We're home

Just a brief message to let everyone know who's following this that we have safely arrived home. The students will share from this trip, and all their summer adventures at Sunday night worship on August 2.

Aaron's thoughts on today

As I sit, lashed to this chair, Kyle leering over my shoulder, I would just like to say that he is the greatest minister of all time and that he deserves all of your love and respect for all time. I would like to go on to say, em pleh esaelp, that if you ever have any doubts about his competence, they are so very, very, very off base...

I say that to say, of my own accord, that I really don't have much to say and I really don't know why I even volunteered to do this. And I think that that's been the point of this trip to me. The great revelation that God gave to me is that it doesn't have to be anything great. The things we really need to know about Him, we don't have to go to school until the twenty fifth grade to find out--any fourth grader can tell you that Jesus loves everyone and because of that so should we, even when they destroy the bathrooms and leave huge piles of spaghetti sauce all over the floor. I spend too much time focusing on 'deep subtleties' and not on what God wants out of me. All of this nothing that I feel like is going on is to almost offset how off-track I've gotten in a search for complete and total truth of some sort of super-high level. It's God's way of telling me, "Stop thinking so much and start listening and doing. You should have done the latter without neglecting the former."

And plus we worked in the sun and it rained.

One more thing....

I almost forgot! Today we also got to meet one of the owners of the house we're building! She was a really nice and appreciative lady, and was very glad to have us!
-Zack

Zack's post

So today was a little bit different than the previous ones.. Today was the first day in a LONG time that rain was in the forecast for the area I think. We started out the day as usual at 6:30. It's early I know. When we got to the work site, the sky was looking a little bit dark. The first thing we did was fix some of the structure of the walls we've already built. Shortly after starting, we saw the first of 4 waterspouts! (tornadoes over water). They were really fascinating!! I remember 2 years ago in New Orleans a waterspout was seen near our work site, and I missed it! But this year, not only did I get to see one, but 4! :-) One was a really good one; touching all the way to the water. The waterspouts came in twos. There were two storms, and two waterspouts in each. Because of the storms we had to halt all construction and go underneath the house. (In Crystal Beach, all the houses are on at least 10 foot stilts.)Surprisingly when they said everybody go downstairs, according to Kyle, it was almost an instant stop and go. In between the storms and lunch/breaks we got the structure fixed and 4 interior walls I think. We ended the work day a little early however due to the lack of a certain kind of wood. This afternoon was pretty low-key. A few people walked to the beach, but most of us just took our showers and relaxed. Lyle made some awesome keish (sp) for dinner. Lyle's been awesome this trip! At about 7 we went to the local store to get, well whatever..ice cream, chips, mt. dew, gummies, etc.. Probably one of the best parts of the day just happened! So Lyle and a few of us helped clean and repair FBC Crystal Beach's cotton candy maker. With this he thought it would be great to make some and completely cover Michael with it. That's exactly what we did! With Kacy and Lyle's help, he soon became a white and pink cotton candy monster! Lol. We then took turns peeling or eating the cotton candy off of him. It tasted really good! We then asked the other church staying here to have some Michael cotton candy, and they loved it! It was a great time of joy and fun! You should be seeing pictures/videos on Facebook! Guaranteed! Well, buenos noches!
-Zack

kyle is making me do this... kacy

Hey! Ok so Kyle isnt making me do this i decided to do it all on my own. The trip so far has been amazing even thought we got off on a rough road. I dont sit well so it was hard to not have anything to do the first few days but once the work came in i was a happy camper :). Just a little bit about what we are doing here: we are working on a house that when we got here it only had a floor... now if you dont know the houses here, well the are not on the ground. this house is about 14 feet above the ground. We use ladders or if your one of the Decker kids (and a couple others) you just act like a monkey and get up there. We have an awsome supervisor named Mike. Hes a little crazy but they kinda have to be to work with a group like ours:). We are having a very fun time but its still very tiring. God will provide and give us the energy to get this job finished thought which is amazing. We have done very good at staying injury-free and hydrated... well most of us! Michael thinks its a good idea to hit his head once a day. Yesterday he hit his head on one of the floor beams under the floor and today he hit himself in the head with a hammer... no worries though he has a hard head. He has to to live with me:)! Pray for strenght as we finish this week and that we can go a way with something not just the people who we are building a house for.

I love you mom, dad, tiff, hannah, and megan!
kacy

Brandon's Random Thoughts of the Day.

It's too early... 5 more minutes Micheal... zzzz...
Yumm... Breakfast is AMAZING Lyle! oh look, COFFEE!!!
It's too early to work. Oh well. It'll be fun.
stupid sunscreen... (grumble grumble grumble)
gotta refill water container.
job's done. gimme something more to do.
ouch! hit my thumb. stupid hammer.
gotta refill my water again.
YAY TEXAS!!!
neighbors need help. I wanna help! yay!
I hope my tanlines aren't too bad after today.
nother refill...
Break for lunch!
Back to work! where's my hammer?
Who here's allowed to run a nailgun?
This is fun!
second wall up. this is finally starting to look like a house now.
time to go to the beach and cool off!
ahhh... refreshing...
hey, there's that guy that stopped us the other day and talked to us about Eugene. He's nice. Apparently Eugene helped them with something and left quite an impression both for god and christians.
oh! supper time! gotta go! love ya!

Kyle again

Yesterday/today was great...

Yesterday we went to church with an old friend of Nancy. It was youth Sunday so our students got to worship with other students leading them. And the youth pastor preached. We were all amazed by how God has given the youth pastor the gift of preaching. He did a great job.

