Day One - Sunday July 26

A group of 15 of us have traveled to Copper Hill, Tennessee for a week of mission work here in the southeast corner of the state. As I write, I am bleary-eyed near midnight after a long day of travel. The night sky is breathtaking. The stars are brilliant. All are well and healthy and the trip looks promising for interpersonal as well as Kingdom gains.

We had a sleep-in at the church last night with the mission team. The theory was to have the team sleep at St. Andrews and load the vehicles the night before in order to relieve the parents of a 4:00 a.m. drop-off of their child at the church. A sleep-in was good in theory. However, the reality was that not much sleeping took place. The boys didn't sleep at all last night. I finally got to sleep at 11:30 p.m. night and was awakened about every half hour by a group of boys in the room whose concern for my sleep had them all whispering at 100 decibels be quiet! Amy Becker, our youth minister and my daughter Christina, another chaperone on the trip, got even less sleep in the girls' room. Needless to say, the 12 hour drive to Tennessee included frequent caffeine stops. Thankfully, I had a talkative teen named Danielle riding next to me in the vehicle.

We got settled into our homes for the week: cabins at a camp in the beautiful hills of Tennessee. The boys' cabin is about 40 feet from the chapel where we will worship nightly. The girls' cabin and all of the bathrooms are atop a 9,000 foot vertical climb from the base camp of Mount Everest. Give or take a few feet. I had to lean backwards to remain upright when walking down from the bathrooms this evening.

Al and Jean MacKenzie from St. Andrews joined us tonight. They are staying about 30 miles from here in their RV. They came bearing gifts of chocolate chip cookies (Jean is the demi-god of cookies), brownies, water and soft drinks. The water in the desert for the Israelites came to mind. Manna from heaven too. Al and Jean will be with us all week. They are beginning their two months away from Florida with a week of mission work with the youth team. Awesome. Later this week, they will take the bells for the bell choir to a specialist in South Carolina for routine maintenance. I look forward to spending time with them and the whole team this week.

We are at a camp led by an organization called Team Effort. There are other churches with us this week. Two churches from Florida (Orlando and Miami), one from Pennsylvania and the rest we'll meet and get to know later. We have been with Team Effort for the past three years and they do a good job of preparing the youth and leaders for a deeply spiritual encounter with Christ and leading us there as we care for the least of these in our mission work.

Our project this week is painting and repairs to the home of a woman named Betty. We don't know much more than that at this point. Tomorrow morning the work begins. A young girl named Hillary from Alabama will be our leader from Team Effort.

The students are well-rested… most of them anyway. Amy, Christina and I may be exhausted, but most of the students slept well. We are praying that their rest translates into good energy for the work ahead.

Speaking of praying, I already have a sense of the work of the heart that is ripe in the youth. God seems to be on the move. I've had a number of conversations with the youth and while many are filled with excitement and joy, some others come with pain, uncertainty and questions. I suspect a few are seekers of God, but have not opened themselves up to a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I ask you to pray that the Holy Spirit will descend in a mighty way and stir the hearts of the youth and all of the leaders who surround them to awaken hearts and recommit others. Something important is happening in these Tennessee hills.

It is late. I'm tired. And I really need to brush my teeth. I feel like I am wearing fuzzy slippers on my teeth. Off to brush and then to bed.