Tutoring

I decided that I have lots of down time. Not enough to get a part time job just yet, especially with events like fall retreat, corn maze, and the whole crazy service month of November to try to figure out and coordinate. But enough time to tutor a couple of hours each week.

My first time to do so was last Thursday, at a local elementary school. I got to assist Tez (short for Cortez) with a persuasive letter, and then a kid named Matt with some third grade math. I enjoyed reminiscing over my times at Lincolnwood Elementary School my freshmen and sophomore years of college under Mrs. Mandell. Kids are often so stubborn, and yet, it's always fun to figure out what the student is confident with, and honing in on that in order to help him/her excel in the other areas as well.

Today, I went to Mr. Banich's school to help Ana with geometry. I laughed at myself because it took me a couple of minutes to understand the problem. I will blame it on being a communications major ;). Thankfully, it clicked, and I think we were able to solve the problems in the short half hour time span we were given. Mainly, she needs to learn to consistently take notes to help her memorize the formulas.

Then, as I was heading back to work for a meeting (during which I played Tetris on facebook. I mean, I do take my job seriously. It was a short meeting, I swear!), I watched as the students went to their next class. I loved seeing all of the colors--as in hair, and clothes. I also laughed because I think that was the most I had heard the F word said in such a small interval of time since, well, Goodfellas. One girl was in the middle of shouting it when she saw me and the visitor pass sticker on my shirt. "Uhh..." she smiled coyly.

I look forward to these times.

Mall Scavenger Hunt

For Fusion this week, I got to coordinate a scavenger hunt at Flatirons Mall. The whole day we were wary of how many students could come, considering the mall is out of the way, and Junior High kids can't drive. Legally. I mean, some of them are taller than me, so they could probably get away with it.

But I digress.

I think about 30 students came, and we immediately dispersed around the mall to take pictures of students doing push-ups in a health store, giving random strangers a high five, singing Kumbaya in a tent, farting in an elevator etc. etc. (the list had 58 possible things--my personal favorite being them going to the Apple store and asking for 10 reasons why a Mac is better than a PC).

Well, I didn't go around taking pictures, as there were too many volunteers. So Jacob Stooke and I walked around to find the students, point, laugh, and such. I was amazed when a mall cop came up to us and apologized for yelling at a group that was crabwalking around Nordstroms. He felt bad for scaring the kids, and for not knowing that we had adult supervision for each group. That was cool.

And, um.. we also might have gotten distracted at Brookstone. Those massage chairs are just too comfortable!!

As a random sidenote, did you know that Obama has his own calendar now? I find that a little obnoxious. I dunno, I just happened to see it at the calendar kiosk after we found some of our kids who had just yelled, "Freedom!" at the top of our lungs. The woman who worked the kiosk asked what they just yelled.

"I think they said 'freedom.'" I responded.

"Hmm, that's weird."

"Yeah, I think they must be middle schoolers."

"Probably."

"How much is this calendar?" haha. Just kidding.

Way to go Shawn Johnson

You think my congratulations is a little late? Well, this comes from ignorance. Kendra and I went to Janelle's gymnastics meet yesterday at A West. We could only go for the first hour, as All-Area Worship was at 7. Yet, within that hour, we were able to see how truly difficult gymnastics can be.

Janelle's team did the uneven bars first. It was then that we saw these students in pretty good shape unable to lift themselves up over the bar more than half the time. Then, when there were a couple who could, or those who could do a single back flip for their landing, we were much more in awe.

In the background, another team was doing the vault. And other than the moments when we might've snickered to ourselves due to the funny ways these girls would run, we realized how hard it can be to trust yourself to get over the... um... haha. I don't know gymnastics terms. The brown saddle looking thing? I should wikipedia that.

Her team then went to the balance beam. It was common for a lot of girls to fall off, and it was then we noticed how much stress goes into this sport. How many smiles turned to frowns as soon as they hit the ground. How many times the girls expressed nervous laughter when they stayed on, even though they had just waved their arms like a crane and their torso wobbled uncontrollably until that final moment of equilibrium. Whew.

The cool thing about the meet was that it was fully entertaining. No, I wasn't laughing at the girls' failures, what I mean is there was always something to watch. There were four different things to watch. And the tumbling was always a bonus with the fun music (my personal favorite being "Jump on it" hehe).

So again, props to Miss Johnson. It's just so amazing how easy they make that look.

HP redux

Last night at High Point, we changed things up a bit. The common outline for Wednesday nights is hangout for about an hour and a half (some organized games are involved in that) and then half an hour of a talk and breaking up into small groups to discuss the talk.

Since this has been the way for the past three weeks, we decided to give students a chance to have some more focused, personal time with Jesus. So we played for about an hour, and then we met in the "living room."



