On April 22, Greg, Josiah, and I spent the ENTIRE night with 12 of our 13 team members. Last year the Pawley's team did a all-night team fun night and it was great for building the team's connection. This year it did the same thing. We had so much fun on our 10 hour extravaganza.
Because of Celebrate Recovery on Friday at the church, we couldn't start until 9. But it was non-stop fun after that. We did a few team builders, ate pizza, played volleyball, played basketball, played hide-and-seek, played Just Dance, and laughed...a lot.
It was such a great time to get to know each other better and just have some fun together. I can't wait for Pawley's!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Planning Stages
We have finally reached the planning stage of our trip and I couldn't be more excited! The first few team meetings are to help us get focused and get to know each other better. Once we learn who our LeaderTreks staff is and Greg has had a chance to discuss our trip with them, it's planning time!!! And that started this last weekend.
Unlike a level 4 trip (like what I was on last year in Honduras) where students are in charge of everything, this is a level 3 trip where students are given the responsibility of one key element and then are given more responsibility once we get to Pawley's. The area that we are planning is the Vacation Bible School/Sports Camp that we will run for 4 of the days we are in Pawley's. On Sunday, our team started to brainstorm what we want that to look like. Our 4 team members who were on the Pawley's trip last year, Caleb, Sarah, Nate, and Jensen, were each given a day to plan and the rest of the team was divided up into one of their groups.
We already have some great ideas, as you can see from our brainstorming list above, and I'm super excited to see what the groups come up with for the kids in South Carolina!
Our team has officially been finalized with one student backing out, another student being added to the group, and a 3rd adult leader. Here's the final list:
Greg, Josiah, and I (adult leaders)
Caleb, Alan, Jacob, Jordan,
Nate, Mike, Blake, Sarah
Ashlyn, Emmalie, Jensen, Lauren, & Mariah
Final Note: Thank you to everyone who has donated financially and prayerfully to our mission!!! We are very close as a team to being fully funded and are so grateful for everyone who is helping us serve God in this way.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Getting to know each other...
Our team is in the beginning of our planning stages right now. We have completed one team fundraiser (our garage sale was a HUGE success). We don't really need to start planning our vacation bible school/sports camp for at least another month. So in our most recent team meeting we decided to focus on getting to know each other.
We played "I've Never," where everyone in the circle gets a certain number of candies (in our case, 5 skittles). You go around the group and say something that you've never done. If anyone in the group has done that thing, they have to eat a piece of their candy. The last person with candy wins. It was tons of fun!
Then we did a quick round of 2 truths and a lie. You say two things about you that are true and one that is a lie. As a group, we try to guess what the lie is.
It was great to just spend some time learning more about each other. We are gearing up to spend a lot of time with one another and meeting was a great beginning for all the bonding to come.
We played "I've Never," where everyone in the circle gets a certain number of candies (in our case, 5 skittles). You go around the group and say something that you've never done. If anyone in the group has done that thing, they have to eat a piece of their candy. The last person with candy wins. It was tons of fun!
Then we did a quick round of 2 truths and a lie. You say two things about you that are true and one that is a lie. As a group, we try to guess what the lie is.
It was great to just spend some time learning more about each other. We are gearing up to spend a lot of time with one another and meeting was a great beginning for all the bonding to come.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
January Team Meeting
In January, Greg and I brought our ENTIRE team together, including our newest addition, Josiah (our 3rd adult leader for the trip). We spent some time talking about perseverance and keeping our eyes on the goal of our trip: serving God the best way we can not just during our time in Pawley's, but in all of our preparations for the trip as well.
After our Bible study time together, we took the team outside to have a little fun with a team building activity. It was great to watch the team come together, communicate, and find success for the first time.
There was a lot of laughter and some frustration but at the end of the day, our team worked well together. I can't wait to see how much better we will become as we continue to grow as a group!
After our Bible study time together, we took the team outside to have a little fun with a team building activity. It was great to watch the team come together, communicate, and find success for the first time.
There was a lot of laughter and some frustration but at the end of the day, our team worked well together. I can't wait to see how much better we will become as we continue to grow as a group!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Support Letter...It's Official...Email Style
After much thought and mental wrestling, we decided that for this mission trip, we would forgo the costs of printing and mailing support letters and go the email route. While I'm a little nervous that some might think it's lame, I feel good that we are saving money this way and now that people can donate online, it just makes sense to provide them with a link they can click on.
So, here's what our support letter looks like:
And if you didn't receive one by email...make sure to sign up for our email newsletter group in the upper right hand corner. Sorry that I missed you!
Here's what it said...
"Dear Family & Friends,
As we head into the holidays, it's time for the Suiters to start thinking about the summer. Greg and I have decided to partner up again and lead a trip back to Pawley's Island, South Carolina this coming July.
Pawley's has a very special place in both our hearts. This will be my (Shannon) 3rd time back in Pawley's and Greg's 5th time returning. We spent two weeks there together the month before we got married and returned for another week the month after we got married. Last summer Greg took a team of amazing underclassmen to Pawley's to continue the wonderful work going on there. While in Pawley’s Island, Greg and the team partnered with LeaderTreks to continue the mission of healing the division between the white and African-American communities. The team helped with the construction of homes to improve living conditions in the neighborhoods as well as ran an outreach program to the children living there.
