DR Work Day 1

We discovered our jobs for the week. We will be back filling the new pool here at Pico with mounds and mounds of earth. In addition, we are sanding and refinishing a fence that surrounds the camp. One of YL's mottos is that everything speaks - to the paint on fences down to the way forks are laid out. Here in the DR camp may be the equivalent to Disneyland in terms of its upkeep and presentation just because of some of what the day to day looks like for the youth that come here. It's a blessing and amazing to be apart of that story of these youth. Our Colorado students are feeling that impact - they are feeling that they truly are having a hand in youth meeting Christ at Pico by the work they are doing with a shovel and a paint brush. Work went well and we are making some serious progress. We finished the day by going into town, Jarabaoca, for the chicken man and some ice cream. They all loved the pollo and of course loved the ice cream as well - even though that was quite the experience trying to order and figure out the flavors. It was a great day, and now, we get ready to repeat it. A bunch of our Dominican friends are back working alongside us this year which is wonderful. Today we will try to push ourselves out of our comfort zones to struggle through any Spanglish we can muster up. Keep praying for us to leave the comfort of English and the ease of talking to one another. Pray for strength and energy as we go back to moving dirt, painting and working in the sun. Great times and great laughs have already been had - it's so great to be back.

DR 2015 Team Has Arrived

The DR 2015 Team has safely arrived at Pico Escondido. We have had a quick orientation and some free time to learn just how much you sweat playing basketball here and all about what real tropical insects actually are like :). We are about to sit down to dinner with our Dominican friends and our YL work boss's. It's great watching those that have been in the past include and introduce this wonderful place and these wonderful people to those who are here for the first time. We are excited for our week! Tomorrow we learn what exactly will be doing for our work projects while we are here. Until next time!

Arkorado 3.0 - Returning Home

We've missed many days of updates on the blog due to all the great, but exhausting, work we've been doing this year. It has been another amazing year in Arkansas where God has touched us and this community in amazing and transformative ways. Tomorrow we begin our last leg of driving from Oklahoma City to First Pres Colorado Springs. And due to the lack of updates make note of asking these team members to tell you about this wonderful people :: Kenny and Sarah Shaw, Rubye and Leroy Emerson, Cindy And Don Smith, Justin, Jason Martin, Charles Graham, Sandra and Alana, Jason Curtis and the Deer camp, and many other amazing people in McGehee! Also ask them about our final night together at the Oklahoma City Memorial Garden.

Blessed to be a part of these students journey with Christ! Thank you for entrusting us with their care and well-being. Pray for our remaining journey tomorrow! We shall see you all soon.

-Scott

Arkorado 3.0 - Day 3

Another fabulous day today here in McGehee! We celebrated the sabbath well today with food and fellowship! This morning kicked off the festivities with a potluck style nreakfast with the McGehee folks. After that we joined them for church where our own Nate Stratman and a few of our students took parts in contributing to the experience. From there we prepared for our evening activity - the grand ice cream social. The change this year is that we made our own ice cream. Seems like a simple event but like one of our awesome students observed - us being here and McGehee FPC providing the space and vision for this evening allowed for many different people from different walks of life to gather under the same room that really wouldn't happen at other times of the year. We spent time laughing, encouraging and experiencing life here in the south. We even got to see some of our friends from the Methodist church and our friends from the Vera Llyod home.  It really was a great way to start off our work week which begins bright and early tomorrow morning at 5:40am. On that note good night for now.

-Scott

Again, be sure to check out pictures and follow us on www.instagram.com/hsmfirstpres or on Facebook.

Arkorado 3.0 - Day 2

Day 2 started of great! Jack, our contact at First Presbyterian Church Oklahoma City, spent the morning visiting with us as we prepared for the rest of our drive. Before we left he gave us a your of their beautiful church filled with gorgeous stained glass windows. Pray prayers of thanksgiving over this church that have transformed their entire basement into a space for teams from around the country that are providing disaster relief in OK or that are passing through like us. It truly is awesome to see the body of Christ coming together like this - even over a simple thing like an overnight stop - it allows our youth the chance to see what other churches are doing in the kingdom! AWESOME!

After Jack saw us off we hit the road for our remaing 6 or so hour drive. And it was uneventful, which is great! Means no flat tires or anything of the like. On the great note - kids were filed with excitement that we would be arriving in McGehee later that evening and finally get the chance to see these people that we have been talking about for months.

When we arrived safely in McGehee we went straight to the Lucky's house who opened up their home to these stir crazy teens for swimming, tennis, and a place to get their first taste of southern fried chicken...mmm mmm good! On an added bonus, Zach's birthday is today! COS and McGehee combined together in celebration for his special day. Our college and Ark friends got a cake and Zach's parents sent some fun bday celebration gifts. Just was awesome to see a family singing together that spreads across state lines. If this coming together over a bday is signs of what is to come, then I couldn't be more excited for this week!!!!

More to come! For Zach's bday pic check out our instagram account http://www.instagram.com/hsmfirstpres

-Scott

Arkorado 3.0 - Day 1

Our first travel day went off without a hitch. A great first day of breaking down walls with strangers your sharing a very small can with for 9 hours does the trick!  Roads were clear and made good time for a stop at our favorite OKC mall for dinner and a little shopping. Thankful for the hospitality here at First Presbyterian Church of Oklahoma City for opening up their space to us! Even have real beds!!!! That was a wonderfully surprise!  That's all for now - tomorrow we make are way down to the great town of McGehee, Arkansas! So excited!!!

Dominican Republic 2014 - Day 5

Today marks our last work day at Pico Escondido. It was a very mentally and physically exhausting day. We were/are all very tired from mixing cement by hand - something we did yet again today. However, in the midst of that difficulty we were joyful and conversions were filled with laughter. Something great about cement work is that even though the work is hard, our progress at the end of the week is very obvious. While we didn't complete the entire amphitheater during our stay here we only left one step left unfinished. You can have a look at our before/after picture on Instagram.

We were able to end our work day early and spend some time in conversation about our pursuit of Christ while stretching our very tight and sore muscles. From there we finished the night around a campfire making s'mores. Not quite the same as the states - the chocolate has peanuts and raisins in it and the crackers are your traditional graham cracker - but as I am writing this I can hear much laughter over Spanglish that's being spoken and three different communities of believers coming together for one common purpose - to see Christ glorified. It's awesome! Our students have fallen in love with this place. It has allowed for walls to be broken between our team members and between two nations.

With that we look forward to a later start tomorrow as we head to our home stays. It's going to be a interesting experience this time around as it will be both our team of 10 and the other team at Pico (a team of 29) headed to Chulo's small town of La Vega. Pray for our teams to continue to have patiences with one another. Pray for Chulo and his leaders that are hosting all these Americans, that patience and meaningful relationships can be formed. Pray for the unexpected and uncertain to bring a response of willingness rather than bitterness.

We are all really looking forward to our home stays and getting a chance to truly spend time with a bunh of Dominicans. With that, internet connectivity will be uncertain these next two days. It all hinges in whether the internet is working at Chulo's house. If it isn't working, we should have internet at the hotel in a couple days.

With that, continue to cover us in your prayers for health, safety, and most of all - for Gods spirit to be evident in our lives.

-Scott

As always, check for pictures on www.instagram.com/hsmfirstpres