The Monster

Nothing like a good fright to get your heart beating and blood pumpin in the morning. Not how I’d prefer to start my day…but I did nonetheless. 

But first, let’s start with a little background. I’m currently staying with my sister in a big creepy house. Yeah, big and creepy. And I mean it, this place is huge. Three floors, plus a crawl space and a basement. I think we counted 64 doors, and that’s not including the second floor which is missing all it’s doors and has about 6 rooms. We are on the third floor, which is so high that you can feel it even when you’re in a room with no windows. Anywho, Christy is dog sitting this week, so I’ve been alone. A couple mornings ago, while I was minding my own and packing us a lunch, I heard a noise. At first, I thought it was the cats in the living room, but upon investigation I found them sound asleep on the couch. Back in the kitchen, I continued making our sandwiches. Then I heard it again. It was clearer this time, a very distinct scratching sound. And it started moving. It sounded like something was crawling its way up the roof or in the crawl space. I paused and waited, expecting (and hoping) to see a squirrel go by the slanted kitchen window. However, the scratchy footsteps continued up the roof until they were too far to hear. Okay, background over.

There I was again this morning, packing our lunch and jamming out to music, like any other day. I heard a soft rattling noise coming from the air duct (oh, that’s another thing, the heater is built into the cabinets and there is a large air duct coming out from the counter and into the ceiling). My first thought was that whatever might have been on the roof or in the crawl space was now messing with the air duct (another-other thing, there’s a hole in the roof to the crawl space, of course (and a hole from the crawl space to our ceiling, but we botchly covered that)). I heard soft scratching sounds for a second more, then it ended. I relaxed and continued about my business. Then suddenly, there was a loud rattle, and something fell on the counter right next to my hand. I just about lost my mind. I shamefully let out the loudest, girliest, high pitch (iest) scream I’d ever heard myself make. Amid my panic, I managed to jump to the other side of the kitchen and fling jelly everywhere. I was startled so bad, I hadn’t even seen what the awful creature was. I slowly crept back to the counter and peered around. Nothing could have prepared me for what I discovered….. it was beyond any of my expectations…..a big……fat..…..bumblebee.

Yeah, I know. 

As relieved as I was, my heart continued to beat quickly, and I felt a little shakey for a while. I haven’t had a good jump scare like that in a long time. As anticlimactic as this was, I thought I’d share so I’m not the only one laughing at myself. So, join me in chuckling at my humiliating dramatics.

A Day of Unfortunate Events

Oh man, today was just a day of poor decisions. Not that the decisions were poor in and of themselves. No, they just had unfortunate outcomes that continued to occur throughout the entire day.

The day started out just fine. My Dad was finally off work while I was home for the weekend. I woke up and worked on school while my Mom and him played a stackable scrabble game they recently found. We enjoyed an amazing breakfast of berries from our garden and had a jolly time while I helped my Mom crush him in the game.  

Our plans for the day were completely open. My Dad and I wanted to take Pongo for a hike, but it had been raining for days so we knew the woods would be a muddy mess. I also wanted to see my Grandma, so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and walk to her house. It was about an hour and a half walk on the train tracks. We contemplated different plans, whether to walk home or find a ride, finally settling on my mom driving to a dog park and meeting us on the train tracks. My Dad repeated the directions to her several times (take the train tracks until the fork, then go right) before we all headed out. About 15 minutes out, we came upon bush after bush of blackberries. I was overjoyed, blackberries are only my all-time favoritest berries ever. We paused for a while, filling our Ziploc bags with all we could fit. Pongo was ever so patient with us, pausing every few feet and waiting for us to continue. 

I ate most of my bag as we walked the tracks, sometimes balancing atop the tracks, sometimes crisscross running like crick rats, and other times just walking normal. My only bone to pick with train tracks is that the planks are too close to comfortably walk on, but too far to skip one. At least for my legs. It’s either run and skip, balance, or walk uncomfortably. Yet, I suck it up because I still love walking along them. However, after 30 minutes I began to regret my shoe choice. I was wearing my Keens, which, in my defense, are the best shoes I brought from Moscow. Anyway, my one toe on my right foot was killing me and continued to do so the entire walk. That was poor decision #1.

About halfway there, we get a call from my Mom, saying that she had reached the factories. Factories that are on the wrong tracks. Remember how my Dad said go right at the fork? Yeah, no, she was supposed to turn left. This was #2. Now, my Dad and I had to fight through some nasty weeds and sliding dirt slopes to reach the upper train tracks. We backtracked until were reunited with her. Now going in the correct direction, we continued to my Grandmas. I started falling behind because my foot was making it hard to walk on the rocks. We reached a point where we were close enough to the creek to go down a hill and continue in the same direction on a path. Shaded and flat, sounds much better right? Nope. #3. Not far on path and we found ourselves in a swamp. The entire trail was complete mush. My keens let all the mud and goop in, causing me to slip inside my shoes. Some areas were way above our ankles, and I half expected a frog, snake, or loch ness monster to emerge. We actually did see a snake along the way, but he didn’t care for us. 

