The Cheesiest State

Yesterday I returned from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

We left Mason on Sunday after church last week, and took a ferry across Lake Michigan. The ferry was fun, going like 50mph across the lake produced some major wind up on the deck, so needless to say a bunch of us were up there playing in the strong wind.

Once we arrived at Pius Catholic High School where we were staying, we were greated by Stephan, the leader of the Youth Works group we were there under. The guys and girls each stayed in seperate class rooms just across the hall from each other, and our dining room/kitchen was a home mech classroom.

We had these things called "Happy Fun Bags" which were pretty much mail bags that you could use to write and recieve notes from people. That was cool...

Club was our nightly "afterglow". Sunday nights club was in the gym, and it was like 110 degrees with barely any air circulation. Unbearable.

Sleeping that night sucked for me, I couldn't get my air mattress to inflate fully so I was practically sleeping on the floor. Oh well, I lived.

Monday we were split up into Crews 1 through 5 and went to our seperate sites. I was on Crew 4 with Miles, Mike, Jennifer, Cassie, Emily, Jennie, Abigail, Alicia, Stephanie, Craig, Kyle, Warren and Debra. We were sent to a place called "Scott Christian Youth Center", which was basically a decrepid building used as a food missionary. This building was falling apart.

Throughout the week, we cleaned out the basement and made it a place for day care, and we moved a swingset and installed a border with wood chips and a sand box, and painted the set. That doesn't sound like a lot of work, but it was. To see the look on the peoples faces was just amazing, they were SO thrilled...

The other crews did other things, not sure what exactly but they went to other missionary sites to assist in either gardening, painting, sorting or just spending time with old people and homeless people.

Wednesday night for dinner, we all went to the UCC (a homeless shelter) to spend time with people.

Jessica, Adam, Kaysie and I sat at a table with a man probably in his early 60's and an older woman. The man was strange... and I learned afterwards that he was a pedophile, so I felt very uncomfortable afterwards.

This time around Jessica and I had the opportunity to be Adult Leaders, that was SO strange... it was awesome though.

I spent time with a lot of people from church that I'd hardly ever spoken to... and it was great. I got to know Jennifer, she's really and awesome person and I think she's good for Miles, maybe she can teach him to grow up a little... which he most certainly HAS done. He still likes to play around a little too much but he has more of a defined sense of when to be serious and when it's ok to joke.

I spent the ride home between Rachel and Gretchen, they're both awesome, it was cool getting to know them.

At the hotel on Friday night after Six Flags, I had Josh, Adam, Kyle and Seth in my room. Those are some cool kids, they had me CRACKING UP. There was a youth works staff member named Luke who was like ALWAYS sticking to this strict schedule "Ok 5 minutes to pray go ahead" and stuff, and there was NO alteration... so Josh was imatating him "Ok, dinner tonight will be carrots, broccoli, and chip dip" (which was true) and he did this robot laugh, it was HILLARIOUS, and if I wasn't laughing hard enough about that, Seth TOTALLY ripped one while laughing and that just set the rest of us off even more... I was laughing so hard that my chest started to hurt and I couldn't breathe, I had to get out of bed and calm down lol...

We had a feet washing ceremony Thursday night. As a leader, I had the opportunity to wash several of the teens feet and pray for them. That was a VERY emotional and spiritual moment for everyone, and I don't think a single person walked out of the room that night with a dry eye. That brought EVERYBODY closer together... its so awesome... God REALLY worked in that room at the moment... Jessica washed her sister KC's feet only, then they prayed together and began sobbing... Yolanda prayed with them for a while, then when she left, Stu, Travis and I went over to them and layed hands on them while they held each other and continued praying out loud... After they were done praying Jessica gave me a HUGE hug that lasted several minutes and said that she loves me and everyone else so much and that she couldn't have gotten through the situation with her father without us being there... then she did the same with Stu and Travis... I hugged KC for a few minutes and just prayed with her... God just took control of all of us at that moment.

This morning during our "report" to the church, Jessica spoke, completely in tears about that particular experience, and said that God has performed a miracle, that because of the foot washing ceremony, praying with Yolanda, her sister, and me Travis and Stu, she's let go, and she is no longer angry at her father.. Praise GOD.

We saved two more people... Doug Richey never really cared much about God or church, he just came because he wanted to be around friends... but this morning, when Mitch asked if anyone wanted to speak, he took the mic, asked for someone to read a Bible verse that he read this week, and stood at the pulpit and said that he has finally accepted the truth of Jesus, and that he knows now that we cannot just sit around and wait for we don't know when our time will come, we're just wasting time keeping to ourselves here in Mason MI when there is so much to be done and so many people to minister to and to serve... It was absolutely incredible to hear how God has touched the life of somebody, to actually SEE that transformation before your very eyes... the other one was a guy named Will, who was more or less the same way, but he's still somewhat shy about it even though you can see he's been touched...

I pray for everyone on the trip, that we all keep walking hand in hand with each other and Jesus, and I pray for those who couldn't make it, even though Aquire the Fire was awesome, it simply does not compare to the bond this trip has created between the teens, leaders, and God...