Great Trip!!!!!!!!

Thanks to the students and Jamie, Eric and Jodi and everyone who supported this leadership experience. I believe everyone benefitted from the training and shared experience. Conflict and uncomfortable interpersonal situations can cause us all pain and anxiety. Hopefully the skills they learned can be used throughout their lives in their relationships to others. We learned much from the leadership example Jesus gave us. He showed the example of how to use truth and grace in all situations. Thanks again to all who supported and prayed for this leadership learning experience. In Christ, Jeremy

Cameron (Thursday)

Thursday, our last day at the resort and my day to step up to the leadership challenge with Cortney. All in all we had a very good day I believe. We went to Lazer Tag and the beach in the evening. We had my favorite meal of all time for supper (even though mine didn’t cook as fast as Eric’s). Cortney and I worked well together I believe. She took a little more charge than I did just because she was older and she know more of what she was doing and I was fine with that. I really enjoyed working with her and we have become closer because of this trip and our roles together.

Cortney (Thursday)

I knew when Thursday started it would be a hard day, knowing we were leaving the very next morning, so I wanted it to be a great day. Cameron and I were the leaders of the day. We planned all the meals for the day and all the arrangements. At the middle of the day we took a little trip and played laser tag, which was new for majority of the group. It was really fun and at the end the girls decided to gang up on the guys! Cam and I put together a devotional based on a character in the bible we believed was a leader. Since it was the last night, we decided to pick Jesus, the ultimate leader. For the end of the evening , we took a final trip to the beach, to see it at night. I feel Cameron and I did well for the most part and I really enjoyed working with him. It was a great week!
Cortney

Emily (Monday)

Well howdee ya’ll! I quite enjoy my newly acquired southern accent. =] Well my leadership day was on Monday with Kat. It went really well. We had a wonderful, filling breakfast of French toast and bacon, which of course Kat and I got barely any of. We went to the beach and went shopping. Was that an experience! You’ll just have to ask Chey about it sometime. Lunch was good, hot ham & cheese sandwiches with corn. The rest of the time was spent leisurely at the condo. Other than the time we were at the weight room/swimming pool. To pretty much wrap up the day, we had a delicious supper of chicken Alfredo and salad. The night before we couldn’t find the right type of noodles so we got some random crazy ones =]
I noticed that I’m a very conflicted leader. I had some troubles making decisions because I didn’t know what I should do. My main focus was to make everyone happy, but sometimes that required just a little more attention than I could give.
Emily

Makayla (Monday)

I had my leadership thing on Monday with Emily. It went really well, and we work beautifully together. We had no problems with each other. We made French toast and bacon for breakfast. I thought that the bacon was going to pop us to death while we were cooking it. I only got hit in the face like five times. Then we went to the beach. It was amazing. We got tons of pictures there. I got this really cool one taken by Cameron with Chey. The lighting and timing was perfect. Our supper was great to. We had chicken alfredo I honestly think that it’s the best one so far. I’ll never forget those crazy noodles.
I learned that I’m a pretty good leader. I only have a slight problem with keeping my anger down to a low when I get mad, but I’ve always been like that. Other than that it was all good just don’t get me mad.
Kat

Branden (Wednesday)

In my leadership day, yesterday things went slightly amuck. First thing that occurred was that we woke up late so we started out behind in the days schedule. We eventually got that little predicament out of the way and went on to the morning session. I really enjoyed this because we got to learn how to deal with certain problems that we might have in real life. This really is helping because I think now I will be able to confront people, not in a bad way but in the way that Jesus would have done it. After that quickly made lunch and then left to go to T.I.G.E.R.S., a nature preserve, in which you are able to hold endangered animals such as the Tabby tiger, the rarest tiger in the world. Well instead of that we got lost and didn’t end up going at all, which was a total letdown. We did end up going shopping at the Grand Coastal Mall. The final event my partner, Kayla, and I had planned was going to a The First Christian Church that is located close to our condos. All in all though the day everyone said the day was pretty enjoyable even with all the setbacks.
Branden

Kayla (Wednesday)

