Causing Trouble

It seems that every year the high school seniors toilet paper Pastor Andy's office as a last "good bye" and "thank you." Some of college kids do it too, before going back to school, and Dave just TPed Andy's office last month when he left.

So being the good youth leader that I am, I had to follow in this "good-bye" tradition. I would hate for Pastor Andy to think I didn't enjoy helping with Youth Group the past year and half.

I went above and beyond the call of duty. Anybody can spend $2 on toilet paper and decorate an office. But it takes real dedication to spend $10 on 400 dixie cups (yes things in Cascade are expensive), and then spend 2 hours arranging them...

and funneling 8 pitchers of water into those little cups...

Although I have always been an innocent, well behaved individual, I have heard stories of great pranks in my many years growing up on the Elim campus. It also helped to have my college roommate Chris here this fall to reminisce with...I aided her in many a prank, thanks to my RA key, but this was my first time actually pulling off a prank all by myself...

Although being rather in-experienced, I'm afraid I may have made this unnecessarily evil. I heard it is a great idea to staple the cups together, and that does keep them from falling over, but I had no idea how a person is supposed to clean this mess up...but I guess Pastor Andy will have to figure that out...

I did this last week, on a Tuesday afternoon (Pastor Andy's day off), with all the church staff knowing what I was doing, and the home school group was practicing their Christmas play. Even 3 year Lilly saw me, "you made letters!" and yet, it took Pastor Andy until today to figure out who did it...

EMERGENCY Food Distribution

Right now that's what we've got going on here in Cascade once a month. This week I found out the "emergency" is that if the Boise Food Bank doesn't get rid of the food NOW, it will expire/spoil/ rot...or maybe it already started...
So we receive random stuff to sort through - apples, corn, zucchini - and then give away to people in need in our community. People's pet pigs and worms also benefit as the recipients of food gone bad. So everybody is happy, except for the youth group volunteers who are not big fans of touching (or seeing) rotting food...
Those who help with the food distribution also get some food...I'm not sure what everyone else did with their 4 zucchini, 10 ears of corn, and 20 apples, but if we don't eat faster, ours are going to cause an emergency in our fridge...

This is why we are in the process of starting a non-profit organization, the "Cascade Food Bank." Then the Boise Food Bank will send us more practical food, twice a month. Food people can use to make actual meals...although the pets worms may starve...

Summer in Idaho...

“If you’re under 5’5”, you can serve in front of the line.” That rule was added for my benefit, as the shortest person at Senior High Youth Group. But I served the best I ever had – up and over the net, down on the other side, hitting the ground, and scoring a point for my team. “Not bad for a Jr Higher” P. Andy said, as he called out the score and I prepared to serve again.

In April I started helping with Jr High Youth Group, and now that some of teens are moving up, I started going to Sr High too. I’ve always been focused on serving over-seas, I want to work with orphans, girls and women in India, but I why not learn where I’m at now? What better way to do that then help with the local Youth Group? So that’s one of the things I’ve been involved in since getting back from India this spring. I enjoy getting to know the teens better through games, sharing my testimony, having a girl’s sleepover at “my” house,

and of course, chilling at the lake.

Summer Work and Play

The Backpackers D-school is going well. I’ve enjoyed sitting in on lectures and eating lunch with them. But it’s an all guy group, so I haven’t been hiking/camping. I’m quite content to stay home, work in the office, get ready for the Fall D-school, and hang out with my house buddies and whoever else is in town.

I’m well on my way to breaking my record length of time without moving (7 and ½ weeks), and enjoying every minute of it. For the summer I’m living with a family who have twin boys, who are almost 3. So my day usually starts with a toddler wondering into my room and adorably asking me to carry him downstairs. How can I resist such cuteness?

They also help me run errands, like checking the mail, and going to the bank which makes these actives so much more exiting.

Jr High Girl's Sleepover

The Jr High Girl's Sleepover was pretty much AMAZING! The girls said they really enjoyed the sleep-over, so we'll have to do it again, and I'm excited about it already :)
The first 3 girls to arrive at my double-wide trailer acted like it was "Extreme Home Make-over" running though the house screaming in excitement over how amazing each room was. Kind of making me appreciate my huge, mostly empty house a little more - the big open living room with 3 couches, the huge kitchen/dinning room, my cute cozy bedroom, the orange carpet, brown paneled walls, and the back porch which is slowly eroding into the river...

We had 8 girls and 6 leaders, which worked perfectly for doing face masks,foot scrubs, nail painting, and make-up.
I was impressed by how quiet the girls were during our little talks about inner beauty. I hope they realize they are beautiful, because they are.

We also played games and watched a movie - after filling my living room floor with 4 mattresses. Half way through the movie, us leaders migrated back to the bedrooms and went to sleep some time after midnight.

What's New?

The base newsletter is finished, printed, envelops stuffed and mailed to 936 people...that only took a month...but it is kind of fun to watch movies while working, since stuffing envelopes in a brainless time consuming task...

Other than that, not much exciting going on here...it snowed yesterday. I can't wait for summer!!! It's so beautiful!! It makes "spring" worth-while, and I am so glad I spent the worst of winter sweating in India :)

By the way, Cody the parasite is dead :) hopefully my digestive system will return to "normal" soon...what is normal, anyway?

Up coming events - another mailing, camp clean-opening...and Jr High Girl's sleep-over at my house!!! :)

Jr High

When I was in 6^th grade, we had a choice to stay in kidz church or move up. They wanted us 6th graders to stay, since we were good helpers. To me the people who moved up to youth group were the cool ones who went on ahead of us, and I wanted to be one of them. In retrospect I realize I would have enjoyed staying in kidz church one more year. In Jr high, I suddenly became aware of social awkwardness, cliques, and the fact that I had no friends. None the less I was one of the most faithful attendees of Jr High Youth Group.
Fast-forward 11 or so years, to 3 weeks ago. I had been back in the states a week when I followed Dave to Jr High Youth Group. Jet-lagged and culture-shocked I observed just how obnoxious and awkward Jr Highers can be. I wondered what I was getting myself into.
I quickly got to know the other leaders, as some of them also attended Young Adult Word Study (YABS).
The 2^nd week at youth group, we played a game that began with “everyone get a partner.” My instinct was to gravitate towards the people I knew, but us leaders should not be our own clique. I watched as all the kids got partners and some claimed the other leaders. I told myself that I was waiting to make sure everyone had a partner. I saw a girl who was alone and shyly asked her to be my partner (a leader should be friendly, regardless how afraid of rejection I may be). She agreed, but I felt bad for her being stuck with “the new person.” Then I reminded myself that although I find Jr Highers to be scary and intimidating, they think I am cool, because I’m an adult who wants to spend time with them, and they want to be my friend, so there’s nothing to be afraid of.
By week 3 (yesterday), I’m getting better at remembering names and starting to be excited about getting to know the girls better. Then one of the other leaders posed an idea – a girl’s sleepover. Us leaders plotted and planed and made lists of what we will do and what we need.

Where will we have this event? One of us lives alone in a big double-wide trailer. I even have 3 couches and 7 mattresses, so we wont even have to sleep on the floor. I’m pretty excited about this…