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.

TCCC Events

Chris and his wife April started coming to church a few months ago. Their children came to VBS and that was how they got involved with Tri City Church of Christ. April committed her life to Christ two weeks ago. Kory was honored to baptize Chris this past Sunday. That was his first time to baptize anyone! He will be baptizing one of our youth group kids next Sunday, I believe. Lots of excitement around here for these two guys!

We only have about a week and a half until the 30 Hour Famine now. I'm excited for the event but a little bit nervous about going that long without food! We also begin the 40 days of water right after the Famine, so we'll be drinking nothing but water for 40 days. We'll donate the money we would have spent on cokes, coffee, juice, bottled water, etc. to build wells in Africa where they have no clean water.

We're also heading to Seattle for our high school Mission Trip at the end of March. I'm really excited for the trip! Seems like youth events are taking most of my free time lately. Last Sunday I taught HS class in the morning and led Refill (Bible study) that night.
I have really felt like an adult lately as I've been dealing with Retirement, Insurance, and Taxes! I am not really into the Olympics this year...I just want Biggest Loser and Modern Family and The Office to be back on at their regularly scheduled time.

Camera still hasn't been found, so I might need to just buy another one. Sad day. I really liked my old one.

Old Pictures

Here are some random old pictures I found on my computer that I wanted to share:

Prude Ranch in NM: fond memories

In Memory of Follies Weekend. Once upon a time Kappa had winning shows :)

Too soon? Eh, I'm over it.

Love my 2 best friends...just wondering why my hair is slicked back??

Kory with the armadillo his dad killed in the front yard

Warm February Days! :)

I don't remember if I ever posted that I got the new position at my office! Hooray!! It took over a month, but everything finally fell into place and I started almost 2 weeks ago. I haven't been very good about blogging lately. I wanted to post some pictures of our Sweetheart Banquet that we held at church last weekend, but my camera went missing at that event. Hopefully it will show up soon!

We are doing a lot of fundraisers at work for the Governor's Food Drive. It's an annual event that state workers participate in to raise money and collect food for the less fortunate people in Oregon. One of the events we're currently doing in our office is a silent auction. My co-workers have bought in a ton of junk! It's unbelievable. They're all getting so excited about it too! Granted, there are a couple of nice items, but I'm just really perplexed by this whole line of thinking. Why is it exciting to get junk if you get it for cheap and the money goes to a good cause? I'm all for getting a good deal, but I am so opposed to storing up junk in my house that I'll never use.

I'll be returning to New Mexico in May for Julie's wedding and I'm really excited about that! I got my plane tickets today and will be in Artesia May 14-17. I wish I could stay longer but I won't be eligible to use my vacation pay until August 5, so I can only miss a couple days of work. I think this might be the last time I'm ever a bridesmaid. That makes me kind of sad because I really do love weddings and being a part of them. I guess all my friends who got married will start having babies soon though and that is fun too!

Financial Peace (Dave Ramsey class) is still going well. We're supposed to make a full budget this week, so I'll probably tackle that this weekend. I also need to do my taxes, prepare for Bible study and get everything together so I can teach the High School class this Sunday morning since Kory is preaching. AND I am in the process of trying to get my insurance stuff together since I get benefits with my new job. It's super confusing for me to try and figure out which plan I want to choose from...but I'm VERY grateful to finally have health insurance!

Movies, Books and Groceries

I have seen several good movies in the past couple weeks: Star Trek, When in Rome, Sherlock Holmes and Dear John. Loved them all! When in Rome was pretty cheesy but I expected no less from a romantic comedy. I heard everyone say that they really liked Star Trek even though they never liked the show, but I, of course, didn't believe it until I saw it myself. I don't think I ever saw a trailer for Sherlock Holmes but I like Robert Downey Jr. and Rachel McAdams so I knew it had to be good. Dear John was pretty much exactly what I expected-- a good cry with the chance to look at Channing Tatum. I love him because he was in She's the Man and that movie is one of my all-time faves.

I'm almost finished reading New Moon and my co-worker let me borrow the book Dear John today, so I've got a lot of reading ahead of me. I've also stayed on track with my Daily Bible reading so I'm really happy about that. I'm excited I've got back in the habit of reading. Hopefully I can visit the library soon and start getting books from there.

This weekend was a pretty productive one for me, which always makes me feel good about starting the work week. I got all my dishes, kitchen and laundry clean as well as buying groceries. I do not enjoy grocery shopping because I am really bad at it! I know it seems like something you can't really be bad at, but I am. I don't know how the store is laid out and I end up walking around in circles for a couple hours. This weekend I didn't even have a list so I just tried to find things as I thought of them. I was there for a couple hours and seriously went down every isle at least twice. It was ridiculous! My lack of cooking/food knowledge doesn't help either because I don't know where to find some foods...like pickles! I looked for them for like 10 minutes and couldn't find anyone to help me. If someone would go buy my groceries for me, I'd eat whatever they bought and just make it work to avoid having to do the shopping myself.

We started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University last week at church. I really like the course so far and am excited to go to our next class tonight! I'm not really reckless with money--I don't have any credit card debt or student loans thankfully, but I'm also not very good with saving, so hopefully I'll get better at that.