fun than Wednesday's. You could definitely tell the kids were willing to listen to what we had to say and were willing to listen as well. And it was very hard leaving the kids after lunch...we even had one kid who asked us not to leave and to come to his house. It was so adorable.

Thursday was also somewhat of a free afternoon. We went and took team pictures on the beach and gave the youth the option of going back to the sports camp our hanging out at the beach. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at the amount that stayed the whole time at the sports camp. Everyone else went to the beach for about an hour and then went to the camp for the second hour.

The church we worked at also had kind of like a thank you service for us Thursday night. It was very sweet and they even had someone in the church who has a "reggaeton" group come and sing a couple of songs....you can see there myspace page by clicking here. And I have to say that even though we couldn't understand the lyrics, you could tell that they loved the Lord and the lyrics glorified Him.

*stay tuned for the last installment of PRMT2010....

Puerto Rico: Day 5

Wednesday...:

VBS!!!!

Wednesday was a first day of VBS with the kids. So we were having a blast hanging out and playing with the young ones, the PA group was doing some painting and other such stuff.

Let me first say that we weren't sure how crazy these kids were going to be. We had seen them with the PA group the two days before, but you never know how kids are going to react with different groups. But we had so much fun!!! The kids were great...some of them even knew English, so it was very refreshing. I have to say that I don't normally name favorites, but I have to....Jeremiah was the cutest little boy (the one with the Gamecock hat on below)...he spoke English very well, in fact, I don't think he knew Spanish. And then there was Elizabeth....she's the cutie with the glasses holding her playdough cake...Elizabeth didn't know any English, but that didn't stop us from loving on her, or any of the kids...the language of God is amazing. You don't always need words, just a smile.

God still amazes me.

After a wonderful morning at VBS, we went to a sports camp that was going on near the beach...they had volleyball, basketball, baseball and soccer camps. I never really realized how big of a sport volleyball was in PR, but they had some amazing players. We all enjoyed being down there, playing will all the people there and making bracelets as well...

Puerto Rico: Day 4

Tuesday...:

After a good night's rest we did some more painting....half of our group went to a school to paint a couple classroom buildings while the other half stayed at the church to finish painting the sanctuary and the backstage room. The PA group did VBS again on Tuesday.

I was with the group at the school and we had a lot of fun painting walls and cleaning windows....

That afternoon our group split into 3...a small group of girls went to visit a young lady from the church who'd just had a baby, another group went on a prayer walk around the church and also handed out flyers about VBS and the last group went to a nursing home. The PA group went to a sport's camp over by the beach.

I went with the group to the nursing home...we sang a few songs (in English and Spanish). We had a great time fellowshipping and hearing stories...so much fun that we were late getting back to the church...

We found out when we got back that the PA group did one of the crafts we were planning on doing for VBS on Thursday, so we made a trip to WalMart...it was interesting going to a WalMart in a different country, but it was pretty much the same. With the exception of the security guy outside in a little post...you'll have to find the picture on FB.

*tomorrow: VBS!!!! & Going to the sports camp....

Puerto Rico: Day 3

Monday...:

Monday is when we really started getting to work.

*note: Sunday night & the rest of the nights in PR where much better...the girls moved into 2 of the rooms with A/C. The PA girls group moved into the 3rd with A/C and the PA guys moved into the one with no A/C....sorry guys*

Each day we spent the morning at the church doing different projects and the afternoons doing some sort of ministry. When we got back from ministry, we would debrief in our small groups about the day, have dinner, have about an hour of worship time, along with a time for sharing what happened that day. Then free time until lights out at 10:30.

The church we worked at is an old-school movie theater...so day one we painted the upstairs part of the sanctuary and a room backstage while the PA group worked VBS.

That afternoon we split up into 4 vans and traveled to the hospital to talk and pray with people in different waiting areas. We also had 4 translators with is for the week Amanda, David, Yamil & Kevin (D, Y & K are brothers)...they are all from Puerto Rico and were so much fun to work with.

*up next: more painting & visiting a nursing home....*

Puerto Rico: Day 2

Sunday...:

I'm not going to lie, the first night we stayed in PR was miserable...especially for the girls.

Since we arrived in PR a day before we had to, there was still a group from the previous week staying at the church. The GA group had 3 of the 4 rooms with A/C...and our guys stayed in the 4th. We had 10 girls and 3 leaders stay in the room upstairs depending on 2 fans and the night breeze to keep us cool while the remaining 5 leaders slept downstairs. It was pretty bad. Not to mention that planes were taking off and landing the whole night.

The GA group had gone to El Yunque Rainforest the day before and highly recommended us taking a trip if we could. So we loaded up 36 people into 2 vans...yes, yes, we knew they were 15-passenger vans....what's a youth trip without a crowded van, right?

...anywho, we loaded up bright-and-early to spend the day swimming in the fresh spring water...there really is nothing like it. We spent probably 3ish hours swimming and climbing rocks, it was a blast. A few people left after about an hour to go pick up the last member of our group to make us 37 again. (We had a youth get sick at the last minute and his doctor told him not to travel on Saturday, so they switched his ticket to Sunday.)

