Now, I was doubtful she would be able to do it. We explained that she would need God's help, and that keeping the commandment of tithing (giving 10% of earnings) would be her saving grace. She diligently paid tithing each time she brought money home and I will tell you, God most definitely opened the windows of heaven!
Tennie worked HARD for the money. She babysat, pulled weeds, opened Tennie's Bake Shop and sold cookies to the apartment building and Geoff's work colleagues (who generously paid $25 a dozen), walked around City Creek mall asking individual shops to sponsor her, sold a free hotel night she acquired for $100, hired to upload all of our CDs to the computer, hired to make a photo book for Babs of her college years, sold some of our furniture online for a percentage, sold Babs' record collection and Beatles paraphernalia, and was the recipient, in most of these efforts, of great generosity from others. Miraculously, she did it!
The process itself was invaluable. She learned to work HARD for something she really wanted. She learned how to run a simple business (the Bake Shop brought in $1000), and how to keep records of her earnings. She learned how to be scrappy and to stick with her goal even when she would get stressed that her time was running out. She learned that she can make things happen, and that with hard work anything is possible. Most importantly she learned that God was blessing her for her faithfulness. She knows he is aware of her, and his hand was most definitely in her success.
So I took her to the airport early Friday morning and as I watched her plane fly off into the rising sun I felt like I had just pushed my little fledgling out of the nest. Geoff felt the same way. We're so excited for her adventure and can't wait until late, next Sunday night, when she returns.
The organization who runs the camp is called Broadreach. I'm going to post the daily updates sent from the Bahamas. The pictures are small and not great quality, but it is what we have until Tennie gets home.
Day One
Hey Mom's and Dad's, this is Katie and Jesse, two excited BR Instructors writing in to say Hello and happy to report we have received all 10 of our awesome students. It was sort of a long day, with waiting for students to roll in on their various flights from all reaches of America, but in the end, everyone showed up full of energy and ready to rock some Marine Bio.
Once the group checked in at the beautiful Orange Hill Beach Inn in a quiet part of Nassau, we plunged into the pool and broke out the mask and snorkels for some trial and error practice, gearing up for the real deal tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'm dealing with some fish here, which is perfect since that's the name of our game here. After a delicious dinner the group retreated to the veranda for some 'get to know ya' games and picked our inaugural LOD (Leader of the Day), Kaylin for tomorrow.
Well that's all for now..... We have a big day tomorrow. We fly to San Salvador and begin the awesomeness.
Stand-by
Katie Nichols and Jesse Bueckert out..
Day Two
Hello! Kaylin here, leader of the day.
To start off our exciting day, we had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel in Nassau! At 9:30 we got in the taxi and headed to the airport. After going through all the airport procedures, we had roughly an hour to kill. We played lots of games and had small talk and took pictures. FUN FUN!! The plane ride was amazing, because we saw great views. We pulled into San Salvodors "airport", and got picked up in a truck, and we rode in the back. The boys (MIles, Oliver and Joaquin) were loving the ride. On the way to Gerace we saw the wonderful beach views!
When we arrived at Gerace we unloaded in front of the dorms and headed to orientation. We grabbed some deliciuos lunch and went to find out our roomates. We got the rooms settled and we put on our swim suits. We went to the beach and had a swim test (everyone passed) and then we got 20 mins of free time! We came back and rinsed off and we headed to the picnic tables and wrote on a t-shirts, good things we want to happen on the trip & bad things we don't want. At 5:30 we headed to dinner, and it was yummy. On the way to our rooms from dinner we stopped at the iguana farm (all the girls loved them). When Alex & Ginger & I got our room we went in the bathroom and there was a tree frog. Haha, Jesse (the instructor) took it outside and all was good. At about 6:30 we can to the lab room and played over 8 games,Ninja, Ha Ha games, tag, mafia and many more! At 9 everyone was asked to go to the rooms. Caden, Sara, Abby, Teeny ran to get Katie because there was a crab in there room! Not to worry it out of the room and everyone is happy and having fun! We are having the time of our lives!!
THANKS FOR READING! Kaylin Prince :)
(P.S I LOVE YOU MOM,IM HAVING SOOO MUCH FUN)
