Sunday, July 15, 2012

SERVE 2012 - Day 2 - Saturday - Participants Arrive

Day two.  The day our Participants arrive.  
We awoke at 8:15 am.....and breakfast was soon served.  

Anne and Annet enjoy a pre breakfast coffee before getting to work getting us breakfast.  Well deserved.  


Some people didn't want to get up right away...right Jonathan?  


It seems that both Joanna and I wanted to wear loud shirts this morning.  


After breakfast it was time for mentor training.  Shellie led us through many different things to prepare us for the week ahead.  


Chris is trying to read something here as an exercise.  


The mentors took some time to read the daily blog posting, about themselves of course. 


Janine took some time to get in some banner reading.  





Wall pictures of all our participants.  We got to know them a bit better before they arrived. 


Here we are in the youth room with Shellie leading us through a morning devotion.  


A change of venue, and upstairs for more training.  


Shellie getting into costume for the week.  



Janine giving her a helping hand.  

I asked Megan to stuff some inserts into the bulletin for Sunday, and low and behold, she delegated that task very well.  


Hmmm, Ailene grew a mustache pretty fast.  Looks good on you.   

After training, and lunch, we had spare time so we donned our t-shirts and took pics of the team.  Once the participants arrived, we took pics of them, and then pics of the mentors and participant teams.  Here they are below.  


Ron - Host Team leader.  


Ron - crazy Youth Pastor. 





Joanna....showing her wilder side.  : )  I wonder who brought that out in her...hmmmmmm.  
She's in charge of our Participants this year.  


Annette  - Prayer coordinator and morning devotions. 


Harold  -  Transportation and Work Sites.  


Grace - small group time


Janine - Work sites, pampering, etc.  :  ) 


Shellie....Speaker.  


Mary-Jane - Nurse
We have Brenda as a nurse too, but she'll be around on Monday. 



Annet  - Kitchen coordinator


Anne - Kitchen Coordinator


Joanna - assisting with Small groups and worship slides.  


Hannah - Mentor and in charge of praise team.  



Fontana - Mentor


Chris B - Mentor


Joy K  - Mentor


Niesje (did I spell it right this time)  - Mentor


Rosy - Mentor


Megan H - Mentor


Lucy - Mentor


Megan D - Mentor


Rachael - Mentor


Jonathan - Mentor


Justin - Mentor


Sarah - Mentor


Ailene - Mentor


Fayth - Mentor


Joy V - Mentor


Carissa - Mentor


Kristen - Mentor


Leah - Mentor

 Willi - Participant


 Sara - Participant


 Shawn - Participant


 Steven - Participant


Rebecca - Participant 


John - Participant 


 Jovita - Participant


 Tyler - Participant


 Alex - Participant


 Charlotte - Participant


 Zachary - Participant


 Kyle - Participant


 Amy - Participant


 Taurie - Participant


Carolyn - Participant


Participant / Mentor pairings.  















































My room for the week.  


Ok, back to Mentor Training in the morning.  The reason the pics are out of order is that now you are seeing pictures taken by Chris, my son, and Fontana. They did me a huge favour today by taking the pictures and then sorting through them and selecting them for the blog.  I'd be up till 3 am if I had to do all that myself.  Thanks for doing this, and it was fun watching the two of you argue over picture quality  (yes, I take out of focus pics with John B's camera)  and what to put on the blog.....  : ) 


Shellie had each of the Mentors brush each other's teeth.  This is done because there are things that they are doing to do that will get them out of their comfort zone, and this certainly did.  


Fayth, don't spill.  : ) 


Hey, there's my daughter, Katrina.. She's helping in the kitchen this week.  I'm proud of you my little ginger snap! 


Shellie and Janine back in character again.  They must have been very warm in those outfits.  


"Hark, who goes there?"  "What light through yonder window breaks!"  


Janine and her mascot.  


Is that Shellie...I can't even tell.  





After training time, and lunch, our participants began arriving.  Shawn and Steve were the first.  



This is just a shot that Chris took of Fontana....strange...but they wanted it in the blog, so here it is.  



As our participants arrived, they registered with the nurse, settled into their rooms and did a craft. Here are Sara and Lucy making the space craft picture together.  

Fontana and Megan at it again.  


The end result for Steven of his craft.  


Our worship team practiced as the participants were arriving.  Here's Andrea looking pretty serious...

Daniel as well.  


Many of our participants bring their own musical instruments to play during worship time.  Here's Kyle with his guitar.  


Bea putting up the rocket crafts on the wall in the sanctuary.  


Tyler arriving.  


Amy and Charlotte finally here.  Some drove 6 -  7 hours to get here.  



Kyle beating Leah in Uno!  


A nice picture of Kyle.  





John is helping Rosy with background slides for our praise team sessions.  It took them a bit to find the right one, but eventually they did.  



Alex brought his guitar as well.  

Alex brought his friend Willi with him this year.  Here they are having fun together.  



Interesting.  


The rooms on the first day of SERVE.  They look nice now, but if past years are any indication, they won't be for long.  


