Monday, March 31, 2008

Cold & Wet All Day

Guest bloggers Nina & Emily:
It was very cold and wet. Nina left her purse at Starbucks, but was able to get it back.
As we headed out, Emily slipped in the rain and had a damp spot on her clothes for a bit.
We eventually made it to the Sylvan Theater right next to the Washington Monument.
Took pictures of the trees, cracked up while singing a couple of songs and some interesting characters stopped and danced along with us as we sang.
It was a fun day.
After singing we went to the Holocaust Museum where it was really sad.
We took a funny picture with the wierd sculpture art.
Saw a tiny MacDonalds van and then we entered "da hood" as Emily's friend called it.
The singing went really well. The little kids danced and sang with us.
They even joined us on stage for the last song.
Hannah fell on the way back (lauging) and Nina left her phone on the Subway (thankfully somebody saw it & she got it back)
We made it back before dark.

After a quick refuel at Starbucks, we're headed back to the church for Cindi's burritos.

Talk to y'all later!

Nina, Emily, & Rob

DC Day Two (read me second)

So I'm posting these as often as possible. I write them on my computer then upload them when I can get to a wifi spot.
This blog picks up where the last one left off, so if you haven't read the first one, scroll down and read the next one first, then scroll back up and read this one.
Hope y'all are doing great back on the West Coast!

Sunday afternoon.
For lunch, I only have one word: Panera! We had a nice lunch, then cleaned up (four letters: Y•M•C•A) and headed back to Walter Reed to do our full concert. Getting over there was fun. When you only have one minivan and 24 people, it takes several back-and-forth adventures. Between trips to the showers and trips to take us back and forth to Walter Reed and a couple trips to the grocery store, our two van drivers are putting quite a few miles on the van we rented.
So the building we were in at Walter Reed was the old YMCA building. It was built in the 40s and has seen many USO tours. Bob Hope even performed there once. I guess you could say that he opened for us like 40 years ago. (Of course, only a couple of the students even knew who he was, so…)
The worship service we led is only six weeks old. They just moved it to the new location and it’s still in the early stages. Those that came, however, all told us how much they enjoyed it. We did all of our songs, a couple magic tricks (one guess as to who did them), and most of our drama skits. Pizza after was really good, for everyone except the one student who dislikes all things pizza oriented.

We came back to the church, did some more exploring, and there was much scaring of each other. Connie and Jessica’s group led our devotion, all of them dressed as trees except for Noah. He was dressed as a flower. They were all different “sins” like “gossip” and “complaining” and such. Ben read some Scriptures that had to do with each of them. Short, simple, and to the point. Nice.

Tomorrow we head out to sing at Sylvan - which is at the Washington Monument. We’ll have a couple of hours of sightseeing before our second performance at a Children’s tutoring center in (how shall I say it?) not the nicest part of town.

Overall, the trip is going great. The first day (which lasted about 48 hours) was really long and seemed like several days, but today was great. All the kids did a great job and as far as I can tell, everyone is having a great time.

One final note – Over the past 15 years or so I’ve been on many trips with students. This is the first trip where the guys have built a fort in their room. (more on the for later)

TTFN!
Rob
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Monday Morning
Several of us got up early to head over to the Starbucks for our morning energy fix. Nobody really seems to be dragging. The three guys in the fort were still fast asleep when we left. Noah snores quite loud and seems to be the only snore-er on the guys side.

This morning we’re headed over to sing our first “public” show. Then we’ll d a bit of walking on the National Mall, see the Washington Monument and a few other places in the general vicinity before heading over to Atlantic Gardens after school program. I’m really hoping there will be a lot of personal interaction with the children. I know the HS Students really do well in situations like that.

So I’m going to log off for now – I’ve got to order Jeff’s White Chocolate Mocha and breakfast sandwich before we head back for our quiet times.

Later today, we'll have a student-written blog, so keep your internet warmed up!

Thanks for all your prayers!
Rob
<><

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Washington DC Play-by-Play

Washington Dulles Airport

6:15 a.m. (really 3:15 a.m. CA time. So….)

So here we sit in the Dulles Airport. It’s always fun trying to find your way around in a strange airport where nobody’s been before. The flight was smooth. Apparently there was a crazy guy a couple rows in front of us. I didn’t see him.
We’re tired, but all is well. Hannah is eating popcorn. Everyone else is sitting around waiting. Jeff is off to get the van which will take our luggage to the church while the rest of us trek off on a Bus/Subway adventure.
We’ll be eating breakfast at Metro Union Station.

