It's Cincinnati's Turn!

We made it safely to Cincinnati in about the amount of time we had expected. We would have been there quite early, but then the post-lunch potty breaks started kicking in. We still got in with about an hour to spare - plenty of time to claim our space, set up our beds, and relax. The trip was fairly uneventful, and only one student - Alyssa - got a little car sick. Nothing serious, just a little queasy.

Dinner last night featured Sloppy Joes (which prompted our students to sing the Sloppy Joes song from Xtreme Camp), mac and Cheese, and watermelon - much different than the ethnic cuisine on the senior high trip. Taylor did get a little extra treat - a small piece of cake to celebrate her 13th birthday.

After dinner we had our orientations so we knew what the rules were, what the ministry sites were, and how the week would play out. We have some good YouthWorks staff this week: Nikki, our site director, is from Atlanta, and loves teens and missions; Alicia, our urban staff, is from South Bend, IN; Kyle, our other urban staff, is from Cincinnati; and Mary, our club staff, is getting ready to graduate from Princeton Seminary (smarty-pants).

After orientation we had our first club. Think mini-Porch, and you have a general idea what that looks like: we sing some songs, they do a skit or two, and we hear a short message. The theme for the week is 'Jump', as in, there are some things that God will call you to do that require more than taking a step of faith, they require more like a jump of faith. Last night we focused on Mary's jump of faith as she said yes to God who told her that she would give birth to Jesus. Judging from the conversation we had after that during church group time, many of our students are taking a jump this week as they expressed nervousness about this week. I asked them all to come up with three word to describe how they were feeling about this week. Here were their responses:

• Cory: Very, very nervous.
• Casey: Ecstatic. Happy. Thankful.
• Riley: Nervous. Confused. Excited.
• Kristen: I am excited.
• Meredith: I am unsure. (and yeah)
• Candace: I am excited.
• Taylor: Ready, but nervous.
• Kelsey: Nervous and Excited.
• Ellie: Excited. Disoriented. Prepared?
• Mikayla: Nervous. Excited. Thankful.
• Alyssa: Excited and nervous.
• Tammy: Thankful. Way excited!
• Ryan W.: Nervous. Excited. Expectations.
• Ryan L.: Anxious. Excited. Flexible.
• Houston: I don't know.
• Tyler: Super, uber-excited!
• Tanda: Unsure. Grateful. Ready.
• Lexi: Anxious and tiresome.
• Julia: I'm extremely excited!
• Fitz: Uncertain. Sad. Jazzed.
• Kristy: Grateful. Hope. Distractions.
• Morghan: Straight up ready.
• Rachel: Excited. Expecting. Uncomfortable.
• Larissa: Excited. Scared. Nervous.

I will let you follow up with your own child to find out why they picked the words they did.

This morning, the students learned what work groups they would be in and who they would be with and what they would be doing. Here is what they learned:

Kristy's Group (each team has a creative name, but I forgot to write them down)

Job: City Cure (working with kids at a day camp in the Over the Rhone community, where 95% of the families live below the poverty line)

• Kristen
• Morghan
• Kelsey
• Alyssa
• Candace
• Mikayla
• Taylor
• Larissa
• and students from other churches

Ryan's Group

Job: FreeStore Food Bank (sorting food for a food distributor that distributes 10 million pounds of food donations each year)

• Houston
• Tyler
• Cory
• Ryan
• and students from other churches

Tammy's Group

Job: Eden Park (helping park managers to clear out some overgrown plants)

• Meredith
• Rachel
• Riley
• Ellie
• Casey
• and students from other churches

Tanda's Group

Job: Neighborhood Gardens (help maintain some gardens owned by a not-for-profit organization that uses the gardens to help teach stewardship and finances to at-risk teens)

• Julia
• Lexi
• and students from other churches

Speaking of other churches, we are spending the week with teams from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Buffalo, and Michigan. I don;t feel so bad about the length of our drive after hearing some of their stories.

Tonight our evening activity will be to walk over the Purple People Bridge into Newport, KY. It is the longest pedestrian-only bridge in the U.S. connecting two states. But the evening activity I'm really excited about is going to the Freedom Center tomorrow. It celebrates the underground railroad. Knowing how moving the Civil Rights Museum was for our students in Birmingham, I expect much of the same from this.

A couple of random notes:

• We now know the kid that everyone will be talking about after the trip is over: Sergei. He is an extremely extroverted 6th grader from Wisconsin who was adopted from Russia when he was two. He is a trip!
• Ellie got to sleep with Pinky last night, a stuffed pig. Not sure why.
• When we did 'Yea God's last night (an opportunity to praise God for what he's doing), Kyle introduced the 'Yea God Orb.' Someone said, "Orb?" He said, "Yeah. It's spherical." OK, it's not funny in print, but it was quite funny live.
• When we were getting a tour of the church, I saw a stained-glass window that featured Jesus with a turtle at his feet. I pointed this out to Ryan as being odd to me. He said that maybe Jesus was slow. I said, "Jesus wasn't swift of foot." Again, probably not funny in print, and I normally don't brag on my funny comments, but Tammy made me include this.
• Cory was bragging about how he put his lunch on top of the ice pack in the cooler so he would have a cool lunch. Tyler said, "I told you. That's a first-aid kit. It won't keep your lunch cool." Funny!

I am off now. I will upload some pictures to our Flickr site. Please forgive the quality as our camera doesn't do well indoors. And then it's off to Wal-Mart to pick up some stuff and then to the FreeStore Food Bank. Thanks for reading and for allowing your child to come on this trip with us.