Travel Day 2

Yesterday, the 29th, we woke up at a marvelously late 9:30 AM and began our voyage to Hungary take two. It begin with a late breakfast at our Ramada Inn, where we got a good taste of the midwestern lifestyle; most important aspects being meeting with waiters with awesome accents and a morning with an unusual lack of humidity, both of which rocked. We got to the airport and our plane for New York was on time and ready for us to go. Things went smoothly throughout the first flight, especially smoothly for Janice and Troy who were bumped up to first class. No worries, the rest of us were not at risk of being spoiled and were sitting in the only slightly less glamourous coach. Besides the occasional turbulence and minor stomach drops, the flight was fine and uneventful. We landed in JFK airport around 5p.m. and proceeded to our gate to wait for our plane to HUNGARY.

We got a good taste of the Empire State of Mind when we witnessed a husband and wife have a slight (but loud and very, very public) breakdown about flights being canceled. I think it then hit us that we were not in the south any more and such issues could not be resolved in with a couple of "I'm so sorry y'all"s and a glass of iced tea. We did get some quality gelato and spent our time at the gate playing with our new pillow pets (5/12 now possess them. I have a dolphin and his name is Shark), eating hummus and yogurt covered pretzels, charging ipods for our looming expedition, and helping an elderly Hungarian lady around the gate, but it turned out she spoke English after all so our help was no longer needed. Not to mention identifying every"hipster" within a 20 foot radius.

We boarded our plane and after much seat musical chairs with the other passengers, everyone was sitting by someone from our group and not the random casual traveler. *sigh of relief*. We then proceeded to successfully annoy every surrounding fellow passengers with our antics such as playing Catch Phrase, standing on the occasional chair while the seat belt sign was on (Anne Galloway), and knocking against strangers chairs (Anne Galloway, Mary Leslie Prater, Dixon Bledsoe). We launched into movies like Hot Rod, Just Go With It, Life As We Know It, and the always popular, Jane Eyre. Our meal was actually delicious; pasta, salad, and blondie brownies. And for those of us who were first time over seas flyers (myself...Allison), it was relatively smooth after I got over the initial terror of being surrounded by open ocean, so about until 3 1/2 hours into the flight. After a while, people began to slowly drop like flies to sleep, until it was only Tim and myself up. We both managed to maintain consciousness for THE ENTIRE EIGHT HOUR FLIGHT.

Our flight was extremely smooth and we landing in Budapest, Hungary at around 10:40 A.M. The smooth sailing stopped at the baggage claim location when we waited a solid 45 minutes for our bags. And guess what? Anne's bag is MIA. So if anyone has information regarding the whereabouts of a red rolling suit case, please notify the Hungarian Delta/Air France authorities. We met Szanyez at the entrance where he proceeded to enlighten us on the reasons regarding our canceled flight the previous day. Not bad weather, not terrorist threats, not mechanical issues, but a bale of turtles blocking the runway at JFK. Only us.

We load into a van and a half (Tim, Janice, Anne, and I being the half who waited outside the airport like the troopers we are for the next car) and then headed to the Paulus House. Sidenote: Tim and I, the two people who didn't sleep on the plane ride over, have fallen asleep twice: in the car on the way to Paulus and on the (empty and not moving) luggage conveyer belt. When we arrived at the house, the Hungarians welcomed us SO warmly and there were many heart felt reunions for people returning to Hungary for the 2nd or even 3rd time. Oh and don't forget our first official Don Pepe's meal, where we each ate 1+ slices of pizza, which, I kid you not, were bigger than my face. The rest of our day was spent planning for the retreat this weekend and the camp the next week. So even though we are jet lagged, slightly disoriented time wise, and half of us are sporting our SKYTEAM shirts that Delta gave us complimentary when our flight was canceled, we are unbelievably excited about what the next two weeks will hold and the things that God is doing in this place.

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Your Hungarian mission team

Where is Minnesota?

