One week...

That fact is
really weird...



And sad... And exciting...
but mostly sad and weird.



I am sooooo ready for the weekend though.
I was yawning all the way back home this evening =) I'm so tired. But it's a good tired. We've been fighting hard but we are winning and we are seeing some amazing stuff happening!!!
I'm looking forward to hanging out with people though, there's been virtually no downtime. Even devotions have been rushed, but next week that should improve. Heidi explained how we were competing with room-cleaning in the mornings (http://thoughtsofheidi.blogspot.com) but that was getting a little too much with trying to fit devotions and showers and everything so they're not competing again next week, we'll still have inspections but since it's not a competition hopefully people won't get so stressed out about it.

So... There's so much to talk about, but I want to go hang out with people, and I need a shower eventually (my hair feels really strange, but more on that later) so I'll just tell you about today...

This morning we got up, ate breakfast & did devotions, tried to get into the bathroom (I waited half an hour lol) cleaned up the room, and had our morning meeting at 9, so first worship and then prayer, then normally we have small groups, this time we took half an hour off our small groups for extra quiet time, which I REALLY appreciated -- I needed it =)
Then we had 15 minutes for small group, which ended up going into half an hour, at least for my group. My group is Haines (Andrew Haines), Kramer (Andrew Williams), and Jonathan Burdick, who wasn't on the team last year for those of you who're trying to place him. Oh and me. It's a fun group, keeps us all laughing and on our toes (trying to remember what we were talking about before Krames started talking about the girl with the weedwhipper). Not to mention it's very encouraging.

Then we met briefly in the suite again, split up into site meetings, ate lunch, and left.
At our site today we got a lot of people, I didn't even know everyone's names. There's often kids who only come for part of it, which doesn't help that way =)
We had, to start with, about 6 girls and I think 3 boys or something like that. Sophia was there again, for the second time, and Bobbie was there for the first time. It was SO great to see them!!! They're two of the girls I've been writing every monthish. Cassie was the third, and I've seen her every day at supper. (She goes to site 1.) The other girl I wrote to I saw once, on the first day, but she didn't come to talk to us.
So anyway today we started with basketball, the usual (I think that's how we've started every day so far) while a bunch of us filled up water balloons. We filled up a cooler and a big bin, cuz today was special =)
Then we had snack, which Leah-beth normally makes. Today she was going to make nachos, but she forgot the chips =S BUT of course, God provided -- Mrs. Heisler just happened to have 20 chocolate muffins left over from the day before so Haines went & got them =) And we had lemonade and Sprite with it. The snacks are really nice, I think the kids like it a lot. We all sit down together and eat, and this gives a GREAT opportunity for teaching. Last year we had two guys who did it pretty much, and the kids had to sit down for it and be quiet with nothing else to occupy them... You can imagine how that went. These kids are not brought up going to church and they hate school.
I've been blown away every time by the peace and the attentiveness to the teachings, God's really been answering our prayers that way!!! Most of them weren't obviously teachings, like Jay, Lee-bee & Daniel's skit on Thursday (I guess it was Melany & Andrew's too, they narrated =D) and on I think Wednesday Andrew sang "Set Me Free" (Casting Crowns) for them and talked a bit, that was so powerful... Wow. I still get goosebumps thinking about it.
Anyway today was the first real "teaching" -- Leah-beth did it on the Path of Life & the Path of Destruction. It was definitely like a lesson, she used a whiteboard and everything, but the kids were still totally attentive. Praise the Lord!
Then... Well, it was a nice warm day... We started out with a sponge relay, to fill a pop bottle (which we won! =) ) and then we basically had an all-out water balloon/shaving cream war =)
It was awesome =) So great. Melany got some pictures, which I can't wait to see. We were all totally soaked and covered in shaving cream. Except Sophia & Lee-bee, they didn't want to get wet so they stayed in the gym, and they filled up buckets of water for us to rinse off with afterward. All the guys were dumping water on us, and my hair still feels really strange... I smell funny too.
We were maybe going to have a hotdog eating contest too, I don't even know if that happened. We were also oging to duct-tape Mosher to the wall, but we ran out of time. Maybe next week =D
So then we went to the community center for supper, which we eat all together and some of the kids come too. Supper was so stressful last year, trying to hurry up and keep the kids out... It's great now. I'm getting to know some of the younger kids too. I get to talk to Cassie lots, and I made friends with Mallory, Heidi's "best friend" =) I lost a game of basketball 4 -1 to her so now she likes me =D
Anyway that was pretty much it, we had supper and headed back. The cleaning team is back now, and we're going to McDonalds, so I should get off. Krames is bugging me to get off too.

So... Pray for:
Health (everybody's tired, and a lot of people have been on the verge of sick)(God is giving grace that way though!)
A relaxing weekend (we all want to catch up with eachother and have some downtime!)
Wisdom, Joy, and Strength for next week -- we're going to be getting into some heavy stuff teachingswise, and I really believe there are going to be lots of questions and discussions. Also personally I'm going to be singing something at some point, please pray about that becuz we already know how powerful that can be, with Set Me Free the other day... Whewwww... And I'm really excited about it. Pray that it would impact them, and that we'd pick the right song. Also the drama stuff we're doing... That can really have a huge impact. Apparently I have the main role in the next one. Pray that we'll have enough time to practice it and learn it well!

Ok I really have to go!
Lizzi