Day 13 Almost Done

WE ARE ALMOST HOME! We’re now on our second to last day and I think that everyone is feeling it.Yesterday, the temperature was 99 degrees, but regardless, almost all of the Servites went to the beach during free time. About 7 of us made the smart decision to stay behind and have Ben treat us to Starbucks or Jamba Juice in town and have naps later. We got a little frightened at dinner when one of the students had a stalker. There is a student from another church that is CONVINCED that he is David Bailey’s twin and he kept trying to take pictures of him during the meal. We started calling him Bizarro David, but he has stopped being weird to David since our 6 feet 9 inches friend Jake, told him to stop. It was a little weird but so hilarious. The rest of the group came back half way through dinner, tired and sandy but had a lot of fun. After dinner, we had a "Goers" meeting for people who think that they are being called to be missionaries where they could be prayed for and pray with others that have the same call as they do.

We have had a great time, but many of us are feeling sick and all of us are exhausted. We’ve got to that point when you’re  so tired that you laugh at anything and everything. We had mattress surfing in the halls last night, along with the candy, chips, and popcorn that Ben bought us. A few minutes ago, Claire convinced Joy and Kory to run through the camp’s common room with capes on. We’re in the process of finding silly nicknames to put on our Serve shirts later on. Many insides jokes are being made and will also go on our shirts. Things are definitely interesting around here. As fun as it has been around here, I think that we all want to get home, if only for our sleeping in our beds again and showering regularly.  We are going to spend 7 hours in the airport , but we are coming home tomorrow!

- Amanda Uhler

Day 12 Processing and Debrief

This morning was spent processing the trip and learning how to merge back into life.  The message throughout the morning was about how to take what we have learned on this trip and apply it to our lives.  The students were challenged  with being more bold for Christ in the hallways of their high schools and given tips for accountability.  Tim Vincent from Our Saviors Baptist then walked us through how to give a one minute overview of our time in Mexico.  The students and leaders had time to work through some questions and come up with a one minute answer that went through the good, the bad and the lessons.  After spending some time together as a church sharing our one minute answers we had some free time.  about two thirds of our group loaded up on vans and headed out to Ventura beach for some fun in the waves.  The other third napped and ran to Starbucks and Jamba Jucie. 

Sunday evening was another session where Tim Vincent challenged out students to have courage and take risks to share their faith.  He challenged the students to find someone who can hold them accountable and who can help them stay on top of the lessons they learned on this trip and the commitments they made.  Before the evening session there was a time for those who feel like God is challenging them to step out into the mission field to meet and walk through some logistic and process through what they feel like God is telling them.

It was a great day with some much needed relaxation and great teaching. 

   

Day 11 Reentry

We traveled from Servelandia to Master’s College today. It was about a 2 hour wait to get through the border and with only one small issue we made it through into the US.  Bob’s van went first through the border and made it through just fine, then Nate’s van and then Jim’s van.  Nate thought the guard had told him to go through secondary inspection so Nate drove over to that line and Jim followed.  Both vans had actually been cleared but once we discovered that we were too far into inspection and there was no way to turn around.  The guards figured it out pretty quick that we were in the wrong line and let us go through.  It was a funny moment when the guard came up to Jim and said “I am only going to do this once, go ahead and follow the van in front of you out” and Jim said, “That is what got me into this mess in the first place.”  Once through the border we had a nice drive up to Masters, settled in and enjoyed some much needed down time.