Monday 3 August 2009

Musings from Charlotte Airport...

Hello from Charlotte, North Carolina!
This is Jack, relaxing at the airport with about three and a half hours to go before we take off, due to an hours delay. I think this is God wanting us to stay in America just that little bit longer! I have had such an amazing ten days and have grown and made some great friendships and will definitely keep them going, praise God for Facebook! These ten days have been tiring, hard but so worth it, and i'm so glad God called me to go to Knoxville. Yesterday at the 'Pudding Party' i realised how much of a community we had become, but also how much people are involved within our trip. Im so thankful for all of these people!!
Hope all is well back home in Wallington, and cant wait to see everybody back there! Not that long to go!
Jack x


heloooo its amber here :)
we are sitting playing cards and hanging out at the airport after finding out our flight is delayed!
these ten days have been the most moving inspiring and best 10 days of my life. just every part of everyday was an adventure.
i cried a lot when we left but i have no doubt i will see them all again, facebook is an amazing thing! i have a strong bond with everyone of the team american and english. this time has helped me grow in my faith.
cant wait to see you all
lots of love
amber x


Hey its James!!!!

As you have probably heard from many other people that this trip has been AMAZING!!!
Opening up our experience with swimming and mine and many other english folks first baseball game! Monday and Tuesday we spent serving at Salvation Army and The Volunteer Ministry which was a very fun experience but was a wake up call that anyone could be in that situation. Wednesday we were supposed to go to Wesley Woods Camp to paint but ended up in two nursing homes which for me was a great experience to see how even at the ages of 80 - 90 they are still able to play bean bag baseball with us! The rest of the week was very tiring but fantastic especially shovelling zoo poo which you will hear plenty about very soon. Finally saturday! our relax day at the lake house which was so much fun especially hanging on for dear life on a inflatable tube and being dragged along the water by a boat at about 30 mph!!!! I fell off about a ...... million times but oh well!!!! And after a very emotional final team meeting and goodbye at the airport we are sitting now in Charlotte waiting for our plane to take us back home. People around me sayuing i have written too much soo signing off and letting steph talk for a bit !!!

See You All Soon
James xxx



Hey =)
These 10 days have been AMAZING!! and I'm sure everyone on the team will agree! I have learnt so much,had so much fun and I am so thankful that I have had the opportunity to go to Knoxville. I have loved EVERY minuite of it!!!
I have built great relationships and learnt so much more about following Christ.

Love Stephanie x





Hey everybody! Right now, I'm in the middle of a game of rummy with James, Harry and David so this will have to be a quick post. I just want to say that although this has been an incredibly challenging trip in places, especially our visits to the residential homes, it's been amazing. Really, truly, once-in-a-lifetime amazing, and I'm so grateful for everyone who's made this trip possible for us. I'm just hoping that all we've learnt during these past ten days will be able to be put to good use once we return! I'm just praying for a safe flight that isn't delayed any further! See you all on our return, where I'm sure we'll all have lots of stories to tell.

Jess
x



Howdy, how y'all doing It's Hayden here. i just wanted to share one of my most interesting moments of the week. On Wednesday, instead of painting a fence at Camp Wesley Woods we went to a residential home and to be honest when we were on the way i was terrified. i am dreading the day of getting old and not having my body let me do what i want to do. so when we went to the residential i didn't want to talk to anyone because they reminded me of what i dreaded but i met (with Kim and Dan) a lovely lady who used to live in Seymour who just chatted with us and told us about her family and and said how us being with her and sitting with her inspired her. this really touched my heart and as we left we prayed together and Lucy prayed for us. when we shared our experiences that afternoon as a team i was reminded that we have lovely older people at church and that they are not scary and i shouldn't be scared of growing old as God will use me in that situation as well. Yesterday as we shared as a team for the last time i thought about how we had been looking at Philippians 2 which says "shine like stars in the world of darkness" and noted how i have seen all team members shine like stars this week and to challenge them that as we go out into the world of darkness and sin that we continue to shine like stars and spread what we have learnt.

Hayden


Just letting people know that we have all had a great time and have been deeply touched by God and each other throughout the whole trip. Probably one of the most exciting thing was the time on thursday in which we worked really hard shoveling elephant poo which resulted in me never been able to look at a fruit salad in the same way again, due to whole melons lying in the poo, In total i believe that everyone had an amazing time and thank you all at home so much for praying for all of us i have felt the strength from God and your praying has definitely help boost the presence of Jesus on this trip.

Harry


Hello all,
Well clearly you can read what a great time we've had, following a really packed schedule and doing some very emotionally as well as physically challenging things has stretched us and given us plenty of opportunities to rely on God. The team worked really well together and had so much fun alongside all the hard work. Really impressed with the way the whole team has worked together and there were some really teary goodbyes at the airport this morning. Can't wait for you all to get the full download - will be worth waiting for!

Love Chloe x



We're thankful for you all. We're grateful for your partnership in the Gospel. We're excited about what God is up to in the midst of all this. We're looking forward to sharing with you.

More to follow.

Last hurrah!

Greetings!

All alive and well! What a week. So much to say. What a good God.

Wonderful time of remembering and wondering with thankful hearts yesterday evening. Can't wait to show you all a glimpse...

Leaving for breakfast and the airport in 30 mins.

So thankful for so much.

Looking forward to seeing you all.

xx