A big thank-you to everyone who made it for the 2009 Kickoff at 11am this past Sunday, and an even bigger thank-you to everyone who stuck around for the work-party! It was a nice start to the 2009 School Year and I am looking forward to everything that God has for us this coming year.
Here are some of the photos from Sunday (there are more in the Photos Section) and the video from 2009-2009! Enjoy everyone!
Well, after our Chicago-Boston flight was repeatedly delayed because of a faulty flight computer, we finally switched gates and planes and touched down at Logan at around 2:30am (mad props to the Reales and Matthew Beish as our late-late-late-night drivers).
We are all back, safe and sound. Thank you so much for the prayers. We look forward to sharing the experience with you even more, but in the meantime, I have just posted over 150 photos, in albums by day, which you can see in the Photos section. The easiest way is sometimes to go over to the right and click "See All Albums", then you can browse the photos by day or, if you rather, then just click away at anything that looks interesting.
Once again, the only Internet access is on Ethan's iPhone, but we are safe and sound in the Windy City, delayed by about half an hour and looking forward to being home soon.
We had to say good-bye to our campers yesterday. We were able to say personal good-byes to most of them and it was clear that our time with them was really meaningful. It was hard to see them go, we had grown so close to them in the short (but intense) time we had shared together. In our closing Bible study, our group was able to share about how our perceptions changed, how our interactions changed, and how our group changed over the course of the week. To sum up: at the beginning we were nervous, scared, and didn’t want to do certain things that seemed difficult or gross to us. By the end, we were seeing each camper as a unique individual and as people we were having fun with. We were able to build relationships and enhance both of our experiences. We also enjoyed the beauty of the Colorado Rockies yesterday and helped clean up the camp this morning. For all you parents, I saw your kids clean bathrooms for 2.5 hours today. I mean we cleaned. We have pictures to prove it in case you don’t believe us. So it really is true that this week has helped us all to see people and situations a little differently and hopefully with more of a servant’s heart. We can’t wait to see you all soon and share with you more of what we’ve done.
- Rebecca (Jorgie)
4:19 pm
We left LVR today and its been really tough since for me and Taylor we spent the whole ride crying from LVR to the airport. this was such an awesome experience and although I’m excited to go home I’m sad to leave everyone. Yesterday was a good last full day with everyone, we got to go climbing repelling, and we took a sunset hike up Cedar Mountain. I’m hoping that we can go back and do this again next year!
-Monica (Cash/Haterade)
4:13 pm
Today I am sitting in the Colorado Springs airport.Today was a really tough day for two reasons.1: We had to clean the bathrooms all morning and 2: we had to leave LVR.Monica and I cried for a while on the way to the airport because we will miss everybody so much.Despite today’s sad mood, yesterday was really fun.At night we went on a sunset hike up Cedar Mountain and the view was really beautiful, I took a lot of great pictures.Our plane is about to board in 15 minutes so I have to get ready to leave.I really am going to miss Colorado and LVR!
- Taylor (Ice-Tay/Super Tay)
4:06 pm
Yesterday the Bethesda campers left after breakfast and then we spent the rest of the morning cleaning up and taking down the beds. Then yesterday night we went on a hike up Cedar Mountain to watch the sunset. The views were beautiful and we got lots of good pictures. This morning we cleaned up the bathrooms and then said goodbye to some of the staff. I’m sitting at our terminal right now and even though I had a really good time this week, I can’t wait to get home. I won’t have to worry about drinking tons of water and going to the bathroom a lot.
- Dylan (Downtown Dylan Brown/Snake Eyes)
4:00 pm
We are on our way back home now, what a long week it has been. We finished up this morning by cleaning the two big bathrooms at the camp, and then spent 2 hours in a car ride to the airport. We said good bye to all the staff at the camp today as they all prepared to leave themselves, because the camp is closing up after this weekend. Now it’s time to spend 5+ hours on plane rides back home… I’m definitely ready to get back, it’s been fun but after awhile you just want to go back home and relax again. I can’t wait to get back, and I’m hoping for safe flights back!
