Today was a long but eventful day. In the morning after showers we went to a church. The night before, some people from the church drove two hours to a farm. The farm only keeps green beans that are three inches so the church got all the leftover beans that the farm didn't keep. So today we spent a few hours putting the green beans into bags. Helping us were some kids that were at vacation bible school at the church. Last night at devotions we grabbed another person's hand and whoever was in your right hand was who you made lunch for. So this morning we all made each other's lunches. It was a little confusing but I think everyone ended up fairly happy with what the other people packed in their lunch.
In the afternoon, we decided to make mac & cheese and chicken nuggets for a potluck dinner, so we went shopping then used the other church's kitchen to cook. We brought the food to this awesome place called Rocketown. Rocketown has a venue where they sell out concerts and weddings, and kids play basketball. They also have green rooms and studios for bands, and a small skate indoor skate park, a cafe, video games, and a computer lab. At Rocketown we ate a really good potluck dinner where people brought food that had the same first letter as their name (Melanie brought marinara and Natalie brought noodles, etc.). After dinner we had a long bible session where we spent most of the time answering the 'icebreaker' question- Have you ever had a run-in with the police or school authority? After the bible session, we came back to our church and played Catch Phrase while we snacked on popcorn, Cheerwine and donuts. Now we are chilling in the room we sleep in and answering riddles and whatnot. It's been a fun day. I'm excited for tomorrow because we're each going to pack a lunch but put no name on it and we are going to eat whatever lunch we get but we can trade some food. It should be interesting.
Signing off with the Harvey Browne Squirrels :)

Hiii! Today felt soo long but it was so great. We went pretty early to a house where a lady lives who recently had a stroke. The house had these wooden stairs (maybe five of them) that led to the door. First we took the stairs and rail off. Then, some people put the stairs on the other side (farther from the driveway) while others rebuilt the railing. Then we started on the ramp. It was a lot of digging, measuring and drilling. Some people learned how to use a drill. After a long 6-7 hours, we were finally finished. It felt good to look at the long ramp and know that we built that ourselves for someone specifically. 

We ate a great meal (taco night!) prepared by today's food team: Seth, Brittany, Adam, Larissa and Katie. After playing several rounds of Left, Right, Center and Catch Phrase, we took an awesome walk around downtown Nashville. We heard a lot of music and visited what is probably the most awesome candy shop ever. It had this cool contraption thing that delivered the taffy from where they made it out to the display. After we got back from our walk, an awesome devotion was presented by the amazing team including Emily, Anne, Braeden, Ben and Darrell. 

Today has been a great day! Looking forward to tomorrow!

This morning we had a yummy breakfast thanks to the cool people who woke up early to set the food out. First we headed back to Kroger to pick up 11 cases of water bottles and brought them to this huge warehouse where we spent most of the time packing food into boxes. The warehouse was miserably hot but we took plenty of water breaks. We took a long break and answered about 80 riddles before we left for dinner. We ate at Jack in the Box then went to this cool place under a bridge. We got out all the massive heaps of food that we had packed earlier and lined it all up. Around 1100 homeless people showed up and ate dinner and listened to a few different people sing. Then they lined up and collected food from our boxes. It was great seeing their faces light up when they saw all the food we had for them. The kids' faces were priceless when they saw the monstrous box of baked goods that we were passing out. Then, we headed back to the church where we ate a delicious snack of ice cream, chips, salsa and queso prepared by Brittany, Seth, Adam, Larissa, and Katie. Then a reflective devotion was led by Emily, Anne, Darrell, Braeden, Ben and Sue. Now as I type this, Seth is angrily throwing his hat at the wall (trying to make it land on a peg on the wall). After devotions, the majority of the group went on a ghost hunt led by Darrell. We trekked through the dark church with flashlights and had a lot of fun scaring each other and making each other jump. Overall it's been a pretty fun day and we're looking forward to tomorrow!

Hiii! Today has been a good first day. We didn't do much because our planned thing for the day was cancelled, so we went to Kroger's and had a lot of fun picking out food for the week. On our way there we listened to this song like three times. Then we headed back to the church and made our lunches. We ate lunch at a park and after about ten minutes it started raining so some genius decided we would sit underneath the playground. That lasted for like five minutes before we made a mad dash towards the van in the pouring rain.

