Saturday, July 02, 2011

A NEW KIND OF FAMILY PILGRIMAGE


This past Thursday, we drove David over for his missionary training camp at the Adventures in Missions base outside of Atlanta. This was our 2nd time in less than a month to be there and our 4th time total to have a teenager participating in the Ambassador program. It has become a family pilgrimage that we look forward to and 12 year Patrick is already planning for. Wonder where God will take him?

In the meantime, here are some photos from that day---




Here are Betsie and David heading down the road to the big white tent where we registered and met David's team.


This is the main AIM building where the admissions staff work as well as the kitchen, dining area, etc. Oh...and air conditioning!


David has 3 other guys on his team. Rich, in green, is the team leader. Trey and Dillon, wearing white, are the other real-men-do-missions participants headed to Peru.


Before, we've always headed to the girls' cabins. This year, it was down the hill behind the tent to the boys' cabin.


Inside the cabin, Patrick looks a little more excited than David...maybe a little bit too excited.



One of the perks of the day was seeing friends. Chandler and Anna became best friends on their Swaziland Ambassador trip 2 years ago. Now Chandler is a treasured friend for our whole family.


We also got to meet face-to-face for the first time Lindsay. She was also one of Anna's Swazi teammates. She's from California, though, so up til now we've only interacted with her online. It was great seeing her with Chandler as they team up yet again to go love on some precious ones in Swaziland.



David and his team seemed to really hit it off great right away with lots of smiles, laughing, and cutting up.



Glenalyn and Alana are the young women helping to lead David's team. They've got lots of 3rd world experience between them as former World Racers.



While the various Ambassador team participants were getting to know each other under the big, white tent, the parents attended an information meeting led by Kelly Chadwick. Then it was a spaghetti supper with the team leaders before heading back out for goodbyes.


The little ones are going to miss their big brother. And yeah, I'll miss him, too. He's a great kid growing into a great young man.


A young man that his daddy and I are very, very proud of and can't wait to see all that God is going to do in and through his life.

Please keep on praying for David as his team goes through a lot over the next day in preparation for flying to Peru on Monday. Pray that God moves mighty in all their lives as individuals and pulls them tightly together in unity as a team.

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