February 28, 2009
February 28th, 2009 by emhest09I am currently tucked into a sleeping bag on an army cot wondering how on earth I made it to Waverly, Virginia without a hitch! It’s hard to believe that at 7:00AM this morning we were pulling out of the gates of Holy Cross, not knowing what to expect at the end of the 10 hour drive we faced.
This morning, we packed up the two rental vans as best we could (14 people, everyone’s duffels and mountains of snacks made for a pretty tight squeeze) and left campus right on time. Our group only had three drivers so we rotated every 2 hours, that way no one drove for over four hours at a time. We drove through Baltimore and then got rather lost when the navigator in my van (ehem, BRIAN) missed a sign for an exit. Luckily we had a native of Virginia in our car and got to take a different, quicker and more scenic route around Washington D.C. and we could actually see most of the city when we passed over a bridge nearby. The toughest section to get through was probably Virginia, not because of traffic or anything but because it was getting late and it started to rain, not a good combination! We made it through though!
When we were about 20 minutes away from Waverly, I called Pastor Drew who was our host for the week. I cheerfully told him we were about 20 minutes away and the silence that followed was a bit nerve-wracking. Turns out there was a bit of a miscommunication and we were not supposed to arrive until the following day…you never would have known it though with the reception we got! Both the Waverly A group and the Waverly B group arrived at about the same time and, even though we interrupted a wedding party, we were welcomed with open arms. We got a tour of the church, Lily of the Valley Deliverance Center, then heard from Pastor Drew about the various projects we would be undertaking and how they would help in the community and with the church. We all went out to dinner at Giuseppe’s, an Italian restaurant down then street, and it was great to finally meet the people and see the place I had been wondering about for weeks.
Most of us are currently passed out in our recently assembled army cots, but there is music being played in the church (the room we are sleeping in is the community room attached to the church by a short hallway). It’s certainly a good way to fall asleep and I can’t wait until tomorrow when our time here truly begins!