My Trip To Hartsville

  Well this is what you all have been sitting on the edge of your chairs waiting for *wink wink*. I enjoyed my trip to Hartsville. At first I wasn’t too sure about it, but after about a day and a half I got used to it. We left the church a little after 2. I was fortunate enough to get to ride in the quiet van.
The guys stayed in a cabin on one of the family’s property and the girls were distributed in different families throughout the church. Ashley and I stayed with a family with 10 kids (3 already moved out) that had their own bakery. Jessica and Natalie ended up coming and staying there the family they were staying with had a cat and one of them was allergic.
In the morning we had some extra time so we played Catch Phrase. We ended up taking it in the car with us every morning. :-) So we arrived at “Bible and Music Camp” around 8:30 and waited for our kids. I was put with the K3-K5 group with Austin, Conner, and Martha. We had 10 adorable kids: Mary Grace, Hope, Elijah, Michael, Jonathon, Trey, Atticus, Mara, Natalie, and Mikayla. We had a lot of fun with the kids. Mary Grace told Martha “you ordered the right teenagers, they like to play with kids”. My camera had been drafted the day before for Pastor Anderson’s use (and I was to busy to use it) so I didn’t take any pictures the first couple of days.
We went from the church we were “borrowing” (the church doesn’t have a building yet) to the pastor’s house for lunch everyday. From there we went to our service project. I was with a group that went to a house where one group was working inside and another outside. I was working inside. I guess I should state now that I didn’t think it was any hotter in Hartsville than it is here but like I said I was working in the air-conditioned house. Ashley and 5 other people and I were painting a living room and kitchen. The kitchen had almost no wall space in it so don’t think we had to paint a big kitchen or anything. Not that what we were doing didn’t take us three days. There was a brick wall that had been painted that we painted. It took a while to get in all the cracks and stuff. We spent the first two days doing the brick wall and the two walls that were a lighter color of the brick. I think some of the fourth wall and part of the kitchen might have been done on the second day as well. While we were painting we talked about movies and other stuff (don’t really remember what) then we decided to sing Christmas songs. Pastor Anderson came in and said something about the paint fumes being stronger than we thought. :-)
The third day the 5 people who had been working with us didn’t come and the people that had been working outside came in to paint. So we tackled the crown molding, the doors and a few other odds and ends. Everything went smoothly throughout this entire process, until we were cleaning up on the last day. The lady who owned the house was helping us clean up and was carrying a tray full of paint…and dropped it on the carpet and wood floor. I actually wasn’t in the room when this happened (I was cleaning brushes) but I found out soon enough. They got it cleaned off the wood floor pretty quickly but the carpet took a little longer. Thankfully Pastor Anderson knew what to do and started pouring water on it to keep it wet. Everybody cleared out since there were too many people in the room and the ones who had seeped up some of it initially had paint all over them. So I got the job of pouring water on it while a Rug Doctor was rented. In the meantime a wet dry vac was used. Pastor Anderson got it all out, thankfully.
That was our excitement for the week (which was enough for me).
Now for the stuff I skipped in-between. The first night we went to the cabin and hung out with everyone. I stayed inside and listened to the adults talk. That night when Mr. Conner took all the girls back to their homes we stopped at Walmart in case anybody needed anything. Oh, and by the way, I learned never to leave your deodorant in a car during the day here, it melts (and it’s really gross). The second night we were all invited back to the house where we were staying the swim in their pool. I didn’t swim but I did get in on the games afterward. I had never heard of death hack before but I played anyway. It was a learn as you go thing. Everybody makes a circle and you have a soccer ball that you can hit with anything but your hands and arms. The ball has to be hit three times and then you try to catch it and throw it at somebody to get them out. But if that person catches the ball you are out, and they can throw it at somebody else. Well I can hit the ball well enough and even catch it sometimes but I’m not very good and throwing it. I learned some important things playing and watching though: 1. Mr. Conner is really good and you have to watch out for him and 2. Pastor Anderson does anything to stay in (including using people for shields).
The last night we went to back to the cabin again and watched How to Train Your Dragon. I have to state that I went all week until this night without a Dr. Pepper, and when I finally got one somebody spilt half of it. Ashley says I’m addicted. :-)We stopped at Sonic before we left and that’s were we took the group picture. It was a pretty quite ride back, until Avery got on a sugar high and couldn’t stopped laughing, which made the rest of us in the back laugh.
So all-in-all it went pretty well. I might still fill in a few places with some stories but hopefully they won't be as long as this. :-) <3