Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set the example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. I Timothy 4:12
Nov. 1, 2009
Finishing The Started
(Written 10/31/09)
Well, gotta finish that presentation ‘cause we have another one tonight and then they’ll all run together. The lineup – which, incredibly, we had a few weeks beforehand and which everyone was to have memorized – was There is a God, End, Via, Courtroom, Heal Our Land. For There is a God it was just Jo, Alex, Charleton, Maria, Emily V, Moriah and John. Same for Via except plus me.
So they presented There is while Sadie and I tried to keep the rest of the team quiet “backstage.” Kyle knocked something off a desk, which made a big racket, and Jorge came out and gave him the eyebrow. Then we went on for End.
Tess placed me as a second stewardess in End because we needed someone to set the aisle, so I stand center stage and direct people to their seats and also set the aisle. In theory. It didn’t work real well at the presentation, though. Other than that and staging issues (we were too closed to the audience, not to mention too close to the audience) that song went well.
Via was weird and intense. I don’t think I’ve ever put that much into the Mary part, and Jo and Charleton had whipping issues ‘cause everyone was at tables and they were going to whip up but Charleton tied him down and then Jo swung the wrong way… it was kind of a mess. And we were too close to the audience. But no major catastrophes.
The jury had staging issues in Courtroom and we had signing issues but otherwise it was good. MAJOR signing issues in Heal Our Land… most of the newer kids were pretty clueless, and they didn’t see Tess in the back mirroring the sign language, so we need to work on that. Accordingly, we pulled more songs from the entire team’s repertoire so we can focus down on the few songs we have. They’ll learn more songs at the Christmas training.
All in all it was a very good presentation and very well received. Everyone there was excited to have us come back on Halloween night, which we did last night, which I’ll write more about… later. :) But when I do write about it, I’ll have pictures, thanks to Ms. Sharon!
Not, of course, that it was my first. However, it was the first for FIVE of the kids on our team, so it was pretty exciting! We presented in Kimberling City, at First Baptist’s “Young at Heart” event. We did it last year but apparently I didn’t write anything about it; I just posted a couple of pictures. Well, didn’t take any pictures this year (been kind of lax in that department lately) but have lots of memories so I’ll write those. They’re better than pictures. I think.
So when we got to the church the only people there were Alex and Maria, and they quickly left because they said Charleton was waiting over at a McDonald’s in Branson West (I guess he lives up that way) and they didn’t want him to be sitting there for an hour by himself. So they went over there to accompany him. We had brought John and Moriah with us so we stood around and looked at each other until the Voths and Duncans got there. Emily D wanted me to twist her hair and I’d gotten down to the bun before I realized there was no point my twisting it because she wasn’t presenting and I wasn’t that good anyway so I just took it out. Go figure. She had Tess do it later at the presentation place. Tess can do anybody’s hair and make it look good. So can Jenny. I can’t.
So when we realized we had a while to wait till Tess got there with the white van (yes, our old standby friend), we went through There is a God ‘cause John and Moriah were taking Sadie and Ellie’s parts in that song. That went fine but glad we went over it. Sadie and I grabbed props – which were the same ones that they used on Saturday and still stunk – and when Tess got there we loaded up and left relatively quickly.
Gabriel and I had the most interesting conversations on the way to Kimberling City. It was about forty-five minutes total travel time so we had a lot of time to talk. He was telling me about dinosaurs and that he played baseball. Lily was ducking down every time a car drove past because she didn’t want them to see her and eventually Nicky joined in (there was nothing else to do). She and Gabriel also took to calling me a “jumpamen” – Gabriel’s version of “gentleman.” Kyle was sitting in the back with the amp on his lap. He named her Abigail. Beware of Abigail the amp. That’s all I’ll say.
We picked up Maria, Alex and Charleton at the McDonalds, drove past our destination on accident just like last year, turned around in the same parking lot, and arrived only seven minutes late (not bad at all, considering all the issues Tess had with the van before she got there). Tess went off to figure out what was going on as always and directed me to start twisting hair. I recruited Emily V’s help and we tackled the four girls’ hair. The moms watched closely and caught on pretty fast! I was really impressed. I just love Amanda’s hair, by the way. So beautiful… so easy to twist. =)
After everyone was twisted we got some food – just a little ‘cause they weren’t expecting so many of us – scarfed it, and then crammed into the bathrooms to put on makeup. You should have seen the girls’ bathroom with ten girls in it trying to put their makeup on and three or four other people standing around watching or helping. It was a zoo. I felt bad for the few women who ventured in there to use the restroom for its intended purpose. I think we made it pretty difficult.
I only helped other people put makeup on instead of doing my face, because Jo and I were supposed to teach some technique to the audience. The lady who booked us wanted us to teach some technique-y things the attendees could learn sitting down and then show to their grandchildren or something, as a conversation starter for witnessing or something. So Jo and I were going to teach that but we ended up not doing it because Tess knew how to do it and we didn’t. So she taught and held the microphone and Jo and I demonstrated. It was fun. She taught toc, leaf, butterfly, ball, and balloon. I killed my butterfly and they all thought that was funny. Jo pitched a ball at me (we were playing catch) and I ducked and they all thought that was funny. They thought most of what we did was funny and definitely made it fun to teach.
Then Jo and I tore out of there and banged open the doors to the bathrooms and smeared on our makeup. The team was watching as we rushed in. I’m sure they were laughing at us… oh well. I wasn’t keeping time but I’d say three minutes is a pretty accurate estimation for how long it took. (to be continued... man, I've written a page and a half and haven't gotten to the actual presentation yet)
This blog has been in the back of my mind for a long time. We’ll see how far I get on it now.
I think I can safely say that the past five weeks have been the toughest of my days as a SALTeam member. I guess I’ve been SALT for about two and a half years. So much has changed since I started… there’ve been a lot of tough times. But this has been the toughest.
All the other times, when mission trips went out, they’d take a couple of our SALT members, and one time they took three – Amber, Ben, and Kristina – but I wasn’t on the SALTeam then and even if I had been, I would have had Katie. When Katie went on mission trips there was always Melissa. When Courtney was gone on the CAMT Melissa was still there.
When Courtney, Amber and Madison go on the ECMT, Melissa is gone working and Katie is in college, guess who’s still there? NOBODY.
You may or may not recall the struggles I was going through about a year ago when the first wave of new people hit our team. We’d been basically the same team – Jarek, Madison, John, Melissa, Jacob, me and Jo – for over a year, with a few additions at different times (Jonathan, Missy and Simone). We’d all been anticipating what it would be like to open up and accept new members. It was really rough. We knew it’d be rough. We knew we had to open up. We knew all that… but it was still rough.
In those months I often longed for “the old days…” way back when, when a presentation consisted of eight people who knew the songs and each other like the back of their hand. Way back when, when our Bible studies were deep and challenging and intimate. I often felt guilty about these reminisces because I knew I was supposed to be content with where I was at. However, I couldn’t help looking back at those months with longing.
It was only a couple weeks ago that God showed me: there WAS a purpose to those months, and there WAS a purpose to now – to being here relatively alone with a lot of responsibilities.
What was it that I missed so much about those months? It was the intimacy of the team. We knew each other. We weren’t afraid to share our struggles and challenges with each other. Many tears were shed in the Bible studies… ‘cause it didn’t matter. We could be vulnerable with each other.
It was the depth of the team. One summer we wrote a Bible study. Just the five of us girls wrote a… I don’t know, ten page Bible study on “Stand!” The Bible studies were relevant and challenging. Tess pushed us. We didn’t talk in makeup – it just didn’t happen. We toced. We practiced. We had passion contests. Our presentations were sharp. Why? Not because we on our own were great, but because we as a team were great.
It was the ability of the team. I’ll never get over the thrill of Response Team presentations thrown together on the spur of the moment with no practice. I remember one time we presented One Time Show at Branson Fest and Tess had to take all of Jacob’s parts because he was gone. She couldn’t find Katie, our audience plant. It was wild, but it was awesome.
It was the hard times we went through together and how we came out stronger and closer. One spring I sprained my ankle at a service project the day before a long presentation in Springfield. Tess took my parts but the ankle didn’t fully heal till a month later (‘cause we had a bunch of presentations). We presented at YCW two weeks after the sprain and I hobbled through Silver Dollar City to get to the Saloon, leaning on Melissa. One time we presented in the rain… and I don’t mean just drizzle. DRENCHING rain. That was one of our best presentations ever. One time we presented in a parking lot with an audience of about seven to try to draw people to a fundraiser for an African ministry. In Spirit, Jacob couldn’t get the crown and the boa apart so he gave them both to Jarek. It was a catastrophic presentation! Hence, we grew closer and learned from it.
One of the hardest times was in summer ’07 – half of the team dropped out. Suddenly. Those of us that remained were left looking at each other… but we didn’t stay there. We picked up the pieces and moved on.
