Day 19 - Courthouse Community UMC and Ocran UMC

This morning we had to arrive early to St. Thomas UMC because we have two concerts to do in one day. We left the Eastern Shore as early as possible and headed towards Courthouse Community UMC in Virginia Beach to have our first concert for their 11:15 am worship service.

We made it there on time and presented our concert as a worship service to a huge congregation that was filled with energy and were very excited for us to be there. We all felt glad to have moved the congregation and to also have alumni join us on stage as we sang our traditional songs.

Towards the end of the concert, one of the members in the congregation mentioned that his heart was hurting him. When the ambulance came we realized what a small world it is because one of the EMTs was someone that had worked with us at Camp Rainbow just a few days ago.

From time to time, the Voices camera has disappeared and come back with some pretty interesting photos on it. This is one example...

Those hand dryers were pretty strong!

Courthouse Community UMC provided us with some delicious sandwiches and ice cream before we departed for Dinwiddie, VA. We then traveled to Ocran UMC and were greeted warmly by Dalas and Laura Hancock.

After a terrific potluck, we had our evening devotion and concert. Then, we were paired up with our host families and headed our respective destinations.

Until tomorrow,

- David and Jordan, Voices of Youth Blogmasters

Day 18 - St. Thomas UMC

This morning we arrived at Aldersgate UMC for an amazing breakfast of homemade french toast, eggs, sausage, and other wonderful things. After eating several platters of the french toast, it was time for devotions. Each family group chose a member to live out the message of the devotion "being flexible" as we played a game of Twister.


Once our devotion was finished and a winner had been determined, it was time to get on the bus and head for the Eastern Shore. We took a few minutes to stretch and see the sights from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

We were soon back on the road and started toward Camp Occohannock on the Bay to learn about the camp and possibly do some work. Excited to finally arrive, we headed into the dining hall where the camp director Jerry gave us a short speech about the camp and then fed us lunch.

During lunch, we were made aware that our bus had become stuck in the sand while trying to turn around in the parking lot. Our mission work changed from helping the camp to helping get our bus out in order to make it to our next destination. After several attempts to dig the bus out, we eventually had to call a tow truck to pull "Annie" out to solid ground.


While some were working on getting the bus out of the sand, others were enjoying the God's beautiful creation and the camp's great facilities.

When Annie was finally released from the sand, we hopped onto the bus and headed toward Parksley, VA to our next church. We arrived at St. Thomas UMC and quickly unloaded the bus and started preparing for our next concert.

After an amazing dinner with some members of the congregation, we headed off to change into our concert attire. Before the concert, Katie and David combined their family groups for a devotion that required us to trust each other and lean on one another to make our activity work.

Then it was concert time! Afterward, we were matched with our host families and went our separate ways. Some people even had the chance to go to a local carnival.


Until next time,

- David and Jordan, Voices of Youth Blogmasters

Day 17 - Aldersgate UMC (Chesapeake)

Today we woke up each at different houses and gathered together at Trinity UMC where we put our bags back on the bus and got ready to go to another church. We had a morning devotion and then were on our way to one of our most anticipated moments of the tour... the viewing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Most of the youth designed their own T-shirts and assigned each other character names. Most of the group was pleased with the film and after it was all over, we all got back on the bus and headed to Aldersgate United Methodist Church.


Aldersgate, along with other churches in the area were having a youth week. Everyday they had over 100 youth at the church doing different activities and they ended their program by coming to our concert on Friday night. We were also very fortunate to have so many alumni come and sing along with us at our concert. Tomorrow we head toward the Eastern Shore where we will sing at St. Thomas UMC.

'Til Tomorrow,

- David and Jordan, Voices of Youth Blogmasters

Day 16 - Trinity UMC

We awoke early this morning and were treated to a wonderful breakfast provided by the minister from Park View UMC and then hit the road toward the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center in Blackstone.

Our mission project today was to work with Camp Rainbow Connection, a camp for adults with special needs. Martha Stokes, in charge of conference Leadership and Inclusion, gave us a brief explanation of CRC and what we could do for the rest of the day at the camp.

The camp has various classes through which the campers rotate for the day. Some of the classes we could choose from were cooking, music, bible, and arts and crafts. Others had the opportunity to set up for their dance this evening. The theme for the week was Superheros of the bible.

We ate lunch with the campers in the VUMAC dining hall and then made our way to the auditorium where we gave a mini concert to the campers. After receiving a standing ovation from those in the audience, we had our family group time on the grounds of the VUMACand then had a devotion led by Emma’s group where we tried "trust falls" with each other.

We then traveled to Trinity UMC in Amelia Courthouse for our final concert of the day. We ate dinner, had our evening concert and headed off on our separate ways with our host families.


Until next time,

Jeremy and Jordan, Voices of Youth Blogmasters