Then on our way to Sam's, we listened to the same dang song two more times and nobody knew the words because they didn't make sense. At Sam's, it was about a minute before Seth set off an alarm by pressing a button on a camera. We walked through Sam's and spent a long time figuring out the prices of massive amounts of paper towels, coffee, and sugar. I got a couple weird looks because I was wheeling a cart full of coffee and I'm like 5 feet tall. Also the cashiers were a little confused but it was alright.

After that we went to this replica of the Parthenon which was unfortunately closed but was still pretty cool. We explored a lake which had an abundance of tiny cute turtles and ducks and birds. We saw a train that kept making fake bird noises and we saw this guy that was doing flips and stuff for no reason. Then we went to a soup kitchen to serve dinner to people. I was with Larissa and Katie filling cups of ice when this little boy (maybe 4 years old) came up to me and gave me a hug then left. It was the most adorable thing ever.

After serving dinner, we went back to this church to make OUR dinner. The amazing/talented dinner crew included me (Emily), Anne, Braeden, Sue, Darrell, and Ben. We made thin spaghetti, salad and garlic bread. Our pretty cool devotions team (Seth, Brittany, Adam, Larissa and Katie) planned a good end of day closing devotions. It's been a pretty good day. We got to know the city we'll be spending our week in. We also met a lot of cool people.

Day One Nashville mission trip

Day One:
We had a tremendous amount of adventures tonight. First we ate lunch at McDonald's and the smoothie machine was broken, but we decided we couldn't complain #firstworldproblems. After eating lunch, the group had a lot of time to use before getting back on the track to Nashville, so Adam decided we would take a quick tour of a cave near by, what was planned to be a hour detour took us two hours. The trip was well worth the time and we had a delightful tour through horse cave, led by a man who had the ultimate accent and focused the tour on how close his house was to Mike Rowe at some point. A few more hours on the road we arrived at the church safe an jovial and ready to eat! once  we enjoyed our food we then sang hymns for what felt like hours. Then we chilled in this room and ate fruit snacks and talked about stuff. :) #teaminvisible

Harvey Browne family-
We are having such an amazing time! Yesterday, Wednesday, was our free afternoon. There are no scheduled conference events from lunch to night time worship, so its up to each individual back home group to find something to do. What did we do you ask? Rock hop... obviously. Just like the past several years we all got into the cold creek and made a journey to the waterfall that comes off of Lake Susan. It was great afternoon with a great group of friends that is always one of the best times at Montreat. Today, we had another very powerful keynote service by Scott Phillips. After some energizers, which Harvery Browne excels at, Scott delivered us a sermon with the theme "God helps us listen to each other". Scott brought up some popular debated topics among teenagers and talked to us about how he thinks we should deal with them. He said he doesn't care how we feel about these issues, he just wants us to understand one another rather than being aggressive about what is an individual opinion. Our Harvey Browne group has been getting along very well and I think that Scott's theory is why. We are 21 totally different teenagers, but we are truly a family and getting closer with one another everyday. Hope all is well in Louisville, see you Saturday.

God Bless,
Patrick Frentz

Dear People Back Home,

This is my 5th and final year at Montreat and I'm loving every minute of it! Everything from the energizers to the amazing music from Jorge (who happens to also be from Louisville) and even the Recreation events, which are usually pretty lame...One rec event was a color run today where everyone ran around Montreat, getting covered in colored powder! It was very unique and probably my favorite event that I've been a part of at Montreat. I also really enjoy the Keynote speaker (guy who speaks in the morning) and as well as the Worship speaker (guy who speaks in the evening). It's just been a great Montreat so far and I can't wait for the days to come!

Love,
Nick

Everyone has Arrived Safely

All the youth have arrived safely. We had our opening worship and were introduced to the conference leaders. Everyone seems to be in pretty high spirits and doing well. I am encouraging the youth to write updates and they will be posting things throughout the coming week.

For know, please know that we are safe and excited for what looks like it will be a wonderful week.

We (The Kuhn's and I) Made it to Montreat!