Innumerable memories. Birthday parties. Golfing with Melissa and the team at one of the most pathetic courses in Branson. Sneaking away at the end of practice across slippery roads to Melissa’s church to practice the song we were putting together as a Christmas present for the Rolfs and Madrigals. Celebratin’ Jesus in the Adoration Parade. Those blankety-blank present costumes and trying to move in them. Covering them with contact paper before the parade. Jorge running back to the church to get yet another prop I’d forgotten. Girls’ night at my house with Tess’ Bible study and oatmeal illustration with too much salt that she made us taste.
It was good. It was a good time. But it’s over now. So a couple of weeks ago I was talking with God about all that time and how much easier things were then and how much I liked it then, blah blah blah. And He basically stopped me and said, “that time is over.” And I basically looked at him and said, “duh, God. I know.” And He told me that I didn’t know as much as I thought I did and if I really knew I wouldn’t be griping to Him.
On Mondays I have School of the Bible in Springfield from 6:30 – 8:30 PM (a time commitment from 5:45 to 9:30).
On Tuesdays I babysit from 9 – 5 (roughly; it changes).
On Wednesdays I have piano lessons in the morning, church in the evening, and sometimes errands before church.
On Thursdays I have AIM from roughly 11:30 to 5:30.
On Fridays I have nothing.
On Saturdays I have nothing but school.
On Sundays I have church in the morning and group at night.
The only time commitment that’s going to change in the foreseeable future is that School of the Bible will be over in a month or so… so I’d better get used to this schedule.
I’ve been doing it for a month now; you’d think I’d be used to it by now. Alas, I’ve yet to become accustomed to this whirlwind life. I know I keep talking about it, but this IS my blog, and what’s going on in my life right now is… well, life. So that’s why I’m talking about it.
Tomorrow I’m going to take the ACT and be done with it. That’ll be nice. I’m moving along quickly in physics and though it takes me a while to get the concepts; once I get them I tend to do pretty well on the tests. I’m on module 8… halfway done!
Cleaned a lodge with Ms. Kelly and another lady last Saturday. The place was HUGE – it housed 30 people – and it had 6 ½ bathrooms. I cleaned them all, plus some other random work. The bathrooms took the bulk of my time. Look it up – it’s breathtaking. The Rusty Moose Lodge in Branson West.
We had practice yesterday. Our team’s first presentation is tomorrow – I’ll miss it – but it doesn’t really count because none of the new team members are going to be there. The first one with everyone will be this coming Monday. Anyway, all that meant that we had a LOT to cover and polish and prep this practice. Ryan showed up to help, which was super nice. Jo and I kept asking him to clean up various parts. It was almost like having three SALT people (man, what a novel thought). Eight days till the MT gets home…
The review Bible study went really well. I was definitely pleased that the girls seemed to have learned something and it was really encouraging to see that the Word was changing us. The guys study must have gone well, too – they spent the whole hour and a half on it. Bummer for discipleship time but good for Bible study. We only spent half an hour on the Bible study – the girls aren’t real verbose – and half an hour on discipleship. The other half hour we played Ducky Wucky. I’ll never let Tess spin me in that game ever again. When I went to find someone to sit on, all the chairs were empty. I stripped off my blindfold and found that Tess had told all the girls to leave the room while she was spinning me. They were all giggling at me and I immediately attacked Tess. It was fun.
Practice went pretty well. We really polished End of the Beginning and then realized that we didn’t have time to polish the other songs like that so the rest of them we kinda flew through. We threw together Via Dolorosa with Alex, Maria, Charleton, Emily, Sadie, John, Moriah, Jo and I. It was super interesting since Alex, Maria and Charleton didn’t know it at all and Alex and Charleton had to do the guard parts. Ryan marched with them and tried to explain the song while telling them what to do while Jo asked if someone was going to put the crown of thorns on while I tried to tell Maria what was going on and do the Mary part at the same time. It was maddeningly hilarious.
We also threw together There is a God with a similar bunch but without me since I won’t be at the presentation tomorrow. Virtuoso was super easy except for we just picked places in the circle and they weren’t exactly right. Oh, well – we’ll work on that next week. I am TERRIBLE at the zoned out part in that song. I’ve got to get someone else to do it.
Then we did the patriotic stuff. Gotta go to bed. Hope to write more soon. Getting tired of this “weekly blog post” thing.
It’s only sixteen days until the mission trip gets back.
It’s only eight days until the ACT test.
It’s only ten days until our team’s first presentation.
It’s only two days until we have group (and the Madrigals will be there!).
It’s only four days until I get my mid-term score from School of the Bible.
All those things are exciting. But there are no days between me and the life God has given me to enjoy and use to glorify Him, and I’m trying to learn to seize those opportunities.
For the past few days I’ve been sick, which has forced me to slow from my break-neck pace and try to give my body a break. Instead of thanking me, it’s begging for more. Unfortunately, it’s not going to get that for a while, so it’d better take what it can get.
Clearly time (or energy) has been lax, as it has been almost two weeks since I’ve made a proper blog entry. For that I apologize. I frequently come up with things I want to say but the time in which to say them is what is lacking. I still have a blog in the back of my mind about past years with AIM that I want to write, so maybe sometime I’ll write that. I think it’d be fun. For now, though, I’ll attempt to write about what’s been going on.
I took the SAT test on Saturday. If I was running things, those tests would be formatted differently – I mean really, how much can one DO in a five-minute break? Anyway, I felt like I did pretty good over all and the essay went smoothly, so that’s good. I’m hoping for at LEAST a 1300. Been looking at colleges recently (finally) and 1300 is high enough for most of the big scholarships. That’s another news-worthy “thing” – now that I have to tell ACT and SAT which colleges to send my scores to, I have to figure out what colleges I’m considering. The process isn’t as daunting as it seems once one finally gets into it. I sure wish Katie were here, though. It’d be SO much easier with her. It has been nice to go through all of her college stuff – neatly filed – because it means I don’t have to neatly file stuff. =)
My SALT responsibilities in the absence of my three co-SALT-girls seem to be increasing, but I’m learning how to better handle them. So long as I space them out throughout the week and don’t try to do them all on Thursday morning, I can survive. It’s the calling the girls every week that takes the most time but I think it’s really important, so I’m going to keep trying to do that. Aside from that, I’ve been making up Bible study sheets, preparing “get to know you” games every week for the girls, sending out the announcements, handling birthdays (sort of), managing shirts, managing props, and co-leading the practices with Josiah. Now I know why we have four girls on the SALTeam.
I’ve figured out that in the roughly thirty weeks of school I have remaining (I blacked out Veteran’s Week and two weeks at Christmas), I have nine modules of science, 10 weeks of Chinese, 13 weeks of Sonlight, and 30 weeks of geography left to do. The science shouldn’t be a problem because I just figured out that even if I spend three weeks on each module (I’ve been doing a module a week) I’ll be able to get it done on time. So that’s a relief. Chinese is a breeze; I have another research paper in Sonlight but it’s still not bad. Geography is fun; I don’t mind doubling up on that. Actually, piano is what stresses me the most and it’s not even on that list. This is my last year and Mrs. Walker wants to make a big deal of it at the recital next year so I’m trying to practice hard. Plus Mom and I are intensely competing. =D
The other things that consume my time (I already mentioned the top two: school and AIM) are babysitting for Ms. Ginger – all day Tuesday – group – Sunday nights – School of the Bible – Monday nights – and maybe cleaning for Ms. Kelly. I’m going to be cleaning for her tomorrow and we’ll see if she has more jobs for me after that. It’ll be way harder and less fun than babysitting but it definitely pays better. So I guess there’s an exchange there.
Melissa and I went clothes shopping today. Definitely not my favorite thing to do (spending money), but my jeans were falling apart and I also was looking for long-sleeved shirts. We struck out at Vanity Fair but I found some jeans and a jean jacket at TJ Maxx and she found a top that she liked too. Also went to Rue21 (I decidedly don’t like that store) but Mom is kinda iffy about the couple of shirts I got there so not sure if I’ll keep them. At least they were only three bucks each.
Courtney and I have been diligently exchanging letters – I’ve sent her three and received two – and we get periodic email updates from Ms. Sue, so I’ve been feeling pretty connected. I pray for them *almost* every day and am really excited by the reports they’re sending back. I know they’re having a great time, learning a lot, and making a difference – but I’ll be SO glad when they’re home. For more reasons than one.
I am learning a LOT during this time, because since people like Courtney and Katie aren't here for me to depend on, God and I have been spending a lot more time together. Finished reading Psalm 119 today. I went outside on the porch and read it aloud as a prayer to God. It was pretty cool and He taught me some cool stuff. Maybe I should do that more often.
If you don't care about baseball, feel free to skip this post. I'm venting my fanatical devotion to the Cardinals and then you won't hear anything else about it till March.
