First Day Wrap-up

Hello everyone! I'm currently sitting at Red Cup, a very Austin-esque coffeehouse here in Oklahoma City that has the free wi-fi I need to set up our blog. Here's a recap of what's happened so far:

We left UCC around 2:30 on Sunday afternoon, traveling in two rental vans and the Borders' SUV (filled with luggage). All was going well until we got within a few miles of Gainesville, where a lane closure had traffic slowed to a crawl. We spent about an hour inching along, watching state troopers run down cars that cut across the grass to the access road. As a driver that was helpful, because it kept the youth in my van from continually asking me to do the same thing. "See what happened to that guy? That could be us." Eventually we made it to an exit, took an alternate route to Gainesville, then hopped back on the interstate just past the road construction. After that, it was an uneventful drive through Oklahoma.

We arrived at First Christian Church of Edmond around 7:15 p.m. and unloaded our belongings into our sleeping rooms in the church's family life center. After a quick tour from the church member who greeted us, we had a pizza dinner and then spent some time playing games in the gym together. Our two summer interns, Whitney and Nikolee, planned our evening worship services prior to the trip and put together a curriculum for our small groups. They settled on the theme "Thirsty," and each day will focus on a passage of scripture that centers on water. After gathering for a worship service that included scripture, singing, and communion, our youth and adults split into two small groups to discuss the theme and share their hopes for our time together. Afterward, we settled down for the night at a decent hour.

Our group was up around 6:30 on Monday morning, and after throwing on some clothes we headed over to "Breakfast on Boulevard," a ministry of FCC that feeds people every day in the church basement. The crowd includes college students from down the street, homeless neighbors, families trying to make ends meet, and others who need a good, free meal for one reason or another. We enjoyed pancakes and sausage and shared conversation with several diners from the community before heading back to the family life center. After we finished getting ready for the day, we loaded up and made our way to the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma.

I'll be posting again this evening or tomorrow morning to let you know how our day of work has gone. Feel free to post comments on the blog to let us know you're reading or to pass messages along to folks on the trip! Also, check out the photo gallery by clicking here.