Anyone could have felt the excitement in the room when Pat announced to us that we would be "suffering for the Lord in Orlando, Florida." There was so much planned and so much to do to fund this trip. Fundraisers, service projects, Pat's unusually long facial hair, and much done on our own time soon raised money for the missions trip. Despite some late problems (which Pat handled very well) , we found ourselves ready to go to Orlando. And we went. We had a lock-in where we were required to be awake until 2 A.M. so we would sleep in the vans. This included a camp-style competition with the formation of teams and competitions. It was fun. After prayer and the arrival of our drivers, we left for Orlando. I would say most of us slept till we were at least crossing into Kentucky. Chris W. and Josh broke any sleeping record. We arrived at our housing for the week at a descent time. We soon split to our respective houses. The boys' house was temporarily out of AC which required us to move to alternative housing for a couple of nights. (Most of what happened at the boys' house will be kept quiet. What happens at the boys' house stays at the boys' house.)
IN ORLANDO
DAY 1
I was awaken when Tim, a sponsor on our group, tugged on my legs which were hanging off of my undersized bed. I got up, put on my well-designed Orlando 2009 t-shirt, and joined the rest of the boys as we rode over to the main house for breakfast. Felicia, who saved us from fast food, cooked a good breakfast and soon we were off to attend church at Orlando Centre Pointe Church of the Nazarene. I enjoyed the service a lot and the people who talked to me were really excited and happy that we were there. We spent the afternoon back at the house to relax and get to know each other before the week started. We then set out to the First Baptist Church of Orlando for the missions project rally. There we met up with our other group from Franclay(probably not spelled correctly) and our servant coordinator, Brad. After our groups had a small meeting with Brad, I felt a whole lot more comfortable and reassured about what we were doing on our trip. We had our first debriefing when we went back to the house and I wrote down what my expectations were for the week. They were:
1. To work my butt off.
2. To glorify God in everything I did.
3. To try to get along with everybody. Becuase I am very hard to get along with. :]
In all truth I can get annoying.
I went to bed ready to give God all I had for the week.
DAYS 2-6
After moving my stuff to the boys' actual house, eating breakfast, and being apart of the group devotions (the last two we did every morning), we set out to see our worksites. We had two projects that needed different types of work. We met and split at the house that needed the most work. It was rough seeing this house. We wasted no time in getting demolition started. It was nasty and took a long time, but we finally finished the demo and started to get a feel of what we needed to accomplish. We were assigned to different jobs on Day 2. I, however, did not maintain one job for more than thirty minutes becuase I had either reached a point in the project where the project was ready to be taken over by someone with experience or if other people needed me to help them with something up high. Sometimes being tall can get annoying. I still had fun though. Tuesday night a girl in our group let out how she felt towards a certain event on our work site. This led to our "counseling sessions" which united our group very well. Being open and honest kept us from killing each other the entire week. Later we began to use the comforting "We understand your problems and we love you" term in our "couseling sessions." At the main site, where I was working, progress was really getting noticeable. Ken led in the kitchen remodeling, Tim led the bathroom remodeling, and Pat and Lance were all over creation. We worked very hard without air conditioning and it paid off. Soon after Brad's third "fudgy pop" delivery of the week, we finally finished. It was a pretty awesome week. One night during the week Pat had us say something positive about another person in the group or things we appreciated about that person. It was pretty awesome and took a very, very, long time. I went to bed that night thanking God for a wonderful week.
DAY 7
On Saturday we went to the beach. The day was pretty relaxing. While waiting for Pat to return from dropping people off at the airport we had a devotional and watched "Josh Bryson:The Real American Hero" on youtube. We were at Canaveral Seashore most of the day and had a really fun time. The ride back from the beach in the brown van was the best. My van consisted of Tim, Ryan, Tonya, Holland, Caitlin, Jessica, Ashley, Chris M., Nate, and me. Me and Chris had just eaten KFC (which will never happen again) and could not stop farting the entire way back to the house. On top of that Chris was singing songs about people using the tune of the song playing in the van. We also were just talking and having a really good time. At the gas station Jessica danced with a random person and Tonya showed us her dance moves. It was a pretty funny experience. That was pretty much the best van ride ever.
DAY 8-The Last Day in Orlando
On Sunday we packed up our stuff and headed to the Church of the Nazarene General Assembly Sunday Service. I was so tired I could hardly stay awake for the service. It amazed me yet again how big this small segment of christians was. I enjoyed the worship until I had to sit down. It was also exciting to see people from our church there. We soon left Orlando and I was personally thankful for my experience.
What I learned
God spoke to me a lot during this trip. I learned to trust God more in my situations and that He has a big plan for my life. I honestly have no idea what I am going to do with my career and no idea where I am going to go to college. There is stuff that seems to be going backwards in my life. It seems like I have nowhere to turn. But that is not true. God provided me with a great family, great friends, and an awesome church family. There is a verse in Habakkuk that really struck me when I read it:
Habakkuk 3:17-19a
"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep and the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
It is amazing to me how, no matter what the circumstances, God is still there to carry us through. We all need to have faith that God will fulfill his will in our lives. My church started the church year with the theme: Lives Changed, Lives Connected, Lives lived out. This missions trip changed my life and connected me with friends and more importantly with God. Now I want to live for God with all of my heart.
Joseph Taylor
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