CUC Youth

Wrap Up

Jack — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 03:12:09 +0000

Rapid City, South Dakota may not be the most exotic location, but it sure was a great place for our 2011 Mission Trip! 12 youth and 3 adults traveled up through scenic Nebraska to our home-away-from -home at the South Dakota School of Mines. For our first three work days, we helped Pastor David and the Woyatan Lutheran church create a safer and more beautiful church environment. We worked hard painting, pulling weeds and overgrowth, cutting grass, taking down a dead tree, sorting and organizing classrooms, even painting parking lot lines and repairing the roof. The hospitality the church members showed in return was simply amazing. We ate meals with them, danced at their Pow-Wow and worshiped with them on Sunday. From there, we moved to a Habitat for Humanity build. Rain cut our first work day short, so we made ourselves productive at the Cornerstone Mission thrift store. We sorted and priced goods for them to sell. In this project we met several interesting folks while we uncovered some treasures. We ended our work week back on the Habitat build. Our team put together and raised all of the interior walls for a 3 bedroom home. Sore arms and sunburns were enjoyed by most after this satisfying day. After a week of heavy lifting, our final project channeled our crafty sides. We made 4th of July cards for the 42 veterans helped by the Cornerstone Mission. The cards were warmly received by these gentlemen, many of whom have no contact with their own families. Our own 4th of July celebration included a trip to Mt Rushmore followed by the fireworks in Rapid City. In the middle of all of this, we played and worshipped and laughed and sang and ate and did all of the things that youth groups do in building community and developing relationships. Ask any of the 15 whose lives were transformed- God is good, very good, indeed!!

-Carla

Happy 4th of July!

Jack — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 07:30:07 +0000

Today we woke up early and took a group trip to Golden Corral for breakfast. After all of us were full, we headed over to Mt. Rushmore which was a 35 minute drive. We saw Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt and Jefferson and all were accompanied by extreme heat from the sun. Following out trip to Mt. Rushmore we went to Keystone to walk around the shops and eat at Teddys…YUMMY . When we got back to our dorms we changed for our nice dinner at Firehouse Grill which was also very delicious. At the end of our meals we all got giant cookies with chocolate and ice cream!! We also made cards for Veterans at the Cornerstone Mission to tell them how much we appreciated them on this great day for our country. To wrap up our night we watched a firework show at the local park. We plan for an all nighter tonight, but don’t let the leaders know that haha! Not looking forward to the long trip back tomorrow, but looking forward to seeing all your beautiful faces (That’s some brownie points right there mommy ). Goodnight to all you who plan on sleeping tonight!!

By Ember Albertson

To wrap up the week we have touched many lives, by helping a church look 100 times better and building homes with habitat with humanity for those who are less fortunate. On our South Dakota mission trip we have given out five prayer shawls. Three out of the five prayer shawls we gave out went to the church for making their environment better for the Lakota people. I had the honor to give out a prayer shawl to a man named Dwayne, I have did this because he has made impact in his life by leaving his gang banging days and started a new life in South Dakota with his girlfriend and his baby boy. We also gave prayer shawls to a woman who has been struggling to build her home on her own, now with the help of her and us youth she is almost finished .

Ysidro Amaro

Yeah….Fun Day!!

Jack — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 07:11:36 +0000

Today was our first “fun day.” We got to sleep in to 10:30 then went to service at Woyatan Lutheran Church, the same church we helped fix up earlier this week. After the service we had a brunch at the church of eggs, potatoes, biscuits. After the brunch we went on a “Mystery trip”. We went to a Pirate’s Cove mini golf place and played 18 holes. After dinner, we went on another “mystery trip” to a nearby lake after finding out that the pool was closed. Once we had gotten kicked out of the lake for jumping off the paddle boats, we went and got ice cream at a small shop in town. Then we came back to the school and played ultimate Frisbee. (in the dark w/ a light up frisbee and glow necklaces on the football field)

