Day 1 (Sat Aug 4)
Hi everyone! Today was a good first day ! Can you believe it’s Road Trip #12? Not too much to write about. We
traveled a lot through rain today, I think we followed the storm that hit us overnight! Throughout the morning we had
seat partners share about random things from some books we brought like “Would you rather….” And “Have You
Ever….” Some of the questions are just fun, and some were pretty deep. The bus was buzzing all morning long! When
we stopped for lunch it was raining too much, so in a Road Trip first we ate our first lunch on the bus! I was hoping to
get more time to run and play, but instead we got back on the road. We had a good nap, made a quick bathroom stop,
and before we knew it, it was supper time! The time flew VERY fast today! We ended up arriving at the church about an
hour early (YEA!). Special thanks again to Connie Logeman for having a connection that worked out for us, they were
SUPER flexible with us and SUPER kind! After getting unpacked we played around outside (the sun tried to come out!)
with the football and Frisbees, some youth just wanted to run so they did laps around the parking lot! We ended the
evening with some worship, quiet time, and small group time. When I asked them to come back after small groups, one
group flat out told me “NO we aren’t done yet you’ll have to wait” I loved it! We also have a few things that will be
different on this year’s trip. One of them is that we want to really do a better job on random acts of kindness for others.
One way to spur this idea on was that I gave each youth $5 that they are to give away to someone during the trip
(someone NOT on our trip). We asked them to ask God who to give it to and who needs a small blessing. We’ll see how
it goes, but I am excited to see them give to others. They were REALLY excited about the idea! Not too many pictures
either, but the one of the youth enjoying the view of the corn field after supper was pretty funny! Tomorrow we get up
early so pray for a good night’s sleep!
Day 2 (Sun Aug 5)
What an adventurous day we’ve had!!! We had to get up pretty early today, 7am. They had a 7:45 church service
(YIKES!) and we wanted to be up and out of their way before the service. The youth got up and were told to change,
pack, and go pack a lunch. Several were quite confused about breakfast….. For the first time ever on Road Trip we went
out to breakfast, and WOW did we pick a GREAT place! We went to the Egg Harbor Café, a small breakfast nook in
Arlington Heights. The food was INCREDIBLE, very much a gourmet kind of breakfast and decent prices (under $10).
Youth had omelets, gourmet biscuits and gravy, Swedish pancakes, Italian inspired French toast with berries, crepes,
eggs benedict, and lots more. It was a small place and they were VERY nervous about us being there (would we be on
time (yes!), would we be loud (no), would we be tough to deal with (NO!)). The servers and managers stopped me
several times on our way out thanking us and commenting on how respectful, kind, and fun that our group was! It’s fun
when we get to show people that teenagers can be INCREDIBLY AWESOME! Each table left some neat drawings and
thank yous on napkins. Then we were off to worship at Rock of Ages Baptist Church. We’ve been here before, and every
time we have had quite an experience. As usual we were ushered in, everyone saying hello and welcome, we very much
felt like we were a part of their family and had been for years! Before the service one of the ushers came to get me, and
ushered me to a back room… where there were some security guys with things in their ears all official looking. They
were ushering me to see the pastor (would have been nice if I knew that!). He greeted me (A BIG deal ) with a hug! He
wanted to make sure we felt welcomed and even asked I If would come speak to their youth sometime (sure!). Worship
was ROCKING! The choir was there in full today singing with passion, lots of clapping and Amen’s, lots of dancing, a
VERY joy-filled, celebration of God. I think they were surprised at how much we got into the service right along with
them! Then we took communion which was very interesting, make sure to ask the youth how they did it. One powerful
part of communion was they had scenes from the Passion of the Christ playing in the background, helping us to visualize
and remember what communion was all about. Then came the sermon, the pastor was fired up! The message was on
healing and prayer. A few of the main points were how we need to learn to pray with passion and intimacy, not “cute
prayers” that don’t mean much. He also talked about when God does do big things in our lives we need to go to church
and tell about what God has done (instead of going back to regular life right away, take time to celebrate with God and
His people!). And when life is hard, how we need to turn more to our church community for help, not away from them.
