I got the Road Report from the California Mission Trip the other day, and I thought I'd share the articles I wrote for it. This is partially because I want to show off my writing (), but also partially because I can't think of anything to write about that would be interesting both to me and to you. And just in case you were wondering, the reason I'm not just giving you all the road reports (they're all good!) is that that's an awful lot of typing!

When he was giving us the guidelines for the road reports, Andrew said we would get extra points for using a Bible verse in the article. I was proud of myself because I got not one, but TWO verses in my first road report! Cha-CHING!

Well, anyway. Here they are. Enjoy!

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Black and Blue

"Hello!" "Hi, what's your name?" "Nice to meet you." Cheerful greetings filled the room as two groups of young people, one group wearing black t-shirts with big yellow crosses, the other sporting bright blue shirts with the same crosses, got acquainted. For some it was a joyful reunion, as Californian students greeted New Englanders they had met on a mission trip to the East Coast. For others it was a time of friendly introductions, as AIM's California Mission Trip team met Faith in ACTION (FIA), the local team in Bakersfield, California, that they would be training over the next two days.

Once the introductions were finished, it was time to get down to business. The blue-shirted young people (the mission trip team) called everyone together, prayed, and began the training. The first mime song that FIA learned was "Be Still," an intricate, elaborately choreographed song that tells the story of humanity from creation to the resurrection of Jesus. The song is not easy, but the students learned quickly, and within an hour or two the song was done. The mission trip team congratulated the students on a song well learned.

The other mime that the mission trip team taught that day was "Does Anybody Hear Her," a moving song depicting God's love, acceptance, and mercy toward a sinful woman. The song includes a modern-day reenactment of the story of the woman caught in adultury (John 8). According to the religious leaders of the day, the woman should have been stoned, but Jesus did not condemn her, instead rebuking her accusers and telling her simply, "Go and sin no more." The students eagerly latched on to this vivid picture of the love and mercy of Christ, and the song was soon finished. And just in time to, because it was time for the students to go home.

Early the next morning, both teams gathered at the church where FIA practiced. Although more training was planned for later in the day, a service project was first on the agenda. The church had several odd jobs that needed to be done, so the teams eagerly set to work. They cleaned toys and furnishings in the nursury, changed fluorescent light bulbs (quite the operation!), painted parking spaces, and helped witha variety of other projects throughout the church grounds.

Once the service project was complete, the second round of training began. FIA learned three songs during this time. The first was a patriotic song giving a Christian response to the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The second was a moving song that challenges Christians to carry the message of Jesus boldly throughout the world. The third song explains that what matters is "not what you take when you leave this world behind you. It's what you leave behind you when you go." Just as they had the previous day, the students learned quickly, and soon the songs - and the training - were complete.

After the training was finished, FIA took the mission trip team out for dinner at a local pizza restaurant. Over pepperoni and pineapple, the two teams laughed and talked, enjoying this final time with their newfound friends. Dinner was over all too quickly, and soon it was time to leave. "Goodbye!" "See you again someday!" The mission trip team left with some sadness, knowing that they would miss their new friends, but also with satisfaction, knowing that they had been a blessing to both the students and the church.

For the mission trip team, this stop gave new meaning to the word "team." FIA and the mission trip team worked together to accomplish things - whether learning songs or changing light bulbs - that neither team would be able to do alone. "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work" (Ecclesiastes 4:9). As the two teams worked alongside each other, they learned that God's work is best done together - black and blue. [Andrew took out the "black and blue" in the final version of the road report, but I like it. So there. ]

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Learning and Growing in Excellence U

"If it were illegal to be a Christian today, would there be enough evidence to prove you really are one?" This thought-provoking question sets the tone for "Check Your Identity," one of five Character Courses in AIM's Excellence University. The Characer Courses are Bible studies based on 1 Timothy 4:12, which instructs young Christians to excel in five areas: speech, life, love, faith, and purity.

The Excellence University curriculum was written several years ago, but we, the new "faculty," carefully studied it and then updated it with new material. During training camp, we spent many long hours editing the curriculum, taking out old Bible verses, adding new ones, and changing discussion questions. Although this process was lengthy and sometimes arduous, in the end it was a rewarding experience for each team member. As we dug deep into God's word, we gained wisdom and insight into key Biblical concepts, while simultaneously learning skills in the areas of preparing and leading Bible studies. The word "learning" is a good summary of the time we spend preparing the Bible studies.

The learning continued thoruhgout the remainder of the trip, as we presented the studies to our peers at workshops throughout California. Through the studies, we challenged young people to strive for excellence in every area of their lives. The students responded to this challenge enthusiastically. One way they showed their enthusiasm was through Scripture memorization. We challenged them to earn "degrees" from Excellence University ranging from Associate to Post-Doctorate by mamorizing different amounts of Scripture. By the end of the trip, dozens of students had earned degrees, including one student who earned a Master's degree by memorizing a total of twenty-four Bible verses. Wow!

For both the faculty and students, Excellence University was a growing experience that challenged each student to aim for a higher level of excellence in speech, life, love faith, and purity. It was also an education experience, as each sutdent learned more about the Biblical standard in each area and how to apply it. Growing and learning: two vital aspects of Christian life, and two of the pillars of Excellence University.

Well, like Jessica and Kaitlin, after I finished posting my mission trip journal, there were still some things that I didn't really cover, so I'm going to make a couple "supplemental" posts. This one is going to be about paper plates. I'm going to do another one on Leadership Camp, and then there might be one or two more... who knows.