This morning, Nate, Diana, Gwen, Sean, and I packed up the vans and ventured down to Montreat to get everything set up for our youth who will be coming down tomorrow. Our goal is to have the youth update this blog about what they have learned throughout the conference. We will try to update things daily, and appreciate your understanding if that is not quite the case.

We can't wait for the youth to arrive and have our Montreat family reunited. Travel safely!

The amazing Mission Group  in front of the church.

Street photo of the church

The awesome leaders, Adam, Doug, Jane, Darryl, and Sherri.

Darryl, Jane, Sherri on the swinging bridge at the rainforest.

Cooper, Morgan, Mackenzie, Hallie, and Andrew.

"George" the sloth.  Our newest member of the group.

The boat ride up the Saracaqui River.

Brynn and Allison.

Don't we look refreshed and enthusiastic?  This was the first day.

Well Bloggerites,
This is the last night we are in Costa Rica.  It has truly been an adventurous trip.  Like any great group, we have had our ups and downs.  Times when we don't think we could do anything else, only to be uplifted by some amazing act within the group or from our new Costa Rican friends.
Today was our "Sabbath" from working at the church.  We spent the day in the rainforest located in Braulio Carrillo National Park, about 50 miles east of San Jose.  We rode an aerial tram through the rainforest that covered the three levels of a rainforest.  Then we were able to have a guided walking tour of the ground level to learn very fascinating facts.  Then we traveled for another hour and a half to the Saracaqui River to take a boat trip.  We saw some amazing animals, howler monkeys, iguanas, toucans, and green macaws, among other creatures.  We are spending our last night preparing for the trip home and playing cards.  We miss everyone at home and can't wait to arrive.

Thursday

The men working hard

Today was our last day doing work at the church.  We were able to complete the drainage system for the gutters.  We started putting the gutters up and it will be completed by the church sometime this week.  We got most of the concrete filled into the sidewalks.  While the men did the tough work, the girls went over to the daycare center and interacted with the kids or "los ninos".  After the work was completed, the church provided us a delicious lunch and held a good-bye ceremony.  They gave us all t-shirts and Adam recieved a special gift from Pastor Miguel.  That particular gift represented faith and Adam was very grateful for it.  After leaving the church, it was finally our time to get touristy.

Pastor Miguel giving Adam his gift

We started our adventure with a trip to the gold museum.  The gold museum was located in downtown San Jose.  The museum featured fascination collections of gold from Pre-Columbia era.  After that, we headed to the market to buy some souvenirs.  All of the souvenirs we bought ranged from soccer jerseys to handmade purses and trinkets. We ended our day with a dinner with our guests from the Presbyterian committee who helped us plan this trip. Tomorrow, we will take a tour of the rain-forest.  Keep us in your prayers and we hope all is well with you.

Gold artifacts from the museum

Market in downtown San Jose

Hope all is well,
Grant and Michael

Brilliant reflections by brilliant minds- Richard & Patrick

Working hard in the trenches

Over the past two days we began a new project on making a new drainage system. In Costa Rica it rains every day for 7 months out of the year and the church did not even have a gutter. We witnessed this for ourselves as rain flooded the building and streets. We were put to work digging holes and breaking concrete making a mess. The work is very demanding but  rewarding as we are get it done as a group. We are instructed by the hardest working man I've ever met, Alfredo!! He runs on 10 cups of pure Costa Rican ground coffee and is a true inspiration. Luckily we have our friend Issac who can translate somewhat for us. Getting dirty is not a choice as we stain our clothes with dirt and paint; luckily the sun has been kind to us leaving only a few people burnt. People are getting tired but spirits are still running high. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product and impact this project has on the church.

                                                                              Richard

Cas balance race with kids

Throughout the whole week, we have been sending small groups of Harvey Browners to a daycare nearby to play and even learn from the young children. However, today instead of us going to the kids, the kids came to us. The church hosted a number of kids and we assisted in playing and spending time with the children or "los ninos".  There was a puppet show, a book reading, and a snack time. The most excitement came during the races we had. One race was a relay race that involved putting on a pair of shorts and a shirt that we brought that completely swallowed up the kids. Many of the little boys loved running around the room with very baggy shorts on over their school pants. The other race is what you see in the picture above. You may have done something similar by balancing an egg on a spoon and running with it,but we played the Costa Rica version. You placed a fruit called "cas" on a spoon and proceeded to run with the spoon in your mouth.  All of the kids were very excited when Richard and I offered to a race, and as you can see the girl in the picture was determined to win and was off to a fast start. Playing with these kids everyday has truly been a special part of the week and it is something that all of us have truly cherished. It is amazing when you can interact with a child who is still learning not only a little English but their own language.They have been so nice and have taught us so much and that is consistent throughout all of the Costa Ricans we have met.

