East Ward Bound!!

After a wonderful camp in Clendenin, West Virginia JCrew headed to York, PA to spend the night with the great Week of Hope girls there, Michelle and Victoria. It was great to see some other Summer Staffers. We stayed the night there and enjoyed their company. Then the next day we headed to have lunch with Melissa's aunt, uncle, and two cousins. It was cool to meet some of Melissa's family and to meet some of the people that would be at our next camp. They were all campers in New Haven, CT.

When we had finished with our lunch we got to go to Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love. We were all excited to see this city. But none of us were as excited as Emilie. Nor could I even begin to explain her excitement. She is kind of a history nerd and it made her day. It would be like me getting to go to Harry Potter World in Universal Studies. (that is how she was acting). So we spent the evening walking around and sight seeing in one of our nations most historical cities. We did all of the touristy things to do there. We saw the Liberty Bell, Liberty Hall, that one park and many more things. It was very cool seeing some of the places form the movie National Treasure, (what a movie). After all of the sight seeing we walked to South Philadelphia to get us some Philly Cheese Steaks from Philadelphia. That was the only thing I really wanted to do while there. ;) We went to Geno's. I guess it is some famous place that everyone famous goes to and it is all over the food channel or travel network. I don't know. But the cheese steaks were great. They used cheese wiz instead of shredded cheese or sliced. It was soooooo goood!!! And while sitting there eating we are pretty sure we saw the playgound that Will Smith played on before he was sent to his aunt and unlce's house in Bel Air. lol.

After a splendid day in Philadelphia, we got back in our vehicles and we drove to Rockaway New Jersey. This was home for two nights. Finally we could stop in one place for a minute. We got there very late so the first thing we did we sleep. We woke very early the next morning all filled with excitement to go to New York City for the day.

Country Roads Take Me Home

I am not really sure where the time has gone. I had no time to post in the middle of the summer. My last two camps flew by like nothing else. I always have thought that the summer goes by fast. But when you are travel half way across the country and back it goes by even faster.

Here is a summary of the first half  of the month of July for me.






After leaving Nashville, we had the opportunity to stay with the Duzanes. This was awesome cause it was like being with family for a couple of days. We joined them for church and just had a blast for three days by the pool. Emilie and Melissa met up with us Sunday night and stayed there for another day. Monday morning  July 2nd, we started to head to West Virginia. Our first stop along the way was in Louisville, Kentucky. My old Kentucky Home!! :) This was fantastic to stop there half way through the summer and get the felling of home. I got to see most of my friends and show JCrew around where I live most of the year. I even took them to Shenanigans.

The wonderful backyard at the Duzane's. We were living the life of luxury here.
 Sitting pool side all day soaking up the rays. That was the life. I can't wait to return to Duzacres. 

The next day we left Louisville, to make our last day of driving to West Virginia. When we got there most of the state was out of power. We got our hotel room and prepared for the upcoming week of camp. During this set-up week we really spent a lot of time together in the evenings watching movies on the wall with Melissa's VPU. This was really cool, like our own home theater. And on that Friday (JULY 6th) my crew surprised me with a cake, that I was in no way expecting. It was so awesome of them. I know I joke about my birthday being the most important day of everyone's year, but this year I knew that I am here to serve and to give up something. But the cake really made me feel like I was with family. Which the three of them were starting to become at that point in time.

Mean Girls in the hotel room.
"And none for Gretchen Wieners!"

My lovely birthday cake from my crew!! :) And my "It's My Birthday" Pin!! 

Look at how good we all look!! :) 

After set up week we had begun our second Group Workcamp for the summer in Clendenin, WV. This is in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains which already holds a special place in my heart for other reasons. It was great to be there to serve. We had a lot of ups and downs during this camp. Almost everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. For instance, Sunday while I was crew assigning, a storm had rolled in. I had just finished with everything and was just about to hit print and get to actually enjoy a meal on a Sunday evening, but behold the power went out from the storm and I was unable to print. :( So we hauled my printer and all its cords out to the parking lot. We hooked it up to a gas generator from someones truck and printed out as much as we could for the week right then and there. Since the power was out not only did this affect my crew assigning, it caused all of the cold and frozen food to start to warm up. This was all stuff that was not covered in training, because how do you train on this. This was the point when I knew that God had put me in the right position. We made it all work and lost very little food, we got crews assigned and we got everything that needed to be printed printed.

