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
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