Weekend Adventures

With the end of the school year coming, a lot has been happening here in Pasadena. My coleaders Betsy, Hilary and I took the junior high girls up into the mountains near Big Bear for an overnight trip. That was an adventure! The girls LOVED climbing all over the huge rocks up there, throwing rocks into a nearby pond, playing arcade games and eating candy in the town of Big Bear, go-carting, and having a late night dance party before bed. For most of the kids, it was their first time to be out surrounded by trees as far as they could see instead of buildings. One car of girls even got to stop and touch snow for the first time on the way down. Thank you so much to everyone who prayed for the trip, because it was a blessing to see the kids really enjoy themselves and include each other. It was great to be able to have so much time with them, although I'm learning that even when these kids have fun, they are big complainers when anything doesn't go their way, so as the adult I have to learn to stand firm on my decisions, support the decisions of the other leaders, and not allow their complaining to dampen my own enthusiasm or play guilt trips on me. I'm also glad that it was only one night, because I was pretty exhausted even before the trip began, and while we left when we all were still having fun, I think another night would have produced some cranky kids and leaders!

Last weekend our Servant Partners class went on a four day retreat up in the mountains at the Palamar retreat center. It was a much needed time to rest, celebrate community, conclude our study of the book of Luke, and reflect on the past year. It was beautifully sunny, but not too warm, so we spent a lot of our free time outside. I got to hone my archery skills and cheer on fellow interns, play a game of kickball, and learn how to use a baseball bat. It was so lovely to have lots of time to just enjoy each other's company, whether in card games, sharing with each other and praying for each other, or an experimental jam session with the guitar and djembe. :) Moreover, it was very restful for my soul to have extensive times alone with God to reflect on the year and work on some of my current issues. I found that when I went back to work on Monday, I actually had energy to stay loving and encouraging all day long, even when I came home to Dia in the evening. Now the rest has worn off a bit, particularly as it was a stressful week, but as this is a long weekend, I'm hoping to sleep and rest enough to recapture a bit of that spark. I don't like perpetually functioning out of tiredness.

Yesterday we went to the Northwest Neighbors end of year event Con Gozo (with joy). All the junior high and high school study kids and leaders came together for a morning of singing a couple songs, hearing the leaders share about how the study had gone that year, and cheering during the presentation of an individualized award to each kid celebrating some aspect of their character that the leaders had really noticed over the year. We'd been planning to take them all to the beach afterwards, especially considering the 90 degree weather, but this week it turned cold, stormy, and windy, so we opted for a backyard barbeque and Wi fun instead. And then we all went to play laser tag, which was AWESOME! I had no idea that sneaking around in blacklight shooting little red beams at people could be so fun. My three girls that came definitely all traveled in a pack, and woe to me whenever they found me!