Day 2 - Austin to Boston

Up at 6:00am. Breakfast at whataburger. Teresa and Dillon were able to meet us there. We then caught an 11:55am flight on Jet Blue to Boston. Arrived at 5:00PM. We then toured historic Boston and ended up at the harbor where 40+ Tall Ships from all over the world were in port. Finishing the day with a quick team meeting at our overnight lodging at Central Assembly of God in East Boston.

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Day 1 - Dallas

We left this morning at about 745am from the building in 4 groups headed for different project around DFW. My team worked at Roseland Community Center in East Dallas. We cleaned out a closet and swept the gym floor and lobby. We then dropped off the care packages the group collected at The Bridge homeless shelter downtown. Everyone met for lunch in Ft. Worth and boarded the 240PM Amtrak train to Austin. Dinner wa on the train. We arrived in Austin about 715PM and went to the capitol building and saw about 1.5 million bats fly out from under the Congress St bridge. I'm writing this about 1130PM at Christ Lutherin church in Austin withs 630am wake up call starring me in the face. Good night for now and God bless!

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Didn't get to leave at 3:00pm

Didn't leave The Hut until around 4:00pm, but we have dispatched the dog to the kennel for the weekend and I am now finishing the final packing for RoadTrip...T minus 12 hours, 19 minutes and counting...this is Shuttle launch control.

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Day before RoadTrip

My last day before leaving on RoadTrip. Started with weekly Mens prayer breakfast. Now at The Hut trying to be productive until 3:00 when I am officially off for more than a week! Don't know what is more exciting, getting to go on RoadTrip or getting a week off from work...yes I do.
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Test a success

Looks like the BlackBerry test was a success...So much easier than with the other blog place. Check back over the next couple of days for updates on RoadTrip!!

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Testing the BlackBerry

This is a test. For the next 60 seconds this station will be conducting a test. This is only a test...beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

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First Time Blogger - RoadTrip '09

Well, I thought since I was getting ready to go on RoadTrip ‘09 that I would start a blog and try to keep it updated everyday, not only for RoadTrip, but going forward as well. I know, there might be a lot of you asking “What is this RoadTrip you speak about?” Well, RoadTrip is the annual High School mission trip at our church. We take a group (this year 24 teens and 11 adults) on a week long “mystery” mission trip of service across the country. Because it is a secret, I can’t tell you where we are going this year (check back everyday to see where we are that day), but I can tell you about the two other RoadTrips I have been on. This is actually the 6th trip, but I have only been on the last two, since my oldest daughter Kayleigh was eligable to go. To be eligable the student must be going into 9th grade this fall, or just graduated. So we take 5 years of kids with us. These kids aren’t just going on a vacation that mommy and daddy wrote a check to send them on either. These kids first have to have two letters of recommendation from adults that aren’t going on trip and they aren’t related to. They then need to complete 10 hours of community service, as well as raise at least half of the money needed to go (this year they raised $300 or the $600 total price). Many of the kids raise all $600. We then meet as a team several times in the months leading up to the trip, and there are many activities and assignments they must complete as well. Their attendance at all youth activities is expected as well. Adult sponsors on the trip must complete the exact same requirements.