-Emily Halverson & Dylan Kramer

Saturday with Habitat for Humanity

Jack — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 13:24:33 +0000

Today started with the group waking up a little later then usual, about seven in the morning. The schools café was closed so Carla, Jack and Charlie made us breakfast. It was lovely and consisted of bagels, oranges and donuts. Soon after eating we made our way to the worksite for Habitat for Humanity. We began working on building the walls for a house and eventually the homeowner came to work with us. The homeowner’s son was in a car accident last year and was paralyzed from the waist down. So the house that we started to build is meant to aid her son with his disabilities. Building the house under the hot sun began to wore down our spirits but then we took a break for lunch that was kindly donated by a local church and it was delicious! After lunch we had to get back to the building of the house which seemed to be easier even under the blazing sun. Everyone started to get in the rhythm of building and time flew by and walls started to appear as the day went on. There was a couple with us on the worksite, the husband helped us build but the wife was unable to because she had to use a walker to get around. We talked to the wife and she wanted to see the work that we were doing but it was too muddy for her to get anywhere near the building. As teenagers are known as problem solvers we quickly came up with the idea of laying out boards for her walker. After moving board after board she eventually got to see all the work we had done and thanked us with all her heart. The work day soon ended and we headed to Sonic to buy ice cold slushies. For dinner we grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and spent the rest of the day playing board games. Today was an awesome fun filled day!!
Love, Jon and Ellie <3:):)<3

Rainy Friday

Jack — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 05:40:25 +0000

So I woke up today feeling a little tired but my ankle felt better. I had sprained it on Tuesday playing capture the flag. Then we went to the habit for humanity sites and built walls for a house tell we got rained out. Then we went and volunteered at the cornerstone thrift store, I bought a lacrosse stick for half a dollar, I felt like we did more playing then working. Then we played ultimate Frisbee where I hurt my ankle again, but overall it was a good day.
-Zack

This is about Trent’s day; well I woke up feeling great and ready for the day. We had French toast for the second day now, but they had sausage and donuts. Then we went to the school store, they had really good price on all the items. We head to the habit for humanity we move wood to build the inner walls. We were standing in water the entire time. Then we got back and Conrad chased me through the halls because I lost his key. I got it back though, so we’re all good. Then we head to the corner store where we work hard but had fun. There was this awesome guy who worked on the docks named Dwayne who told his life story. For that we gave a prayer shawl and that was cool. Then we ate dinner and played Ultimate Frisbee and then we slept like a ROCK.
-Trent

Finishing up at Woyatan

Jack — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:40:53 +0000

Today we started and finished some new projects and put the finishing touches on a few other projects. The day started out a little slow as the mid-week fatigue settled in. When we got to the church for the morning no one was there to unlock the church so we had fun in the parking lot. We did as many different line dances as we could think of. People driving by slowed down trying to figure out what a bunch of teenagers were doing dancing to YMCA in a parking lot. We got juggling lessons with potatoes which soon turned into potatoe baseball with yard tools. We worked on balancing rakes on out chins. There was much silliness and laughing!

When the church was opened up we started several new projects. There are several classroom sized rooms as well as a fellowship hall type room that needed attention. We emptied each of the small rooms into the big. Then we washed walls, vacuumed, threw out junk that was accumulating and then organized everything as we put it back in the rooms. Then we turned our attention to the big room and cleaned it. Another group started painting several different walls and a hallway that needed painting. Charlie took Ben and worked on finishing some painting work on the facia boards on the outside of the church. They also got on the roof and painted the bell tower which led to another project of repairing some roofing. Somehow they managed to coax Carla up onto the roof which took quite a bit of courage for Carla. The tricky part was getting her back down. But she is happily back on solid ground. Mid-afternoon we finished cleaning up from all our work and headed back to the School of Mines for some free time. Charlie asked about a dish washer that was sitting in a hallway just before we left and found out it was just waiting to be installed. So, he and I headed to Lowe's for the third or fourth time today to get parts to do the install. We got the dishwasher installed and running just in time to eat dinner.

After dinner we headed downtown for a weekly concert that is put on in the downtown area of Rapid City. There were 3 blocks of main street closed to traffic and different merchants setup. The band was an 80's cover band. We (the adults) got a laugh out of the bands outfits. The bass player had a shirt on that said "Save Ferris" and the drummer had "Franky says RELAX...". Good stuff! Their last set was cut short as a rain storm rolled through. By the time everyone was back together the rain was done for the most part. We walked down to a local ice cream shop to finish up the day.

Some background on the church that we have been working with. The building was donated to the ELCA to help establish a place for Native American Christians to worship 5 years ago. David, the pastor, has been with the church for just over a year. The church gets about 100 people a week worshipping between two services. There is a mix of Natvie American and Christian elements in worship. Every week they have a pow wow, a get together for dinner and to sing and dance.

Tomorrow we are starting some work with the local Habitat for Humanity and working with them through Saturday. Sunday we are going to go to worship at the Woyatan church. Charlie is busy working on music for that service. So he isn't getting a break on that just because he's out of town.

We hope everyone at home are doing well and having a good week!

