Students, Day One

((I'm in charge of my team's blog/group on facebook, so I'll hopefully be posting there throughout the week and I'll share it on here as well!))


July 2, 2012 -- Team Update

Today was the day that the students all arrived! We had several students that came a few days early with family and siblings, but today was the first day that we had the whole team together for the first time.

As everyone arrived throughout the day, friendships were created as the kids waited for room assignments, explored the hotel and greeted new teammates. Our first time together as a team was at FUAGNEM - F.ired U.p A.nd G.oing N.uts E.very M.inute ((pronounced “fwaag-num”), where we worshipped our amazing God through worship with Tommy Bailey and celebrated our “Big Bertha,” our birthdays in Christ. {{I unfortunately could not be with the team at this time, as I was still working on registration for the last few students on the trip}}

After FUAGNEM, we had our first team time and split up into our “pods” ((small groups within the team)) {{see facebook pictures}} and got to know each other a little more. We watched a video of the drama they will be learning and then moved on to the drama try-outs.

Drama try-outs were EXTREMELY difficult this year -- everyone on the team is SO talented, that it was hard to narrow down the parts. As a leadership team, we cast the roles and I think that everyone will thrive in their role -- and every single part is absolutely crucial to the performance as a whole. Every role requires the talent that each of our kids possess.

We had our first tuck-ins/slap-ins and I loved getting to go around with the other female leaders to talk with and pray for the four rooms of girls that we have. Hopefully they won’t stay up too late, as we have the first shift for breakfast tomorrow -- bright and early at 6:45!

I’m so excited to see where this trip takes us all ((ok, we’re obviously going to Panama, but you know what I mean!)) We have such a great group of students and leaders and I can already tell that everyone is going to get along and work well together. I just know that God has big things planned for this group.
Please pray for health as there will be a lot packed into the next few days and we don’t always get our normal amount of sleep each night -- it’s just too much fun being around such good friends to go to bed :)