Days 194-196: Supes Visit Pt. 4 and Coastal Sunrises!

Just like every other supervisor visit, Christina and Jaime take over for the day. And since it is the last visit of the year, I expect alot to happen. And alot happened, indeed. Because we were so close to Philadelphia, we spent our late morning/early afternoon in the City of Brotherly Love. We ended up having a men's/women's session in downtown Philly. The ladies, I learned later, explored historical landmarks around town, none of which I remember sadly. For the guys? Dave and Buster's. Yes, it sounds lame, but I've never had the full experience, and only a couple guys did. And we had a ton of fun eating burgers and playing arcade games. At the end, we went to the exchange shop, and got our silly gifts that were immediately thrown into the skit bin. Although, as our last ride with Jaime, we all got these necklaces that said "Winner" on it, for camaraderie, irony, and to make the sisters laugh way too hard. Hopefully we all still have it. From there, the supes treated us to Skyzone, or a trampoline park! It was alot of fun, mainly because I got to live out my American Ninja Warrior dreams by attempting their junior obstacle course that are based around the obstacles in the show I've watched since I was seven years old, before ANW came out and it was just Ninja Warrior in Japan, including the quintuple steps and warped wall. Also learned how to do flips on trampolines from Evan and a Skyzone worker, which was alot of fun. That night, we had dinner at Juanita's, a nice locally-owned Mexican restaurant who had some legit molé and burritos. Overall, a fantastic last day with the supervisors. . . Today took a hard, cruel twist. Before we would drop the supervisors off at the airport, Christina announced we would drop off Roni back at her home in Chadds Ford, an hour away, for an audiologist appointment. For those who don't know, she has hearing aids, and she has to get them checked up. Although it will only be a couple days, it's a big hit on our team, especially with Sarah gone this week. Oh, another thing: Team Leaders and Second-years get a special 3-day long retreat away from the team, and for Sarah, it starts tomorrow (3/11) and goes through Friday (3/13). Two ladies, two rocks on our team, taken from us for the week. It's gonna be difficult, but we will survive. From there, we dropped off the supervisors at the airport, and headed for St. Rose in Belmar, NJ, right on the Atlantic Coast. The next four retreats are confirmation retreats running from 4-9pm in three different places, starting with tonight. And tonight's group was super responsive, really strived for God, which was super relieving. Plus, the Campus Minister there was a NET alum! Nick ('08-10) got to participate in a skit and was KILLER, we absolutely LOVE NET alum. That night, Evan, Adam and I got to stay with Mary Anna and Mark, who conveniently lived across the street from the church! They had a beautiful beach house, where we learned that we were five blocks away from the Atlantic Ocean, and told us if we got up early enough we could catch the sunrise! You best believe what we were doing in the morning. . . Okay, as someone who lives on the West Coast, I love my coastal sunsets that go over the Pacific. But after experience my first ever sunrise coming over the Atlantic... I don't know man, it competes. I wanna say sunrise, but my West Coast pride sticks with sunsets. Either way, we got up at 6:30, packed and left the house at 7:10 to catch the 7:15am sunrise. It was breathtaking. The bright orange gleam left us in awe. Plus, there were many sweet photos taken by Evan's camera and my phone. Forever a great memory and amazing screen saver. That morning, after team prayer, Nels announced he would drop off Sarah at Nick's house, the NET alum from yesterday, for her "retreat" after her original location cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. This was the first time the outbreak affected us physically. Of course I heard about it and knew the effect it took on my community at home, and so did the So. Cal teammates, but this was becoming a bigger issue daily, and it was scary no doubt. But, it was over there, we're good over here. But with Nels dropping Sarah off, we got four hours of free time! So, naturally, we went back to the beach, this time with more of the team. More exploration, sweet footprint-in-sand photoshoot with Evan, and lunch at a crazy brunch place. Then, we headed to our next stop, officially down to nine members. Next stop: St. Joseph in Millstone, NJ. This group was very interesting. Many didn't believe in God, but they all wanted to. They just haven't seen Him work yet in their lives yet you know? It was very interesting, and I was pulling for them so hard through the whole retreat and afterwards too. Still praying for them constantly for conversion. With that, Evan and I stayed with Chris and Rina, who had three crazy dogs and two children, who we would see in the morning. They've been hit hard with corona already too, since their typical work travels have been canceled. It's crazy how much it's affected everyone around us, but we knew our risk was minimal according to NET, so we must kep chugging along.