Youth SLAM Trip - Day 2

We arrived safely in Oregon last night and had a far less eventful drive. Thank you for your prayers! A combination of audio books on tape, FM radio surfing, sleeping (youth not drivers) and silly car games helped us through our 12 hour journey. I also rapped in Chinese a couple of times to the howling delight of the passengers in our car. I don't think I'm up for a recording contract anytime soon.

The drive from Stanford to West Linn, Oregon was beautiful. We crossed over several bridges, entered through mountain passes, saw a snow capped Mt. Shasta that according to one youth "looked plastic" and passed by beautiful blueish green lakes as well. After a stop for lunch at Cost Co, a gas stop at Fred Meyer (Oregonian Super Market) and a stop for dinner at Subway, we had arrived at the home of Don and Faith Carter - our gracious hosts for the evening and parents of Casey Taylor, one our youth staff workers.

The girls slept inside and the guys outside in a tent. Phillip, one our youth, became a little concerned about sleeping in the tent as we approached the house because of the woodsy setting.

Another youth, Anthony, replied, "Why, people aren't going to do anything to you out here."
Phillip responded, "I mean, in terms of animals and what not."

It brought me back to another time when we were on retreat and the youth thought for sure that Sasquatch was going to come out of the woods to eat us. I'm not sure if I've captured the hilarity of the moment, but trust me, it was funny.

Today we have a short 3 1/2 hour drive to the Yakama Reservation in Wapato, WA and will make the transition from relaxed road trip to focused service project. Please pray that Jesus would give us willing hearts to serve and love as he did. I'm hoping and praying that we would learn much about Jesus and that we would grow in our faith as we serve this coming week.

There are also a couple of specific prayer requests to ask you to pray for:
- please pray for Justin as he's coming down with a little cold
- please pray for Karla and Sara who have had upset stomachs
- please pray for Chryshanda - she's newer to our group and I hope for her to feel at home with us
- Several of our youth have been made intensely aware of their relative poverty in the last week or two as we've interacted with friends, Christians and supporters from more affluent backgrounds. Please pray for God to give us wisdom to make some sense of this.

Blessings,
Elliot