Paper plates are a mission trip tradition. At the end of each trip, each team member makes a paper plate - using markers, stickers, Kleenex, Skittles, whatever - for each of the other team members. Each plate includes what the recipient is a "Model of Excellence" in (this is serious and is usually a character trait or special talent that the person has), and what they are "Most Likely to Become" (which is silly and can be anything from "Winner of a Nose-Blowing Contest" to "Male Hair Model" [those were two from the East Coast mission trip, which Jessica went on]). I got some pretty fun ones, and they reminded me of some aspects of the mission trip that I haven't posted about yet, so I'm going to talk through them. Let me warn you on the front end that to most of you, this will probably be pretty boring! But to AIM people - especially those who have been on mission trips - hopefully you'll be able to identify with some of this stuff!

From Rachel Brown (age 8): Model of Excellence - encouraging. Most likely to become - a radio news person. I'm not really sure where that came from. I remember at one point we were talking about a radio interview I had to do for Pennies for Heaven, so that might be where that originated. That's definitely a career I had never considered.

From Emily Brown: Model of Excellence - brave. I thought that was neat because I tend to be really timid and shy, but I did step out of my comfort zone on the mission trip... I did some things that were pretty hard for me. I'm not even sure what a comfort zone is anymore. :) Most likely to become - a public news reporter. A media career again! I really don't know why she thinks that is me. I think Andrew said once, when somebody asked what sort of stuff to put for that, to just put what you could never in your life imagine that person being. So that might be where that one came from!

From Emily Voth (Emie): Model of Excellence - humility. Most likely to become - the vice president's wife. Again, I have absolutely no clue where that came from. She also included a helpful guide: "How to put on mime makeup." Needless to say, I've never done it myself, so there were a couple situations where we had to put makeup on other people and I had no idea what I was doing! It was an... interesting experience.

From Olivia: Model of Excellence - willing spirit. Most likely to become - song writer/yodeler. I think the song writer part came from the song I wrote about pink lemonade for one of our mail times. The yodeling was another mail thing. They wanted me to yodel a certain song, but I couldn't yodel and still keep the right tune. So they finally agreed to let me sing the song, and just yodel after every other word.

From Courtney: Model of Excellence - diligence. Another area that I don't always excel in, but I did well on the mission trip. Most likely to become: A famous Olympic time trainer. "We have 10 minutes... 5 minutes... 2 minutes... -4 minutes..." Whenever the team had to put makeup on quickly, I would try to keep them going by telling them how much time they had left. It was usually a very small number. I do that all the time with the Branson team, but I guess other teams never have to put on makeup in a hurry. :) It became this big joke, but I never really realized how big it was until I got my paper plates, and three of them mentioned it! Keep in mind that there were only four girls who put on makeup...
Courtney also put a little note around the edge: "I honestly don't know how I could have done my road report without you! You have been so much fun. I am so thankful you came! I love you!" I was THE road report go-to girl. The girls asked me to edit and proof their road reports before they handed them in to Andrew, and later in the trip, Andrew asked me to help him proof them. My grandma was an English major, so I guess it's genetic.
One other thing on my paper plate from Courtney was the letters "N-D." "Huh?!?" you're saying. Let me explain. Here's the note Courtney attached: "all of the other girls got the other letters to the word "friends" so when we put our plates together it will spell 'friends!'" I thought that was really neat. We all got a picture together with our plates - see below. (Courtney hadn't finished her own plate yet, so she made the letter "S" in sign language.)

From Ryan (side note: Ryan makes really good paper plates!) - Model of Excellence: Critiqueing (crossed out with "Spell it right!" written beside it) and Initiating. To become - a police interrogator. "What's your character's name?" "What's their emotion?" "Why are they doing this?" Around the outside: "TOC! EXPRESSION! TOC! EXPRESSION! TOC! EXPRESSION!" I guess I did tend to be pretty demanding during workshops! The interrogation thing - making sure people know their character as well as they know themselves - I learned from Jenny or Andrew, I don't remember which. Jessica, I'm sure you can tell me. And if I saw big, fundamental problems - like lack of tocs or expression - I was always pretty quick to jump in and make sure they got fixed. :)

From Mr. Brown - Model of Excellence: Servant's heart. Most likely to become: almost anything (because she's willing to do almost anything). I thought that was sweet. :)

From Mrs. Brown - Model of Excellence: Happily jumping in to help. She decorated the plate with frog stickers, labeled with different things I helped with: hair (the French twist that the girls wear at each presentation), MP3 (running sound), certificates (long story), road reports, teaching workshops, speaking between songs. Looking back at that list, it looks like I've posted about most of them - all except the first one (hair). Probably only people who have been involved with AIM will be able to understand this, but I'm going to post it anyway. During presentations, all the girls have to wear their hair in the French twist, so it stays out of their faces. I can do my own hair, and so could Olivia and Courtney, as I recall, but the real kicker was Emily Voth. She couldn't do her own hair, and I don't blame her. I used to think I had thick hair - but that was before I tried to do Emie's! Her hair is SO THICK that even if you can get it twisted all the way down to a ponytail at the back, it is virtually impossible to put it up in a bun or even to braid it at all. It's also pretty short. If it was a little bit longer it would be easier to braid, and then you might be able to tuck it under. But no. It is absolutely a nightmare. I remember one time we did it - I say "we" because three different girls worked on it, and it took about 30 minutes in all. I did the sides (or did Olivia? that might have been a different time) and then we got to the bottom and couldn't figure out how to do it. After trying to braid it several times, and also trying to put it up without braiding at all, we finally decided to put it in three braids at the bottom, and then loop those under. It worked, but it looked really sloppy when we were done, so we used a hair net to cover up the messy bun. We also had to use TONS of bobby pins and clips, because we couldn't get it very tight to her head during the actual twist part. It was really hysterical to watch her take them out, because they just kept coming! I think that in all, she had 20+ clips in her hair. And that was just one of the times that we had to put it up! Usually Olivia did it. She was really good at making it good and tight.
Most likely to become - time keeper for the 100 yard dash in the Olympics. She also drew a clock face on the plate, with "TWO MINUTES TO GO!" emblazoned at the top. Ha!

