"What are you doing here" "When will it end?"

Well, since this is the official first blog post of the 2009 mission trip, for those of you that don't know we have arrived and God has been blessing us with many great sights, sounds, and smells.

So far this is what we have done on this trip. Yesterday we started off by going to church at Sanctuary in Greenwood. This service was very neat, but extremely different than HHCRC. Driving from the service we spontaneously stopped and visited the Freemont Market. While at the Market, we were challegened to look for things that were different from Holland. There were many, many things! Seattle is a very different culture. After this experience we went kayaking on Lake Union. This was an incredible experience for leaders and students alike. We kayaked for about 2 1/2 hours without anyone falling in. However, many students and leaders come home soaking wet. We will leave this for another story, at another time. During the evening we spent time with the youth group of the church we are staying at. We hung out in a local park, played many crazy games and ate great food. We ended the night with small groups and great discussion.

Today, Monday, we went to the area of South Union. We were led through the city by Pastor Tim Sorrens, the Pastor of Dust Church. They have about 10-11 people who attend there on a regular basis. While on our walk, we stopped at The Center for Wooden Boats, and we were greeted by a man named Dave who chatted with us alittle. Tim then challenged us to think of ways that the Dust church could connect people in the community. In this South Union area, there are many different types of people, and his dream is to connect them all. We brainstormed for a bit. Then, a group of about 8 guys went and helped a guys move. While they were doing that, the rest of us went and picked up trash that was around the area to make some "gorilla art." For those of you who are un-sure of what this is, you take trash around the street and create it into a message to place back around the city. For example, Trisha found a little glove, and wrote on it, "Have you been a helping hand?" We then went and placed those things back around the city, so people could think about the thought-provoking things that we written on them. It was a neat expierence.

Thanks for all your prayers! The students have been AWESOME! We are so blessed to have the group that we do :) The weather has been great, we are safe, and enjoying our week so far!