The Many Mysteries of Mystery Mission Trip

OK....OK....I am sorry for not posting lately. It's just that my summer has been packed and I haven't had much of a chance to sit and just update everything. So, I'll update you now while I still can. On July 8, Ryan and I loaded up the U-Haul with VBS supplies, luggage, sleeping bags and a few miscellaneous items for the Mystery Mission Trip. The kids grabbed their seats on the church bus and we were even able to leave 15 minutes earlier than scheduled. By the way, teens, Ryan and I were very impressed that everyone was on time. Now, for those of you who still don't know the mystery location, we drove about an hour and a half out of town, ate lunch, turned the bus around and came back home to Powell Apartments and Aqua Isle. The original plan was to go North and eat at the food court in a mall. So we leave the church, drive through Williamstown, and cross the bridge into Marietta, Ohio. About 3 minutes past the bridge, a crazy man speeds up next to me and is waving his arm. My first guess was that he was drunk, so I almost didn't bother looking. But, I did and it was a good thing I did. As he's pointing backwards he's yelling something about a door being opened. I have no idea what he's talking about, so I told Ryan that we should probably pull over to see what he's talking about. I look over again to acknowledge that we understood him and he starts yelling something like, " The door....on the U-Haul....it's open!" Ok, so we are now sitting in the parking lot of Auto Zone. Ryan, Adam, and myself jump out to take a look. And, the door to the U-haul was open. Not just cracked, but completely open. Somehow, the door managed to come up. We had latched the door properly before leaving and we even put the pad lock on it. We gave the lock and the door a couple good yanks before leaving, but obviously that didn't matter. Not only did the door open up, but it took the latch and lock with it and was jammed into the track that the door sits on. Since we were at an Auto Zone, Adam went in and bought this huge screwdriver. We pulled and pushed and finally unstuck the stupid latch and lock. Next was checking to see what we had lost. The kids got out and we had them look for their luggage, sleeping bag, and pillow if it wasn't with them in the bus. We ended up losing more than we thought. While we are sorting through everything, Ryan walks along the road all the way back to the bridge to see if there is anything in the road. Nothing! Where was everything? We loaded everything back up, checked the door....excessively.....and drove back to the church. We thought we might find the lost items if we drove back. We get to one of the main intersections in Williamstown and there it is......a pillow, which happens to be Ryan's. I ran out to grab it, but right before I got there a car was nice enough to run right over the stupid thing. I grab the pillow and jump back into the van. As we pass the place where the pillow was found, we see what could have been a cookie cake. Ah, yes, the cookie cake. Matthew Jonas, who turned 18 on the very day, was sent with 2 cookie cakes and a few 2 liters of pop for his party. Let's just say that we were left with 1 cookie cake and we had milk. hehe Poor Matthew. And later we found some traces of the purple icing on Ryan's pillow case. Wonderful! So we drive all of the way back to the church and all we found was Ryan's pillow, the remains of the cookie cake, and the 2 liters, which had exploded on the road and on the back of the U-Haul. Now the great thing about not really having a specific route to take is that we decided to drive to Clarksburg for lunch. And if the kids were even somewhat good with directions they would have realized that we weren't going North at all! haha The majority of the kids didn't figure out where we were going until about 20 minutes outside of Parkersburg when they saw the "so many miles to" signs. Lovely Jenna had been persuaded by the teens in the back of the bus that we weren't going home, but that there was a Parkersburg, Pennsylvania. Oh, Jenna, I love you! We stayed all week at Stewart Hall which is the Junior/Senior dorm at OVU. We had a devo that night and the kids were asked to tell their honest immediate reactions and thoughts. Ryan and I had thought about this moment several times. What if they are so mad that they don't want to do it now? A lot of our teens said that once they found out we were doing it at Powell were fine. Actually, it was so neat to hear some of them say that they were very excited. Our goal was to teach them that , yes, you can go to another city, state, country to do a mission trip, but don't forget about your own city. We talked a lot about how God puts you where you live for a reason. We not only did the VBS for Powell kids, but we also had kids from Aqua Isle, which is right down the road, come too. We had been bringing a large group of kids to church on Wednesdays, but because of summer, our numbers were really low. And it's not just about the numbers, but we brought 11 kids to church this past Wednesday. That was great! We even had 3 from Aqua Isle come to T.A.G. last night. The Mystery Mission Trip was excellent. Molly, Ryan's mom, cooked lunch and dinner for us the entire week. We have never had such amazing meals on a mission trip before. The kids couldn't stop thanking her. It was wonderful! We have teens helping with the Powell Ministry who weren't involved before. Ryan and I couldn't have asked for the trip to have been any better..........except we could have done without the U-Haul story.........but that's where the memories are made, right? Thanks to everyone who participated and who helped. It really meant a lot to us.

OK, so next Friday a group from GC leaves for New Orleans. We are going down to do some disaster relief work. It's gonna be hot, but I won't complain. How can I complain about heat, when these people don't even have a home? I have just recently came to realize how blessed I really am. We leave on July 28th and come home on August 5th. Ryan and I are sneaking in a very short (one day, one night) vacation before we head out. It's the only us time that we have really had this summer. I miss him! We are going to a minor league baseball game and just relaxing while we can. School will be starting for kids before we know it and we have yet to find a teaching job. So, please keep both of us in your prayers. We are planning on subbing through the first year if we have to, but we would love to have our very own classroom and our very own students. How exciting! Well, keep the GC group in your prayers as we travel to New Orleans next week.

"Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is." ~ Romans 12:2