We Are Family

We've survived Prep Week! This week, we finally have gotten settled into our castle of a church. Kara and I got a night light for our hallway because to go to the bathroom at night, we get to go down 2 floors! Who needs to work out when we have a built-in, four-story stairmaster?
We worked on jr.-high-proofing the church, making signs and setting up clear boundaries. We ran through our CLUB times too.
Components of CLUB:
-A skit or game. We're doing a few different ones and needed practice....a lot of practice.
-Announcements in an entertaining way.
-Yea Gods: Kids have the chance to give a shout out to something that God did during the day.
-Songs. Upbeat, fast, medium, slow, or hymns. I'm finally getting callouses on my fingers!
-Talk. Given by me every night that relates to the theme of the day to the overall theme of FREE (fame, wealth, power, and revolution) Includes scripture and a vignette or two from my own life!
We've been practicing those from about 10 to 11 every night this week. That's joy, right there.
Pastor John is the pastor here. For all of you who have seen Big Fish (One of the two movies I brought with me. Love it.), he looks similar to and sounds exactly like the old Edward Bloom. Seriously.
There are officially zero restaurants in Duluth. Grizzly's is the prime time place to go. We figured that our choices are limited since it's snowy and miserable for about 9 months of the year, therefore people don't get out much, therefore there aren't a lot of restaurants. Good theory? We thought so.
The four of us are becoming like a family. We've been to Grizzly's twice, once on Sunday and once this evening. Sunday evening, they naturally asked how we watched the check split up. Makes sense with 4 20-somethings to ask. This evening when the waitress asked us, Ho we wOnt the bell splet owp? (Best phonetic spelling of Minnesota accent) and I responded matter-of-factly, It's all on one! Like I just assumed that everyone knows that we are like a family...we eat every meal together, we spend all day together, and we will be living in the same building together. Kara even said, When we go home tonight...I mean the church! It's happening...
We've all been getting to know each other through Eric's mealtime questions: What's the meanest thing you've ever done to your syblings? What are the top three fast food restaurants that you absolutely hate? Out of everyone in your family, whose farts smell the worst? Oh yes. We're getting to know each other really well.
Tomorrow we head back to Minneapolis for what is called Early Bird. No, there are no worms. In Minneapolis, there will be a group of participants at their site. The St. Paul team and us will join them to run the week. It's another learning opportunity for us so the first week with students isn't so overwhelming.
We went down to the beach last night. It was beautiful. I'm loving the sunny, zero humidity weather. It's still chilly here...in the high 50s, lower 60s but it's nice. I didn't take pictures yet because I will be going there about once a week for 10 weeks straight. :-) Don't worry, I'll share the Lake Superior Love.
I'm doing alright. Still tired. I'm ready for the kids to get here. It's going to be a sweet summer. I am also looking forward to my first Saturday after participants have come and gone. I am going to sleep in and lounge around all day. Kara and I decided we'll have an all day slumber party.
Prayer. Please.
-Rest. Always pray for rest.
-Patience with more preparation next week.
-Team bonding.

Much love.