Week 1: Welcom Week

Alamo City summer project/missions started on May 27th and it will go until July 22nd.

This past week was a week for all of us on the project team to get familiar with one another. Our team consists of seven students with three awesome staff leaders.

Just within the last 5 days, I have to say everyone on the team has been getting along better than anyone could have expected. I thought there would have been awkwardness, and it would take us like a couple weeks to get comfortable with each other. But it took about a day to get comfortable with each other. God is good, for my prayer was that our team was able to bond smoothly and quickly.

On Wednesday, the 27th, everyone figured out their housing. I was staying with Anton at his apartment, which is a blessing. The girls had a HUMONGOUS house to stay at. and James Ward had the privilege to say with the Saliceti family. We all pretty much just talked and tried to get familiar with each other. I met Sarah Joy who is from Wisconsin, far right? She talks just like ROBIN from How I Met Your Mother! haha Anyways, everyone was really friendly, and I got to meet Christie, the women's staff leader. Right when we met each other, a few of us went to Target to buy grocery, what a nice way to bond with each other! We then had pizza for dinner. The rest of the night we just relaxed, a lot of us were pretty exhausted from driving.

The next day, Thursday, the whole morning, the team went to the Girl's House (that's what we call our meeting place) to go over the schedules and layout for the next seven weeks! It was extremely long, took us like 5+ hours! It was as boring as you would think, we made jokes out of the rules and such, so it was pretty funny. Anton got us Subway for lunch. Then after our orientation, we had pretty much the rest of the afternoons to ourselves to relax. Emily and I jammed, which was umm...not a success? Sarah Joy joined us and played around with the keyboard. At night, we all went to the Riverwalk Downtown. Everyone was nice enough to take me to see the Alamo for the first time! (I actually saw it three times that night. haha) The Alamo was really pretty, too bad it was closed when we got there. We then walked around downtown, visiting stores and hotels. We ate dinner at Casa Rio. We ate next to the river and fed ducks. haha I had a huge dinner, too much that I couldn't finish. Later at home, Anton, Pat, and I watched Perfume, a really creepy and great film! you guys should watch it! The movie was recommended by Pat, so if you don't trust my taste, you should trust his!

Friday, we went to Shavano Baptist Church or Alamo Stone to go through evangelism training. Everyone new in San Antonio met Rodderick Barnes. We over over our devotionals together on 2 Chronicles 7:14, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." We then went through the 4 spiritual laws, Solarium, and short film evangelism. For lunch, we went to Chick fil a because apparently Wisconsin doesn't have Chick fil a. I got a job at BIF Technology as well for the summer, so I am excited for that! I went home and worked out with Anton, then met up at the Girl's House to barbecue. James did all the bbqing, it was really good, and we had tacos too!! After dinner, we went to Woodhill apartments to drop off a friend and walk around the neighborhood. Our team will be serving this complex this summer, it has three sections. Downhill, middle, and uphill. It is huge! We met a few people, got to see a few people out drinking and just talking. I am really excited to see how God uses us to work throughout this neighborhood. Afterwards, we went to a prayer drive, we drove around just praying for the people, the project, and ourselves. It was such a great opportunity to talk with God. Anton, Pat, and I watched Spirited Away, a awesome Japanese animated movie, watch it! it was recommended by Pat!

On Saturday, all the MEN came to Anton's house to share about our background and history. We used a packet as our guide. Jay and Anton shared their stories, and it was really great to listen and just really understand them two so much more. We were distracted quite a few times by different things, but we are men, what can we do? We then went to Olive Garden to eat lunch. Seafood Alfredo was goooood!! We ran out of time, so Tristan, James, and I will share on Wednesday this week. We all went to Alamo Stone's service at 5:30pm. Daniel Brown spoke a great message on spiritual discipline. Today was Emily's birthday. So friends in San Antonio had a surprise party for her, then our project team had another surprise for her. I tried to find a way to combine both. I took Emily and a few other friends to Jiwan's house to surprise her, I was so glad that she was surprised cause I thought my excuses for her questions gave it away, but it didn't! haha Joann decorated Jiwan's place really nicely, then we had a cake and played with the balloons. Later at about 10:30pm we went to UTSA field to play Ultimate. We had 20 people, and it was a crazy game. The field was dark and we used a lighted frisbee, haha it was cool. After we all sweated and exhausted, we went to Sonic to hang out for bit. Happy 19th Birthday Emily! Anton, Pat, and I watched American History X, a really long movie! Anton went to sleep before the movie ended AGAIN! haha and I fell asleep during the end of the movie, so only Pat finished the movie.

Sunday is our adventure day. We went down to New Braunfels to go tubing. It was a beautiful day to go outdoors and tube. We had fun going down the shoots and watching crazy people doing crazy things. Tubing was really relaxing and all of us were able to just talk and let the river take us to the end. We finished around 6 and ordered pizza hut, mmmmm. I found out a lot of people know Francis Chan. We listened to his CD for dinner entertainment, it was great! The at night time, we went to watch UP at the Palladium theater, it was so big! good movie, really funny! My name is apparently a bird and a girl, haha

I will keep you guys updated during this project!

Prayer Requests:
Friendships, Relationships among the team, Leadership, Attitudes, Serving Heart, Safety, Daily Devotions, Communication, Health, and lastly, may God be glorified

Thanks for reading, and please keep us in your prayers!

-Kevin