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2006 Youth Musical and Mission Tour: June 1–7, 2006

Schedule

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Magic Springs Theme Park, June 7

We arrive at Magic Springs, ready to enjoy some relaxation.

He-men at Magic Springs? If you say so. 

Heifer International Ranch, June 5–7

We leave our mark (church logo) at Heifer Intl so all future visitors will know we were there.

We arrive at Heifer Ranch and 10,000 villages.

Team building exercises are oh, so much fun!

We walk to the Zambian village to drop off those spending the night there. 

Approaching the Thailand village.

Occupants in the urban slum village.

Kathryn and Louise are preparing breakfast.

Emma passes out bowls of breakfast oatmeal. Each resident was given one raisin to add to their oatmeal for sweetness.

Another group of residents in their village.

Paris, Texas, June 4

From Preston:

We made it! We made it to Paris, the city of lovers, and it only took us thirty minutes! Paris, Texas that is, and I don't know about the city of lovers part but hey it sounded convincing right? Well this was the second leg of our trip and our last performance of "Your Love is Amazing," and I have to say that we nailed it! It had to be our best performance ever. The energy was radiating off of us like beams of light and we nailed our lines and notes. We truly gave an excellent show to all 23 people in the audience. Twenty Three people is not a lot I know but we gave the best show possible for them.

We have been fed so well on this trip it is incredible! I have been so full that I think if I eat any more food I will explode! Especially all the great food we were served in Paris. A bunch of retired ladies cooked our dinner and breakfast for us and it was just incredible. They asked us to eat more but our stomachs could just not handle any more delicious food. For desert there was homemade pie, carrot cake, and chocolate cake, and in the morning they served us homemade muffins, incredible!

It seems like on every youth group trip where we are around each other for more than a day, tension does arise. And then during the middle of the trip everything falls apart and the time is call for a group "come-to-Jesus" talk where everything is put out into the open, discussed, and hopefully resolved. Well tonight was the night that that had to happen. Tensions were high in the funeral home we were spending the night at (more on that later) and it seemed for sure that someone would be left at the funeral home if things got any worse. So Beth finally called the meeting. Apologies were given, tears were shed, and rumors were dismissed, and from what I see, everything was resolved and we were all allowed a clean slate to start the second leg anew. This really shows that with Gods help (and the mediation of Beth) that all can become right again.

Now back to the funeral home we stayed at. Think of your typical haunted mansion that you see in pictures, movies, or described in books and you got the idea where we stayed. Creepy ain't it? The house was built around 1842(?) and was first a mansion then about three months ago was converted to the funeral home. As we were waiting to go up the elevator, which oddly reminded us of the "Tower of Terror" ride at Disney World, I asked if there were any dead being stored in the home, and the guy nonchalantly said, "I don't know if he's storing any dead in there at this moment." It was a bit uneasy hearing that, I must admit. We had to stay on the second level of the house because below us was the business office, and below that was the embalming area which was roped off for a good reason, I must say. As we were getting our beds situated, and exploring the house we stumbled upon many creepy Gothic paintings of people where it seemed like the eyes were following you, and then worse of all we found the coffin show room. It was quite creepy seeing all the coffins in a single poorly lit room and plus it was shocking to some of the kids how expensive coffins really were!

We fell asleep with the feeling of resolution and uneasiness but mostly of exhaustion. Nothing unusual happened during the night. But we were kind of bummed that we had to wake up at 6 the next morning.

In front of First Presbyterian 
in Hugo, Texas

Singing at worship

Matt and Tom in Paris, Texas

The whole group in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (Texas, that is; see the hat)

Central Presbyterian Church in Paris, Texas

The interior of Central Presbyterian

Getting ready for our final performance of "Your Love Is Amazing"

The funeral home, where we spent the night (see the ghost!)

Goodland Academy, June 1–4

June 3

From Beth:

What a great 24 hours we've had! Our performance at Hugo last night was truly amazing--the kids and band totally rose to the occasion, and the audience loved us! We had a wonderful worship this morning, and are now packing up to head down to Paris. We hope to find the Eiffel Tower which will be a great photo op. Grace and peace = all is well!

Sweating a lot!

From Preston:

Tonight was our first performance! And I have to say that we all did “Amazing!” (pun intended) It is just incredible what we all can do when the power of God surrounds us. The audience loved us and we received such a warm welcome to the church from everyone there, young and old. It was an incredible feeling to see everyone in the audience thoroughly enjoying our performance.

Unfortunately this was also our last night at Goodland Boys Home, it has been such a fun and rewarding experience here that its sad we have to leave. I truly hope that we have left a positive image of our church as they have left on us about Goodland.

