Atlanta - Day 1

We're here safe and sound in Atlanta. We've gotten to experience a bit of the city and it's traffic and we're happy to be at the Youthworks site.

Every night students will be writing stories of their day and letting you know a little bit about what has been going on in our lives, so enjoy!

T

Today when we left the church, I ended up being in a van with people that I hadn’t ever really talked to very much, there were only a few people I knew well. I started out the day not really talking to everyone and slowly we all began to tell stories and play games and I’m so excited that I was able to make new friends on the drive here alone because it helped the time fly by, but also got me excited for the new relationships that I will get to experience the rest of the week.

Once we arrived to the church, the first thing I heard when walking in the building was Jesse McCartney’s "Beautiful Soul", which in my opinion is a masterpiece. After hearing Youthworks' beautiful song choice I met some of the staff that is with us all week and right away they were extremely welcoming to me and generally happy to be here. The Youthworks staff really made me remember why I come on mission trips, and why I want to serve God and show others his love. Also at the end of the day the Youthworks staff brought me out a cake for my birthday and it was a great surprise. Thank you for all of your prayers for safe travels and please continue to pray for all of us as we got out and serve this week to show the city of Atlanta Gods love. - Kaili

Day one was a good one. We rode/slept in the car for six hours until we arrived at our lunch destination, Sonic Drive-in, one of the best establishments to ever be created. After that we shuffled spots in our vehicles. I was sitting with some, shall we say, interesting people. We played M.A.S.H. and Never Have I Ever, both are very fun games. The best part of the ride though, was when we stopped for gas. Troy was making everyone shuffle but we didn’t want to change seats so a large majority was pretending to be asleep. People would say “Troy is coming!” and we would all drop and pretend like Andy was coming and we were his toys.

We soon arrived at First Iconium Baptist Church. It looked like a very nice place, which it is, but we had to walk up three flights of stairs to reach were we were staying. Very fun, especially when you have to carry up all your stuff. Our room was crowded to say the least but I was able to move to one of the smaller rooms with less people. The staff immediately welcomed us with open arms. We had a great dinner and played a lot of card games after. We then had Large Group Gathering were we sang and shared things about our day. So far things have been amazing and I cant wait to serve Atlanta! - Luke

Today we had a very early start which was pretty rough. Therefore, we got on the road fast and were able to make it to the Atlanta Youthworks site around 5 o’clock. We did introductions with the very friendly staff (Nick, Bridget, Ashley, and Alize), while the adult leaders got a run-down of the upcoming events and what to expect throughout this week. We played a game where we took off our shoes while one person stood in the middle. The person in the middle said something about themselves (ex: “I have three dogs.”), and everyone in the circle that had three dogs would have to move to a different spot/ empty pair of shoes. This was a fun way to get to know some basic things about the community we will be with for the rest of the week. During said game, multiple people slipped while racing to an empty pair of shoes, so they wouldn’t be trapped in the middle. This was very amusing, yet once this happened multiple times we stopped. After this we learned the rules of the site (this basically consisted of wear long shorts, no tank tops, don’t get mugged by staying with groups of three, and get out of the building if there is a fire…duh). At evening gathering we sang many songs to the piano stylings of the very talented Youthworks site coordinator, Alize. Once worship was over we watched a couple videos and did devotionals. After evening gathering we proceeded to shove our mouths full of cake to celebrate Kaili’s birth day (side note: Mrs. Witzig, if you’re reading this, I think we celebrate you as well considering you did all the workJ). Finally we are heading off to bed so we can get a good start on the week’s work tomorrow morning!  - Delaney