It was a pathetic way to end a pathetic post-season attempt. When Rick Ankiel struck out to end the ninth inning, the St. Louis Cardinals were eliminated from post-season play. I have to admit that while I had high hopes that the Cardinals and the Red Sox would face off in the World Series - I have high hopes about everything, regardless of practicality - after how we performed in the past two games I am disappointed but not surprised to see us fall for a third time in a row.
I've been following the Cardinals very closely this season, as anyone who knows me well could tell you. To say their offense has been stagnant would be an understatement. To say it's been grossly inadequate might come close to the truth. It's really quite sad... at least two of the games we lost, Dad's team (the Red Sox) would have won - we lacked run support. We ALWAYS lack run support. *sigh*
Admittedly, I can't say that our defeat was due only to our deficient offense (which can definitely be partially attributed to Albert Pujols' month-long slump). Chris Carpenter, one of STL's two aces and my personal favorite pitcher, was definitely not at his sharpest during game one. Why is it that the only time I can watch him on TV he pitches poorly? Mom says it's because the cameras make him nervous, but somehow I'm not sure that's it. Adam Wainwright was brilliant in game two - three hits, one run, no walks over eight innings - and definitely should have got a win. He was denied that pleasure by Ryan Franklin's less-than-stellar pitching and Matt Holliday's fielding bloop that cost us a run. Franklin did redeem himself tonight, tossing a scoreless inning, and the fans gave Matt Holliday a standing ovation his first at-bat, demonstrating that they weren't going to reject him even though he'd committed an error at just about the worst possible time. Pinero was average tonight but worse than he usually is, and - as is the case all year - didn't get any encouragement from the offense.
So... sorry, Cardinals. I guess we just didn't have quite enough this time. Better luck next year. In the meantime, the next-best matchup for the World Series is the Red Sox and the Phillies - de ja vu - and it's Boston's turn to win this time. So you can bet that tomorrow I'll be rooting for the Sox to win. It'd be kinda sad for neither of the teams I care about to make it to the championship.
So back to a lot of AIM stuff that we did but I never wrote about.
We had THREE response team presentations in the space of a week and a half. Kinda nutso, but it was definitely fun. The first one was for a 9/11 memorial behind the Grand Palace. The guy called MY cell phone on Tuesday (9/11 was on a Friday) and left a message asking if we’d be available to do a song for their memorial at 7:30 in the morning (or some time like that). I called Tess and let her know about it, and hoped she’d deal with it. I also secretly hoped that I wouldn’t have to do it, because it was on my off day and I was still exhausted from the combination of schoolwork and Family Camp (in case you were wondering, those two don’t mix real well).
It ended up that I had to do the presentation. We practiced for it on Thursday after practice and the team consisted of me, John, Moriah, Jarek, Courtney, Emily, Rachel, Amber, Ryan, and Jo. The song we did was Always Been (with the small banner). We threw it together in a couple of runthroughs. I grabbed props as we left.
Got there the next morning (a bit late) with John and Moriah and realized that we didn’t have the network signs. *sigh* Jorge to the rescue again. He took off back to the church to get those for us and ended up getting a larger flag too ‘cause Tess said the one we had was too small – child coffin sized. =) We stood around for almost an hour before we went onstage, but the presentation went impeccably. I feel that we pulled it off really well and it was a blessing to the people that were there. I’ve been to so many 9/11 memorials it’s easy to get callous to their importance, but the way this presentation went off was humbling (that sentence didn’t make any sense, but I know what I mean). This was humbling too:
So it was worth it to get up so early in the morning on an off day and stand around for a while.
The second Response Team presentation was even more fun. We met at noon at the church in full costume to get ready for a 30-minute veterans’ set at the Radisson (we did this in 2007). As I recall, the team was… Jo, me, Alex, Maria, Jarek, John, Moriah, Amber, Courtney, Emily and Rachel. We did America the Beautiful, Honor, Always Been, America Again and God Bless. Guess who was a Founding Father in America Again? That’s right, Master John Lilly himself. What a guy. I was really proud of him – he deserves it after so long.
So it was INSANE trying to throw together all those songs in the amount of time that we had. We weren’t really ready when we left (when are we EVER ready) but oh, well. Had a fun drive over – as those Branson-ites that have been there before know, the Radisson parking lot is impossible to navigate and nearly as difficult for mimes to locate each other. Amber and Courtney were telling me that they saw mimes “that way!” and “I think I saw Tess!” so I was going in circles around the whole parking lot, admittedly disoriented, and Jorge was following me. Poor guy. He’d have done better to trust his own navigational skills. I guess you’d have to have been there.
When we got there Jarek was standing in the middle of the parking lot looking for us (he’d gone with Tess, who of course was already inside) and waving at us to hurry. When we got down there he hissed, “They’re ready for us NOW!” so Courtney and I tore through the props and passed them out to everyone while people scrambled to find vests and get them on forwards. We stood waiting until Tess introduced us, then walked on and set props. Same stage as last time – on the floor, with everyone sitting at lots of tables. And we were presenting to military wives (a fact I didn’t know until I realized that there were only two or three men in the audience). Interesting.
Generally speaking, the presentation went off really well. There were a couple of whisperings onstage about what song was next, and Courtney and I had a couple of conversations in double zero relating to both our being too close to the audience (I think we were freaking them out) and how Tess said to hold the flag.
It was super fun to do Honor. I hadn’t done it since Veteran’s Week last year (due to some ministry concerns about the character of the artist, Ray Boltz). Jo got to do the Jeremiah Denton part (which he’d never done before) and Alex got to be one of the guards (ditto). I think both of them did really well.
America Again has got to be one of my favorite songs to present, and it came off really strong. Very proud of John and had a lot of fun with that song making up the gun poses almost ONSTAGE. God Bless got a standing ovation and applause during the middle of the song (once they realized which song it was). When we left they asked us to come back the next day to present for the military husbands and we were trying to pull together a team (which inevitably would have included Jorge and Tess) but then that presentation fell through. Sad day. It was going to be fun.
And the moon is a sliver of silver
Like a shaving that fell on the floor of a Carpenter's shop
Every house must have its builder
and I awoke in the house of God
Where the windows are mornings and evenings
Stretched from the sun across the sky north to south
On my way to early meeting
I heard the rocks crying out
I heard the rocks crying out:
Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green to fill these fields with praise
And the wrens have returned from their nesting and they're nesting
In the hollow of that oak where his heart once had been
He lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again
And the streams are all swollen with winter
Winter unfrozen and free to run away now
and I'm amazed and I remember
Who it was that built this house
And with the rocks I cry out
Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green to fill these fields with praise
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Tonight Dad asked me what I was going to do and I told him I didn’t know. I asked him if there was anything in particular he WANTED me to do and he said, “Enjoy life.” He is a perceptive man, my father. So I got to thinking about it: DO I enjoy life?
Things I enjoy about life – in no particular order
- AIM: service projects, practices, SALTeam meetings, discipleship, presentations… heck, I love everything about AIM.
- Group on Sunday nights. Granted, I’ve not been enjoying it near as much lately since the girls are on the mission trip. However, it’s still nice to take a breather from a long week and hang out with cool people.
- Preparing for the ACT and SAT coming up in October. Strange person that I am, I’ve been greatly enjoying taking the practice tests and I feel like I’ll do pretty well.
- Playing the piano.
- Watching the Cardinals.
- Monday night School of the Bible with Dad up in Springfield. Although this takes a big chunk of what used to be one of my few days at home, I’m still learning a lot and really enjoying the refreshing I get up there.
- Talking with Lori Ann.
- Talking with Katie.
- Mornings and evenings with God outside in the dewy grass.
Things I do not enjoy about life – also in no particular order
- Babysitting at Ms. Gingers’ every Tuesday. This may sound strange, and maybe I’d enjoy it if I didn’t have to do school while I’m there. However, babysitting on a school day just adds more stress to my schedule and makes it hard for me to have fun with the kids I’m babysitting.
- When AIM takes over my life.
- The stress from the fact that I have two big tests (ACT/SAT) coming up.
- The stress from not knowing what I’m doing with my life.
- The stress from having too much to do in the 168 hours in my week. Mom, Dad and I made a chart of everything I spend time on, from sleeping to work to school to AIM, and it ended up that I have 13 hours in my week that are not already designated for some activity. This is not much margin. This is wearing me out.
- The stress from being the only female SALTeam member and one of only two SALT for a team with five new, younger members.
- Long nights that are too short with too many nightmares.
So seems that I’m pretty balanced. I think I need to find more things to enjoy about life; either that or try to get rid of some of the things that I don’t enjoy. I want to enjoy life. Living like this is exhausting. I’m an extremely optimistic person by nature so I find a lot of things to enjoy. However, I’m willing to admit that the four stresses mentioned above (especially the last three) are really wearing on me. Kinda like how wind cuts rock? It takes a looooooooooong time but eventually it crumbles. I’m not going to crumble – I’m determined – but something’s going to have to change.
