How can ten days go by so fast? After leaving Nashville last Monday, it felt like it took forever to finally land in Malta on Tuesday here, but since we have been here, it has gone by so fast that I feel as though we have only been here a couple of days. This was my first mission trip, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. Thursday we will leave and go back to the United States, but I will never forget this place that I have called home for a week and a half. Malta is such a wonderful place, and there is no way that anyone of us could ever be able to explain the ultimate beauty that we have taken in these past few days. It is such a small and intimate island, and all of the people have been so friendly and welcomed us in with open arms. So far with one day to go, I have taken a little over 400 pictures and I feel as though there are so many things that I have not been able to take a picture of or chose not to because there is not a way that a picture could do this place justice. We walked and stood in the same grotto that St. Paul stayed in while he was shipwrecked on Malta. That alone explains how important this little country is to our Christian background.

While we have been here, we have been to a primary school in Mosta for 3 days and worked with kids between the ages of 7 and 10. Today, we went to an all boys secondary school in Kirkop and worked with kids from the ages of 14 to 16. We have also done work in the different communities around Malta, and we had the opportunity to play with the reigning women's national champions. We have shared at each of these events, and I had the chance to share my testimony with the women's championship team. Being able to express my feelings about Christ in front of girls my age was something that I have never done before, and it helped so much for them to be able to understand the emotions that I was feeling. Listening to everybody else share their testimonies and just talk to the kids and the people of the communities, I feel as though we have formed a bond that we will always share. The guys, Keaton, Brandon, Drew, Mick, and Adam, and us girls, Haley, Rachel, Whitney, Cacy, and myself, will always have this trip to remember and look back on anytime in the future. I have enjoyed this trip so very much.

Words cannot express how much it has meant to me, and I just want to thank everybody who supported us as we made this journey to spread God's word.

I want to specifically thank my parents, sister, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins who I know have always been there for me, and I just want to say that I love you all and may God bless each and every one of you.

Tristan