Mon 1 AUG 2011

Yes, we took the LONG WAY HOME!! But we ARE HOME AT LAST!!! It's been an amazing 12 days / nights...etc.etc. We have all grown closer to each other and closer to God. From our twice daily devotions with our family groups to our workshops we attended at Youth 2011 to the amazing worship experiences we had plus our time with each other just talking about our faith made this one of our best mission trips ever!!! It's good to be home, but we will all miss our long talks and seeing each other 16-20 hrs a day!!! Thanks for all your support and prayers and be sure and come to church this Sunday, August 7th to hear from some of our youth about this experience as well as see a short video. Our Youth Mission Banquet is Sunday, Sep 11th at 1145am - there you will hear even more stories including an incredible video from our Rafting trip and preview a project we will be doing with our Sr High Youth next summer! Until then "Oh, Oh, Oh - We Are The People - We Are We Are We Are Your Hands And Feet!!!"
Very humbly yours, Barb

Sun 31 JUL 2011

Bruce Meyer - This adventure started with an early train ride through the desert followed with a short bus ride. We've made Sandwiches for the homeless and had a fun white water raft trip. We got to visit Kitty Borrowman's old church and help setup for vacation Bible School. We had two days of working at the foodlink warehouse, where we shorted through donated food and non-food items. The non-food items really entertained the youth most. It is really interesting to see the items people donate. You can tell who was cleaning out their closet and who was giving from their heart.

We have just finished with "Youth 2011". This was four days of early mornings and late nights. where in between was filled with art, drama (not just from the youth), and loud music. We had great worship services with wonderful speakers that really made you think.

Through all of these activities I have found myself growing in God and enjoying life again through the eyes of our youth. These last ten days have been filled with love, tears, frustration and enthusiasm. Thank-you for all of your prayers and gifts for allowing our youth to experience God through this ministry.

Sat 30 JUL 2011

Hi this is Jesse. I have had so much fun on this trip. I have met so many people and have gotten to know people from our youth group better - like their true personalities. The funnest thing for me on this trip was just sitting down together with our family group at a meal and just talk about whatever we wanted to talk about. This was the best trip ever! And I want to do it again in 4 yrs!!! (as a chaperone since I will hopefully already be graduated from high school. LOL!!!)

Today at lunch we decided to add to a surprise and the waiters and our group all sang "Happy Birthday to AJ" (his birthday starts at 1201am on Monday morning on our train ride back to SLC.)











We surprised our adult leaders today with United Methodist Cross & Flame Key Chains and thank you cards expressing our ultimate gratitude for all they have done for us! A couple days ago when we started the card signing campaign, Mary purchased these beautiful sun flowers for Barb.

-------------------------------
Hi this is Patsy. On Wednesday when we got here Alicia saw the booth to donate hair to children with hair loss. She had been wanting to cut her hair this summer, but I had been trying to convince her not to do it yet. But when she saw this booth she said, "I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it!" So she talked with Emily who had earlier donated her hair to Locks of Love earlier this month, so on Thursday with Emily and my support, she donated her hair! Afterwards she felt good about what she had done, but then on Friday after washing her now short hair, she was grieving for her lost hair.....
I must say this trip has been quite an EXPERIENCE! It was fun staying at the dorms at Cal State Sacramento. But this hotel space we had to stay at for Youth 2011 is extremely small --- very difficult with 4 of us to a room and all of our "stuff". River rafting was a great time - everyone enjoyed it. Volunteering at the Emergency Foodlink was a very good experience for me and watching our youth taking part in it. The workshop on "Transitioning and Change" hit home to me because of what's going on in my life right now. Hopefully from what I learned I will be able to realize God's plan for me now. I have mixed feelings about our long train ride back home, but I can't wait to see my husband and our animals once home! Barb asked me during this trip, "So are you still willing to go on another mission trip?" And I said, "I can't wait to go to MEXICO!!!!" Sincerely, Patsy

Fri 29 JUL 2011

It was a short day today, only 11 hrs.The kids finally are as tired as the adults. I might as well confess. I am the only member of the group who got in trouble. I was following the kids,looking around for straglers ,fell behind, and trying to catch up followed the crowd across the street totally oblivious to the traffic light. An officer rode up to me on his little scooter and informed me of my transgression. After threatining arrest, he finally let me go with this admonition: "what kind of example are you setting for these young people?" I was very humble.
These last 3 days have been spiritually uplifting. One youth was surprised that I actually enjoyed the band.It was loud. No, I mean really loud. I told him I concentrated on the message.Several bands and sermons later which all used basically the same text,"The Greatest Commandment and/or The Good Samaritan. Paraphrased as, Love God with every ounce of our being and love everyone we meet as God loves us (UNCONDITIONALLY).
I have learned that our faith is really simple,Love God and love oneanother.
Thanks to Tristan,I now have earplugs.
Dick