After Sunday's fiasco the camp went down hill from there with little to no problems. This camp was filled with great campers and adults that were really flexible with all of the issues that were going on in the state. Another example was that we were under a boil water alert. So we had to buy water bottles and use them instead of the five gallon water jugs. And since the state had lost power the week and weekend before camp, we were not able to have any ice for the coolers and water jugs. So we bought out three local grocery stores of the ice packs. But with such flexible campers the week went smoothly even with the hiccups. It was a great camp.

Every ice pack in the cities of Clendenin and Elk View West Virginia.
I seriously bought out the only three grocery stores in a fifteen mile radius for our campers lunches.

We also had an awesome MC at this camp. Her name was Cathy. She made the camp what it was. With her sense of humor, I was able to surpass all of the difficult times. She could always make us laugh. From telling stories about some of her "friends" back home to the alleged Crew 10 and our check in shenanigans we would get ourselves into and our favorite "Mountain Mama" Helen. Cathy was the definition of a hoot and a holler.

The camp ended on such a high. It was great. I was able to participate in the "Ragman" skit on Thursday night. Which is a skit that exemplifies the death of Jesus and shows us how he took all of our burdens so that we may be "made new." This camp was one of the first where I started to think about where I was in my life and where I am going. Nothing much came from this thinking but it was a great start to realizing what I need to be doing with my life.

Seeing this makes my feel so good. I see that not only is God working in my life this summer,
but God is working in the lives of so many others. Not only the Summer Staff, but the campers, their residents,
they friends and families back home, and so many more that will be touched by stories of how God
making everything new in our lives.

In the immortal words of John Denver,

"Country roads take me home, to the place where I belong, West Virginia, Mountain Mamma. Take me home. Country Roads."

Hope, Friends, Making New

I had a great time at my very first Week of Hope. It was such an awesome experience to see the other side of Group Cares! The small and close atmosphere was different but enjoyable from Workcamp. Spending that week relaxing as a volunteer was great. Not running the camp was totally different but it was great to just be there to offer my services to others. But the biggest plus was the summerstaff! Abby and Kirsten were awesome, and made Casey and I feel so welcomed! On Tuesday we went to downtown Nashville which was so awesome! We got the chance to see the "Music City!" and Courntey (one of my fellow summer staffers who lives in Nashville) was so right. It is one of my favorite cities we have been too. I could see myself living there!!

Now after spending three days at the wonderful Duzanes that opened their house to us. We are on our way to our next camp. And on our way was the wonderful city of Louisville. I cannot believe I got the opportunity to stop in my city to say hey. Eating at Shenanihans was great! It was like being home for a couple hours! Now tomorrow morning we are heading to West Virginia to help with our setup week for our second Workcamp.

Highlights of the last couple of days. Spending time with Abby. I missed her so much! Receiving the blessed southern hospitality of the Duzanes in Gallatin, TN. And seeing friends such as Katie and Patricia tonight. Only low I can think of was not getting the opportunity to see Tatum. :(

Prayers for the people of the midwest and WV there are people struggling without power right now due to the terrible storms that passed through last weekend!!

Duces y'all!

So much in Two weeks!!

It has been about two weeks since the last blog. I apologize about that. 

So much has happened. Here is a quick recap of the last two weeks.

After leaving Wichita, Kansas we spent the afternoon in Oklahoma City for lunch. We walked around and really enjoyed our time. 

Cool picture of the canal and the water taxi

Another good pic of the canal in OKC

Our lunch destination. I loved it. Thanks Toby!

After spending the afternoon in OKC. We headed to Frisco, TX (just north of Dallas). There we stayed for two days because we had the time before we had to be in Mabank for our first camp. While there we got to see a cattle drive, and downtown Dallas, as well as being welcomed by an awesome elderly family that made some good old southern food.

What was left on the beds for us in Frisco. Just like a hotel. 

Red Shirt Flag as a welcome!!

Casey of course had to show us how country he is from Indiana and rode the mechanical bull. 

Only in Texas. 

My favorite place in Frisco!!

