NYC 2022 | Day #1
The Virlina District bus trip to National Youth Conference 2022 is underway! McKinley, Kennedy, and Melissa arrived at Summerdean Church of the Brethren in Roanoke, Virginia, early this morning to check in and load their suitcases onto the bus.
Photo courtesy of Kennedy Wall
Melissa: There were a lot of people there to send us off. We gathered in a huge circle for prayer and then sang "Go Now in Peace" before boarding the buses and hitting the road. Two buses with Virlina youth left from Summerdean at 8:30 this morning, and we were joined by a bus with youth from the Shenandoah District in West Virginia. All three buses will travel together for the remainder of the trip.
Photo courtesy of Melissa Williard
Photos courtesy of the Virlina Youth Facebook page
Photo courtesy of the Virlina Youth Facebook page
Kennedy: The bus is okay. It does not have a lot of leg room and it is kind of hard to get comfortable. We are sitting in the middle of Bus #1. One of the churches that is on our bus is Antioch Church of the Brethren. To pass the time, so far I have listened to music and an audio book, and I've also played games on my phone.
Melissa: One of the highlights of this morning was our devotion. We had a devotion about "journeys" and then we had to brainstorm as many journeys we could think of in the Bible. It was a competition between the three buses. Our bus won with 46!
Editor's note: How many journeys in the Bible can you recall?
Photos courtesy of Kennedy Wall, Melissa Williard
After lunch at the Capitol Market in Charleston, West Virginia, the buses traveled on to Ohio.
McKinley: One of the highlights of the day was when we arrived at the Cox Arboretum and we got to see the beautiful Ohio scenery.
Melissa: The Cox Arboretum in Dayton has a "tree tower." It stands 45 feet over the tree tops.
McKinley: We ate dinner at Subway tonight. Something I'm looking forward to is ... a shower!
Photo courtesy of Kennedy Wall
Thanks so much to our trio for sharing about their first day. We're glad to hear that things are off to a good start!
Alright, Fraternity — now it's your turn to interview our youth. What do you want to know about the trip? CLICK HERE to submit a question (or two! or five!) for Kennedy, McKinley, and/or Melissa to answer, and keep checking the blog to see if you get a response.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is another long day on the bus before the real sightseeing begins on Thursday at the Badlands ... so maybe some fun questions will help pass the time!
Melissa: There were a lot of people there to send us off. We gathered in a huge circle for prayer and then sang "Go Now in Peace" before boarding the buses and hitting the road. Two buses with Virlina youth left from Summerdean at 8:30 this morning, and we were joined by a bus with youth from the Shenandoah District in West Virginia. All three buses will travel together for the remainder of the trip.
Kennedy: The bus is okay. It does not have a lot of leg room and it is kind of hard to get comfortable. We are sitting in the middle of Bus #1. One of the churches that is on our bus is Antioch Church of the Brethren. To pass the time, so far I have listened to music and an audio book, and I've also played games on my phone.
Melissa: One of the highlights of this morning was our devotion. We had a devotion about "journeys" and then we had to brainstorm as many journeys we could think of in the Bible. It was a competition between the three buses. Our bus won with 46!
Editor's note: How many journeys in the Bible can you recall?
After lunch at the Capitol Market in Charleston, West Virginia, the buses traveled on to Ohio.
McKinley: One of the highlights of the day was when we arrived at the Cox Arboretum and we got to see the beautiful Ohio scenery.
Melissa: The Cox Arboretum in Dayton has a "tree tower." It stands 45 feet over the tree tops.
McKinley: We ate dinner at Subway tonight. Something I'm looking forward to is ... a shower!
Thanks so much to our trio for sharing about their first day. We're glad to hear that things are off to a good start!
Alright, Fraternity — now it's your turn to interview our youth. What do you want to know about the trip? CLICK HERE to submit a question (or two! or five!) for Kennedy, McKinley, and/or Melissa to answer, and keep checking the blog to see if you get a response.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) is another long day on the bus before the real sightseeing begins on Thursday at the Badlands ... so maybe some fun questions will help pass the time!
Are they going to build a pyramid for a picture?
ReplyDeleteWe'll see what we can do!
DeleteThanks for the updates! Here's a couple questions for you:
ReplyDelete1) How many different states' license plates have you seen so far? (This was a thing we did every road trip west when I was a kid).
2) Where have you seen God at work today? In your own journey, or in that of the whole group?
1. Riding in a bus, you can't really see the license plates on cars. But we have someone on our bus whose family tradition is to honk every time they cross a state line. Since our bus driver isn't allowed to honk, we all yell, "Honk, honk" at every state line. Since the trip started in Virginia, we've crossed into West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Our devotions today have been about rivers, so someone suggested we yell, "Swish, swish" every time we cross a river - we're about to stop at a park along the Mississippi River. Earlier today we crossed the Illinois River. We've also seen a lot of wind turbines on the open flat fields, so the suggested sound for that is "Woop, woop" - but that one really hasn't caught on!
Delete2. I think I've seen God at work today through the sense of community that is forming on our bus.