Boot Camp. Day One.

with Steve - 12:00 midnight

Well it was a LONG day but it went very well. I apologize that I am extremely tired so not sure how much i can write or even if I can spell!

All the teens were great. We had breakfast at the Tom White's house (VOM USA Executive Director). This was actually the first time all the teens were together. We then went to Ray Tingler's (a well known photographer) to have our photo session. Naturally we didn't warn the teens and the girls went a bit crazy trying to "fix" themselves. We will have many images and they will be loaded on Ray's website. We bought uses for the video but if anyone wants individual copies they will need to be purchased from Ray. But they are not expensive.

We then had lunch at DJ's house and proceeded to take a tour of VOM's USA headquarters. I think this really gave the team a bit of an appreciation for the ministry and how Christians are persecuted around the world. We took a small break and then met together to give out the assignments. Which are as follows...

Brad is the designated worship leader. He also bought a guitar and other musical instruments (with money from his and Tannis' church) to give to the Vietnamese.

Wes is in charge of the "teen" cam. He has already completed his first assignment and the camera men said he did a very good job.

Bethany refers to herself as the  "Vietnamese Santa Claus." She is taking charge of all the gifts we brought so we can spread out the distribution. She has also been taking charge of much of the shopping. but no real surprise there.

Bryant and Taani are our team journalist. They had their first assignments today and have to present to the team. I told them they will have to write many more articles and expect them to submit some articles for publication when we return. If they are able to type the articles, we will post online.

Shannon and Jon are our team photographers. They each received a new digital camera to use (although Shannon mentioned it was close to her birthday and boy would it make a nice gift) and they went out practicing today. Later in the day they met with a professional photographer to critque their work. They both did great at taking instructions and were given small books to study. I can't wait to see how they do in Vietnam. The professional photographer mentioned that Shannon had a real gift for photography.

We are still looking for that special assignment for DJ. Although he has been a willing servant and helped me with many projects today. He aslso has a special presentation for the group to deliver when we get to Vietnam and has been studing a bit of Vietnamese.

I can't tell you how pleased I am with this group. They are diverse but have really clciked as a team. They are all very respectful and following al the instructions. And it was a very tiring day.

Please keep us in your prayers. Ginny is now in Vietnam getting everything ready. We spend tomorrow morning packing and leave for the airport in the afternoon. We leave LAX afer midnight. It is going to be a LONG day!

Also we were asked the best way to ask questions of the kids. This can be done with the blog or by using the contact form to send me an email We are not sure what the Internet conneciton will be, but we will do our best.

A time of worship...