Andrew: I saved this one for last because it has the most memories. Each plate of his was identical on the front, and then the "Model of Excellence" and "Most Likely to Become" were written on the back.
Model of Excellence - Dependability. He has told me that before. I really love being a person that other people depend on... I love feeling needed. So I take pains to make myself needed. :)
Most likely to become - An AIM intern (!) or a newspaper editor. Let it be known that I am seriously considering both - so Andrew, if you read this, you're pretty perceptive!
Front - at the top it says "California Mission Trip 2007," with a mime face beside it. Below that are a lot of memories from the mission trip, which I will try to summarize without boring you to death.
Skittles - Andrew actually glued a couple Skittles to the plate. Skittles played an important part in this mission trip, from the bag that Rachel bought and then gave to Ryan (or was it the other way around?), to the large quantities that were used in one of our skits. Skit, you ask? Yes, we had five Bible Studies - speech, life, love, faith, and purity - and we used skits in two of them. In our purity study, we did a skit to illustrate the importance of having pure motives. It was a parody of the story of the woman who gave the two mites, while all the rich people were giving a lot more. First Olivia and I came up with a big bowl of Skittles, and poured it in to the "offering basket," all the time talking about how wonderful people would think we were, and about how many more Skittles we had at home - we weren't really giving our all. Then Courtney came up, even more prideful that we were - after all, she was giving just as many Skittles as we were, but there was only one of her, so she was twice as good! She even got a newspaper reporter (Ryan/Andrew) to take pictures of her while she was doing it (right). Then Emie would come up, and put in her two Skittles - except that she was doing it out of the right motives, not just for pride.
Our Life skit was also really fun, but I'll post that in another entry. Don't let me forget!
Next - a megaphone with "2 Timothy 1:7" written on it. During training camp, Andrew decided that he wanted us all to be able to talk loudly (read: yell) because it would come in handy in keeping kids under control. So we had yelling practice. We all stood in the corners of a big room, and the goal was to yell so loud that the person across the room from us stepped backwards. We were yelling a Bible verse - 2 Timothy 1:7. I think I did shock some people. Those of you who know me as "The Quiet One" would be surprised. Andrew said he thought that I was the loudest - with the possible exception of Olivia, who almost made Andrew step back.
Clouds with ACTION van underneath - you know in cartoons how you see people walking around with clouds over their heads? Well, substitute the AIM van for the person, and you've got a good meteorological description of the mission trip. It rained in almost every place we visited. In San Diego, we were told that it only rains three days out of the year (an exaggeration, but not mught of one). Well, we were there for two of the three. And on and on. One funny memory was trying to keep the Sin Chair sign (a big piece of posterboard, about 2' by 3', that we use in one of our songs) dry. I was carrying it, and I had to borrow somebody's jacket to get it safely into the van. Another fun time was when Courtney and I ran together in the rain in San Diego. We were totally soaked, but we didn't care. It was a great bonding time, albeit an unusual one!
A camera - I think Andrew got kind of fed up with girls always wanting to get pictures of everything!
A church - well, yeah, that was an important part of the trip...
And last but not least, a mallet. We use a mallet as a prop in several different songs, when Jesus is being crucified. We managed to leave said mallet in Bakersfield, so we had to do a couple presentations without it. We got a new one at our next Wal-Mart stop.

Well, that's all. And I'm sure you're quite tired of me boring you, but even if no one ever reads this, I had a lot of fun typing it out. :)

Well, it's over. Leadership Camp, workshops, presentations, mission trip - over. I find myself missing that life more than I miss the people. Great people, yes, but maybe not lifelong friends. I think part of it is that they were so much younger than me. I do miss Andrew, though. And Jenny. She's taking a break from AIM while they work out job descriptions and some other organizational stuff. She's looking at getting a job out in California. Isn't that sad? And Andrew wants to stay close to her while they're courting, so he's not coming back to Branson either. Jenny is saying she'll probably be back with AIM sometime - she's guessing around the end of the year. Headquarters without Jenny and Andrew - it just isn't the same. And Jenny's decided not to lead any more mission trips. *censored* It feels like the end of an era. Jessica was on Jenny's last mission trip. How sad is that? [I'm trying to find some good in it, but it's hard.] It is opening up more opportunities for me to lead and serve in the local team, which I really want to do.

Well, I started this entry to catch up on the last few days, not to mope about Headquarters.

After I finished my last entry, I asked Andrew what I could help with, and he assigned me to type up road reports. When I finished that, I asked again. "Man, now I know how Jory felt when I used to do that to him!" He assigned me to make a slideshow of our pictures from the trip to show at Leadership Camp. I worked on that for a long time. I finially finished the next day, just before Leadership Camp started.

That night after dinner, we went to this tiny [about 15 chairs at four tables] Baskin-Robbins to recap the mission trip and do paper plates. We talked over everything we had done, and it was good to remember all the details we had forgotten. Then we did paper plates. [At the end of a mission trip, each team member gives all the other members a paper plate decorated with what they're a Model of Excellence in (serious) and what they're most likely to become (silly).] Everyone had their own style, and it was neat to see how each plate was unique. Three people wrote about me keeping them going on makeup. [They were so SLOW! It took them about 15 minutes to put on their faces! So when they didn't have much time to put it on, I'd try to get them to pick up the pace. I do it all the time in Branson, but evidently they never put on makeup on a time crunch. :)] Andrew gave everyone the same plate on the front - it had a cloud following the van, Skittles, and a prop mallet [we left ours in Bakersfield and had to buy a new one at Wal-Mart], among other things - but different on the back. He said I was most likely to become an intern. :) [I'm inclined to agree.] Other occupations suggested were yodeler [I had to yodel a song for one of my letters], radio interviewer, and Olympic time keeper [for putting on makeup]. Fun.

