Day Five (Wednesday)

Trying to do VBS on July 4th isn't very easy - it hasn't been in the past when we have tried to at Appalachia, and it wasn't this year doing it in Rock Hill. The 4th is a family holiday - so our numbers went from a high of 30 on Tuesday to about half of that on Wed, the 4th. However, we still had VBS and it was a blast (pun intended)! We enjoyed the smaller crowd and took the opportunity to do more small group/ one on one ministry with the children who were there. Some of them were even interested in joining us that night for 4th of July festivities! This year, the festivities consisted of us joining the Hill City crowd out at a farm for food, music and fireworks. The food was jambalaya made with fresh sausage and chicken, cooked in a iron cast pot over a wood fire! It was spicy and delicious! Other homemade goods were brought and enjoyed by our group. It was a warm evening, but we had a lot of good fellowship. One of the highlights for me was the hymn sing jam session. We gathered on the porch of the guest house, and played away with guitars, a banjo and a fiddle. What a blessing it was to play these songs! There is a video of the event that I hope to get up soon! Thursday is the last day of VBS for us and then it's on to Lake Greenwood for a night of rest and evaluation of the trip!

Day Four (Tuesday)

Day two of VBS is done with - and what a day! On Monday we had 14 children - which is about what we averaged at Appalachia. On Tuesday, we had 30 kids! They just seemed to come out of the woods! What a great blessing - it caused our team to test their flexibility, but it was worth it. It is awesome to see so many kids get into the lessons about Jonah, singing silly VBS songs, feeding the coy pond goldfish with their goldfish crackers ... just enjoying all the aspects of this year's VBS! We are doing this VBS at Glencairn Gardens and it has a really interesting history to it. It was founded by Dr. Bigger, who wanted to have a garden in his backyard. He had about 5 acres on his property, and went to work on creating a beautiful garden for him and his wife. He decided to name it Glencairn after his home place in Scotland. And, here we are today, a church from a denomination that comes from Scotland, helping a church from the same denomination, in a gardens named after a home place from Scotland. In my Scot-Irish Presbyterian mind, this is God's gracious providence shining through! Here are a couple of pics of the area:

That evening, we went out to Olivet Presbyterian. This is the church that Beth and I consider to be our home church. Here is why - it was my first ministry job; I graduated from college while there; Beth and I dated while there; Beth graduated college while there; we were engaged while there; we were married at the church; went to seminary while there; graduated seminary while there! So, a good bit of our life together is wrapped up in Olivet PCA. So, it was a special treat for me to take the WOARP group there for the evening. It was nice to come back and have so many folks from the church come up to the church to meet the group and see the work going on! The missions committee provided dinner for us - and then about 30 kids from the church and community showed up. We went down to the ball field to play a very large game of softball, and then we came back up to the church. Our WOARP group led the singing - and then we did the entire book of Jonah in 10 minutes. It was quite a skit! There is a video of it that may show up one day soon! This is a pic of the Olivet kids we hung out with:

It was a great day - and now on to Wednesday, the 4th!

Day Three (Monday)

Today was our first day of VBS - and many prayers were answered! The weather was just about perfect for the morning - not too ward, humidity was down and a nice breeze. It was one of those tangible ways of knowing answered prayer! Many of the kids who came to the opening festivities also came this morning. Here are some pics from this morning:

As you can tell, we have been pretty busy - and it can easily tire you out. For example:

Tonight, Filbert PCA's youth group hosted us for dinner and games, and gave us a chance to talk about the trip. Caleb and Rachael shared about our work, and then our music team led the whole group in singing. It was a great time! What was a poignant moment was all of us singing Psalm 133 together - and seeing it put into practice. Our God is a great God!

Day Two (Sunday)

Our day started later than any of our other days, mainly because church didn't start until 10 am, and it was only a 5 minute drive from campus! Thankfully, this allowed us to sleep in and get some rest for the week!

We worshipped with the Hill City Church this morning. The music was beautiful (visual evidence above) and the sermon was challenging about whether we were fully living for the kingdom of Jesus! I believe the most moving part was the end of the service when Andy had our mission group stand and the congregation surrounded us, laid hands on us and prayed for us and the trip! It was very special to have this time with the congregation and their prayers in a visible way! Then it was on to lunch and to canvassing local neighborhoods. Here is a pic that sums up our canvassing experience:

It was hot. Period. HOT! It seemed that every time we looked at the thermometer, it just got hotter! But, we drank a lot of water and remembered what a great work God has called us to! We canvassed a number of neighborhoods for about two hours ... which led to this:

We had a much better turnout for our little carnival than we anticipated! There were 15 kids, some from the church and some from the surrounding neighborhoods. We're praying that we will see all of them, and more, for the coming week! We spent the afternoon doing all sorts of activities with the kids - parachute games, corn-hole, face painting, three legged races ... and water balloons! However, what may have been the biggest hit was the popsicles we handed out! There were water bottles and popsicles all over the place! The kids seemed to have a really good time and were excited about VBS for the week! Now, we are back on campus, eating pizza and watching Veggie Tales "Jonah" - our way of preparing for the week! We are tired, sweaty, dirty - and thrilled to be here and doing this! We look forward to sharing with you about VBS starting tomorrow!

Day One (Saturday)

The Mission Trip has begun! Above is our mission group photo, taken right before we loaded up the cars and started our way to Rock Hill, SC. If you look closely, you may be able to tell how hot it was already at 9 am! But, we have known for a while now that it was going to be very, very, very hot for the first few days - and, by very, very, very hot, I mean with highs averaging around 105 degrees, with a 'real feel' of between 115-120 degrees! But, our Heavenly Father never issued a call to missions solely for those places that are mild! Thankfully, we had good travel that was uneventful. Of course, I have had to hear a lot of ribbing about how inferior SC is to GA ... but, I just chalk it up to jealously ;) Once we got here, we hit the ground running. We unloaded, went to Glencarin Gardens to get our bearings straight, made some minor adjustments to the weekly schedule and set up to accommodate a better group atmosphere - and then it was on to Wal Mart to shop for the week. After this, we came back to campus to get settled, hang out and figure out some details.

Our home for the week is Winthrop University, my (and Beth's) alma mater! So, of course, the youth have had to cope with my numerous jaunts down memory lane - dorms I stayed in, where Beth and I were engaged, where my major classes were, etc. So far, they have proven to be good humored about it, even to the point of wanting me to re-stage my proposal to Beth ... we are looking for a stand-in for my lovely wife! Our plans for Sunday include going to Hill City Church for worship, canvassing the neighborhoods surrounding the Gardens, and doing a VBS Carnival in the latter part of the afternoon, for which we plan on handing out a lot of popsicles and water! Please pray that this event would draw in a lot of children from the surrounding neighborhoods - and we would keep ourselves very hydrated for what is looking to be one of the hottest days of the year so far!

It's said that a congregation will take on the personality of their pastor. I think the pic above says something about me and my group. If you can't tell, this is a picture of the trailer as we were packing yesterday morning. It shows that we packed 5 guitars, a mandolin, a banjo and a hand drum ... and that, at least for a few moments, constituted the majority of our luggage! This caused me to chuckle - and to be thankful that we have many in our youth group whom God has given musical talent and desires to use for His glory. And, yes, there has already been a good bit of music played since we have arrived in Rock Hill!