The bus ride after the Florida UM Children’s Home to Palm Beach Gardens was about 2 hours. On the bus, stories of microwave misadventures were shared. Jonathan Works and Jordan Anderson were greeters.
Sasha Kuznetsov and his crew won the Fork story award for a story about scoping out an attractive woman at Universal. His group of six guys were all in line for a ride (Noah, Scott, Connor D, Cole T, Jonathan W) - staring at this young woman, and the woman turned and looked at them, and then they argued about which one of them she was staring at for the rest of the day and low-key stalked her. It was hysterical the way Sasha told the story. Second place was the group of guys who removed their shirts for all the rollercoaster ride photos.
We arrived at St Marks Episcopal Church around 4:00 pm and enjoyed walking around their lovely campus. They have a new church building and a private school with enrollment of 500, so it’s a big place. Our host Daniel Bayless, the church’s music director, went on choir tours as a young person and anticipated our needs.
DUMC member Lora Maynard has a sister, Susan Wood, who is a member at St Mark’s and made the connection for our visit. They are two peas in a pod, and it was fun to see them together.
We had a rehearsal in the sanctuary and ate a lovely meal of sandwich wraps, pasta salad, chips, and fruit platters. By this time in the tour, the simplicity and freshness of fruit platters are a beautiful thing.
We got dressed for the concert - the gals dressing room had a tv and Family Feud was watched by many. Some folks had a moment to play basketball on the outdoor court and others played frisbee. Downtime is a good thing!
We gathered in the courtyard in a circle before the concert, and the breeze was lovely. We’ve had great weather so far! I (polly) reminded the group that perfection is not our goal but that the imperfections are what create character and ultimately beauty. Jonathan Colborn reminded us all to be caring for each other and to be aware of what others might be experiencing before leading our pre-concert prayer.
The concert went really well, and a new feature was a setting of How Great Thou Art shared by a men’s chamber ensemble. We sang Omnia Sol, which always speaks volumes to our souls and the audience.
It was a host home night, so most of us got matched up with families. Stephanie Greer got to spend the night with her grandparents and Kelly Bratburd came to the concert - she is officially joining up with the tour in Venice but came early to listen and see a friend.
A group of us stayed in the church gymnasium. Jim (the pastor) and Karen Cook greeted us and provided pizza and drinks. We (Kae, Derek, Polly and Tom) shared stories of youth ministry while our group of mostly boys with Phil Hulcher played basketball and ultimate frisbee inside, and we got to interact with a mission team from Georgia that is working on houses while staying at the church. They also were staying overnight in the church facility. Making fast friends in Christ is an amazing thing. So is sleep after a long day of living in relationship and mission with the world around us!
~ Polly
Click Here for Photos from Day 5
I woke up to a light headache and wasn't feeling all that chipper, in fact feeling pretty foggy and subdued after a long day at Universal Amusement Park. Waking up with a headache isn't the best way to start your morning but I knew I needed to get some food so I went downstairs to join the group having their breakfast. I sat down with Taylor Cappeluti and talked about beach memories, and I started to eat a nice big bowl of oatmeal with raisins and good stuff. Out of nowhere our group started singing "Come Unity Come.” It's a great simple song written by Scott Fulton that has five verses. I started to look at the people who were not in our group (yes I'm a people watcher) just to see how they were reacting. By the time we had finished the song, I could see strangers smiling, the kitchen work staff were applauding and excited at what had happened. Here's the thing - we never know exactly when we're going to just start to sing spontaneously, but the end result is always strangers becoming friends, happy reactions and exchanges, meaningful new conversation, and shared testimonies. These are the moments that we live for, these are the moments that we strive for. And they become examples of what it means to live out our faith, Even if it can seem awkward at first. Oh and by the way my headache was nowhere to be found.
~ Jonathan Colburn
We ate breakfast at the hotel and Polly went ahead to Universal to get all the tickets. Group arrived at Universal at about 8:30 am, we distributed tickets, and then the fun began. We had texting check-ins throughout our 12 hour visit - 9 am to 9 pm.
These are short impressions from members of our group:
Shane Johnson: Eating dinner and sharing memories from past tours with Lindsey, Bryce, Autumn, and Jack at the leaky cauldron in Harry Potter World
Stephanie Greer: My favorite part of universal was when troy thought he had great directional skills but got us lost twice.
Julia Beall: Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
Katie Eilliott: My favorite part was when the food was late, so when we saw them we all cheered as Bryce held the chips above his head and ran.
Sam Johnson: “¡ONLY 8 PIECES OF CHICKEN!” - I almost passed out on hulk
Editor’s note: Family friends of the Worrell’s who live in Orlando worked with Carol to deliver huge trays of Chick-fil-a nuggets, fruit, chips and drinks so everyone got lunch in the park. We gathered for about 40 minutes to eat, reapply sunscreen, get vouchers for dinner in the park, and compare stories of what we’d done so far.
Taylor Cappeluti: Optimus prime
Lydia Turner-Little: Feeling like I was really walking through Diagon Alley
Liz Elliott: Adam Lenker was super excited to spend time with characters. We spent time with Betty Boop, Popeye and the Simpsons.
Angela Nardone: Having trouble finding our way to the exit
Troy Moskowitz: Me and my crew of Taylor Katie Stephanie Angela and Dee had a ton of fun at the horror make up show
Dee Robertson: The horror make up show was really funny! Rock the red...sunburn
Jonathan Colborn: I lost weight. Thanks be to God. (Lots of walking and sweating)
Carol Worrell: One favorite memories from Universal and Islands of Adventure was riding the Hogwarts Express and thinking about all the fun that Brian was going to have riding The Hogwarts Express. I also loved getting to ride the rides with my boys and getting completely soaked on the log ride with Joseph and putting my hands in the air and screaming like crazy on the hippogriff roller coaster. The Hulk was my favorite roller coaster.
Phil Hulcher: gratitude for my brother’s recovery and Rose’s purse being found (it was stollen in France where she is studying for the summer) - Editor’s note: Phil got lots of good news yesterday while we were at the park!
Bryce Taylor: “mommmmm! buy me more butter beer!”
David Hembrough: Getting chafed
Sasha Kuznetsov: The funnest part about going to Univ Stud was that my group (who are almost all adults) had more fun than most children
Emma Dube: The whole Harry Potter experience was so cool, and the butterbeer was delicious.
Kae Johnson: Hanging out with all the youth while at Universal (especially Calista, John, and our three boys)
Editor’s note: we left the park at 9 pm and headed back to our hotel - same place as last night. On the bus, there was a time of comparing total steps taken in our Health apps/fitbits. Bryce Taylor was pretty sure he came out with the most steps (25,831) until Cole Vlasic discovered how to access his phone app and had about 80 more than Bryce. Maybe because he had to walk around and search for his misplaced backpack?! Good news that Cole found his backpack with help of cell phone finder and Universal security. Annie Elliott had about 22,000 steps when we left the park but she topped 30,000 by the time she finished running around the hotel lot. That’s a lot of steps for our whole group, and God ordered them all. (That’s a reference to one of our songs - wink)
Some folks went swimming in outdoor pool, others visited in lobby and had cookies/hot beverages provided by hotel, some went next door to do laundry at neighboring hotel. We think everyone slept well - physical exhaustion makes for good resting.
~ Polly
Click Here for Photos from Day 4
We arrived at St Marks Episcopal Church around 4:00 pm and enjoyed walking around their lovely campus. They have a new church building and a private school with enrollment of 500, so it’s a big place. Our host Daniel Bayless, the church’s music director, went on choir tours as a young person and anticipated our needs. 