Pictures from our last days:

https://picasaweb.google.com/johnwildeboer/TexasDay7#

https://picasaweb.google.com/johnwildeboer/TexasDay8#

We'll see you all tomorrow!

Beach Bum Day

Today we spent an amazing time at the seaside. We headed to Surfside Beach early in the morning after celebrating the first part of Kara's 15th Birthday. Originally, we were meant to be planting green on the dunes to help the turtles when they hatched, but apparently it was too late for that. The group split up into teams and tackled different jobs: cleaning garbage from the beach, cleaning beads from the ground and helping out around city hall, and lastly, painting fire hydrants. After lunch, one team continued painting the fire hydrants while the other group helped out a man who had been paralyzed. We worked around his yard putting in fence posts, mowing weeds, and doing other odd jobs. The day ended with a lovely trip to the beach.

There was only one problem. This beach was a 1.5 hour drive away from Texas City. On the way back, we stopped at a Starbucks in Galveston, and Corinne realized her beloved birkenstocks were nowhere to be found. After careful deliberation and a lot of worrying, Ellie took Tori and Corinne back to find the shoes. 50 minutes later, the drove into beach lot one to find them exactly where she left them. What a relief! The only was that they missed the wonderful birthday dinner for Kara. Jackie had made spaghetti and garlic bread especially for her.

Later that night, we celebrated with a cake and some presents for Kara. She had a terrific day and enjoyed it very much! At circle time we shared how this trip had impacted us and changed the way we interact with others and God. It was moving for every one of us.

What an amazing workweek this has been. We've all learned new skills, whether physical or relational, and we are excited to use these skills back home.

The leaders seem to have fallen asleep already, while all the youth are still awake. Tomorrow we are allowed to sleep in before thoroughly cleaning this place. The plan is to spend the day in Houston and/or the outlet mall. At night we will be staying at a hotel.

Talk to y'all later!

Texas Day 6

Hey Y'all!

We all had a good night's sleep after an amazing day at the rodeo, and we were all rearing to go in the morning. Today we had an awesome (sweaty) day. We went over to the work site where we put the last coat of paint on Mrs. Garcias house, finished the back door, and trimmed the back lawn. We all had lots of fun painting each other, catching lizards and spraying each other with water (don't worry, we got some work done). We spent quality time with Mrs. Garcias, had fun with her and, at the end of the day, made her very happy. We all spent quality time with God also, doing our early morning devotions, and group discussions about the day.

Some highlights of the day were having a breakfast of leftovers from the days before, spending last moments with the Lost Bus Boys, saying our many goodbyes to them, and praying for them. Then we went to the work site and painted each other and sprayed each other with the water hose, and Thomas (aka the Lizard Whisperer) caught multiple lizards, and naming each one of them. Then we ate a delicious dinner of chicken, beans, and potatoes (that Summer set on fire) and cleaning up (which included an awesome ice cube fight). Now we are going to go and have an awesome and most appreciated sleep, and get ready for our 7th day!

Love,

The Clearview Crew

Wednesday Morning

Howdy

We started out early today. After a breakfast of english muffins and some devotion time, John had a surprise for us. We will be going to the Houston rodeo this afternoon!

The whole group spent the morning working very hard at Mrs. Garcia's house on 24th Avenue. We painted the exterior of the house and continued clearing the backyard. It was nice to see Mrs. Garcia out there herself, chatting with us and cleaning her driveway. She expressed that she was encouraged and blessed by our willingness to help her out.

So, after lunch we will be heading down (or should I say, up) to Houston. We are all super excited. Some guys from the camp here will be coming with us and we plan to stay till late this evening. There will be a lot to do, including a country music concert. John is excited.

Who knows if there will be a new post tonight, but the pictures from today will definitely be uploaded to the web album. Don't forget to check out the pics from yesterday at https://picasaweb.google.com/johnwildeboer/TexasDay3?authkey=Gv1sRgCJO7h5aTkuf1-gE#

I'll talk to y'all later!

- Corinne

Tuesday

Hey everyone!

Its Eddie, Corinne, and Tori here. We had an AWESOME day once again. Today, our team worked on moving furniture into an empty house. The man who lived there had moved out two years ago and all the extra furniture was put into a trailer type thing in the driveway. The house had recently been fixed up and was now liveable. We worked all day cleaning and arranging furniture so that this man could return to a more suitable living environment.

The other group spent the day painting and removing stumps at the 24th avenue house (from yesterday). They also put in a whole new door and put up a wall.

At night, we had another line dancing session taught by Jackie the Great. Her crazy enthusiasm had us all jumping around. Dinner was served by a couple and their son from the church. We had mexican fajitas and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Overall, we are blown away by the sense of community in our group. We all feel like brothers and sisters.

CIAO FOR NOW!

Monday morning

This morning we headed off to work. Half the group went to a home five minutes away and worked on prepping the outside for paint and cutting down trees and pulling out the stumps. In the video Sam shows ten how to operate a power tool. Notice how helpful all the guys are. (actually you have to be over 16 to operate power tools). Maybe tomorrow Ellie will get a chance.
The other group worked at the church doing an amazing job of organizing and cleaning.

Also some pics of the ladies sleeping quarters.

Almost time for bed

It has been a great day. We got through customs with no problems which is wonderful when you have 9 youth under 16 and 5 of them do not hold Canadian Passports. The flight was great and we were able to pick out our own rental cars.
We had already arranged a full size pick up for Martin so he's got a nice red truck for a week. Ellie wanted anything that wasn't black or silver so she got a red impala. Jackie picked out a Silver Dodge Charger and your's truly went old school - a black Grand Marquis.

Eventually we all found our way to First Presbyterian Church in Texas City. Marilyn greeted and gave us a tour around the 'base camp'. While those over 16 were given the option to stay in trailers, or some less desirable, some what musty rooms, one of the 16 year olds said, "No we want to all stay together" and all of them echoed - yeah let's stay together.

This is already a tight group. I have never had a group that was this close and laughing this much at the beginning of the trip. Already God is moving and working in the lives of the youth whether they are reading the bible for the first time, learning about prayer or excited to serve.

Today was a good day to be a Youth Pastor and tomorrow is looking great. Thanks for you prayers.

John

PS pics of the first day are at this link

https://picasaweb.google.com/johnwildeboer/TexasDay1?authkey=Gv1sRgCIie3-mNj6PJrgE&feat=directlink

Texas Day 1

Less than 4 hours sleep, two by two seating, music, movies and candy we arrive in BIG ol' Texas!

Everything IS biGGER here. We've arrived safely with a warm welcome from Jim & Marilyn (who've been here four years) site hosts / organizers. Exhausted from our excited travels we'll be heading to sleep on our green cots. Till tomorrow.

Starbucks at the Airport

Sipping our Starbucks (chai tea lattes and strawberry and creme frapuccinos), we're roughing it out as we anxiously await our flight... We woke up early. Yay! And now we are waiting some more...

by: Kara, Jessica, and Eddie

Thanks for the crocs

In the beginning is the summer we went to sporting life to find some running gear things. On the way down the escalator michael's croc got caught between the moving steps. All we heard was a squeak, a pop and then I grabbed Michael and lifted him up as his croc was separated into three pieces. The assistant manager was right behind us as this happened. She then went on to explain how try used to have a sign that said be careful with crocs. Grace then shared how my son would need a new pair of crocs and that sporting life should provide those. She came back offering half price crocs or a pair of socks which was no acceptable to grace. Needless to say after an escalation to the manager Michael had a brand be pair of red crocs - thanks sporting life.