Alright. Since we last spoke I've been on the middle school missions trip, the Palo baptism service, the sleepover, the pool party, the sr. retreat, the Maquoketa caves, a dance party, and joined a young adult small group. Whew! And tomorrow we have a cleaning/decorating party all day and then I leave for kids camp.
The middle school missions trip. For 2 days I joined them (it went for 5 days). Day one we went to Vinton, IA where we stacked bricks on pallets for a road repair type company. There are several brick roads in the town that need major repairs after the flood last year, and the bricks can only be stacked by hand... We (the 11 middle schoolers and 3 adults) placed 250-275 bricks on each pallet and finished a total of 23 pallets. Each brick weighed around 5 lbs (we don't know exactly... and I think that's a low estimate.) Do the math. But the kids had such a great attitude about it, they were excited to get so much accomplished and wanted to do more. Day 2 we went to the home of a flood victim where we pulled a lot of weeds, cleaned stuff, moved stuff, and helped wherever we could. The 2 most memorable things from the day: pulling a rose bush, including finding all the roots deep down, and emptying jars. The rose bush was on top of a cave, which from the outside looks like a normal hill. Because of that leverage, there were several times when I was digging that I put my full weight on the shovel and my feet came completely off the ground. The kids thought it was funny and had Pastor Mark (not my mentor, but middle school Mark) take a picture of it. :) Emptying jars, the lady had about 20 or so jars with food in them that had been in her cellar for... years. Lexi (my mentor's youngest) and I got to dump these into a bucket and put them in water to be cleaned. Some of them were discernable; the tomatoes, pickles, jalapenos... some we had no idea about. The mushy, stringy stuff; one had even turned black and slightly solidified. We had to take a spoon and scoop it out. Yum. We loved every minute of it. It was awesome bonding, it was really amusing (all the screaming and grossness), and it'll be a memory we won't soon forget... ;)
The sr. retreat was also really neat. Hanging out with the outgoing and incoming seniors, seeing their love for one another, watching them serve each other, hearing their words of wisdom and affirmation, it was awesome and inspiring. I'm learning so much from this summer and getting so many ideas... this is definitely one to hang on to if I do go this route.
Yesterday we went to the Maquoketa Caves. I fell down. A lot. I got dirtier than I probably ever have been in my life (including Mexico... ) I walked through a foot and a half of mud, I crawled through a foot and a half of space, I was clausterphobic, I was scared, I was tired. It was awesome!! :)
I'm exhausted and it's only gonna get worse in the next week. But the end is near, then I'll be able to sleep. And clean my room. It'll be so good. :)
All in all, things are great. I'm loving the relationships I'm building day-by-day and I can't wait to see what God has in store for me in the next 4 months. It's been a wild ride so far, but in a good way. :)
That's really about all I have, and I'm not good at ending stuff. So bye.
:) :) :) :) <---- in case there weren't enough in rest of this blog. :)
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