This entry comes one week after our trip to Cornwall. On Friday, May 28, most of our Peru team hopped in vehicles and began the trek to Oakville. We were supposed to leave at 5:00 pm ish, but alas, things don't always goes as planned.
We ended up leaving at 5:30 pm. I thought this was going to be a fairly fast trip. About 5.5 - 6 hours from Ottawa to Oakville. Turns out, it felt like we were travelling to Peru again.
Below are lots of pictures to help you experience the trip as I explain it to you.....................
We left at 5:30 pm and met up with our Cornwall group of 7 at the 416/401 interchange. A 15 minute stop. Then it was off to Brockville to allow those who hadn't eaten yet to do so. (The Cornwall group ate at the restaurant at our rendezvous point). We stopped at a Tim's in Brockville that just happened to have a bus load of people in line in front of us. Another 30 minute wait.
Here we are at the Tim's/Burger King with some people waiting for others to eat.
Annette just loves to jabber away about spiritual issues, and she wasted no time getting back into the swing of things with the Cornwall girls. : )
We drove on to Kingston, and then my cute little daughter expressed to me that she really, really, really had to go to the bathroom; so we ended up pulling over. As we exited the car, I noticed Gerry laying comfortably in the back of Dianne's vehicle. Isn't he cute?
I just couldn't figure out how he fit into that small Volkswagen. You can just see Gerry's head in the back seat if you look real close.
You will also see that he can be a bit of a jokester. His smelly foot is sticking out behind Brenda. She's still smiling, but what you can't see are her eyes watering.
Back to the stopping thing. Turns out that my daughter wasn't the only one who had to go pee. The group was lined up outside the washroom and down the hallway. Sarah was SOOOOO glad we stopped. : ) Another 20 minute stop.
After this stop it was another stop in Whitby for Gas, and then off to Oakville. We arrived around 12:30 - 1 a.m. A lot longer than the 5.5 hours I was hoping to take. Here you can see the Oakville group was waiting for us. They greeted us with open arms.
Many were in the kitchen getting things ready for the weekend. Corinne had Cindy's camera primed and ready to go.
Check out the faces of Marg (L) and Brenda (R). Interesting to say the least....... : )
I missed the antics of Sam. Here she is once again. I appreciate her twisted sense of humor. It's just like mine. : ) What you can't see here is that she's talking about 100 miles an hour about something totally irrelevant, and I just happened to snap a shot of that. I think she needed some sleep.
Bel and Julia were so happy to see each other again, they started dancing together.......
After a short gathering of all of us together to explain the weekend, and some basic rules, it was off to bed. I slept in the library, which was close to the exit doors, because Kevin was supposed to come in the wee hours of the morning, and I wanted to be sure I could open the doors for him. I got a very rest - less sleep that night because of that. He never showed either.
Must have been a pretty sleepless evening for these YP.
Breakfast was a throwback to breakfasts in Peru. The same soft buns that we had for lunch, oranges, peanut butter, bananas and juice.
We even had the eggs with sausages. Nice touch.
Hey, at about 8 am Kevin rolled into town. I found out that he ended up sleeping at about 3 places along the way because he was just too tired to make the trek that late in the evening. He didn't have my new cell #, so he couldn't call me to tell me he wasn't going to make it in. I'm just glad he made it.
The group settling in over breakfast. If you look really closely, you'll see that Rosy isn't very happy about something. Maybe it's the fact that Hannah is pointing at her?
After breakfast, we spent the morning doing some more reflecting on our trip. Here you see the group gathered in the gym and going over questions about our experience.
So much stuff to digest, and the hope is that some of it will stick. We spent time talking about our experience in Peru. Eventually it led to discussions about our lives in our own cities and how we can do ministry there, as well as in Peru. Each person was challenged to write down something that they would like to do in their community, or group, in the area of ministry. The leaders of each group will try to hold them accountable for their findings.
It was a long morning, and we were living off varying amounts of sleep. Hence, every hour or so, I had the group get up and do some interactive stuff. Here Jackie has been charged with leading the group 3 times around the gym and they had to copy everything she did. Quite creative stuff, some of which I just can't publish. : )
This picture shows Patti doing a large game of "Simon Says". It got the blood flowing to the brain again.
Some took matters into their own hands and began Karaoke to a great oldies song. Sounded pretty good actually.
At the end of the morning, we spent some time in prayer as individual groups, praying for our cities, our groups, Peru, and other things.
With work done lunch was served and then it was time for some fun. We split up into groups for a digital camera scavenger hunt. This is our team. We felt we could win this thing. Who could go wrong with Corinne and Hannah S. in our group!
We had to take our vehicles to the GO Train station. On the way, at a stop light, while I was stationary, I heard a wrap on my driver's side window. It was Annette. I thought she had an important question or statement to utter, so I rolled down the window. I turned my head and opened my mouth to utter the words, "What would......" that's as far as I got. I was stopped because my mouth filled with water, and my face and shoulder also became rather soaked. Annette had just unloaded a water bottle on me. She disappeared as fast as she appeared. Sneaky........
