Soul Link Packing and Travel Info

Soul Link starts this Friday! Woohoo!

We are so excited you are able to go to the

awesomeness of Soul Link this year. It’s going to

be a great weekend. We hope you’ll be praying

between now and Friday for God to open our

hearts and help us to be open to what He wants

us to see this weekend. At the heart of this

weekend is growing closer to God and following

Him more faithfully. Even with the fun and such,

the spiritual part about Soul Link is the best part

about this weekend. Hope you’re excited.

This webpage contains travel details and packing

information. There is quite a bit of info here, so make sure you read everything carefully.

Departure on Friday:

We will meet at 5:30 at our church building to head to Soul Link. When you arrive, put your luggage in the back luggage compartment of the bus and head inside the Great Hall. We'll check-in each person once they're inside, and then we'll leave for Soul Link.

We will have supper for everyone. Sub sandwiches from Subway. If you no-likey Subway, then you are welcome to bring your own sort-of equivalent food. Now listen, don't be bringing no fancy stuff so that everyone is jealous of you while we eat our Subway. And just so you know, we'll probably be eating at food trucks at Soul Link on Saturday for lunch. Maybe pizza or Chick-fil-A Saturday night. And for breakfast in the morning, I'm making waffles. Actually, I'm not. Shrek would if he were going on our trip. But we do not like taking an Ogre to Soul Link, so he's not going. You're probably looking at some quick foods like breakfast sandwiches, cereal, oatmeal, and breakfast bars and such for breakfast. (and if you have a food allergy, let us know so we can make the right accommodations for your eatings.)

You do not need any money for food. Everything is covered in your

registration fee.

Return on Sunday:

We are planning to stay in Houston on Saturday night and go to the Soul

Link worship service on Sunday morning. The worship service starts at

10:00am. We anticipate it ending around 11:30. We plan to be back to

our church building by 1:15. We will make a snack stop on the way home

but not a lunch stop.

Things to bring:

Clothing for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Church-type clothes are needed for Sunday...but nothing too fancy.
Clothes/pajamas to sleep in on Friday and Saturday
Toiletries including soap and shampoo
Towel and washcloth
Sleeping bag and pillow. We will be sleeping in classrooms at a church, so it’s best to bring more than a sheet and a pillow. You’re welcome to bring a small foam mattress or cot or blow up mattress if you want. You'd probably enjoy life better if you brought something to sleep on.
Shower shoes or flip flops (optional)
Cards, games, etc. For the bus ride to/from Soul Link. Only if you want.
A coat, if it's going to be cold. Not sure what the weather will be like.
A camera, if you want (we will not have much access to
phones on this trip)
Kindness
Joy
An open heart (not literally, just figuratively. Please.)
A good attitude (this one is literal, ha.)

Do not bring the following:

Earbuds/earphones, tablets, portable gaming system or any
other kind of electronics except for a camera.
Anything intended to play a joke on anyone or anything illegal.
Any kind of tobacco or electronic tobacco or vaping products
Any kind of alcohol
A bad attitude
Turtle shells
Porcupine quills
Alligator teeth or feet

Cell phone information:

When students arrive to la church building on Friday, we will have envelopes for them to put their phones in. If students need their phone at any time to call parents, they are welcome to use it. Otherwise, we’ll keep the phones put away for the weekend. As always, you parents can get in touch with you by calling Monty or Heather’s phone…and students are welcome to use Monty or Heather’s phone at any time to call them. We are not trying to keep students from talking to parents, but we are trying to help all of us to be “present” with the people around us and not on social media or other apps throughout the weekend. It's crazy. Sometimes there can be a great time of worship or maybe the speaker is saying something totally amazing, but we miss it because we're playing candy crush. Or a friend sends a text and we take a moment to text them back. So, yep, for our middle school students who do have phones (and we know that's not everyone), the phones will be unattached to our hands this weekend.

A few things worthy of noting:

All of your food and expenses are covered for Soul Link. No need to bring any money...unless you want to buy a t-shirt or maybe a CD (sometimes they actually have these kinds of old fashioned things) at Soul Link. The CD's would be from United Voice Worship. They came to our church about 4 years ago and they lead worship each year at Soul Link and Winterfest. You can look them up online or on YouTube or Spotify if you're interested in who they are.

You’re welcome to bring snacks (but no snacks on the bus unless you ask)
You are welcome to bring homework to do on the bus or during a break at Soul Link, if you would like to.
There are a lot of different youth groups who come to Soul Link, and our group will stay together throughout the weekend. At all times during Soul Link, we will sit together as a group. If you have friends from other churches, or cousins, or long lost buddies, they are more than welcome to sit with our group.

We have some parent sponsors for this trip and some of our HS seniors who are going as HS leaders.
If you have not yet paid the registration fee for Soul Link, you can do that anytime. Checks and cash go into the in-wall youth box in the Youth Cafe area near the HS room doors. If you want to pay by card, let us know and we'll send you a link.

Okay, that’s a lot of info. If you read all of this and have a question, let us know. Again, we are so glad you are going to Soul Link. We’re excited about what God is going to do in each of us throughout the weekend. We ask for your prayers before, during, and after this trip.

A&M Youth