Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Mountains Declare Your Majesty...


Wow, what an amazing start God has had for this trip :) I was supposed to fly out Saturday morning but after boarding the plane, the airline asked for 6 volunteers to switch their flight to the next morning because of overbooking. They had gotten 4 volunteers, but they offered a $600 flight voucher, a free hotel room for the night, a flight out the next morning, and food for the time we spent in Philly! A free flight for spring break? Who would turn that down? So I told them I would change my plans, but I was admittedly a little nervous about spending a night in philly and navigating the airport and all. However, God brought a wonderful couple into the same situation I had been in and we actually spent the day in Philly with one other man and had dinner at the hotel, exchanged contact information, and had a flight together the next morning :) What a blessing!

Danette picked me up Sunday morning at around 11 Colorado time and we spent the day at her AMAZING house nestled in a beautiful valley :) We sat on her porch and enjoyed the birds as we watched her horses run around in the fields there. It was such a wonderful and relaxing day :) The next day we did some riding, a little bit of hiking, but again just had a great day of chilling together and having a great time! She then drove me up to the training location at the YMCA of the Rockies. Oh my word. I can't even describe the beauty found here! I can try by posting a picture though...the picture above is from the site for the training location. I haven't had a chance to upload any pictures yet, but fellow staffers have found pictures almost identical to this one :) You walk out of our lodge and the mountains are 360 around you!!!

So far training has been great, I met my Crew Partner who is a wonderful girl and we found out we're spending the whole summer in LOVELAND!! Haha, how great is that? We have Fridays from noon to Sunday around lunch off so we plan on some tubing, drive in movies, lots of hiking, and just enjoying the beauty of God's creation around us. Tomorrow starts the true specific role training, so I'll share more about that and the theme for this year as the days go on...:) Thanks for reading! Be praying that I get to sleep early enough and that everyone continues to get along and keep meeting new people!

-KristawHOPE

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Weeks of Hope - Summer with Group!

Hey Everyone!

So I have had some people request that I keep in touch over the summer and keep everyone updated on what's going on. Instead of promising emails and letters (because I'm not very good at keeping up with all of those kinds of things...) I decided to start a blog for the next 2ish months just to keep you all up-to-date on how everything is going with camps and such. For those of you who don't know and are saying, "well, what is so exciting about YOUR summer?" here is a link with the basic outline of what I'll be doing...

Youth Mission Trips: WEEKS OF HOPE

I will be training for 2 weeks in Loveland, Colorado beginning Monday (the 25th) and from there I will be placed in an unknown location for the remainder of the summer to serve as Program Coordinator:
  • Coordinates group gatherings and programs
  • Facilitates all morning and evening programs
  • Oversees mission trip functions and volunteers
I know that it is going to be a challenging summer and I would appreciate any prayer support and anyone who reads this because I know it's going to be exciting to share all that the Lord is doing this summer through me and the staff I will be working with. So that's the intro...