When we finally reached the car, we were all dripping head to knees in sweat, and knees to feet in mire. We drove a minute down the road to my Grandmas, where we put our shoes out in the sun (#4) and drank large glasses of water. We cooled down while my Grandma went to evening mass, then my Grandma decided she wanted to eat out for dinner. That was all fine and dandy, expect it had rained while she was at church. Our shoes were long gone. No shoes, no service. Well, we had to take Pongo home anyway, so we could just get dry ones there. We ran through the rain to the car, then came #5, my Dad had left the sunroof cracked open to let the heat out, while it rained and poured. Yep. So, our shoes were soaked and so was the car. At this point, we were all laughing (a little manically) because it seemed like we just couldn’t catch a break. 

Well, the day of unfortunate events ended just fine. We went to a local diner and ate lots of yummy food, dropped my Grandma off at home, then finally took showers. It was a long and weird day, but hey, I ate about two and a half bags of blackberries and still have some leftover. That’s enough for me to categorize this day as perfectly perfect. 

Oh, an additional thing that happened throughout the day - my parents car decided it doesn't like to start anymore. So every time we had to drive, we had to jump start the car. In the rain and all. I guess that's #6 now?

God is Good

My heart and spirit are filled, overflowing, with so much love right now. I’m not sure what this post will turn out to be, I just know I had this overwhelming feeling to write down what has been on my mind for the last week and a half. As I am sitting here just making a mental list of all the things I want to say, my eyes fill with tears because God is so good. He is good. Underlined, bold, italicized. Because I never want to forget that, and I know I will sometimes, but Lord, I pray that I am always reminded of it when I do. 

I’ve been given the amazing blessing of working with a youth ministry summer camp this year. It’s a ministry for inner-city kids K-8^th and I’m with the k-3^rd girls. One of the main things we talked about in our staff training last week was how everything is about the kids. We can’t be selfish, we must think of them. Maybe it’s 95 degrees and we want to swim, but they want to go to the park? We are going to the park. It’s all good and true, but dang. Dang, this summer has already weighed down on my heart, already blessed me in so many ways. It’s all about the kids, but that doesn't prevent it from having a positive impact on the counselors too. 

During our staff training week, I was convicted each day by our lectures, discussions, and exercises. I was excited for camp to start, to be able to minister to these young minds. But honestly, I was extremely intimidated and nervous too. It’s a big and important responsibility. For many of these children, the scripture we read to them may be the only scripture they hear in their entire lives. There was one line in particular that kept coming to my mind and continues each camp day. It was something along the lines of “The seeds we plant this summer may be the only seeds ever planted in their lives. They might not grow for years. But we are here to plant seeds, and pray for God to water them.” In addition, we might be the only ones in their lives to show them love, care, patience, forgiveness, attention, encouragement, etc. each day. Many of them come from very broken homes and troubled backgrounds. That reminds me of another line that has stuck with me, “We aren’t just counselors, we are mothers, fathers, friends, and protectors.” We aren’t here to babysit kids, we are here to build loving, caring, and glorifying relationships in a broken community. 

By the end of training week, I was feeling so spiritually full and ready to go into the first week of camp. Then the weekend happened. Let’s just say, it was not a good weekend for me. Friday night and Saturday were both full of tears. Tears from stress and difficult decisions. Saturday night, I thought everything was good. Everything was settled and lookin up. Nope. Received some very surprising and upsetting news on Sunday morning. Instead of walking downstairs and wishing my father a Happy Father’s Days, I walked straight into his arms crying. More crying, ugh, it just never ends sometimes. A few hours later, I was filled with an overwhelming sensation of peace and assurance that could only come from God. Everything was going to be okay. Although I am unsure how things will work out, I know they will. Things will be tough this Fall, but I will figure it out and not be discouraged, for I know He has a plan for me.

Although I was feeling better, I still went into Monday with about mid-level spirits. I wasn’t sure how the day would go, I felt kind of off from my crazy weekend. But it was flawless. I have only been with these girls for 3 days, but they have already moved me in so many ways. My co-counselors and I have been blessed with such sweet, loving girls. They are so encouraging to one another and work so hard to do their best at everything we do. Each day I wonder if they will understand the devotions or be able to complete different activities without being discouraged. And they continue to amaze me. On the bus I overhear them practicing the memory verse together. They are constantly asking me to test them, and almost all of them already has it down. The summer theme is fruits of the Spirit. Every day they make the connection between our activities before we can even finish explaining it. Everyday they challenge me to be better because I want to be my best for them. 

Tonight, at the girl counselor’s Bible study, one of my friends brought up a wonderful connection to our work, and our every day lives, to John 17:4

“For I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do."

How amazing it would be to be able to honestly say this to God when we meet Him. To glorify God in everything we do and to complete everything He has called us to do. But this isn’t just a long-term goal, we should also be able to say this at the end of each day. The end of each day. I want to be able to say this at the end of each day working with these children. I want to be able to glorify God and answer His calling each day of my life.