Kendra then spoke about the wonderful truth that God is illogical. That He does overcome impossible things in your life. "Are you willing to let Him?" she asked.

While she talked about this, a few of the leaders set up the gym to give students the opportunity to try. There was an area to respond with art, an area for praying for each other, a place to nail things you think are impossible for God to a cross, an area for just plain reading the Bible.

One thing I was concerned about for this evening was the new students who happened to come. And sure enough, I met one student who said he hadn't been there in awhile. My heart went out to him, especially as I noticed that he had a couple of his friends come to, who I had never seen before.

The cool thing, is watching what God does. And sure enough, those boys did a little bit of everything. I saw one read the Bible (we had marked some of the Bibles so that students who had no idea what the Bible is about, could have some direction) for awhile. Another two praying.. And eventually they all ended up in the art section. When I went to the various areas to let students know that it was 8:30, I overheard the boy talk about his reading of the Bible.

"Yeah, I was reading that one Eccloosias book. Eccle- um.. what's it called?"

"Ecclesiastes?" A girl from nearby said.

"Yeah! That one!" he said.

I smirked.

Clean up took awhile, and we left some of the stuff to dry overnight, having used paints. I went to check up on the art stuff this morning and found one drawing with three figures on it, and lots of wavy lines drawn around it. Two figures were close together and one of them had something covering its mouth. Above it was written "Don't expect not to get laughed at when you laugh at others." Then in the corner was the third figure, perhaps on his knees, and written beside it, flowing with the wavy lines said, "a chasing after the wind."

I just think that's awesome. I don't necessarily know what was going on in his head, but I'm excited to see how God continues to work in him.

Go Cubbies!!

While I shall soon inherit the Rockies vibe, I kind of want to hold out for this season by cheering for the Cubs. I wouldn't call myself a fair-weather fan either, I genuinely cheered for them all four years of my life in Chicago.

And I just think it is hilarious that the fans cheered Ramirez when the umpires gave him the error to try and keep the no hitter streak going for Lily. Classic.

It's also beautiful to think that Ariel and I were at the first game that started it all.

Dream big

I'm a little nervous to talk about this one. But here it is.

I've been reading Matthew. Presently I'm stuck in the famous Sermon, as it is full of some major challenges to my life. I find myself making sure I'm reading what I'm reading. "God, you're really in control of that? You care more about my heart than my outer actions?"

But before that, came the story of Jesus' birth. While traditionally, stored away for the month of December, I wonder if we're not missing something. One thing that caught my attention was the use of dreams. Five dreams are used to be sure of the safety of the birth of the child.

Which led to a rabbit trail of other dreams used throughout the Bible:
I thought about Jacob's dream of the stairway to heaven (try your best not to think of the song!)
I thought about the dream of Joseph, or those he interpreted.
The vision of Peter when Cornelius makes a visit.

Why do we not think of our own dreams as messages from God?

So I prayed. Perhaps foolishly, but I prayed that my eyes would be open and that I would either have a dream that God spoke to me through, or that I would have the opportunity to interpret a dream.

Two days later, a friend mentions at dinner that she had a very weird dream. She explains the dream, and with everyone around her asking more questions and trying to figure out the meaning of the dream, I stand in silence. She finishes and says, "Interpret that!"

I really wanted to. I mean, I thought of something that the dream could mean, but I know it had more to do with what I wanted it to than asking for an interpretation. I was just so surprised, so scared more like it, that I was too afraid to trust God to take the authority that is already His and say, "Do not interpretations belong to the Lord?"

Conclusion. Again, God is very real, and dreams are too. Yet He is merciful with me when my faith is lacking (which is more often than not, unfortunately). I will continually ask, seek and knock, because the faithFUL, good Father will not give me stone when I ask for bread.

Ministry Update

I have been needing to fill you in on other ministry details. So, um.. keep reading if you care to know.

I've been meeting with several students one-on-one over lunches or just general hang out times. I had lunch last week with Abby at Inta Juice, a place to give Jamba Juice a run for its money (and I would know, I used to work at a smoothie place!). We talked about what she wants to do with her life, and she said that she had this strange call toward Russia, although she couldn't explain it. Then the conversation centered on both Shane Claiborne's Irresistible Revolution and Gary Haugen's Good News About Injustice. Both recommended reads!

On Monday, I had a late lunch with Lexi, the other student leader for the small group I get to help lead (starts October 6th--please be praying!). We met at Panera and just shared our lives, and then decided to read a book together over the coming months: Brother Lawrence's Practicing the Presence of God.