Then we went to the Johnson Space Center in the afternoon. My inner (some would argue outer) nerd was going crazy. I think space exploration is really cool. To see what God has made from the unique perspective of being 200 miles above the earth is something that I would like to do. And the science of how NASA does all this stuff is fascinating. And rockets are cool.

My observation was that NASA claims their doing all this stuff in the name of science, exploration, knowledge, good of mankind, etc. But the next space missions to the moon that NASA is developing is codenamed Ares. So we are going to go back to the moon in the name of the mythological god of war. Doesn't really communicate "in the quest for knowledge." More like, "Hey moon, we're here to conquer and enslave."

The other cool thing about yesterday was how many of the astronauts were men of faith. I guess when you see the earth from the perspective of outer space, you can't help but believe in God.

Today was great. We got a lot of work started on a house which was essentially destroyed to the slab by Ike. The piers were set and the floor was already partially in place, but that was it. Nothing but a slab of wood twelve feet in the air. Today we tore out all the scaffolding and recycled all the lumber (which is the nail removing that Ashton referred to). Then we built and entire wall and raised it old fashioned Amish style. Tomorrow will will finished the floor and the other three walls.

Continue to pray for us that we would have good spirits and will follow Christ when it is easy to be selfish. Another church arrived today and we are now in very cramped quarters, so patience from the Holy Spirit would be much appreciated.

Ashton's thoughts on the week

Hello Missouri :)
Today we woke up and had amazing biscuits and gravy, bacon and sausage, and watermelon. We waited ‘til the man in charge arrived to the church and talked about our mission. We drove a few miles and got to our work site. It was really sandy. We took off the scaffolding and took a bucket full of nails out of the boards. Then, we ate our lunches. We then built a wall out of pink wood and put it up. :) We got back and some of us went to the beach. Then we ate awesome dinner.
How to pray for us these next few days:
Drinking WATER
SLEEP
Patience
Getting along with the other youth group staying at the church
Keep the bugs away!!!!!
Keeping up with sunscreen
Safety
Happy spirits
I think yesterday God really blessed us with the church we went to. It was a really great service and a great way to start off the week. I was really happy with the service :)

Ashton
Hi

Eric talks about yesterday.

Yesterday we had to get up and eat at 6 so that we could make it to church in Pearland at 9. After the service, we went to Johnson Space Center in Houston. That was a lot of fun, but got boring after a few hours. The center was geared more towards kids; there was not much for us older people to do. We were there for just over 5 hours, then went to Gringos. It is a Tex-Mex restaurant, which was interesting for me, as I don't like Mexican food. They had amazing tortillas and free ice cream, among other things. We then made the long bus ride back. We went around to the peninsula instead of across the ferry, because we were a lot closer to the land route and wanted to see some new scenery.

It was a lot of fun, and we can't wait to start working this morning.

Kyle thinks summer is getting longer

Today was great. I just want to clarify something that Katlyn said...we aren't on an island. Crystal Beach is on a peninsula. So one way to get to the church is to take a ferry across Galveston Bay. The other way is to drive around Galveston Bay and approach from the east. Either way, we're spending a long time on the bus.

Coincidentally, the name of the peninsula is Bolivar Peninsula. I had no idea until we got here. Almost feels like home with all the Bolivar signs around here. Except that there is a beach...and lots of seagulls.

Today was a day of getting settled and preparing for our week. Tomorrow will be a Sabbath day...we attend church down here and then visit the Space Center in Houston. Then Monday we hit the ground running.

Pray that we get rest tonight and everyone is already tired from our travels.

Katlyn's Blog

Hey friends and family!

Day 1. We roll out of bed around 7 a.m. and begin our sunny Saturday! We showered and such to start out the day. Then our scrumptious breakfast was served at 8. At 10:30 we headed out to begin the day. First, we enjoyed sitting in line for about 500 hours, while waiting for the ferry. Then, when we FINALLY boarded, we all got off the bus and had a nice little trip across the ocean and eventually reached the other side . Being in the back of the bus, I had no idea where we were going or what the plan was, but I had a lovely view of the beach/ocean all the way to Wal*Mart! We shopped for food and got other little things we needed. This next activity we all completely anticipated: waiting in line for the ferry, again!!!! Oh wait, no. On the plus – it does make a great time for napping. Once we returned back to our little island, we dropped off our food and a few people and made our way to the beach - one on the island (so, no ferry was involved!). We relished the warm weather and refreshing water, while some of us just thought getting injured would be FAR more fun. Don’t worry, it was just me and it was really just nothing. I was trying to be talented at something and only ended up being completely uncoordinated! I scraped my knees – it’s all good now – don’t worry, mother (or anyone else!). Once we came back from the beach we got ready for dinner…which was being prepared while we were away. We had some DELICIOUS pasta!!! And I’m not really a fan of pasta, but man that was great! We have a fabulous cook/ workers! Thanks!! That evening we spent time fellowingship-ing and card playing the night away! Today was the perfect day to relax and prepare for the strenuous week ahead! Well, goodnight to all!! Love you: Mom, Dad, Kyla and Kyle!

We made it

Good morning. I just wanted to give you a little info about today. We are going to take a look at the hurricane damage first hand and spend some time getting settled and accustomed to our new surroundings. Pray for us today as we make plans for the rest of the week. There isn't any wireless here at the church, so I will only be able to post when the office is unlocked...not as much as you'd like me to update for sure. If getting into the office proves to be a problem, then I'll just update the phone recorder line.

I've got to go make my lunch.

Kyle

Praise God!

It seems that every hour that the trip approaches, we add another student. We are going to take quite a number for sure.

I'll blog more when we arrive. See everyone at 6:00 AM tomorrow.