Servant of God: Serve 2016

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Serve 2016 – Training Day

We had our all day training for the 2016 Serve Team on May 14^th. We hosted it at Faith which meant our youth had the opportunity to come early and stay late and serve the group throughout the day. They jumped right in with such a great attitude and each person did their part in getting ready for the day.

Some of the girls posing before setting up for the day...

After getting everything set up we were ready to welcome the various churches to Faith. After a quick stop for donuts we met up in the main sanctuary for a time of worship and messages that continued throughout the day.

I loved the times of worship...

We also have various mixers so that the youth could meet people from other churches and get to know them a little better. We were able to hear what God was doing in their lives and why they decided to go on Serve. It was great to mix up a bit but also challenging for some of the shyer students…

Mixing up with strangers... who are now friends...

I snuck out a little earlier to help set up for lunch which was pizza from Costco… yummy. It was great to see how the youth continued to mingle with other groups during lunch time even though it wasn’t required… I am excited to see how these friendships continue to grow during our two week trip to Mexico. We were also able to get in a Team picture with everyone but one of the youth who was home sick.

Bonding around food...

Team Picture... I love this team..!

We met back up for more teaching and worship sessions followed by some of the rules and expectations with packing and while at Serve. They were definitely ready for some snacks after those sessions… it was quite the variety… I enjoyed some Mexican suckers of mango with chili powder.

More training and preparation...

Some of the guys enjoying a snack...

We did some more mixers in groups before the leaders were called out for a quick leaders meeting and the youth continued to mix up (I think). What a group of leaders we have going down to Mexico… I am excited to see what God is going to do in our lives as well. Afterwards, we had one more group session before the event ended.

Leader's meeting... getting on the same page.

Our team stayed to help clean up and prepare the church for Sunday morning. Once again they jumped right in to help. We ended our day together celebrating Erica’s 16^th birthday since it was her actual birthday. All in all we had an amazing day together and I went home exhausted but excited for our trip in July.