Day 1…Remember the Alamo!!!

Hi y’all.  Todd here.  Greetings from the floor of the dorm at First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio.  Had a largely uneventful day of driving today.  Took in some BBQ at Cooper’s in Junction, TX.  Mmmm…BBQ.  After arriving at the church here, we relaxed a bit and let the kids decompress and blow off some steam after a little over 7 hours of travel with the bathroom stops and a long lunch.   Must tell you about our food ventures for the day…

Big props to Cooper’s BBQ today.  All 32 of us rolled in with a crazed “I need meat” look in our eye and they were more than happy to accommodate us!  Not only that, they threw in free ice cream for all of us as a “THANKS!” for coming in en masse!  Very cool!  So, next time you roll through Junction on your way to wherever you may roam…stop in and tell ’em thanks for being so cool to us!

In San Antonio, we blew off some steam in the church and gave the whole “if you set off the church’s alarm and the cops show up, they will charge FPC San Antonio $100 which we will promptly pass on to you” lecture.  The kids were great.  Taking good care of the facilities that we are blessed to take advantage of!  

We went to dinner down at Chili’s on the River Walk.  Russell called ahead and they said, “THANKS FORCALLING IN!  COME ON OVER!”  So, off we went!                     

Apologies to the Marriott for the herd of green shirts cruising through the lobby.  We arrived at Chili’s and waited just a little while and they seated us at 4 different tables.  All the wait staff came over to me afterwards to say thanks for the tip and thanks for having such great kids!  They were very complimentary of our students and had a great time serving us.  One of the tables left an extra tip…perhaps not knowing that I was already tipping the folks…and I was thrilled to hear that from them!  We talked about how that was a great show of gratitude and that it spoke very positively of the Christians to that waitress.  Having waited tables myself, I can testify that Christians have a reputation of being terrible tippers…so kudos to our kids for saying different!!! 

Here’s a couple of pics from outside Chili’s after we started digesting our food…

Randee Rathbone was nice enough to show us this dance she learned on the internet.  Very cool.  Very hip.  Very amazing.  We were lucky enough to get a picture of this after she came out of the Soul Train dance line that the kids had set up.  Go Randee!  Go Randee!  It’s your birthday!  Go Randee!

 

We made a quick stop by the Alamo…greatness.  David was a little too excited about the thought that “Santa Ana may have stood on this very spot!  Wow, David.  Just wow.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow holds more driving.  We’ll drive the other 8 hours to New Orleans with an expected arrival time of about 4pm.  We’ll look forward to more postings then as well as more pictures.  We’re going to have to make a stop tomorrow to get another camera cable for the other 2 cameras.  In the meantime, here are a couple of prayer requests…

1.  Pray for travel safety tomorrow!  It’s a long haul!  

2.  Continue to pray for our students and their openness to what God wants to accomplish in and through them during this week away.  

3.  Please pray for unity in the midst of the diversity in the group.

4.  Pray for New Orleans and the people we will serve and encounter there.  Pray that we would be  light in dark places…a glimmer of hope in the shadow of tragedy…and that we would recognize how Christ is working through us this week!

5.  Pray for our adult sponsors.  Pray that they would be energized, refreshed, encouraging, patient and passionate in their loving Christ by loving kids this week!  Pray that they would reflect the love that the adults of FPC have for their students!

Blessings to all of you.  Thank you for your prayers.  Feel free to leave comments…we’ll pass those on to the kids and leaders.  

A little game for those of you playing at home.  Where else does this license plate appear?

With that…I bid you good night.  More tomorrow from New Orleans!

~ by twyrick on July 6, 2008.