We are so excited to continue what the students started last year and are asking for your help to do that. First and foremost, we would ask for your prayers. We believe in the power of prayer and need prayer support to help us as we are traveling, working, and sharing the gospel. These communities are in desperate need spiritually and it will take lots of prayer to prepare our hearts and the hearts of the people in South Carolina. If you head to our blog - teamsuiter.blogspot.com - you can join our email update list to receive important prayer requests and updates on the progress of our team.
We are also needing to raise $1300 for our travel costs. If you would please consider donating to our trip, we would greatly appreciate it. You can donate 2 different ways. First, you can donate online. If you go to www.morethan2hs.com, there is a tutorial explaining how to donate. You can select either Greg or I to donate to, but both go to our account. You can also donate by check. You can mail a check to us at the address below. Please make the check payable to Sun Valley Community Church and DO NOT put our names on the check for tax purposes. All donations are tax deductible and you will receive a tax receipt at the end of the calendar year.
Thank you so much for taking the time to learn more about our upcoming trip to Pawley’s Island and for considering to support us prayerfully and financially. Please let us know if you have any questions.
We are so thankful for you all this holiday season and wish you and your families all the best!
Love,
Greg & Shannon Suiter"
So, here's what our support letter looks like:
And if you didn't receive one by email...make sure to sign up for our email newsletter group in the upper right hand corner. Sorry that I missed you!
Here's what it said...
"Dear Family & Friends,
As we head into the holidays, it's time for the Suiters to start thinking about the summer. Greg and I have decided to partner up again and lead a trip back to Pawley's Island, South Carolina this coming July.
Pawley's has a very special place in both our hearts. This will be my (Shannon) 3rd time back in Pawley's and Greg's 5th time returning. We spent two weeks there together the month before we got married and returned for another week the month after we got married. Last summer Greg took a team of amazing underclassmen to Pawley's to continue the wonderful work going on there. While in Pawley’s Island, Greg and the team partnered with LeaderTreks to continue the mission of healing the division between the white and African-American communities. The team helped with the construction of homes to improve living conditions in the neighborhoods as well as ran an outreach program to the children living there.
We are so excited to continue what the students started last year and are asking for your help to do that. First and foremost, we would ask for your prayers. We believe in the power of prayer and need prayer support to help us as we are traveling, working, and sharing the gospel. These communities are in desperate need spiritually and it will take lots of prayer to prepare our hearts and the hearts of the people in South Carolina. If you head to our blog - teamsuiter.blogspot.com - you can join our email update list to receive important prayer requests and updates on the progress of our team.
We are also needing to raise $1300 for our travel costs. If you would please consider donating to our trip, we would greatly appreciate it. You can donate 2 different ways. First, you can donate online. If you go to www.morethan2hs.com, there is a tutorial explaining how to donate. You can select either Greg or I to donate to, but both go to our account. You can also donate by check. You can mail a check to us at the address below. Please make the check payable to Sun Valley Community Church and DO NOT put our names on the check for tax purposes. All donations are tax deductible and you will receive a tax receipt at the end of the calendar year.
Thank you so much for taking the time to learn more about our upcoming trip to Pawley’s Island and for considering to support us prayerfully and financially. Please let us know if you have any questions.
We are so thankful for you all this holiday season and wish you and your families all the best!
Love,
Greg & Shannon Suiter"
Sunday, December 5, 2010
First Team Meeting
This afternoon we had our first official team meeting! It was so great to sit down with the team and start to plan and dream. Greg and I interviewed two new team members this morning and had 2 more students who were interested in joining the team attend the meeting. It is really such a great group of students and I am excited to get to know them all over the next 8 months!
As of right now, our team has the following members:
We discussed what fundraising will look like for them as far as letter writing and we brainstormed some ideas for group fundraising activities. They had some really great ideas and I'm excited to see how they pull together as a team to start raising money for our trip. We'll see how things work out in the next few months.
As of right now, our team has the following members:
Greg & I
Caleb
Alan
Jacob
Jordan
Nate
Mike
Keziah
Sarah
Ashlyn
Emmalie
Jensen
Lauren
Mariah
We discussed what fundraising will look like for them as far as letter writing and we brainstormed some ideas for group fundraising activities. They had some really great ideas and I'm excited to see how they pull together as a team to start raising money for our trip. We'll see how things work out in the next few months.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
We're going back!
After working on two different teams last summer (Greg with the Pawley's team and me with the Honduras team), Greg and I are teaming up and heading back to Pawley's Island, South Carolina. We are so excited for so many reasons!!!
This will be Greg's 5th time returning to Pawley's (PI) and my 3rd time back. PI holds a special place in our hearts. Greg did his LeaderTreks summer internship in PI, he led trips there a few times, the summer before our wedding he was the site leader in PI, we went back there a month after we got married to serve, and Greg took our freshman/sophomore mission group there last summer. We love the mission that is going on in PI to heal the wounds of discrimination and segregation and we love the people there.
We are also so excited to be leading together! Even though Greg was able to come down to Honduras for one week of our two week mission trip last summer, all the training we did was separate. This time around, we're in this all together. We almost have our team finalized and all the kids are so amazing! I can't wait to start this process again to train and prepare the team for their work in PI.
Our support letter will be coming out soon and we would greatly appreciate your prayers as we begin working with our team at our first meeting this Sunday. Please also consider joining our email update list. We're so excited to share our journey back to Pawley's with you!
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