Day 9

July 8. Hey I’m not a very good writer so bare with me here……. So today it was REALLY sunny out and really muggy. Anyway, today at Bible study we had two speakers one was Emmanuel Yeboah, he is from Ghana in west Africa he was born with a physical impairment. But he overcame his disability and is now a World-renowned athlete. They even made a movie about him called “Emmanuel’s Gift”. To me his story was the most inspiring so far. The 2nd speaker we had was Dr. Kristine Gebbie she talked about the aids epidemic and all the things she did and all the things we could do to stop it.
Then we got some free time to ourselves and we hung out (and took naps) J Then at 6:30 we went to the fiesta and that was cool, and it had fireworks at the end (cool also). Tomorrow we are heading home so see you soon.

Pascale Hesse


We have had a tremendous journey. I can say with confidence that each of the youth have been touched in some way by our time here in San Antonio. This is a beautiful city and the people here have been very gracious to us. We have met people from around the globe and they have inspired to think bigger in terms of our faith and our calling to share the Gospel. It has been a joy to get to know each of these special youth of Redeemer and Black River. They have given a great deal of time and energy to this event and I believe that all of the preparation and donut making has been worth while. We look foreword to sharing with you all of our experiences. This will be our last entry due to the fact that tomorrow we begin the long trek home. Pray for us as we travel.
Thank for allowing me the privilege of spending time with your son or daughter.

In Christ, Pastor Jason

Day 8

July 7. Hey y’all!! Tyson Sorvig here, and I’m about to tell all of what is happening in the VERY HOT and very humid city of San Antonio, TX. Well, the day started off with the usual morning worship that begun at about 10 a.m. Boy, getting up early every morning during the summer is getting really hard to do! I know, I know what you’re thinking, “Oh, if he thinks that’s hard, just wait ‘til you get a real job! “ Well I’m already worrying about that a lot! (ha-ha) After the morning worship everyone got some free time to do pretty much whatever they felt like doing. Well me and some of the guys (Mike & Eric Blix, Lee Steva, Rob-job, Sturgis aka Derek) were quite bored so we decided to go to the mall and try to find something to do. That something ended up being us getting hungry and making our way to the mall for lunch. Then we went back to the hotel and I have no clue what went on in the time period between 3 and 4 o’clock cuz I was catching up on a few Z’s. This gathering stuff is hard work!! But then I got up and the chaperones took us all to a some-what up-scale Mexican restaurant. And the food was AWESOME!! Then it was off to the Gathering once again for our last night in the Alamo Dome. The Speakers tonight were a Latin-American women who ran away from home when she was 13 to escape the hard life she had. The second speaker was a former slave from Africa. Yes, that is right, he was a slave for 10 years before he got away and came to the U.S. The music tonight was done by an absolutely, awesomely kicking band called the Newsboys. And let me tell you, THEY ROCK THE DOME BABY!!! WHOOO!! But then, almost too soon that was over and it was off to the dance for me!!! Jason got a picture of me dancing with a babe and he says he’s going to black-mail me with it. . . PAH!! I think he’s just jealous of me . . . he he. But then, all of a sudden that was over too. Talk about bittersweet, but hey, that stuff happens, and that is not the reason we are here, we are here to find a deeper understanding of our faith in our Lord God and Jesus Christ. So, on that note, it is about time I hit the old dusty trail and go to my room for some shut-eye, I need it. Well ‘til next-time folks. Bye-bye

Tyson Sorvig

Day 7

July 6 .Alright, well this is how my day went in the hot city of San Antonio. It all started out with the hotel employees who did not wake us up with a Wake Up Call and my fellow roommates and I slept through till about 11:30, missing the morning worship. Pastor Jason then called us at ‘bout 12 and we skidaddled to the convention center for a speaker who just talked with all males on stuff, missing our lunch. After that our groups split and Derek and I went to an art room. We drew pictures there, Derek drew these really cool color colleuages, and I drew a wicked skeleton picture, with one half of this guys face normal with skin, and the other side with no skin, but a with “sic” looking eye coming out of his socket…. Yeah it’s pretty Helltsastic….. Moving on… We then went to the activity area and met with up Zachhole and the guys. The Guys got us into a great game of Dodgeball, and I can proudly say that we beat the other team 2out of 3 games. Then we played Ultimate Frisbee. For supper, I divulged myself into some Chinese (Wok) food. I had orange chicken and an egg roll. It was delicious. During the evening worship, Michelle pushed me and Derek into a congo line to start off the fun and the fun didn’t stop until Pastor Jason told me I had to write this paragraph…… jk….lol…After the evening worship we went back to the hotel and got prepared for the “dance.” Yeah the dance was really fun, even though Sheila would disagree with what should be called dancing. Haha….Well, now the night is settling in and I have to get some sleep, because it looks like that every chaperone will be knocking on our door in the morning, making sure that we don’t “skip” another service…..And to Calli we and I all miss ya, but don’t worry Michelle is taking a lot of pics with the bass.

