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Montreat Middle School Conference, Finished!

The Montreat Middle School conference has ended and our amazing time with 650 middle school students has ended.  I did not get a chance to blog since our group took on a big project. Inspired by the Humans of New York blog (check it out here:  https://www.humansofnewyork.com/ ) that was shared with us one morning in Keynote, our students wanted to create a Humans of Montreat video.  Here is their final creation:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VKXu7iaWzY-GqUK1uw1izkyB-DMJ2MzA/view?usp=sharing Unfortunately, when doing serious editing of this nature, it usually takes about an hour of editing for each minute of video, so it took us about 4 hours to string all this together.  Our youth are very excited about this video and a couple might come interview some of our Sardis members to do a Humans of Sardis version. This video was shown in worship to the entire conference on Sunday morning and our youth were beaming from ear to ear with it! It was an...
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Montreat Middle School Conference, Day 2

Our full day here was not to disappoint.  "For Such a Time as This" is the theme and they played with the idea of time on a regular basis.  We met our small groups for the first time, getting to know people from other parts of the southeast.  In my group, we have one student from Pennsylvania and a couple from different places in Mississippi, and plenty of spaces in between.  We have come from all over to be in this place at this time to see what God has in store for us. We experienced keynote and heard how our keynote leader faced an identity crisis in high school by switching from being a serious basketball player (practicing several hours each night at her house after regular practice) to being in plays and dramas.  She told us how this identity shift impacted her and her world because she only thought of herself as a basketball player but when she realized this was not what brought her joy anymore, she had to switch. During worship, we heard the story of...
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Middle School Montreat Conference

We arrived at the Middle School Montreat Youth Conference!  The four hour bus ride turned into almost 5 1/2 hours due to construction.  When you have to put the church bus in park on the interstate, you know you are you going to be there awhile... Anyway, we made it without further problems and we are so glad to be here!  The youth are excited to see what God has in store for them during this conference, with the theme being, "For Such a Time as This" based on the story of Esther.  On Wednesday night, we participated in Energizers (wacky dance set to popular songs that everyone participates in and therefore puts us all on the same level), singing, meeting our keynote speaker and worship leader.  After the introduction to everyone, we participated in recreation event where we were able to participate in many different activities.  There was speed drawing, riddle solving, hula hooping, ga-ga ball, cornhole, and so much more!  Everyone enjoyed the event...
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Middle School Mission Trip Day 2

Day two is in the books!  We began our day over at James Boyce Park shoveling mulch around several trees.  We had several teams doing different things: scooping mulch into wheelbarrows, wheelbarrow moving crew, and a raking crew when the mulch arrived to them.  Everyone worked very hard and we busted out a dump truck full of mulch in only two hours.  The park rangers kept telling our middle school students that they were doing a much better job of moving the mulch than high school or college students.  Our group did a great job and I was very proud of them! After a brief lunch, we went to Walmart to purchase items for the USO (United Service Organization).  We were purchasing items to send to our troops and we made a great game of it with three criteria: 1. Closest to but not over $50, 2. Number of individual items, and 3. Number of unique items.  The ladies crushed the guys in the last two categories but the guys came in 7 cents under $50 while the ...
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Middle School's Turn!

This morning, we began the Middle School Charlotte Mission Adventure with 13 youth.  We began by jumping into the stream our Youth Ministry has adopted and pledged to clean.  We gather up people's trash that had been thrown, blown, or washed down into the stream, helping to clean up God' creation. After stream cleaning, we cleaned ourselves a little bit and then headed to Crisis Assistance to work in the Free Store sorting clothes.  The Free Store is available to any Mecklenburg County resident once a month and they are allowed to pick out up to 30 free items of clothing.  Our youth helped to sort the clothes from things that are damaged or out of season into bins for men, women, and children.  These clothes will then be hung in the store for those in need. We played several games of laser tag and William dominated all three, placing number 1 in all of them.  Apparently, it is his world and the rest of us are just living in it when it comes to laser tag...
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And we're back!

So those keeping score at home noticed that there was no blog post after Friday's work.  That is because the bestest leader ever, Adrian (me), forgot the power cord to the computer at home and the computer ran out of power, meaning no blog post.  Way to go, awesome leader! Anyway, Friday, we finished our work at David's house.  A couple of us worked in his bedroom to prepare and hang drywall on the ceiling and then we began mudding it.  Since the new drywall and the existing ceiling were of different thickness, we were trying to blend the two together.  Unfortunately, the mud we (mostly Barbara) were using was not fast drying, we could only do one coat to it. The rest of the gang finished painting the ceiling and making sure the exterior was complete.  The house looked very different from the way we found it and David was very appreciative. That afternoon, we beat the heat by watching "Toy Story 4" and then heading to the beach.  After a long, fu...
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The Week is Winding Down

Thursday is here!  One more day of work on Mr. David's house and then we begin our trip home.  Today, we completely finished painting the exterior of the house.  We also did some impromptu tree trimming, mostly to prevent it from scratching the top of the church bus.  Again.  Mr. David was very appreciative of the tree trim that we were able to provide for him. We also painted the interior of his house, focusing on the kitchen (all the walls and the ceiling) and the ceiling in the living room where we patched it.  We hung the drywall on the ceiling of the bathroom and main bedroom.  We are far ahead of the schedule that the site supervisors had laid out for us so tomorrow should be a lighter day of work for us.  We will mud the ceiling, paint it, paint some walls, and finish our work around the house.  We have made a huge difference in the life of Mr. David and his house that he grew up in! After working, we headed to the beach again and ...
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