Mission Update - Day 1

The first step of our Glow Youth Mission Trip: Leaving Melbourne! Meeting up at church at nine in the morning, the youth gather and finally finish packing bags and get ready to set out on our mission. Everyone arrives at church and we we have a final Word from Pastor Paul reminding us to remember Who we represent and that this mission is solely for the Mission of God and with all focus on Jesus Christ. The real encouraging thing I find about our youth group is that we do know that what we do is for God and that we wouldn't even be able to go in this trip, or do anything for that matter, if it wasn't for Him. So after the final words from Pastor Paul, we all pray and get ready to set out. We all began packing the bags in the bus and my mum began to cry (haha); it started the night before so it wasn't all that intense. Saying goodbye everyone, we headed off in the bus to go to the airport.  Arriving at Melbourne Airport, Pastor Greg outlines rules so that we all don't get separated. It was the 'buddy system'. Basically you we were given a partner and we had to make sure we saw them and they were close to the group at all times. At the airport we ate before we went off and had no major trouble with anything in the process of boarding; praise God.  The long trip from Melbourne to Brunei was the transition flight before actually going to Manila. The trip was fun. To burn some time in the plane, everyone just did their own thing : watch movies, play games and Kenny, Apo and I drew pictures. It was a long ride and once we got to Brunei, there was another long 3hour wait till the next flight. But after all that, it was quick 2hour trip straight to Manila. Everyone was extremely tired from the extremely long day because we arrived at Manila at 12am (Manila time) ;this meant that it was already 3 am in the morning for us Melbourne kids. In the end, we we all incredibly knocked out of the long trip tiredness.  We met Paster Don at the airport whom took care of all our luggage and guided us all the way to our hotels. By the time we got to the hotel, I was knocked out and could barely stand and open my eyes, but at the hotel was Anna B's mum. She made us food and brought soft drinks, which kept us all awake for a good 'nother hour until everyone just slept. The First day was incredibly long and tiring, but we made it! We've arrived at Manila, safely and all in one piece. Thank you God. Written by Yung Garol