We landed at about 7:15p.m. and everyone was delivered safe and sound.

We just drove by Dixon Springs. We will be in Harrisburg soon.

41 miles to Nashville.

We are rolling now! 1988 miles on the new bus! It will have about 2450 miles on it when we get back.

We just watched the Missions DVD and the other 300+ campers are coming in to watch the Camp DVD.

Tents were evacuated\cleaned and passed inspection. We had a quick breakfast of a cinnamon rolls, we headed to The Coop to watch the camp DVD.

Here are the pics that Mat Aikens from Snowbird took from the shore at various places in the 8 mile trip. He is the staff member that was chasing us taking video for the Missions and Camp DVD.

After the river run, SWO treated us to pizza at a local restaurant.

We returned to SWO in time to participate in some of the "extreme" activities there. Several rode the Zip Line and the 3 Man Swing. I did connect on the second attempt and drenched Jeremy Gibbs, CJ Murphy, and Ryan Pappenfuss with fresh creek water.

I was repaid by Jeremy Gibbs by picking me up, taking me down to the ground and pinning me. You know what they say,"What goes around, comes around!"

We had awesome day on the Ocoee! There was beautiful WARM sunshine all day long. It made jumping in the 45 degree spring fed water much less painful. Snowbird Matt took pictures with one of my cameras from shore and I had an old digital in the boat. These are the boat pics and the rest will be uploaded later.

We are having our devotion at the outfitter's shelter for the white water rafting trip on the Ocoee.

This is a video of the last part of the Revelation Skit:

SWO 09 Revelation skit

Here are pics from the last afternoon of work and from the Rodeo and Revelation Skit in the evening:

Here are the pics from the morning of the last day of work:

Everyone is headed to the Prayer Chapel for small group.

We finished our work here for this year today and it will be FUN for tomorrow. Major progress was made on both jobs but they were not completed. They always designate big jobs for McKinley youth since they are always impressed with the dedication and commitment that the youth exhibit. Many other youth teams get jobs such as cleaning, yard work, and painting only.

The house that we worked on required much physical repair as well as paint. It is ready for the team coming next week to finish the painting.

For tonight: The rodeo opening ceremony started a few minutes. Right now the Star Spangled Banner is being sung by a soloist with the melodious sound echoing through the mountain. After the rodeo is over, the Revelation skit will be performed.

Another house pic this morning around 10:00a.m.

 

The house job at 10:00 a.m.
 

The trailer job at 12:20p.m.

 

The trailer job this morning around 10:00a.m.

 

The days are way too short here. Yesterday after arriving back at camp, we had dinner and then a had short time until the evening "Break Out" sessions began. Brody Holloway spoke at the first part of the "Boys" session at the Metal Building. He gave a very commanding talk about the role of a man from boyhood through fatherhood. The props and demeanor of his message branded a lasting impression on our minds that a man should ALWAYS do what it takes to respect the women in their lives. Mother, daughter, sister, wife, or stranger on the street should always be respected. His 30 minutes turned into about 45 minutes and we broke for an intermission.

Upon return after a short introduction, the guys participated in "THE MAN DANCE"!
The man dance is closely aligned with mosh pit activity. It is a frenzied dance that the "faint of heart" should not participate in.
The second speaker of the evening spoke of the responsibilities of a "man" with biblical perspective. He gave excellent examples of " Do's, Do Nots, and What if".
Several programs for safe web browsing were discussed and suggested also.

The girls attended a Break Out session and I don't have any of their details other than Brody was the speaker for the last half of their evening. I can only imagine what their session was like. Brody Holloway is one of those people with a commanding presence yet he has a very kind, gentle manner when talking about his wife and children and the respect and concern that he has for them.

It was after 11pm when the guys returned to the tent. We had our small group and it was evident what an impact the evening had on everyone. It was great to see that they had all arrived at the same summary of what we had witnessed. The subject of the evening has been firmly imprinted in their minds.

