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Winter Expedition 2010
PICTURES AT THE BOTTOM

Hey guys
My private school consists of 52 members. We have 4 seniors, 12 juniors, 17 sophomores, and you can do arithmetic to find out freshmen if you're curious. Every year we go on a "Winter Expedition" where we find opportunities to grow in Christ, serve others, and go on one or two fun hikes. Last year we went to Birmingham which was incredible. Its too far in the past to remember though. This year we went to Pigeon Forge, TN and Bryson City, NC.

Day 1

We gathered early in the morning in the parking lot of a Red Elephant. Prayed in an enormous circle. Then we gathered up onto the bus and headed north, Pigeon Forge or bust. Our bus driver's name was Barney, he was amazing. There were many stops on the way, many places where food was purchased. Countless card games, including Mao. Mao is a card game where you can't talk or talk about the rules, and get penalized when you do.
We arrived in Pigeon Forge to a large cabin that sleeps 52 comfortably. There were 56 of us including chaperons. We set our stuff down and gathered on the first of the three floors for a worship session. It was truly awesome. Some of the freshman started to understand what the narrow road was about. That night, people rushed to the showers after worship and prayer time was over.

Day 2

I woke up to an alarm at 7 in the morning. There were 3 other guys in my room who didn't hear the alarm, so I rushed to it to turn it off. I didn't wake them up until after I had a shower so I could get first shower. I then woke them up. They slowly got up, showered, them we headed upstairs for breakfast. Cereal, fruit, and yogurt. Yum... gets old after a week of having it though. After breakfast we packed lunches for the day. Ham and cheese, granola bars, water, chips.... yum.... gets old after a week of having it also. We Floridians looked outside. It started snowing. It was amazing for some people who hadn't seen snow before. I thought you know, it's not that great. It's just snow.
We geared up for a 4 mile hike in the Smokey Mountains. The way teams work in my school is very cool. There's teams based on the phonetic alphabet..(A-Alpha, B-Bravo, C- Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima... that's all we needed.) I was in team golf, with another sophomore as team leader and two freshman. In our teams we have a point, who leads the way, a navigator in second who uses a compass if needed, a comm who uses a walkie talkie to check in to the adults every 30 minutes, and a medic, who makes sure we hydrate and is in charge of the first aid kit. Every three teams was in a squad... I was in squad three, which all three teams came in together in the front... DOMINATION!

Barney took us to the mountains and up in elevation. Snow there was INCREDIBLE. I hadn't seen snow like that before. The sun hit it just right and it reflected and made the snow shine. We got there and had a fail of a snowball fight, because the snow was too dry. My team decided that the winter wonder land we were in looked like Narnia. I decided my team leader (Taylor) was Susan, I was Peter, Nicole and Logan (both freshmen) would be Lucy and Edmund. Our roles fit quite well actually, as our Edmund liked to complain. I kept our morale up with the best British accent I could muster. Our trek was great. It had ice all along the trail though, which was on the edge of a mountain. The trek was absolutely gorgeous! Edmund kept falling behind and we'd hear a shuffle of footsteps, then a thud. We'd turn around and there was Logan on the ground... slipped on ice. Poor lad. We were delayed a bit because one member of a team got a gash in her leg, and another got hypothermia, so other teams were slower at coming back in.

We got back to the bus, ate lunch and moved on. I'm not sure where we went that night though

Day 3

On day three I also was the first to wake up... guess who got first shower? We packed up everything we would need and headed to Knoxville to visit a homeless Christian based refuge. There our worship team led worship and then we had our Bible teacher teach a short message. Then we broke into groups and got to talk with the inhabitants of Water Angel ministries. I met this guy named Isaac. He was clean cut, definitely didn't look homeless. I started talking to him and found out this was his first time there also. He had decided to go homeless a month before. He said it was the best decision he ever made. We got onto the topic of Ephesians 2:8-10 and how it was on Tim Tebow's eye black. It kept showing up the whole week. We asked him about what he liked, and sports and stuff. He said he didn't care because it kept him from God's word. It really made me rethink my priorities.

We ate lunch with them... helped them sort clothes. Then we left amongst many people waving goodbye to us and sad to see us go. We then went to the IHOP Knoxville. After that we went to the University of Tennessee and walked around campus praying for specific needs. The International House of Prayer was a bit strange to me. I didn't really get the speaker's point to his sermon. Out of respect for the people there, who were doing a 21 day fast, we fasted through dinner. At 10:00 we ate at Pizza Hut. Buffet. Me and my best friend (who is 60 pounds more and a foot taller) had an eat off. I ate 9 slices... he ate 10 >.<
We got back and it was pretty much time for bed. Next day we left for Bryson City

Day 3

Woke up. Got first shower for the win. Gathered up all my luggage, loaded it onto the bus. I then had normal devotional time after breakfast, just like everyone else. When time was up for that, we headed out to Bryson City... Estimated time of arrival: 45 minutes. When we got on the road we discovered that there had been a rockslide on the only direct road to get there. 5 hour detour= fun....<== sarcasm. A bunch of schedule changes happened to accomodate the changes. When we got there, the snow was perfect for a snowball fight.
We had little time to prepare, but we went to a Cherokee Church in a little village. It was pretty much the best church I've ever been to. The congregation was nice and the pastor was great. We got back and had an epic snow war. The half Canadian I am, I was in a short sleeved T-shirt and jeans. So ends day 3 as a lot of driving took place.

Day 4

On days 3 and 4, we were going to be sleeping and camping outside in the snow... which I was okay with. Since it was so cold, the camp we were staying at offered us inside rooms if we did them a service project. We did it happily, which was scrubbing graffiti off of bunk beds with steel wool and Goo Gone. After that we did another trek, it was originally going to be 13.7 miles long. The service project shortened it to 4 sad
So we did it with ease. There was no snow at all. After that, we went ti the Cherokee museum.... boring. Outside it was snowing... another snowball fight commenced in the parking lot, this time our bus driver got in on the action too.
That night we spent about 5 hours in prayer. Many people confessed struggles and sins, and their friends were there for them. Accountability groups were formed, and now I'm responsible for checking up on my friend... who is doing very well
Stayed up till 2am praying. Night

Day 5
Time to go home sad
We loaded the bus. Luggage trudged through the snow
The busride home seemed a little quicker than it did when we went north.
Right as I got home my brother was sitting there with one of our friends... "Hey Zach! Are you too tired to go see Avatar?" " Uh... no..." "Good! Let's go!" Uh.... okay..."