Wonder Voyage 2008 Summer Blog

We awoke this morning , Late.  Shawn yelled up stairs 5 minutes till breakfast is over. That got us all up  and ready to go in seconds.  We  headed out to the laundry mat after breakfast to drop Ms. Ramsey and Bill off to wash some of our clothes. The rest of us went to St.Brendans to talk with father Bob. After that  discussion we went to the Last Chance Mine Co.  It was special to some of us because of our family history.

We came back and had a fair amount of free time.  It was the adults turn  to make dinner, and Bob succeed. He made stuffed pork tenderloin, with apples and cheese. But the main part of dinner was the fair well to Ms. Ramsey.  Jackson had a false start on the song, but after that it was smooth sailing.  The  song started playing and we all started to dance around her. Connor took the role of being lead. It ended with a big hug.

The biggest part of our day was when  we  walked the Stations of the Cross. It really solidified  our faith.

(Remember- we turn this over to the teams)

We woke to another glorious morning here in Juneau, the youth once again have woken at 6 am, vacuumed and cleaned the lodge and prepared a wondrous breakfast for all the adults. Who knew Willie, Michael, and Tommy could motivate everyone to be so clean and cook so well . . . . oh, wait that was a dream.

The day started with our regular morning routine of cereal and left over chili, mmm mmm. The Juneau parade presented a great opportunity to get to know the town. It seems those in parades receive a special training in how to pelt people on the road sides with hard candy and if there is water along the road they have been instructed to make sure the candy misses the hands of young children and aim right for the water, forcing parents to explain why that candy is no good.  Luckily for us we were traveling with young adults who needed no guidance from us, allowing most of the wet candy to be consumed later back at the lodge, providing several hours of sugar high.

I must take a moment to explain the brilliance of Laura Boucher, many of us were tired after dodging all that candy so Laura explains that when we return we will be on monastery time. This seems to be some archaic meaning for nap, woo hoo, I love you Laura.

The evening was once again very powerful and deep. I am amazed at the depth of questions and challenges we have all been sharing and the Holy Spirit’s power to bring us closer to God and each other. The levels of trust and love during our evening prayers are beyond words. The best I can say is you all have such wonderful youth who have grown and experienced the glory of God that only they can truly explain. I will always remember these times and the awesome power of Gods love.

Now back to what I am not to speak about but this is just another sign. We have all been writing our own prayers of the people. Katie was my partner and we wrote ours about a month ago using a pink marker. I made sure I packed the prayers in my backpack and just kept them there. Well, during our glorious and wondrous hike up Mount Robert (a great name if I must say so my self), the prayers were in my pack. Bill and I were hanging back to allow the youth to feel like they were young and full of energy. I mean. It would have not looked good for Bill and I to sprint ahead, right? Well, even holding back, it was a little strenuous and it seems my folded piece of paper with our prayers of the people got a little wet (from BS). Needless to say the prayer had to be re-written. But the wondrous thing ended being that when we unfolded the paper the smeared ink had formed a beautiful cross. Go figure.

Well, it is time to get ready for the day and continue our journey. Hi Beth. May God bless us all.  Love Beautiful Bob.

I cannot tell you how proud I am of your kids. They have been so responsive , so articulate, so much fun! This has been a wondrous experience;your  sons & daughters have made me laugh and cry and eat way too much. They have taken turns cooking the evening meal and have blown us away. Tonight we had baked pork chops, twice-baked potatoes, corn and cherry cobbler Thank you Jackson, Willie and Grayson!!!  This time in Alaska has truly been a Pilgrimage,  a spiritual journey.  Bill, Susan, Bob and I feel that we have been given a huge gift to be here with your children, having this adventure. 

Dear Blog,

Today we started off the morning to Mrs. Ramsey, aka party pooper and also having too much fun, waking us up by her yelling.  Wonder Voyage guys really went all out with breakfast again. We had cereal, bagels, left over pumpkin pie, left over chili, and fruit.

After breakfast, we went to celebrate the fourth of July the Alaskan way.  We went into downtown Juneau to watch the Fourth of July parade.  It was a very interesting parade, to say the least. There were native Alaskan dancers dancing to their drum line, there were many mine cars there supporting vote no on four (no one could figure out what it meant).  Once we got our fill of the parade, we scoped out the local stores for an hour then went back to the shrine.

When we got back Mrs. Boucher instated a half an hour of silence and solitary.  After our silence, Sammy challenged us each to make a monument of what we wanted to leave behind and represent ourselves by.  I myself left a big arrow pointing to the future, to represent that I would not be looking to the past.

