Summer Memory (2005) 2.1

So each summer, Pastor Dan and his fam take the summer missionaries to Seattle. This trip is a time to get to know each other and just have some fun. One of Pastor Dan's favorite places is Pike Place Market and that is where he wanted to take Adrian and me.

They had all kinds of stores. There was a lefty store (everything is made for left handed people) where I picked something up for my brother. There were several sports stores, toy stores, and clothing stores. But best of all there was a farmers market with every type of fruit, vegetible, and meat that you could think of. This is also the place where they throw the fish.

But my favorite placea Pike Place was across the street:

The first ever Starbucks stands in all its glory. And of course I had to go in and get a Mint Mocha-Chip Frappachino.

The trip with Pastor Dan wasn't our first to Seattle though. Samantha had taken Adrian and me to Seattle (really just to go and eat somewhere). But when we got there, we desided that we would go to the Space needle. It was a beautiful sunny day and we knew that if we waited until Pastor Dan took us we might not get such a great day. So we went and had a blast.

Summer Memory (2005) 2.0

The summer of 2005 saw me once again in the wonderful Ever Green State, however this time I would be spending it with McKenzie Baptist Church in Olympia. As with each summer missions trip, orientation was the first stop for yours truly.

It was back ot Portland for three days of orientation (where Thursday afternoon was set aside for us to have a free day). I met my summer missions partner, Adrian, at the airpot when we flew in. We hit it off prttey fast and I knew that this summer was going to be great after only the first five minutes of hanging out with him.

We met Pastor Dan the second day of orientation and the three of us threw the frisbe around as we got the down low on what we would be doing over the summer and what our expectations were and what his were for us. Then came our free day.

Pastor Dan took us to Multanomah Falls (which are just breath taking). Adrian had never been there and this was my second trip. We had a great day of hiking and taking pictures and just getting to know each other.

This summer was going to be a blast. Stay tuned for more.

Multanomah Fall

World Changers-Florence, AL a.k.a. A Week with the Toe Nails

So this past week I was a crew chief at a World Changers project in Florence, AL. I went there because the church that I worked at for two summers in Olympia, WA was coming down and my first summer missions partner was going to be there also (and I couldn't let them have a reunion without me). So I went. I drove six hours to meet them and start working hard.

Now, as a crew chief I was going to be in charge of a crew. There is where the Toe Nails were started. The youngest crew at World Changers (I being the youngest crew cheif and having the youngest crew encourager). Our kids were pretty young too, which kind of worried me because we were going to be doing a roof and you have to be at least 16 to get on the roof.

Sunday was when we met and we went to Parkview Baptist Church in Tuscumbia to worship together. After church was over and we visited the site of our home owner, our driver took us to UNA to see the lions and we got our first crew photo.

Gareth, Katie, Mitchell, Hannah, Leslie, Me, Ashley, Briteny, and Caleb were the nine Toe Nails on our little adventure. We rode around on "Old Faithful" (well at least for part of the week until we deemed it unsafe to drive, thats a story in itsself)

Along wit hreplacing the roof, we also got to tear down and build a porch in the front of the house we were working on.

The roofing crew did an amazing job and we got alot done in a short amount of time. This is all of them (minus me) and I think they deserve a standing "o" for the amount of work they did put in last week.
And then there were my grounds crew (ashley, hannah, and caleb). They did some amazing work. You already saw the porch, but another job of theirs was to pick up the site and keep it clean (and find tools that we happened to misplace)
I think that my favorite part of the week was teaching the roof girls how to smoke a nail instead of hitting it thirty times to see it go in.
And needless to say I had to try and stay out of the pictures (Aren't I hiding pretty well?)
With one side done and the other in progress we wan'ted to have a little fun during one of our breaks (which is where this picture came from)
On Monday my crew encourager got sick so I had to ground her (literally). She was a good sport about it though.
And there we are on the tip top of our roof, however I think that this was taken on Friday and Leslie was not supposed to be up there (don't tell anyone)
Mitchell was a work-horse. He was the one who wanted to put the cap on the top of the roof and then...
...we were finished.
Hope you enjoied a little recap of the week I spent in Florence, AL as a World Changer. One last group picture of...The Toe Nails' toenails!