Hawaii

First off I want to apologize for not blogging in a while. After mission trip I was home for three days before I left for Hawaii for a week. Since I've been back I've been thinking about how exactly I'm going to tackle writing about everything I've experienced in Hawaii. This trip was honestly incredible and I can't thank my parents enough for this (and all) of the amazing trips they've taken me and my brother on. I vlogged the entire trip, and the video is currently on YouTube so be sure to check it out here. I decided to format this post like I did for mission trip and just talk about what happened day-by-day.

Day #1: TRAVELING. Our trip started in the STL airport, where we arrived in Denver, CO, then flew to LAX, and finally arrived in Kona. 

Day #2: We drove to Mauna Kea beach, voted one of the best beaches in the world. The water, as you can see, was crystal clear. The beach wasn't very crowded because they only allow a small amount of people in at a time which made it even better. My dad, brother, and I saw a sea turtle too which was really cool. 
Credit to my mom for taking an awesome picture
Some coral we saw
Day #3: We went to another beach, Captain Cook. It wasn't really a "beach" per say because the "beach" was all huge chunks of lava rock. However, the water was so blue and the coral was really close to the surface which made the snorkeling even better.



And then after we visited the mountain, my dad and I swam part of the Ironman course. We just followed the markers around the left side, and we swam approximately 1/3 of it before heading back in.



Day #4: My dad went to Kona a few years back with his cousin, Tony. They wanted to bike up a portion of the mountain, Mauna Kea. My dad did four miles then and wanted to continue the bike ride. See this route starts after you reach the visitors center, where you have to stop and get acclimated with the altitude. We rode the Jeep up to where he last stopped, around mile 5, and he wanted to bike the final portion up to the top. He thought it was only 2 more miles, no, it was 4. The altitude was at 12000 feet and I was struggling to breathe just sitting in a car. My dad biked another mile, mile and a half-ish, before we told him it was probably best to just drive up the rest of the way. Once we got to the top it was breath-taking, both figuratively and literally. We took a quick family photo and descended the mountain.The total height of Mauna Kea is 13,000 feet above sea level.
This was my selfie at the visitor's center. Behind me, yes, those are clouds.
Mi madre y yo
My dad biking
This was the view from the top of the mountain. That line you see in the picture is a hiking trail. Why you would hike, I have no idea. 
Our family photo on top of Mauna Kea
We stopped as we went down the mountain and took pictures




And here are some sunset photos.



Day #5: We took an amazing helicopter tour on the other side of the big island, Hilo. Be sure to watch the vlog footage for this day because I got some amazing videos of the volcano and some waterfalls.

As Scott, our pilot, suggested, you have to take a selfie with a waterfall

Hunter and Scott
(make sure to emphasize the last t :D )

Lava Rock
The volcano

Day #6: We took a Body Glove Snorkel Tour. Some of these photos are photos of photos, so I apologize. Others are fine!
Hunter diving under the water
The boat we were on from the ocean

Hunter and I jumping from the high jump at the top of the boat

We saw spinner dolphins, too, so that was really cool

Day #7: Our final day in Kona we visited one more beach, which was well worth it because we had to off-road in the Jeep for 35 minutes to get there. The beach was isolated when we got there, probably because no tourist wanted to risk their rental car to get there. 







After our amazing time at this beach we unfortunately had to head back to our hotel room because we had to be out by 1 pm. However, our flight wasn't leaving until 9 pm so we wandered around Kona some more and went into some coffee shops. Our flight was from Kona to San Francisco, where we arrived at 6 am San Fran time, then we had a 5 hour layover, finally we were able to arrive in St. Louis at 5 pm. So in total it was 16 hours of traveling. Once we were home, yes we were sad, but overall we were just happy to be home.

I hope you all enjoyed this most, I was really excited to share all of my memories with you. Make sure to check out my YouTube video for a more detailed version of what happened on my trip. It would mean the world to me if you could also subscribe to my channel, and if you already do, thank you so much!

Until next time,
Taylor xx




2015 Mission Trip: Tulsa, Oklahoma

June 8-12, around 130 members of the SunRise youth group (and adult volunteers) served in the surrounding communities of Tulsa, OK. I originally wanted to vlog the entire time but once I got there I decided to just embrace the experience without a camera. 

