Blog by: Marissa M. :)

Well... I am not sure where to start, so I will start at the beginning of the trip even though it probably has been talked about already.
At the beginning of our journey we missed our plane. Then we all ended up on a later flight that day on the same plane and almost everyone sat by another person from our group. It was an amazing miracle! On the plane I got to see the most amazing sunset I have ever seen, and we landed safely in California late that night.
When we finally got to the church we are staying at we setup our beds and all fell asleep immediately! The next morning we attended the most powerful Sunday church service I have ever been to. The people were so nice and welcoming and they prayed over us and welcomed us with open arms.
Then we did VBS prep. I am in the crafts group and we were working outside, with the flies. The projects that we had to set up were frustrating and the flies were biting and we had not showered in three days, I was a little crabby...
For dinner we went to Brianna's parents house and ate delicious mac and cheese and then we showered!!
After showers everyone was in a much better mood and we had fun hanging out together and talking about the trip.
Back at the church we had a debrief and prayer groups. We discussed how we had seen God and I was surprised that everyone saw him in different things so far! There is so many amazing ways to see God on this trip, weather it was the miracle flight or the beautiful mountains or the church service or the kids a VBS! God can be seen everywhere and it is an amazing feeling knowing that he is here and watching over all of us!
Please pray for energy, positive attitudes and VBS!
Have a wonderful day!!

P.S. Happy early birthday Gunnar!!! Hope it's Great!

landed...cars picked up...much needed sleep...

And we are off...

After naps, games, movies, pizza, and some bonding group time, we are headed to California! Better to get to the airport early...or so I heard...

Josh C.

And we are off....Or not?

Wow so crazy day, wait its only 1pm...So as you have heard already we missed our flight =/ As we waited for arrangements to be made all we could to was wait. So we just stared praying asking that God would make a way for us to get to California. I was expecting to have to stay at the airport for hours waiting for possibility's. God truly answered out prayers. We got tickets for a flight tonight! And all 24 of us are on the same flight! As we wait we were able to have Nap Time! Yes, Nap Time. I think everyone it feeling regenerated and ready to go. Just a few more hours and we will be heading to the airport =) I'm so excited to seewhat God has in store for us!   -Holly E.

fret??? No, Unity!!!!

So what an interesting day it has been.  As I woke the girls up this morning at 5 am I never imagined what was ahead.  What started out to be a "normal" morning preparing to catch a flight and start on our journey had a huge surprise ahead.  As you all know we missed our plane...personally, I had a sense of peace (something I don't ususlly have when these circumstances arise).  I will fast forward to what impacted me like no experience to date-as Josh and Nate were in the airport trying to "arrange" our travel arrangements I had the opportunity to experience an amazing unity between our group.  As we stood in the in the parking lot of airport, we all held hands and started praying and then one of the girls spoke up and aksed to be led in worship-with beautiful voices lifted to our Lord we surrended our feelings to Him.  We sang words of praise and just focused on the One who brought us to this point.  It was AMAZING.  As I sit here and try to put into words what I experienced-I don't think i can quite get across how POWERFUL it truly was to all be surrending together in complete UNITY!!!!  Lord, I can't imagine what you have planned this week-but we are all excited and ready (I think).  Please keep our team lifted and be peaceful-we are!!!  Blessings to all.

Life lessons...

Update on the missions trip! Yeah God! Yesterday, 24 leaders and students gathered together to begin training and begin to prepair our hearts for our missions trip to California. Friday started off awesome, and training went great! Everyone's bags came in under weight (bags needed to be 50 pounds or less) with Cori K., and Jamie P. have the lowest weight for the girls (both a little over 30 lbs.) and Drake F. having the lightest for the guys (13 lbs which is pure amazement). We spent last night in worship and prayer, and it was an amazing time where we could all feel God and His Spirit in the room around us.

Then this morning hit...and I learned a life lesson. We were scheduled to leave the church around 6:30am this morning (which meant a 5:45am wake up call for all the team) to drive to the airport and leave on our flight at 9:17am for Los Angles. A little after 6:35am we loaded up in 2 vans and headed to the airport. As we pulled out of the church, someone asked me the exact time that our plane left. I reached down and pulled out the tickets, and felt my heart come to a stop. The ticket said that our flight left MSP at 7:25am. I have looked a bunch of times at the flight, and for some reason have always seen the 9:17am arrival time in Los Angles as when we left. It was my fault and a huge mistake. As a group we began to pray like crazy, and as Nate K. called Delta to see what we could do, I felt like a fool. Apparently I need a lesson in how to read....

To make a long story short, or at least shorter, God worked some amazing things out for us. Delta was able to change all of our tickets to a flight later today (also waving the $50 per person transfer fee) and keep us all on the same flight AND still as a direct flight to LAX. We now fly on Delta flight 2321 that leaves MSP at 7:25pm tonight. The lady that helped us at the ticket counter could not have been more helpful. She bent over backwards to help us out. It was truly amazing after basically being blown off on the phone call Nate made to Delta.

It has been a crazy morning and God has been good. We are currently resting at Nate K. parents house near the MSP airport and taking naps as we get ready for the now night of travel that we have facing us. Thanks so much for the prayers! We needed them in a huge way this morning. Please feel free to contact me for more information if you want it. We will let you know ASAP with any changes that will now take place with our return flights (looks like some of our times are changing). Please continue to pray for us and that everything works out as we get to LAX and go through the car rental process.

Josh C.

California One Day Away!

California missions trip starts in a little under 20 hours!