Well the center is over for summer ... sad day! We got back at 5:15 today from our wonderful weekend trip to Oklahoma City. We stayed on the campus of Southern Nazarene University and had a jam packed weekend. We were able to take students from both sights with us on the trip, for some it was probably their first time away from home with out family. But regardless it was a BLAST! I will have a few pics on here towards the end so everyone can see the fun we had. We left the center on Thursday night and arrived in OKC around 11:30. We had a full day ahead of us on Friday so we strongly urged the students to sleep, but of course they didnt want any part of that. I was the girls hall monitor on Thursday night and didnt end up going to bed until 3:30 and had to be back up at 6:45. I had one room of girls who just did not want to listen to anything! Needless to say Friday night they had an hour early curfew. Friday was spent at a local Non-Profit called Love-Link. They have a few shelters, half way houses, and a distribution center. We had two groups at two of their sights. One group was able to actually be at the distribution center and hand out food, clothes, toys, etc. to those families who needed it. The other group, which I was a part of, was at the new warehouse. Love Link just bought a huge warehouse where they are hoping to move all of their outreach ministries into. This is where we came in, we went through donations, and seperated them into various groups. It was sooo tiring and HOTT in that place. The kids did a great job of working together. The before and after shots are amazing, they definately deserved a huge pat on the back for all their hard work. After the service project we went to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. TOUCHING, that is all I have to say. To remember back to 1995 and seeing the pictures on the news, to actually going into this museum and memorial and seeing how big of an impact it made on the community. The museum is self-guided and I tell you what it was so neat to walk through the with students and see the interest they took in what happened. I had two favorite parts, the first was the board room. They have you walk through a make-shift board room, and in it is actualy audio from the morning of the bombing from the OKC water board that was located across the street, you can hear the board meeting and 2 minutes into the meeting you get to hear the actual explosion, they have the lights flicker and on a huge wall in front of you is a collage of all the individuals who died in the incident. Talk about cold chills. The other part that I felt was just awesome was the memorial that they have to each individual who was killed. They each have a picture and some sort of memorabilia from that person. Two of them made me cry, one was one of the babies from the daycare, and it was a poem that the parents had written that was written to Itsy Bitsy Spider. It said something about Itsy Bitsy Baby went up to Heavens gate, and talked about how God was their to greet her and wipe her tears away. Then he went to earth and wiped the parents tears away and that one day they will meet again... just thinking about it now makes me tear up a little. The other one that touched me was a note written on construction paper from a little boy who lost his mom and it said, Dear Mom, I miss you so much now that you aren't here, I wish you could see me Im growing like a weed, school is doing good, I love you and miss you. Talk about crying, I totally did. The whole memorial is awesome out side they have chairs that represent every person killed. Its just a really cool place to visit. I encourage it if you go to OKC.
After the memorial we went into Bricktown and ate at the Spaghetti Warehouse and ate, Andre and I got our pictures taken in the photo booth, they are pretty great! The whole group went on a water taxi ride and it was fun. There were tons of bridges on this ride and on one of the bridges was a couple kissing and all of our kids decided to clap and hoot and hollar at them.... they were so embarassed it was great!
Saturday was full of fun also. The temperature reached over 100 degrees. We went to an amusement park, called Frontier city. We got there at 10 and went to lunch at 1 and the kids were already ready to leave because it was so hot. Some of our girls got stuck on a ride they said it was scary. My group was a BLAST! I had 5 boys and 3 girls and then Andre joined up with us so that just added to the craziness. We rode so many rides. Nicole, one of my co-workers was telling me that I was nicer than her, because Andre won two basketballs and a huge bouncy ball at one of the games and I helped him carry them until lunch, but he paid me back by winning me a COW! The boys were winning things like crazy. After lunch I went with a different group, one of the boys in that group is really big and he was started to get very hot and tired, so he and I decided that we needed to find a place to sit where he couldnt get overheated. We found Earls Hillbilly Shower and played in it for awhile. It was a fun day bu it was just too hott to enjoy everything. After the amusement park we went to the Minor's house. One of the interns knew them and they allowed us to come to there home and swim and have a cookout. We swam forever and then went back to SNU and had a worship service. Jared had the kids act out the story of the Coat of Many Colors, talk about a different twist! FUNNY... during that time Andre decided that I needed my hair braided and he did that for me! He actually did a pretty good job. There will be a picture. Saturday night our youngest boy (10 years old) decided to jump out of his window and he got cut up from the thorn bushes under his window, thats how he got caught. LOL. Needless to say his punishment sucked, he had to clean out all three vans before the ride home!
Sunday was full of packing and sleeping. We stopped at a mall on the way home and ate and shopped a little while. The kids seemed to enjoy their time. The whole trip was great! It was a blast to hang out with the students in a different environment, we had tons of fun that will be remembered for years to come! I have learned so much about this kids and vice-versa!
I am glad to be home... and hopefully Ill be able to catch up on some sleep!!!
Well here are the pictures I promised!
Picture #1- Some of the students on the campus tour at SNU
Picture #2- Andre and Morgan helping out at Love Link
Picture #3- The whole group after a very hott and tiring day at Love Link
Picture#4 - DesJuan at the OKC Bombing Memorial, you can write a message on the sidewalk outside and his message said "Heaven is a better place!" Great KID!!!
Picture #5 - Felix looking at the make-shift memorial that was made after the bombing happened. (This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip)
Picture #6- This is me and Anitnet at the Spaghetti Warehouse in Bricktown
Picture #7- Me, Jamar, and Kim on the water taxi through Bricktown!
Picture #8- Andre and Monique pillow fighting! Montague organized a huge one on one pillow fight and they were hilarious.. Andre was by far the clear winner all night...(Ill try and post the video from their fight also)
Picture #9- My group plus Jared at Frontier City
Picture #10- Me and Stefon at the Minor's House.... Stefon calls me Barbara Jean, because I remind him of Barbara Jean from REBA! YOUR NOT FUNNY BRO!
Picture #11 - Me and Olivia trying our hardest to get Andre in the pool, he had already pushed most people in so we were trying to get him in... not successfully may I add
Picture #12- Jamar and I were playing taxi in the pool
Picture #13- Andre's handywork on my hair!
Picture #14- enough said... I WAS SOOO TIRED!!!