I should have kept a list of what I gave everyone else. Here's what I remember. Mr. Brown - Goldilocks; Mrs. Brown - foser mother for teenage girls; Andrew - 5th member of Boyz in the Sink; Courtney - shower repairwoman; Emily - old-fashioned dress model; Olivia, Emie, and Rachel - don't remember. I'm trying to remember what I gave people for Model of Excellence. Andrew - Biblical insight; Mr. Brown - gentleman/father/driver; Mrs. Brown - kindness; Courtney - gentle (?); Emily - helpful; Emie - cheerful (?); Rachel - determined (read: stubborn); Olivia - can't remember.

Just passed Delaware Street.

Kristina lives about 10 hours from Calabasas [where Leadership Camp was held], so she drove down and spent the night with us girls at the Silvas'. That was fun. We used her alarm clock, but it went off 20 minutes late and we were scrambling to leave on time. When I got out of the shower, it was two minutes before we were supposed to leave. I packed up really fast and scrawled a thank-you note and missed breakfast, but we still ended up leaving 20 minutes late, and I left my toiletries bag. Such is life.

I rode with Kristina to Calabasas; everyone else was in the van. We had a good discussion. When we got to Leadership Camp I finished the slideshow, then stood around and waited for everyone else to arrive. Amy surprised me from behind, Jenny and I talked a bit, and I met Lizzy Armstrong.

Leadership Camp wasn't quite what I expected. For one thing, most of the HQ team (and former HQ team - man, it's hard to write that) did very little. Jenny and the Madrigals, to be exact. Jory, Andrew, Stuart Hughes, and Tim King did most of the talking and leading. Jory got sick on the 2nd day, and the other three did a great job of picking up the slack for him. Banner, Nation, and Lizzy also got sick, but they seemed OK by the end of the camp.

2/16

Fun mail time yesterday. I had to make up a song about pink lemonade to the tune of Blessed Be Your Name [with two verses and a chorus]. Fun. Personally I liked the chorus, but the verses aren't so good. [They actually gave me several minutes to write this out... a lot longer than I expected to have. Everybody seemed to think it turned out pretty good, although I wasn't too impressed myself.]

Soury sweet and watery
All different varieties
You know what I'm saying here
I'm talking about pink lemonade

Red yellow pink lemonade
Yummy lemonade
Red yellow pink lemonade
Yummy sweet lemonade

You know that I love the stuff
A girly pink that can't be beat
No other color can compare
To great pink lemonade

Red yellow pink lemonade
Yummy lemonade
Red yellow pink lemonade
Yummy sweet lemonade

I got a total of five letters! Two from Mom (including a 6-page Walnuts! [Walnuts on My Windshield, a humorous column that Mom writes for our family website]), one from Andrew [little Andrew, that is - my 7-year-old brother), one from Jenny (a valentien) and one from Mrs. Smith [Olivia Smith's mom, who had come out to training camp to help with the cooking but had left afterward]. Andrew got a big package from Jenny for Valentine's Day - he wouldn't let anyone see it. [We were really rushed this mail time - we had about 20 pieces of mail, and only about 20 minutes to sing for all of it. So some people got off really easy. There were some memorable ones, though. Olivia had to sing Happy Birthday to a tree whose name escapes me - picture at right. Andrew had to sing a love song to a Hershey's kiss for the aforementioned package.]

I'm done with schoolwork! Actually I finished on 2/14. Now I'm doing Road Report stuff instead. Andrew asked me to proof everyone else's! I had been doing that a lot anyway - I'm now the unofficial spelling/grammar/writing/Bible study answer woman and I had partially proofed a couple the night before [at the authors' request] - but I was still excited that Andrew asked me to do it.

Rumor is, we're doing paper plates tonight. I'm done with mine, but some of the others are doing theirs really elaborately and aren't close. We have an hour or so of school/paper plate/road report time left, so I hope they can do it.

I helped Emie with cube and quad roots today. Deja-vu. [I help Jessica with her math all the time at home.] I think she's got it, so that was good. It's kind of like logarithms when you think about. No, I mean that.

Had a two-day [workshop] with GIA (Grace in ACTION - Ventura) 2/14-2/15. About 1/2 public schooled, and a lot of new members. Taught five songs, and critiqued some they already knew. They did well.

We're staying at the Silva's. He is the co-director of the team, and she flew out to DC the morning after we arrived, because her dad is dying. :( They have four kids, two of whom - Amanda and Tiffany - are still at home and on GIA. AManda is 16, a veteran and one of the main leaders of the team.

Mrs. Brown, the former director of GIA, is chauffeuring us. This morning she took us to pick oranges at her neighbor's house. (right - Emie getting oranges from the top of a tree) They're going to be made into juice for Leadership Camp! [That's AIM's annual conference for team leaders in Calabasas, CA. It was also the last stop of the mission trip.] Cool, huh?

 Speaking of Leadership Camp, Andrew is swamped. As soon as I finish this entry, I'm going to go see what I can do to help him. Between the mission trip and preparing tons of stuff for Leadership Camp, he stays busy.

Jessica was at the office [AIM national headquarters, located in Branson] helping Tess [co-leader of the national ministry - Jessica and I try to spend a few hours each week helping her with paperwork and stuff]. She got to assign me to a cabin [at Leadership Camp]! She put me with Jenny. :) There are benefits to volunteering.

Our host home has the most annoying dog. She's a yappy poodle named Cha-Ching, and she's really grumpy. No fun at all!

We've been staying up way too late working on road reports and paper palets, 11:45 last night, 12:15 the night before. Since I'm the oldest, I've kind of made myself the boss at host homes, and it's hard to balance "we have to get this work done" and "we need to sleep a little bit too" [not to mention "we should really try to get to know our host family." Unfortunately, we didn't get to know them very well because we had so much work to do. We kind of got chastised for not spending more time with them. I understand why that's important, but it's really hard to find a balance between doing the homework that's due tomorrow and spending time with people.]