The youth got back on the bus very fired up!!! As we were about to leave Roger noticed a flat tire, so we went to a gas
station to try to fill it up and realized it needed to be changed. So a few boys jumped out (yes there was some good
testosterone flowing!) to help. A guy from the neighborhood also jumped out to help and we got it done in about an
hour. Another Road Trip first, a flat tire. It was a lot different than changing one in your car! The youth handled the
delay VERY well and had had to be SUPER flexible today in a few different ways, and not a single complaint! I know I say
it often, and I probably will say it again several times this week, but I am SOOO PROUD of our youth! They are all high
quality young men and women, and parents you are doing a GREAT job of raising them!! After traveling and stopping
for fast food for supper, we arrived in Jackson, Michigan. We were super late in getting there and had to get unpacked
fast, because we were off on a walk… to the Parlour Ice Cream Shop! We have been here once before on Road Trip and
a few youth remembered it. We had 4 separate groups and they all got a HUGE 21 scoop sundae! And the scoops were
HUGE! Enjoy looking at the pictures! 2 groups even finished them, there were several eating contests that broke out,
and several just hilarious moments. Each table was having a TON of fun, we were fairly loud, and I don’t think a single
person wasn’t laughing hysterically at some point! While the ice cream was fun, it was being together, laughing
together, making memories together and bonding as a community that was the best part of it! Tonight was a night we’ll
all remember well! We walked back to the church, got our beds set up, and finished the night with Quiet Time, and
small group time. This week we are working through a small book “Totally Infatuated”, it is about learning to fall in love
with the Word of God. I am SUPER excited because the book is really deep, yet very practical and thought-provoking.
We’re off to bed soon. Thank you for the messages and texts today, I read them all to the youth tonight. We are all
doing REALLY well and having fun! I think we’ll sleep well tonight!!
Day 3 (Mon Aug 6)
What an AMAZING day today! Fair warning there are so many stories today, I can’t possibly tell them all and they may
come out in the journal a bit choppy. After breakfast we loaded the bus and had about an hour trip to Ann Arbor, MI,
where we worked for the day at the Boys and Girls Club. There were about 120 kids, and 5 staff members. Our help
today, as you can imagine, was a HUGE blessing! We were able to give the kids a lot more 1 on 1 attention then they
would be able to get normally. To be honest I’m not sure how that small of a staff does it, so hats off to them! The kids
all desired our attention, and WOW did they get it!!! Picture a gym full of 120 kids, and all 39 of us, completely
intermixed, and completely engaged in conversation. And even with the constant conversation and playing with them,
the kids never got enough attention. Several had very difficult family lives (it was common for the kids to talk about
divorce, and having lots of siblings, many of whom they had never met). There are WAY too many stories to tell them all
in a few sentences, but I’ll do my best. MAKE SURE to ask the youth about this day, it will definitely go down as one
we’ll always remember. There are a few main areas, a gym, a game room for board games and pool and foosball, an
arts/crafts room, a Learning Center with computers that had learning games on them, and lots of space outside for
basketball, four square, soccer, and a playground. We split up to be in each room with a few youth and 1-2 adult
leaders. I encouraged the youth to make sure to affirm the kids as much as they could, and they all did a FANTASTIC job
at it all day long! Every time a kid received an affirmation you could literally see a kid’s confidence rise! For instance I
was spending time with Ciatta today and at one point in the conversation I told her she was perfect just as she was. She
sat up straight and said “YES I AM!” Several kids found out we were form a church and asked us some FANTSATIC
questions about God like “Where did God come from?”. So we even got the opportunity to talk about God! When it
came time for lunch, we ate with them, and it was eye opening what it was like when our meal wasn’t big, and then to
think that it was the best meal many of these kids would have that day. One of our youth even gave his lunch away
knowing that someone else needed it more than he did. Towards the end of our time there Roger was back with the
fixed tire, and a few of the boys helped him get it back on. They did it in half the time, especially because they knew
what to do this time! Roger barely had to lift a finger to help! Then it was time for goodbyes, which were VERY hard for
us and for the kids. There were several who started crying, and some who literally refused to let go (Ask Lauren!). It
was hard to leave! One kid said “I NEVER want this day to end.” Throughout the day several of the staff commented to
our adult leaders. One person talked about how they have regular volunteers, but they have never had a group like ours
who came in and totally engaged the kids, and did not sit on the sidelines to watch, AND he’s never seen the kids react
so well to a group” Personally I believe that is because they could see right away that our live for them was genuine.
Another staff person told us that he purposefully sat back and watched our group today and he was surprised to never
see them off by themselves or in cliques, they were always engaged with the kids, and he was SUPER impressed! Yet
another staff member commented on how every day she has lots of kids come to her office saying they are “sick” or
“bored” or just want to go home, and today NOT A SINGLE KID did that. NOT ONE! It was because of all of the attention
and love and affirmation they had received. Once we got on the bus we were all pretty worn out. A few youth
commented on how hard it can be keeping up with children for the day, and we all gave a TON of energy today, I am not
sure where they got all of that energy, but they used every ounce!
