I've found a new way to start my day.
I start work at 9:30am, but the bus goes by the church at 9am, so I have half an hour to kill. I had no idea what to do with this half hour. Until I realized that the bus also goes by the library, which opens at 9am and is a five minute walk from the church. So I stay at the library for 25 minutes, read a book, organize my thoughts and then start my day at work. Awesome, is it not?
I've realized how little exposure I've gotten to books lately. Since the library has a rather large selection of topics, I've gotten out a Eyewitness book about film, a book about the psychology of music, two Dr. Seuss books, and "The Book of Awesome." The librarian looked at my random selection of books, saw that I was trying to get them out with my medicare card and laughed. And that's what happens when you go to the library first thing in the morning. On the plus side, there are very few people to judge you.
Love,
-J-
City buses taken: 57
Currently reading: Film (Eyewitness)
Current Facebook status: I am awesome at cutting fliers. Missionary kid FTW.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Noteworthy week= mammoth post.
Friday night I got back from Tidal Impact, description found here. It was an insanely hot in Fredericton, all week. Hmmm, how do I begin to describe my experiences at Tidal Impact? Well, I guess I will go by day.
Saturday:
At 1:30 pm, after me having anxiety attacks all morning about how massive my duffel bag was, we pulled out of the church parking lot in our two rental cars and truck.
We got to the church in Fredericton around 3pm and I went inside to pee after complaining for half an hour. All of the sudden, in their seemingly empty church, people came running from nowhere. We gathered in a circle in the basement, introduced ourselves, and headed off to the rally. I hopped into Jo's car, the youth pastor, with Alyssa and Sue. They made me feel really welcome, and I really wasn't scared of conversation for the rest of the week. I was a social butterfly, something that rarely happens when I'm around a lot of people I don't know in a new place.
The rally was two hours long. They had a band, the Mike Janzen Band, and the speaker was a black guy who hopped around the stage for half an hour with a towel to wipe the sweat off his forehead, still consulting his notes now and again. He definitely pumped us up.
We headed back to the church at about 6:30pm for supper, some icebreaker games and preping for the church service. We did show and tell, an interesting time. I brought my fish sunglasses.
We then headed to our billets for the night. I was staying with a couple from the church who lived slightly out of town, but it was nice and quiet. My billet buddies were Melissa and Jeremy.
Sunday:
We got to the church at 8am for a service that started at 10:30am. I was on the worship team playing guitar. Thankfully, it was only three fairly basic songs, so I did fine.
Lunch was a potluck, the best I've been to for a while. After lunch there were some more icebreaker games and prep for camp. Sunday night was another rally.
Monday:
This was the first day of day camps for kids in the mornings. I was in charge of name tags, which was quite the task all week because of all the kids, Tidal Impact people, plus the requested name tags for the "Smith Sisters (#1-7)" and various themes throughout the week.
One thing that everybody from my church immediately noticed was that the kids weren't timid and scared of being enthusiastic. We sang a few camp songs and cheesy kids songs with actions. I think the kids and leaders were having equally awesome times with the songs.
In the afternoon our group was halved and sent to fill water balloons or paint porches and picnic tables at a seniors' apartment complex. I personally was sent to paint. I first went to deliver invitations to a tea on Friday afternoon. I then went outside and immediately sat on a freshly paint porch. A few people thought that to be highly amusing. Especially when they asked Sacha (girl from host church) if she had seen my butt. Out of context, she also found that amusing.
For supper, we were set randomly at the table, given spaghetti and a utensil (ie: spatula, ice cream scoop, etc). The topic for conversation was embarrassing moments. I was sitting by Gerald and apparently I tell his embarrassing moments better than him, so the conversation took an interesting direction. Samuel told a mammoth story involving a British friend in Cameroon with the personality of Marvin the robot, a game of Life, a fold out couch, and Techno ping pong.
Going to the rally that evening, I sat between Moses and Anna, who were playing the game where you punch someone when you see a double number or letter on a licence plate. They were getting very completive and violent, not against each other, but seeing who could punch me first. Interesting car ride of the week.
Tuesday:
Another morning at camp, with a brief nap on the lawn and lots of picture taking.
After lunch we had a game of mafia where I died a drunken death. The rest of the afternoon we delivered fliers for our food drive and picked up trash in about 35 degree (Celsius). We were exhausted by the end of our purposeful walk.
