Pinewood Baptist 06/25-07/01

Friday- We dropped off the first team I had at the airport and then had about 2 hours to clean the cars and get back to the airport to pick up the next team coming from South Carolina, Pinewood Baptist. When we picked up the team there was an immediate difference between the two teams with the first team of Texans being made of mostly students and this team of South Carolinians being made of older people since out of the 17 only 4 were under twenty years old. I also noticed on the trip from the airport to the lodging that this was going to be an interesting week because all of them had super thick country accents that the Texas group did not have.

Saturday- Since the group got in so late the night before due to layovers we decided to have a late brunch and do the orientation meeting in the morning. Once we had introductions and went through the orientation meeting we packed lunches and headed to the church we were partnering with, Iglesias de Dios, to meet its pastor. Pastor Moyce is an incredibly nice man who runs a bilingual church that has Spanish speaking services Sunday mornings and English services Sunday nights and once a month a combined bilingual service. After the team met Pastor Moyce we took half the team to a mall to do vbs canvasing and the other half to outside a Walmart. The half that went to the mall felt very discouraged when they left because it was not very busy and the ones they did talk to did not seem very interested in what they were saying yet that would change later at the cookout the church was throwing for us when one of the people we talked to the mall showed up. Turns out that she was a single mom and just arrived in Alaska from Tennessee the day before and knew no one but she prayed to God to show her a sign if he is really there and then 10 minutes later we invited her to the cookout and VBS that week. The cookout was a great time itself where the team got to meet a lot of the families in the area and play with the kids. I was given the name Miguel from the pastor and his family since that was easier for them to say then Mikel. To end the night we threw a birthday party with cupcakes for one of the team members who had a birthday on the day they flew out but the team was too tired that night to celebrate.

Sunday- We got the team up and around and headed back to Iglesias de Dios for church service. This was a completely different experience for me but it was very different from the Baptists who only had a piano and an organ in their church. Iglesias de Dios used a variety of instruments and had people screaming and shouting and some were even crying which was just amazing to see people worship God like that. After service we went out and ate lunch at a park overlooking the Puget Sound and even walked down to the water to see it a little closer. After eating our lunches with a great view we went to a different mall that had a lot more of people there so there was a lot more chances for the team to canvas for VBS and I had a great conversation with two of the older guys on the trip about the next generation of youth that are coming through the church. After canvasing we went back to the church for VBS prep and then had an amazing dinner made by a member of the church Angelina who would be cooking all of our dinners that week. After dinner the team put on their first night of VBS and had an amazing time, with the kids loving it and leaving so excited for the next day. After VBS we took them back to their housing and had an end of the night meeting to discuss everything that had happened that day.

Monday- It was time for the teams midweek recreation so we had the team pile into the cars and headed down to Eklutna so the group could kayak and mountain bike. Once we got there though we found out that a member of the group had a cyst burst on their back so I dropped off the group in my car and took the person and their spouse back up to the lodging so they could try to take care of it. On a supply run to things I got to have a long talk with the spouse and get to know them pretty well and then on the way back to Eklutna I got to have a nice long talk with both of them so even though I missed the activity I got to know two members of the team a lot better which is all that matters. After their fun that morning the team got started on service projects were half the group worked on painting the children's section of a different church while the rest of the group worked on different projects outside of Iglesias de Dios. They had another great dinner that night after and I took the churches van to pick up a couple of families in the area so that they could come to VBS. After VBS they started to do this thing were everyone was assigned one other person and they were say something nice they noticed about that person that day or during the week. To end the night we took the team to get ice cream as an anniversary celebration of two of the group members who were celebrating their 7 year marriage anniversary.

Tuesday- In the morning the groups split into two with half of the group going to the downtown Hope Soup Kitchen and the other half kept working on painting the church. At the Soup Kitchen the guys helped do some projects on the buildings while the girls painted fingernails of the ladies staying there and had conversations with them. We all met up for lunch and after lunch the painting group went back to the church while the other group kept working on the outside projects at Iglesias de Dios. The rest of the night went the same as the other nights except that they wanted to go hike a trail since they were leaving soon so I took them out for a night hike from 10:30 pm until 1:30 am.

Wednesday- We decided to give the group the morning off since they have been working so hard so they had nothing planned until a cookout for lunch as a thank you for painting the children's section. After the cookout half of the group went to Iglesias de Dios to finish staining the wood products outside the church while the half that did not get to go to the Hope Center went to work on projects and converse with the ladies staying there. That night for VBS was the story of Jesus's death and resurrection and two kids gave their life to God which was pretty cool to me especially because one of the kids was a kid I had picked up every night so that they could go to VBS. After VBS that night the team went back and packed up all their stuff since they would be leaving for their final recreation day adventures and they would be heading to the airport.

Thursday- That morning one of the team members decided to give their life to God which was an amazing thing and I was so happy the person did. The team then spent the day climbing Byron glacier (I brought my football cleats and sprinted up and down it because it is quite the workout), they then went and saw animals at the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation center, and saw the world's northern most rainforest at Virgin Falls. We then took the team to the Wild berry gift shop where they got to get all their survivors and had our final meeting outside at Awaken where we recapped the week for them and did our final affirmations. After that we all said our goodbyes and dropped them off with some of them not wanting to leave Alaska and others who couldn't wait to get back and see family. This trip overall was a really good trip, it was just difficult to stay energized having trips back to back and having a schedule that did not leave a lot of time for mistakes.