Thursday.

Today we headed to the beach! A much needed break! We had some sun and fun and a chance for the youth to write about their experience! Enjoy!

This week of Serve has been one of the best of experiences of my life! I have thoroughly enjoyed everything we've been doing. Coming into this trip, I was wary of being mixed with different youth groups. Then on the first day, I found out I was in a group with NO other people from Washington. I was not really looking forward to it, and kind of worried. But on Saturday, we did team building type games with our small groups, and I loved them. They have proved to be amazing, and I am so happy to have met every one of them. They are the people we've been working with at our worksites, and we've been meeting with them every night after worship and devotions. Speaking of which: worship has been absolutely amazing! We come to the front and just let it all out, singing and praising and worshipping. I have really been getting a lot out of it. I feel like I actually am meaning the words I sing. Tuesday night, we had this time of personal introspection and prayer, and that was very powerful. The actual work has been great too- I love talking to the 91 year old lady who's house my group is working at. Overall it has been a wonderful, powerful experience that blew my expectations out the roof!

Mara

Greetings from California! This week at SERVE, I've been working with a group from all over the continent.  We're working at a woman named Susana's house. We've tripped (or mauled) the trees surrounding her home, done some small repairs. At the moment we're working to redo their wheelchair ramp, so it isn't dangerously slippery in the rain. See, Susana's oldest son has cerebral palsy, and can't walk. We've ripped up the tiling and underlayment and are going to paint it with textured deck paint.  Susana is an amazing woman. Being a single mother of four kids would be difficult enough even without Miguel's disability. She is one of the happiest people I've ever met- she meets us with smiles and hugs as soon as we arrive and has made us food too. Susana is an amazingly strong person and it's an honor to help her out. My group and I (made up of Iowa, Florida, California, Washington, and Canada) have been led by our site manager Bryan. Without him I doubt we would have even known where to start.  So far, I've loved this trip and not just the new friends or free days we've had. The sense of community and worship really makes the trip. We are blessed with a great praise team and we've all thrown ourselves into the singing. I can't believe it's already Thursday and we'll be home on Saturday. We look forward to our next few days and will see you soon. Thank you for all the prayers and support! 

Cheers, Annika