Saturday March 5th - Travels:

We had a good flight. The trip to Atlanta was quick and easy and we even had a bit of time to grab some snacks before we boarded our next flight. This set of teens makes moving through an airport easy.

When we got to spend some time in the Atlanta airport we really started to have some fun and laugh with each other. We even got to participate in one of my favorite activities, “People Watching”. Coming from an experienced people watcher, there is no better place to “people watch” than an airport. You can see some of the most interesting things in an airport like…


yes, that is a suitcase made of bubble wrap and packing tape. Enough said!
"People watching" takes it out of you and sometimes you have to just take some time to recharge, just ask Tim…

(sign above his head)

On a different note, before we left Raleigh Leigh did our devotion and talked to us about this experience. She talked about how at some point on the trip we would realize that this is real. As we sat and waited to board our plane some of us started talking about how this was starting to become real. We are heading to PERU, South America to be God’s hands and feet. WOW! I think this feeling will continue to creep up on us as we go through the week and if Leigh is right there will be a time that the emotion and reality of it all will wash over us. I welcome it!

God Bless until our next entry.

Saturday March 5 – Safe in Peru

6 hours in the plane and a few movies later we touched down in Peru. I am going to channel my inner optimist and instead of focusing on the long flight I am going to focus on the fact that there are not many times you get to watch a couple movies and take a nap.

Overall it was a good flight, just long. Michael and I sat beside each other on this flight so I got to learn a lot about what he wants to do when he graduated in December. All I have to say is “biotech world - beware!” He is such a fascinating and smart young man. Oh, Angie and I also found out that he loves giving hugs. Don't worry we won't use that against him throughout this trip! We as leaders must have been good this year because the entire group is awesome! I can’t wait to get to know each person individually.

We touched down in Peru at 11:50pm but did not get our luggage and get through customs until close to 1:30am. It would have been sooner but I got stopped at customs. They say it is random but I was the only one out of all 13 of us that got stopped. Paco and crew met us at the airport with smiles on their faces. They are amazing, giving people to be so generous. We were all very excited to see them and equally excited to hear that the Y was only 20 minutes away from the airport. Once we got to the Y we unloaded all our gear, settled into our rooms, said a prayer of thanks for the safe travel and hit the bed by 2:30. Breakfast is at 8:30 and the day is full so...

God Bless and good night until our next entry.