It was a good day. Not a great day - those days are saved for all-day AIM events or something when Katie's home - but a good day nonetheless. Did Chinese before breakfast then after piano tackled science. Had the review questions and practice problems - we use Jay Wile's science curriculum - and then the module test. Spent two hours on physics this morning. Kinda crazy, but I got through it all. Checked the test this evening before I graded it and it was a good thing too because in a couple of my answers I'd used the acceleration due to gravity value in meters instead of feet and had my units all crossed. Glad I fixed those before the test was graded.
So did that and geography, then lunch (with fresh bread... yumyummy!). Did a writing assignment - it was one of those where you have to write a story using specific words, and it was fun - swept my room and bathroom, then got ready to leave.
AIM had a service project pop up last week - apparently the Salvation Army's been hit hard by the recent economic "crisis" and so they held a fundraiser down at the Landing today. Some local business had donated the use of their blowups and they had a bounce house, a slide, and a big obstacle-course type dealie mabober set up down there. The charge was $1 or $2 per kid and after you paid you could ride all day. They also had kettles set up down there.
Anyway, we'd announced it on Thursday and it went out in the announcements, but when Andrew and I got there at 2:15 (we'd said in the announcements it went from 12-9, although they actually ended up starting earlier), nobody was there. We expected to see Jorge for sure, and a lot more team members... but nobody was there. It took us a while to find anybody we knew but eventually I spotted Captain Jody. Andrew didn't even know Captain Key had moved to STL! :) I guess there's really no way for him to know.
We were given aprons and bells and set to work. Now, I like bell ringing. I think it's fun to ring the bell in different ways, watch people walk by and think about what their lives may be like. Plus I love smiling, which I can do for extended intervals without getting tired of it. Plus it was a beautiful day. Plus we were right by the fountain so we could sit down AND cool off. :) So anyway, it was a good setup. We rang for about an hour. During the course of this hour we noticed Ryan and Ms. Mildred across the way manning the largest blowup. We waved, glad to that we weren't the only people there. Turns out they'd been there since SEVEN setting up, and Andrew said that Ms. Mildred said that they wouldn't be leaving till ten-ish. Yipes. Also during the course of that hour we saw the Halls from church and that made me smile. Several people told me I was having too much fun bell ringing. I guess they expect me to be glum and bored.
After about an hour Ms. Mildred waved me over there and said she'd been standing since ten o'clock and could we possibly switch places. I was a bit reluctant to leave my bell, but I agreed and Andrew and I hung out at the big blowup for the next two hours. You'd have to have been there to understand what it was like. I took pictures, though...
So this is the view from where Ryan was perched for the first bit. The kids climbed up this wall and slid down a slide, seen in the next picture.
Funfunfun. I had a lot of kids trying to slide down the blue center divider. Oh yeah. So after a while Ryan slid down and asked me if I wanted to go up there for a bit. Of course I did. You kidding?
It was so much fun! I got to know the kids, 'cause they'd come through ten or fifteen times in a row. I'd ask their names and ages (varying widely from three to ten) and eventually after the eighth time or so they'd start talking to me. One girl told me that her grandma was named "Tina and my grandpa's name is... ... Grandpa!" and then she took off down the slide. :) So cute. I had SO much fun with the kids. Had to help some really little ones up the wall. Told the more feisty ones to quit crawling over the dividers. Shouted encouragement. Yelled enthusiastically during the sibling race. My heaven's going to have a bunch of little kids in it.
This picture is from when we had a bit of a down time and Ryan challenged Andrew to a race. You might notice this is only a picture of Andrew - that's 'cause Ryan had already disappeared down the slide. His record's 18 seconds, which is really impressive. Andrew and I raced once too and I beat him - but only by a very little bit. I think I would have been faster if I'd taken off my SA apron.
So anyway it was a most fun afternoon and then we went to Wally World and then came home and had Senegalese Peanut Sauce. I double checked my science test and then graded it. 15/18. Not terrible. It was worse before Mom and I went through it. She's a lenient grader.
So life is good and God is good but I really ought to go to bed. I need to keep remembering these two things:
1. I have grace for anything and am enough for anything through Him who gives me strength.
2. BE JOYFUL ALWAYS!!
The outside of the Salvation Army church is impressive. Built on a steep incline, the proud white walls and majestic pointed roof rise past the street level, eager to welcome any wanderer or wonderer. The double glass doors on the top level open into a foyer area, freshly tiled with large golden brown tiles. Hallways shoot off to the right and left but one’s attention is immediately drawn to the imposing sanctuary. Sound bounces off the high vaulted ceiling and the room is heavily trimmed with dark wood accent. Matching dark wood pews radiate out across the whole room and stop abruptly at the stage, on which rests a black shiny grand piano, a solid wood pulpit and a bright, well-polished drum set. Truly this is a place of solemn worship to God, a place in which all distractions have been cast aside and the surroundings prepared in a way to honor His presence.
The double metal doors on the bottom level open into a large fellowship hall. The floor is covered with dirty white tile. To the immediate left is a large industrial kitchen, complete with huge sinks, an industrial dishwasher, and a disposal that doesn’t work. The oven has eight burners and the flames are always lit, giving the kitchen an oily smell. The huge walk-in freezer is filled with random donated food from various businesses in town and the frozen food is stacked on metal racks up to the ceiling. Three girls are busily washing dishes, sweeping the kitchen floor, and laughing merrily.
Past the kitchen, two boys are in the hall fighting over the mop bucket in front of the two bathrooms. A girl pushes open the heavy wooden door of the ladies’ room and asks for Windex. In the janitor’s closet – sized more like a bedroom – two girls busily fold various pieces of cloth and pack them away in boxes. One corner of the room is adorned with boxes of toilet paper and paper towels; another corner houses a sturdy metal shelf filled with boxes and duffel bags. The room is a mess; dingy white gloves are scattered across the floor, cleaning supplies are scattered across the two tables in the room, and various papers are lying crumpled in every corner. Is this the same building that houses a reverent sanctuary on the floor above?
Although there is cleaning going on elsewhere, most of the action is happening in the big fellowship hall. Boys are stacking metal folding chairs up on top of the several folding tables. Others are gathering Bibles, notebooks, shirts, and other various objects and placing them on a table at the back, next to a table made for heating and serving food. One small boy is running back and forth from the industrial sized trashcans to the large dumpster in the back with big black bags of trash. Talk and laughter is buzzing around the room and in the middle of it all the caretaker of the building stands smiling.
He is a sturdy man; his body is well-toned from years of hard labor. His darker skin and heavy accent belie his Costa Rican ancestry. He’s dressed in well-worn jeans and a loose button-up shirt, and looks comfortable in the much-used work clothes. His big, muscular hands are strong enough to do heavy manual labor but gentle enough to caress his one-year old son – there is more to this man than first appears. His four children love him to pieces because even when he disciplines them they know he does it out of love. It is rare to see him angry.
When he smiles he lights up the room with his grin; his laugh is engaging and makes people smile. He’s an honest man; puts on no airs around anyone and is comfortable to just be who he is. His genuine nature draws the hurting, and he welcomes them with Christ’s love. He encourages everyone, no matter how they’re doing, and sees the best in every person. Yes, this is more than just a caretaker or a janitor. Just as there is more to the church than its impressive building, there is more to this man than his exterior. Hidden deep inside is a heart for God and a love for people, and this heart is clearly reflected in everything he does.
There should be more to our churches than their buildings; people should be drawn by more than breath-taking stained-glass windows or harmonious choirs. We are called to be reflections of Christ, and if people truly saw this reflection in us, they might not just come to church occasionally.
They might just come to stay.
Mom and Dad left Friday morning for their 22nd anniversary weekend, and they'll be back this afternoon. A lot has happened in their absence and I have been the "parent" as it were for these two-ish days.
Spent a lot of Friday on the phone with Jorge trying to figure out details for Saturday's presentation, and calling people to give them info. Then that evening at six Jorge came over for dinner (Kristi and the kids are in CA). The boys helped me straighten up the first floor (one of them under protest) and we had Creamy Italian Chicken and salad. I learned something new - Jorge really likes Italian food. Score one for the good guys. Andrew and John had made brownies that afternoon and we had them for dessert, plus more later. We had a great dinner full of interesting conversation and Jorge was always laughing. It felt good to see him laugh 'cause I know he's always under a lot of stress.
I've tried explaining the evening we had but there really isn't any way to accurately paint the great time we had. We played Frisbee Golf - Jorge says he's never played but he was almost as good as Dad. He won almost every "hole." Andrew threw some into the highway. I tried to learn how to jump and throw to give it more "oomph" but just succeeded in making Jorge laugh at me.
