And The Winner Is...

Thank you all for a truly amazing race! The winner is the BLUE TEAM! The green team took second, and the red team was third. The race came down to the final challenge, where each team dressed up their leaders in ridiculous outfits, complete with face paint and well placed toilet paper rolls, and paraded them in front of the church. Matt, who was driving for the blue team today, won the congregational applause-vote, propelling the blue team to victory. Kristan and the red team took second place in the final challenge, but it still wasn't enough to beat out Mike and the green team for second place.

Watch over the next few days for our final posts; we'll be putting up the videos that we had technology trouble with, and pics of the final challenge (well worth seeing!).

Thanks again for all of your support. Special thanks to Candi Banghart, who worked behind the scenes to arrange our travel, organize our budget, and make this event happen! Also thanks to Orchard View Congregational Church of Muskegon, Michigan; Mike and Sheri Miller, Jennifer Gregar, Pastor Andy of Community Evangelical Church in Niles, MI; Nina and Brandon Cooper and family, Ashley Towey, Craig Wood, Andy Veith, and everyone at Lighthouse. Also, thank you to the Wiliams family and the Schettler family for letting us borrow Matt and Kristan. And Matt and Kristan, THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH for joining us and making this event possible. It is 11:43, the race just ended, and I am exhausted, so if I missed anyone, please, understand and know that I am so thankful to everyone that made this event happen. And, most of all, thank you to you, God, for allowing us to run this race so that we can better understand this faith race that we are living every day.

~Pastor Mike

GRACIAS

dear everyone who is anyone who helped out with thi race in every way. thanks schettlers and williams and millers for your mom and dads. thanks candi B. for setting up and planning a lot of this trip. thanks mama and papa miller and sister and brother miller for setting up the huge scavenger hunt, and also jennifer for the notre dame and wings ect. especially mike, and janet for being pacient with all the planning all of this.. everyone who's read our blogs and kept up with us. everyone whos prayed and been praying for months for the success of this trip. THANKSSSSSS:)

LOVE: brittany bry and karisa

Headed home to Iowa babaaay!

So right now i am currently in the van with Mikey on our way back to Coralville once again! They just couldnt get enough of us! haha jk. Now i know what you all are thinking, you probably have been balling out your eyeballs becuase you miss us so much, but please dont be sad because soon enough we will all be home. The race is almost over, sadly, but i know we are all reay to get home. We did have our tension in this race but heck what race doesn't??

OH alsoo, so a little secret will come out now...
While when we were in the sthooper niice hotel in Chicago, Bry Brittney Megan and I shared a room, and me and brit were getting ice after we went swimming, so we were in our swim suits and these boys started to chase us and it was really scary.
Later ha bry and brit and I went to play a little knock knock run on our floor and bryballs had a little dribble, if you know what i mean, because we were so scared when the person opened their door and we had to hide between the vending machine. And so uh later we went to our floor and i waited by the door while they went. the next thing i know Kristen comes out because she heard meggballs freaking out and i was like, OH SNAP! please please dont let them come yet. And no surprise they turn around the corner sprinting to our room UNTIL they saw Kristen standing right there! ahahah mwahhaahaahaa.

So i guess that is it for now. I didnt plan on writing so much random pointless stories but I was getting bored riding in this red van.

P.S. If all of our videos and pics up by the end of the race just tune in on well approx. august 11 at 4ish

Love yours truly,
Karisa!

Train's in Chicago

Today is Saturday we spent the day in Chicago we left our cars at the hotel and took public trasportation. The coolest trasportation was the trains I have never been on a train like that before. On the trains we tricked Mikayla, she was sleeping and we pretended to get off, it was so funny. we went to a place called Pacific garden mission, it was a place were homeless people went to stay, we got a tour and ate dinner it was so good. We are almost done with the race, and we are going to beat the RED, and BLUE.
Brittany Franklin

Saturday Morning Devo

“Finish Line”

Do you ever think about the finish line? Not the end of our Amazing Race this week, but the end of the big race, the end of life. Some people think this is a morbid or sad topic, and it is to some degree sad. But I wonder what you think about when you consider your own death.

An epitaph is a short paragraph, only three or four lines, that tell the story of a person’s life. Sometimes the epitaph is printed on the person’s tombstone, it’s usually also in the newspaper.

If you had to sum up your life in only a few lines, what would you want it to say? What do you want your epitaph to be? Think about it for a few minutes, then write it here:







Now take a few minutes with just you and God, and think about these questions:

1. Does the epitaph that you wrote really reflect a person who lives out the purpose God has for their life?

2. Is your life heading in a direction that will make this epitaph true about you?
-Think about what you do with your time, how you spent your summer, how you are planning on spending your school year; does it all point toward this epitaph?

