Well, the week is over. For those of you who didn't know, I spent the last week in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, which is a small beach town on the Atlantic about 45 minutes south of Myrtle Beach. About 8 of us drove the 16 hours down there on Saturday, September 22, while the others flew because they were attending a wedding of two former staff. 
Our entire staff of 16, plus two wives and a baby son, spent the week in Glen and Joanne Hall's beautiful home. The Hall's are long time supporters of LeaderTreks and gave us their amazing house for the week while they were on vacation. I have never met this couple, yet I could feel their love through the gift of their house last week. Our trip served two purposes: to serve as a classroom for our summit team on how to run a missions site, and to provide our management team time to cast vision for the company for the coming year. It was a great trip and amazing time to spend with everyone at LeaderTreks. There's so much to explain, so I figured I'd give a tour of our trip.This picture was taken of the Hall's backyard. They live on the intercoastal waterway, a 3,000 mile river which runs from the Gulf of Mexico along the Atlantic to New Jersey. It was an awesome sight to wake up to each day.
Their deck served as a retreat of solitude for many of us, and a whole lot of fun too. 
A sweet shot from the pier into the river. Steve Gerber, one of my bosses at LT, built this kayak himself. Pretty crazy!
Our summit team went to work for a woman named Donnela Smith. At age 24, she is single with five kids and lives in a run down, beat up trailer. Filth pervades the area, yet her and her children have not let that poverty pervade them. They are a wonderful family. LeaderTreks has been working with her this summer and will continue to work with her next year as well as we build a completly new home for her. What we're actually doing is building a house around the trailer, then we'll remove the trailer from the inside. This way, the family has space to live while we're working and the permit is cheaper for a home addition than a whole new home. If we just leave the supports of the trailer under the home, it counts as an addition. News for all who were wondering. Our team did a lot in a week. As you can see, we built a whole new wall in the front of the house, laid down support flooring so the children wouldn't fall in, finished tar papering the whole house, and built steps to the deck.
Greg and Chase concentrate on pounding the wall in as I move the ladder into position. I know, I look like a dork. Get used to it!
Our ministry partner Jess puts a cross in front of each house that has work done on it by our teams. His goal is to someday drive through the streets of Pawleys and see crosses everywhere. It's an amazing goal and an image I'm proud to be a part of.
Don't worry though, we had fun too, on and off the work site. Greg decided to harrass one of Ms. Smith's boys, Nazire. Shortly after this, Nazire slapped him in the face. Sorry Big Head!
On the last day, we felt the need to help Andy cool down a bit, for the temp. was pretty high that week. Greg distracted him, then jumped out of the way so we could soak the poor guy.
On Tuesday night Doug(our main boss at LT) took us all to Myabi's, a Japanese steak house. It was an experience!
Like I said earlier, we made good use of that pier! I'm on the top in the white swim suit.
And yes, we went to the ocean. Twice!
On Friday our whole staff went deep sea fishing in the Atlantic! It was amazing! I caught 11 fish, but only 2 were keepers.
One of our staff, Renee, caught a small dog shark. We kept him and ate him that night. Delicious!
Thanks to everyone who was praying for our trip. We had an amazing time and learned a ton. I continually am thankful for you all. Again, if you're still looking to support, I wouldn't mind it at all. Have a good one.
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