We went inside to the playroom, opened the garage door (immediately drawing a huge swarm of those little bugs that hang around the lights), and commenced a hearty game of pool. With ice cream. I'd told Jorge he didn't need to bring anything, but he brought two tubs of ice cream - mint chocolate chip and chocolate chip - so we enjoyed that while we played. Jorge and Andrew were on one team (Jo and I figured this would be good for Andrew, and Andrew just ADORES Jorge) and Jo and I on the other. We won once and Jorge's team won once, although neither games were strictly fair on Jorge's interference. If someone shot at a ball and almost got it in the pocket, he'd reach out and push it in. Exclamations of "Jorge!" never did anything; he'd just respond with, "wha-a-at?" and we'd all laugh and keep playing.
By this time it was only eight-ish, so we decided to play Wizard, a trump-type card game. It took Jorge a little while to catch on but he did and we all had a LOT of fun. We were always teasing each other for taking tricks we wanted. By this time Andrew was getting really hyper. Jorge was still laughing.
After Wizard I sent Andrew up to bed while we showed Jorge the cellar ("wow! This is so cool!") and the attic ("you guys have an awesome house") and everything in between (he's never seen our whole house. He admired our baby pictures in the hallway and after bequeathing us the ice cream, left. He told me several times that it had been a LONG time since he'd had that much fun and he was so glad we had him over. I smiled. :)
The cool thing about Jorge is that you don't have to be "adult" to him. We didn't have to talk about anything deep, important, or personal. We could just play and goof off and be ourselves and Jorge loved it. And we did too. He is such an amazing guy.
So Saturday morning we got all prepped for the presentation and headed out in the rain to pick up John and Moriah, who were waiting at their door. Thanks to their promptness we arrived at the Salvation Army in time to wait five minutes for Jorge to show up with Melissa and unlock the door.
We practiced for an hour and a half - well, an hour and fifteen - with Emily D and Jorge trying to make sure the sound was ready and Melissa critiquing all the songs. We did the following:
This Land
God Bless
Redeemed
Devil is Bad
Jesus Real Loud
Strings
End
I'm glad we bumped back the practice time because even with the extra half hour we still didn't have enough time to run the entire lineup, which is what I was hoping for. Nonetheless, after Jorge, Melissa and I figured out the aforementioned lineup, and then taught/put together all the songs, we were fairly well-prepared. It was pouring, drenching rain outside. Keep this in mind.
Melissa graciously gathered up all the props while we were running through End at the end, but we both forgot vests. Oh well. Jorge said it wasn't that big a deal. So we tore out to our respective cars through the downpour and Melissa and I talked about what she would say (she wasn't in makeup). She ended up transitioning between every song, plus teaching the sign language for God Bless and the technique for Strings. She also gave a pretty solid salvation message after Redeemed. I think she did a great job.
The presentation went really well except for the music dying in the middle of God Bless. Ben W was there from piano, so that was pretty cool. We had milk and cookies afterwards and stood at the window and laughed while Charleton wandered aimlessly through the pouring rain looking for Jorge's car. You just had to be there.
So when we got home I had a full day's schoolwork to do, plus Jo did, and Andrew had half, and they were both quite depressed about the whole thing. I tried to motivate them but it was a constant struggle ALL afternoon, plus trying to get all my school done. Jo was depressed cause he didn't understand his algebra and had way too much to do and Andrew was depressed just because he didn't want to do the half hour of schoolwork he had left. Needless to say, the latter got no sympathy.
The rough afternoon was followed by a rough evening. Typically when Mom and Dad go out, we watch a movie together, but we can never decide on one, and the one we watch usually ends up being one Andrew didn't choose (he may like it, but it wasn't his idea). This history led to some serious altercations last night in which it was the grace of God alone that prevented me from slapping Andrew across the face. I've wanted to do that a lot this weekend. We finally decided on something mutually acceptable - Gospel Bill.
This morning Andrew was grumpy again and I so did not have the grace for him. Not sure how I got through the morning. Almost fell asleep driving to church - I usually sleep - and again on the way back. I was with 2's and 3's with Cassandra. We had five - more than last time. Dropped by Wally World on the way home 'cause we're almost out of fruit, then came home for lunch and I'd forgotten to make bread so we just had to eat whatever. Just realized I forgot to make bread this afternoon too so we won't have any for dinner. *sigh*
Disciplining... telling siblings what to do... cleaning up... locking up... trying to get the boys to hurry up... waking up... trying not to yell... cooking... it's been a LONG three days. I'll be glad to have Mom and Dad home.
Praise the Lord (hallelujah)!
Let all who are called by his name praise him!
Praise him for his great faithfulness; he is ever with the righteous.
He will never forsake those who call on his name.
Night or day, he is always with me
he proves his word by his everlasting presence.
Praise him for his great wisdom and incredible power.
The Lord cannot be bested, neither by strength nor by skill nor by learning;
For he is over all the earth, and nothing can bring him down.
He will uphold the righteous when they are weary
He shows his awesome might on my behalf
Even when I am confused and exhausted he is sure and strong.
The Lord gives me purpose and new strength.
I will sing a song to the Lord, for he is great, and greatly to be praised!
Gotta keep that in mind when I’m going through all this AIM craziness as I have been the past couple of weeks. I love AIM so much, but sometimes it’s just exhausting, and these two weeks are a case in point.
It all started… well, it all started with Family Camp, but we’re going to fast-forward to September 8th, our beginning-of-session SALTeam meeting. We held it at the Gaar Ranch, in Ms. Lois’ old house. When Jo and I got there a little before six they were just sitting down to eat so I had an idea it could be a long night.
The participants of said meeting were Jory (who led most of it), Tess (who led the rest of it), Mr. Dave and Ms. Sue, Jorge, Madison, Courtney, Amber, me, Jarek, and Josiah. Those last six are the SALT for this session. Be it duly noted that four of them – the four that aren’t related to me – are leaving tomorrow for the ECMT09. The onlookers to said meeting were Banner, Nation and Anthem.
For the first hour or so, we talked about what we’d learned from AIM, what we needed to fix from Family Camp, and the like. After that we went over what we’d be doing for Bible study and surprisingly enough, we’ve already started on the theme for next year, which is Back to Basics. We’re going back to AIM’s core verse (I Timothy 4:12) and studying it in-depth, plus studying I Chronicles 7:14 and how it applies to us. This week is “humble yourselves,” and I’m leading the study. I’m super excited.
We talked about the session schedule, response team presentations, structure of any meeting (you need a leader, an observer, a morale monitor, a catalyst… etc.), and many other things. Tess also rapidly handed out responsibilities and discipleship assignments, which were of course switched all around on Thursday.
Anyway, the meeting was supposed to be over at eight so most of us were pleasantly surprised when we wrapped up right before nine. We took Madison and Jarek home – trying to help Mrs. Lilly out – and then went home and crashed.
Fast forward to Thursday. We had decided, as a SALTeam, to meet thirty minutes early ‘cause we were supposed to get there at the same time as the team but we’d decided that was not only impractical, but it wasn’t smart, so we arrived at the church at 8:31 AM (Jarek would be quick to point out that we were one minute late, since they were early. =D). We met about various things, such as who would lead which song, how we would show the songs before we would present them, and we touched on Bible studies. That’s tip-of-the-iceberg touched.
The team began arriving before we were done – actually, the new team members, so we wrapped up in high-speed and welcomed them. There are four new girls and one new boy, all under thirteen. Impressive, huh? We started off with orientation: standards (Jo), expectations (Jarek), and Salvation Army rules (Jorge). Then we split to do Bible study/discipleship.
Courtney graciously introduced the Bible study while I frantically wrote down the order in which people would be doing the studies (and, of course, promptly lost it, leaving me wondering now what to do about it). After we handed out said assignments Courtney took all the girls to the back of the sanctuary to play a game while I asked Tess where the new girls would be placed in the discipleship. I have Maria, Sadie and Jessica (how coincidental).
Josiah and Jarek taught technique. I think it was a challenge for them – Jo, who taught technique alone in China to three different workshops and Jarek, who hasn’t taught much technique at all (not that he doesn’t know it – gotta be cautious ‘cause he tends to read this blog). It was a short but fairly effective technique session (hey, they only had thirty minutes to crash course the newcomers in technique). After all that intro stuff, we finally got into the “fun” *coughexhaustingcough* stuff: teaching the songs.
We showed every song we taught except the sign language ones, starting with Forgiven. Ha. Ha. Ha. Jarek and I were guards, in a pinch, and I kinda messed it up because I didn’t know how to lift Jo, who was playing Jesus. Well, I’m a girl! Sheesh. Anyway, aside from Jo breaking character in the middle of the lift because he was about to fall over, showing that one – on the spur of the moment with no practice… – went fine.