Supper was my church's responsibility, and after a spirited debate in a narrow hallway with upwards of eight people, we decided on chilli potatoes. Supper seating was decided by names being drawn from a hat. I sat by Alyssa and Lionel, with whom I had great time singing Disney songs. We were causing a bit of a scene at the dinner table.
There was no evening rally, so we headed to downtown Fredericton for a photo scavenger hunt, girls vs. guys.
Wednesday:
Water Wednesday! Basically, we headed outside with all the camp kids and they were given water guns, water balloons, buckets, etc, and we got rather drenched. I'm at the age right between the kids and leaders, so they both decided to get me soaked.
We headed to Mactaquac beach later and hung out for a while. One of the funniest moments was when everybody was laying in a circle in the grass and Sasha picked up a leaf, threw it, and as Montgomery how far she could throw a leaf. She paused and stated,"Guys, this is my boss." We then tried to throw leaves and found out that it did take skill.
There was the communion rally in the evening. It was really intense. Apparently up on the stage, they could feel the wave of emotion. Walking through the hallway, every second person was crying. It was just one of those moments. A bunch of us sat in a silent pile on the floor in tears. It was good.
A few of us felt the need to talk afterwards, so we sat in the back of the rental truck for over an hour.
Thursday:
Thursday was Star Wars themed name tags. I was Darth Vader.
This is when I started slacking off at the camps. I talked to Anna and Moses for a good part of the morning about various Africa experiences. Apparently Moses, who moved from Liberia when he was 8, felt like we knew more about Africa than him. I loved hearing about how Anna's family did laundry in Cameroon before they got house help; by tying barrels full of clothes, water, and soap in the back of their truck and driving around.
In the afternoon we were suppose to go to Green Hill Lake Camp but we decided to turn around when it began to rain. We stayed in the youth room at the church, had a bit of a jam session upstairs and had tacos for supper.
We had the food drive that night. Some of the regular youth group kids from there came to join us. I was paired up with a British guy named Josh who actually resembled Charlie McDonnell. We had a good time and a few interesting experiences. We were standing on a front porch when an elderly gentleman biked out of the driveway. I yelled hi and was ready to give him my food drive spiel, but he kept on biking out of the driveway. It was awkward but Josh and I both thought it was pretty funny. Especially when the bike guy doubled back twice. I think we made him really paranoid.
I mentioned to Josh that last food drive I did, one guy answered the door wearing absolutely no pants. He replied that I now had jinxed us into getting a naked guy. We walked back to the car, and David and Hannah (Josh's girlfriend), looked really amused. Apparently they went to one house where a lady opened the door with a panicked look on her face and went back inside to get food. While they were waiting, a naked man ran across the room. The lady then returned, threw the bag of food at them and slammed the door. David and Hannah walked back to the car in hysterics.
We got back in time for devotions at youth group. Samuel gave practically a motivational speech about not complaining, doing things outside your comfort zone and not wasting your potential.
Friday:
This day was Narnia themed name tags. I was Diggory, from the Magician's Nephew.
There was an extremely small amount of things for me to do at the camps, so I went downstairs to sign the encouragement cards for the Tidal Impact people from the other church. It was suppose to be a secret, but people kept coming into the room to chat with me. I had a great conversation with Samuel, Josh and Montgomery, but it took me over half an hour to sign all the cards.
Emily painted my face as a unique butterfly which made me look like the doll from Scream (which I have never seen due to my issues with scary movies). After that we went for a speedy mission to find twenty water bottles for the craft while the kids were waiting.
Friday afternoon most of us went into a bitter hibernation mode, with the exception of Moses, who lived the entire week on caffeine and sugar and was at that point on a sugar/caffeine high. Napping bodies were everywhere. Until we had to get up, dress up, and look spiffy for the tea at the senior's home.
Goodness, that afternoon was the most humid weather I have ever experienced. Seriously, it started raining and steam was rising from the parking lot. The senior's home didn't have AC. We were dying. I was tired and didn't want to socialise. I still chatted with some Tidal Impact people, who at this point were used to my brief bad moods.
We went back to the church before the rally for a brief attempt by Sasha to teach us a Scottish dance. I was partnered with Emily and we were both not comprehending what we were suppose to do. Everybody else was partnered boy/girl, most of whom were volunteered by Sasha to be together, and the air was thick with awkwardness. We left the room.
Afterwards we loaded the vehicles and headed to our last rally, a very bitter sweet moment.
