KY Mission Trip Days 1 and 2

Howdy! We have now been in Annville, KY for two days, and I think I can speak for basically everyone here when I say we are having a great time. We had a great bus ride down Saturday that seemed like it went really fast, even though we were on the bus over 12 hours. I was so awesome to see so many of the school, group, and grade barriers break down almost right away as everyone moved around, sat with different people, and filled out many an "interesting" mad lib.

Once we pulled of the interstate in KY the scenery got absolutely amazing. So many tall tree filled hills, Mt. streams, and winding roads. It was simply a breathtaking drive from the interstate to Jackson Cty. Ministries. Once here we started getting acclimated to the really large campus they have. All of our students are housed in a 2 story dorm (that sadly lacks AC, but it has not been terrible). The accommodations are certainly good enough, and indeed a marked improvement from sleeping on a school floor as we did in LA 2 years ago. Saturday night and Sunday our students got a lot of free time to take advantage of all the recreational opportunities here, including swimming, basketball in the AIR CONDITIONED gym, canoing and paddle boating, and "fishing." I say "fishing" because it is not exactly sporting in their pond as the catfish are so clumped against the shoreline you could probably walk on them for awhile. Needless to say many fish were caught (it's catch and release here). \

Sunday we also attending worship at the RCA church on JCM's campus. WE probably trippled their congregation. Thanks to Dan, Mal, and Kathryn for leading the singing, Mal and Dan for singing a special music, and Kathryn for playing the offertory (we got pressed into service because their music director was gone and nothing quite got lined up in her absence). They had a substitute pastor, who had retired a few years ago after serving the area for about 40 years. He had known Nick and Kathryn's grandparnets, as well as Becky's mom's entire family, so it was cool for them to talk with him after worship. We also had time for our own devotions last night, which are focusing on the hard sayings of Jesus.

This am both of our work crews have already taken off. One is building a shed and canoe storage unit in memory of Taylor VanderWeele (the VanderWeele family has donated the money to JCM for the project). The other is doing a rather complete rehab of a house in the community, starting with totally overhauling a bathroom. We had a lot of fun learning about KY plumbing codes yesterday (translation: they don't really have those down here), and hearing that until 8 years ago you sewage could simply run into the nearest body of water to your house. Note: never swim in KY! Our daycamp team got a great start yesterday and will continue their prep work all day today. The campers start arriving at 9am tomorrow (Tues).

The students and leaders have been amazing so far, and I'm exciting to see what today holds. I HOPE to post daily and to get some pictures up, so stayed tuned! One prayer request we do have is that the forecasted rain showers don't affect our work projects and daycare too much. We're working on some adjustments, but no rain would be the best!