our first day off...gone to blue springs park!

today our team took a day off from ministry and training in order to relax, take in some florida sights, and build community among us. we spent the day at a nearby state park called Blue Springs; just like it sounds, this place was a natural spring of fresh water, held at a constant 72 degrees. all of us grabbed intertubes and floated down the spring. apart from the area where we swam (which i had to make VERY clear to my mom;)) we got to see some quintessentially florida things...ALLIGATORS and MANATEES!! they were really cool to see...from a distance :)

some photos of us sillly rafters...
from left to right: krista, my roommate melissa, me :)
some of the girls working VERY hard to inflate those tubes!

afterwards, we came back to the el caribe and experienced another element of the real florida...stormy weather! we've had thunder and lightning storms every day we've been here so far. i wanted to capture some lightning for you, but as you can imagine, it was pretty hard to time! check out these ominous clouds though!!
while i'm at it...the closest thing to a sunset over the atlantic that i will ever see!
tomorrow we return to the ministry field. pray for our outreach ministry...i'll be sure to report cool stories!