Recap on life...

So I realize that it has been two weeks since my last blog post... whoops. Apparently these past 14 days has been busier than I thought. To get everyone (including myself) up to speed on how life has been since June 12, I think I'll start with the Mission's Trip.

My last post gave a brief/tentative overview of what the trip would look like. We arrived in Glenwood, Iowa late afternoon on Sunday, and the first 24 hours of the trip were a little a chaotic... to say the least. We went down to Iowa with the 6 different TreeHouse's in the Minneapolis area, but our area, New Hope, was definitely having a difficult time adjusting. In the past, they have gone on mission trips either in cities or on an Indian reservation. So for them, it was hard to come to Glenwood and work in a residential area and slowly get adjusted to serving through a new organization. Just to give you a little preview of what TeenServe looked like for the week...

• Wake-up call at... 6:30 IN THE MORNING! Did I mention those calls were over the school's loud speaker and that we were sleeping in the classrooms on the cement floor?
• Breakfast!
• Go to our individual work sites (our group was split up amongst the other TreeHouse's) where we painted OVER 50 houses total as a group that week! Praise God for hard work and perseverance!
• Get back around 3:30 pm and "rest"
• Dinner!
• A joyous round of Ultimate Frisbee :-] where I happened to break my pinky toe the last night :-[
• Evening program from 6:45-9ish pm - during this, there was worship and a main speaker who spoke on the theme of  LOVE Re:action for the whole week.
• Specifically New Hope TreeHouse had a daily debriefing meeting to see how each of our days were
• Pranks to one another (myself and the other intern were the main targets) and BED TIME!

*Repeat this general cycle for the general duration of the rest of the week.

But in the midst of this overall schedule, God moved in powerful ways. He provided without fail various opportunities to reveal His love to not only the youth, but myself included. There were so many amazing moments with our team, but all it took was one moment with a student professing himself feeling the presence of God like never before, surrounding him completely both inwardly and outwardly, that made me realize that I have the privilege of being a part of this intimate part of youth's lives... for my JOB no less. This trip confirmed that there's absolutely no place I'd rather be than with these students, walking with each of them as they grow in life and faith.

A group shot of my amazing work crew with the 2-story house we scrapped, primed, and painted in 5 DAYS!!!