That water fight carried on to the GO platform. I didn't respond with any water at that point. I was biding my time.
We eventually made it on the GO Train. Here Hannah, Rosy and Megan seem to be freaking out that poor elderly lady sitting with her. She looks very scared.
Young people get bored rather quickly, and Hannah and Fontana seem to get that way VERY quickly. They ended up having a punching contest with Kevin. NOT a smart thing to be doing ,seeing that both of them couldn't make Kevin wince. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves though.
If you read my Peru blogs, you would know about the huge underware incident with Fontana. Seems that she found a way to make some money on those under ware by selling them to this billboard company. : )
We arrived at Union Station and soon began our hunt. We had to find all sorts of things. I'm borrowing pictures from Chris, as I didn't end up taking many pictures with my camera for this part. We had to find a newspaper......
Play pinball as a group
Count elephants on billboards in the station
We had to find what sort of digital picture this company took. I confess, we never found the billboard, so couldn't answer the question........
This little statute had lots of creative poses done to it. Here, Chris' group is collectively picking its nose........
We had to all place some body part in the water in the Nathan Phillips Square fountain pond.
Supposedly, this gentleman knew Jackie. We completely missed him, and wasted about 15 minutes trying to find him. It was a good clue, especially since those that did find him surprised him with the question.
We also had to get pictures of a younger, middle aged, and older couple kissing. No one in my group wanted to ask those questions, so I got stuck doing it. Everyone was willing to kiss. : )
At the end we had to find Patti's son and husband. Kind of like the ending at the amazing race stuff. It was fun. We stumbled upon them and ran to greet them. We were team number 3. We weren't sure if we won or not, but had a good feeling about it........
It was a long day, and Ben seemed to find a way to sleep during our trip back to Oakville.
So did Cindy. Reminded me of our time in Peru..... : )
It was then off to Ellie's home for dinner and a swim. A nice place and great hospitality.
The water was MUCH warmer than in Cornwall, and I once again simply jumped into the water with my cloths on. We had lots of fun splashing each other.
Here are Marsha, Cindy, and Ellie enjoying the great food.
No, that is not blood squirting out of my jugular vein, though it looks pretty convincing if you ask me. : ) THAT is chili; a gift from Patti. Dear Patti. Seems she got wind of Kevin's and my plot to throw her in, so she figured she might as well make it worth her while and throw food first.
This is the picture AFTER Kevin and I threw her in. Oh, and I also got Annette back. Twice. The first time was simply giving Annette a great big hug, and sitting on her lap while soaking wet. She had others do the same, so in essence, she went for a swim.
The second time was back at the church. Patti and Annette stayed in Annette's van for a bit talking serious stuff, I guess. I waited in the foyer of the church, until they decided to enter the church. I was just talking with people. As they entered the church, I rushed at Annette and tackled her to the ground. I think she was legitimately scared at that point. All worth the wait. : ) Got you Annette!!!!!
Sunday morning soon arrived and it was time to pack everything up. Gerry was trying to figure out how to get the air mattress back into the bag it came in.
Patti can be kind of Camera shy (go figure). Here she's dancing with her hoodie (or so it looks like) to avoid having her picture taken.
Breakfast was GOOD, and soon it was time for church.
Annette wanted to call John, but alas, she too seemed to think that a banana and cell phone were one in the same. She and Patti must be related or something.
The Banner's had to be loaded into the mailboxes, so what better way to do that than to put YP to work. It made for fast mailbox stuffing.
Seems Chris can work in his sleep........
Before church the praise band practiced. It was great to listen to, and even had some of us dancing in the aisles. Others of us were looking at those of us dancing, and wondering who we were......ah, to live and worship the way you want........
We weren't the fastest, but we got more of the bonus questions and actually took GROUP shots when we were supposed to. Our prize? New cars. They should be coming in the mail sometime soon, right Patti and John????????
With church over, lunch completed, and the winners announced, it was time for final pictures. Here's a group shot of everyone.
Then it was time for something I haven't done in years. A good-bye hug line. We did them when I was in youth group. It was funny to do because the YP seemed to have not done this much before. Seemed a bit uncomfortable with it actually. It was good to say goodbye in this way.
And then it was time to leave.
We all said our good-byes. I was blessed with a card from the group, and $100 in gift certificates for "The Keg". THANKS gang! That was really nice. Joycegina and I have yet to use them, but be sure, we will.
Here you see Patti, flamboyant as usual, saying goodbye to everyone.
It ended up that one person had to come home with us, and Mina was willing to do that. Such a special lady. She entertained my daughters and played games with them. She also got to meet my parents, as we spent a short time with them on the way home. Thanks for coming home with us Mina. We really enjoyed your company.
We arrived home by 7 pm, just an hour later than Annette's van. Seems with less people, less time is taken for washroom breaks.
So ended our weekend excursion to Oakville. Thanks for hosting us all. Lots of fun, and lots to chew on when it comes to ministry in our own communities. I pray you will all follow through on what you have written down.
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