                                                                                 Patrick 

Hope all is well in Louisville, we are having a life-changing experience. God Bless.

Thoughts from Doug and Jane

The youth painting the front gate.

Bato, bato, ganzo

Wonderful Day!  We got a lot accomplished.  We had a chance to work with the daycare again and taught the children bato, bato, ganzo(duck, duck, goose).  We also broke up sidewalks, dug ditches, and ate nonstop. Work two hours, ate, work two hours, ate, work two hours, ate. In the afternoon we had a chance to take a break and play a game of soccer.We are building a strong wonderful community with the youth and the church members.

Another successful day of navigating the treacherous roads and traffic of the city.

From the chaperones

Senior Reflection

Group photo after church service on Sunday.

On our first day, we experienced two different types of church services, amazing local foods, and beautiful site seeing. We were warmly welcomed into the local church where they only spoke Spanish. The service was amazing, passionate, and also 3 hours long!! (There was even an intermission) Thankfully after service we had a relaxation time to either sleep or explore the neighborhood. After that our friendly translator Stacey took us to his church for ANOTHER service, but this was simply an hour long. We were treated to dinner at the mall. It was a huge 3 floor mall nothing less than the ones we have. Afterwards we went home and finally got some sleep. It was a great introduction to our life changing week in Costa Rica!!

Benjamin Pumpelly working hard on the first day.

On our second day in Costa Rica we worked at the Iglesia Divino Salvador. We were put to use working on beautifying, repainting, and fixing things up around the church. We have been hard at work but we have also been fed very well by the gracious church community... WE HAVE SO MUCH FOOD!! They have been gracious enough to provide us with more than enough quality dining MULTIPLE times per day.We have already experienced so much in the short time we have been here. We figured out very fast that using the peace sign, instead of waving, to locals is appreciated greatly and understood by all. We also realized how much we stand out when walking through the mall and walking through the streets. Now to talk about the craziest thing here... the driving. There are no rules of the road and motorcycles are reckless and free. Thankfully our bus drivers are very experienced and bold. The three lane round-abouts of death are the scariest part and drivers don't know what breaks are. Everything is covered in art expressing their culture.

Making an impact on the locals through building relationships was found to be more rewarding and important than the physical labor we provide. Even though communication has been very challenging, work is difficult, and change in lifestyle, we have surpassed all obstacles through our faith in Jesus Christo.

We will continue to update you throughout the week with our amazing and life changing stories.

Sincerely,

Seniors class of 2012!! 

(Richard, Morgan, Hallie, Ben, Kenzie, Grant, Michael)

We are here and safe but do not presently have Internet . Updates may be intermittent

My Montreat experience so far has been amazing! From the passionate preaching to the new (and old) energizers and even the stellar small groups, this year's Montreat has been one to remember. To clarify for people who aren't familiar with this conference, small groups are made up of randomly chosen people that are from different youth groups. I have been able to see and talk to people from my past small groups and even saw two people who I had met my first Montreat 4 years ago. It's pretty cool to be able to interact with friends that I have made over the years. Moving on, every meal here has been excellent. I became a vegetarian recently and sadly, the cooks didn't find out until a few hours before we arrived, but still have been able to provide enough choices for me. I am grateful for that and just wanted to give a personal thanks to Nate and Diana Kuhns as well as Darrell Darby. I also joined another youth group from Chapin, South Carolina for lunch one day and really enjoyed meeting their group. It has been a great week so far and I'm hoping the rest of this Friday is just as good! :)
Thanks for listening!
Nick Bliven

This week so far has been a very fun experience and it is soon coming to a close. Worship everyday has been quite insightful and all the small groups have been very fun. The whole group has been having just as much as fun. I love coming down here and drinking that glorious drink the locals call cheerwine. My group seems to have created a liking for monopoly and numerous games have so far been held. A personal favorite is the Star Wars (The Original Trilogy) themed version of said game. The houses are very nice, excluding a flooding problem that occurs when certain members of the group decide to intelligently leave the shower curtain outside of the shower and take half an hour while washing knowing that 2 people still have to shower and theres only 15 minutes left until worship starts. I especially love the preacher. His name is John Bell and he is from Scotland. His style of preaching is awesome. But its also fun to just drift off and listen to his accent. But all in all, its been an amazing week and I hope to thoroughly the rest of it.