Then we were off for showers at the YMCA, and they asked us to go in shifts instead of all at once, which put us behind
a bit, but that was OK. We stopped for supper at Max and Erma’s. and it was a fun stop with pretty good food. The best
part was the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies at the end! After about 45 minutes more we arrived at King of Kings
Lutheran in Ann Arbor. Pastor Michael greeted us and we instantly felt like family! The church is a bit smaller than the
last one, which was fine with us! Tonight the ladies get to sleep in the sanctuary (they’re pretty excited!). The church
had an array of snacks laid out for us, and we felt so incredibly welcomed and appreciative of their generosity!! We
ended the night with some quiet time and small groups. Tomorrow we get to wake up to breakfast made by members of
the church, we really are blessed!!! (PS when I post pictures from my phone they go to my personal page, not the Salem
page, so make sure to look there to for midday posts when I am able)
Day 4 (Tues Aug 7)
WOW what a morning! We woke up to the smell of breakfast, and it was INCREDIBLE! The church we stayed at had a
bunch of people come in early (6:15am) to cook breakfast for us. We’ve had churches do this for us in the past, but this
blew us away! We had 3 separate tables of food, one was juices, coffee, and water, the second had 2 kinds of sausage
(LOTS of it!), 3 kinds of pancakes (plain, blueberry, chocolate chip), and a spinach and cheese egg dish. All cooked fresh!
The third table had an array of hand chopped fruit, cereal, granola bars, cereal bars, and more! It was impossible to go
away hungry! We were SO BLESSED by the church we stayed at and literally felt like family. Packing up took a little
longer than usual because we were all stuffed! We traveled about an hour south to Toledo, OH and served today at the
Toledo Seagate Foodbank, a place where we have stopped in the past and a place where we have some excellent
memories. This agency serves 18 counties in Ohio and they serve approx. 48,000 meals per month! They serve
veterans, military families, the elderly, and many others who can’t afford food. They also have over 200 separate
programs helping a variety of people, as they explained it they want to work themselves out of a job because they have
trained and taught others how to live well and live on their own. It is a FANTASTIC organization! About 10 of the group
spent the first 45 minutes of our time there picking fresh vegetables and fruit from their vertical garden. They tried one
of the small red cayenne peppers… that was a mistake! The ones who tried it ended up crying from the burn, and let’s
just say they got their sinuses cleared out! After lunch that group went across the street to help people, mostly
veterans, pick out their food. They got to have some pretty incredible conversations with the people they met. Ask
Aren and Nick about Margaret (who used to live in Cairo and work for the American Embassy). One comment Katie
made was that she noticed people not taking all of the food that they were allowed to because they didn’t need it and
wanted to leave it for others who did. It is amazing to see people be generous even when they have so little. (and we
struggle to be generous when we are so rich). The rest of the group was in the packing line. In 3.5 hours (really 2.5 if
you take out our breaks) our group packaged 1150 meals. Meals included 2 boxes of cereal, a can of meat, 2 bottles of
juice, potatoes, (and I can’t remember what else but it was a lot!) … the previous record was 1050 in 4 hours. They even
had a stretch of 11 minutes where they packed 62 boxes! Yep they worked that hard and that fast! SUPER PROUD of
them! In fact they had to ask us to stop working an hour early today because they needed to have enough left for the
groups coming tonight. What a GREAT problem to have, working ourselves out of a job! We have some video of Nicole
folding the box covers shut… LIGHTNING fast! My prayer is that we all leave today with even more gratitude for all that
we have when others have so little, and I pray that we can all know how important it is to give of our time and talents.
In just a few hours we helped to provide food for 1150 people! INCREDIBLE! Then we were off for a bit of a bus ride.
We started with an hour and a half nap, MUCH earned! We ran into a traffic jam in Dayton Ohio, it was SUPER slow and
there really was no reason at all for the traffic, but it put us over an hour behind! Oh well what can you do? For supper
we stopped near a Jimmy Johns and a Chipotle, and a McDonalds, it was a hit! The church we stayed at tonight is
Lakeside Christian in Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati. It is a HUGE HUGE HUGE church! Our rooms are on one level,
and the kitchen is on the opposite end of the church a level up, so we got some walking in! Definitely one of the fanciest
churches we’ve ever stayed in. We had a time of worship, quiet time, and small group time to end our night. Everyone
is still tired and tonight we are in bed for 9 and a half hours! Hopefully that’ll catch us all up, please pray for a deep
sleep for all of us! PS thanks for all of the emails, texts, and Facebook posts! I’m trying to read them all to the youth, so
far I think I’ve gotten every one!
