Day 1 - Adult & Youth Staff Prepare for Orientation

After much anticipation, planning throughout the year and a bit of car trouble the day of, the wait was over for the youth and adult staff.  Voices of Youth: Awakening the United Methodist Church to Mission was officially back in action! 

Youth Staff - Alexis, Devon, Mollie and Katie

Adult Staff - Drew, Katie, Jim, Jenn, Jordan, Rachel and Chad

We gathered at Shenandoah University to prepare for everyone's arrival and the rest of orientation.  We checked in at Racey Hall only to find out the air conditioning had not been turned on and would not be turned on until tomorrow.

No worries, this will be a tiny preview of what our nights will be like once we reach the Dominican Republic...and another good reason why the staff arrive a day early to make sure everything is ready!

At dinner we discussed the preparations for our hunger awareness meal that will be taking place later during orientation.  We had a thorough conversation about diet, food distribution, poverty and other issues relating to hunger as we determined what the best way to present this meal would be.  You'll have to stay tuned to see how it turns out.

Once we returned, we began making this year's buttons for all of the participants.  Although we have several VOY veterans, it took quite a while to remember exactly how the buttons are made as it is quite an elaborate process and the directions for the button maker are nowhere to be found.  There were a few buttons sacrificed along the way during the trial and error stage but we were able to remember the process and successfully completed the rest of the buttons.

 The youth staff went off and made posters to guide the participants arriving tomorrow.  They also took some time to discuss the rules skits and other important reminders.

The adult staff discussed the worship service that will be taking place with the whole group tomorrow and looked at some different musical options for the tour.  Finding music that suits all generations and that also has a meaningful message is sometimes difficult but we were able to locate some songs that fit nicely into the worship service during the tour.

 Our meeting time was coming to a close and Jordan led devotions on John 6:1-13.  He talked about how Philip and Andrew reacted differently to the situation of feeding the five thousand.  As staff, he encouraged the group to see the blessings or gifts that we or other members of the group are given no matter how small because we never know what God will have in store for those things!  We are looking forward to the amazing journey we are about to embark upon as we continue to listen to the One who has called us to serve.