Not Great News

Found out at work recently:

1. The new retirement age is 72. UGH!

2. My co-worker in the cubicle next to mine found mice poop on her shelf.

3. Ladies at work want to discuss politics and/or creation, evolution, religion in the lunch room. I just want to eat my lunch and not have these intense discussions on my break time!

4. There is DEFINITELY such a thing as a Mom who is too proud of her children. I didn't know it existed, but it's sickening.

5. People want to open up and tell me private details of their life that I do not want to hear and I need to do a better job of stopping them and telling them I don't want to hear it...or else they just keep going!

Seattle Mission Trip

We had an INCREDIBLE time in Seattle this past week for our Spring Break Mission Trip with the high school students from Refugee Teen Ministries!

9 teens and 4 adults spent 7 days ministering to the homeless and needy people of Seattle, WA

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to hang out with Ross and Allison!

On Monday, our entire group was homeless for 24 hours. Sunday night we went to a mission downtown and traded our clothes for some they had in their closet so we could look homeless to better fit "the part". We gave up our cell phones, money, cameras, etc. and were only left with $2 and one piece of ID. Sunday night we slept at the mission and began our journey. Monday morning we served breakfast and did the chapel services at the mission. After breakfast, we were given our assignments for the day. Each group had 3 pages of tasks they needed to accomplish during the day. We headed out about 10:30 a.m. and had to be back at the mission for supper at 5:00 p.m.

Our group was busy ALL day long. We did complete each of our tasks, but there was no time for resting. Some of our tasks included locating the courthouse and sitting in on a hearing, finding an AA meeting, getting counseling on avoiding STD's and birth control, locating a free shower and having a group member take one (we didn't get showers at the mission so we were a bit smelly), getting treatment to get rid of bed bugs, find where we could wash our clothes for free, etc. Each of the assignments were something that a homeless person might have to do in a typical day. We had to find places that would allow us to use their phones or computers for free, which was quite difficult. Of the $2 we were given, we were allowed to spend $1 on ourselves and $1 on someone else. Our group got a free lunch at a mission, so we were able to spend all $8 buying food for other people.

We served lunch Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Orion Center, which is a drop-in center for homeless and at-risk teens and young adults. Our group planned the menu, bought the groceries, cooked and served the meal for about 60 people each day. The teens really stepped up and did a great job! We had tuna melts/ham melts/grilled cheese, burritos and spaghetti and all three were very tasty.

Wednesday we also cooked for about 100 people living in Tent City--a group of homeless people who live in tents and have formed their own community. We made chef salad because we had to transport the food but it took forever to make that much salad. We were so proud of the kids because they worked SO hard all week!

Thursday we made some care packages to hand out that included items such as chapstick, socks, gum, deodorant, etc. We also had the opportunity to talk to members of Northwest Church who came from lives on the street filled with addictions, prostitution, abuse, etc. who have fallen in love with Jesus and turned their lives around! They have such powerful testimonies and it was awesome to get to hear their personal story of redemption.

Friday we got to take some time to just tour the city and enjoy some of the sights. We went to the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum, which was awesome! My favorite part was a room where you get to assemble a rock band and you get instruments to play and you can rock out on stage while they film you and take your picture. I was on the maracas and we sang I Love Rock and Roll. You get a souvenir concert ticket to your performance, so that was pretty fun. Our band's name was Lifeless Nightmare and the guys were The Essence of Brutality.

Lifeless Nightmare! Minus the awesome maraca player :)

This was certainly a life-changing trip and I'll continue to share our stories with you over the next few days.

You can find a lot more pictures from our trip in my Facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2021496&id=160201160&l=f21c40c391

New Camera

I got a new camera! I like this one a lot better than my old one...which disappeared...possibly stolen? Anyhow, this one is much fancier and I like how it kind of looks like an old school 35mm film camera.

Now I can continue to document my life in photographs and my posts on here won't be so boring with all that text. Pictures from our Mission Trip to Seattle will be up after next week!

Thoughts on TV Shows and Youth Events

30 Hour Famine--We did the 30HF this past weekend and it was awesome!! I was never really hungry all weekend, probably because we were so busy and didn't have time to think about food. We did several service projects, had worship, played games, drank lots of juice, and slept outside in cardboard boxes. It got COLD in the night and we didn't get much sleep, but it was still a really fun weekend! We had about 30 kids and they raised over $1600 to help people in Ethiopia who are hungry.

American Idol--Crystal Bowersox is really talented but I don't want her to win because she said she was only doing this to make money for her son to have a better life. I get that she wants to provide for her son, but there are other people who want this so bad and put so much more of their heart into it. I don't want her to just go through the motions and come out winning. She doesn't even look like she is enjoying it or trying really hard. I like several girls a lot so far--Didi, Lacey and Siobhan. I dislike most of the boys and am ready for them to go home. I like Casey, Lee and sometimes Big Mike and that's about it. I'm SO ready for Alex to go home...I don't want to look at that mullet for one more show! haha

40 Days of Water--Our youth group is now involved with the 40 days of water...except we got started a little late so we're doing 4 weeks of water. The idea is that we'll only drink tap water for the next 4 weeks and save the money we would have spent on cokes, coffee, tea, etc. All that money will be donated to Blood:Water Mission which is a group that builds water wells in Africa for people who don't have access to clean drinking water. I am on day 4 of no Dr. Pepper and am doing fine. There have definitely been times where I was about to go get a DP and realized I wasn't supposed to, but I'm not having caffeine withdrawals or anything. My mom pointed out that my overseas travels have prepared me for life without Dr. Pepper! haha

Biggest Loser--I am still not 100% sure who I want to win. I think Sam has an awesome chance because he is so hard-core, but he's also building so much muscle that he probably won't keep losing a ton of weight from here on out. I love Daris and really hope he sticks around for a while. I like most of the other people but am not too attached to them. I think O'Neal will probably be the next to go home. I just really don't want Lance to win because I still dislike Melissa so much...even though she's been gone for a while.