The last rally was rather enthusiastic. Our last chance of the week to get out our excess energy. After it we had group photos in the hallway and a huge hugging session with lots of laughing and tears. I realized how attached I got in one week to the other half of our group.
We stepped outside the rally to see a really defined rainbow in the sky. I saw it as a symbol of a new beginning.
On the ride back, Andrea presented us with possibly the best quote of the week while she was on the phone with her mother:
"Mom, I'm all pumped up on Jesus... and sugar."
Overall this week, I learned that I have the recently acquired ability to converse with people that I don't know well. I've not only made new friends, but I gotten way closer to the people in my own youth group.
Saturday:
We got together in the evening to prepare for the church service. I was in my post Fredericton low and I didn't want to be there. I was given a bit of a talking to by Emily, about my crazy emotional highs and lows lately. I needed the talking to, and I ended up in tears again for no apparent reason.
Sunday:
I had to be at church at 8:15am for the early service (part of my job) and it got me pumped that people were so interested in hearing about our experiences during Tidal Impact. I was in a great mood when the 9:30am service came around and I played my guitar for the service.
Gerald emceed the entire thing with a puppet, an orange haired one he named 'Cookie.' It was hilarious. I totally underestimated the entertainment value of a puppet.
I got to lead the greeting, get them to do something that the speaker on the previous Sunday evening showed us. Moses was playing the high top cymbal and I yelled "Get up!" *throw hands in air* "Get down!" *thrown hands down* "To the left!" *take three steps to left* "To the right!" *take three steps to right* "Grab somebody!" *hug people around you*. It was amusing seeing this in a conservative baptist church.
We did two kids songs, but the kids had no idea what to do. They kind of stood there stunned as a bunch of teenagers and youth leaders made complete fools of themselves in front of the entire church. But man, we had a good time.
Montgomery, Andrea, Jeremy and Sasha talked about their experiences at Tidal Impact. They all did really well and said meaningful things.
People walked up to us afterwards saying that it was the most geniue, emotional service they had been to in a long time. We all felt like it went really well.
And that brings me to now. Monday, my day off. Back to real life tomorrow. I hate how that's how I think of it.
I think it will take me a few more days to recover from that crazy long packed week. A summer student from the other church calculated that she worked 85 hours last week. INSANITY.
I miss them. When our Tidal Impact people are together, it still feels like half our group is missing.
Love,
-J-
Saturday:
At 1:30 pm, after me having anxiety attacks all morning about how massive my duffel bag was, we pulled out of the church parking lot in our two rental cars and truck.
We got to the church in Fredericton around 3pm and I went inside to pee after complaining for half an hour. All of the sudden, in their seemingly empty church, people came running from nowhere. We gathered in a circle in the basement, introduced ourselves, and headed off to the rally. I hopped into Jo's car, the youth pastor, with Alyssa and Sue. They made me feel really welcome, and I really wasn't scared of conversation for the rest of the week. I was a social butterfly, something that rarely happens when I'm around a lot of people I don't know in a new place.
The rally was two hours long. They had a band, the Mike Janzen Band, and the speaker was a black guy who hopped around the stage for half an hour with a towel to wipe the sweat off his forehead, still consulting his notes now and again. He definitely pumped us up.
We headed back to the church at about 6:30pm for supper, some icebreaker games and preping for the church service. We did show and tell, an interesting time. I brought my fish sunglasses.
We then headed to our billets for the night. I was staying with a couple from the church who lived slightly out of town, but it was nice and quiet. My billet buddies were Melissa and Jeremy.
Sunday:
We got to the church at 8am for a service that started at 10:30am. I was on the worship team playing guitar. Thankfully, it was only three fairly basic songs, so I did fine.
Lunch was a potluck, the best I've been to for a while. After lunch there were some more icebreaker games and prep for camp. Sunday night was another rally.
Monday:
This was the first day of day camps for kids in the mornings. I was in charge of name tags, which was quite the task all week because of all the kids, Tidal Impact people, plus the requested name tags for the "Smith Sisters (#1-7)" and various themes throughout the week.
One thing that everybody from my church immediately noticed was that the kids weren't timid and scared of being enthusiastic. We sang a few camp songs and cheesy kids songs with actions. I think the kids and leaders were having equally awesome times with the songs.
