Road Trip

Well, we are back from the long trip to North Carolina to drop off my brother at Guilford Collage, and move him in, and then the long trip back. The scenery on the east cost is VERY beautiful, and so is the collage. It's a really good school.
Tuesday, after days in the car, we rafting, which was a total blast. If you haven't been rafting, you should so go. It is so much fun.
Wed. we moved my brother into his dorm room. It's acutely a pretty nice dorm room. After moving him in, we walked around the campus, went to Target to get some stuff (including a fridge for the dorm room), and then to the welcome thing they had for students and families. Then we said our good-byes. It's weird him not being home. I keep expecting him to walk in from work at any moment. It's going to take awhile to get used to being an only child.
We got back today, and I'm pretty tired. It's amazing how sitting in a car for a couple of days makes you tired.

Schedule

I got my schedule today in the mail. Don't know who my teachers are, but I do Know what classes I have. So here is what my school day is going to look like:
1st Period: Computer Apps
2nd period: IPC
3rd Period: English
4th Period: Lunch
5th Period: Pre-Ap World History
6th Period: Team P.E.
7th Period: Geometry
8th Period: Theatre Arts 2
I'm pretty good with it, though I wish I didn't have to take IPC and geometry. Oh well. Life goes on.

Mission Trip

I got back from Mission Trip last night. And man it was an amazing week.

We left Sunday morning. But about 10 minutes or so after we left, one of the tires of our trailer went out, and we had to replace it, and I want to say it took about an hour or more to do. We had a Bible study in the middle of Wallmart. Then about the time where we got to San Antonio, where we ate lunch, another tire of our trailer went out, and we had to replace it again. So we where running really late and what was a normally a 6 hour trip took about 12 hours, maybe more or less.

Monday was our first day of the Mission work. The VBS (Vacation Bible School) Crew-the one I was on-worked in the mornings. On Monday we where just planing for the other days, we didn't have any kids. The church we worked at was only one room, and no AC. Most of the time it was cooler outside (where we had a breeze) then inside. We also helped with the church's food pantry, and the Red Cross serve lunch.The Coruscation team of our group worked on a family's house in a nearby Colonial. That afternoon us teenagers went to the other houses of the Colonial (there's not that many, only like two streets) inviting them to VBS. The mom of this family had gotten us a cake in thanks for fixing her house. This just blew us away-a family that's barley getting money, that has no money, got us a cake. This lady doesn't even know us, yet she loves already.

There is still a good deal of water there, and a good number of houses needed to be worked on. There alot of families of families in need of food too. There was one colonial that didn't have food, water or electricity for 3 days.

Tuesday was our first day of VBS. We had about 30 to 35 kids. It was kind of a crazy morning. Some of the older boys where trouble makers(one brought a Beebe gun). But it was a good morning. These kids where so adorable. I don't think there are words to describe how cute these kids are. Some of the younger ones couldn't speak English (luckily we did have a translator, and we did know a couple of Spanish words and phrases), but we loved them, and Love broke the language barrier. That afternoon, we went over to the house that where working on, and painted about half of the outside.We finished it Thursday afternoon.

We had our VBS every morning. We did crafts, games, songs (one was in Spanish), and told them Bible Stories. We got really attach to these kids. We wanted to take them home with us. On Friday we set up some games, and they could win prizes like candy,and sodas. By this time, the all the kids didn't want us to leave (including the older boys). When we where leaving, they kept hugging us, and when we where going to be back. When we where coming back home to Austin, they kept calling us on our cell phones. They where so cute! I miss them so much. Before we left, we went back to the house we where working on (the Coruscation team finished it that morning), and surprised the family with a brand new refrigerator. When the mom saw it, she started crying. It was so cool giving this to her. Then we went back to the camp, cleaned up, loaded up the van, and drove back home.

Here is some of the thinbgs I learned this week:be thankful for what you have, and to love everbody-enemies and friends-no matter what the cost.

Here are some pictures: