30 Hour Famine...catching you up on the Ministry...

This past weekend (Friday and Saturday) was the 30 Hour Famine. This is an event by World Vision that is done by tens of thousands of youth groups all over America every year raising millions of dollars to save lives by battling hunger and malnutrition all around the world.

The essence of this event is that in the weeks prior the participants ask family and friends for "sponsors" to donate a certain amount to the cause. The student themselves commits to NOT EATING FOR 30 HOURS STRAIGHT! Here's the group (some had to leave early).


This year's event began Friday morning after breakfast (7:00 a.m.). We gathered the 110+ participants from the four partnering churches starting at 5:00 p.m. at LowCountry CC just down the road from us. We had some organized games to help them understand what other people on the world have to eat and live like. The essence of this game is throwing paper quickly...that's really it.


We sent all of the students out to gather donations from whomever they could in 45 minutes. In all, they raised almost $2200 in that time. The winning team (having raised over $700) of this contest got to do whatever they wanted to my hair..this was my team so they decided on a "wavy mohawk." Here it is with my handlebar mustache. (Mary said I looked like a bandit.)



After that we had some worship and devotional time and watched DVD clips about how hunger affects the every day lives of millions around the world. After some more free time and games, the females all went to TCOTC (our church) and got settled in. Anyone who wanted to could stay up and watch a movie so the guys watched Spiderman 3 and the girls watched National Treasure of something like that. The guys finally got settled and asleep sometime after 3 a.m.

Saturday morning the boys got up and met up with the girls for a liquid breakfast. After that, we left for our 6 service projects (my team had 3 in different locations...you can imagine the logistical fun that that was :-) ). Here is my team, Team#1, at one of our service projects just in front of the huge pile of leaf bags covering a truck.



We eventually met back up at TCOTC and served parents and congregants a free pancake Break-fast Lunch. The winning team of the games got to eat first. While they were all eating, I received my mohawk and we collected an offering as a final fund raiser.

Finally everyone else could eat and we enjoyed that immensely. The clean up was a breeze with lots of help from the kids. Overall, the event was a HUGE first in the youth group. Over a dozen kids whom I've sen since have suggested that we do more service projects (but only if they can eat) so we will certainly do more. If service means riding in the back of Danny's truck, these guys are in!


It was amazing to me how our relatively small group was so well represented. We had over 45 participants and the average weekly attendance is only just over 30.

In a slightly different topic, my title here has changed to "Director of Youth Ministry." It's a long story as to why, but it is a more accurate picture of what I am and will be doing in the church. It's technically a promotion although my pay is the same...it's more just a renaming I guess. God has provided so amazingly in every way for us.

Please make plans to come and visit us...we are almost settled!

Danny

Home Sweet Home

Well it has been one week since we signed all the papers and closed on our house and we can happily say we are well on our way to being settled. After a long late night last night Danny and I pushed through and unpacked about 80% of the house. We just couldn't stand all the boxes. So this new house is really starting to feel like home. Although we still have a lot to do like painting and then putting something on the bare walls, it is so great to finally feel like we're really getting settled. A feeling we haven't had in a LONG time.
So here's a couple of pictures of our unpacked kitchen, living room and breakfast nook (not in that order) Sorry these aren't great pics, but there'll be more as we continue to improve.
Love you all!!

so much stuff...

So things are crazy here. here are three pics. one is of me, Danny, on "Tacky day" at Cross Schools (I visited the local middle school like this...all in a day's work I guess). The other is of the 24 people that helped us move . it was an amazing 3 hour, 12 truck/trailer/uhaul move in the rain extravaganza. Mary's car won't start today so I need to take her to work and get to my meeting. The other picture is of our newly "full" living room. We have tomorrow to get things really organized at least a little bit. Will write more soon. Please excuse my grammar, punctuaton and Aunt Sally.