Day 5 (Wed Aug 8)
How’d we already get to halfway> Wow this trip is flying by fast! Last night’s 9 and a half hour sleep was
WONDERFUL! We all woke up rested and with extra energy today! After breakfast we were off to our work project for
the day in a pretty run down part of Newport Kentucky. We worked at the Brighton House, an organization that serves
all kinds of people in need, roughly 72,000 per month! They help both in short term crisis situations like needing food or
clothing or recovery, and then connect them to long0term help for housing, foreclosure prevention, energy assistance,
and more with the goal of helping them all become self-sufficient again. They do EXCELLENT work! At the beginning of
the day they were convinced that they had way too much work for us. I’m amazed at how oftern teenagers can be sold
short because we got it all done, early! I think a lot of it is because our group is such an EXCELLENT, hard-working,
respectful, and focused group, they really stand out. Even the director on our way out commented on what an
AMAZING group of teens we had and how surprised and impressed they were with them, especially in how respectful
and encouraging they were! I LOVE getting compliments about the youth, and I LOVE surprising people!! But I really
don’t think we always understand what a unique, quality of young people we have at Salem, sometimes when you see
them every day you expect that (and we should!). But your youth are AWESOME, as I said a few days ago parents you
are doing a WONDERFUL job!!! SERIOUSLY!!!! They started by unloading a truck FULL of food donations form a grocery
store to the basement. Then we split up and one group loaded the truck with cabinets and winter clothes. That group
spent a lot of time with a worker getting to know his life story. They asked him a TON of questions and learned about a
very interesting life. They finished by sorting through a TON (a giant truck load) of pants donated by amazon.com to the
Brighton House. Another group reorganized the overflow pantry, which is where they keep all of the leftover food form
the Thanksgiving and Christmas donations. They checked through EVERY can for dates and sorted them. It was really
fun and a project you can’t do without a big group so we were a HUGE blessing to them in that way! They had a TON of
fun together, and worked hard. Their oldest can was from the 1980’s and they found some pretty interesting items!
Another group did a lot of miscellaneous office filing, sorting, and they really enjoyed the work! They also worked hard
and setup lunch for our whole group (THANK YOU!) The last group sorted through a lot of clothes in the basement.
They had a few… fashion shows and a fashion shoot, one of the craziest outfits was a stack of old, ugly Christmas
sweater, and other matching skirt/sweater outfits. They were hideous (though the models were beautiful!). They had a
TON of fun and made a big difference too. Another neat thing today was that up until now, only 1 youth had given away
their $5. 3 more did today. Each story is pretty moving! Grant, after giving his $5 away, said to me “Thanks for having
us do that Eric, that is one of the most incredible feelings making someone’s day” WOOHOO!!! Just taking a short
tangent here, but today I ended up having to run some errands and they were about 15 miles away. One group decided
today to work on patience. GULP, it has been my experience that every time I ask for patience I get put into more crazy
patience testing situations, today was no different. At the Sam’s club, I was 2nd in a line, and the people in front of me
had a problem with their card, after calling a manager over they discovered he had the wrong card and needed to go get
the one out of his car. No prob I got a few minutes. Then he came back in, and had all kinds of problems with it, the
manager was over and they couldn’t get it to work. They decided to re-ring up the order, this time it worked YEAH!
Then the discovered they only rang up half of the order and had to start over AGAIN! 25 minutes later I got to check
out….. then WalMart apparently had only 3 cashiers there, I was 4th in line in the shortest line, another 20 minutes.
We’ve all had these days (plus a TON of red lights, waiting at lights 2 and 3 times just to turn….) All said stopping at 4
places took me almost then entire 4 hours the youth worked so I missed it all. SAD, but what can you do? Guess God
wanted to reteach me patience… but I really missed bein with the kids today! Then we were off to our next adventure…
high speed go-karts! This is Roger’s (our bus driver) favorite Road Trip stop of all time and he’s asked me every year if we
are going back! I really don’t think there is any way to describe it in words how INCREDIBLE it is! We had 2 hours on the
course, and 8 teams. The team with the most laps wins. Every racer needed to race 2 times in the 2 hours. The best
way to do well was by teamwork and communication and planning, so what could be a very individual event, turned into
a big team builder! These karts are FAST! After taking a few laps to get used to the kart you could really put on some
speed. There was some bumping and banging (mostly accidental), but throughout the time everyone was SOOO
encouraging! One story I need to tell is with Emily. During her first time out she ran hard into the wall, she didn’t see
the turn and thought it was a straight-away. She hit pretty hard (but was OK, more scared than anything). After some
TLC, her turn came up again AND SHE WENT BACK OUT!!! Her laps were slow, and I think she was pretty scared, but ALL