Well, after a two and a half hour flight we are staying the night in Minnesota. Most of the students don't even know where that is geographically. We spent the day mostly at the Minneapolis Airport and the Mall of America. A lot of the group explored the four story mall and even rode some of the roller coasters. After nearly losing Frannie and Mary Leslie in the Mall of America, we found our way back to our exquisite abode. We are staying in the five star Ramada Inn; where they have clearly updated the outdoor pool area rather than sprucing up the interior.

As nice as the Ramada Inn is, we would eventually like to arrive in Hungary. The group is looking forward to getting to know the students from Paulus and share outfits that they bought here... Our flight to New York City is scheduled to leave at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon. We will depart from New York to Budapest at 7:30 tomorrow evening. The students' cell phones will not work once we take off tomorrow night, so make sure to call and give them a last minute (delayed) goodbye... and in the case of some, send some more money.

Peace. Love. Minnesota.

MBCC Youth

Last Day on the Job...

Written By: Russell Galloway
Rather than sending the whole group to Tuscaloosa today, our group split and sent half of the people to T-town and the other half returned to West End Junior High to put some final touches on the projects. In Tuscaloosa, the team sorted clothes to be sent out to tornado victims and shelters. At WEJH, the team finished the outdoor classroom, and built two picnic tables. We have successfully completed our two missions at WEJH, which were to beautify the school and to share God’s love with the students. Following the day’s work was a dinner excursion to Mustang Oil, a hole in the wall gas station/restaurant in which nearly every item on the menu starts with the word fried. Afterwards, we had the opportunity to hear from our Dartmouth bound student, Henry Waller, as he led the devotional. Tomorrow, everybody is looking forward to doing the high ropes course here on property. Following that, we will be cleaning up the camp and headed of to the Hampton Inn in T-town where we will finish up our mission trip.

Final Day of Sports Camp...

We are the Titans, the mighty, mighty Titans! It’s Kelli and Lydia blogging tonight! Today at sports camp, we set up the projector and the kids watched Remember the Titans. Surprisingly, they all voted to play in the gym and dance as opposed to hanging out and watching the movie. They have bonded with all of the youth, and love having dance parties on the stage and playing basketball with the boys, so we cut the movie and played games with the girls singing in the background. We surprised them with a cookout and popcorn and gave them all a small gift as they left. The boys went shopping in Tuscaloosa yesterday and found sports equipment for every child! While most of the youth were helping with the camp, Troy and his crew continued building the “outdoor classroom”, which consisted of several benches for studying outside. Mrs. Jackson, the summer school director, called everyone inside for a dedication. The kids and their teachers presented us with a framed certificate expressing their gratitude for our work at West End Junior High. Each of the classes (K-4, 5&6, 7&8) crafted poster-sized thank you notes, including pictures and letters from each of the kids. We were all thrilled to be able to spend time with the kids, and loved getting to know each and everyone of them. We hope to return for an afternoon later this summer to get to reunite with them again! As we were packing up, a storm blew in out of nowhere and our sweet guys insisted that the girls stayed dry in the vans while they ran around and loaded up! Tonight, Mrs. Daniels and Mrs. Galloway brought us Publix chicken nuggets, watermelon, and soft drinks for dinner! Sarah and Tate have a “Jesus version” of Baby by Justin Beiber planned for devos tonight, which is sure to be a fun ending to our great day!

Day Two on the worksite...

Knock Knock! Who’s there? Tate, Jena, and Sarah that’s who! We all had painting duties today at West End Junior High where we painted columns and support beams (we scrubbed them down for hours with wire bristles before painting) and named ourselves the Dream Beam Team. Through several spills, clean ups, and live bugs we beat the heat and are on our way to making the school look fabulous! Both of the other teams worked extremely hard and are making a ton of progress landscaping and building the outdoor classroom. After a delish lunch we headed back to the Gymnotorium to hang out with all the kids and watch screaming girls chase our very own Justin Bieber (Graham Spain). Not only did we play games we also freshened up on our dance moves that we thought were pretty good, but the girls at the sports camp begged to differ. Jena and Sarah tried to convince all the girls that we were super models. Fail. After our eventful afternoon we went back to the camp and some of the boys went to Tuscaloosa while many of the girls “got silly” on a fun trip to Family Dollar. Upon arriving home some of the ladies rearranged their in artsy manners. Basically we looked like freaks. We ended a great day with an amazing Mexican fiesta (thanks to Mrs. Spain and Mrs. Sanderlin!) and an awesome night devotion. As a final nugget of wisdom...