It was a bit harder to wake up this morning because of our natural teenage instinct to sleep in on Saturday morning. But thanks to Brendan, we were shot straight out of bed with the Texas Tech fight song and him screaming the lyrics at the top of his lungs. He ended this act with his grand finale of ripping the covers off my bed and running off with them... I swore my revenge after that.

Once everyone was up and fed we got started with our morning work projects. The girls finished up their cleaning of windows and sprucing up the cabins, as well as cleaning out the old thrift shop they had. The girls found many vintage t-shirts that they were so generously allowed to keep. The boys to had a lot of work that needed to be done. The younger kids edged the bushes and made them all nice square. But where the fun was at was with the older kids... More Demolition!!! We had to rip and old water filter out of a small shed. Let me tell you this was no easy task. The filter had to weigh at least the weight of a coke machine and was about half the size of one as well. After a lot of thrashing of pipes and ripping of wires, we were finally able to get the filter out of the shed. They then told us we had to drag it to the dump which was about 100 yards away, the look on everyone's face was that of disbelief and a slight thought of mutiny. But we then decided to make this a team effort and we got everyone to help drag the filter in a Tug-o-war like manner all the way to the dump. This made it ten times more entertaining and fun.

We go to sleep to night feeling triumphant with the performance we gave and the work we did around Goodland. Tomorrow we travel to Paris (the one in Texas) and perform again. Internet connection is iffy there so I don't know if we will be able to post blogs or pictures. But don't worry we will be having fun no matter what!

~Preston~
http://mrpeepers.smugmug.com

Gardening continues...

Do those bushes stand a chance?

Matt, thinking about a haircut?

Sorting...and selecting: "I'll take one of that, and that, and..."

Everybody pull. Only 99-1/3 more yards to go!

Lunch came with a 44 oz smoothie, and even Thomas couldn't finish it.

There's our treasurer...checking the bill and calculating the tip...

Our group in front of the old chapel from 1848 at Goodland.

Ian fits in the fireplace at the 1848 chapel.

Setting up for our first performance!

The first on-the-road performance of "Your Love Is Amazing"

And, afterwards, pizza!

Hi mom!

And the sun sets on our stay at the Goodland Academy. Sigh.

June 2

From Preston:

Our Second day at Goodland Boys Home was filled with a mixture of work and play. In the morning after breakfast we gathered into separate groups and began working on different projects around the home. Some of us trimmed bushes, others weeded out the gardens, and some demolished an old satellite dish (O the simple joy of destruction). As a whole I think everyone had a great time working together as a team and creating new and deeper relationships.

But as we all know after a hard day's work, no youth trip would be complete without swimming!! It seems like a mad dash to the the pool as everyone was ready to jump in the cool and refreshing water in an attempt to relax and enjoy our time in the water. Well all that changed when Brendan came jumping into the water with many ideas for games. The first game was of course, the belly flop contest. The “contestants” were judged on factors of splash size, redness of body, and the pain factor. Alex North toughed out all the other contestants and won the contest. As his prize he was allowed to be the first to get dinner. The next game we played was called “jump, flop, or dive.” This was not really a game per se, but more of a challenge for everyone involved. Right before you jumped off the diving board some one would yell either jump, dive, or flop and you had to do whatever they said. This added much comic relief to our already great day.

That night after dinner we started to play more games before we settled down for Bible study. As usual, Brendan had many crazy games for that night. The first one we played was a marshmallow war where we built a wall out of plastic cups and then we hurled marshmallows at the other teams wall and the first to knock all the cups off the table won. It was a great game but consequently ended in a marshmallow free-for-all, with marshmallows hurled everywhere at everyone. It was great! The next game we played was “Mrs. Mumble” where you had to ask, “Is Mrs. Mumble home?” to the person next to you and then they had to respond, “I dunno. Lemme ask my neighbor” all without showing your teeth. Even if you were not asking you could not show you teeth. Kylie had the hardest time trying to not show her teeth because she was laughing so hard it was a hilarious thing to see. We all went to bed exhausted that night but still excited about our performance tomorrow what is to come.

For more pictures of the trip please visit
http://mrpeepers.smugmug.com/gallery/1519942/1

~Preston~

From Beth:

Greetings in the name of our Lord!
The morning sun is shining brightly on the rolling hills of Goodland Academy in Oklahoma (There's a bright golden haze on the meadow...). 

Nineteen kids and 10 adults are at it once again, edging, sorting clothes in the second-hand shop and moving equipment after a good (?) night's sleep. Yesterday was full of working, resting, eating, playing, swimming, singing, studying and hanging out. Our kids have enjoyed making friends with the boys who live here, and we have seen the joy on their faces as we played games and sang with them.

Friday's Amazing Love award was given to Ro McKelvey (our wonderful accompanist) who jumped in and helped with several projects yesterday. Thank you God for sending her to us!

More good news is that Jason Petrie and John Lynch made it safely last night just before 10:00pm. 