of the youth were cheering her on from the sidelines, cheering and clapping for each lap that she made! I gave her a
goal of making 5 laps (I just KNEW she could do it and I wanted her to know that too), she made 6! And came off
BEAMING! A HUGE HUGE HUGE victory for her in overcoming her fears, SOOOOOO PROUD of Emily!!! For the rest of
us, each time we got done we came off exhausted, it is SUPER tiring racing (you wouldn’t think so but it is!). We got out
a TON of energy and adrenaline, some of us are still coming off the adrenaline high a few hours after we left! Another
fun part was watching youth come off of their turn and say things like “hey I’m pretty good, I can’t wait til my next turn
I’ll be even better!” Everyone came away with a boost of confidence, a TON of fun, and we’re a bit sore too, but that’s
OK. Then we were off to our church for the night in Lexington, KY, Immanual Baptist. When we arrived it was hard to
know where to go, there are 3 HUMUNGUOUS churches next to each other. Once we found the right one it was hard to
find where to go. We are staying in a wing of the church that has a 2 gyms, a walking track, weight room, and MUCH
more! Thankfully the church has showers (another road trip first is showering at a church!) so we are able to shower
here tonight (again I had a hard time finding showers here too). So we had to split shifts because there are only 4
showers, so half of the group showered while the other half had quiet time, then we switched! This group has been
SUPER flexible with us! Tonight we have a lot of different details going on at the same time, and they have some weird
instructions, and they handled it without batting an eye. I am SO PROUD of them! Tomorrow will be another landmark
day for us so stay tuned! (PS sorry for the typos I just don’t have time to proofread each night so you just get my stream
of conscious thought instead!)
Day 6 (Thurs Aug 9)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Bailey! Bailey is celebrating her 16th birthday with us on Road Trip this year! I got up super early and
went to a super popular bakery and got caramel rolls for breakfast. I was surprised to learn that there are lines outside
of this bakery 10 minutes before it opened! Guess we picked a good spot. We successfully passed around her birthday
card throughout the day yesterday and without her seeing us ;) After breakfast we were off to work for Habitat for
Humanity here in Lexington. We ended up with 3 projects, and I was SOOO excited for what we got to work on! There
are age limitations with labor laws on how old you have to be to work with power tools, so I usually have a hard time
finding places other than ReStores where we get to help. A VERY neat opportunity! The first group went with me to a
place over an hour away. We were the deconstruction team. There was a long term project that they were close to
completing, and they didn’t expect to finish today but hoped we’d make a big dent. We had to take down some walls,
particle board floors (which were SOAKED with rain so it came up like sawdust), then the subfloor and floor joists, and
the pipe etc underneath. We had 7 of us and we worked REALLY REALLY hard while we were there, some of the youth
learning for the first time how to use a pry bar and sledgehammer. Despite it raining on us, pretty hard at times, we
COMPLETELY finished the project! They were pretty excited, and so were we! We were all soaking wet and dirty when
we were done, it was hard to tell if we were wet from the rain or the sweat (it was SUPER hot and humid)… probably
more sweat than rain! Check out the before and after pictures. The dumpster was completely full when we left! The
second team went to the ReStore and spent the day recycling paint. They have an AWESOME program where they take
used and leftover paint, and instead of going into a landfill they take it and mix it up into new colors, that they can then
resell in the Restore. They absolutely SHATTERED the previous record of the amount of paint that got recycled in 1 day!
WOOHOO!!! They made 200 gallons of paint, that will earn Habitat roughly $1400 (NOT a typo!). They also got to name
all 5 colors that they made, here’s what they came up with: Ufda gold, Off Kilter (white), Minnesota Loon (blue),
Mauvelous (Mauve), and White Dontcha know? (White). HA! AWESOME work! The third group worked on prebuilding
things like headers, door jambs, and window jambs. By the end of the day they had made enough for 2+ houses! Some
of the 18 year olds even got to use power tools and cut the wood. They group also worked extremely hard! When it
was all done (TELL MORE ABOUT STAFF!) they were pretty excited about the amount of work we got done and asked us
to come back again! When we got on the bus Brooke asked why everyone always seems so surprised at how much we
get done, I just don’t think this group understands how different they are (in a good way!) and how much they stand out
amongst their peers in all the right ways! So this makes us 4 for 4 at our work projects this week of being surprised, and
GRATEFUL for all that were able to accomplish at each place! The word Proud just doesn’t seem strong enough
anymore! So parents please know how special, and unique, and respectful, and kind, and hard-working your children
are, make sure to tell them OFTEN how much you are proud of them too! We also had several more youth give away
their $5 today. At one place we stopped for gas and Jenny asked another driver filling up on gas if she could clean the
