Blast from the Past

I was recently tagged on Facebook by an old friend who was part of my original team to Holland during the summer of 1999. It was a 6 week trip that obviously changed many things about me and had a huge role in my decisions after that point. I will forever have fond memories of that first team and our 6 weeks of fun/fellowship and evangelism. Here's our team picture, taken in Belgium at our GEM orientation before we headed up to Holland.

Such a funny dynamic: meeting as strangers, living in close quarters (think camp), working to further the Kingdom, and becoming friends. We were quite the group - the free spirit, the surfer, the skater, the musician, the intellectual, the New York gangster, and me (not sure how I would classify myself here - maybe the preppy?). It wasn't really a group that we would have ever put together ourselves, but in the end we were a team. Several of us have stayed in touch over the last 10 years through marriages, kids, job changes and moves across countries. So many memories!