Summer Part II (read part one below, first!)

After the mission trip, I had about a week to recoup before I went to Montreat Youth Conference, in the mountains of NC, to "search for the signal." Montreat Conference Center hosts 6 youth conferences every summer for Presbyterian youth around the country. The youth have the opportunity to learn in small groups, experience two different forms of worship, and have fun and fellowship with old and new friends. Montreat reaches out to approximately 600o youth every summer. I have been going to Montreat since I graduated from high school in 1992, and even spent a summer on their staff. It is an amazing place where so many feel close to God, and where it is said the the air is thin and the distance to heaven is close.

This year's theme...

Walking to worship...

1300 youth and adults waiting for worship to begin...

Dave-train playing his mandolin in the instrument band...

Candle-light service around the lake on Friday night...

After about another week of down-time, Rachel and Natalie came to hang with me for a few days of Camp Aunt Becky.

We went to the children's museum

And the local water park...

I was housesitting, so they also helped me care for the dogs...

We ate a lot of yummy food, did some back to school shopping and took in a baseball game, too! It was fun times!!

Then it was time to head back to Montreat for the last conference of the summer. The girls' dad was keynoting for the 5th and 6th conference, so we all met up (Mandy, David, girls and I) for a last Montreat summer hoorah. This time, I served as a small group leader, living on the 3rd floor of the inn and leading Small Group 27, an awesome group of 21 young people and 2 adults from all over the country. It was an awesome experience!

Small Group 27

And now, 3 days of respite before it's back to school. I go back to work on Wednesday, and it's a week of prep before we welcome our students on August 17th. The summer went by so fast, and I would say "where has it gone?", but pictures are worth a thousand words!

Summer is over...and what a summer it has been!

Oh what a summer it has been. I had a couple of weeks to just be before the insanity (FUN!) began.

The craziness of the summer started off with Mission Madness, our church's mission experience for middle schoolers. We bring them to the church for 4 days of mission work. We stay at the church, eat, sleep, shower, everything, just as if we were on a mission trip. It's just a mission trip patterned for middle schoolers who still often need mom to bring something they forgot, or leave for an appointment, or go home because the are flat out tired!

We have a little fun,

And a lot of time for work...

We play games with the elderly...

And slave away at the soup kitchen.

We do some yardwork...

And learn about the homeless in our community...

Mission Madness is something I've been a part of off and on for a number of years, and I think it is a wonderful concept. Did I mention it was hot...that's going to become a theme of this post!


After about 3 days of rest, it was off to Cosby, TN for a mission experience with 8 youth and 6 adults. We went to Sunset Gap Community Center and took part in their outreach ministry, doing some home repairs for a disabled man. It was a lot more than we expected, but it was worth it! We completely de-sided and re-sided a home!

This was the house after the siding was removed...I was pretty hands on in the removal process, so didn't take any pictures of the pretty blue siding!

The "supergirls" hammering the new siding on...

Priming...
This man is Brent. He was our foreman extraordinaire. Not only did he know his building stuff, but he forged an awesome bond with out kids. He was a big part of the growth in faith on this trip.



This was a hard job to say the least, and I was continually amazed with the kids' work ethic. Even though it was a slow process, the kids did not want down time...they wanted to work, and they would FIND something to do!

Did I mention that this was where the house was? Nuff said!
My next post will be about the last half of my summer! Yes, there is more to come!