Thursday: Day 1!

Hello GSM parents and other readers! Tia Brown here! (I'm running point for the Middle School trip!) I can’t say enough how EXCITED/HONORED/GRATEFUL/THRILLED/ENCOURAGED/BLESSED I AM TO BE ON THIS TRIP! So many of our students and leaders have shown AMAZING leadership and work ethic; I’m inspired by how positive this group’s attitude is! DC already blogged about this, but it was HOT outside today! We were in a huge room with no a/c packing boxes with food for Feed the Children and didn’t take any breaks all morning! Our students and leaders worked right through it with no complaints and with huge smiles on their faces! (we even had a bit of a karaoke singing time going on at the two ends of the lines...who knew manual labor could be that much fun?!)

We also had the opportunity to do some cleaning at our home church, GCC. One of the facility care staffers told our group at the end of our day how great it was that we got to help out, because we can now go into the building with a sense of ownership regarding how AWESOME the building looks! The students worked so hard, and I believe that they’ll not only appreciate the cleanliness of that building more from now on, but they’ll also feel a sense of accomplishment along with it. Thanks for the opportunity, GCC Facility Care! Your team ROCKS!

God is doing HUGE things in this group already. The middle school and high school groups were together all day today, and they are both getting along great; it feels much more like one big unified trip than two separate trips for the two different age groups, which is great on every single level! Another thing I really see God teaching us is His power to help us “do all things through Christ Who strengthens me!” Philippians 4:13. We’ve really seen God’s power in us as we’ve all been worn out, hungry, and in need of a serious nap! He’s helped us not just work well, but work with smiles on our faces! I can’t wait to see what tomorrow has for us!

Here's a list of things that one of the students in my group, Kara Anderson, liked from today:

I liked lunch, because I had two PB&J’s, two cookies, and no chips.

I liked being fanned by a giant cardboard box. (context: At Feed the Children, one of the amazing middle school leaders Hugo Manriquez made rounds fanning everyone with a huge cardboard box and passing out water bottles. His encouragement kept us going!)

I liked being in the air conditioning in the church. (Did we mention that it was a bit hot outside today?) ;)