Holy cow! SUMMER IS HERE! Finally! I never thought that this would come. The end of school could not have been dragged out any longer. But now all of that is done. No more babysitting my grades, doing homework, writing last minute essays, DBQ's for History, labs for Biology. Done. And all that is ahead is sunny days, meeting with friends, youth group gallore, babysitting, and hanging out at home. HALLELUJAH! Right after school ended I headed home, got some food, grabbed my bags, and left for church. From there I would leave for a 9 day missions trip to Alberta Canada
What a trip! God taught me so much. He provided me with so many opportunities to really test my boldness. I have no boldness whatsoever. Thats all God. Coming up and just starting a conversation with someone that I dont know well. Ya, thats not me. I would rather sit and talk to the people that I actually know and laugh and not be stretched out of that comfortable bubble. Well, God popped that bubble time after time this mission trip. And God popping your bubble is not always that most fun thing every. Cause everyone likes their own bubble. But God stretching me this trip was the best thing I could have ever asked for. Thank you God for giving me that boldness to approach people in a friendly way! You are amazing!
There is a lot I could write about this trip. It would be a never ending blog post... so I will just show you pictures and let them tell the stories... with a little back ground info so you know whats going on!
Here is where we stayed. Raymond Baptist Church. So the town we were in was called Raymond. Population: just about 2000. Tiny tiny tiny Mormon town. The town is so Mormon that it is actually designed to replicate Salt Lake City Utah. Can you believe that? We could not find one caffeine drink, and on Sunday, it was like a ghost town. Everything was closed.... EVERYTHING! It was insane! Anyway, this little Baptist church has about 28 members and is faithfully serving the Lord in a town that really needs it! Our main mission was to go and recruit more people to the church, run a VBS, and really reach out to the youth!
Zack, John, and Paige lead worship on Sunday morning. And ROCKED IT! Paige is the girl in the middle. She was not actually from Olympia. She lives in Raymond, and we met her on the first night. Her family attends the church and are amazing people. From that moment, she and her brother Detton joined the team. They slept at the church with us, ate with us, did EVERYTHING with us. When we left, we felt like we were leaving 2 teammates behind. They fit right in and joined the Raymond family. We miss them a lot!
Zack did a great job sharing the story during our VBS! Atta boy Zack!
Trina, one of our main leaders, with sweet little Sarah
So while we were planning VBS before the trip. Jared, our main leader, asked what is essential to a VBS? Well... one might say: snacks, crafts, games... I say SONGS! I was that little kid who, at camps, was totally into the cheesy songs and dances that the leaders would do. All the other kids might have thought it was dumb, but not Amanda Arend. I was front row dancing around and doing the movements. So, I volunteered to do songs. And all of the kids loved it. We had some crazy moves that they all got into and we as leaders got into it to. Those annoying songs will never leave my brain, thats a fact! But I loved doing all of it!
Logan was a beast, and gave piggy back rides with 2 kids on his back! Thats right...
A joke our youth group has is that Logan looks like Justin Bieber. We call him Justin, Biebs, and Bieber more then we actually call him Logan. One of the girls actually thought he was Justin Beiber and was madly in love with him. Followed him around while he played soccer screaming, "GO JUSTIN GO!!!!!"
Intoducing Eden. I know that we are not suppose to have favorite kids, but this girl stole all of our hearts, especially Zack and Johns. She was a tough little cookie during games and was super competitive. During capture the flag, she would tear up that field. And during songs, she would do all the movements while giggling! Look at how cute she is!
I really cant get over how cute she is...
I would like to state that Red Rover is the STUPIDEST game on planet earth! Here everyone, line up and we will have 2 teams. Now you send one person to run as fast as they can to try and break through our arms. It will hurt both the runner and the ones catching the person. AWESOME! However, this was the most popular game for the kids. And when 12 cute kids and begging you to play, you dont care how much your arms hurt at the end of the day.
So July 1 is Canada day. And let me tell you... its a PARTY! There was a parade and people are decked out in Canada stuff. Loved it. So we were asked by Raymond Baptist Church to be in the parade. So with only 3 hours to make a float we did it! The boys worked so insanely hard to get this float ready! The dance team, Me, Alli, John, and Zack would be on the back with Hansi, Brooke, and Paige doing the songs from VBS... our float was nothing fancy yet... we won 4th place in the decoration category! We got a good laugh out of that one. It was literally a big white can pulling a trailor, but what the heck! We will take 4th place. I believe Justin Beiber... I mean Logan put it best...
"Now, you have to understand that our float is literally a white van towing a flat trailer with old, wooden rails and painted banners that say, “I heart Canada!” or “Raymond Baptist Church”. Yet somehow, by a miracle of God, we placed in the decoration category. We won fourth place and a $45 check, which we immediately donated to the church. Then, with our spirits high, we headed into the parade. We used the sound system to play our VBS songs while Alli, Amanda, Brooke, Hansi, John, Paige, and Zack did the motions to the songs on the trailer."
This picture sums up John and Detton...
And to sum it all up... here are some random pictures that I love!
15 hour car ride?.... YEA BABY!
Priceless
NOTHINGNESS! I have never seen so much flat land in my life...
How can you look at this and then say there is not a Creator? I dont know...
All in all, this trip was amazing. It changed a lot about me. Strengthened my relationship with God and really helped me bond with my team. Who I love oh so much! I miss it already! If you want to hear more about our trip, visit our team
blog!