More Participants getting comfortable in their new surroundings. It can be a stressful time for our participants. New routines, and homesickness are a challenge on the first day of our SERVE experience.  


This is one of about 15 poses that were taking by Chris of Zachary. He was having fun in front of the camera.  


Kyle was teaching Alex how to play the guitar better.  : ) 



Once everyone arrived and settled in, we did some group building time.  We made rockets out of straws. 


It was lots of fun. 


Our kitchen crew getting things ready.  


Hey Christine.  Nice to see you helping out.  You actually got to serve me today.  How nice.  Thanks for helping out.  

 Back to Rocket making.  


Starting to look good.  

Nice and tall.....




Hannah's getting into this.  


John....well.......  : )  He's such a ham!  


Joy, this job is way over your head.... bahahaha


The final product.  Teamwork.  


John has become a Justin B fan for sure.  


Another great looking space ship.  


Yet another.  

I guess Leah wanted to be inside the space ship. 


It worked.  


I think she's having second thoughts.  


The craft turned out really nice.  


A group shot before dinner time. 


Ailene teaching Sara how to play the violin....priceless.  : ) 


Sara talking with Andrea....both sweet ladies.  


Dinner was delayed slightly, so everyone just talked.  


Rosy and John, together again.........  


Dinner Time!  


Meat loaf, potatoes, vegetable and apple sauce.  How was the meat loaf Hannah???  :) 


Small group time just before worship time.  


The groups are gelling well.  


Good job leading Joy.  


Our kitchen helpers.  


Ella, is something wrong.......????


Worship began at 6:30 tonight.  


Hannah is our worship leader and doing a great job.  


Sarah is co singing with Hannah.  A nice blend of voices. 


Jovita sings along with the group. 


Shawn plays his guitar, and has quite a following of friends up with him on stage....they had NO choice in the matter.  


John is borrowing a drum this year from us.  He loves to drum.  


Tyler getting into the groove, and Ailene is enjoying herself.  


Zachary, new to SERVE, enjoying himself.   


Ailene....an awesome violinist.....

Amy up there singing with Niesje.  




And then it was time for Shellie to speak.  


This year Shellie is on a space mission.  I am her boss and we needed to register her for her training sessions.  She took along some others, and here is Amy, Shawn and Sara saluting after taking the pledge with Space Cadet Shellie!  




 Now when you have Shellie do something, be sure to know that something might just happen to you.  I was used as an object lesson today.  Having to try on the right equipment to go into outer space.  A good helmet for starters....



 Then a good space suit.  


 Lookin' pretty good so far...but man, are these space suits ever WARM!



Now, the boots were a bit of a challenge.  Try fitting into size 9's with size 11 feet.  


Kyle and Carolyn helped me get prepared for the journey.  


Nope, the boots just didn't fit.....Nice boots though. 


WE needed a belt to hold everything in place. It was super long so I had Kyle hold on to one end while I wrapped myself up in it.  I was sure dizzy afterwards.  


Gloves to protect my hands, and my suiting up is complete.  


Shellie loves participation from all members of the team. 


Rey and Shawn and Willi are trying to tell others on stage about a planet they are seeing, without being able to talk about it.  

 Shellie showed us how hard it is to contain God...an awesome illustration which will be redone during our children's time today.  





After worship there were options of crafts, sports, or a move.  Here are some watching BOLT.  


Others doing the craft.  


What's happening Chris....?  


And others braved the heat and played some basketball outside.  

Zachary going for the slam dunk!  



Leah playing foot ball.......


With Willi I think.....

And that brings us to the end of our day.  We had a snack at 9, and then it was time to get everyone off to bed.  On the first night, it's a bit of a challenge.  Everyone's very tired, but excited as well, so it takes a bit longer to get everyone settled down.....

We held a Mentor meeting for a bit, to talk about the day and discuss about tomorrow, and then it was time for our Mentors to go to bed. 

It's now 1 am, and I'm done early, so I'm gratefully off to bed.  Tomorrow it's church, and then motorcycle and sports car rides (THE favourite time for most in the group) and then Rey's Reptiles will come and show us different types of reptiles.  

More to come tomorrow night. 
 Blessings, and good morning!  : )  

2 comments:

John's Going To SERVE! said...

Wonderful! Great to meet ALL the participants in SERVE this year! :) looks like a great group. singing in church this year....was awesome! 2 people signing, 1 dancing, many playing their guitars, 2 drumming...and those were all the participants....besides the violin, drummer, piano player, more guitarists and vocalists...oh my goodness....it was GREAT! :)

Cindy said...

Hello Campers and Mentors,
As a parents we have just spent the last half an hour reading the blog and checking out all the pictures! To the campers, I hope you have a great time on SERVE this weekend, enjoy and celebrate this time being away for your parents. To the mentors, looking at all the work you have all put into this week is an unbelievable blessing to us as parents. We I read the captions and see the pics, I am so thankful for all you are doing, thank you for being a blessing to our kids, I pray that you too will be blessed by their presence.
I look forward to reading and seeing more about your week! Take Care and God's richest blessings to the whole crew!