^ Photographic evidence... yeah, we really did stay up kind of late

Kristina [a former member of AIM Branson who is attending Bible college in Redding, CA] is staying with us tonight on her way to Leadership Camp, then driving with us tomorrow!!! I can't wait!

Going to try and help Andrew now. Bye!

2/14, 2:30 PM

On the way to Ventura. Did a two-day [workshop] in Monterey. We also did some sightseeing, but there doesn't seem to be all that much to see. [There was a small beach and a quaint little mall, but that was it.] I've decided I like Branson as a tourist town. All the others are so puny. (Below - at the beach in Monterey)

We're driving along the beach. It's pretty. The water is a gorgeous sapphire color. [We were supposed to be doing schoolwork at this point, but none of the girls were, because we were all looking out the window.] The natural variety in California is amazing. So far we've seen seashore, forest, desert, and everything in between. It's prettier than I thought it would be. And more rural. [I had expected lots of big cities. There were definitely plenty of them, but I was really surprised by how open and rural some areas were.] Lots of palm trees here. Very scenic.

In-N-Out Burger - a California phenomenon I haven't experienced yet. They're all over, though, and Andrew swears by them. We tease him too much. 3/4 of what we say is eather teasing of derogatory, and that needs to change. I need to change it.

Hat a great time with Grandma and the Joneses [my aunt, uncle, and cousins, who I visited while we were in the Bay Area]. Played wiffle ball, air hockey, shuffleboard, and bowling with Ian [my 12-year-old cousin]. Broke all the mission trip rules [writing a thank-you note, helping with dishes, saying "whatever's easiest for you," etc.], but I decided that it wasn't exactly a normal host home. Played Life by Rachelle's [10-year-old cousin] rules. Played Bridge - Uncle Milt and I creamed Grandma and Aunt Becky. [Bridge is an absolute obsession in the Roberts family. When she married into the family, one of my aunts made my uncle make a prenuptial agreement with her that she'd never have to play Bridge. Dad loves it, and we play all the time at home. I'm a pretty decent player, if I do say so myself.]

I need to write Andrew a thank-you note [for arranging my stay with my family. I kept meaning to do this, but never did, and now I kinda feel bad that I didn't, but it's also kinda too late now. Andrew, if you ever read this - THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!]

Picked up stuff for paper plate awards today. Also going... [had to stop in the middle of an entry. Not sure where we were going!]

2/11, 1:30 PM

In a toll line to get on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Stuck on math. I just don't get radians. I'll have to do that lesson over, I guess. Plus I just don't feel like figuring it out. I could probably do it if I had to, though.

Presented this morning at a Bayside that meets in a high school gym. Sound familiar? [We did our Sacramento workshop in a Bayside church.] It did to me, too. Bayside is evidently like Calvary Chapel but smaller - a network of churches.

Sat 2/10 - 11:30 PM

[We had a four-day workshop in Sacramento. This entry contains details about that workshop.]

I want to remember:
- Spy Kids/Shepherd of the Hills/Oompa Loompas/clowns/funerals [details of a funny dream that Emie had]
- karate and stinky feet [unfortunately I don't remember what this was about now. :( ]

Our public speaking class went OK. The kids had trouble with their scripts. [Each of our three students was supposed to write and present a monologue about how a certain Bible character showed faith.] One girl, Jessica, didn't finish hers until the 6th hour. [We had a total of six hours of class time.] I wish we would have been able to have more practice time. As it was, I wasn't really able to listen to the speeches morre than once or twice before the final presentation, and each speech had a couple things that could have been done better. Oh well. I think the kids did their best, and that's really all I can ask. I've been focusing too much on what Andrew thinks and less on the kids. It's like it's my show, my pass/fail test. [If Andrew likes it, I pass. If Andrew doesn't like it, I fail. I had to work on seeing success as "the kids learned a lot about public speaking," not "Andrew really liked their speeches at the final presentation." This is still something I'm working on. Below - one of our students presents her speech]

I think I personally am getting better at public speaking. Andrew called me up [at the final presentation] to introduce the public speaking class, even though he had specifically told me that he would do it. I think I handled it well, given the 10 seconds that I had to prepare. Another fun thing from this workshop was certificates [each kid received a half-page certificate saying how well they had done with the Scripture memorization]. They were printed during the last song, and folded and torn [we had no scissors] while Andrew tried to buy some time after the song. Michelle Otto [the director of the Sacramento team] helped. Without her I would barely have made it. We got it done!

Mail time! We had a couple good ones. One was in the car, where the Brown family had to do the Three Little Pigs + Goldilocks/Little Red Riding Hood. Mr. Brown was Goldilocks/Little Red Riding Hood. [He was supposed to be LRRH, but he thought he was supposed to be Goldilocks.] Ryan was the mother that sends them out into the wide wide world, Rachel [age 9] was the Big Bad Wolf, and the others [Mrs. Brown, Courtney, Emily] were pigs. Plus Andrew served as narrator and sound effects producer, and Olivia had a small part as Santa Claus. Classic. We got it on tape. :)

More classic: Andrew's single mime to the Boyz in the Sink theme song [for a package from Jenny], ballet to Alcatraz [letter from Jenny], and Ryan's tea party. All on tape, and as awesome as they sound.

There's SO much to write about, it's hard to decide what's most important. Yesterday we had three presentations at a Christian school and a four-hour workshop. That was really tiring. We actually had another girl present with us. Evidently she went on the Midwest [Mission Trip] last year but is too old to be part of the local team here, which currently has 9-13 year-olds. [She's 16 or 17.]