windshields for her. The first response was “how much do you charge, $1?” Jenny handled it well and said it was free
and did it! Then she gave her $5 to that driver, who of course refused and tried in turn to pay Jenny. Jenny won out and
the lady had $5 and clean windshields! LOVE IT! We also had a few youth get rejected today while giving away their $5,
it’s hard not to take that personally so please pray for them and the next person they give it to. We got to our church
tonight in Plainfield, IN (just west of Indianapolis). Once we got settled in and started Quiet time it started POURING! It
hasn’t rained here all summer and tonight it was a monsoon! And tomorrow’s forecast is for rain. NOT GOOD since our
activity tomorrow is outdoors and rain will cancel it. PLEASE PRAY FOR NO RAIN UNTIL 4PM, and then a DOWNPOUR
right after we leave! We may be punting tomorrow so we’ll see. Another funny thing happened tonight, I went to
Walmart to get the cake I ordered for Bailey’s birthday tonight. And the lady could not find it ANYWHERE! After I got
my book and found the number of the Walmart I was supposed to go to I realized my big oops. Yep I ordered the cake
alright, in Plainfield KY. Too bad we are in Indiana! So somewhere in another state is a gorgeous cake for Bailey, it has
blue frosting and says “Happy 16th Birthday Bailey!” that she’ll never see. I felt like such a schmuck! I wanted to cry ;(
But what can you do? I’m not driving there for a $25 cake! (I’ll try to put up a picture of it tomorrow… I also forgot the
candles, so yep a few other adult leaders decided that matches would work instead, GREAT thinking!) So I found a few
others instead and we made it work. When I told the group the story tonight, Bailey loved it the most! Then she and
her friends came up afterwards and wondered what happened to that cake. I said I’d call in the morning and explain my
mistake and pay for it, and they asked if I could have them donate it to their local Boys and Girls Club. I was speechless
for a second,…. of course that’s what we’re gonna do! What selfless, others-focused girls we have, especially when it
would have been normal to be upset or pout, instead they are thinking of others. AMAZING! In case you didn’t know, I
learn WAY more for the youth than I think I ever teach them. Case in point!
Day 7 (Fri Aug 10)
God answered our prayers! They needed rain desperately so we prayed for it to rain all night then break for our day,
and start raining again. We woke up to gray skies, and everything was wet, but the rain had stopped! We actually only
had a few spotty showers today, and even saw the blue sky peek out a few times between the clouds. AND the high was
only 76 degrees, a PERFEECT temperature for…… the High Ropes Course! I LOVE the days where we do some sort of
adventure, of course we have a TON of fun and laughter, we grow in teamwork and communication, we make
memories, and MUCH more, but the main reason I like the adventures we go on is because every time youth learn that
they can do FAR more than they thought they could do, and they learn that they can push themselves beyond their
limits. There were 3 stations today. The first was a zipline. The toughest parts of the zipline are the climb up the
telephone pole (which is quite a climb) and jumping off the platform. Even though you KNOW your harness will protect
you and you KNOW it’s safe, it is still hard to take that leap, but when you do there is a rush of joy and a sense of
accomplishment that comes with it! The second station was a climbing wall. There were 4 stations to get to the top.
There was a regular climbing wall with hand grips, a harder climbing wall with an outcropping at the top that you had to
get around and over, a rope ladder (that was unsecured at the bottom), and a “firecracker” (which was a ladder with
only 1 rope through the center of the ladder, not a rope on each side like a regular rope ladder). We had a wide range
of experiences on the climbing wall. 1 youth (KARL!) made it up the easy wall in 28 seconds flat, and up the super hard
firecracker in 1 minute and 15 seconds. Speed was his way to push himself, others just to even try the wall in the first
place was a HUGE accomplishment. There were some times when there were tears and a youth would get afraid, and
that’s OK. But each time we tried to encourage them to take at least 1 more step, even if it was small. The amount of
courage that some youth showed today was INCREDIBLE! One observation I had that I shared later with the group is
that it was like a metaphor for life at times. When things got tough, some people’s reaction was to stop and quit and
give up. While they had that choice, I encouraged them to keep going just a little bit more because I wanted them to see
how much more they could do than what they believed. It took people encouraging them and loving them, it took trust
in people and in the equipment, and it took people from the group that could see the bigger picture (like where the next
handhold was) to help them out when they could only see what was in front of them. Definitely lessons we all need,
when life is hard (as it is sometimes), instead of running from our problems or hoping we can ignore them and they’ll go
away (which NEVER works by the way!), we need to face them, and work through the difficulty. We need to have
people around us who encourage us and love us, and know what we are capable of doing (and we need to surround
ourselves with those kinds of people in our own lives!), and we need people in our lives that can see the bigger picture
