Although March maybe known for it's intense Basketball season, I can see the craziness of March 2012.
March started with the end of our 4-day THIRST Conference in El Paso, TX. And was followed by a week at Lonetree, a high adventure Camp in Capitan, NM. Then it was off to Show Low, AZ where our scheduled 8-day SUMMIT was advertised as an 11-day SUMMIT. And today we started to head toward Reno, NV, two days of travel. But we got to spend a few hours in the Grand Canyon National Park.
At the end of our conference in El Paso, TX my teammate was released from the hospital. She was recovering from a ski accident. Praise the Lord for His Protection and Healing for her.
Lonetree was where we spent our Spring break...but I don't think you could really say we had a restful break. When I was not exhausted, I was having a lot of fun. We had the opportunity to go repelling and rock climbing. Two things I've never done, but would totally do it again. We also got a chance to do some archery and shot some 22s. Oh and a snow storm hit while we were there.
Lonetree is a Christian Camp in Capitan, NM. And one of the couples that works in their kitchen has family ties in Hawaii. So of course I hit it off with them. I loved just chatting with them and I learned how to make banana lumpias. They are actually really easy to make. I loved eating them as a child and still do. I guess it looked more complicated when you are 8 years old and watching a lot of Filipino women prepare them for parties. :)
I would love to go back to Lonetree this summer. But I'll have to see what I can figure out.
As for Show Low, AZ. What a week and a half! It was soooooo busy. For Sunday mornings we had what I like to call a "Sunday School Sandwhich". Which is two worship services with a Sunday School Hour in between. We had around 30 kids all week. The kids were such a blessing to us. They were soaking up what we were teaching. Usually we don't hear a whole lot about what the kids have been "really" learning but some of these kids were excited to share what they realized about their lives.
The first monday we passed out information about our SUMMIT at the church. On Tuesday we had Ladies Luncheon. On Wednesday the pastor spoke to us in our morning team meeting. I was encouraged in prayer again. Especially with praying for unbelievers. On Thursday we finally had a meeting as a team and now we are planning to study the book of Ephesians for the rest of our travel year. I'm excited about digging into the Word of God together. Friday we had a day off....a much needed one at that. My host home invited our team over to hang out and ride 4-wheelers. It was a lot of fun. On Saturday we had Home Life Cafe and we had the kids for 4 hours...we taught about telling the truth and not being conformed to this world. Then we had another LONG Sunday. It was testimony Sunday....no sunday school hour. But there were at least 40 people that shared about what God was doing in their life this past week. Then we continued on with our SUMMIT an extra 3 days.
On Tuesday we successfully took some kids to Sonic. It was so much fun. We talked to the parents about taking them to Sonic after school. It was going to be a surprise. So Evan, Josh, and I drove to wal-mart and "just so happened" to see the kids. I asked them what they were doing and they said they were out for a drive and were getting some school supplies. I said "no you're not....we are taking you to Sonic....get in the van." They thought we were joking but when they saw we were serious they were excited. They were shocked that we worked it out with their parents and were planning it. It was a good hour for us to just spend time with these kids.
Well...it's almost midnight so I should go to bed. But I really want to write more. I'll just have to try to do it later.
Oh we went to the Grand Canyon today. I put a few pictures on facebook. Check it out.
Serving HIM and loving it,
Shawntay
