2017 Mission Trip - Gatlinburg - A FEW LAST THOUGHTS

Each mission trip, we leave proud of the progress we made at the worksites and the relationships throughout the group that were strengthened. This is just as true or maybe even more so for this trip. What set this mission trip apart from the others was our experience with our site leader Evan and the home owner Tee. They are both incredibly strong people who made a big impact in the little time we had with them, with their strong faith, work ethic, and inspirational anecdotes. Some of the specific highlights of the trip for me include working on the fence frame with Connor, teaching some of our songs to Evan, wading under the waterfall at the top of our hike, going to Waffle House, each car ride through the mountains, and as always, our final devotional session (where we read our letters and say goodbye).  The trip was a fine conclusion to my S.T.A.G.E. career.

-Andrew Bourgeois

Being the busy traveler I am, I was in Finland (and spent a night in Paris) before the mission trip and didn’t get back into the states until Tuesday afternoon. When my mom dropped me off at camp Wednesday morning, I was a little discombobulated. We tried to trick our site leader, Evan, that I was there the whole time and that he just didn’t remember me, but someone messed that up for us. I ended up throwing myself into setting posts with Sam and Nathan. The atmosphere that was established before I got there, despite weather, bug bites, injuries, and sickness, remained positive and incredibly loving. As we drive home now I feel as if I’ve been here the whole week. Personally, I had lots of favorite moments on Thursday: I’m so proud of Sarah, T, and myself for finishing sealing the roof in under the hot sun. I loved the hike, the absolute beauty of the waterfall once we FINALLY made it up there, and the laughs I had with the people on the way up and down the mountain. I loved the vibe of happiness and appreciation as we arrived at Waffle House late that night, filling our bellies and dancing while waiting for the bill. I’m so grateful that God gave us these happy memories to remember with the bittersweet goodbyes of last night. We are all so incredibly blessed, and I couldn’t be more excited for next year.
 ~ Ruth Butters

As I reflect on this unbelievable week of service, ministry, and fun as we drive home, I realize just how meaningful STAGE is to all of us. This week has been far from perfect. There was an abundance of bug bites, sickness, hot days, and injuries, but somehow whenever we all tried to come up our lows for the day nobody felt like there were any real lows because the amount of fun we had drowned out all of our stupid problems. I think we all knew this was going to be a special week when we arrived at the school we were staying at and started playing Frisbee in the grass. Almost immediately this lanky, southern camp counselor approached us and joined in. It turned that from that was the moment that we met our perfect site leader Evan. I think that I speak for the whole group when I say that we all feel like we have known Evan for our whole lives despite just meeting him a week ago, and that he has become an honorary member of STAGE and is welcome to visit any time. I think the true moment we realized just how special this trip and Stage was when we were sitting in our circle around our little torch and someone through tears said, “I don’t want Nathan to leave”. At that moment everyone broke down into tears, but through all this sadness we all sat together and talked about our best memories from STAGE. I think that night God truly spoke through us, and there was no better way to end the perfect mission trip with the perfect group.

~ Connor Barash

2017 Mission Trip - Gatlinburg - FRIDAY

7/14/17

After a late night at the Waffle House we were all very tired in the morning since we had to be up and ready by 7:30 am for breakfast. Right after breakfast we said our goodbyes to our awesome TeamEffort leaders, Evan, then hit the road. We spent the morning in Gatlinburg and split into smaller groups and toured around. I was with Shannon, Ava, Sam, and Mari and we had such a good time together. We all got many treats and good food as throughout the town. My favorite part about Gatlinburg was its old town feel, but yet it was still so cute and quirky. Around lunch time we packed up the vans again and made our way to Cincinnati for dinner. We ate at Dewey’s Pizza, and everyone devoured their food. Finally we ended up at Wittenberg University for our last night together. Nathan gave some of us a tour of the campus which was really cute. 10:30 pm came around and we started our nightly jam session that was followed by a huge cry session. We shared our highs and lows and seniors (me) shared our many memories with STAGE. It was also emotional because we all had to say goodbye to Nathan. It was all bittersweet, but by the end of the night we were all playing games and laughing together again. I even lead some of the girls in a yoga session!

-Sarah Hart  

2017 Mission Trip - Gatlinburg - THURSDAY

7/13/17

Wow. What a crazy day. As a rose at 7:15 I had the mindset that today we be a good easy day. We would go work with T, kill the fences butt, then have a good hike in the afternoon, and then come back for chapel. Man was I wrong! The day started off pretty normal, as we jammed to Neil Diamond and Queen on the way to the worksite. As soon as we got there the hammers started swinging, we were like a bunch of John Henrys. We were able to make immense progress on the fence and the only reason we weren’t able to is because we ran out of pickets to hammer. But with some scrap wood, handyman future project designer Nathan and couple others built our friend T a flower box painted in the volunteers colors. We all painted our names on it and it was a really cool way to close our week. After that though, the day took a crazy turn. We decided to go for a 3 mile hike in the Smoky Mts., at least we thought it would be 3 miles. Little did we know it was actually 3 miles one way!! People started to realize that once we saw the sign, but we couldn’t go back now. We all decided to hike to this cool little waterfall and the icy water was very refreshing. Already short on time some of us rushed back the trail trying to speed up the group pace. Other members of our group decided to take the wrong turn and get lost, we took even more time! So by the time this whole ordeal was finished it was about 7:30 and we had an hour drive back to chapel which started at 8. Now math isn’t my thing, but those two numbers didn’t really add up, even with Nathan driving we wouldn’t make it in time. So we arrived at chapel at 9, just in time for the end and then we did this really cool thing that was great way to end the week. Finally after all of that we still hadn’t eaten dinner and since it was so late, we got to a fulfill a lifelong dream of mine which was to eat Waffle House at midnight. What an incredible way to end a incredible day.

