Mission Trip!

After our week of fun in Eagle Crest, our little family headed straight out to Monument, OR for a week with a group from our church to be a part of a mission trip! Our old pastor moved to Monument 5 (?) years ago and started a church over there. So that's our connection to Monument! It was fun to see him and his wife too! While we were there we put on a vacation Bible school for the kids (VBS), did some community work like painting, rebuilding a deck, etc. We had SUCH a good time making memories, building relationships with the families that went, as well as the kids in the community who came to VBS!

 My dad offered his sweet van for us to take! Saved us money on gas! :) And we barely fit with all our stuff!

 My poor, pregnant cankles! I did this a lot that week we were there!

 The kids all cozy-and doing fairly well for JUST having the flu!

Our first full day there was Sunday, and Pastor Ron (the pastor who used to be at our church) wanted AJ to lead worship that Sunday. I, along with some other gals, sang as backups. It was a sweet time of worship! Unfortunately, that morning AJ woke up feeling icky....as in the flu icky. By God's grace, he made it through Sunday morning and even a potluck that the church put on for us after church! After that he went downhill fast :( He spent the rest of Sunday and into the evening throwing up. Did I mention yet that we were all (my family) sleeping in the same room in the local high school in Monument?! When we went to bed that night, we walked in our room to AJ over the garbage, and Lily started crying, "I don't want to hear him doing that!!!" I said, "Me either!" Thankfully, the bug was only 12 hours so by morning he was doing better. I, on the other hand, fell to the flu as well. Thankfully, I only threw up once-praise God! It's no fun doing that while 7 months pregnant! I laid in bed the rest of the day, bored out of my mind with no tv or movies! But, it was nice to nap whenever I wanted. My hips were sure hurting by the end since I was laying on foam pads as my bed. And after that day I felt great! Unfortunately, our family passed this bug around to everyone else! Out of 9 families, only 1 family escaped without getting sick. There was at least 1 person in each family who got it. We felt terrible but they were all SO sweet and not blaming us-even though it was totally our fault! But, through this trial we were able to see God work in our group! We came together and filled in for one another if someone was sick. AJ was the teacher for Bible time, so on Monday instead of him leading (because he was still feeling tired from being sick the day before) someone else taught for him. It was like this with the other people as well. And even though I had thoughts of "why is this happening?!", I was able to see God do amazing things and make me rely on Him more! So, even though it was bad people were sick, God worked out all those details-as He always does!

 Me and some sweet girls from our church!

 The ladies of the church in Monument setting up all the delicious food for us! The gal on the right hand side in the front is Kara. Her husband is the science/math teacher at the high school. Anyway, she heard I was sick and came over and brought me chicken broth and toast. How sweet is that?!! That a total stranger would do that. Gotta love that small town feel and the fact she loves the Lord. :)

Playing games while we waited to eat.

 Love this picture. A bunch of kids from our church plus some kids from the community. The great thing about kids is they can just play with whoever and whenever-even if they know them or not! Can you spy Lily in this picture?!

 This was Tuesday, when AJ was finally well enough to teach! Each day he dressed up as a new character. This day he was Mr. Athlete. Check out his amazing mustache! Which he applied with a hot glue gun!!! I'm not joking!

 And my grumpy son hanging out with his silly dad. Oh Jameson. He had a hard time on this trip. For some reason, he decided to enter this new, clingy phase! He cried if he was away from AJ or I for even 2 minutes. I was a bit tired of him acting this way, but we made it through the week!

 Me and my not so handsome husband :)

 One day after VBS, we invited the kids in the community to the school (where our group was staying) for a giant slip-n-slide!! So fun!

 Lily and her new friend that she made at VBS.

And there's Lily!

 This is the local high school and our "home" for the week! We slept here, ate in the cafeteria, showered in the gym, etc. It was great-minus walking down 2 flights of stairs in the night to get to the bathroom. Oh well! Fun fact, for grades K-12, there are only 47 students. Next year there will only be 1 senior. Crazy! The highschool had 4 classrooms in it. But it's a nice building!

 Jameson's crabby face. We saw this a lot too! 

 The kids singing fun VBS songs!

 The songs were Jameson's favorite part! I was a co-leader of one of the groups of kids and he just stuck with me. He was a bit hard during the Bible teaching time, but did well for the most part for the rest of it!

 And Mr. Athlete again singing songs!

 How cute is this church?! This was the church our old pastor started. It's grown quite a bit since they've been over there!

 The last day of VBS, we invited the families of the VBS kids to the park that night for a BBQ. AJ lead some songs for people to sing after we ate.

 Jameson listening-he loves his helmet!

The kids singing songs for their parents! Jameson and Lily are both in there, but they're kinda hard to see. 

 Egg toss!

My Lily with her new friend Lilly.

Those are just a few pictures of our week! Besides the getting sick part, it was an amazing week and we hope to go back sometime!! We learned a lot, grew as a family, and were able to see God work in all of us!