Just got a good kick out of this and wanted to share. 

Downtown Dallas. 

More of Dallas

After Dallas we were on our way to our first Group Workcamp in Mabank, TX. This was fantastic. It was overwhelming at first but it was something that I had the strength and the training to overcome. The crew assigning went great and the kitchen staff and my cafeteria host were so great I never had to stress about anything!! I really loved getting to work with all of the people for a whole week. It was almost sad leaving them. Mabank was a wonderful city, small but great to be in for a week. I would love to one day go back and see the impact we had on that community. We had so many great experiences there and the campers were great for the most part. 

First day wearing the red shirt!! Holy CRAP!! It just got real!

Hung up my crew letters!! They looked so good! Melissa did her programs stuff I guess. 

My clusters!!!! They worked for the most part. Expect for 2 charter buses.

This is just an example of the ridiculous bugs here in Texas. This is a Wolf Spider in case you were wondering.

My food of choice during crew assigning. I think it helped very much!

Seeing all of the crews getting to know each other was amazing! I felt so accomplished!!! 

A cat had some baby kittens at one of the worksites! 

Erika Lines mother was there at this camp! It was so awesome to meet her!! She is such a sweetheart!! Made me miss Erika!

Our MC after 12 midnight. You never knew what you would see.

Thursday night program. All of our dirty rags!!

The sky on the last night at camp! What a beautiful example of God's work.

The camp ended fantastically with no problems. After the camp we headed to the hotel in Mabank and slept for 15 hours that night. That was the best sleep ever I feel like. It was great way to spend my last night in the city of Mabank. After Mabank, Casey and I left for Memphis, TN. There we spent the night. We got some good Memphis BBQ. It was a blast. After than we finished our drive to Nashville we were are being Hospitality Team Members for a Week of Hope. It is great to get the chance to see the other side of Group Cares. I love getting to hang out with Kirsten and Abby. They are such a blast and it is so nice to get a break from Workcamp and just help out. I completely understand how important the volunteers are at a mission trip. Without them our jobs wouldn't be possible. So I am here to serve them and make their lives easier. I am having a blast so far. It is so different being a volunteer rather than a summer staff. (No Day-By-Day Schedule!)

Just for you amusement. It is called Hugg Chug. You chug a juice drink called a hug and see who can chug the fastest.

This video made my day. This is my partner Casey singing his heart out to Cher!!!

Welcome to Tennessee!!!!!!

We ate at a restaurant named Corky's and it was awesome!!

Casey and I outside Corky's

Who knows what else the week will have in store for me. I will be updating this more often sorry about the delay. I wasn't aware of the difficulties of updating a blog during a Workcamp Week.

Peace and Blessings!

The journey begins...

So I thought that the journey has begun two weeks ago when I got to travel to Estes Park, CO. But today I embarked on my trip across the country! After 10 hours of driving through the most boring parts of Colorado and Kansas we have made it to Wichita, KS. Here we are staying with a fellow summer staffers aunt and uncle. I never thought I would experience the southern hospitality in Kansas. We get here to a home cooked meal with laundry being ready for us and showers available. Breakfast is offered in the morning! I'm so excited that I get to be here. Plus our hostess showed us some of our friends childhood pictures!! How fun!

Tomorrow we continue our journey to Texas. Stopping in Oklahoma City and then staying the night in Dallas. Keep us in your prayers while we travel.

Below are some pictures from today. The road in middle of nowhere America. And the picture of our friend we found! What a day!!

Time does not change us...

Someone once said,

"Time does not change us...it just unfolds us."

I would have to completely agree. I had no idea what this summer had in store for me...I still don't know, but I have somewhat of an idea. The last two weeks have been some of the most stressful weeks of training I have ever had. I have been up no later than 7:00 in the morning to work all day and then hang out with all of my new wonderful friends until the wee hours of the morning, like midnight or later. With such little amount of sleep and such intense house of training for all of my responsibilities, I am, to say the least, exhausted.

