WOW, what a week!!! This past week our school participated in its first-ever International Student Convention (ISC), at Western Kentucky University, in Bowling Green, KY. This is a spin-off from the Regional (State) Student Convention they participated in, in March at Ball State University. Each student was invited to attend, but not all of our students were able to attend. Those that were able to attend, were VERY excited and ready to hit the road. We left on Saturday morning and returned last night, around 9:00p.m. It was a very busy week with lots of; competition, HOT weather, silly teens, not much sleep, lack of organization (guess that is suppose to happen with 14 teenagers : ), AWESOME sermons, good food, teenage drama, lots of laughter and MAKING MEMORIES THAT WILL LAST A LIFE-TIME!!! We really are truly blessed with great students at our school, I am VERY proud of all of them!!! I would take any of them on another trip in a heartbeat, they are a great group of kids! Of course we had a few boys that kept us wishing we had brought our earplugs (thanks Talon & Ray), but they still are great boys! I really feel as if our kids are all serving God and are striving for the best in life! I know not many schools can say something like that about ALL of their students, so we are BLESSED! Thanks FCA students for being such wonderful kids and allowing this old lady to tag along. Also, I would like to say THANK YOU to one of my best friends, Bobbie Sullivan, for going and helping me with the girls. You will never know how much I appreciated your help and your friendship this week!!! Thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Coleman for bringing ISC into our lives and thanks to the Wilhelms for the many meals you prepared! I would like to thank my sister for watching my youngest two so I could be there for my oldest. Thanks to ALL our family and friends that supported us financially so we could go, you are the BEST!
Austin (well at least 1/2 of him, HA), Talon and Margaret acting silly on the trip down.
Britt & Geo, some of my favs, but don't tell the others : )
Margaret & Austin --they are crazy!
I was asked to drive one of the vans for this trip, and I did my best. We had a lot of fun in our van and we had a great group riding with us: Margaret & Maria Coleman, Geo Suarez, Talon, Austin Albaugh,
Yajaira Baltierra & Britnee Derscheid. I accomplished (with the Lord's help), to get us here and there safely! Miss Bobbie wished she would have had a break on her side, but... : ) I only managed to have one semi honk at me and only pulled out in front of one car, yikes!!! It was hard to see on some of those city streets where the building were tall and cars parked on every side, you about had to get out in the middle before you could see and...sorry for giving you a heart attack Mrs. Coleman : )
This was what we pulled up to. It was a very neat sight to see all the flags from
different states and countries!
"Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever...Psalm 119:11
...upon which thou hast caused me to hope. Psalm 119:49"
A local Corvette dealer had a couple of these sitting out front for the kids to get into and get their pictures taken. Of course they all hated that, HA!
Talon & Yajaria just hangin' out!
Talon with the Indiana flag
Yajaria with the Mexico flag
After we registered and went though dress-check, we were ushered into a large room filled with all of kinds of these games and blow-up, jumpy things. Talon and Austin taking a turn at wackin'
each other off their post.
Opening Rally took place on Sunday evening,
it was full of lots of bright lights, and noise, and excitement, etc. I would strongly suggest you go to:
aceministries.com and watch the sermons. They were a tad bit long each night, but they were VERY good and right on target for our teens.
This was the theme for this year, "Our Heritage-Our Hope". This large globe was extended up over the large platform and would they would light it up in our evening services.
This was the flag ceremony which was all a part of the Opening Rally.
There were approximately 2500 students from all over the world there to participate! Each country had a group of students carry in a banner representing their country.
Look at all those flags : )
They had HUGE balloons tents that they let down from the ceiling during this time and...
...lots of confetti!
Our boys all in a row
