Magic Mountain

This morning went well as we all attended the session after breakfast. For the most part, the kids enjoyed (or tolerated!) the meeting.  I guess they hear the great wisdom of this morning's speaker every day, so that part wasn't new to them... ;-)  Aaron challenged us all this morning to consider our response to sin in our lives.  Do we feel that we have failed ourselves, have not lived up to the goals and standards we have set?  Or are we grieved that we have sinned against God?  The difference is relationship.  With the first, we really think of only ourselves.  However,if we have a vital relationship with God, our sin will break our hearts because of how it breaks our relationship with God.  Aaron, of course, expressed it much more eloquently and with a few more stories, but you get the late night, I-spent-the-whole-day-at-an-amusement-park-in-the-sun-chasing-six-kids version.
The aformentioned kids had a BLAST at Magic Mountain today!  Tons of fun, lots of rides, an amazing (and a little too inspiring I think!) daredevil motorbike/skateboard/bike stunt show, exceedingly overpriced food, Cold Stone ice cream, sore feet, lots of sun and sunscreen, run-ins with Superheroes and Looney Tunes characters ("Are you the REAL Batman?" asked Alex.  "For reals?"), 220 of us in orange SERVE 2010 shirts (comically, I saw several other groups in orange shirts today- all daycares!), and an adventurous search for our rental van at the end of the day in the enormous parking lot.  Kyler saved the day by remembering which Looney Tune lot we had parked in.  Apparently, I did not bring my brain with me today because it never ONCE occurred to me to note where I had parked in a strange van and completely unknown-to-me parking lot about the size of my town, to which you take a shuttle bus that has THREE different lots it stops in. Thank goodness for observant Kyler at least getting us to the right lot from which to continue our search! 
Before we get too far into our trip, I must make note of a great blessing to us.  One of the students is joining us  from another church as both a participant and our "nanny."  She's a wonderful gift to me as I try to juggle the varying needs of the kids within our group's schedule, and my desire to also serve as a leader (at least part time!) with our team.  Yeah, yeah, yeah for Alicia!!!  Alicia and I are working out how to balance our schedule so that we all can be involved as much as possible with the team events.  It will probably change every day... :-)

The rest of the team just got back, so I'll sign off here and head to our leader's meeting.  For more on the team, you can also check out the team's blog at youthmark.com/faith_kent.