a little peek at our week at the beach.  the weather was fantastic, the water felt great, the food was amazing as usual, and lots of laughs were had.

In preparation for our mission trip debrief later this month, ross and i have been putting together a short video montage/slideshow to show to the church.  we’ve almost got it done, and then i’ll post a link to it.

in the meantime you can check out the 266 pictures from the trip right here.

so we’ve been back from new orleans for a little over a week now and i’m still kind of processing everything that happened.

the kids had a fantastic time and as I worded it to some people in describing the trip, it really felt more like a family on a mission trip together than a bunch of youth being led by their youth leaders on a trip.  God really answered prayers on bonding us as a team and “building relationships,” the mantra always engrained into me when I was a youth.  though it was definitely different being a leader, it was even more rewarding in a lot of ways.  not to mention that, who are we kidding -  i pretty much acted like one of the youth anyway – so that always helps.

we’ve been busy sorting through (read:  editing editing editing) all the pictures and video that we came home with from our trip.  so all of that, plus a more in depth post from me, are coming.

but i’ll leave you with one of the only group pictures we got on the trip (the many other group shots that were taken all somehow seemed to include “adopted” youth members from other churches!)  this one was taken on the first full day of our trip, on our evening trip to the French Quarter.  It had just finished pouring down rain, and a beautiful rainbow had come out – what a great way to start the week – with a symbol of one of God’s promises.

l to right:  mary kate, katie, todd, me, ross, kellen, J.L., casey