Day #1: We drove, and drove, and drove. We left a little after 9:30 and arrived at the Verdigris Schools (where we "lived" the entire trip) around 5:00. 

Day #2: Our first day of serving occurred at the Wah-Zha-Zhi Youth Academy. I worked at the Bible station, where we handed out Bibles to kids who may or may not have had them. It was amazing to see some of the kids eyes light up when they got them. A lot of the kids asked if they could keep them multiple times, and we kept reassuring them that those Bibles were theirs. 

The youth group with some of the kids

Day #3: The second day of serving, we went to the Salvation Army to put on a worship service and our concert, and serve food to the homeless. At lunch, we served over 600+ people, and then ourselves after, too. 

We didn't have a lot of photos at the homeless shelter because a lot of times, the homeless don't want pictures of themselves unless the individually ask. I do, however, have a funny photo of our entire group after serving on Day #2.

Day #4: Our third and final day of serving was spent at the United Methodist Children's Home in Tahlequah. Some boys went to the United Methodist Boys Ranch in Gore, before joining the rest of the group at the Children's Home in the afternoon. For me this was the most impactful day. For the past four years I've gone on mission trip and each year at the Children's Home I never make a connection with the kids. Around 25 minutes in I was helping a little girl make a pillow and she introduced me to her brother (who was actually her foster brother). The little girl was attached to my friend Allie, and her brother wanted me to go play a game with him. Right after the game, he was attached at the hip to me. Before lunch he kept telling me that I had to sit with him and lunch and continuously asking me where I was going. It was absolutely the sweetest thing. He introduced me to his foster mom and everything. A lot of the youth group had their "Subject to Change" retreat bags from last year with them, and he pointed it out and said he wanted a bag. I didn't bring my bag, but my mom did, so I asked if I could put her stuff in my bag and give her's to him (hopefully that wasn't confusing). His face lit up, and I was so happy that such a small thing, like a draw string bag could make his day. He also had me sign the pillow he made so that he'd always remember me, and we also took a picture together so that, as he said, I would always look at it and remember him. The concert we performed there was most definitely the best concert we ever performed because every single child ended up on stage singing and performing.

We thought all of our service was done, but God had other plans. Some adults saw an older man across the street where we were staying struggling to mow his lawn. We gathered a group of kids to help him out, thinking it would only be a one hour ordeal. When we got up close we realized that the "1 foot tall" grass was actually 3 foot tall grass. While I was doing work in the backyard I almost stepped got into some poison ivy, and also almost picked up a spider's nest. However, the end result made it all worth it.

Before: 



After: 


Day #5: We drove, and drove, and drove. It took us around 9 hours to get home because we made a detour in Joplin, where we went on mission trip four years ago, and then again three years ago. There is a tree in Joplin that, when the tornado hit, had an 18-wheeler wrapped around it. We came back to visit the spot and pray over it.




I'm glad to be back home and sleep in my own bed, and this mission trip made me value what I have that much more.

Until next time,
Taylor xx

Caitlyn Jenner

The transition of Caitlyn Jenner is extremely controversial. I want everyone to know that these are all my opinions and thoughts, and everyone is entitled to their own.

If you did not know, (former) Bruce Jenner decided to officially transition, and she made her debut on Vanity Fair as Caitlyn Jenner. My whole take on the situation is something I've mentioned a little bit before in my "God's Not Dead" post here. God wants us to love everyone no matter what.

- 1 John 4:7-8 -- "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."

- 1 Corinthians 13:13 -- "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

- John 15:12 -- "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

And God loves us unconditionally despite all of our sins and shortcomings. People can have whatever opinion they want on Caitlyn Jenner, it's their right. However, hating on her won't do any good. Christians are known as hypocrites for this reason, we are supposed to be open and loving to everyone, and instead people turn their backs and shame these people. Nobody is perfect. In my opinion, if this is the first time Caitlyn Jenner is happy with herself, we should let her be. Even if you don't agree with it, respect someone else's choices.

Until next time,
Taylor xx