Now I get to tell yall about the Jon.  I dont know if Jackson told you about the difficulties that Jon has been having all week, but I will.   It all started when I was serving him mashed potatoes, he got his hand in the way and it went all over his hand.  While Katie, Elizabeth, and Grant were making tacos, and they put the meat on the table and Michael took half of the meat that was meant for six people.  The meat finally got to Jon and there was none left, so he made a corn taco.  When dessert rolled around he wanted a swirl of chocolate and vanilla but when it got to him they had run out.  They also ran out of the ice cream bowls so he did not get one.  He also gave himself a tattoo that was supposed to say whales but said wales instead.  He had also tried to get into his bed but fell into an unfortunate position.  For some reason this week when Jon tries to talk he starts off fine but usually cant finish it.  This week has probably been his toughest week he has had so far; he just cant seem to get anything right this week.

To sum it up these few days have been a very joyous experience and journey.

Five. Ive always hated the number five. Five school days a week, five toes on each of my feet, five times Ive woken up cold and covered in random liquids. Five is the number of man, Hitlers favorite number, the number of beaches at the Normandy invasion, and its prime. I hate five almost as much as I hate sleeping in the same room as Connor after eating Chili. Today was the fifth day of our Alaskan Adventure. It will surely be remembered by whoever is currently reading this blog. I laughed, I cried, I slept, I saw bugs, and I wrote a paper. By Alaskan standards today was great, mostly because no one died.

I was clearly chosen to write the fifth and most important blog detailing our journey because of my well-known eloquence and beauty, not to mention my modesty. This historical moment of history was marked by two important things, those being: we saw whales and it was the worst day of Jon’s life. I can almost guarantee that no one in my entire group of fellow pilgrims had a day similar to mine.

As a child of nature, I can appreciate God’s works for what they are and Im a firm believer that you can find beauty almost anywhere. This being said, I was not too impressed by the whales we saw today. Many in my group would disagree and that is because they are better people then I am. Looking back, I regret every moment I spent playing cards and not looking at those glorious sea tanks. I just feel that they were not quite special enough to have a whole blog written about them. The more important things happened in the evening after.

After five days we have all gotten used to the yellow tap water and the helicopter sized mosquitoes and the complete and total lack of personal space and we have begun to notice new things. Tommy and I discovered that the best gyros in the entire world can be found in downtown Juneau and that the greatest weakness to a teenage boy is Cosmo. Not all the things that we discover are good though. For instance, Katie should not drink Monster, Connor never wears underwear when he should, Mrs. Ramsey sometimes thinks I am a semi-sane person, and walking up a mountain with Willie is the worst (bells). After all these things, I am almost positive that we will not be invited back to Alaska.

Back to the more important stuff, a caffeine-fueled game of ultimate was quickly followed by a joyous reunion with our cell phones. Bob made chili. Yum. Jon and I inspected several rocks, we spied on Grace and Connor; hilarity ensued. The overall mood at the time betrayed no sense that this evening would be more dramatic then most. (Used to hook the reader)

Our nightly meetings took an unexpected turning on this night probably due to the intense caffeine usage and lack of sleep. What emerged was a surge of raw, uncontainable emotion that spilled from every single pore of every single member of our oh so humble group of pilgrims. Several of us just seemed to let themselves go and  spilled our fears and joys relating to their relationship with God, myself included. I feel as if I shall never be able to do justice to this event with my limited vocational ability. Perhaps I shall get Colin to translate this into Genius. Our normally insane group of miscreatants turned into a selfless band of soul-spilling religious buffs. I can only hope what was said can help my friends improve their lives because I know I was touched by what was said and unsaid. Willie, thats whats up.

The most important thing that happened to me today is that I realized that I do not wish to leave this place. I have a gorgeous and perfect girlfriend at home and I have waited a year and a half for her and what I feel with her is the closest Ive ever been to love. My soul is crushed more and more every day I dont get to be with her and I must say my life at home is not too shabby at the moment. And yet, when I leave this place, I will be filled with sorrow. These people seem to accept me for who I am, mainly because they are as messed up as I am. Love these guys.

Suffice to say a blog will never describe what has and will continue to happen in Alaska. Hopefully this will make some sort of sense to anyone reading it but if it doesnt I honestly dont care. Talk to me in person, it makes more sense.

Oh yeah and Jon, the dead guy really did get shot in the face, you figured it out. Feel the thunder, Captain planet unite.