3. Do you need to make some changes in your priorities so that your life can be described by this epitaph? What changes?

4. Is there anything you want to tell God right now about this subject? Talk to Him about your goals. Tell Him how you feel about death. Ask Him to show you today if there is anything in your life that needs to be adjusted so that you can live out the purpose He has for you.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious
thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting."

(Psalm 139:23-24)

chi town baby!

We are currently residing ourselves in the heart of downtown chicago. We had a huge discussion on the topic compassion, and mike challenged each of our teams to try it out so our team decided to spend the night at the rescue mission for homeless teens and adults..

nah, im just kidding but it sounded pretty sweet huh?
today we drove into chicago with green team leading riding with mike. because matt has never drivenout of the state of iowa this came as quite a shocker to him. i looked back and the expression on his face was priceless.. there's no other way to describe it but "terrified" now all was good until we were in traffic and an ambulance came and we all got seperated and matt and kristin missed our turn.. now if youve ever driven in dt chicago you know all too well that you can't just pull a u-turn in the middle of an intersection.. ahhah so abot 30 minutes later we were finally all together and we ate at a pizza place and went to the top of a viewing building where we looked out upon the beautiful chicago..

and the cool part was we had a bible study right there 95 stories in the air and we talked about what we need to stay focused on and what our distractions can be, also we had time alone to reflect and determine what we were goin to change.. now havin some good 'ol time with jesus while 95 stories in the air looking out at the sunrise on chicago can be pretty amazing and you can really see God in that.

today we were supposed to post funny videos unfortunately of course our camera doesnt upload it so once again we dont have anything..

we're gonna try again tomorrow people:) thanks for reading.

posted by:bryanna

Friday Morning Devo

“Popsicles”

There’s something innocent and beautiful about a little kid with a red popsicle on a hot summer day. They slurp and suck and lick the treat as it melts all down their chin and fingers. They are a sticky mess but they look up at you with a big cheesy grin and you can’t help but smile back.

Popsicles are a great treat in hot weather. They are made mostly of water, so they actually help to hydrate you and keep you going on a scorching day. They taste good, and they cool you down. They are refreshing.

Sometimes as we run our race we need refreshment and sustenance, something to cool us off and keep us going. Fortunately God knows this. He does not leave His followers to suffer. God opens the freezer, unwraps a treat, and hands it to us with an endearing smile.

Just like popsicles come in an assortment of flavors and colors, God’s refreshment comes in a variety of ways. Sometimes God uses people around us to refresh us. It is amazing what a word from a fellow Christian can do to lift us up when we need it! That is why we need fellowship, it is refreshing to know that we are not running this race all alone.

Sometimes God uses His Word to recharge us. The Bible is so full of life and encouragement. God reminds us of verses we have memorized right when we need to hear them. God gives us knew insight about verses we’ve read a hundred times before. God shows us new things in His Word just as things are getting stale and old. He revitalizes our energy and keeps us moving in our faith race.

God uses other ways to restore our energy, too. Sometimes His Holy Spirit just fills our hearts when we were not expecting it. Sometimes God treats us to beauty in His creation that rejuvenates our souls. Sometimes He waits until we ask Him.

Sometimes we have to put down an unhealthy treat the world has sold to us so we can free up our hands to receive the enlivening popsicle God offers us for free.

What refreshes you? Ask God to charge you for today’s race!

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

(Psalm 51:10, 12)

Beach maddness!!

So we finally had a time to upload some pictures of the beach. Please leave some comments bout our finely hand crafted sand sculptures. Now, don't get too confused now...professionals did not make these, it was just us,the green team, who crafted them..i know they look like the real thing. We actually won 100 bonus points for them being so intricate and skillful.


THIS WOULD BE MATT'S WHALE


THIS WOULD BE BRITTANY AND BRYANNA'S SEA TURTLE


THIS WOULD BE MY TURBO BOAT

once again...these are not the real thing.
by yours truly....Karisa Mosicus


UPDATED***
Lunch with Mike's family


JUST MAKING NICE WITH THE OTHER TEAM MEMBER...THIS IS ALL FUN AND GAMES

We had a wing of a day!

Today we went to an awsome wing place called Wing Exc. The wings were so good. Almost everyone took the deadly wing callenge, Karisa and Bryanna on the green team eat a total of 2 wings each. These deadly wings had a habanaro pepper sauce on them. Luckly we one the challenge because our team at more wings than anyone. As they ate the wings they had tears pooring down there face. I was to scared to try this deadly challenge because I am a big sissy wimp.
By Brittany Franklin

finally!

we got to kristins camera finaly andd so heres some random picsfrom this week. we wil explain under or above each:) again, please dont steal or copywrigt our pictures.. atleast ask for permission..