Tonight we presented at a Chinese church. It was neat. Andrew actually went up and explained it afterwards (in face) [because the lyrics were in English, and most of the parishoners only spoke Chinese]. We were presenting with several people from the local team, and everyone's makeup, minus Andrew's and Emie's, was horrible. One guy wiped off 1/4 of his and had to try and spread it back over. He only had half of an outline. Everyone's was thing, greyish, and uneven. The team didn't look that professional clothes-wise either - inside-out shirts, blue jeans. [In the picture above, our team is in mime shirts, and the local team is in ACTION shirts and t-shirts.] Oh well. It worked. [The presentation itself went pretty well. Andrew missed a big cue in Be Still, but other than that it was solid. Afterward, he admitted that he was pretty out of it. We razzed him about it for the rest of the trip.] Then we attended their youth group. The youth pastor has only been saved for a year and a half, but I admire his boldness and passion. He really tries. We played Bible Jeopardy. Our team won. Andrew said that he and I should be on separate teams, which I took as a pretty high compliment. All the questions were pretty easy.

Things I didn't know I was good at:
- The twist [AIM hairstyle]
- Writing thank-you notes [I wrote them at every single host home for the entire trip! I wrote one at the first house, and then the other girls wouldn't let me stop.]

I found out I'm staying with Grandma Roberts in San Francisco tomorrow night! Just me and her. I'm soooo excited!!!

It's 11:58. Olivia is switching our laundry. We have to drive at 9:45 tomorrow, and Emie wanted to get up at 6:30. We (especially I) were pretty harsh with her. I mean, that is really early, probably earlier then we really need to get up, but I could have dealt with it better.

I havent' been spending as much time with God as I'd like. I definitely need to catch up on Bible reding tomorrow. I'm 2-3 days behind. I'm doing OK, but I know I could do so much better if I was relying on God's strength instead of my own. So I really want to work on that. God is so awesome. I'm so glad I'm on his side. This is the life!

Tuesday 2/6

Was supposed to call home tonight, but forgot. It's too late now. Must remember to call in the morning. I have letters from Mom and Kaitlin at next mail time. Fun. [For those of you who don't know, when you get mail on mission trips, you have to sing, dance, or do something else really embarassing in order to get your mail. That "Fun" was sarcastic.]

Yesterday Andrew gave Road Report assignments. [Road Reports are kind of like journal entries about the different places we visited and things we did on the mission trip. They are published on the AIM website and on newsletters about the mission trip.] I have an easy one - Bible studies. I also have another job - to keep lists of all the songs that we teach and present at each location. Wow! [This was a huge job, especially since I got it halfway through the mission trip and had to remember lineups for all the presentations we had already done. Some people had saved lineups from some of the presentations, but there were several that I had to do from memory, including our 2 1/2 hour presentation with CIA. I turned it in, but needless to say, I'm not at all confident in the accuracy of that particular lineup!]

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Wed 2/7 [I'm putting this one on the same entry because it's so short]

Arriving in Sacramento. Wrote Road Report yesterday, then found out that I wasn't supposed to write it until I got some guidelines from Andrew today. [When I asked Andrew what I should do, he said to just turn it in as I had written it... he said he figured it would be OK the way it was. :) Evidently it was, because he only had a few notes on it.]

12 PM - Somewhere between Redlands and Bakersfield on I-?

Just passed Six Flags. Don't know which one, though. Andrew told us the rest of our itinerary last night. Can't remember it, though. We'll be in Bakersfiled today and tomorrow, then 4 days in Sacramento, then I don't remember. San Francisco, maybe? Andrew says the rest of the trip is going to be really intense and tiring, so he let us take it easy yesterday. We went to church, went to Wal-Mart, and then we were all required to take a one-hour nap there at the church! [Andrew and Ryan never did, though.] Then we helped clean their office building and participated in an evening Bible study. Very big on the original Greek - the whole study was basically on the word "charis," translated grace or favor.

The church we were at is a Foursquare church. Andrew knew the pastor. They sang a LOT of Chris Tomlin - I believe 4 of their 6 songs were by him. *censored*

Last night we watched End of the Spear. Pretty good, but a bit hard to follow, and it was pratty gory in parts. Definitely beats the last PG-13 I saw, though. [I believe it was called The Last Emporer, and it had some pretty risque stuff, plus some dark stuff about opium addiction.]

The night before last Courtney and I were in a host home with a family that had adopted five little Chinese girls. The youngest one was two or three, and such a little chatterbox. The oldest two are twins, and were part of our workshop on Saturday. We had some trouble with their shower - couldn't figure out how to turn it on. Good times.

Workshop Saturday went OK. Very young group. Ugh - just realized I already wrote about it. :) Going to do Bible reading now.

I thought it was 2/4 when I started my math earlier. Ugh.

Long workshop today. We were supposed to start at 9 but arrived late. Finished at 5. All told, ~7 hours of training. More on the workshop later.

A stomach flu seems to be going around. I can't remember the last time I had the flu - I always just get colds. Hope it stays that way. Emily B. has come down with it, and Emie is really sick. She was throwing up all last night, and didn't get any sleep. I had to help with some really gross [clean-up] jobs, and almost threw up myself. I think it was just the jobs, though. I'm not sick. But poor Emie is miserable. She spent several hours of the workshop trying to sleep in the van, and couldn't stand without getting dizzy. Emily was out of commission for quite a while, too. Andrew had other stuff to take care of, so that left Ryan, Courtney, Olivia and I to lead the workshop for a brand-new team of 15+ kids, ranging from 7 to 17 years old. Taught End of the Beginning, Be Still, and in the Light. Also two Bible studies - Speech and Life. Our skit on Life ["If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"] was a flop, but oh well. It has potential. Did a 30-minute public speaking class without Emie. I think it went pretty well, though.

^ Ryan (far left) and I (far right) teaching End of the Beginning

Ryan has this thing called the Ryan salute that he teaches every time we (he) do technique. It's so corny, but it seems to work. Random I know, but I don't want to forget it.

