We have arrived in Yakima!

Hello friends and family of the CTK youth! We have wrapped up our first evening in Yakima. I am able to write a blog from my phone, so bear with me! We made it to our mission site around 4:30 and got settled, had orientation and were introduced to our theme: "You Are Here". We began to explore why we are here, and in light of that, I asked a few kids to write about how we got here, why we are here, etc. Here are a few of their responses:

This trip is an amazin' raisin! I slept a TON on the bus. We went to a rustic McDonald's for lunch and once we got here, we learned a lot about the reservation! I'm soooooo glad we are here! ~Lily Stephens

I am here because I want to make new friends and learn what serving God really feels like. I want to have a good experience in the Yakama Reservation and I want to feel like I made a difference in this world. ~Anastasia Bidne

Day 1 has gone by smoothly. Already the heat has gotten to me and also already I have hurt myself... Haha :) But seriously the reason why I'm here is to help/show the Yakimanian community how we love and worship God. When we are with the children we will hopefully show a good example of how to love God, even in play and hopefully they will go and share it with their families. ~Heather Cornish

I am in Yakima to learn something new this week than I learned the last time I was here. Also, I am so excited to help out, even if it just helps in little ways. Even if it's reading to a child, or being a part of the painting crew. I hope all of us go home with a good feeling, that they helped out in any way possible. I love this! It's a great way for us girls going into high school to have our final hoorah in confirmation and I hope that for those of us who are here for the first time, that it's a new and exciting experience. (ps... Hi family!) ~Sara Leeman

Tomorrow we begin our ministry work. Our group is split up in two, and one group will be going to Kids Club, and the other group will be doing work projects. I will have one kid from each group write about their experience each day. We appreciate your continued support and prayers! Blessings, Taryn and the CTK youth :) day