All is well—nobody is sick or hurt and everyone is having a great time! 

Today we will work all morning, then rest and clean up for our performance tonight at First Presbyterian Church, Hugo. They will feed us pizza at 5:30.

We feel your prayers as we continue to love, share and grow in service to our AMAZING GOD! 

Grace and peace,

Beth

by Preston B.

Dismantling the old satellite dish. 
Oh, the beauty of demolition!

Dismantling an old satellite dish.

Kathryn and Kylie get down in the dirt.

Ryan adds some beauty.

Sorting clothes and computers in closets.

Trimming and sprucing by Thomas, Anna, and Lindsey.

More sprucing by Elizabeth and Louise

And, it is time to eat!

by Preston B.

Can Kylie do it? Looks like the stress is getting to her "Mrs. Mumble"!

Taking a break

An even better break with swimming...

...and diving. Well, maybe jumping

by Preston B.

Jumping into the pool!

Marshmallow wars, Team 1!

by Preston B.

Marshmallow wars, Team 2!

June 1

From Preston:

Our first day was filled with card games, sleeping and the building of friendships as we travel 9 hours on a charter bus up to Goodland Boys Home in Hugo, Oklahoma. As we first started to pack up the bus we said goodbye to our family and friends, we had Pastor Jones pray for us and we started our journey. 

The bus ride was long, but we still managed to pass the time through sleeping, playing games, and watching movies. We had quite a problem with our choice of movies, we were only able to watch one out of the three completely. 

We arrived at the boys home in mid afternoon with just enough time to settle down and play games out in the field. Many of the youth played ultimate Frisbee, "small diamond" baseball, Samurai Tag and a game that involved shooting Q-tips through straws at a person wrapped sticky side up with duck tape. After our time of relaxation and games we went in to meet everyone for dinner. Soon after we had our nightly worship and bible study where we sang songs and read about what our the meaning of the songs that we have sung in the musical. We went to bed tired but still excited over the new adventure that we were embarking on, and knowing that tomorrow held new adventures and people. 

~Preston~
(view Preston's complete gallery here)

From Beth:

Greetings from beautiful Hugo, Oklahoma! As we seek God's guidance and grace in all that we do, we are pleased to share with you the Good News of God's AMAZING love working in and through us on our mission tour.

We hit the road in our air-conditioned coach right on schedule with capable and affable bus driver, Miss Sheri. We arrived at our destination (Goodland Academy) by about 4:00pm and unloaded our stuff in the fine accommodations. 

Our hosts greeted us and shared the "house rules," then treated us to a yummy meal of tacos and the most amazing brownies. The girls lead a beautiful song as we blessed our food and our time together. 

After dinner we played lots of fun games lead by Brendan Ross and Paul Schlirf, then it was time for singing and small group Bible Study. We enjoyed looking at Psalm 136 and comparing it to one of the songs in the musical (Hallelujah! Your Love Is Amazing). Brendan was right on when he empowered us all by the Holy Spirit to sing praises totally from the heart—not because we have to, but because our love of God won't let us sing any other way! Amazing! 

It is now Friday morning, and all kids are busy, busy, busy, doing work around the campus: washing windows, trimming hedges, cleaning out rooms and moving an old satellite dish. 

We love each other, and we love you very much! Please continue to keep us in prayer as we move through the week. 

Grace and peace,
Beth

Run, run, run! 
All those over 50 get out of the way!

The kids had a blast playing human tic-tac-toe 
in the dining hall at Goodland Academy.

Shooting darts (Q-tips) through a blow gun (straw) 
at a duct-taped human target.

Before dinner, the girls relax in the dorm at 
Goodland Academy with a lively game of Uno.

Teams receive their work assignments 
from D. C. Adams at Goodland Academy.

Departing

June 1

19 kids and 9 adults packed the bus and departed at 9:40am on our 6.5 hour journey to Hugo, Oklahoma!

by Preston B.

Luggage and people ready to roll!

Before departing, participants, adult chaperones, and parents gather for a prayer for safe journeys and an exciting experience.

Preparing

May 20

Musical and Mission Team participants gathered for some swim time and preparation as they drafted and signed their mission team covenant.
 

May 7

The Youth Musical, "Your Love is Amazing!", debuted at WCPC to an audience of over 100 and was a resounding success!

March 22–May 3

Youth memorize and practice for the musical, set crew learn to set risers, and sound crew are trained in running the sound board.

May 3 Musical practice.
 

April 16

The youth held a second fund raiser on Easter Sunday, offering pancakes, sausage, fruit and orange juice for a good-will offering. Funds raised will help offset the costs of the upcoming travel to Arkansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas.

Pancake chefs in the kitchen. 
 

February 19

To help raise funds for their summer mission trip, the youth held a silent auction.