July 14th-22nd Billings, Montana Mission Trip!!

Well this mission trip was kind of bittersweet for me! It was my last mission trip that I could be a camper, and this program has changed my life. I've gone on four trips through CHWC. Each year meeting incredible people, this year though I still don't really know my feelings. The people in my group this year were a little harder to get along with right off the bat, I mean eventually we all became close but in past years my group hit it right off and we were almost inseparable for the week. I also hate that as my five mission trip I had some expectations going in. Luckily they all were fulfilled.

Anyway, our job for the week was basically overhauling this trailer. From the outside it wasn't in terrible shape and even when you walk in it didn't look terrible but eventually you found flaws and in some cases just had to walk down a hallway and see the roof leak and knew that we were there for a reason. What we were able to finish consisted of this: Sealing the roof on the outside then tearing down the old sheetrock and and all the old insulation and then putting new insulation in and putting new sheet rock up, putting sheetrock up on this wall in her kitchen, and painting the kitchen ceiling, re-screening the front door, washing down the trailer, making a back gate for her fence, staining both porches, and repairing the bathroom ceiling and caulking the entire bathtub (done by yours truly!) It was really gratifying to know that we did all of this for our resident (her name was Mary, and she was so sweet!) By the end of the week as we were finishing up all our projects Mary sat inside and literally cried tears of happiness, she couldn't believe that a group of teenagers wanted to take a week out of their summer to come and help someone they didn't know!

With this year being the last year I can be a camper I have full intentions of trying to be on staff, and for me I feel like if I don't get picked this year, I probably won't try again simply because two summers from now I will be graduated and I'm not sure what that summer has in store and although I know plenty of staffers that are on staff after graduating I just feel pressure to get a "real person" job. (although, all pressure is coming from myself.)

With that said, here are some pictures recapping the week!

Why yes, we all had matching "tattoo's" 

Mary, our Resident is the older lady on the far right, and her granddaughter is the one on the left. 

PJ Anderson, our musician for the week and the musician for our first CHWC 4 years ago in Rockford! 

the Tampfire! 11 girls all got their periods on the trip! It was pretty hilarious because we rented a van out there but since Mark was the one who's name was on the lease or whatever, he was the one that had to go to Target and buy the tampons for all the girls. Too much info? Maybe? Oh well, it's my blog I'll post what I want. =] 

This is Matt, he was a staffer and we literally had one of the girl campers CONVINCED that we were best friends. That we had grown up in the same town, and that we went to the same schools, and even college too! Believe it or not we're actually the same age. Yes technically you can be a staffer at 20 but they prefer 21 yr olds. 

Well since this was a pretty picture heavy post on the people we met, my next post will be the before and afters of our work and the pictures I took in the Mountains of Montana, which I believe were the rockies? I'm not sure.