Orientation - Day 3

The third day of Voices of Youth and again we woke to a beautiful day. It was not too hot or too cold and the sun was shining. Some of our youth woke up early and walked the campus finding the ducks and swans at the pond and enjoying the morning breeze. After breakfast, we headed towards the chapel for a morning devotion held by Jenny W.'s family group.

The devotion was very motivating and spiritually uplifting, it was a big benefit to use the chapel and stand in awe at the beautiful stained glass windows and come together as a group and pray for the strength, forgiveness, peace, healing and direction to do our best as we go down to Mississippi and begin our construction work. That devotion set the pace for the rest of the day. Everyone had an uplifted attitude and afterward, we went off to our first group building activity of the day. An obstacle course in which everyone in the team is blind-folded and the only one that can see has to call from across the field and let the team know what steps need to be taken.

The youth enjoyed watching each other have difficulties walking through the maze and stumbling on other people that formed the wall. It was easy to get confused while others called out to try and distract them from listening to their leader. This group building activity helped us to bond with the group, have faith and trust our fellow group members and listen to our leader who instructed us to avoid the obstacles in the way. After an entertaining game, we marched towards the rehearsal room for the first rehearsal of the day. We had a sectional just like the day prior and alternated between practice and mission education. During mission education we learned about how we can become a missionary through UMVIM (United Methodist Volunteers in Mission) and all the places they go to and all the things they do.


Then we all went to lunch. At lunch we discussed the reality of the "freshman 15," a college folk lore that claims that in the first year of college the average freshman gains 15 lbs seeing at how good the food and dorms at this college was some of us even considered applying to the school. After lunch, we all enjoyed some free time spent catching up on reading, playing ultimate frisbee or getting acquainted with new youth watching television or playing card games.


Then it was time for some health and safety tips. We learned about how to prevent dehydration, getting sun burned and generally staying safe in general. The information was given by Sandra Burks, A.K.A. "Mama Nurse." The information was presented with a slide show and ended with a video that not only showed us the importance of sun screen but also gave us a little bit of knowledge about life in general. Following the health and safety tips, we had a rehearsal with the entire group, which was very productive. We started practicing with new instruments such as violins, flutes, two trumpets, an alto recorder, tambourines, shakers/cabasas and even a djembe!


We had some family group time where we were able to unwind and enjoy the company of our "family" while on the tour. We went on to supper and afterwards were presented with an interesting surprise, Water Gun Fight!


We each were given a water gun and just ran around like kids squirting each other with water guns, some got fairly wet while others...got fully soaked with water. Unfortunately for Jordan, the youth decided to "baptize" him with the refilling water.


We had fun and although we were still wet, we kept playing more bonding games outside such as the Lava cross game in which we have to cross the side walk without touching the side walk and only use these cardboard squares provided for us. It was quite an experience trying to think outside of the box or in this case, outside the square.

We ended our group building activity with an intense form of freeze tag in which each individual was given a bandana of which they attached to their back pocket and then everyone had to go and take if from there, it was very exhilarating and was very fun.

After we were all hiped up we ended the night with a devotional held by Emma M.'s family group. It was presented in what some may consider "unusual" but overall we all enjoyed her puppet show that taught us to be united and make new friends by not confining yourself to a certain group. The day was overall very fullfilling, now we are all packing our bags, cleaning our rooms and getting ready for the adventure that is in store for us tomorrow.... a 7 hours bus drive down to Stone Mountain, GA!

Till Tomorrow,

-David and Jordan, Voices of Youth Blogmasters

P.S. Check out this post and more information at our website: www.voicesofyouth-va.org

Orientation - Day 2

It is already the second day of Orientation for Voices of Youth 2009. Some youth and adults walked around the campus and admired the beauty of the campus with the morning dew, families of ducks and chirping birds all around.

We also found out the good news that we had raised over $2,220 in both Lowes and Home Depot gift cards. After breakfast, we started the morning off with a devotion held by Andy and his family group.

