If the past few weeks are any indication, we're in for quite the summer, in many different ways. We started VBS (or day camp) a few weeks ago with our 11 interns running it by themselves along with a few staff members. Our first day we had more than 50 kids show up and we were pumped.

Our second week we had a young man in from my hometown who essentially became an honorary intern for the week. He was great with the kids and wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. The kids at day camp loved him and seemed to seek him out when we went to the projects for Challenge Circle in the evenings. Thanks Sam for all your hard work and for loving on our kids!

This week we have our first full team in from Wisconsin and I know our interns are relieved to have a great amount of help with day camp. We now have 105 officially registered and average 50-55 per day.

In addition to all hands on deck to help with day camp and other summer things, there was a huge storm a week ago and the tree outside the Yellow House was struck by lightning. Several of the interns saw it happen and I was around at least to hear it. I had literally just finished printing the materials Pastor John needed for National Conference and the lightning hit. I noticed that at the same time, my internet went out, but I figured it was just the router needing to be restarted.

As it turns out, the lightning fried our modem, router, my network card, the printer network card, etc. etc. etc. It took a few days to get internet back online and just when the printer got fixed, the internet went out again.

It's amazing how little I can actually accomplish without the internet. I guess we don't realize how much we depend on it until it's gone. We had a mailing that needed to get out and without internet or a printer, I ended up addressing some 300 envelopes by hand. I definitely felt muscles in my arm I didn't know I had! Everything seems to be in working order now and it is good to get back to "normal."

This weekend I will be heading to Challenge (the EFCA national youth conference) with several of our students and staff members. I am going to man our booth, but I am excited to see several former staff members, youth pastors I know and friends. It should be a great week. Please pray that our youth would grow and be challenged in their faith and that the leaders would find a time of refreshment as well.

As a financial update, I am getting closer to being back on track. Due to additional monthly partners, I am now supported at 54% monthly but need to continue to increase that percentage. My account is still negative, but I am slowly climbing out of the hole.

I met this little boy during day camp today and it just reminds me how much I love summers here. Yes, it's ungodly hot and you sweat just thinking about going outside, but summer means day camp and kids and excitement and energy.

He had decided he didn't want to play duck, duck, goose so he was sitting off to the side and I struck up a conversation. We were talking about foods you can eat to stay cool and he was telling me about a new green cold drink that he gets every day at Cajun's. Then he was telling me about all the other stuff you can get there and I said, "wow, they've got a lot of good stuff!" And he says, "Except beer. Beer is bad." "That's right," I said, "it is."

Then he was telling me all about ice cream and how all he has at his house is ice cream. I thought that was funny. We talked about banana fruit roll ups (they're new) and snow balls and all sorts of things. I'd never met him before, but I have a feeling he'll be one of my buddies this summer.

It's been a bit of a long week getting back into the swing of things so for class this morning, Kentrell and I went to Starbucks. After some thorough caffienation, we reviewed the financial goals he created as homework (things like getting a bank account and saving for his own apartment) and talked about balancing a checkbook.

I may be one of the worst offenders when it comes to managing a checkbook (it has been a while at least in the traditional sense) but I was taught well. I thought it was my dad who taught me how to record and balance, but after talking to my mom I'm not so sure anymore who it was. Even so, it was fun to be able to teach him about it in the same way I was taught.

It has also been fun teaching him practical, real life things and not just a bunch of theories and vocabulary. We talk about everyday stuff like why you should save money from each check, how you find out the necessary info before opening a bank account, how to interview, how to write a resume, etc. It's some of these things I wished I'd learned more about it school. While I'm sure all those geometry proofs were somehow important, it's the basics that sometimes get overlooked.

I am now home from my trip to Iowa and while it got off to a rather rocky start, it was a good trip.

I was delayed an hour out of New Orleans and once I got to Atlanta I found out my flight had been pushed back to 1 a.m. About 11:30 p.m. it was moved up to 12:32 and things were starting to look up. But at 12:40 they canceled the flight altogether. They told us because of the weather and all the other cancellations out of Atlanta, that the hotels that accepted vouchers were all full. So, I decided that the $100 or so I'd spend on a room for 3 hours of sleep wasn't worth it and I claimed my spot on a row of chairs.


This was the first time ever that I didn't pack any overnight anything in my carry-ons because I figured, it's May, what could go wrong?! I didn't get much sleep as it was freezing and there was a loud homeland security warning every 20 minutes. By 4 a.m. my stomach was loudly protesting and I was physically shivering. 6 a.m. and the opening of the gift shop couldn't come soon enough! We finally managed to get on the plane around 7:30 a.m. and the flight went almost as planned. We were almost to Moline, landing gear down, on approach and all of a sudden the pilot yanks up on the stick and we take off again. He tells us it's really foggy and we're going to try again but if we can't land that we'll have to fly to St. Louis for more fuel. I'm pretty sure I prayed that plane onto the ground!


The weekend then started off busy with lunch and dinner with friends Saturday. Sunday I headed to Des Moines to watch the series finale of LOST with friends. It was so good to see the end of the show with the same people I'd watched it with in the beginning. I can't say that I'm thrilled about the ending, but that's another blog post entirely.


Monday it was back to Cedar Rapids for a few days and more time with friends and supporters. It was so good to catch up with so many people and also be able to spend time with family. Thursday I headed to Des Moines for my friend's pre-wedding activities and more time with friends and supporters. The rehearsal went well and I was much more calm on Saturday than the last time I photographed a wedding!



Jen and Brent were a joy to photograph and it was hard not to laugh when they both got to giggling! I had to remember to keep my composure so as not to shake the camera! The wedding was beautiful and I am so blessed to have been able to spend the day celebrating with them.


Sunday I headed back to Cedar Rapids for a final brief time with family. We didn't do a ton, but it was fun to spend time together just hanging out. Several times my brothers and I showed our dependence on technology while playing Scrabble via Facebook all while on different computers in the same room. With John being at Iowa State most of the year and me being in New Orleans, the times like that are much fewer and far between, and it was so great to be there together!


The weather is considerably warmer here and summer is definitely upon us. I'm excited to get back into the swing of things and start VBS next week. Summer is always one of my favorite times here. I am also working with Kentrell each morning to get him through Economics and on to graduation.


I am also still raising support as I go. Because of some commitments made during this trip, I am now supported at 54% monthly, but I am still quite a way off from my goal. Please continue to pray for additional monthly and generous one-time supporters!