Skit prep!

Just some of the drama team prepping for the Super Thursday skit! Ready for our last Super Thursday of the summer! Can't believe this summer is almost over!

Splish Splash part 2

Today was a SUCCESS! We had a great time hanging out with the high school team while riding awesome water rides & floating down the lazy river! 

Here is a picture of some of the girls riding down the Tortuga's Express:

Hey boys, which way is the beach??

Nothing better than a lazy river!

Crash landing on the Pineapple Pipeline!

Splish Splash!

Today the High School bible study group had a fun day in the sun!! We loaded up & had a blast at Bahama Beach! 

Poverty Simulation

Here we go! Mercy Street interns are going to be homeless this weekend! We are on our way to Waco to be apart of Mission Waco's poverty simulation! If you think of us, pray! & if you live in Waco & see us, FEED US! 

Super Thursday: The King is dead

The theme today at Super Thursday was "The King is Dead". Jesus Christ, the son of God died in our place so that we can have a relationship with His Father. The good news, He didn't just die, but gave us hope in his resurrection! Yes, Jesus The King did die, but He defeated death & the grave! The Super Thursday kids were engaged in the skit, the dances, worship songs & Bible story! The Leadership Institute interns not only took ownership of Super Thursday, but displayed leadership by completely leading the programming & Bible stories! Today was a success & fun was had for all!! 

Leadership Institute to UNT

The Mercy Street Leadership Institute is loaded up & heading to UNT for a tour of the campus & to learn how we can continue our education after high school graduation! We're excited to be here & get the "Mean Green" experience!

Go tell it on the MOUNTAIN!

Recently, the second-year interns of the Summer Leadership Institute took a trip to Sky Ranch Ute Trail.  We backpacked through the San Juan Mountain Range near Powderhorn, Colorado.  This adventure through the wilderness was quite the experience filled with many firsts (and possibly lasts)! For many it was their first time  going out of state,  sleeping outside, climbing a mountain, sleeping in the rain, wearing dirty clothes all week, sleeping with bugs, seeing a marmot, sleeping on lumpy rocks, drinking river water, having a two hour quiet time, and being vulnerable with people they can trust.

  

Alongside first-time experiences were great accomplishments.  We hiked approximately seventeen and a half miles over the course of six days across some of the most rugged terrain in the continental U.S.  We crossed rivers, swatted flies, and watched Carlton Oby's eyes bug out as we teetered down steep switchbacks (or "snapbacks" as he likes to call them).  The interns were forced to sleep in the rain more than once, and spent a large portion of two nights in wet sleeping bags.  All our food was carried on our backs, and every single bit of it was eaten or carried out the other side, even the dishwater!  "Mountain Spice" became our favorite seasoning- anything dropped in the dirt had to be eaten, so why not give it a name?  Some of the clumsy ones in our group got a LOT of fiber.  

In the midst of all this, we can remember some really cool places, moments, and lessons.  Hannah really enjoyed sleeping out in the open under the stars.  In the clear mountain air, away from any sort of artificial light, the stars were lit at a brighter magnitude than we had ever seen.  Combined with the faint silhouette of the mountain ridge and the sound of the fir trees in the wind, it made for a really neat reminder of how God's hand created all that we see with beauty and great care.  Brian remembers stopping for a day of rest halfway through the week.  We set up camp on a grassy plateau overlooking a river with a backdrop of soaring mountains.  Here we spent a day and a half eating and telling stories, and even had a lively discussion of pressing issues in the interns' lives that carried on into the night.   However, the best moment was leaving that afternoon open for an extended two-hour quiet time.  We, along with the interns, were allowed to sit out in the open in complete silence and listen to what God had to say instead of walking and talking and pitching tents.  It was cool to hear how much he had to say when there was no one else to listen to.  Woven in and out of these places and moments were "life stories." These were times where each member of the trip was given the chance to open up about their life and be asked intentional questions which gave each person a true sense of who the other members of the trip really are. These stories made a great impact on the teller and the listeners, and each person was prayed over by their peers-their teammates in the struggle of the trip.  We believe it was the first time many of our interns have truly borne their hearts for all to see, and God was greatly glorified in each of the stories He wrote.

The trip deeply affected not only us, but the junior interns.  Read some of their quotes from our share time:

"It's not about who finishes first, but about the team doing it together."

"The strength He gave me reminded me that God won't give us something we can't handle."

"There's a whole 'nother world outside of Dallas.  I learned how to walk up and down a mountain with (what felt like) three or four babies on my back.  I feel like I can do anything now!"

"I learned I can be more open and let go of everything..."

"Nobody can tell me God isn't real after seeing all these mountains."

We saw the interns cry together, laugh together, struggle together, and overcome together in the crucible of the Colorado wilderness for six days, and we can say one thing for certain: God was working in all of it.  When we got back to Texas, the interns came to similar conclusions.  For them, the trip was something they're not sure they would want to do again, but they definitely saw God, had a great experience and were glad they came.  

We would like to take that one step further by seeing the application of that statement in our own lives.  Oftentimes, God brings us to things that are long, arduous, and painful.  God's word tells us that the journey to our final resting place will be one of persecution and struggle (2 Timothy 3:12).  He tells us that we will be faced with trials and temptations, but when we persevere through them we will receive the crown of righteousness that Jesus has promised us (James 1:12).  And He tells us that in all trials and temptations, Jesus will never let us walk alone and will always provide an escape (1 Corinthians 10:13).  They may not realize it now, but the junior interns learned those lessons firsthand while on a mountainside hundreds of miles from home.  Better yet, they experienced them firsthand as they looked down from the top of a mountain.  Its a safe bet to say that sometime in the future, one of our junior interns will come up against some problem that seems insurmountable and think something along the lines of, "Forget this! I carried three or four babies up a mountain!"  And they will just laugh and go on, continuing the journey God has put them on.

By: Hannah Goodwin & Brian Roy

           Leadership Institute in Colorado - 2013 from Mercy Street on Vimeo.