Back in South Carolina

So Danny and I are back together in South Carolina and busy as ever. I arrived back late Wednesday night at the Charleston Airport only to find that my luggage had gone to Atlanta. Thankfully someone noticed and put it on the next flight to Charleston so we waited around about another hour and half for my bag. The next day we both hit the ground running with work. I have begun working 8 hour manager shifts at Pier 1, which is fine, but I was so wiped out from my trip that it was rough. So we have had a very busy weekend. Danny has more on his plate right now than even I know. So we could use some prayer; for energy and also for our house closing. Right now we are scheduled to close this Wednesday at 2:30. We're trying not to get too excited, but this is the closest we've come so we are definitely looking forward to moving. Although, we're not entirely sure when exactly moving will happen. This weekend we are doing the 30 hour famine at church with the youth group. Which for those of you who are familiar with it, it is no small event.
Anyway, that's pretty much all for now. Below I've put some pictures from my last day in Berkeley, CA. Just some pretty shots of the city and the Rose Garden. There'll be more on Snapfish.

Last Post From California

Sadly, it is my last full day out on the west coast. Tomorrow morning I fly back to South Carolina. I'm sad to leave Ellie and John because we have had an awesome time, but I am excited to get back to Danny and my life in Bluffton. It looks like we will FINALLY be getting our house!! The documents that needed to be signed have been signed and we are moving forward with a closing this Friday, God willing. So pray for everything to go smoothly from this point on. This whole process has been so crazy and we are so anxious for it to finally be settled. It seems like normal life can finally begin when we get in the house and can unpack our first box.

Here are some more pics from my time out here in CA.

Yesterday, Ellie and I visited Muir Woods which is the amazing Redwood forest. I don't think these pictures can accurately show how incredible these trees are, but here are a couple shots anyway.

We are so small!

Then we went for a drive along the scariest most windy road I have ever been on. But it had incredible views of the Pacific ocean. I took this pic just from the car window as we were driving.
We pulled over for this one.

I'm putting a ton more pictures on my snapfish.com account so you should check it out. It is so gorgeous here in California, I can see why people love it. Everything is just so different from the East Coast which I am used to. I will really miss being out here with Ellie and John. We've had a blast.

More from the West Coast

So I'm still out here in California enjoying time with Ellie and John. We've been quite busy seeing Berkeley, San Francisco and the Wine Country. Here's some shots from our adventures.

Lots of sea lions sunbathing at Fishermans' Wharf

A great view of San Francisco and a special treat for you "Full House" fans out there :)
Alcatraz
Ellie and I enjoying a West Coast sunset over the Pacific
The Golden Gate Bridge!

A vineyard in Sonoma (aka Wine Country)

Another vineyard

Ellie and I at the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory in Berkeley

Greetings from California!

Well I (Mary) arrived in San Francisco last night around 7pm Pacific Time after a long day of traveling. It was an difficult emotional goodbye for Danny and I. I'm sure that sounds pathetic to some of you, but since we got married we have not been apart for more than 2 nights, so this was something new and hard for us. But we'll survive, Danny has PLENTY to do back in SC with our house closing, our tax return and his job of course and Ellie has lots of plans to keep us busy here on the west coast. It's exciting, we haven't had this concentrated "sister time" in years. And I feel like I am in another country out here, I have spend pretty much all of my life on the east coast so California looks more like Spain to me than the US. It's great though. I'll be taking and posting lots of pictures this week! :) Here's what I have so far.

Danny and I at the airport in Charleston before I left.

Here's my best attempt at getting a picture of the Rocky Mountains from the plane.

Here's Ellie on Berkeley's campus. Apparently the trees lining this walkway are genetically mutated.

This is the clock tower or something, bell tower maybe. It's a really pretty campus. The kind you see in the movies, seriously.

And this posting is a double treat because I have pictures from my parents visit and David and Jessica's visit to share too! Here are just a few.

Mama and Daddy in Savannah.

A guy making taffy in the Savannah Candy Shop.

How cute is this little girl?

Here's the link to my snapfish page where I posted some more pictures: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=218207147/a=58474795/t_=58474795