Carpal tunnel - too bad it's genetic.

Might write more if I have time later, after some more school and work on my next devo.

2/2 - Friday - 3 pm - Landers (aka middle of nowhere)

Just arrived. This is for the Truth in ACTION (TIA) team. They're all public schooled, and Andrew says some of them aren't saved! Wierd. [I later learned that while some of the students were not Christians when they joined TIA several months ago, all of them now have a personal relationship with Christ! Praise God!]

I didn't know there was any nowhere in California. But now I know there is. Imagine a scene from Arkansas or Kansas with prairie as far as you can see, replace the prairie with sand and low vegetation, add a house or two, and you have California nowhere.

We're staying at the Corralls'. Rebecca and Sarah are 18-year-old twins who were on CIA [the AIM team in Apple Valley] for a long time, up to a couple years ago, and went on the East Coast Mission Trip in 2005 with the Lyells, Amber, Kristina, etc. [friends from Branson]

Later - 9 pm

In the van on the way "home." Supposed to be doing schoolwork, but math is the only thing I'm not ahead in. Nope! May work on devo if I finish this entry before we get back.

Training TIA was interesting. Taught There is a God, What Would You Do for a King, Alcatraz. I have a lot to learn about doing the overall view on songs, even though that's probably the easiest part. Did the "put your finger on your nose if you're listening" thing for the first time. It really worked. I want to be careful not to use it too much, though.

Falling asleep in the van is becoming an issue. So is light. This is the second time we've done schoolwork in the dark. I'm fine, but the girls in the back seat can't see a thing. They're using a flashlight.

** censored **

2/1 - Thursday - 10:00 AM - Somewhere between San Diego and Apple Valley

So far so good. Still know what today is. Leaving San Diego. Andrew and Jenny are so cute. [For those of you who don't know, Andrew - the director of our trip - and Jenny are longtime AIM interns/staff members who recently started courting.] Especially Andrew. Yesterday we were sightseeing in this historical outdoor mall thing [Old Town San Diego] and Andrew said he needed to go into the candle shop. "Jenny loves candles," I whispered to Courtney. Sure 'nuff, Andrew picked out this big turtle-shaped candle. Hmm... wonder who that could be for. He gets red in the face when he's around her. It's kind of fun to giggle with the other girls about it, but I'm still trying to treat it with seriousness. Being in love is not all silly!

I'm now the official talker for our presentations. So far I've done two intros and several transitions in a long presentation. I was really scared at the beginning, but now I'm getting used to it. Great fodder for the public speaking class. Andrew says that at the beginning of the trip he was hoping I'd feel so guilty about the small team that I'd decide to present. He says now he's really glad that didn't happen, and I'm doing better than he would! Wow! [Looking back, I'm not sure how much of that was flattery and how much was actually the truth, but it was really encouraging either way!] Personally I think my transitions were pretty good, but intros definitely need some work. Plus I need Mr. Brown to be able to run the mp3 player for me. So far I've had to rush back to start the song just about every time. [As sound person, I sometimes had to do an intro and then run to the back of the room to start the music. I taught Mr. Brown how to do it, but there were a couple times when he couldn't figure something out and I ended up having to do it.]

Presentations. Tuesday evening - Teen Challenge. A girl who went on the Alaska Mission Trip with Amber - Amanda - works there. We presented for 30 minutes for a group of kids, and an hour to a very receptive group of young men. That's when I did the transitions. We closed with I Will Follow Christ and Jessie says that if she ever talks after that song she'll copy me! I really feel glad that I can be such a big help in this area.

Yesterday we had a morning presentation at a Christian school and an evening one at an AWANA - actually the one Andrew grew up in. I think he really enjoyed that. I think he's really loved showing off San Diego to us. Yesterday we did a lot of sightseeing.

I really want to be more of a mentor with the younger girls. Jenny challenged me to do this. She also said I should try to think about details for Andrew, because he's a big-picture thinker. I really want to do that too. I'm more convinced than ever that my strength is as an Aaron/Hur [a helper that comes alongside a leader to help them accomplish their mission - see Exodus 17].

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Thurs 2/1 - 5 PM - Somewhere near Apple Valley

I kind of had to stop in the middle of my last entry, because it was lunchtime.

I'm kind of concerned about my mp3 player. The battery is running out faster and faster every time, and we have a 2 1/2 hour presentation with CIA tonight! I sure hope it makes it. It's 3/4 full. It charges fast, but I don't know if there will be a place to charge it wherever we're going.

Worked with CIA today. Taught Does Anybody Hear Her and worked them into several of our songs; we're going to present with a combined team. I had to teach Take You. Mrs. Doemner (CIA director) tried to let me do as much as I knew, but that wasn't very much and she ended up teaching a lot of it. I think I did OK, though. CIA is a very mature team. Easy to work with.

Back to my thought about Aaron and Hur. I've been thinking about that more and more lately. I see so many leaders who need that. [Especially in AIM.]

1/30 - Tuesday

Andrew doesn't think we can keep up with the date for the whole trip, but I'm determined to prove him wrong. Have to keep in practice for stubbornenss, I guess. I'm also "practicing" by making Rachel go ahead of me at every meal. :)

We're in San Diego right now. Jenny and Jessie [AIM missions director and her twin sister, who live in San Diego] say it only rains in San Diego three days per year. Well, so far we've been here for two of them! We're staying at Stuart and Jessie's condo. They spoil us rotten. ("We" is the four official mission trip team member girls - Courtney, Olivia, Emie, and me). We had milkshakes, played a game, stayed up late. Jessie insists on doing our laundry and gave each of us a mission trip survival kit - Tic-Tacs, Puffs, etc. [I later realized that I left this at their house.] Discipline got thrown out the window last night and this morning, and a lot of it is my fault. As the oldest, most organized, most time-conscious, and the only one with any idea of what to expect [since my sister went on a mission trip last fall, and I went on one last January], I should have made everyone buckle down. Andrew said as much this morning. We were assigned 30 minutes of schoolwork, which not all of us got done, we got up late and moved slow, we didn't offer to help with anything. I feel really bad about it. It will definitely be better tonight!

