Solomon Spangler - Today was pretty relaxed and enjoyable. For the first half of the day, Michigan just hung out playing Uno and some basketball. Then we went to Sonic again for a delicious lunch. Around 2 or 3 o’ clock, the other groups started to arrive and after helping unpack, we played a few wonderful games of volleyball. After dinner I “learned” everyone’s names and promptly forgot most of them. Once we broke off into little groups I realized how much God really does affect our lives. You see, we voiced our concerns about life in general to one or two people who were basically strangers, but God put me with people who shared some of my problems or very similar ones. While I wouldn’t wish suffering on anyone, hearing that other people had these problems so close to home and sharing mine somehow helped me. At the same time, it helped me quickly form a bond of some sort to these two people who I barely knew because I had shared part of myself with them and they had done the same with me.
Cecilia Bronsberg - The first half to the day was pretty relaxed. The girls were the first, by a lot, to get up this morning. We had cereal for breakfast and hung out for a while around the church. As the boys slowly got up a few of us decided to make a run for lunch at Starbucks. It hit the spot. Next, we made a trip to the dollar store, goodwill, and KMart. Ben got a window marker and we drew on the van windows turning it into a Jesus party bus. Soon, we were heading back to the church to greet the states that would be arriving shortly. To pass the time while waiting for the other groups to arrive we went into the gym and shot some hoops and played volleyball. As they started arriving we greeted them and helped them unload their vehicles from their long journey. After people had unpacked people made their way back to the gym and we decided to start a volleyball tournament. Before you knew it, it was dinner time and we headed to the kitchen. The adults had a meeting after dinner while we played another quick game of volleyball. Once they were finished, we played some games like bingo with people and an activity to try and get to know others better and learn people's names. Next, we watched a short video which showed some of the background of Appalachia. Then went to worship in the sanctuary, received our water bottles and backpacks. That was my day.
Crystal Schupbach - When we awoke this morning we waited around a bit. This was of course because the boys weren’t up yet. We didn’t mind because we had time to take a shower and relax. Throughout the day, we met other groups as they came in and had a chance to meet some new friends. We had a bunch of fun throughout the rest of the day because we had a volleyball game between the different state groups. It was intense, to say the least. We had our first group dinner, community fellowship, spiritual fellowship, and then worship. I don’t know what it was, but everything I was feeling started coming forward, and I started crying with a girl I just met. We seemed to bond over things that were quite similar in our lives, and it surprised me because we just happened to group together by random eye contact. Once we prayed to God together about our problems I felt a lot better than before because we talked and understood each other. The strangest part about this was that it was completely coincidental that we chose to do this spiritual exercise together. We didn’t plan it knowing each others circumstances or background beforehand. If you really think about it, there’s no way it could be “just as coincidence” though because God surely set it up to help us. To be honest, I felt embarrassed crying at first, but then I just didn’t care because everyone was so caring toward me.
Nikki Spangler - I am excited to see what God has for me at Servant Event this year. It seems like a great mix of kids and they all seemed to hit off great. I expect this to be a challenging year personally, but that is part of what Servant Event is about. Every person here is challenged in some way: spiritually, emotionally, physically. Sometimes that what we need to be open to God and His will, to be outside of our comfort zone. I am so grateful that my boys & I have the opportunity to experience Servant Event together. It is just we all need right now!
Trish Mrozek
Second day at ASE. Still feeling like a newbie, but that's okay because I am. It was a pretty light day today as we awaited the arrival of a couple more groups. Nikki put me to work today helping to make and organize copies she needed. That helped kill some time. I tried to read for a little bit today but ended up falling asleep. I had a rough night last night so the nap did me good.
The last couple groups arrived, kids and leaders were
making bags for their Secret Servant fun, which I will be anxious to
hear about and see who I get. We had a wonderful dinner meal here
prepared by the staff at Emmanuel.
We took some time tonight to learn the names of
people here. Couple of games and the like, but anyone who knows me
knows I'm horrible with names, but I'll get a bunch of them before this
trip is over.
We also took some time today viewing some
information on the surrounding culture for this area. We all
paired/tripled up with at least one person who was new and one person
who was here on a return trip, to get to know each other
better. Bernard, an 82 year old member of this congregation here, is
back to serve and help supply tools. He told me he comes back because
he loves to watch the "young kids" and what their responses are. (He
was a math and science teacher). We finally closed the evening with
evening prayer in the church. It was a very moving experience for me as
I placed my Covenant (that all of us signed before the trip) on the
alter and then to pray about the trip or anything you felt you needed
to. I thought about JT, who is here for his second year
and loved it so much after last year he couldn't wait for this year. On
the second day I can see why he loves this so much. I'm excited to see
what windows and doors the good Lord has open for us to walk through in
the next week.
With that, Blessings to everyone. We inspect our work sites tomorrow to be assigned and I pray the Lord gives us great weather and safe working conditions for the coming days.
James Spangler - This was the first day I have gotten to really sleep in this month. However I still only slept till 9:30 but, eh. The day was very relaxed; I was able to better know the other Michigan groups in the time we spent waiting for everyone else to arrive. A few of us made a stop at Starbucks on our errand run and there was great confusion over their supposed "secret menu" which the lady admitted they did have (psh... some secret!). I thought that was pretty cool until Ben, a sophomore from the Northville's group, ordered an item from the secret menu, and no one there knew how to make it...what a sad moment in Starbucks history. On our errand run I swung into goodwill to check out the kind of items they had in there, which resulted in scoring a sick wizard looking robe. The rest of the day is somehow forgotten in my current fatigued state so this entry shall end here. Hope everyone back home is doing well. Dad, I know those last few episodes were intense, but don't finish SOA without me. Goodnight all!