Question: What did the towel say to the guitar?

Answer: “I’m a towel!”

Jokes are courtesy of bathroom girls.

First Day on the Job...

Hey guys, it’s Morgan (Jemison) on blog duty. The Hale County mission team had a pretty intense day today starting around 6:30. About 7:45 we headed out to West End Junior High to start on our many projects. I was personally on the outdoor classroom team; we started off by marking off where our seven benches would go, which was on an open hill by the school/community playground. Then we started digging holes [12 inches by 16 inches (that may not seem very big but it was not exactly an easy task)]. Up closer by the school there was a team working on some landscaping projects. Inside we had a team working on removing some graffiti from the locker rooms. And our last team was working on some painting projects. After a great lunch including sandwiches, chips, various fruits, and various dessert items the team headed to the Gymnotorium for sports camp! We actually had a pretty good turn out with kids from pretty much all age groups. They were all really friendly and happy. We played kickball, basketball, and duck-duck-goose. After sports camp we loaded up in the MBCC buses to head back to True Vine. It was an overall great day for the Hale County Missions team. Keep praying for us! Thanks for reading, catch us tomorrow for…tomorrow’s blog!

A Different Kind of Worship...

Sup peeps. It’s Andrew King right chere (6 foot 5, 280 pounds). Last night was pretty much totally miserable for T Wooley and myself. We decided to sleep outside in hammocks instead of inside. 8 people started out on the ground or in a hammock outside. After two hours of misery, 6 folks dropped out and went inside. The bugs were literally having a summer feast on our bodies as well as the scorching heat. Thompson and I toughed it out and literally did not sleep. I had a generous 45 minutes while Thomson had zero minutes. Raccoons were walking around our hammocks, so we stayed strong and said that Jesus got our back. At daybreak, 5:30, we got up and went on a run to ease our minds while everyone woke up. This morning, we had the privilege to go and worship at some of the local churches in Hale County. We all were awestruck at the spirit and energy that is throughout the congregation as well as the preacher himself. At First Baptist Newbern Church, the preacher started breaking out in an absolutely insane rap about Jesus’ life. Everyone was clapping and yelling for Jesus. The thing about these churches is that they do not have a planned hour to do the service, they just go until whenever it is right. This afternoon we had free time and chillaxin time. We all went down to the lake by the vineyard and swam for what seemed like forever. This week is gonna be an incredible week. Please keep praying for our trip. See everyone soon. PEACE OUT

We're HERE...

Hey everyone, I am Speedy aka Elizabeth Marks and I am reporting to tell yall we are ALIVE. Not only are we alive as in we didn't crash, but you can already feel the love a family has when as a unit they are alive in Christ! Everyone has already been involved with activities. Some people have been singing and practicing guitar, playing frisbee, dancing to music, and running. We have gotten our devotion book and a regular book, called "Prodigal God". I am pumped about being here and I know everyone else is too because all I have seen so far has been energy and excitement!! Our leaders; Troy, who is looking stunning with his new beard cut, Janice and Julia are cooking away. We have been here for an hour and everyone is already starving.. haha. I am excited to be filled with food, but I am extremely excited to be filled with God's love and presence. Our first group devotion will be tonight at 8:30, please be praying for our discussions and group prayers. Tomorrow we will be attending churches in Hale County and Monday we kick off sports camp! Woohoo! Although last year we had minimal attendance, we are praying hard for children to come, play, and learn about our awesome God who wants to find them. I know for a fact God will be working in everyone's hearts throughout the trip and I can never thank Him enough for this opportunity. Amazing things are going to go down in Hale County and MBCC is ecstatic to be representing Christ. God bless.

Serving is Upon Us...

Before we head out on Saturday, I just wanted to make sure that this is up and running. I also wanted to post the details to what we will be doing and any information that you might need. Please pray for us this week as we serve York West End Junior High School and the students in the area through a Sports Camp.