Samstrument

A video of a work-site performance of Sam playing the Samstrument has been posted at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkjsuWJh4Gw

Worksite Video

Kurtys of Team Effort created a video using the pictures he took of us at our work-site. To view or download this video, click on the link below. The file is 100MB large so be patient - it's worth it. You may need QuickTime software (can download free from Apple).

http://biblestoriesforadults.com/2009GDLCTMTWorksiteVideo.m4v

Return Trip Updates

Saturday, 12:20 pm

We've sighted our first Whataburger. We're now in Texas. Still looking at arriving around 2:00.

Saturday, 10:30 am

We've just left our breakfast stop at the rest area in the Atchafalaya River Basin (swamp). We should arrive around 2:00 - just as planned.

Saturday, 7:45 am

It's 7:45 Houston time and we've just changed drivers in Slidell (east of Baton Rouge). Our current ETA is 1:00-2:00.


Friday, 11:00 pm (Tampa time)

We are on the road heading back to Houston. I'll provide you with our estimated arrival time tomorrow.

Friday at Busch Gardens

Today was our fun day as we spent the day at Busch Gardens. Everyone was ready for lots of roller coasters and Busch Gardens has them.

We hit some slow traffic on the way to the park, but we drove directly there. It started raining on the way (40% chance today) and it was raining when we arrived around 10:30.

We picked a central meeting spot in Timbuktu and set check-in times of 12:00 (lunch ticket), 3:00 (drink money), 5:00 (dinner ticket) and 8:00 (leave). Jr Highers had to have an adult in their group and Sr Highers had to have at least three in their group. All but one of the groups ended up having at least one adult.

Some of the groups took off to jump on roller coasters while others went in a store to buy rain ponchos. As groups moved through the park, we kept running into each other and teams would join for a while and re-split.

The consensus was that the roller coaster with the vertical drops was the best. Votes were split on whether the next best was the wooden coaster or one of the two loop-filled metal rail coasters. All agreed that all were great.

Rain popped up at various times throughout the day - sometimes with thunder and lightning. When that happened, the rides would shut down and we'd have to wait for things to clear by eating or watching a show or ... The positive sides of this weather were that it was relatively cool and that the lines were short.

Right at our 5:00 meeting time, lightning flashed and everything was shut down. Some groups headed to eat while others took the downtime to walk to rides on the other end of the park.

The group I was with took the latter approach. We got stalled as we walked by a juggler performing in an open theater by the walkway. As he finished his act, thunder struck again. Realizing that the rides would stay down for a while after that last strike, we decided to eat dinner in the adjacent pavilion. As soon as we walked into the pavilion the skies opened and it started pouring very heavily.

This heavy rain continued for a couple of hours while our group and a couple of others were stranded in the pavilion. The other groups were stranded at other places throughout the park and we connected via adult cell phones.

To pass the time, I encouraged the seniors to put on a performance of their goofy bus songs for everyone in the pavilion. They were happy to do so and gave a 6-song set.

When the rain finally stopped, it was right at 8:00 - our final meeting time. All of the groups headed to meet at the exit - some dry, some wet. We went to the waiting buses that were parked under a full rainbow.

When we arrived at the college, we went in our dorms and showered for the bus ride home. While everyone finished pcking and cleaning the rooms, Chris, Molly, Ryan and Andrew took "Right Shoe" (Bus 1) to Walmart to buy breakfast for tomorrow morning and ice for our drink chests.

When they returned, Lonnie led us in prayer and we loaded the buses and took off at 11:00.

Parent Phone Numbers for Text Updates Needed Again

I'm afraid I misplaced the list of parent phone numbers for those who want to receive a text message with an estimated arrival time as we get closer tomorrow. If you would like to receive an update text message, please text me with your number to 713-202-2808.

Stories from Tampa Workday 4

Today was our last day at the work-site. We worked until mid-day and then headed to a Tampa beach in the afternoon. Here are some of our stories:

Breakfast - Breakfast was held at the dorm this morning, so we got to sleep in an extra hour since we didn't need to travel to the church where the ladies served us in past days. Everyone was thrilled for the extra time.

VBS - Jill's VBS team finished their VBS leadership yesterday, so they joined the work-site teams today. They were a great addition.

Fail Nails - Andrew's team took over the wheelchair ramp project from Casey's team yesterday. They quickly found out why Casey's team took 12 nails to get one in a few days ago (see past blog story). The nails we were given to use for decking boards are 12-penny ring-shank nails (so
they won't back out). These nails are thinner than other 12-penny nails and bend very easily. Once they bend, they should be removed and replaced with a new nail or you'll end up with a broken nail.

