A Great Trip !!!!

Well we're home from Cali and looking back over an amazing week. It was a challenging week, a week where some of us had to make some really difficult decisions and some amazing decisions that will change the rest of our lives. We had amazing times of worship, great speakers, and great times of community with our friends and leaders from THE WELL. This is a trip I don't think we will quickly forget. A quick wrap up of our last few days in Cali. We went to the beach (awesome) where we were pushed around by the current like crazy. That night after our group time some of us went to Tommy's if you like chili and cheese it's amazing, if you don't you'll probably throw up. If you haven't noticed the theme in these blog posts I like the ocean and food. We had a pretty good dodgeball team represent THE WELL all the way to the quarter finals of the dodgeball tournament. The last night we received envelopes which included a challenge for the next year. These were a pretty big deal, and some of us didn't even open them. Those of us that did were faced with some pretty big challenges for the next year that we will be working on and struggling with until next summer, hopefully they will make us better kingdom workers. We decided to skip going to Vegas for the night and stay at Biola wake up really early 4:00am and drive straight through to Aurora. It worked out really well and everyone was really excited to be home. Mom's and Dad's that helped us pay and make this week possible, we thank you. Leaders that went along, helped drive, took time away from work and their own families to hang out with high school students thank you. Can't wait for next year.

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So much fun in the sun.

Today was a really fun day. We started early again. Kids have been complaining that it is "impossible" to get 8 hours of sleep at this conference. I told them they could sleep the whole way back to Aurora if they want. We spent our quiet times again, d-groups, and the morning session. Today was all about crossing the red sea, and leaving our old lives behind us. We need to leave those lives behind us and move onto kingdom living and making a difference. We watched a really inspirational video about 3 people doing amazing things in our world. Lunch was next followed by a choice of 5 seminars, then during free time there was a talent show that was run much like the gong show. You had 3 minutes and then the mics turned off. I'd call it more of an untalent show. After dinner we hung out in the commons area just being together and having fun. Evening session was really fun with great worship and teaching. They ended with huge rolls of paper towel being unrolled from the back of the auditorium all the way to the front. They were everywhere and basically covered all of the seats. Everyone was wondering what the significance was but I'm pretty sure it was only to be fun. (which it was). For our youth group time we went to Yogurt Land, a self-serve frozen yogurt place. 20 flavors with all the toppings you could want. 30 cents an ounce, good thing it's cheap because these kids put away some yogurt tonight. Now it's time for bed and another fun day tomorrow. Everyone is looking forward to the beach tomorrow.

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Whew!!!

Well today was a pretty intense day. We started this morning with a personal quiet time after breakfast. After that we were in our D-groups (small groups) talking about what sin looks like and what freedom in Christ looks like. We all had two wristbands that we wrote sins on the inside of and wore them all day. They were there to be a constant reminder of the sins that keep us from being truly free. After lunch we had free time which was spent in basketball tournaments, volleyball games, tossing Frisbees, hanging out in the air conditioning, and playing a wild game of extreme spoons. Everyone had a ton of fun in the beautiful California weather. Dinner tasted especially good after the long after noon of playing hard. We went into our evening session with more great worship which concluded with us leaders joining all of the students (and our own) hands with a third wristband like shackles. We stayed that way through the last few worship songs and the entire talk by Jenny who spoke an amazing message about breaking out of our shackles and pursuing the freedom that we have in Christ. We ended with a time of silence to reflect on what Jesus did to take care of our shackles and then in silence you heard 1300 people break them off their wrists. It was amazing. After that came a time of confession with kids speaking to leaders, and each other about what they needed help with, accountability for etc. It was pretty raw, emotional, and really amazing to see. After that we debriefed on the soccer field again and ended with a little less intense game of throwing a shoe at each other. Another great day at move. Your kids will have to fill you in on all the details when we get home. Everyone, unless they're faking it, is having a great time.

Beach, Compton, and CIY Move

Before

After

After a hard days work

Well we made it to California. We decided to change plans and go to Huntington beach yesterday rather than Santa Monica and Venice. Those beaches are to far away, and we wouldn't have enough time. Bad idea, the US open of Surfing is going on in Huntington this week. I've never seen the beach so crowded in my life, it took us almost an hour to make it through town to a point where we could make lunch, get our swimsuits from the trailer, and then shuttle the kids back to the beach while we parked the vans miles from the beach. Because it took so long we decided to stay late and were at the beach until 8:00pm. We checked in at our school and then went to Don Jose' a Kendal favorite Mexican restaurant. This morning we left early for Compton, had breakfast at a donut shop and then proceeded to our work sight. We had a ton of work, cleaning up trash, demolition debris, weeds, grass, and other stuff. We filled one of the biggest dumpsters I have ever seen and all the kids did an amazing job. Many of the kids said it was by far the highlight of their day. We arrived at Biola nasty, sweaty, and smelly, but the cafeteria is awesome, we had a great dinner and then onto the evening session. It was a time of amazing worship, great teaching, and a time with just our group out on the soccer field. It was great. We're tired headed to bed, hopefully we'll have more tomorrow.

Getting started

Here's the new WELL blog. This is the first posting and it's just making sure people are in the right place. We leave for SoCal at 7:00am tomorrow morning. We're praying that we have an amazing week with lots of great experiences drawing us closer to Jesus.

Check back soon