when we get too focused on the stressor that is in front of us so we can get help and guidance. The third station was
the high ropes station. There were 4 different elements we could try, each with a different challenge, and all of them
about 50 feet in the air. Again it took a TON of courage to even attempt some of them, let alone complete them. The
staff people also were willing to give extra challenges to the youth if they wanted it to be harder (Like trying an element
while holding a cup of water and trying not to spill a drop!). The super athletic youth LOVED these challenges! Another
element to the day was that at each station when someone was climbing there needed to be several others supporting
the climb, there was a spotter, a ladder holder, a belayer, a person who was the anchor for the belayer, and a back up
belayer who coiled the rope. We had to work well as a team today to do well, and we did! All of the staff commented
to me how exceptional of a group we had and they were blown away by how encouraging and thoughtful everyone was,
at how much fun we had together, and at how easy their job was today. I am trying to pass along as many of the
compliments I hear of the youth because I want you to be as encouraged as I am at how AWESOME our group is!!! All in
all today was a great day!!!! Special shout out to all of the youth who were afraid and didn’t give up and showed
incredible courage today!!! Then we got back on the bus and headed to Danville, Il (and back into the Central Time
Zone) where we first stopped for showers (YEA!). Then we went a few miles down the road to one of my favorite
restaurants on Road Trips before, Montana Mike’s! It’s a steakhouse with HUGE portions, GREAT food, EXCELLENT
service, and something for everyone. We had a BLAST! Jesse attempted to eat a 24oz porterhouse, and Sam & Grant
attempted a 20oz prime rib. All 3 were successful, though they are paying for it a bit tonight ;). Then we got back ont eh
bus and headed to Bloomington, IL where we slept for the night. When we got to the church our contact had forgotton
to meet us, but jumped in his car right away. It wasn’t the best neighborhood, and Roger needed to get going to meet
his required number of down hours, so we unloaded and the leaders all took positions around the bus and youth. To be
honest it was a neat sight seeing the leaders all protecting and looking out for the youth, and our contact got there
shortly and we didn’t even have any problems. Parents, please thank all of the 10 volunteer adults, Becky, Heather, Ari,
Ian, Kayla, Holly, Egan, Joe, Katie, and Melanie. They have taken EXCELLENT care of your youth all week long and have
made many sacrifices for them. We are SOOOOO blessed to have such wonderful, caring, thoughtful leaders and rolemodels who work well together and who love our students and who love God deeply! I don’t think they get nearly
enough credit for ALL they do (like taking a week of vacation, away from family to be with the youth). Tonight will be a
short night, we have to get up pretty early tomorrow. So after quiet time and small groups we got right to bed. The
youth were pretty squirrely tonight, they are REALLY enjoying being together, there has been a TON of laughter and joy
all week long! THANK YOU for all of your prayers and notes, I can’t respond individually, but I am reading all of them to
the youth!
Day 8 (Sat Aug 11)
It was a short night, but everyone still got up and got packed and packed the bus in 45 minutes! AWESOME! Once we
got on the road we did something different, we served breakfast on the bus (yet another road trip first!). They even
came to each seat and took their order, made it up in the back, and delivered it. What service! I wish we would have
had one of those carts they have on a plane that they serve drinks out of, to look even more official. After breakfast we
needed a nap, I’m not sure some of the youth could have stayed awake if they wanted to! Since we have a lot of time
on the bus today I tried to space out some activities. One of them was writing thank you’s to everyone who gave for
Celebrate Youth, making this trip possible. The youth worked really hard and made some pretty creative cards. It’s fun
to see them understand the importance of everyone who gives to that Fundraiser and to appreciate the opportunity it
gave them to have this week! )We did already send out thank you’s after the event, but I think it’s important for the
youth to write personal thank you’s during the trip). After a brief stop for lunch, we had more time for hotseat. I’m not
sure if I have talked about this yet or not, but we get into groups and 1 person is on the hotseat and everyone else gets
to ask them a question. Questions have ranged from “Tell me a favorite toy as a child” to “What is 1 character quality
you most appreciate in each of your parents and siblings” to “What are some of your dreams for the future?” to “Who is
a role model in your life”. AWESOME questions all of them (and there are MANY more!). This is one of the most
important parts of our trip where we grow deeper in our friendships and understanding of each other, and where we
learn more about what we have in common. We’re pretty purposeful not to put best friends next to each other on
these days too. At 3pm we arrived at Pilot Know State Park, just south of the Minnesota border. The youth who have
been on the trip before were pretty excited because they knew it meant we were about to have solitude time with God.