Another hard day of work. Here are the pics of the day so far. I will post a day description later.

Another beautiful day in Andrews. After breakfast with a main course of French toast, bacon and grits, we had the morning devotion and went to work.

The Slide Show photos can be seen at SWO 09 and the second album is: SWO 09B

The pictures can be downloaded from this location.

It's been a long day! We had a hearty breakfast, morning devotion at The Snack Shack then headed out to the job site. It took a little time to look over the two adjoining sites, place tools, material, and people. The white house you see in the pics has some rotted siding that we are replacing as well as painting the rest of the house. Look closely at the rooster's legs in the pic below. Supposedly they are raising these to show for "4H projects." That's what the lady's son told us. I'm not a chicken expert but I do watch tv and read the news.



The pictures of the mobile home are of the 2nd job that has a very bad roof. It's covered with blue tarps and it still leaks and water runs out of the light fixtures. We got the post holes dug today set for a new roof. The goal for today (I just noticed that it is tomorrow already)is to get the trusses set and the roof will be installed Thursday. Another good day here in Andrews. No one was injured and everyone was tired. Brody gave an OUTSTANDING sermon on satan and covered Genesis to Revalation. We had the small groups in the tent tonight and it didn't get over until about 11:15. The students really enjoyed Brody's message and had a lot to talk about.

Another folder has been uploaded:

How is this?

I've been uploading for a while. 1st file is uploaded to Picasa.
http://picasaweb.google.com/msirach/SWO09#


2nd is still uploading.

Monday and Tuesday

I've gotten a little behind. This should be enough for today.

 
 
 
 

A couple of pics from yesterday.

Evening worship on opening night brought back the ever popular "mayonaise" skit. A Much more serious skit capped the evening. The crucifixtion drove home the true significance of the event. At 9:15, we split into two groups. The boys in there tent and the girls in theirs for small group study.

The weather was very nice today. It was in the mid to low 80's with tonight in the mid 50's.

Tomorrow morning will start with the morning devotion at 8:15 followed by breakfast and off to work at the jobsites.

Supper is over and the appetite of a vegetarian was satisfied as well as that of a turophile. There wasn't any cheese pizza at the snack shack, but cheese hot pockets were available.

I have changed the time format to reflect cst and now comments can be added.

Time for Dinner which will be followed by the high octane evening worship.

We are here at Snowbird. The Trip went very well. New bus has a nice ride and COLD AC. We only used the aux unit and kept it at minimum. At the gate,we were greeted by the Snowbird staff in their outlandish style. We gathered around the campfire (without fire) and had introductions, orientation and today's devotion. Everyone is roaming around now and waiting for our scheduled meal time of 6:15. As I have told others, you have to be here to experience the level of excitement and motivation that this camp extrudes.

Only 14 miles to go!

73 miles to go. We are near the scenic part of the trip where the Ocoee trails along beside the highway.

We just ate lunch at McDonalds outside of Chatanooga. 109 miles to go.

80 miles to Chatanooga, TN. We just left pitstop #2.

We are stuck in traffic on I-24 in Nashville, TN.

Add 2 hours to the blog time stamp. IE: 5:41 is 7:41

We just left a pitstop for gas etc. 56 miles to Nashville, TN.

We just drove by the Grand Rivers, KY exit. A nice slice of "Bill's Boat Sinker" from Patti's 1880's Restaurant would be great for a healthy breakfast!

05:15-We are on the road. Trailer is loaded and all are accounted for.

04:45-loading the bus. As usual, Dalton straggles in.

Blackberry is set up!

MABC Youth 180 > Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters in Andrews, NC

In 5 hours (4:30 a.m.), we will be loading the newMABC 2009 Ford F450 Starcraft bus for SWO Outfitters. Youth and counselors from McKinley Avenue Baptist Church will participate in SWO Missions during the day and extreme games and worship in the evenings. If you look closely at the pic on the Missions page, you will recognize MABC campers from a couple of years ago.