In the afternoon our group was halved and sent to fill water balloons or paint porches and picnic tables at a seniors' apartment complex. I personally was sent to paint. I first went to deliver invitations to a tea on Friday afternoon. I then went outside and immediately sat on a freshly paint porch. A few people thought that to be highly amusing. Especially when they asked Sacha (girl from host church) if she had seen my butt. Out of context, she also found that amusing.
For supper, we were set randomly at the table, given spaghetti and a utensil (ie: spatula, ice cream scoop, etc). The topic for conversation was embarrassing moments. I was sitting by Gerald and apparently I tell his embarrassing moments better than him, so the conversation took an interesting direction. Samuel told a mammoth story involving a British friend in Cameroon with the personality of Marvin the robot, a game of Life, a fold out couch, and Techno ping pong.
Going to the rally that evening, I sat between Moses and Anna, who were playing the game where you punch someone when you see a double number or letter on a licence plate. They were getting very completive and violent, not against each other, but seeing who could punch me first. Interesting car ride of the week.
Tuesday:
Another morning at camp, with a brief nap on the lawn and lots of picture taking.
After lunch we had a game of mafia where I died a drunken death. The rest of the afternoon we delivered fliers for our food drive and picked up trash in about 35 degree (Celsius). We were exhausted by the end of our purposeful walk.
Supper was my church's responsibility, and after a spirited debate in a narrow hallway with upwards of eight people, we decided on chilli potatoes. Supper seating was decided by names being drawn from a hat. I sat by Alyssa and Lionel, with whom I had great time singing Disney songs. We were causing a bit of a scene at the dinner table.
There was no evening rally, so we headed to downtown Fredericton for a photo scavenger hunt, girls vs. guys.
Wednesday:
Water Wednesday! Basically, we headed outside with all the camp kids and they were given water guns, water balloons, buckets, etc, and we got rather drenched. I'm at the age right between the kids and leaders, so they both decided to get me soaked.
We headed to Mactaquac beach later and hung out for a while. One of the funniest moments was when everybody was laying in a circle in the grass and Sasha picked up a leaf, threw it, and as Montgomery how far she could throw a leaf. She paused and stated,"Guys, this is my boss." We then tried to throw leaves and found out that it did take skill.
There was the communion rally in the evening. It was really intense. Apparently up on the stage, they could feel the wave of emotion. Walking through the hallway, every second person was crying. It was just one of those moments. A bunch of us sat in a silent pile on the floor in tears. It was good.
A few of us felt the need to talk afterwards, so we sat in the back of the rental truck for over an hour.
Thursday:
Thursday was Star Wars themed name tags. I was Darth Vader.
This is when I started slacking off at the camps. I talked to Anna and Moses for a good part of the morning about various Africa experiences. Apparently Moses, who moved from Liberia when he was 8, felt like we knew more about Africa than him. I loved hearing about how Anna's family did laundry in Cameroon before they got house help; by tying barrels full of clothes, water, and soap in the back of their truck and driving around.
In the afternoon we were suppose to go to Green Hill Lake Camp but we decided to turn around when it began to rain. We stayed in the youth room at the church, had a bit of a jam session upstairs and had tacos for supper.
We had the food drive that night. Some of the regular youth group kids from there came to join us. I was paired up with a British guy named Josh who actually resembled Charlie McDonnell. We had a good time and a few interesting experiences. We were standing on a front porch when an elderly gentleman biked out of the driveway. I yelled hi and was ready to give him my food drive spiel, but he kept on biking out of the driveway. It was awkward but Josh and I both thought it was pretty funny. Especially when the bike guy doubled back twice. I think we made him really paranoid.
I mentioned to Josh that last food drive I did, one guy answered the door wearing absolutely no pants. He replied that I now had jinxed us into getting a naked guy. We walked back to the car, and David and Hannah (Josh's girlfriend), looked really amused. Apparently they went to one house where a lady opened the door with a panicked look on her face and went back inside to get food. While they were waiting, a naked man ran across the room. The lady then returned, threw the bag of food at them and slammed the door. David and Hannah walked back to the car in hysterics.
We got back in time for devotions at youth group. Samuel gave practically a motivational speech about not complaining, doing things outside your comfort zone and not wasting your potential.
Friday:
This day was Narnia themed name tags. I was Diggory, from the Magician's Nephew.
There was an extremely small amount of things for me to do at the camps, so I went downstairs to sign the encouragement cards for the Tidal Impact people from the other church. It was suppose to be a secret, but people kept coming into the room to chat with me. I had a great conversation with Samuel, Josh and Montgomery, but it took me over half an hour to sign all the cards.