After arriving back at the church to get ready for the welcome service that night we met a group from PA that would be with us for the week....they had a group of 17 (4 leaders, 13 youth)....ours was 37 (11 leaders, 26 youth). I think it's needless to say that our group can be pretty intimidating, but the other group was great and you could tell that there were some bonds formed between brothers and sisters in Christ. =)

The pictures below are of our trip to El Yunque (in which there was also a tower-Yokahu).

I also must note the reason for the license plate is because our youth are known as HYG and "J" in Spanish is pronounced with a "Y" sound =)

next time: we get to work! =)

Puerto Rico: Day 1

I've decided that I'm going to post blogs for each of the days I was in Puerto Rico. So I'm going to post Saturday through Wednesday today and then post about last Thursday's tomorrow...Friday's on Friday...etc.

Saturday...:

A group of 35 youth & adult leaders left our church at 5:30AM Saturday, July 17th. (Our group totals 37, but more on that a little later.)

We arrived at the Charlotte Airport around 8AM and our plane left around 9:30AM....

We had a few of first time flyers and a few nervous flyers (I'm included in the latter group). Needless to say that I have a lot of pictures of the clouds and such....not by me, but by one of the nervous flyers sitting next to me.

Once we arrived in San Juan around 1:30ish, we waited patiently for a couple of our youth leaders to get vans for us...some of the youth entertained themselves with the game "Ninja". We also had one of our other group members meet us

there (his dad is a pilot for another airline and he used a buddy pass).

After loading up our stuff and ourselves into the vans, we arrived about 3PM at the church we were staying at for the week, which was literally across the street from the airport, and unpacked our stuff.

There were 2 restaurant choices down the road for lunch/dinner: McDonald's & Subway. We split up and immediately there was a language barrier.

Luckily we had a youth that spoke Spanish fairly well, but I didn't realize how ignorant I was prior to going...I guess because I knew it was a US Territory I assumed everyone there would know English.

After getting back to the church and settling down for a little bit, we loaded up the vans and went to Old San Juan.

Old San Juan is a cute downtown area and it was really neat to see the Saturday night life in Puerto Rico. We had the opportunity to buy souvenirs and get Starbucks (of course).

Below you can see various pictures from the plane ride, airport and Old San Juan.

...to be continued...

Photo of the Day 7/27

Okay, call this a teaser if you will, but this is just one of several to come from my recent mission trip with my church's youth to Puerto Rico.
This was taken on one of our free time breaks at the beach....edited to show more of the sky's true color that day.
Enjoy =)

Photo of the Day 7/17

First, Happy Birthday to my cousin Sam who turns 2 today!! Crazy stuff.

Anywho...today, a group of 37 from my church are headed to Puerto Rico for a week-long mission trip. I am so excited to see what God has in store for us as we travel down and minister to His people...that brings me to today's photo of the day...I am sure by the time this blog posts I am going to need one of these right here.... =)

I'll be back in a week...can't wait to share what happens with everyone.

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."

Mark 16:15

Photo of the Day 7/16

I almost forgot to post today! Today has been so crazy at work making sure that everything that needs to get done for the next week gets done!! I am so excited about leaving for PR tomorrow...now I just have to wait for 5 o'clock (which is only an hour away) to get off work and go pack! And I still have work to finish...ahhhh!!!!

So, quick story about this picture: Georgia is the place I called home for about 9 years...so here's one of the towns that I normally pass through when I go visit my brother and some friends down there. The fact that the city is called Hoboken just makes me smile. =)

Hope everyone is having a great day and has a wonderful weekend and week next week....

See ya on the flip side ;)

Photo of the Day 7/15

Here's a picture I took at Boone Hall Plantation in Mt. Pleasant, SC, a few weeks ago.

To find out more about my trip to Boone Hall, click here to see my blog about it.

Photo of the Day 7/14

This is Jasmine...better known as Jazz. If you can't already tell from this picture, this is a puppy with a LOT of personality.
Every time I go visit my parents in Ohio, I love chasing after this one with my camera...and she's very fast..

Photo of the Day 7/13

So I've been taking a lot of pictures of the sky lately...but at least I've posted a picture 2 days in a row!!

This may sound like a tiny accomplishment, but it's a great one...especially for me. =)

Photo of the Day 7/12

I took this one night last week. The sun was setting and it was such a vibrant color.

I'm going to try my hand at this again and post a picture every day (this week at least). With the exception of next week...because I will be in Puerto Rico for a Mission Trip with my church's youth group.

A Graduation Weekend.

I just realized that I never posted this blog...which I wrote over a month ago, go figure. So here's some info of the extended weekend I was above the Mason-Dixon Line.
My baby cousin (on my Dad's side) graduated this year from Washington Community High School (my dad's Alma Mater). I am so very proud of her! She's off to college in the Fall. She decided to start at ICC and then transfer to NIU after 2 years. Tear....these are the times when I feel old.
But it was a great weekend with family, and it's times like this that I also wish I was a lot closer to family all the time.
So I've put 2 collages together from the weekend. The first is from her graduation party on Saturday and the graduation cermony on Sunday afternoon.
Enjoy.