I said, Let Me See You Sanitize!

While I'll get to the other highlights of the week, this has to be the big one. On Wednesday afternoon, 47 of our 67 participants departed due to the potential threat of a fast-spreading flu virus....

I have to say, it was probably inevitable that we would encounter Mr. Swine Flu at some point this summer. Afterall, we have 70 kids coming in every week from different parts of the country. Facts that I learned about Swine Flu this week and Youthworks protocall:
-Swine Flu is no worse than any other strain of flu virus. But, it does spread more quickly and has no vaccine.
-The incubation period is 5-7 days, so we could be infected, but we won't show symptoms for multiple days.
-We had the honor and priviledge of sanitizing our entire castle of a church not once, but twice!

Once the group left, we sanitized before the other 20 could come back from ministry sites. And then we did it again when everyone was gone! I personally went through 4 bottles total of bleach spray. Finger cramps.
Of course now, our staff is a little paranoid, but not to the extent of being upset. Clearly, Kara and I got a kick out of it and so did John and Eric. Ultimately, we have absolutely no control over this situation. If we get sick, we get sick. We realized a lot of it is mental. It was funny after everyone left we were like, Wait, I have a sore throat and I'm hot....maybe that's because I just took a nap in my sleeping bag and haven't had water in a few hours.

Our beach day this week was successful. It was beautiful outside and the kids swam. The water was about 50 degrees...upgrade from 40. But it was super hot outside so it was bearable. Apparently, 80 degrees is hot for Duluth. Pastor John said it didn't break 80 two summers ago. We loved it!

Officially, we haven't had a full YW week yet. This was our first week with 67, as opposed to last week with 30. It's a lot more difficult to manage, feed, entertain, and send out 70 as opposed to 30. A lot more names to learn as well. It was great to have the whole group and there were some great kids. As unfortunate as it was having 2/3 of the group leave, having only 20 was great. It made for some closer friendships at the end of the week and more bonding time. Example. We do this thing called the Bugaloo, which is a marching chanting song. We did it in Ethiopia! It goes Let me see you Flop Like a Fish, and they respond, What's that you say? and it keeps going. When the smaller groups came back after we'd sanitized the first time, they were chanting, I said, Let me see you sanitize! What's that you say? Apparently they'd been singing it all morning down the street and in the park too. Made my day. These girls were hi-larious.

This week was frustrating and so challenging. I'm not stressed out by a lot, but I was stressed out. And it really wasn't even because of the swine flu. Many times this week, I felt like nothing I did or said was good enough. And that's a hard pill to swallow. I'm not perfect....a good, humbling reminder for myself. I had to go back to a basic lesson that I learned in jr. high and high school, coincidentally, the age group we're hanging out with. I am only one person. I have two hands and one brain and I cannot please everyone. That's hard when there are 16 adult leaders and 55 kids that are looking to you for guidance, leadership, and friendship. Out of all the stress and incidents, I again realized what a great team we have. We're all such proactive people and we never have to worry that someone isn't doing their job. And in the whole ordeal of the week, we still came together, were on the same page, definitely don't take ourselves too seriously, and we surrender everything we do and who we are to Jesus. We seriously have the best staff EVER.

After an exhausting week, we ran to Sam's Club and Wally World and then crashed for a few hours. I got my weekly Hot Dog Combo at Sam's for $1.70. Hey, better than a sandwich. We then decided to head up to the North Shore to get some fresh air and a place called Goosebury Falls. Best decision ever. We stopped at Betty's Pies for dinner. I had coconut cream. It was awesome to sit down and eat a meal slowly and eat until I was full...not something that happens during the week. It was great to put normal clothes on and some makeup even. Crazy! It was fun to just laugh and take a little road trip. It is so beautiful up here.

Pray! Yes please!

-Health. Health. Staying Healthy.

-For the next week of participants and their leaders.

-Continual strength and energy.

-Capacity to choose love over frustration.

Much love. Thanks for reading and sharing my summer with me. It means so much!