Emily painted my face as a unique butterfly which made me look like the doll from Scream (which I have never seen due to my issues with scary movies). After that we went for a speedy mission to find twenty water bottles for the craft while the kids were waiting.
Friday afternoon most of us went into a bitter hibernation mode, with the exception of Moses, who lived the entire week on caffeine and sugar and was at that point on a sugar/caffeine high. Napping bodies were everywhere. Until we had to get up, dress up, and look spiffy for the tea at the senior's home.
Goodness, that afternoon was the most humid weather I have ever experienced. Seriously, it started raining and steam was rising from the parking lot. The senior's home didn't have AC. We were dying. I was tired and didn't want to socialise. I still chatted with some Tidal Impact people, who at this point were used to my brief bad moods.
We went back to the church before the rally for a brief attempt by Sasha to teach us a Scottish dance. I was partnered with Emily and we were both not comprehending what we were suppose to do. Everybody else was partnered boy/girl, most of whom were volunteered by Sasha to be together, and the air was thick with awkwardness. We left the room.
Afterwards we loaded the vehicles and headed to our last rally, a very bitter sweet moment.
The last rally was rather enthusiastic. Our last chance of the week to get out our excess energy. After it we had group photos in the hallway and a huge hugging session with lots of laughing and tears. I realized how attached I got in one week to the other half of our group.
We stepped outside the rally to see a really defined rainbow in the sky. I saw it as a symbol of a new beginning.
On the ride back, Andrea presented us with possibly the best quote of the week while she was on the phone with her mother:
"Mom, I'm all pumped up on Jesus... and sugar."
Overall this week, I learned that I have the recently acquired ability to converse with people that I don't know well. I've not only made new friends, but I gotten way closer to the people in my own youth group.
Saturday:
We got together in the evening to prepare for the church service. I was in my post Fredericton low and I didn't want to be there. I was given a bit of a talking to by Emily, about my crazy emotional highs and lows lately. I needed the talking to, and I ended up in tears again for no apparent reason.
Sunday:
I had to be at church at 8:15am for the early service (part of my job) and it got me pumped that people were so interested in hearing about our experiences during Tidal Impact. I was in a great mood when the 9:30am service came around and I played my guitar for the service.
Gerald emceed the entire thing with a puppet, an orange haired one he named 'Cookie.' It was hilarious. I totally underestimated the entertainment value of a puppet.
I got to lead the greeting, get them to do something that the speaker on the previous Sunday evening showed us. Moses was playing the high top cymbal and I yelled "Get up!" *throw hands in air* "Get down!" *thrown hands down* "To the left!" *take three steps to left* "To the right!" *take three steps to right* "Grab somebody!" *hug people around you*. It was amusing seeing this in a conservative baptist church.
We did two kids songs, but the kids had no idea what to do. They kind of stood there stunned as a bunch of teenagers and youth leaders made complete fools of themselves in front of the entire church. But man, we had a good time.
Montgomery, Andrea, Jeremy and Sasha talked about their experiences at Tidal Impact. They all did really well and said meaningful things.
People walked up to us afterwards saying that it was the most geniue, emotional service they had been to in a long time. We all felt like it went really well.
And that brings me to now. Monday, my day off. Back to real life tomorrow. I hate how that's how I think of it.
I think it will take me a few more days to recover from that crazy long packed week. A summer student from the other church calculated that she worked 85 hours last week. INSANITY.
I miss them. When our Tidal Impact people are together, it still feels like half our group is missing.
Love,
-J-
Music about Doctor Who= Epic
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Brownie and basketball induced exhaustion.
Goodness, this week was exhausting.
I got up every morning since Sunday at 7am. Quite brutal, grouped with basketball camp and planning for the fundraiser this weekend. I just baked for 3 hours for the bake sale tomorrow.
I'm looking forward to Tidal Impact in a week, a giant mission trip for youth in the Maritimes. Basically, a youth group from one church pairs up with another church in the hosting city/town for a week. Then we do a lot of community work like day camps for kids, food drives, stuff like that. In the evenings we go to big youth rallies with awesome music and people speaking. I quite enjoyed it two summers ago, minus the middle school drama that somehow showed up. This year, I think we will have a more mature bunch. I like the group from my church, I think we have a good dynamic.
Love,
-J-
City buses taken this year: 51
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