-Andrew Doelling

God's Perfect Love

Table Imperfectly Decorated for Worship. Notice the asymmetrical cloth placement. 

Today was a moving day for me, and, I think it's safe to say, for many of our youth. John Bell, the conference preacher, spoke to us about the difference between failure and sin. He had us repeat, "Failure is not automatically sin." He went on to talk about the danger of beating ourselves up over failure and assuming that the disabilities we struggle to live with are the consequence of sin. John said something like, "God made the world good, but not perfect. God gave us bodies to live in that are good, but not perfect." I was deeply moved by his words, so were our youth.

For two months now I have had to walk with a walking stick. I need this assistance because I have a fracture in my femur that I got from overtraining for a marathon. I worked really hard to prepare for the marathon and was devastated to not be able to run. I failed and broke my leg in the process. I was angry, frustrated, and resentful. I hated myself and was all too keen on punishing myself on the pavement. It took a diagnosis to humble me, yet it wasn't until tonight, that I recognized I was still loved.

John Bell preaching to the youth. 

John shared a story about a woman in South Africa who was brutally raped and infected with HIV. She became really sick and sought treatment. After her diagnosis, she too was devastated. However, unlike me, she was much more receptive to God's love. Instead of wallowing in guilt, anger, sorrow, hatred, or remorse believing her infection was punishment for failure, she built herself up. Every morning she gets up and stares at herself in the mirror. She tells herself, "I love you. I love you. I love you! God doesn't make anything ugly. I love you." She sings and dances in choir, celebrating and embracing life.

We can talk an awful lot about Grace in the church, but I don't think I really ever felt like I needed it until tonight. I broke down in worship, crying as I leaned into the pew; feeling the strength of God's love holding me up. I realized how hurt and upset I was with myself for failing at running the marathon and running to the point of injury; I knew I had to let go, realize I was still loved and that this injury was not a punishment from God. My entire perspective was radically shifted by Grace.

During devotions, I share my story with our youth. I was deeply moved by the stories they shared as well. We are all in need of love, grace, and support. Most of the time, we are the ones who cut ourselves down the most. Tonight, during devotion, many our youth and adults shared in this epiphany of love.

I can write with confidence that even after the second day of Montreat, we are all being deeply impacted by how the Spirit is speaking. Take time to love yourself. Find a mirror and say:

I love you.
I Love YOU.
I LOVE you.
God doesn't make anything ugly.
I love you.

We love you with all your imperfections. God made you good. Not perfect. Good. God loves you and so do we.

Adam

Keynote/Worship Energy

As a member of Harvey Browne youth group, when it comes time for keynote in the morning or worship at night, you know its time to pick up the energy. After some members of the youth group wait outside of Anderson Auditorium up to an hour before (usually the girls) to get the very front row available it is our time to shine. Every energizer or song that comes on and is led on stage, we make sure to get very into it. Several groups/people that sit around us have even commented on it. One man told us that "he had never seen so much energy in the worship place and it was exciting to be around". Keynote and worship are only one of the things we love about Montreat but it is the time I think our youth group comes together as one the most. I think we all have a true bond with each and every Harvey Browner that is here and that is something not every youth group can say. Hope all is well in Louisville, God Bless.

Patrick Frentz

We're In Montreat!

I hope you will forgive my late post tonight. We made it and we are safe. It has been a long day and we are learning about the paradox of perfection even though we are all imperfect. The youth had a wonderful time at the intro. Tomorrow will be the first full day of the conference and I am sure we will have lots more to share.

For now, we are headed to bed.

Good night! We love you all.

Peace,

Adam