Thur 28 JUL 2011

Our first full day of Youth 2011 was AWESOME!!!!. We started off with workshops in the morning which were truly inspirational for everyone, youth and adults alike. The first workshop was on teen depression and an eyeopener for me. Then I attended a workshop on CREDO confirmation, to see if we could get some new ideas for our upcoming confirmation class. It was enlightening, but similar to what we are doing with probably more materials that we could use. Lunch was sandwiches back at the hotel and a 15min rest before heading back for bible study. We had an awesome speaker who I feel really lifted us up. The afternoon LABS I attended with Junior High Kids, we broke up into groups with new kids and everybody got to know some other people from around the country, truly interestin. Then dinner break till evening worship. The evening worship has definitely been my most favorite, the music is great, inspiring and moving. The speakers are truly inspirational. Despite been really tired and longing for an early night, I stayed for the late night activity which was an illusionist called Jared Hall, he was truly amazing. Overall the kids are doing great and having a wonderful time, managing to keep going on 6 hours sleep a night (on a good night that is). All in all a very good day and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. Mandy Loveday
-------------------
Today we went to the convention center for a workshop. I chose to attend the ''teen depression" workshop. We learned that a teenager 14-24yrs attempts suicide every 15 seconds. We then had lunch and came back to youth 2011 for LABs where we broke into smaller groups with youth from other churches all around the country. We then went to dinner and came back to the worship service for two and a half hours. Then we watched an illusionist/comedian and then we came back to the hotel to sleep.
- Christian Castleberry
Another long day full of worship, workshops and LABS and more worship. It's too late to get any of our youth to add their comments to the blog, but I wanted to download some photos from tonight's worship service. God is POWERFUL! May His light continue to transform our youth to grow closer to Him!!
Barb

Wed 27 JUL 2011

Today was awesome because we moved out of the dorms and into the hotel.We also had our first day at Youth 2011. There was this cool rapper, named Agape which means unconditional love in Greek. the kinda love God gives us and we give each other. lso there was this really funny skit. So over all it has beeen a good first day
love,
Makayla
-----------------------
Today was a strange day for us -- first saying good-bye to Fred who has been a big part of this mission trip....then packing up, claning up and saying good-bye to our home for the past week at the Cal State Sacramento College dorms. Then we loaded the 3 vans, dropped everyone and our bags, groceries off at the Marriott, then 3 of our chaperones drove to return the vans, while Dick (our newest arrival for another male chaperone arrived from SLC) Meanwhile thousands of other UMY from around the US and Internationally arrived at the same time and it seemed like total chaos as many of us were waiting for our room assignments for many hours. As you can see from my post, it's extremely late....lights are out in our rooms..but want to let you know you were not forgotten. Maykayla and Chris have their turns tomorrow to write in this blog about their impressions at Youth 2011! Til then, may we all sleep sound tonight and be restful and roaring to go in a few hours!!! Lots of "God-sequences" happening Night - Night! Barb

TUES 26 JUL

Hi Fred! Here's the picture! Thanks so much for all you did and do! Please give my best to everyone and tell them that they did a great job!!! Thanks again --- Chico Chavez (manager of warehouse bays 11 & 12)

Hey it's Shay. Today we worked at the foodlink warehouse. Instead of sorting through food we mostly went through nonfood items and separated them into different bins (personal hygeine, baby stuff, toys, misc) Some of the things people donated were really nice, like an ipod stereo. We were all really jealous of some of it. It was a lot of fun going through all of the random things people donated, and it felt great to be helping out.
------------------
Hey its AJ today I worked at the foodlink warehouse. Colton and I cut open the boxes and moved them to where people would go through them and repackaged them. It was fun.

---------------------------- Hi this is Fred B. We went to California Emergency Foodlink again today. We helped them reorganize and box food (mostly) and other supplies. The staff was very friendly, and the kids had a good time. By about noon everyone had pretty well had it though, and we only worked a little after that mostly cleanup. All the staff seemed really appreciative, and we got to know Mary and Chico pretty well. Mary was the volunteer coordinator, I don't know Chico's title, but he drove the fork lift, ran the warehouse and brought us absolutely everything we needed, including rubber gloves to protect our delicate volunteer hands. At the end they brought out an endless supply of candy on top of the already delivered almost endless supply of water bottles and also t-shirts. We inadvertantly helped ourselves to a couple of their boxcutters which we will return soon. Everyone had a good time, and we saw what a good program they have. One idea I really like is that that they use the jobs at the warehouse to retrain unemployed folk and they also help them with finding a new job, e.g. work with them on building a convincing resume. I will remember this visit for a long time, especially the kindness of the people.............