Yesterday we left training camp. All the girls got carsick from trying to do schoolwork in the van on very windy roads. The view was awesome, but it mostly just made us want to puke. :) We stopped at Wal-Mart. I got ponytail holders, bobby pins, shampoo, and toothpaste (first two left at home [so I thought then; I actually found them buried in my duffel bag at the end of the trip], second two confiscated at airport). Then we came to this big church, where we trained the Youth in ACTION younger team for about three hours. Ryan did some technique, we taught What Would You Do for a King, and then they wanted to learn Take You [Take You At Your Word, a song with a bunch of hard-to-remember dance steps]! Fifteen little kids! Can you imagine 8-year-olds trying to learn that song? It was organized chaos, but Andrew said (and I agree) that the team (I didn't help much with that song) did a good job of keeping them under control. I was excited and pleasantly surprised to watch the team take to leadership and teaching so quickly. ** censored **

 ^ Youth in ACTION after learning Take You at Your Word

Then tonight we stayed with Stuart and Jessie. Jenny drove us over there. The rain was glorious. We were all soaked to the skin! [I have to add this, because I don't want to forget it. Courtney and I went for a run in the rain. We splashed and laughed and almost slipped. It was so much fun!] Jessie says Californians don't know how to drive in the rain.

Funny memories:
Jenny's scream after stepping out of her car into six inches of water
Jenny breakdancing
"We all need a vacation - our schedule is severe." [Long story, but I'm going to tell it anyway. A mission trip tradition is to thank the cooks by singing a song to the tune of "Good Morning, George" from the Veggie Tales Rack, Shack, and Benny.  The thank you song includes the first two verses of the song, but the third goes, "We all need a vacation / Our schedule is severe / We're getting very tired / But stopping gets us fired / So we'll have to stay right here." At training camp, we sang the thank you song, then sang the third verse to Andrew as loudly as we could. He wasn't too impressed.]

Emie seems to be getting over her homesickness. ** censored ** Being on the road seems to help her a lot.

It's pretty hard to do Math-U-See without the "see." I'm pretty self-sufficient when it comes to math, but I may be asking for help pretty soon. [I never ended up doing this, because I was pretty sure that nobody else on the trip would be able to understand it much better than I did. I didn't really understand all of the material, but I managed to do well on the tests (which were the only part that counted anyway).]

I'd better get back to school. It is schoolwork time, but since Mom basically commanded me to journal, I'm hoping it's OK. I also caught up on Bible reading. I read the first couple chapters of Brave New World, but now it's getting really wierd and I'm going to call home tonight and see if Mom'll let me skip it. We'll see. [When Andrew first saw this book in my duffel bag, he did a double take. Then he said, "Not the best book for preserving your innocence." He also said that if it hadn't been a school book, I wouldn't have been allowed to read it on the mission trip. After reading the first couple of chapters, I could see why. Mom eventually decided to let me skip this book.]

1/26

Much the same. Emily and I presented the first hour of our public speaking class. It lasted fifteen minutes. Learned more songs. Emily is homesick, but seems better after being allowed to make a special call home. She's a trooper. We had our first team devo [devotional] tonight. Started at 9:30 PM, after an hour of Excellence University [our Bible study curriculum] discussion. Emily feel asleep. We're all tred. It's after 11:00 now. Courtney and I are staying up to work on our devos. We have beds opposite each other, so we're laying facing each other and sharing this little flashlight.

** censored **

2/21/07

I just returned from the California Mission Trip on Tuesday. It was a blast! I spent four weeks traveling throughout California with ACTION Impact Missions, and it was a great learning and growing experience. We spend four days in training camp, learning the songs and skills we would need on the mission trip, then three weeks on the road and three days at AIM's annual Leadership Camp. Instead of trying to write out everything that happened, I'm just going to post my journal entries during the trip. Explanatory notes are in [brackets]. Oh, before I start, here are all the people that were on the trip.

Team members:
Me (Missouri - age 16)
Ryan Brown (Delaware - age 16)
Courney Brown (Delaware - age 14)
Olivia Smith (Kansas - age 13)
Emily (Emie) Voth (Colorado - age 12)

Other people:
Andrew (originally from San Diego, lived in Branson for two years - director)
Mr. and Mrs. Brown (Delaware - drivers and chaperones)
Emily Brown (Delaware - age 12) presented with us, but was not actually a member of the team
Rachel Brown (Deleware - age 9) was along for the ride!
Mrs. Smith (Kansas - Olivia's mom) helped cook at training camp, but went home after that.

^ Here's our team. Back, left to right: Andrew, Ryan, Mr. Brown. Front, left to right: Rachel, Mrs. Brown, Olivia, Courtney, Emie, Emily, me.

Oh, one more thing. There are some parts of my journal that are pretty personal, that I don't really want to share with the whole world. Those parts will be cut and marked "censored." If you're somebody I know, and you really want to know what it says, you can email me and ask. I reserve the right to say no, but you're welcome to ask.

Without further ado...

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1/25

Long day. It's 10:50 now and we've been awake since 6:30, partially due to certain Delewarians' jetlag. :) Learned 10 gazillion songs today. At least 12 - I lost count. Also received class assignments. Emily Voth and I have public speaking - 5 hours' worth. Fun. [We had three classes - mime, sign language, and public speaking - that workshop students could choose from. At the workshop, students would spend five hours in their class.] Actually it's not so bad. Emily is fun to work with.

More tomorrow hopefully. Girls are wanting for me to finish and turn out the light.