Tasty beer...root beer that is.

Wow, time flies when you're having fun. It's Tuesday night, which means we've been here for 4 days already. It's been an eventful few days that's for sure, and really, you never know what each day will look like. For example, every day we know we'll be doing some type of work, but each morning the leaders and April (who works for Restore St. Louis) gather together to figure out who's doing what and with whom and how long, etc. We've been able to do jobs such as painting, concrete patching, moving furniture, gardening, visiting a homeless shelter, and more. And I'd have to admit, some tasks are really fun and others are more difficult or less desirable. But that's what serving others includes - things that aren't always what we feel like doing.
We've had a really good time with the youth from Mississippi. They're a bit of a younger group (grade 7-12), but we've been blessed by their musical abilities, stories they've shared in the lesson times, and by their friendships. Of course, we're have fun comparing accents, words, and phrases. For example, their pastor Michael told Travis that he was going to the store to get a toboggan. And Travis was like, "Why do you need a sled?" Michael responded, "Sled? You think a toboggan is a sled? I'm referring to a winter hat!"
Overall, everyone in our group is still in good health and is really enjoying the trip. There's so much more to say, I wish I could write longer but to be honest, I'm quite tired. I'm sure this doesn't surprise anyone. Hope you enjoy the pictures - we are working!

Making a pyramid, with our beauty masks!

Again under the Arch, with city hall (white building above us) and downtown St. Louis behind us.

This is our group under the Arch! What a beautiful sky!

Hi everyone, today we've made it safely to St. Louis! And we're so thankful because it was pouring rain in St. Louis in the morning, but when we arrived at noon the sun came out and it was 20 degrees!!! It was so nice to have warm weather, although the wind was still a little cold.

We enjoyed lots of fun activities today, sorry I don't have any pictures yet to add yet, we did take tons of pictures.
We went to the historic Gateway Arch, and all of us went up the Arch.
Then we enjoyed the St. Louis' finest pasta restaurant called Zia's. Everyone loved their meals and ate til they were nice and full.

After that we went to Forest Park, which is the largest city park in the US. We threw a football around, walked around for a bit, and just enjoyed the nice weather.
Our final activity was getting custard at St. Louis' famous "Ted Drewes". Most of us had some and everyone was amazed at how tasty it was.
I figured we'd do some of the fun things since the weather was so nice. You can't visit St. Louis without visiting these places.

Now we're at the church where we're sleeping, we had orientation with April (whose from Restore St. Louis) and we've been hanging out with the youth group from Mississippi. There's about 24 of them, and they like our accents! Good times.

Hi everyone, day 1 = 15 hours of fun on the road!!!
We played card games, Catch Phrase, sang songs, tried to sleep a bit, and...overall we had a whole lot of fun. We stayed overnight at a hotel in Cloverdale, Indiana, and the first thing we all did when at the hotel - jump in the pool (it was indoors). We were blessed with beautiful weather - sunny skies the entire way, and the roads/traffic was great as well.
Today (Saturday), we're leaving for St. Louis really soon and should be there in a few hours. We'll enjoy the afternoon seeing some sites. If the weather holds up, we'll visit the infamous St. Louis Arch.
Thanks for your prayers and support!
Joe

5 days away!

Hi, to everyone who reads this blog. This is officially my first ever blog and blog post - it feels so life-changing! Just kidding, not really, but my main purpose in this blog is for people who want to follow our youth group's mission trip to St. Louis, MO. It's only 5 days away!!! I'm really excited for it and hope and pray that all the final details come together.
I'm not the most computer savvy and I need to inquire about the wireless internet quality on our trip, but my hope is to blog every day on the trip, even if it's just something short and sweet. It'd be nice to put up and picture or two as well so that you can see the fun we're having when in St. Louis.
That's all for now.