-Jackson Berger 

2017 Mission Trip - Gatlinburg - WEDNESDAY

7/12/17

This morning on the bus ride we had a groovy time heading to the work site. When we got to the work site we had a lot to do, some people were filling holes and other were putting up pickets and various jobs. We were on the picket line crew. We got 207 pickets done in total throughout the day. We had a good four person system down, and got a lot done. We thought a couple more people got ivy poisoning, but it turned out everyone was safe. We were so efficient a lot of people didn’t have jobs. A couple people were sick, but got better as time went on. We wrapped the work day up with another water balloon fight and headed back onto the bus. When we got back to the campus we all hit the pool to cool off before dinner. After chapel we sang some typical S.T.A.G.E songs and finished with highs and lows. Then some of us came back to the cafeteria to have a euchre tournament with peanut butter sandwiches.

-Mari Ahern and Lauren Koch

2017 Mission Trip - Gatlinburg - TUESDAY

7/11/17

                This morning, we headed to breakfast with a little better idea of what to expect, seeing as a couple nights at camp had already acclimated us to the atmosphere. We hopped in the vans for our 45-minute commute to the site to see our favorite girl, T. When we arrived, the job that some of us had been working on the day before was already finished, so we searched for some new projects to dive into. Anna and I helped out with filling holes with dirt that had set concrete in them, and the 4 of us attempted (but didn’t exactly succeed with flying colors)  to nail some boards that became the supports for the pickets, and finally found that weed whacking would be our project for the majority of the day.

-Lydia Blakely

The next activity we began today was weeding. We used weed whackers, saws and clippers. They were definitely a challenge but it was a good challenge to take on. The plants were short but feisty, some even the same size as our height. A lot of them did have thorns, but we worked as a group and attacked the thorns with all our might! As I got deeper into the weeds I somehow ran into some lovely poison ivy that got me on the leg, but it’s a new experience to add with this week!

-Mari Ahern

                After weeding, we started digging holes for the fence poles. We had holes that had already been dug but we needed to dig a little further so everything lined up. We had to use post hole diggers which were a little complicated to use at first, but T taught us the correct way to use them and it made digging the holes a lot easier. It took some hard work and muscles but it was overall a very rewarding process. There were a few tough holes that took a long time to dig but we trekked through and got all of the holes dug pretty quickly!

-Anna Gawel

                Throughout those times, others were setting the posts for the fence or hammering down the pickets. However, we eventually ran out of wood/supplies to complete those jobs, so we all tried to help each other tackle smaller projects. Finally, we had worked hard enough to throw in the towel early that day. Our group leaders had a secret group meeting to plan something for us. Instead of going back to our dorms, they took a different turn and we got ice cream! It was a wonderful treat after our blazing hot day. When we got back, a few of us went swimming again, or we had some free time to shower and chill before dinner. After dinner, our S.T.A.G.E. group gathered to go through our Tuesday (technically morning) devo, and then we played an intense game of wrestle. Then we had some free time and we headed to chapel. We ended the day with some S.T.A.G.E songs and our highs and lows.

-Sam Bourgeois

2017 Mission Trip - Gatlinburg - MONDAY DAY 2

Monday 7/10/17

                We left for the work site shortly after meeting for breakfast at 7:30. We arrived to find the outline of a fence winding down one side of the property and holes surrounding the rest, marking how extensive the fence was to be. We set to work moving concrete to be poured into the post holes and nailing ply wood to extend the fence. A lot of brush had to be moved to clear the area as well. The homeowner, “T,” was extremely appreciative for our work although she contributed to almost every project we worked on. She managed to consistently motivate us and prove that she was stronger than all of us. More holes had to be dug because they were originally put in the wrong place and T patiently taught everyone how to use post hole diggers while also commenting how she loved that all girls were digging the holes. A water balloon break was taken and after finishing the fence along one side of the property and setting posts along the back side, we went back to where we were staying and went swimming. After dinner, we went through devotionals as a group and then went to chapel with the rest of the camp. After chapel, our group stayed and sang a few songs together and shared highs and lows to end out the day.

-Shannon Schafer

2017 Mission Trip - Gatlinburg - SUNDAY DAY 1

Sunday 7/9/17

                Today we all got together in front of the church for a small meeting and prayer and after that it was off to the busses to get to Tennessee.  The trip was long but we made it and had a good time in Knoxville and had amazing pizza at The Tomato Head, a pizza parlor at the visitor’s center.  When we got to Gatlinburg we unpacked and played some games. After the games, everyone met up in the auditorium and we were given a presentation on the rules, had a small church service, then we got to meet our counselors for the week.

-Christian Touchton and Will Fanelli

Day 1 Gatlinburg Mission Trip

Departure: Today we leave.  We leave behind sleeping without alarm clocks in comfy beds for sleeping bags and waking early so we can snag some hot water in the shower.  We leave behind our families and the group that meets just once a week for 90minutes becomes family. We leave the lazy routine of our summer day, apps on our phones, our netflix accounts, and all the things that pull on us for attention and replace it with a long long car-ride, sweaty-hot days outside, and the challenge to do something a little helpful for someone we'll never meet again.

A mission trip is fun and its hard, its about friendship and its about discipleship, and its about us and its not about us.  There's no doubt that God goes with us on this trip.  Keep us in your prayers this week that we all have moments of awareness of  those "yay God" moments where his presence and purpose is made known to us.
-Nathan