Remarks of Rob Stenson

Day 6

 July 5. Today was the first day of the actual youth gathering, Cruzando. We started off from Corpus Christi around 8:30 and arrived in San Antonio around 11. The opening service of the gathering wasn’t until around 7:30 so we had time to kill. Some of us went shopping, while others washed clothes. But all of us reunited to make our journey to the Alamo Dome where the services are taking place. We took a little walk and we were there before we knew it. When we got there, it was kind of an intimidating sight. There were hundreds of kids and adults all lined up at the doors, wearing their shirts of different colors for their churches, some of them were even chanting! So all us kids were like whoa.. but we snuck ahead in line (with Sheila’s direction of course) and got a good spot in the dome. There were so many people there! I didn’t think that there would be so many, but there was. And some were even doing the wave. The service started off with some excellent music from the house band and continued on with some great bands that have even been featured in movies (like Yours, Mine, and Ours). Tonight there was also a great speaker named Tony Campolo. He spoke of Jesus’ true “mission statement” being about making Earth more like what God’s kingdom is supposed to be like. He was a very captivating speaker, and he is an intelligent man who has some awesome ideals for our upcoming generation to embrace. If we do, the world as we know it could really change. After that, the service was over and we had some free time. We ended the night with devotions. Overall, it was an exciting prelude to what I am sure is going to be a life-changing youth gathering.
Bethany Stroh

Day 5
July 4. Today was a fantastic day for everyone. First of all we all got to sleep in until about 11 some people slept even later. We all had a great time at the beach. Even though most of us got burnt we all enjoyed hanging out with each other since we haven’t really gotten to do that. We got to hang by the beach and work on our tans. We swam and some even boogie boarded. The jelly fish kept close to the beach so some of the kids got stung, but we all know some never will be able to get stung by one of those crazy jellies. The most fun I had today was just hanging out with all my friends, swimming with my roommates, shopping with Chelsie and Kailey, and even playing football with Cody and Marshall. The last and probably the most exciting was the fire works. All of them were bright and noisy, but what fire works aren’t? All in all this was probably the most fun I have had on this trip!

Hannah Anderson

Day 4

Today was a blast. We woke up early this morning and went to Corpus Christi, which means Body of Christ. We learned so many lessons about life today but the one that stuck out the most to me, was related to one of our group members who lost a good friend to cancer. We learned that sometimes when people pass away, God seems so far and we really need to be there for that person. We also went to an amazing aquarium in Corpus Christi that was full of wild fish and other animals. They kept it open just for all of us to go there with no problems and made us a fantastic meal that most of us couldn't get enough of. All in all today was a wonderful expirence and we can't wait to see what tomorrow has to bring.

Day 3

 We started out early in order to make it to an 8:00 church service. The service was very nice and the church was beautiful. After the service ended we loaded back onto our buses and were on our way to Six Flags! Everyone had a great time and took advantage of the many different aspects the theme park had to offer. We did everything from making sure we hit every single roller coaster to taking pictures in old fashion attire. The only complaint that we had was that we couldn’t stay longer! However, having the Rangers vs. the Astros helped to make everything better. For a lot of us the most entertaining part being at the game was watching Sheila and Pastor Jason let loose. The game itself was kind of slow in the sense that four innings went by without either team making a single run! The game didn’t seem to pick up until the ‘bottom of the ninth’ . . . literally! Our day didn’t come to a close until we slowly made it, through traffic, back to our hotel at about 11:30.

Day 2
What another AWESOME day! Today we traveled through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and finally, and I mean finally, to Texas—PHEW! We finally rolled into the Drury Inn and Suites in Dallas about 8:30 this evening after a little transmission trouble in the Zion bus, did I say little, I mean the transmission actually went out. We were told that one kid called his parents and left a message that they needed money wired because they were walking 8 miles into Dallas . . . wonder what they were thinking—CRAZY kids! With that said, we are two for two on bus annihilation! We totally bombarded Bennigan’s with 200+ kids; needless to say, we totally ROCKED their worldJ Your munchkins appreciated the pillow cases—COOL! We did devotions and Pastor Jason talked about their faith journey and gave them all some snippits to think about through the next few days. This should be a transformational journey and CRUZANDO should soon be taking on a new meaning for them. The Pathways crew has been fantabulous and the kids are even enjoying bus “fun.” Well . . . it is 12:48 a.m. and we are tired, so until tomorrow, Buenos NochesJ
Yours in Christ,
Sheila

Day 1

Our journey with Jesus. Our day began at 5:30 AM when we gathered to load the buses and share a word or prayer. Following an uneventful ride to Dillworth, MN. (Thanks to Dale Dillion), we joined up with 200 other pilgrims and the Pathways staff for orientation and Holy Communion. We then left Fargo and headed South on our journey. It wasn’t long and the counselors were engaging us in “Bus Fun”. This was a time to get to know those on our bus and to win prizes. Evan Russ won 14 cans of pop in a rousing game of “Deal or no Deal” pathways style. Our “Bus Fun” was interrupted with a flat tire on one bus and no air conditioning on another. We changed the tire and combined the 5 buses of youth into 4 buses so that we could exchange the broken bus with one with working air conditioning. Needless to say we were off schedule. Several hours past our scheduled arrival, we pulled into St. Joseph, MO. It is now 11:45 and we are getting settled into our rooms. We thank God for safe travel and we look forward to all that tomorrow brings. Peace, Pr. Jason (PJ)