Like saying goodbye to a lifetime friend
Like stepping out into an unknown world
Like standing on top of a mountain
Like wandering through a dark valley
Like leaving everything familiar
Like being shoved out of a nest
Like finishing a race
Like starting a marathon
Like navigating without a map
Like finishing my life as a homeschooler
And the pain falls like a curtain
On the things I once called certain
And I have to say the words I fear the most
I just don’t know
And the questions without answers
Come and paralyze the dancer
So I stand here on the stage, afraid to move; afraid to fall,
But fall I must, on this truth that my life has been formed from the dust
God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God
And the sky begins to thunder
And I’m filled with awe and wonder
‘Til the only burning question that remains
Is who am I
Can I form a single mountain
Take the stars in hand and count them
Can I even take a breath without God giving it to me
He is first and last, before all that has been
Beyond all that will pass
God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God
Oh, how great are the riches of His wisdom and knowledge
How unsearchable for to Him and through
Him and from Him are all things
So let us worship before the throne
Of the One who is worthy of worship alone
This song has so much more meaning to me now that I'm searching for a plan for my future. Few things bring comfort, especially now during all this turmoil, but there's comfort in knowing that my King is in control.
God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God
Dead tired. We’re all dead tired. That seems to be the best way to describe the feelings of the Branson team – not to mention the HQ team, the Clinton team, and the TN team, undoubtedly – after three days of training, Bible studies, and good food. Central Family Camp 2009 is over, and a smashing success!
Although I think last year was better.
For Jo and I, family camp started at 10:00 AM on Friday morning, when we arrived at the church to help with any last-minute things that needed doing. Kristi let us in at the side door and immediately put us to work laminating pictures of the fruit of the Spirit. AIM’s theme this year is the Spirit (not sure what specifically; so far here at HQ we’ve studied the spiritual disciplines, leading by the Spirit – leadership camp – and the fruits of the Spirit). Every morning Amber would hide 75 “fruits” around the church, and the team that got the most at the end of Family Camp got a prize. There was something about challenging for other peoples’ fruit too, but we never did that.
So Jo and I spent the first hour laminating and then I realized that Tess had told me I was going to teach a flags elective and that was tomorrow and I knew a grand total of three flag routines. Hmmm. After some discussion and attempts to get someone I knew to teach me, I grabbed Katelyn from the Granby team (she was the only one from her team there) and asked her to teach me some flags. She successfully taught me Seraphim but I couldn’t get Day and Night and she didn’t know Hallelujah right. I ended up outside by myself practicing during registration. I asked Emily Voth for help with Hallelujah and the way she was doing it made sense but I still haven’t figured out how to replicate it.
While Jo and I were laminating half of the Clinton team plus Courtney, Emily B, Maria, and various males were out in the fellowship hall painting four six-foot trees – one for each team and two for Dixon – for us to tape the fruit on that we found. They were painted on butcher paper affixed to huge pieces of cardboard. Very impressive.
Jorge did orientation – Tess or Amber explained about the fruit, I can’t remember – 5/6 of the TN team was there but the Wuertz family didn’t arrive till the next day – we did AIM praise reports and our teams’ went WAY too long – then we split for our first Bible study. Haha, I can call them Bible studies this year ‘cause we didn’t have any “restricted” words.
Three teams, three fruits to a team. Our team had joy, goodness, and self-control. We had five-and-a-half hours to do what we had to do last year – study about each topic, compile points to share based on what we’d learned, and come up with a way to share it to the rest of the teams. Some of you may recall that we were incredibly pressed for time last Family Camp, and those same some of you may also recall that we only had TWO things to study last year, as opposed to three this year. Hmmm.
We started by splitting people up to cover the fruits. The guys covered self-control; Amber, Melissa, Andrew, Rachel and EmD took goodness, and Courtney, Emily, Maria, Hannah and I did joy (the Duncans were there for the first Bible study time and that was it). We had thirty minutes to study what we were studying and then come back together, explain what we’d learned about our fruit to the rest of everyone and decide what to do with it. Of course, we went overtime on everything, but we all got to share something. The guys didn’t have a clear understanding of what was going on – this and other communication issues would haunt our Bible studies – and so had only done half of their study for self-control. There wasn’t much to say about goodness. There was a LOT to say about joy, though, and I learned a lot there (which made me glad ‘cause I was kinda afraid of not learning anything).
So after Bible study Amber and I led technique. Tess had called me the day before Family Camp and asked me to write up a list of technique to be taught in beginning and advanced tech, respectively. So I consulted Lori Ann, Josiah and my memory and came up with these two lists:
Beginning Tech.
Foot positions
Hand positions
- Classical hand
- Identification hand
- Jazz hand
- Michaelangelo hand
- Hand that gives
- Hand that takes
- Oriental hand
Double zero
Toc
How a mime relates to objects (BIG)
5 Elements of a Gesture
- 1) Focus
- 2) Reach
- 3) Take
- 4) Accent
- 5) Release
Resistance
Basic illusions
- Flower
- Balloon
- Wall
Walks
- Pressure walk
- Mime run
- Comic run
Characterization (put it all together)
Intermediate/Advanced Tech
Characters
- Angels
- Demons
- Ladies in HH
- Cowboys
Violence?
- Punches
- Sword fighting?
- Safe falls?
Cross technique
Stairs
Doors
Atmospheres?
- Peanut butter (slow w/ resistance)
- In space – no gravity (slow w/o resistance)
- Ninja (fast w/ resistance)
- Rag doll (fast w/o resistance)
Mime twister
(Tess later added stroll miming stuff, more walks, and other stuff I can’t remember)
Amber and I went into this knowing well that we would be teaching forty mimes, the majority of whom had already gone through technique at least once, and probably half had been through it three or more times. This in mind, we wanted to really make technique interesting: we HAD to go through it, but we were allowed to have fun while we did it. Some of the things we did to make basic technique interesting:
We asked for volunteers (we did this a lot) and had a double zero contest, with everyone else trying to break them.
We had everyone practice the mime walk with Bibles on their heads.
We had a comic run race.
We had everyone practice mannequin by making up skits and then showing them to everyone else.
It was fun to teach and Courtney said it was fun to watch, so that’s good.
After technique was the team showcase. It was kinda a bust because most of the Clinton team hadn’t arrived yet and there were awkward gaps between songs, not like last year where it felt more like a big Branson show. Oh, well. We went first and presented In God We Still Trust and All I Really Want for Christmas. They went mostly good but hard to put any emotion into either of those songs and I like my songs emotional.
The TN team went next because the Clinton team wasn’t there yet. They presented Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) by Chris Tomlin and Hurt by Thousand Foot Krutch. The songs were simple but profound. Obviously we didn’t learn Hurt.
After the TN team the Clinton team STILL wasn’t there so we got up onstage and each team explained their songs until the Clinton team arrived. They presented God Bless the USA and I Surrender All. It was really cool to see them have a team ‘cause last year it was just the Voths and this year they had eleven presenting members (even though only one of them is a boy).
Next was dinner which the Branson team cleaned up. We always seem to get the first cleanup, no matter what it is. Kinda statistical odds or something. We had fun, got wet, sang songs, and all that jazz. And of course didn’t get to do verse time. Oh, well.
Jim Brawner. Of course, never heard of him, but Jory and Tess had a lot of good things to say about him. They tried to get people outside of Family Camp to come but as far as I know the Lillys are the only ones who showed. He talked about personality types and about how we can relative with and assist people of all personality types. I enjoyed it a lot and he thought I was a beaver when I asked for the answers to the remaining blanks on the page. For the record, I tied 45-45 lion-otter. ;-) you can guess on some of the other people at FC. I went up and talked with him afterwards. He seems like a really nice guy.
We were going to have team time but they cancelled it which was really sad. We didn’t have any team time the entire time which was super super sad. Oh, well. Then we came home, ate cookies, and I went to bed. I hear Jo and the guys stayed up playing ping-pong and talking.
I had made a point with God to spend time with Him during Family Camp so I got up at six, walked and prayed, and then showered. Was very happy. Took some notes for the joy study, read my Bible, printed technique notes, sneaked a sausage biscuit (protein). I gotta say it’s much better to stay at one’s own house. Just hide from the boys.
When we got there it was breakfast – toast and fruit – and then verse time. I got section one crossed off ‘cause Jo had helped me practice in the car on the way home the night before. It was satisfying. Learned that Amanda is the one to say verses to. Amber’s mean. =) Then we had Bible study. We were working on what we wanted to share and what order we wanted to share it in but Jorge peeked in halfway through and said something about application, so some of us worked on that instead. *coughourgroupdidn’tcough* I guess we should have, but it ended up working really well to have a solid “this is what we want to say” thing.
We had (in this order):
What: Joy is inward happiness given by God that you can choose to use.
Why: Numbers 11:1-35: the Israelites griping and Philippians 2:14-15 (do everything without grumbling or aruging… so you can shine like stars in the universe)
When: I Thessalonians 5:16 – be joyful always. Paul and Silas are an example of this: Acts 16. James 1:2-3 (joy in trials).
How: we get joy from God’s presence (Psalm 16:8-11) and joy from salvation (I Peter 1:8-9)
- It’s that time again. Another camp is coming to town and Kristi is beginning the grand cooking excursion. Amber and I spent last Thursday morning with her shopping at three different stores for food for Family Camp. It was super fun!
