Castaway 2011!

We've made it to another year at beautiful Castaway Club and are already having a GREAT time together. This is such an awesome group of kids and leaders - I know that we are going to have such a good week together. Our time here has been pretty packed so far...we have gone tubing, had a night full of great YL skits, and run through a crazy obstacle course in addition hanging out with eachother at the coffee shop, on the beach, and in the store. Here are a few pictures for you before we have to head out to start another day!

Mission Trip Slideshow

Here is a compilation of pictures from our time in Milwaukee...what an awesome trip!!

Direct Link: http://www.vimeo.com/14298836

A Well-Oiled Machine

Well, it's Thursday morning and I'm proud to say that we have quite the routine down that is getting us through the days very well! The kids are LOVING serving others and it is just so cool to watch them interact with the people at our sites as well as connect with the other YouthWorks kids. Today is our last day at our work sites and then tonight we are having a celebration at one of the beaches on Lake Michigan. I can't believe our time here is almost over, but I am convinced that the kids and leaders are going to go back changed a little. We continue to have some really great conversations that I know wouldn't have happened outside of this setting. Here are some pics of the last few days.

Matt handing out juice

The boys at the nursing home

Girls washing dishes after serving breakfast

Britt washing down some tables

Heading to the showers after a day of work

Once we got to the showers I sat down for literally two minutes and proceeded to fall asleep...the girls took full advantage of the photo op.

Matt singing in the variety show to benefit a family that had recently lost their husband/dad.

This is my reaction to Brandon taking down a boiled beet and saying it was "awesome"...5 minutes later he ate a bunch of squash...crazy!

The girls helping with food

Aaron handing out bread at the soup kitchen

More of Him, Less of me

We made it to Milwaukee Sunday night and after one full day diving into the YouthWorks! mission experience, we are all loving it! It took us until about mid-day yesterday to get our bearings and adjust to a brand new experience, but we are all doing great and having an awesome time. AND, for the parents reading this...we're getting plenty of sleep (I heard a rumor that the boys had not one, but two naps yesterday)! Yesterday we were assigned to two different sites - the boys are helping out at a nursing home and the girls are helping out at a day camp for people with disabilities...the really cool thing about the camp is that it serves people of all ages, so we got to work with some kids that were 8-12 years old and the girls were really great at it! The best part of yesterday, I think, was a prayer drive that we got to go on through some different areas of Milwaukee. As we were driving, we were able to talk about poverty...what looks different about this neighborhood from yours, what is segregation, etc. At one point we stopped at a Youth Center and got to hear more about those things and then pray for the city of Milwaukee and all of the sites we are at this week...it was really a cool experience for our kids and we had some great conversation about some things that we as a group hadn't really talked about before. After that we got to stop at a cute custard shop and then it was back to the church for club and heading off to bed! We are looking forward to another full, exciting day today, but for now here are some pictures from yesterday (I don't have any of the boys yet because we were split up...hopefully by next post we can get the guys to take some pictures).

Eating some delicious food at my parents house before heading to Milwaukee

Molly and Brit painting with our new friend Madison

Jess and Elise playing a board game...for a very long time:)

Like I said before, we're all really excited to be here serving!

Where Did The Time Go???

Hey all -- I can't believe it's already Thursday and we'll be home in two short days:( This week has been just awesome, even the unplanned parts! Tuesday night was supposed to be the carnival night but there was some pretty bad weather up here so we ended up going to the basement of our cabins just to be safe. We thought the kids were going to take it pretty badly, but we ended up playing charades and having some hilarious sing-alongs...it honestly might be my favorite hour ever at camp, it was so fun!! After the weather cleared up they had a square dance so the kids could get some energy out and it was a great time! Yesterday was jam packed to make up for the things we missed on Tuesday, so it's been pretty busy! Here are some pics of what we've been doing:

Some of the girls gettin' down at the dance

Allison getting pied at the carnival

Team Strom at pirate night dinner

Rachel on the rock wall

Getting ready to go on the big swing

Emily with some of the program characters for the week

Scott and Hailey at the square dance

Andy didn't really know how he felt about the square dance

Patrick and Kristina having a great time!

So Many Fun Things To Do!!

Hello from Castaway day three! We are having such a great time at camp...so far the weather has been beautiful, there have been a ton of laughs, and we are keeping our days super busy with all kinds of fun new adventures! Yesterday we had a volleyball tournament, did some parasailing, and got to have an entertainment night! Today we woke up and played some field games, had a super fun impromptu dance party out on the lawn, and did some tubing! The week has been so crazy already but it's only just begun...how cool is that!?! Here are some pics of the past day and a half:

Rachel in the tube race

Tim and Luke conquering the parasail!!!

Rachel and Allison

The Bonner sisters goofing off

Amanda and Lauren were so busy dancing that Amanda fell into a tube:)

This foursome is so cute!

Tom and Andy

Most of the gang after the giant flour war

That's all for now...hope you all have a great night and I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with more pictures. We have one of my favorite YL camp events tonight!

You Were Made For This!

Hello everyone back home! We arrived yesterday around 3:00 and were all super excited to get here! This is such a great group of kids and leaders, I know we are going to have a crazy good time together!

One of the moments I personally love most at camp is when we first arrive. When we pull into camp, there are 30 or 40 camp workers running alongside the bus to invite us into camp. Then when we stop the bus we come out to all of them in a tunnel giving us high fivcs, music playing, and the program team doing something really funny to set the stage for the week. It is SO great to see the smiles of our kids as we finally get off that bus and start our week after preparing for it for months! I was really hoping to post a short video of some of the kids getting off the bus but for some reason it won't load...I'll work on it and hopefully get it up later in the week.

We capped off the night with a run through the obstacle course which was a blast!!! I'm sure you'll hear all about it when we get home. We have a big day planned today...good thing we all got A TON of sleep last night (I actually think every kid is still sleeping as I write this at 8am...good stuff). Hope you all have a great Monday!