We soon went off to our rehearsal where we had Wes Astin (the chaplain at Ferrum college) give us an introduction to the school and let us know about his mission experience. The sopranos went on to mission education with Tom while the altos, tenors and basses practiced with Fran, then after half an hour we switched.

Lunch crept up on us as time flies when you are having so much fun. Later, we enjoyed free time where we either played frisbee with our new made friends, caught up on our reading of Harry Potter or just had conversations and get acquianted with the people you will be with for the next few weeks.

Another rehearsal after the free time and then we had some group building.

After dinner, we had family group time to plan daily devotionals led by each group. A special event followed... TTT : Tool Time with Tom

He instructed us on the proper use of the tools and how to stay safe. Some of us proved to have mastery over using saws and recognizing the adequate tools while others found ourselves making errors and taking much longer than required on simple tasks but that's why we're learning how to do it now.

Everyone has their talents and I am positive that we will be able to put them all to use when we go down to Mississippi.

The evening came and as customary this year, it was Tribal Time! The family groups soon transformed into their respective tribes.



We had a few bonding games and then were introduced to the new tribe, the Adult Pirate team that presented us with a fun yet challenging obstacle course which made us all run around campus not just as a team but connected and holding hands in order to win the Pirate's Treasure, which the yellow team succeeded in doing.

Afterwards we were presented with the second challenge of the day, a Tribal Fashion Show to see who has the most tribe spirit, each team selected one individual in which they would dress up in the most outrages clothing and demonstrate team spirit, we got some interesting results with Sarah H. winning for the green team but in the end, we all had a great time.

After all the excitement was over and we had settled down, we ended the day with a devotion held by Laura Douglass where we had our instrumentalist: David C., Virginia G. and Molly D. play some taizé hymns. This allowed us to reflect on the day and to feel more bonded as a whole. It is amazing to see how quickly some of our youth have started to lose that anxiety and fear they had yesterday and are looking forward to all the exciting things yet to come. We are confident that God will help us transform the houses we work on in Mississippi as well.

Keeping you Posted,

-David and Jordan, Voices of Youth Blogmasters

P.S. Be sure to check out other important information on our website: www.voicesofyouth-va.org

Orientation - Day 1

After driving for hours and hours, what we all looked forward to finally arrived. Voices of Youth Orientation at Ferrum College was about to begin. The youth were filled with excitement having a good idea of what was to come and others were a little apprehensive and worried about spending 3 1/2 weeks with complete strangers.

After signing in and finding ourselves in what seems to be a luxurious dorm, the youth started to settle in and get acquainted with each other. Later, we had a commissioning service led by Laura Douglass at the chapel.


This service included giving each member of the Voices of Youth team a cross made by a parent of a Voices alumni from Messiah UMC in Springfield, VA. The cross consists of wood gathered from a mission site in Mississippi and a blunt masonry nail. Tom Dickinson shared with the group about the significance of the crosses and that they were to eventually give the cross to someone they come in contact with during the trip.


We also had communion that was consecrated by District Superintendent Dr. Stephen Hundley (one of the cabinet members that will be traveling to Mississippi to work with us on the rebuilding portion of our tour). Then it was time to say goodbye and the parents made their way back home. Now that the youth were all alone, the youth staff had a few skits and songs that brightened the mood and effectively conveyed some important messages for the trip.

Afterward, we went out to have our first rehearsal to realize that we sounded very good. After dinner, we broke off into our "family" groups and introduced our concept of the "Tribal Wars" each team started dressing up in their colors and doing wacky things such as painting their faces, wearing capes, and for the guys wearing pink shirts and hats.


We bonded together making our own flags, chants and victory calls. After all the excitement and a failed attempt at Tug-of-war and some other games, we had an evening devotion where we stood outside and listened for the voice of God.

We look forward to tomorrow where some have already made plans of walking around campus and admiring the beauty of Ferrum college.



David and Jordan - Voices of Youth Blogmasters