- At Family Camp last year, our practice time before any of our AIM Branson presentations was negligible (nearly non-existent). This year, we’ve had six hours of practice time to put together songs! We worked last Thursday on putting some songs together, finished Tuesday, and then let Tess pick out which songs we would present and teach at Family Camp. The practices have been pretty boring but it’s really nice to have everything squared before the day we’re supposed to present.
- The songs we put together are In God We Still Trust, Faithful, Love Story, All I Really Want for Christmas, Freedom/Restoration, and Washed in the Blood. Our core team for these songs is Jo, Charleton and Alex for the guys, and me, Rachel, Emily, Courtney, Maria and Amber for the girls. Ryan and Jorge are also helping with a couple of songs and we’re hoping to put Melissa in some background parts.
- We had to cancel group ‘cause Dad was sick and the rest of us were getting over being sick, so we just had the Brown kids over last Sunday (not three days ago, the other last Sunday). They weren’t allowed to come in the house, so we spent the entire time outside and in the playroom. We first played a rousing game of kickball (teams: Jo, Courtney, Emily and Ryan, Rachel, me, Andrew) in which my team won, although it was a close-fought battle. Then we went down to Big Rock and swam around a bit, though it was colllld. When we came back, I popped some frozen pizzas (yumyum) in the oven and Jo and Ryan played ping-pong until the pizzas were ready. We watched videos from China during dinner, plus some video of the Final Presentation. Then they had to leave (after we’d demolished 3 ½ pizzas). But we had a blast.
- DOG LOVERS, DO NOT READ: While we were at Big Rock with the Browns, these two – clearly related – black dogs came down the hill behind the rock, crossed the creek on the dam we’d made, and proceeded to closely examine our stuff. They wouldn’t leave and when we got out they followed us home. That night they camped out on the porch – as strays often do – but these dogs were LOUD. They barked till 11 and by then I’d had it. I got up, retrieved Jo’s BB gun, and went after them. I’m sure I didn’t hit them, but after I chased them around shooting for five minutes, they left and I didn’t see any more of them.
- Last Sunday (yeah, three days ago), Andrew and I went BACK to Big Rock with Courtney, Emily, and Rachel. While we were swimming what should we hear but the barking of our black Lab friends. Down they come, over the dam and onto the beach. Courtney, this time clad in Aqua Sox, rapidly climbed out of the water and told it to those dogs. They got the picture and left. Quickly. We all laughed and Courtney was glad to get back in the (relatively) warm water.
- We had visitors to group last week: Jacob, Amber, and Amanda all made surprise cameo appearances at group. They all three participated in Bible study, enjoyed the grilled out meat and Mom’s taters, and Jacob climbed a tree and nearly fell out of it. Plus Ms. Eva showed up for Bible study, so that was cool too.
So on Thursday I went to my first practice since before the reunion. Jo and I were actually still sick, but I for one was desperate to get out of the house. We didn’t go to the SALTeam meeting because I was still feeling cruddy at that point and waiting for the meds to kick in. It turned out not to matter anyway because they spent the entire meeting doing Bible study and didn’t talk about anything SALT-ish.
When we got there they were still doing Bible study so we listened in until they were done. We packed up and headed to our little room to do Bible study. Courtney was facilitating. I mentioned to her my thought about just asking the girls what was up instead of reviewing, since our Bible studies that session had pretty much fallen flat anyway. She agreed so after another flat Bible study :) in which I twisted Maria and Amber’s hair (funny, since I’m lousy at twisting other peoples’ hair, but Courtney was leading the BS), we talked with the girls about how their summer had gone. Most of the girls weren’t real talkative. Wonder what’s been up with it this summer.
We had mentorship and then dove into songs. We had a seven-song presentation that night and a lot to do to get ready for it – Freedom Restoration was on the list and the team hadn’t even learned Restoration yet. Once we went through all the hard songs – or the ones we didn’t know real well, like Washed in the Blood and In God We Still Trust – we convinced Kristi that we could teach Restoration. She gave us twenty minutes and – wonder of wonders – we actually succeeded! I was so happy. I’d watched the video three times to prepare to teach it and I actually remembered most of the cues and actions, so I taught most of it by myself. Amber, thank heaven, knew the dance and taught it to Emily and Rachel. Courtney ended up standing on a chair behind God, as the odd angel, doing ribbons and trying to keep her cape from flying in her face.
Madison was going to take my parts but it turned out they already had my parts replaced so she didn’t end up presenting. Ryan took Jo’s parts in Freedom/Restoration and Washed in the Blood – Jesus and God. Figures. Unfortunately for Jo, that meant that he didn’t get to do the cool sword fight, but he said he just didn’t have enough energy to pull it off. Understandably.
We went upstairs to practice on the stage and Kristi asked me to throw together a lineup. Sometime around there Jorge told me that Jo and I were going to talk about China at the presentation that night. I ended up doing all the talking at that event because we hadn’t time to prepare anything, but Jo was pretty upset at me later. Oops. Won’t happen again. I was actually majorly out of it and definitely offending a lot of people for several days after I got home. It was very bad and very obnoxious. Now that I’m back in a routine with God (that sounds bad), I’m hoping things will get better.
The lineup was:
In the Light
Devil is Bad
Virtuoso
Courtroom
Washed in the Blood
In God We Still Trust
Freedom/Restoration
I think that was the first Final Presentation that I haven’t participated in. It was kinda weird, and surreal. Speaking of weird. I went out to my car to get something and knocked on the door to get back in. Who should open the door but Jacob Lyell! To say I was startled was an understatement. He laughed, his Mom said something about my not expecting him to open the door, and he let me in (wonder of wonders). We were glad to see him again… it’s definitely been a different team without him. He stood in the back and made faces during the presentation, in typical Jacob style.
Speaking of faces, Ryan was demonstrating some pretty good ones during practice. We were up in the sanctuary practicing and he was back in the sound booth running sound. Periodically I’d see several team members stop in the middle of a song and look toward the back. I’d turn around and Ryan would be doing every part in the song in an exaggerated manner and frequently with an interesting looking blonde wig on.
I taped the presentation. It was pretty good. Jarek wasn’t wearing any gloves in Trust, which caused me to rush downstairs and grab some for him but when I went up to give them to him he looked at me like I’d lost my mind and told me he already had gloves. OK, then why weren’t you wearing them? Sheesh! During practice Courtney’s angel cape went up over her head during Freedom/Restoration but she managed to avoid that during the presentation. The only really big problem was my fault – typical. I cause problems even when I’m not presenting – Freedom didn’t have a Bible. Well, she had a mime Bible. I’m sure that was real comfortable for her. (end Final Presentation post. hopefully more about last Thursday soon. hahaha.)
Detailing a game we played at the beach during the reunion.
The Toothpaste Chronicle
Or, The Chronicle of the Toothpaste Wars
By Rachelle and Amanda Jones, and Jessica and Maggie Roberts
Being a capture-the-flag type game with all the characteristics of Calvinball – no rules. It was Maggie, Rachelle, Amanda and Jessica against Jo, Ian and Andrew (the latter later defected to our team).
Our weapons consisted of toothpaste, deodorant, hangers (bows and arrows), sunglasses, and a hairbrush.
Their weapons were handguns, deodorant (copiers!), brochures, stinky socks, remote controllers.
We started by having a secret girl talk on the tree out back about what we should do (we were kind of bored). Then we confiscated all the working walky-talkies but Andrew got mad so we gave ‘em to the boys. That was the beginning.
Our secret names were as follows:
Rachelle: Picasso
Amanda: The Dolphin
Maggie: The Cobra
Jessica: Mirage
We gave names to the boys but never really used them.
Jo: The Giraffe
Ian: The Sneak
Andrew: The Frog
Our password was terrific toenails, and our fake password was oogadaboogadaearailabumshnick. We were trying to get the boys to think that our password was the longer one so we’d say it halfway, whisper terrific toenails in the middle, and finish the longer password. Andrew thought he knew our password but we wouldn’t let him in.
First off, we investigated the boys’ room and, finding it empty, took it over. Shortly afterwards, Rachelle was chased out because she’d neglected to lock the sliding glass door that led into the boys room from the porch.
Then Jessica snooped and was captured very violently. They attempted to rob her of her weapon and gave her Indian burns during the scuffle. She got toothpaste all over her hands but they let her off with a “warning.”
We went outside and the boys were waiting with remote control “Tasers.” They gunned down Maggie and stole her toothpaste, and unfortunately Rachelle quickly followed in this sad fate. There ensued another mad scuffle after Jessica’s toothpaste but right when all hope was lost, her girls came and rescued her. Amanda was standing guard in our fort, but Rachelle and Maggie fought valiantly to save Jessica from the evil boys.
Andrew tried to defect to our side but he was just having an attitude. We told him he would only have fun if he decided to. That’s when Maggie came across the hanger “bow and arrows.” She immediately broke one and Amanda gave the broken part to Andrew to use as a sword.