So where do we go and what do we do? Two years ago we left The Colony on a bus and traveled 14 hours to Des Moines, IA. We worked with Hope Iowa the next day sorting items at their Thrift Store, as well as serving at their “soup kitchen” for the homeless of Des Moines. We also delivered food to some of the tent cities near downtown where many homeless live. We then caught an overnight Amtrak train from Ottumwa, IA (where Radar O’Reily was from) to Denver, CO where we served at the COMPA Food Bank sorting about 14 tons of food. We slept on the floor of a church that night. We visited the Columbine Memorial the next morning, and then served with the City of Denver Parks and Rec department mulching about 120 trees in Observatory Park. That evening we drove “north” out of Denver to have dinner in Cheyenne, WY. It is worth noting at this point that the kids do not have any electronic devices with them (no MP3 players, CDs, etc) and they only get to have their cell phones for 10 minutes in the afternoon to call home and talk to mom and dad. No texting, no calling boyfriend/girlfriends, etc. Reason being, we need them to be “on the trip” and not be wandering back to The Colony and all the drama here. Anyway, so the kids called their parents while we were driving “north” out of Denver ( all they were told). We ate in Cheyenne, then turned around and headed straight back to Denver to catch a red eye flight from DEN to Jacksonville, FL. In Jacksonville, we worked with Habitat for Humanity and did the framing of the second floor of one home, and foundation prep for another home. We left Jacksonville that evening on another overnight Amtrak train to Richmond, VA. This was the first time the kids were able to call home in 24 hours, and many parents didn’t believe we were in Florida since the last they had heard was that we were headed north out of Denver. The next day we served at St. Francis Home in Richmond and the kids got to “play” with the residents. That night we took a bus into Fairfax, VA. The next day we served with McLean Bible Church in their summer camp that is geared toward Autistic children. That night we drove into Baltimore for an Orioles baseball game (it was Kayleigh’s 14th birthday and I had her name put up on the scoreboard). That night we did some nightime sightseeing in Washington, DC. We went back to Washington the next morning and toured the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Korean Memorial and World War II Memorial. We left that afternoon and flew back to Dallas.

Last year we actually left Friday night on an overnight bus ride from The Colony to El Paso where we painted houses for Habitat for Humanity the next day. We also had the opportunity to go back and visit the house that the RoadTrip ‘05 team had help build and meet the family that now lives there. That was really cool for the kids to see how their efforts really do make a difference in the lives of people. That night we took an overnight Amtrak trip to Los Angeles, arriving about 11:00am on Sunday morning. Since we did arrive so late, and it was Sunday, we took that day to tour LA and Hollywood, and ended up on Santa Monica Beach for communion at sunset (Awesome!). Monday morning we worked with The Tree People who go back into forest fire areas and replant new trees. After a dinner of In-N-Out burgers, we boarded a plane and flew to Portland, OR. We served the City of Portland Parks and Rec the next day by building about 200 feet of rough cedar fence in one of the largest public parks in the country. That evening we took a 3 hour train trip from Portland to Seattle, WA. The next day we worked at Ronald McDonald House doing deep cleaning of some of the apartments and commons areas in the home. Thursday morning we got up and drove into Canada where we served at a senior center in Vancouver. We visited the Gas Light District of Vancouver for dinner and had a great meal at the Spagetti Factory. Friday was 4th of July, and we had originally planned to be in Canada since we didn’t think there would be any place to serve in the US on the Independence Day Holiday. We couldn’t find anywhere in Canada to serve that day, so we arranged to drive back to Seattle and serve at the WaMu Family 4th celebration at Gas Works Park. Some of the kids helped out with various things during the day (trash pickup, helping little kids build and fly kites, etc) but our main job was cleaning up the park after the fireworks that night. We had a very late night, and a very early morning as we caught a flight out of Seattle back to Dallas the next day.

As you can see, these are not small undertakings. The planning of this years trip started in earnest last October. It got serious in January, and we were in full planning mode in March/April. The purpose of these trips first is to serve. But also, we want to expose the kids to a lot a different things. Different parts of the country since there is a good chance that all of them won’t live in Dallas when they get older. Different types of transportation. Different religions, as we stay in many different types of churches. Different areas of service, which helps them to find areas they are interested in.

The name of our youth group is The Light. Each of the letters in Light represent a different purpose in ministry. “L” is lift…we lift our praise to God. “I” is identify…we identify our strengths and talents. “G” if grow…we grow spiritually through study of God’s word. “H” is hook…we hook up with other christians and fellowship. “T” is touch…we touch others with God’s love and compassion.

I hope you will check back everyday over at least the next couple of weeks to see where we go, and who we touch this year.

In Him,

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