-Jack

Wow it was hot today…100deg +

Jack — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 05:42:13 +0000

This morning, at 12:00 am, we weren’t sleeping happily in bed. On the contrary we were watching previews waiting to see the midnight premier of Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon. Unfortunately, the majority of us will have to go see the movie again when we get back due to the fact that we were all falling asleep in our seats. We finally got to bed at about 3 am. A mere four hours later we were woken up yet again to start our second day of working at Woyatan Lutheran Church.
At the church we finished painting the parking lot and completed the heavy yard work we started on Tuesday. At lunch we had a guest speaker, Jonathan. John talked to us about the history of the Lakota tribe. (The Lakota tribe is the tribe in this area.)
After our chat with John, we cleaned up our work supplies and headed back to the dorms for some well-earned rest and free time. Some of us went swimming, but the majority of us slept until we returned to the church for dinner and a “Pow Wow” with some of the Native American congregation of Woyatan, along with a few other youth groups from different states.
The “Pow Wow” consisted of multiple elements for us to watch as well as participate in. For dinner, Woyaton prepared pasta with elk meat sauce, we were pleasantly surprised! The “Pow Wow” was an awesome experience that we will never forget.
Upon our return, we did our evening devotional. We then headed back to our dorms to prepare for bed and chat with friends. We are looking forward to a new adventure tomorrow!

- Railey & Conrad

Tuesday at Woyatan

Jack — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 04:02:49 +0000

Today we were delighted to wake up to a delicious feast of pancakes, tater tots, eggs and fresh fruit. It was a great start to the first day of our mission. Afterwards we sat outside and read over Psalm 19 and welcomed the new day. Then we went to Woyatan Lutheran Church, it is a church directed towards Native Americans in the area of Rapid City. As we walked around we could tell that the church needed our help. Ben and I had the duty of chipping, priming, and painting a section of the outside. As we worked we complained about the heat and hard work but at the same time we shared stories and laughs. For lunch we had sack lunches provided by the school of Mines. The people at the church were generous enough to also give us sodas, peaches, and delicious cheese cake…yum! We finished up the day repainting the lines in the parking lot. The heat was killer! But when Pastor Dave came out his face lit up with excitement and joy it made it all worth it. We are looking forward to going back tomorrow to continue our work. We cannot wait!
Dani Way and Ben Bagby word.

Day One – The Drive

Jack — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 04:59:23 +0000

We survived! Passing through NE Colorado, Eastern Nebraska and into South
Dakota in three Suburban; Red, White, and not Blue. After a stop in Sterling
for lunch we headed north to Alliance, NE where we encountered the 70th wonder
of the world, CARHENGE. With much laughter, singing, and sleeping we finished
the journey and arrived at the South Dakota School of Mines safely just before 6
PM. After settling in we headed to a gourmet dinner provided by Pizza Hut.
Having filled our bellies we returned to the school for some “Steal the Bacon”
and programming, where we built an altar and discussed the significance of rocks
in the bible and how they are present within our own lives. To the leader’s
chagrin, all of the young ones are in bed, end Day 1.

6/19 – FUN DAY in SEATTLE!!!

Jack — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 06:17:27 +0000

Today for our fun day we roamed the streets of Seattle and shopped! To get there we took a ferry across the sound. My group went to Quiznos for lunch and bought hoodies and shirts. Then at 3 we walked to the space needle and went up to the top. After that we walked all the way to our restaurant the Fisherman. I tried swordfish!! It was nasty… then we drove back to the ferry and now were headed home. i love helen&ysidro to death –Sam Haynes

It’s been a fabulous week in the Northwest! This week’s two major highlights have been the incredible work accomplished at Sound View Camp and the gardens of the Guadalupe Land Trust and then more importantly, the growth experienced within our group. Watching the kids work harder than they thought was possible was inspiring. Of course, some of our cherubs are still learning what it means to work but they have made great strides! Today in Seattle was a wonderful time of fun! It’s been great fun watching the discovery of new things like the throwing of salmon at Pike Place Market or riding the ferry back and forth across the Sound. We have accomplished all we had hoped and more…now we are very ready to come home…. if only we could simply click our heels and be home without the drive! The trip home will be an adventure in and of itself! Thanks for all your prayers and support! See you soon! Peace, Laurene

This week has been amazing. every day has been different from the last. What I liked the most about this week was how the weather pulled through. The only chilly day that we have was today. I was amazed at how much work we have gotten done this week. we cleared an entire paintball field in 2.5 days. On friday the camp let us use all of their paintball gear and play for an entire hour. And in that same day we got to go to super target and to this awsomeness park on the sound. This week has really brought us together as a group. I have loved every minute of it. - Taylor Poos Benson