The whole time we were shouting and chasing and spying and being chased. We would try to get into the room (our fort) yelling, “oogadaboogada-toenails-let me in!!!” because the boys would be right on our tail. The adults were playing Bridge the whole time and watched our antics amusedly.
We were outside when Jessica learned from and inside source (Uncle Scott) that the boys had left for the beach. We immediately took off. However, when we got to the beach, we couldn’t find them, so we walked around and got wet in the surf.
When we got back to our fort, the boys had all the doors locked and had taken over. Thankfully, we’d already got the WTs back from them (under their protest, of course). They said they would only come out if we gave them a walky-talkie. We said no way.
We tried to pick the lock but Ian was holding it and Dad didn’t want us to break anything. We tried to talk to them, but to no avail. We tried mayonnaise, but the lights were off and they couldn’t see it. When they finally did turn the lights off they ignored the mayonnaise shooter. We then decided not to play ‘cause they were being unfair. Then Mom said, “What about this deodorant?” This of course gave us new fervor so we grabbed the deodorant and ran out in the dark to the glass door.
We drew in deodorant on the door but then discovered that the door was unlocked. We went inside real cautiously but the boys weren’t there. Nothing appeared to be taken, so we regrouped.
Amanda, Rachelle and Jessica went on out to look for the boys, while Maggie and Andrew (a true defector by now) guarded the fort. While we searched for the boys, we found Rachelle and Amanda’s backpacks out on the driveway, alone with Maggie’s Nancy Drew book. The boys ran across the front yard but we decided it’d been a successful mission and headed back to HQ, ignoring them.
After a regroup, we all together went to go find the boys (by this time it was more hide-and-seek than anything else). Two clicks with the walky-talkie meant boy sighting, three meant backup. We searched the downstairs thoroughly with lots of yelling and banging ‘cause we were scared. It was dark.
We headed outside and we were all kind of creeped out ‘cause we knew there were rabid boys out there who could jump out at any moment. We scouted around the side of the house, which was brave, considering the situation. Then Jessica saw the shadow.
We ran around the corner of the house yelling and screaming, and caught sight of Ian. He ran off in the distance, making lots of noise, and we immediately suspected a decoy. Turned around and saw Jo running up to the boys’ fort. We knew he’d be back ‘cause he disappeared from the room, so we stood in the middle of the yard yelling at Ian (remember it’s 9:30 at night and we’re in a residential neighborhood) until Jo showed up.
(The whole time the boys didn’t really react to our weapons, which was kind of disappointing.)
Then they ran down the street and Amanda and Jessica followed them as they looped around the neighborhood and back towards the front of the house. Rachelle and Maggie ran around the side of the house to meet them in the front. We all confronted them with much yelling and screaming, while the boys attacked us with stinky socks.
By this time neither of us was really reacting to the other’s weapons ‘cause there was so much shooting going on. We were upset that the boys expected us to react to their weapons while they weren’t reacting to ours, which was probably hypocritical. However, that, and some other unsportsmanlike behavior, caused us to tell the boys we didn’t want to play with them because they weren’t being fair. Then we left.
We went up to our fort and talked out our anger at the boys. Then the boys came to our door and boasted how their “technology” was superior to ours and how they had a walky-talkie to listen to all our conversations! We closed the door in their faces.
After much angry conversation, we eventually decided we should go communicated – apologize and let them know why we were mad. So we did. Not sure if they got it, but at least we did the right thing in the end.
We had practice on Thursday. Sometime last week, that was. An interesting practice, too. Mostly 'cause there were so few of us. In the girls' Bible study it was just KT, Moriah, Maria and I! Well, Tess was there, but she was working on her computer most of the time.
Maria, Moriah and I all had mentorship time together, but they were both hyper because they hadn't really slept the night before, so we didn't really get to talk about much. At our SALTeam meeting we went off on tangents during the Bible study and I brought up my concern that it was just too much to study and apply. I don't think very many people agreed with me, but at least I made my voice heard. Jorge had us all enveloped - yeah, like envelope with a d on the end - in James. It was fun.
We had to put together a bunch of songs for the School Readiness Fairs for which Jo and I will be gone. Therefore, Katie had to throw together casting for Courtroom, Gifter, Devil is Bad, Champion, In the Light, Virtuoso, and Larger Than Life. She did this during mentorship while I attempted to talk with Maria and Moriah. So Jo and I weren't in them and the Brown girls were but of course weren't there. Well, Courtney wasn't in the first set. She'll probably be put back in for the second set - on August 7th - 'cause she'll be home then.
It actually went really well. It was kinda frustrating to watch a) the same old old old songs and b) said songs without a lot of the main people in them, but Melissa showed up (dundundundaaaaaaaaaa!) as part of a grand AIM-people reunion and she got to step into a lot of the parts, which was really fun. So the other people that were there were Justin and Kristina VK and Amber and Ben Moore. Fun, huh? We were all excited to see each other even though Amber had to hide 'cause she wasn't wearing AIM-appropriate attire.
So Jo, Katie and I watched, took notes, taught parts, and filled in when needed. Katie filled in for Eve in Gifter. Melissa filled in for the accused in Courtroom (and she was AMAZING!). Katie did the main in In the Light and she was really enjoying herself. Jorge agrees that she's pretty good at it too! :) I taught the angels in Gifter, the demons in Champion, and Eve in Devil is Bad. I guess it's just me. But those songs are getting so old. I wish we could choreograph some new ones. Incredible as it is, I think I may just be to the point when I actually like choreographing new songs. WOW. Of course I haven't done it for a while so you never can tell.
After practice - which we finished ON TIME - we had a protracted prayer time and then some of us cleaned up while others had to leave. It's weird being outnumbered again. What with these guys: Jo, Jarek, Charleton, Alex, Grant, John, and Aaron (VK) and these girls: Courtney, Emily, Rachel, Jessica, Maria, Moriah and Katie (not presenting) we're even but slightly outnumbered when it comes to presenting. And it's weird. :)
Egroj sat in on practice (he IS the director) which was fun and he and Melissa had an extended conversation. Everyone was SO tired that day. By the end of practice everyone looked like they were about to fall over and weren't any happier when Jo announced our two new bookings plus two new service projects. I said my goodbyes to people I wouldn't be seeing for a long time and we left, got home in time to eat, and then turned around and went to the ball field. Dad bought us all some ice cream. You can read the outcome of those games on Mom's blog.
I did get to see Kristi again. Her, KT and I went out to Peter Pan courtesy of Melissa, who works there as a "kid wrangler" - someone who watches the kids who play - or understudy - John, Michael and Wendy. Kristi had seen half of the show but had to leave with Christopher during the second half when she went earlier, but this time Jorge stayed home with the kids so she got to see the whole thing with no interruption, which was really nice. I think she really enjoyed it and I know I did. :)
Then the Madrigals came to group last night! It was so much fun. We had about twenty-five people in the house, 'cause Ms. Melody came too. We learned Jeremiah 1:7, which, as everyone knows, goes like this: "Don't say you're too young. If God tells you to go and speak to someone then go!" We ate sour cream chicken enchiladas and cheese dip - which Jorge and Kristi really enjoyed - and then played. We bounced, we swang, we played in the sandbox. We played ping-pong with Gabriel and Daphne. We played Mouse Trap with Nicky. We built Legos; we built Hot Wheels. And enventually Katie, Emily and I had our "prayer" time in which we let each other know what's going on in our lives.
So what's going on in MY life? Well, I'm currently going crazy trying to get ready. See, we leave for a reunion in North Carolina before dawn cracks on Friday. We'll get back from that on Sunday the 26th. Then we leave on a mission trip on Tuesday the 28th. So basically we have to be prepared for the MT before we leave this Friday. Which of course means that Jo and I are a) getting no school done and b) going absolutely nuts writing Bible studies and planning meetings. I tell you, things were a lot easier when Jenny was going with us. But this is good. I know God's ggoing to do great things.
All of our support has come in, although we're hoping for more to fully cover some final expenses. I've somehow got to get to Springfield to get fabric for props but I don't know how that's ever going to happen. We need to get music and videos burned before we leave for N.C. Jo and I need to finish our Bible studies, streamline the format and finalize what order we're going to present them in (I mean, in what order we're going to present them).
So, life is good. Life is crazy, but it's crazy because I'm attempting to follow God and run after His plan no matter what, so I'm content with the craziness. I will be glad when we're finally en route. It'll be kind of a relief. So I'm learning to quit complaning, be content with where I am, and lean on God in every situation. Hard lessons. But it's fun. I never want to quit learning... the day I do is the day when I tell God I no longer need Him. *shudder* May it never be.
And I trust in You / Lord, I trust in You / I believe You're my Healer / I believe You are all I need / I believe You're my Portion / I believe You're more than enough for me / Jesus, You're all I need