Hello everybody! I had my leadership day yesterday (Wednesday) with Branden Amsler. We had a lot of fun on our day. The only downfall of our day was that we were supposed to go to T.I.G.E.R.S., which is a reserve for tigers and other animals, but we got lost on the way there from misunderstood GPS directions. Then when we finally got to the place, it turns out they didn’t open until 5…It was 3:30. So we wasted a good 3 hours of our day trying to find this tiger place and we didn’t even get to see or pet any tigers! =(I lost my voice at the end of the day, but it is a little better this morning. But overall our day went good. I learned that a good leader needs to make precise decisions. Neither Branden nor I are really pushy when it comes to stuff like that. We pretty much say “I don’t care” and go on with our business. But we had fun an got the job done.
Kayla

Joelyn (Tuesday)

So I had my leadership day on Tuesday with Cheyenne. First the day started up getting up early and making breakfast for everyone, which we made breakfast burritos (just for Joey!) Then after breakfast we had our first AM session, which went well. Then later on we had lunch, which was grilled cheese with soup. Later on in the day for our fun for the day we made up a scavenger hunt then we went mini golfing, it was a blast. We had tacos for supper and then had our PM session. Our leadership day I think went very well, even if it was a little off schedule. I also learned a lot being a leader, that I can’t be so passive and take charge sometime. Still I liked this trip a lot and I love all the memories that we have and will have. Even if Logan wasn’t here I left him in the loop and called him every time we had our phone time.
Joelyn

Cheyenne (Tuesday)

I had my leadership day with joelyn on Tuesday. We had everything planned out beautifully…but I had to forget it all in my locker I had my leadership day with joelyn on Tuesday. We had everything planned out beautifully…but I had to forget it all in my locker :[ that was very upsetting. We managed to plan everything back pretty accurately. Our schedule was a little chaotic. We had a couple last minute things thrown in there, and breakfast was kinda planned a little bit earlier than we had planned. The best part of the day I would assume would be playing mini golf or going to the beach. Me and Joelyn worked together pretty good. Our day was very eventful even though it was a little bit of a lot off the schedule.
I learned a lot more about being a leader. In my opinion this was a very good week and it taught everybody a lot about themselves. When I am a leader I tend to want everybody to listen to me and to do everything as I see it in my head, but that doesn’t always happen so I need to be more understanding that not everybody sees things the way I do. I also found out more about my personality and about how I am in solving conflicts with people. Hopefully I can use what I learned to help me better resolve conflicts back home and to become a better leader.
Cheyenne

Austin (Sunday)

Austin's blog:
Sunday in Myrtle Beach went smooth. The Christian Church of Myrtle Beach was open enough to accept our group. People there were extremely friendly. That church experience opened many of our eyes that the style back home isn’t the only way to worship. There is really no right or wrong way to worship. These people were very warming and it reminded me of how our church greets newcomers.
Today’s recreation was a corn hole tourney. That was very stress relieving from being in tight quarters with stinky boys (even if I am one of them). This leadership experience has always been neat throughout the years. Planning everything for a day tests all lifeskills and abilities. The Word of God is definitely at work here. These trips should never end. I really don’t want to go back home to snow in Indiana. I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed day.

Kaitlyn (Sunday)

Kaitlyn's blog:
I was leader of the day on Sunday. We went to The Christian Church of Myrtle Beach. At the church they said, AMEN a lot. This church was different than our church; the congregation would speak during the church service. Also we had a corn hole tournament. Karina hit Cameron on the head accidentally with a beanbag. On Sunday the weather was warm, but it rained some. I am pretty sure everyone had a good time.

Karina (Saturday)

Following is Karina's blog on her day of leadership:
I didn’t do much as leader of the day, there wasn’t much to do. Jeremy and Eric drove through the night as everyone else talked/slept, when we arrived everyone unpacked and got situated. I didn't have a leader partner so Myself and I got along very well even though my other half kept fighting everything I wanted to plan. She didn’t want me to do a devotion on Jonah but I did anyways. In all seriousness the day went well.

Here we go again!!

We will be using this blog again to allow our daily leaders the opportunity to share of their experience. We have a little different format this year for our spring break excursion. The week is devoted to the topic of leadership and the students have already worked hard at things like scheduling, budgeting and working with resources. They have all done well in their work. We will be dealing with a lot of interpersonal leadership issues while on the trip. It should prove to be a special time of learning and growth. Please keep checking this site through out the week as well as the FCC youth page of Facebook.