photo dump!

We're going to hit you with a lot of pictures this morning. Along with our beach time, teaching time, etc., we also headed to the dunes of a local state park (tallest on the east coast!). So far in our study of the Shepherd's Tide - 2 tim 2:13 - we've talked about the faithfulness of God to make us righteous (or right). Today we will look at the faithfulness of God to make us compassionate. Enjoy the pictures!

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First full day at the beach

Well, long day of travel on Sunday and a morning of travel yesterday. We got to the house around noon and unpacked. Some kids went out to the beach while others hung around a bit and relaxed after all the driving. We went food shopping and organized everyone into rooms. Last night we had our first worship session: becca and I alternated leading singing and I focused on the core teaching of the faithfulness of God from 2 Timothy 2:13, which is our week's theme. After the teaching the students broke into small groups and talked about "low tide," which is the specific ways they recognize their need for God's grace this week and they prayed together. Afterward some kids played cards, others worked on a puzzle and still others just layed on couches and talked. Really good times. Oh, and our not-senior boys cooked and cleaned. They've got duty again tomorrow.

Today will be our first full day in the OBX. Below you can see our daily schedule:

8:30-9:00: breakfast and "high tide" (a devotional i share with the students about the goodness of God)

9:00 - noon: Beach time

noon-2pm: lunch together, devotions, small groups

2pm-4pm: beach time

4pm - 6pm: community bonding experience. Today we're headed to the dunes.

6pm-7pm: dinner

7pm-9pm: Praise and Worship, "low tide"

9pm - 11:59pm: Late night group and free time

Midnight: lights out!

more pictures to come...

Still moving

Enjoy the pictures below. Today was the annual "church day" at the Edge where our group is free for a couple of hours to do whatever we'd like to do together. In years past we've hiked to the bluff for a great view of the valley. This year we decided to visit Cloudland Canyon State Park, a 30 minute drive from campus. We hiked down a waterfall trail and spent a couple of hours swimming in fresh water ponds. A really beautiful and fun day!

Pray for us as we go whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River today...

day 2

Day 2: water day, worship day, superhero dance party day, beautiful day...day.

Yesterday was a blast, and busy. Finally able to post pictures so get ready:

Tricia and Bailee getting ready for the Superhero (sweaty) Dance Party

The Wayne Kerr Band is back this year. They've been fantastic so far.

I really don't know what they're doing here. I think this happened during the leader meeting

The girls having their small group time on the lawn. It was a gorgeous day

Alex making good use of his parents' hard-earned money

This is me yelling. I think i'm taunting another team competing against us. This happens sometimes.

We're trying to figure out this thing where we raise our hands during worship. Not our thing, but we're trying.

On the drive we took a really sharp incline. Or i forgot to rotate this one.

Faith writing a letter in case she doesn't make it back home. Emily with her game face on.

Alex getting schooled on the court. This girl was very good. This was only one of her successful three-point-shots.

Neil with intensity. They boys won one and lost one.

WaterFest Pictures a-plenty. Faith is sure this is fun. Bailee, not so sure.

Steal the bacon on a wet, soapy tarp. Not pictured: sweaty, soapy mess.

Wise people look on.

Just a couple of the characters they're using to drive home the point of gospel heroism

Here I'm receiving a complaint about an injustice i've caused. This also happens from time to time.

Tug-O-War with an innertube. Our girls dominated our boys in this event.

Domination, again. But, as you can see from the smiles our boys didn't mind losing to the girls, for some reason.

Getting ready for another event.

Jordan was key to our victory here. Steady...

Victory

They brought in a Water Truck to wet down the giant slip-n-slide

Tyler showing perfect form

Aftermath of a collision.

Alex kind of riding this the wrong way

That's better

This is the only event i was forced to take on. It was messy.

meals together.

up and at 'em

Hello everyone! We've had a great week so far. Technical difficulties will prevent us from posting pictures until at least tonight, but here's our daily schedule so you can know what we're doing at a given time:



8am - breakfast

9am - morning meeting (music, worship, some wake-up-right-now types of activities)

10:45am - small groups/devotionals (everything focused on what we heard during the morning meetings). This time is usually out in the beautiful sun on the lawn in front of the chapel - overlooking chattanooga valley from the mountain. nice.

11:30am - lunch

1:30pm - large group game (today it's "water wars"). Tomorrow is our church time during large group. just our crew will hike to an overlook and hang out together. We'll also take our group picture there.

2:30 - 5pm - tournaments and hang out time

5pm - dinner

6:30pm - Lawn party. This year at the lawn party they will be attempting to break a different guiness book of world records um, record. They have a TV crew here to record the attempts and the Guiness people are on hand to make sure of things. No kidding. Last night we set the record for the largest game of duck-duck-goose. Our own Kelsey Hanson was the first to roam the outside of the circle. With 800+ in attendance, that was quite an honor. Incredible stuff.

7:45pm - Evening meeting. We have an incredibly gifted pastor teaching this week. His focus is on being a "hero" for God - right from the text of Hebrews 12. Our evening meetings are heavier on teaching and praise/worship time. The kids really sang well last night.

9:45pm - small group reflection. We divide into guy/girl small groups and talk about the message

10:30pm - Edge After Dark. Last night we had a crazy game of "protect the light." the kids had to protect the leaders carrying candles up to the chapel from the gym. Edge workers were attacking the candles with waterguns. We decided to borrow from the Romans and Greeks and create a Phalynx, protecting the core. We got very wet, but were very dedicated on the long, eventful walk.

12am - bedtime. really.



Hope that gives you an idea. Pictures hopefully soon!

JK