Hey there folks,

First, I must apologize. I called my wife when we got to Augusta, but I did forget to send an email to or call one of you parents. And the kids knew we would be limiting their cellphone usage, and apparently, they were obedient with regards to this rule! Amazing! But I do apologize. We are here and we are safe!

Friday night was quick and fun. We arrived, unpacked, got acquainted, watched some safety videos (very funny stuff), had a lesson (by Rev. Mary Catherine Enockson), met our work groups, worshiped, and hit the hay. It is a great community that we have for sure. We have 39 youth, with nearly 60 people total.



Saturday, we woke up at 6:15am...can you believe it?!? We were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for breakfast. We were treated with some great yummies. Rev. Joseph Smith lead a lesson and then we had some brief small group time to reflect.

We split into three groups: one working at Ms. McKinnie's home, one at Mr. Richard's home (I think), and the third at the Augusta Urban Ministry. The groups were split up randomly, while keeping some familiar faces in each group.

I was in the group at Ms. McKinnie's home (so at this point, I only have pictures of that work site). We scraped paint and washed the siding. That took the whole morning and some time after lunch. After that we began priming the home. We still have some priming to do, but we are well on our way to having the home painted by Tuesday morning.


It is a humbling experience to put your own sweat and hard work into improving the quality of life of a person less fortunate. I think many of the youth were surprised at how bad of shape the home was in. In many ways it is like putting a bandaid on a gushing artery. But our presence is important, and even though there are other issues to address, it makes a huge difference to a person when their home's appearance is improved (paint also protects wood from the elements). It lifts their mood and spirits, and can have a huge impact on how they approach life.

There were many other lessons learned, and lots of hard work performed. This is a great mission trip in that they are not only providing a service, but they are learning about why we do mission, and why we have work trips. We are also having fun. There are hand prints painted on the backs of shirts, and even paint on faces. The food has been phenomenal. The people have been soooo hospitable. I will probably write a dissertation at some point about everything, but only so much can fit in one blog post!

Tomorrow is re-creation day. We will worship, we will sing, we will play, we will eat, we will swim, we will partake in a minor-league baseball game, and more worship and lessons. Hopefully, I will post again tomorrow night, so it will be waiting for you Monday morning. Here's some more pictures...(check out the end day pic of the home...the beginning pic is above)
























































Thanks again for letting me borrow your kids. They are awesome! They are cool! We are blessed to have such great youth associated with St. John's. I am very proud to take them out into the world to explore living in the way of Jesus.

Blessings,
dorian