SERVE 09 - Saturday - Participants Arrive

Hello all. Well, we just completed our Saturday here at SERVE. I'm not feeling too well, so you'll be glad to know that I'll be making this entry short. I seems I've got some sort of cold or something. The end result is that I've actually lost my voice. Yep, can't talk. Must whisper. Needless to say, I'm not getting much sympathy from ANYONE here : ( Below will be lots of pictures, and some explanation as to how our day went. In another three entries you will get to meet our Planning Team, Mentors, and Participants, ...... so read on and enjoy the highlights of the day. Oh, and I apologize for the dark pictures. I had my camera set to something not right and most of the pics have a green tinge to them.. I've fixed it now, so Sunday's pics should be better. Sorry about that.

We begin with our sign that Tamara did such a great job on. Looks great eh.

As I got up this morning, I noticed that Tamara was checking out the blog to see what I'd said about her. I think I was pretty nice to her this time around.

Here Mentors are getting up and ready for the day.

Annet is checking her list once, twice, three times.............

Remember that book shelf that Rachel brought along. Here's what she put on it. VERY organized.

Breakfast was GREAT, as usual. After Breakfast it was orientation time for the mentors. We covered many different subjects up until about noonish. After lunch is was time to decorate the rooms and fellowship hall. Everyone pitched in, and things really looked great when they were done. I went out to get some eggs, and when I cam back, SOMEONE in the group TP'd my office. Word has it, it was my son, but my money's on HANNAH B.

Here's a picture of the sanctuary. Our theme is EXTREME MAKEOVER. Lots of construction stuff.

A darker picture of the stage area.

Megan is decorating her room.

Anne and Annet peeling potatoes and swapping many stories.

At 2 pm, our Participants began arriving and things got NOISY !! : )

Parents helped to get their child comfortable and then left the building.

Mentors and participants began to get acquainted.

Shawn LOVES to play cards.

It seems that Rey was tired, so he caught some sleep. I think I should have done that toooooo.

Laughter filled the air.. There were some tears too, but they soon dissipated.

One of our nurses, Mary Jane, gets all the pertinent Medical info from families.

Two of our VERY much valued kitchen volunteers.

After some get acquainted time, the group split up and did a sort of scavenger hunt for tools. Here's the winning team...I think.

We have a warm fuzzy table. Lots of nice notes being written to each other.

After supper, sorry I got the order mixed up, we had a bit of a fun activity. Every group got to build a structure with newspaper and masking tape. A ball was placed on to see if the structure would stand up. A prize was given for the tallest and strongest structure. This one was one of the strongest.

This one, the tallest...and I think they won overall too.....

Supper was once again DELICIOUS!

Fellowshipping around the dinner table.

After supper and the fun activity it was time for our first worship and speaking time. We have a GREAT praise team again this year, and many of the participants brought along their guitars to play along with.

Some even brought wants with brightly coloured material to express themselves in worship.

Shellie, our speaker did a great job tonight of introducing our theme of EXTREME MAKEOVER. We are modelling it after the TV show. We even got to watch a house being demolished in the sanctuary. It was cool to see.

The group was given hard hats and we all did the EM cheer and ran out of the sanctuary yelling and screaming.

I think Janine got run over here in the mob.

Coming back into the sanctuary.

We ended our time in praise songs again.

Then it was small group time.

l.ots of fun was had by many in the small groups.

Lots of learning took place too.

For the craft the participant ended up making their names with special tacks and hammers. Everyone REALLY enjoyed it. : )

After group time it was snack time. DEATH BY CHOCOLATE once again. Anne is soooooo good to me..... : ) oh, and the rest of the group too.

Thanks Anne and Annet. Everyone loved the snack. Then it was off to bed, and most participants were VERY tired, so things went VERY well tonight.

We'll see you tomorrow. I'll try to be a bit more detailed then, but a picture says alot too.

TTYL.