This quote I found means a lot to me. Like I said, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. This is not something I say lightly or often. But the time I have spent here in Colorado with the amazing people have not changed me, for I am still goofy Tyler Wobbrock, but the time here has started to unfold me into the person I feel I am supposed to be. I have gone through so many difficult problems in my first two years of college and the time spent here with these great examples of Christians and my Lord, has already started to affect me, and I haven't even begun to serve those who I am meant to spiritually affect this summer. I have seen so many things in my life changed in two weeks. I have seen God come back into my life like he was before college had begun. Honestly, I forgot this feeling. So, overall, I look forward to this summer with such high anticipation. Who knows where the Lord will take me or how he will use me. From the suburbs of Dallas all the way to New Haven, CT.

On top of the amazing time I have had, I have met some people I will call my best friends for the rest of my life. Who would have thought that in two weeks I would have built such close relationships. I never thought that it would have happened like this. These last two weeks have been like Workcamp on crack with meeting people. Seriously, the group of friends I have here I have gotten so close to. There are so many people I cannot even begin to name them. They are literally some people I will call my best friends. I would love to tell you all about them, but I don't want to make others jealous. It has actually begin to hit me that I am leaving these people who have become family on Sunday for the longest time. Some I will see, but the chances of me seeing some of them are going to be a little hard. Which is really tough right now. Who knows, maybe I can throw Summer Staff Derby Party??

Summer Staff 2012. I love this group of people!

This is what we really act like!

Some of my newest best friends...idk what I would do without them this summer!

I have had this one for one full year. Since last years ABIFest

This is what I am replacing my ABIFest2011 bracelet with.
Our mission for the summer is to,
"Help youth leaders create mission trip experiences where youth encounter Jesus!"

This here is my first Group Staff shirt!!! :) I have waited for this since summer of 2007  in Lexington, NC!

These are the keys to my 2013 Silver Ford Focus with a sunroof. We decided to call it Jeffery!

These are just some of my experiences. I look forward to what God has in store for me. This summer is all up to him. Where I go and what I do. I cannot wait to see what will happen. If my summer is anything in comparison to training, I am going to be embarking on the best summer of my life.

Back to the quote I started with, "Time does not change us...it unfolds us..." Time has already begun to unfold me, and I can foresee the time I will spend serving will unfold me even more. I cannot wait.

Follow me here to hear about me "Wobblineveryday"

Young Wild and Free!!

So week one I training had finished. It was stressful, but worth while. I have begun to understand how to do my job. I'm enjoying all the time with the rest of the Crew Managers. Our trainer is so helpful and awesome. Overall I would give week one a 10 out of 10. The only problem was the altitude and the food at the YMCA of the Rockies. After a week I hard work we left the YMCA and headed to Estes Park Middle School for the rest of training .

But we had the weekend off. So we could take one of the rental vans and do whatever our hearts desired.

Friday night we went into town and had a nice pizza dinner then got ice cream at one of the twenty ice cream shops in Estes. After which we walked around down town Estes and enjoyed the scenery, before we headed out of the mountains to Fort Collins. There we went to a place called Sundance Saloon. Which for your information is a line dancing club. There we enjoyed a night of camaraderie with 20 other summer staffers. This was a freakin blast we had three older ladies who tried to teach us dances. And people coming up to us to ask to dance.

Saturday most of us headed to a Colorado Rockies baseball game. The game was a blast as well. Although the rain had interrupted the fun at the beginning, it ended up being sunny and nice. After the game we hung around Denver for a little while for dinner and then came back to Estes Park for a fun night in. We watched Despicable Me on the big program screen for Workcamp. :)

Sunday was a very busy day. We were invited to join the Crossroads Church in Loveland, CO for worship. This was a fun service with great music. In the afternoon all of the summer staff had a huge picnic by Lake Loveland. It was the perfect day for a picnic. Not to hot or not to cold. After the picnic we all came back to the school for a nice relaxing night filled with games and music and a talent show.

The talent show was fantastic! There are so many awesome people here with great personalities and huge hearts for God! I love everyone here. We are all here for the same reason and we are all so cool and we get along so well. After the talent show there were several that wanted to stay in and hang out. That was a great amount of fun. Just playing card games and playing music. You know loving the dream! ;)

Tomorrow starts the last week of training and the intense part. We only have one more week to prove ourselves worth of being a summer staffer. We have to start getting serious for camps start in like two weeks!!! So close to my trip to Texas!

Before I head out here are some of my most recent pictures. :) thanks for reading!