We’ve done some great things this week, we’ve made a BIG difference in people’s lives, we’ve had a TON of fun, we’ve
eaten at some cool restaurants, but this time of solitude with God is the best gift I can give them on this trip. Hands
down. Youth who have it for the first time usually want it to be less time, youth who have had it before almost always
crave more time than I give them. Today we gave the youth 3 and a half hours to be with God, to worship, or journal, to
read their Bibles, to soak in God’s beauty and thank Him for it, to confess sins, to pray for themselves and for others, and
much more. How often do we make the time to be with God? To be honest most of us struggle to fit time in every day,
let alone a bigger chunk to work with God in bigger issues, or to just take the time to say thanks to God for all he has
done for us. My hope and prayer is that solitude becomes a regular part of their lives, a time to slow down, think about
life, focus on God, remember what He has done, and so much more. This year’s highlights were pretty incredible. I
won’t post much about them here as they were very personal and were shared for our group to hear but aren’t for
everyone. Highlights included God speaking to some youth, experiencing the Holy Spirit, answering very important
prayers, confirming that He is there, reminding people of his DEEP love for them, challenging them in areas of their lives,
giving people courage for difficult conversations, helping them to see that even in tough times God is still up to
something and is VERY present with us in those times, and MUCH more. A few youth also took time to find ways to
encourage others, some prayed for people in the group (sometimes at the specific times they needed it even though
they were on different parts of the park!), and some wrote notes for others to find. Please see some of today’s pictures
for some examples, you’ll be DEEPLY encouraged! We broke our solitude with worshipping together and supper from
the grill. Supper was a BLAST and everyone is getting pretty hyper, partly because the trip is almost done, partly
because they are really enjoying each other, and partly because they don’t want to go home just yet. We got on the bus
for another hour and are staying in Albert Lea, Mn tonight. We spent some group time sharing highlights of the day and
having more worship. It has been a FANTASTIC day! Oh and what’s fun is that think Road Trip is basically over and we’re
just heading home tomorrow after church. I can’t wait to see what they do when we pull up to Roger’s house. He is SO
excited to have us there! Parents I will try to get you an ETZ by 2:30, you can check on Facebook or call my phone where
I’ll leave a message (if you get my normal message call back later). I probably won’t answer my phone tomorrow
afternoon, so if you need to get me a message either leave me a voicemail or shoot me a text.
Day 9 (Sun Aug 12)
It’s the last day of Road Trip, it’s both sad and exciting to see all that God has done! After breakfast we went to
church. One of the most moving parts of the service was when they took a few minutes to teach about baptism and it
importance. They also showed a video of some members of their congregation being baptized in a local lake, seeing
their excitement at their new commitments to God was so inspiring and exciting! After church we changed, packed up,
and hit the road. I hinted that we were going to stop for fast food for supper. Yes, I purposefully mislead them…. But it
was worth it! After a quick stop at a rest stop we took a few turns into the woods, and nobody had a clue where we
were going….except Roger since we were going to his house! We were supposed to go last year, and somehow we kept
it a secret from most of the youth for over a year, pretty impressive! Obviously it is a HUGE deal that Roger and his wife
Laurie invited us over for lunch, they invited us to their home after getting it ready for 39 of us to crash their house and
yard! We got a tour of their garage, Roger’s bus garage, his motorcycles, deck, and back yard. There was PLENTY to do
and we enjoyed every second! I think this is our 6th? year having Roger as our bus driver, and I’m not sure if we enjoy
him more or if he enjoys our group more. Either way we are SO blessed to have him! Roger is retired, but he still drives
a few trips, including ours! If you haven’t seen the pictures yet, make sure to check our Roger’s grill, it’s AWESOME! It
was such a privilege that he let us see a sneak peak of his life and home and the things he values, mostly his family. He
and I grilled burgers (they were REALLY tasty) and brats, while most of the youth played ultimate frisbee and hit a
volleyball around in the backyard. We felt so welcomed! After supper in the garage a few of the boys helped Roger
move a bus washer into t trailer, it felt REALLY good giving back to Roger and helping even with a small thing that he
couldn’t do by himself. We didn’t want to leave! Once we got back on the bus the trip went really fast, we spent some
time working on evals and then we handed out the affirmations. It is such a powerful part of the trip watching the youth
read through what everybody wrote to them. Many keep the affirmations somewhere in their room to read through on
some of their tougher days. I wish we all would do a better job each day of affirming each other and naming the
character qualities we love and admire in each other. Parents, take a few minutes sometime soon to tell your kids how
much you live them and what you see in them, those words mean so much! Thanks to everyone for your support
through prayers and encouragement throughout our trip! It was a BLAST sharing our adventures with you! I hope
you’ve heard WAY more stories now when they got home, there are far more to tell than I can get to in my journal!
Praise be to God for an AMAZING week, for making a difference in his name, and for all of that He did in our hearts!