Luke and Chris developed a marketing strategy for these nails and gave them the name: "Fail Nails. You'll fail every time! Buy them, they stink! Guaranteed 2 of 20 work!"

The 16-penny ring-shank nails we used for attaching 2x6es were more stout. Luke and Chris called them the Chuck Norris nails.

Food Pantry - More students rotated through helping organize the Food Pantry. During his stint, Nicholas found a box of Cracker Jacks that had expired in 1986.

Concrete Man - Cary's team spent much of their time building a deck extension behind the camp director's home. This extension involved 20 posts and Cary personally mixed and poured the concrete for all 20 holes.

Green Lattice - Stephen's team finished the job of replacing the solid siding over the crawl space of the camp director's home with lattice to provide cooling air flow. The lattices were primed and painted hunter green and look great under the tan house.

Storage Building Painting - Ryan's and Casey's teams united into a single large team to focus on painting the storage buildings that the other teams had primed. Since they were combined from Teams D and F, they called themselves Team DF (pronounced "df"). After many of Team VBS joined them today, they changed their name to Team DFVBS (pronounced "dfvbs").

Shade Structure - Matthew's Team was so intent on finishing the new roof on the shade structure that neither Matthew nor Stephen would come down from the roof when lunch was served.

Lunch - The Good Shepherd Mission cooked and served us a great lunch today of Arroz con pollo, frijoles ala charra, green bean and asparagus veggies, and shredded chicken. Many said it was the best meal of the week.

Bus Ride to the Beach - In multi-bus situations like ours, the senior driver has the prerogative of being the lead driver. Both of our drivers are senior drivers, but Gracie is more senior than Sterling, and she decided that she would be the lead driver. We learned early on and have seen repeated confirmation that Gracie has trouble with directions. Strange turns and paths have evoked strange reactions from Sterling, but he obediently followed even though he knew the route was incorrect.

We thought we had seen confused directions earlier this week and even moreso on our trip to the park last night, but today's trip to the beach set a completely new standard. We ended up getting a tour of downtown Clearwater (and a few other places) as the 30 mile trip from Eckerd College (in St Petersburg) to Palm Pavilion (on Clearwater beach) took nearly 90 minutes.

Sterling eventually had enough when Gracie turned off the straight route onto a side street at a furniture store on the way back this evening. He continued on the correct route and got Bus 2 ("Left Shoe") back to the dorms much sooner.

We've already mapped out the route for tomorrow's trip to Busch Gardens (only two roads) so we can guide Gracie.

Clearwater Beach - The beach we went to today was a Gulf beach on Clearwater Beach island. Its long and wide white sand was very similar to what we're used to in South Padre. The waves were not as strong (too weak for body surfing) since the wind is more of a cross-breeze here. We were told that today's wave action was some of the strongest they see. Overall, the beach was beautiful, the water was warm but much cooler than the bay beach we went to on Monday, and everyone enjoyed the hour we were there.

We then ate at the Palm Pavilion restaurant where we shared a pasta buffet that Cindy had arranged in advance. Another great meal that all enjoyed. After dinner we walked down to a beach shop to give some a chance to burn some more money.

Friendship Club Cards - On the bus ride home we distributed cards to each student giving them thanks and well-wishes from the Friendship Club. They were pleased to see that the cards also included $5 for them to use as they please tomorrow at Busch Gardens. Everyone appreciates the Friendship Club's support and prayers.

Closing Worship - Tonight's worship service was the closing ceremony for the week. We watched a video, sang praise songs, heard a message and watched a drama about how Jesus taught us to serve others as He did. Afterwards we were escorted by torches outside where we divided into our worksite teams and washed each others' feet. The teams prayed together and talked a bit about the week.

Stories from Tampa Workday 3

Another busy day for Gloria Dei being Christ in Tampa.  Here are some of the stories from the trenches:

Another Sick One  -  Last night after I finished posting yesterday's blog, I went out to the communal bathroom and heard some unappealing sounds coming from the second floor.  I went up to investigate and found Tanner in that restroom being sick.  He didn't feel better this morning so his mom, Mary Ellen, stayed behind with him as the rest of us left for the day.  He was fine when we returned and the guess is that he had too much of something from Walmart yesterday.

