Thank you for laughter and clear water

Mmm... I love Thanksgiving Dinner. Thinking about Thanks-giving, I am so thankful for this great community I have become a part of and all the sweet things we get to do together. Sweet things such as.. a sailing trip! We spent 5 days at sea aboard the Pacific Grace with the fantastic SALTS (Sail and Life Training Society) crew. It was such an awesome experience as we literally became a part of the crew to help with various things on the boat. Whenever we hoisted the sails or weighed the anchor, it required all hands on deck to get the job done. I even swabbed the deck (which is done in real life and not just the movies). We were also divided up into watches (mine being Port Watch) and when we were on watch we did different jobs such as steering the boat (my favorite!), bow watch, stern watch, and radio. I can also say I am now a certified Junior Sailor with SALTS! We had lessons everyday about emergency situations, chartwork, right-of-way, and knot-tying in which we got tested on afterwards. Most of the time on the boat you would have seen me tying knots in my effort to remember.
Something that was amazing--the food! Everytime we ate a meal we sang a prayer, which was a fun change of pace. We sang songs of Johnny Appleseed, the Superman prayer, thank you for laughter and clear water, and many more. Sometimes we also got a story from our watch-leader, SamIAm! (With that reference, guess one of the stories we read).

My favorite times on the boat would have to be:
Rowing the dories out to the nearby islands-- We became very familiar with the term "Pan-pan" during this time because we were so close to capsizing the "untippable rowboat". The islands were fun to explore-- the first one had a bunch of cool abandoned cabins and starfish all on the beach. The second one had a neat orchard with apple trees.
Night Watch-- first night with Claire, and second with Kristie. Great conversations here.
Climbing up the shrouds to the very top!-- Such a nice view and so peaceful. Plus, I helped take down the topsails!
Our epic rope-swing. Enough said.
The Skits we made for "The reunion of the Disney characters that never made it". I'm not sure if I ever laughed so hard as that night. As well as the other random games we played, such as camouflage.
Mug-up-- Times of singing and sharing (and goodies!). It was interesting singing a blend of worship songs, sailing songs, and classic songs like country roads or cats in the cradle. I enjoyed it very much, especially when Krystle (one of the crewmembers) would sing us one of her songs.
Our Punishment-- Well to sum it up, the guys vs. girls battle of the "tuck n' tidy" ended with the ladies losing. That meant the guys could pick a punishment for us. We had no idea what it would be, but we heard snippets including things such as "walk the plank", "throw slop at them", and "we should just punish the ones listening to us right now". By the time they told us to be up on deck at a certain time wearing clothes that we didn't mind getting wet we were slightly not excited. On deck, after the guys got the slop bucket and made a little speech about us not getting mad at them for what they'll do, came up with dish tubs and ...washed our feet. (And made us tea!) What a surprise! I think this was my top highlight and I really appreciate that humble act of these brothers-in-Christ.

(Port Watch! Photo compliments of Abby)

The trip was over and we headed home, but the day was not over yet. It was a friday, and we all know what happens on fridays. Youth group! I was dead tired, but still excited to go. On this particular friday, the plan was to meet at the Duncan train station and hand out cookies and hot chocolate to the homeless and various people on the streets. The kids were separated into groups and I led a group of eight that were very fun, very crazy, and very very energetic. I'm sure they scared most of the people we met into cookie-taking submission. I asked them afterwards what they got from that experience and other than their witty answers of "cookies", most were really glad we had done this. I really hope it broadened their perspective on the less fortunate people of Duncan.

I was also privileged to do the same type of thing again with my Kaleo buds. Usually the New Life Young Adults meet on Sunday Evenings and do ministry at the train station as well. We took a van-full of Kaleos, but when we arrived there was no other people in sight. Not letting a great opportunity go to waste, we decided to do it anyway with just ourselves. We split into two groups and our group decided to pick up a box of timbits to give away. However, we didn't see anyone except a few kids that didn't talk to us (at least they know not to talk to strangers). As we walked, we prayed and sang a little bit too. The other group talked with a couple of people and when we got back we gave them our timbits! I guess things work out after all, and even more than I might ever know. I hope to do this again sometime.

If you made it through reading all of that, my hope is that you would pray for the homeless and their situation, pray for the kids in youth group--that they will continue to be challenged in perspectives, and pray for my precourse work to get done on time for my next class-- Hermeneutics !

Thank you for laughter and clear water
Thank you for friends sailing on the sea
Thank you that I may know your love will always be with me

(Photo compliments of Abby)