This trip has stretched me in so many ways, and I'm very thankfull that
God allowed me to go. I am going to go over a general outline of the whole trip, then I will go in more detail.
Travel. We started in texas then went to Memphis TN, Greenville SC, Vass NC, Birmingham AL, Decatur AL, then made our way back to ALERT. In Memphis we stayed at the Wills house worked at about 6 homes and went to about that many schools and churches.
In Greenville we were able to stay at Camp Marrietta and do some work projects for them. half way through the week we went and stayed at a different spot, Evangelical Institute, but still there in Greenville. While there we did some tree work and Lt. Boulden visited some schools. We were also able to connect with the Kindals and Tim Cook.
From Greenville we went to Vass where we stayed with the Schillings. While there we did some work around there home, at another persons house,and got to go to their church. At their church we got to attend their thanksgiving meal, and I got to participate in their puppet show. it was a first for me, and I think I rather enjoyed it. The lady we were able to, Mrs. Shaw, was a non-Christian. She introduced herself as a heathen. The pastor of the Schillings church is the one that recommended we help her, and we are all glad we did. Because, by the time we were done she came up and said "If Christ were like yall I would have a different opinion of Christianity". It went something to that effect. I dont remember the exact words. It was truly a blessing to work for her, because she saw Christ working through our works. I pray God will continue to work in her life.
From there we made our way to Birmingham Alabama. I have been to Birmingham 3 times now with ALERT, for disaster releif, the last MMT, and now this MMT. It was good to reunite with the different families there. One being the Kirkpatricks. They have a son who is old enough to go through ALERT and we really encouraged him to do so. Also their younger boys were a blast to play around with. when we went to their house we spent most oof the time restling and building with legos! Which was funny because they could not believe tht a 23 year old would still play with legos! I love legos! We also did go to a few schools, however, we weren't recieved as well as other places because it was thanksgiving. On our last day aat the church where we were staying, which was also a school, we got to do a long presentation to the juniors aand seniors. WE sang about 5 songs and 3 of us gave our testimonies.
Our last stop was in Decatur Alabama. We went their to meet with one church that had about 7,500 members, but we also hit 2 schools. We stayed at a families house who were friends with he Bouldens, but didn't know much about ALERT. Their dad had a lot of questions and was very thorough. Hopefully we will see one of their older sons come through ALERT. Among the things the dada wanted us to do was have a pull-up contest, even the mom did some. It was a lot of fun and again the youngest boyy, 11 I think, was very excited and really wanted to go. He even made sure we woke him up in the morning, he wouldn't let anyone from his family do it, it had to be an ALERT guy.
On our drive back to ALERT Jonathan saw a billboard for a diner he just could pass up, so we stopped and ate at Willie's Duck Diner. Willie is one of the guys from the show Duck Dinesty. So that was cool!
Highlight of the trip. 2 things, first the Stoners, and second a retired Air Force PJ. At the Stoners one of the things we got to do was present ALERT to a group of people the Stoners had invited over for that purpose. It was an amazing oportunity. And after it was all over I got to tell my 2 stories, the pink monkey and the yellow egg. Thank you again Stoner family for all the food and hospitality. The retired Air Forde guy was the guidance counselor at a school we went to. He was a man with a heart for young men and for God. I explain it this way, only at ALERT have I seen such passion for Christ and young men. He was also the only perso at a school who asked to for us before we left. We were a great encouragement to him and he was a great encouragement for us.
I want to extend a big thank you to all those who gaave us a roof to sleep under, and food in our stomachs, and for all those who donated anything! We truly could not have done it without you!
THANK YOU!!!