Power of Prayer  -  The theme for our trip is "Pray continuously."  (1 Thessalonians 5:17)  Here is a story from Erin that shows this theme in action:

Tuesday night Megan, Jessica, Katie and I pushed the beds together and ended up staying up.  When we all became tired we decided to pray for energy in the morning.  This small prayer became a very long one because all of us felt called to just let it all out.  We started praying for everything we needed help with in our lives.  We all could feel the Holy Spirit there with us and the relationships becoming stronger with all 5 of us.

I prayed for my sister, Kristin, to look like Bob the tomato.  I was just playing and when I got on the bus Wednesday morning Kristin was wearing red and green.  She really did look like a tomato.  I laughed when I saw God has a sense of humor.  It's true!

The rest of the day things we prayed for were changing.  We all feel awesome.  I feel like everything is lifted off my shoulders.  We are starting a prayer group at our houses when we get back to Houston.

None of us can wait to see what God does with us.  We all gave ourselves to Him together.  We are working together to help each other in our walks with Jesus.

VBS Story from Tuesday  -  Today our VBS team went to Walmart to pick up supplies for the kids.  Among the many treasures was colorful hair glitter spray which we did not have enough of.  At first they were very apprehensive because "calor en tu pelo" did not seem "muy bonita".  However, after one girl had her hair done, all the kids were lining up.  In the end, Madisen and Jenna were actually covered in green and pink sparkly paint which would not come off.

VBS Story from Today  -  Our face painting stuff was accidentally thrown away, so Madisen crawled into the dumpster to retrieve them while Jenna swatted the flies that were buzzing like crazy.

News Flash  -  Ellen proclaimed:  "I learned that I can live without electronics".  She was playing cards at the time.

Serving the Servant  -  Some of our team commented that this trip didn't seem as important because we were working at a mission instead of building homes for people who didn't have houses (as we do in Mexico).  While leading a devotion on one of the buses this morning, Ryan pointed out that we are serving the servant.  The work we are doing will help those who serve this community with Christ every day.

Lunch  -  Since we figured that we shouldn't expect lunch to arrive before 1:00-1:30, we brought lots of extra snacks and planned to have the teams take a snack break at 11:30 to energize them for the next hour or two before lunch arrives.  Within 5-10 minutes of taking this break today, I was told that we weren't having the normal Subway sandwiches because the church breakfast ladies wanted to cook tostadas for us.  Lunch would be delivered within 15-30 minutes.

It turned out that while the lunch van arrived not long after our snack break, it needed to be plated and then a last minute run was needed to get some more tostada shells.  We had the students eat first (ladies first) so they could be recharged and get back to work.  The adults ended up eating around the normal time after the tostada shells arrived.

Affirmation Card Battle  -  I believe I mentioned before that everyone is writing affirmation cards that mention things they appreciate about others on the trip.  These cards will be distributed to the individuals on our bus ride home Saturday morning.

It turns out that a fierce competition has built between the two buses to see which bus turns in the most cards.  (I might have something to do with stoking the flames of this competition.)

Bus 1 (aka "Right Shoe" - a name developed by the great wisdom of our senior boys: Casey, Ryan and Andrew) won the contest yesterday by a significant margin.  They even bought more index cards during their early visit to Walmart yesterday to get VBS supplies.  I showed those on Bus 2 (aka "Left Shoe") how badly they had been beat and the race was on.

I was ready with many more cards for both buses today and the competition took off.  I gave updates during every bus ride and hundreds of cards were turned in.  Bus 2 won by a huge margin.  The buses are tied and we'll see who wins tomorrow.

It seems my tactic to get more affirmation cards to encourage each other worked, but now I have lots of time ahead to separate these cards into individuals' envelopes.  My roommate Dave will even moreso regret his room assignment when he gets roped into helping with this task.

Pre-Worship Game  -  Tonight's game that was held before worship involved a representative from each church who would consider whether some strange and obscure state law was really a law or not.  Gloria Dei was well represented by Sam who handily beat out all challengers.

Small Group Time  -  During our small group time tonight everyone received letters from home.  These are encouraging letters that parents had written and secretly turned in before the trip.  Everyone was thrilled to get their letters.

Tomorrow's Plans  -  Tomorrow is our last day on the worksite.  We'll work until lunch and are being blessed by a lunch that will be given and served to us by Teresa, the Mission Director.  We'll then return to our dorms and change for an afternoon at the beach.  This time it will be a Gulf beach.  We're hoping the water will be cooler, the waves more existent, the seaweed less prevalent and the water bottom less sea-urchined than the bay beach we went to yesterday.