Boston Begins :)

To say that I had been looking forward to this mission trip would be an understatement. I wish I could write down all the details and memories from those 6 days that I spent with 15 other people from my church. I truly intended to journal throughout the week in Boston, but any spare moments I had were spent recharging. The next few posts may not mean as much to you as they do to me, so you have my permission to skip them if you feel you must. If, however, you want to find out what God is doing through Boston church plants, READ ON!!

Day 1, March 17th - This may seem ridiculous, but one of the big challenges I faced was packing! We were only taking carry-ons so I had to put all my liquids in One. Single. Quart-sized. Bag. And then cram sheets, a towel, shoes, clothes, and all other necessities into my two carry on bags. That was difficult for me, in case you didn't catch on... :)  I realized that I use a lot of products. I'm such a girl.

After several minutes of struggling, rearranging, and removing, I finally got it zipped closed. I considered taping it so it wouldn't accidentally pop open when I went through security.

I had to keep taking things out of the suitcase to leave behind. Do you have any idea how fast a 22 x 14 x 9 bag fills up? Well, I am happy to report that I made it through security just fine. We flew to Minneapolis where we got on a connecting flight to Boston. Here are the pics from my plane ride! (I had a window seat on the first flight and middle seat on the second.) I. LOVE. FLYING.

I liked the Captain on our second flight best. He told us we would be flying over Chicago, the Great Lakes, Canada, and New York. I saw the Great Lakes from 33,000 feet altitude! The only part of flying that is not fun is all the pressure and pain in my ears. (And yes, I was chewing gum like crazy and trying to pop my ears...next time I think I will take sinus medicine before I go.) It was really bad when we descended into Boston. In fact, the pressure and pain didn't go away the rest of the night. ;(  Thankfully, I was fine in the morning!

We landed in Boston at 7pm, but by the time we got on the bus and subway and stopped to eat, it was around 10:00 when we finally got to the church. By the way, in case you don't know, Boston likes to celebrate St. Patrick's Day big time. So there was green everywhere, and there were also plenty of drunk and rowdy people on the subway that night and the next day. Welcome to Boston, Lauren! This is my first ground-view of Boston (taken when we came up out of the subway at Central Square):

The church we partnered with is called Hope Fellowship Church and Curtis Cook is the pastor. He is good friends with my pastor and moved from Stillwater to Boston 10 years ago. When we arrived at his church Saturday night, he did orientation with us and told us what our schedule would look like for the next few days. Then we got out the air mattresses and sleeping bags and finally turned out the lights sometime after 11pm...or was it midnight??