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Oh boy, where do I start with this? Today was just the most immaculate day. If any of the other days this week are more incredible than today I will be blown away. To start out with Pastor Garman led our church service here. It was a clown service, or something of that sort. When we entered the church instead of all sitting together we filled in the empty spots in the pews and squeezed in between the members of the church. Then Pastor put on some clown makeup and led the rest of the service with no words. Everything was mimed. We learned so much through this service but I’ll only share a couple with you. Pastor did this activity with the congregation in which he cut out a small square of fabric, he then went to the person sitting at the end of the first row. He wiped their hands with the fabric as if wiping away their sin, and then he handed them the fabric and motioned for them to do the same to the person sitting next to them. There is no adjective that described how amazing this experience was. To see the people of our church helping wipe away strangers sins. After church we mingled with the members of the church. Everyone that I had talked to were so happy about the service and so happy to have us here.
After church we enjoyed some nutritious hot dogs, and headed off to the boardwalk at Pacific beach. I know I’m really only supposed to tell you something about my experience here today but I think I’m going to tell you everything because it was so much fun. So we went to the boardwalk and participated in a very intense scavenger hunt. Many of us got a bit burnt but we’re all tenacious so I think we’ll make it through. After our scavenger hunt down the boardwalk Neil was so kind to take us all on the rollercoaster at Belmont Park, which was surprisingly thrilling. After The rollercoaster we were taken to a park where Pastor and his posse grilled up some burgers. This is the part where Kyle Culloton would like me to mention how we held hands and frolicked through a meadow singing strawberry fields forever. I’m really looking forward to our work project and making new friends, and I’m sure the rest of this trip will be incredible!
Today was an amazing start to our trip in San Diego and brought our whole youth group a lot closer. All of the experiences we had today were only a small preview to what is in store for the rest of the week. In the morning, we all went to church service at the church we are staying at and it was unlike any other church service I have ever been to. It was a “Day of the Clown” service, which was performed completely without words. It was based off a tradition of the churches in the old days, a time when church was getting to be very boring and people were falling asleep. In order to counter this boredom, the churches would have a clown come out at a random time and wake up the whole crowd with jokes and humor. So today, the service was mimed by a couple of guys in clown costumes. It made church a lot more interesting, engaging, and fun.
Later on in the day, we joined in our small groups to go on a scavenger hunt along the boardwalk next to the beach. On this hunt, we were supposed to find certain things in a set of pictures that we received at the start. Once we found these objects, we had to take a crazy and creative picture with everyone in our group surrounding the item. Whichever group found the most items, had the most creative pictures, with the most people in the picture, would win. Our group got a little crazy with our scavenger hunt and took some crazy pictures with a lot of random people walking down the boardwalk. The scavenger hunt definitely broke the ice in our small groups and brought us a lot closer.
Afterwards, we went to a park next to the beach to hang out and have a barbeque. So, after playing around at the park and talking with our friends, we came back to the church. Now, we are in our small groups discussing the story of Jonah in the bible. But we aren’t just talking about the story, we are going much deeper than just that.
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