Helena, Arkansas Mission Trip: Day One Complete!

Day one of swim camp and blessings ministry is now complete! We all had a fun and exciting first day! Kristen, Anna, and I were swim instructors, while Linda, Bob, Carol, and Vivian were in the blessings ministry! Normally Kate would have been running swim camp, and Bobby would be the pool admiral, but he finally went to see a doctor today and is feeling a lot better thankfully!! He may make a come back tomorrow and take over his position, which is a blessing for sure! We are thankful that Kristen, Cat (one of the girls who helps lead this ministry all throughout the year in Helena), and Karna (a woman who came from a few hours away) were able to fill in and get the kids who showed up this morning without a being placed in a color group yet in the right place! They really kicked into gear to help out when Kate had to take Bobby to the doctor! With them running things smoothly behind the scenes, Anna and I were both in different swim classes and we both had a lot of fun getting to know our young ones! While all that was going on, the blessings team was helping with registration down at the camp site and then they headed to pack lunches for all the campers and the camp staff! We had wonderful hot dogs, carrots, and oranges for lunch! Next we had our second half of the day where the same kids came back, so we were all a little more familiar with each other and started making the deeper connections with the kids! The blessings ministry team was able to visit some old friends in the afternoon, and that is always a nice reunion and definitely a blessing to the people they visit! After camp was over, we headed to Elaine, Arkansas, about 30 minutes or so away, to support the town and some people who are affiliated with the leaders of the camp! It was definitely an interesting experience! We were told we were going to see 400 bird houses, but we really saw a small gift shop of bird houses and their facility that they are turning into a place where people can come stay for free when they help out with camp! So that was a little different than expected, but yet it was great to see how they are trying to get people to visit Elaine and we were their first group to come, so we were glad we could help make them feel special! On the way back from Elaine, we stopped at the fan favorite, the Burger Shack and got dinner right before adult swim! Unfortunately we were only able to get in the water for adult swim for like 5 minutes because a storm came and we had to get out of the water, so that cancelled our plans for the night! Sadly, we had to head back to the Edwardian and our day had concluded! All in all, it was an awesome day and we all are looking forward to day 2!!! :)

Here are some pictures from our adventures today!