I’d post this live online, but for some reason the airport internet connection, though it says it’s there and with a full signal, won’t find the server.

Hope y’all are all doing great. We’re fine. Well there seems to be an outbreak of giggling and Hope is rolling Hannah around in a wheelchair, so I’m going to sign off for now…

Rob



10:45
Wow! What an adventure! So we head out to take the bus from the airport to the Subway Station. Unsure of exactly where to catch that particular bus, we missed it by 2 minutes. We could have made it easily had we known where to go to catch it. So this brought a 50 minute delay. We made it on the next bus, but just barely fit. I’ve never seen so many people and luggage packed into a bus. We made it to the subway station and had to buy everyone’s Subway pass. We had to buy them two at a time in a machine, so that took a bit. Getting off at the first Subway transfer, we learned that Ben didn’t make it on the Subway. Fortunately, he had the foresight to get on the next stop and had been paying attention when we told everyone what stop we were getting off at.
After finally making it to the Silver Springs Subway exit, we dined on a glorious breakfast at McDonald’s (I really can’t remember when the last time I ate at McDonalds was). Then walked the loooooooooong trek from the Subway Station to the Church where we’re staying.
As we walked through the parking lot, my first question was: “why didn’t that big bus come pick us up at the airport?

So now that we’re fed and finally at our destination, we’re getting ready to go get showered and rested and fed again then we’re off to the Gospel Mission to serve food and do our program. I’m looking forward to our first performance of the trip.

Rob


2:00 p.m.
So Ben Johnson apparently doesn’t know the front from the back of his shirt.
If only I’d had my camera with me…

6:30 p.m.
Central Mission –
This homeless shelter for men runs dinner and a service for them. We got to help serve dinner to the men staying there and then perform a short program for them. We did a couple of songs, I did a few magic tricks telling them a little about deception, then a couple of dramas and a couple of songs later, we were done and jumped back on the Subway to go eat dinner.

The performance was a bit rough, with a couple of minor mistakes, but then since we were all operating on 48 hours of being not only awake, but traveling 3,000 miles on an airplane then 60-75 on a bus and Subway for four hours, I thought it went well.
After the performance, Noah said "I felt dead..."


8:30
So the adults are finishing dinner when we get a call saying “okay – time to come back to the church – we’re moving…”
As we return to the church, everyone was in a fury of packing and carrying luggage out to the vans. We were moving to another church about eight blocks away. Church 1 was “St Mary’s Baptist Church.” I wouldn’t call it the nicest, roomiest accommodations. Chruch 2 – First Baptist Church of Silver Spring. Way nicer. Way roomier. Way closer to Starbucks!
It was kind of crazy spending four hours carrying our luggage all over the bus and subway system of Washington DC. After all that, we moved in and unpacked. Then we went and did a concert and packed and moved again. Long crazy day, but the new place we’re staying is so much nicer. A 48 hours of no sleep adventure.
Before going to bed, we decided to do a little exploring. FBC is a big place with stairs and hallways that wind around all over the place. At night, it’s kind of creepy. I half expected someone to jump out and attack me as I walked down some of the halls. As it turns out, it was only Jeff.
It sure was nice to finally lay down to go to sleep. Morning came way too soon.

Sunday –
Got up – we all had our quiet times, then went to Starbucks for breakfast. At last! Caffeine! I can be alive today. We sang during the worship service at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Singing in a chapel that was built in 1930 was very nice. The acoustics were great. The choir did a really good job.

Monday, March 24, 2008

The Gospel

So the latest thing I've been "obsessing" about is The Gospel. I just read a book titles "A Gospel Primer" and it's taking me down an amazing path.
If someone were to hand you a legal pad and ask you to write down the answer to the question "what is the Gospel?" what would you write? The Gospel isn't just something that we should share with others who don't have a relationship with Christ. It's for saved people as much as it is for lost people.
We MUST know the Gospel. Not just so we can share it with others, but so we can meditate on it ourselves.
Know it.
Memorize it.
Meditate on it.
It will radically impact your daily life.

P.S. Take out a sheet of paper and answer the question "what is the Gospel?"