Tuesday I picked up Sarah Z. and Crawford after school in order to hang out at a place called Lollicup--also a smoothie place, but I wasn't hungry.. er.. thirsty? We laughed a lot, as well as discussed some things they might like to see happen at small group. The trouble is that Crawford has dance on Tuesday nights, so that will be a bummer to not see her. Maybe we'll move it to Monday nights?? I dunno.

Last night, the gal leaders (Kendra, Raychel and Tate) all came over and we watched Hairspray. Oh, good times! Like when Tate accidentally spilled her orange juice, and then since her cup had broken, she poured the rest into the sink. Only to find out, that well, the sink she happened to use was out of commission, missing a pipe. The orange juice spilling all over the floor. We all had a good guffaw from that. I also find it so good to bond with the fellow leaders

And today, I'm hanging out with Raychel after she gets out of school. We're going to Susie's softball game! Tomorrow, I'm baking with Sophie, a senior from RV!

Book Numero Cuatro Since the Move

Reading Through Painted Deserts does two things to me. First, it reminds me of my adventures in Nevada with Kala Glass (check out her song "Let It Go") during the summer 2006. How I wished that I was faithful to my journal during that time! We had also decided that we wanted to go on a roadtrip across the nation in an RV. We want to visit every national park (having been inspired by Yo-See-Might) and just pitch tent, look at the stars, not take showers. Be all rugged and rough, listening for God in true quiet. I also really badly want to meet a bear. But that would just be an extra incentive. :)

The book also makes me wish I had a typewriter for the thoughts in my head. A) because typewriters make cool clicky sounds that put you right back into a good 30s movie and B) I feel like I think like him a lot--taking a lot of simple things in life, and going deeper with them. Or trying to.

This is weird, but perhaps the reason I like ole Miller is that he's sarcastic. Sometimes he goes a little too far, thinking of the chapter 'California' I just read, but overall, I think it's an expression of his constant joy in life. So what if the car breaks down in the middle of the desert. So what if they don't have enough money to buy more than peanut butter and bread. And this is an attitude I find myself to have, or at least desire to have. I desire to be content whatever the circumstance, and even to find the comedy of it all. Never take anything that we like to call "life's curveballs" too seriously.

Sports-aholic

I just wanted to note: Volleyball game Thursday night (Jordan was/is a stud. Go sophomore on the Varsity team! And you can see some youtube examples), Friday afternoon was Mallory's softball game (bottom of the 7th inning, one of the gals hits a homerun to win the game for RV--very exciting), Friday night I learn to skateboard as well as play a basketball game called Ping Pong, and then even later than that, I join the youth group leaders for my first ever game of soccer. Tomorrow morning, well today, I might be going to see Mike and Mitch play football. But I still need to take a shower, and sleep.

I must repeat the feelings of great joy I have, knowing that I'm getting paid for this.

Back in the saddle

And then, a whirring of events. Ev's baby was born while I was away, so she obviously has not been in the office. This puts High Point on my shoulders, but thankfully, as I've said many a time before, the volunteers are amazing. They have such servant and eager hearts to serve these students!

Tuesday then, was spent preparing for an event a month away, since I hadn't a chance to make plans with any of the students. I also had a little trouble preparing for a game for Wednesday night. Not too much of a matter, however.

We also had a staff lunch at Chili's, went to Ev's house to see the breathtakingly beautiful Gwyneth, and before we knew it, it was time for Fusion. I remember taking a moment during several games of dodgeball with the Junior High students to praise God. "I get paid to throw a rubber ball at kids."

And today? I took a small break in the middle of completing the preparation of the game to nap, as well as visit with Kendra at Steamer's. In between all of this, I can't seem to put down Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot. Just a mere 17 pages to go.

Then, while tomorrow I'm having lunch with Abby and going to see Jordan's volleyball game at night, this random song on my iPod puzzles me (as well as the fact the iPod is still underlined in red according to spell check) on my drive home from work.

The Land of Gray Ducks

It wasn't until I had gotten to the airport that I realized that I was traveling from the city of the Democratic National Convention, to the city for the Republican National Convention. But that makes sense. I don't keep up with politics, because it has never been my thing. It has always seemed too complicated, too slow a process for my A.D.D. mind to adhere to.

Minneapolis.. White Bear Lake, rather, was beautiful. Not only did I get to spend time with John's amazing family (he's got seven siblings, so it's pretty much a guaranteed blast), but we also got to explore the University of Minnesota, canoe WBL, as well as attend his church, among many other things.


And if you were to get me started on the countless conversations, or even simple moments like reading and/or playing Boggle just with John, you probably wouldn't hear the end of it. Too much fun! Indeed, I was truly blessed to have a weekend away from work (ha, even though I'm only a month into it) to spend with him, and enjoy my first time ever in the land of duck, duck, goose. I mean..