First Church
of Winsted

Serving Our Community Since 1778



California Mission Trip 2024 - DAY 2





We ate and drove all day...



Today’s report is brought to you courtesy of the youth participants (with minor editing)!


We ate and drove all day…


After a long day of travel on Saturday, we all slept like logs. In the morning, we went down to the free breakfast buffet and tried red velvet waffles. Youth played multiplayer games in the lobby. Next, we went into one of our hotel rooms and had our own church service. Redemption played a song, Alec and Cam spoke about God’s presence and grace even when things don’t go our way, and we celebrated the Lord’s Supper.





We reviewed what was going to happen during the week. After our service, we checked out of the hotel and headed to Chico. We played charades and watched part of a Marvel movie. We spent 1 ½ hours driving until we stopped at Burger King and had it “our way” by getting 1000 calorie burgers #healthcheck.


After our lunch, we trekked another 1 ½ hours to our home for the week. We checked into our home and then we learned that we had 2 bathrooms in the house while exploring. We thought we only had 1 bathroom, so it was a major relief to have 2 bathrooms for 12 of us. We had one more quick meeting and relaxed for a little. Here’s the house where 12 of us are staying. Mike was banished to the 1 room cottage across the back patio of the house.





At 3:30, we went to Costco and did our grocery shopping. Then, we came home and prepared our dinner of chicken tacos. After our delicious dinner, we went to Shubert’s Ice Cream and Candy and got ice cream. We got a variety of flavors like Turtle, Root Beer, and Peach. (Editor’s note: Here’s the group standing in front of the building next to the ice cream shop. No one seems to have gained any weight after all the eating we did today.)





Following our tasty ice cream, we drove to WinCo where we got lots of candy. Aiden hit a group record on buying the most candy weighing in at 5lbs. It’s safe to say we enjoyed our trip to WinCo very much. On our ride home, Alec was our live radio station. He sang “Party in the U.S.A” by Miley Cyrus, “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes, and “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” by Looking Glass. It was something we all enjoyed. Everyone was able to sing along to the songs they knew. We ended the night by eating candy and relaxing.


A few more notes from the Editor…


We will be meeting with Alyssa Hoffman, the head of the Tiny Pines Foundation in Oroville, at 8:30 am tomorrow morning. So, everyone has to be up at 6 (coordinating the use of the 2 bathrooms) and ready for breakfast at 6:45. We need to leave the house by 7:45 am to get to Oroville. We still don’t know if we’ll be doing construction or assisting in relief efforts tomorrow.





First Church of Winsted



95 N. Main St, Winsted, CT 06098