Why hello there to all you wonderful people who have been reading our blog. Right now it is 11:18pm and I am just now starting to write this thing for all you people down there is PA. Anyway! Here we go... Thanks to Bekah for writing this thing for the past two weeks and now it is Karla's turn...of course Bekah will have to make sure this is approprate so we shall see how it goes. To all of you who do not know me, Hello. I am Karla. Nice to meet you. Please join me for my first adventure-writing a blog. Let's go!
SO! Where did Bekah leave off?....Oh! So Sunday, which seems like forever ago, we went to a cabin for a retreat. Oh my stars! It was so nice to be around trees and nature and such. I don't know if everyone else loved it, but Karla is from the country, so I loved it there! I forgot how much I enjoyed getting dirty in the woods. ANYWAY! It took us like four hours but we all got there in one piece. We stopped to eat and also to get gas for a potty break! SO! We got to stretch our legs, which was nice. Once we got there, we all, okay...I....rushed up and searched out the rooms to pick the best one. Once everyone was settled, we started playing round robin. WOW! If you did not comprehend this message before, here it is again: Our group is lively. We are outgoing. We are crazy. We do. not. stop. so! You can probably imagine what we may have been like while playing a game of round robin. We were slipping around and sliding. Dodging some ping pong balls Completely missing other ping pong balls and then, of course, those awkward ones that just barely miss your paddle and you're just sitting there like..."What da world? How did that happen?" making this face ;/ heh heh. It was super fun! Then Karla, Renee, Beth and Canada (Aaron) went to explore the premises. I'm pretty sure every single one of us tripped or got a scrape or SOMETHING in the woods! but it was still enjoyable. In the evening we had our cultural awareness lessons. a couple came in to talk to Bekah and I and then someone else came to talk to the Spain/ Columbia teams about the cultures, language, temperature, appropriate dress, etc. It was actually extremely helpful and we all got a lot of our questions answered. We are getting more excited to go to Thailand now that we know what to expect! The end of the day came with a round of ping pong and sitting by the fire.
The next day was Monday. (Odd, I know, that Monday comes after Sunday but you need to learn this some time people!) We had quiet time in the morning so some of us went oustide while others snuggled up on the couch by the fire reading their bibles. It was beautiful oustide. Another mentor, Dick, came to teach us about personalities. That was interesting. We all tried to figure out what Animal personality we were-The Retriever, Lion, Otter, or Beaver. Some of us found that we had different characteristics from all four categories! It was ridiculous! we spent the first half of the morning learning about our personality traits and then we had lunch Bonnie makes wonderful food, so we had a nice break before cracking the whip again at 1:00pm. the afternoon we learned how to put our personality traits to work. In the afternoon we went hiking as a team with Vicky. That was nice; we got to talk a lot and explore-my two favorite things so, of course... for dinner we all went out for Thai food. For some of us it was the first time eating it. I think we can all agree that we enjoyed the food and fellowshipping together. I loved it!- When we got back another couple came to talk to us about team dynamics. We just kinda chilled in the cabin the rest of the night playing games and doing a bunch of dance moves, reading, playing the piano, some karaoke, etc. Good day!
Tuesday came along with seven bright, cheerful faces awakening at 7:00am ready to help Bonnie make breakfast! Just kidding. No one does that. We have few morning people here-and Bonnie is one of them. Our next mentor, Larry, came (and no to you Veggie Tales fans, he was not green, but he was tall). He talked to us about dying to self and where our obedience should lie; he also talked about our priorities. Amy came and showed us a beautiful slide show on her experience in another country to help us focus more on adjustments and what that might look like to go to a different country. The same couple from last night came in the evening and did a crazy game with us! we played another game with them that required us to learn how to communicate with people who don't speak our language and are in a completely different culture. Super fun! Another happy happy day. Lots of learning. So much information in one day. I think everyone's brains were exploding by the end of the day. We crashed for the night...but! Not before another rowdy game of round robin!
Taking showers in the morning was glorious when we were in the woods and had to go to an area under the cabin's porch to take a shower. The water pressure wasn't terrific but it was hot, so we were thankful for that! We had worship with the team and then Vicky lead us in a silent retreat. Some of us stayed inside while others explored deep into the woods and really got into the woods. Karla went into the depths of the woods where no one could be heard and found a tree laying down with another right behind it still standing...it was the perfect chair! SO! I sat there for my time with the LORD. It was glorious! I saw this orange, black and yellow spider making its web between two trees. I just stopped right where I was and watched it. It's fantastic how God makes all of that happen. HE knits us together like that spider knitted its web together. It was just cool to see. After about an hour and a half, we all got back together and discussed things that stuck out to us in our reading or during worship. It seemed like everyone really enjoyed their time with the Lord. After that, we used some great teamwork to clean up the cabin so we could head on back to our apartment. HEY! It is now 12:01am. Today is officially tomorrow! Anyway, we had two volunteers, Randy and Ben, who said they would drive us back. We had lots of amazing discussions. God really does some wonderful, glorious things...I'll just say that much! Beth, Karla, Eryca, and Renee went with them while Asher, Aaron and Bekah went with Bonnie. Of course, we stopped at Walmart before entering the city to stock up on food and be able to stretch our legs out for awhile. We got back to the apartment, relaxed...then...we heard our beds calling us and gladly picked up our bodies and layed them under the comfort of our sleeping bags.
Breakfast for one and all! On Thursday, Beth and Karla went to Breakfast Ministry, then we all had some worship together and some downtime. We went to the Food Pantry for the first time. I know we don't believe in this, but, Holy Cow! (That was a quote from one of our mentors. So funny!) It was a bit hectic and overwhelming once people came. First, we had to put string beans and cucumbers into bags! The Food Pantry gives people cans of fruit, soup, vegetables and beans; boxes of pasta and milk and Raisins! (I used to love raisins when I was little so that was a nice blast from the past!) After working at the Food Pantry we had some down time at the apartment before another of Bonnie's delicious meals was stuffed into our bellies. We had some good old journaling time.
Then, it was Friiiiiday. Friiiiday. Friiiiday. Wakey wakey! Eggs and bakey! World Vision. Yes! SO! Karla, Bekah, Aaron and Asher volunteered to go to the old building to move some " heavy stuff" around. Basicaly, we demolished old desks with hammers for an hour. Then we took down some shelves and stacked them on skids. Oh my stars! SO much fun! I love tearing things apart. It was a workout man! But super fun of course. We were laughing AND working hard at the Same Time! Crazy? Too hard? Not for us! We are tanks. End of story. Everyone else organized boxes at the old site. I'm sure they had fun though. Then, all four of us and our new best friend, Jaime, squeezed into a little truck to head back to the old site. (For Karla's folks, it was a truck with a front only a little bit bigger than Baby Blue, our Little Ranger. Okay, maybe! Maybe it was bigger than that. but the back seats were side ways and we were shoulder to shoulder in the front but still!) That was interesting. so! We forced him to take a picture with us once we got back to the new world vision warehouse where the rest of the team spent their day. Heh heh! when we got back to the apartment we decided to buckle down and read for awhile. We do have to do some reading here, although both Bekah and Karla are not the biggest fans of it, it still needs to be done. We got R done nice and good. (just kidding about that English. I don't always talk like that). Then, Of course! We went to the fun church service again! It was amazing. So energizing and full of life. We got some Starbucks afterwards since it is like Bekah's best friend supposedly. yup! Good times. Good times. I think it was exactly what we all needed. Some good coffee, good jumping, teaching, and loving on the One who deserves it. Night time came and we all went beddy bye.
This morning! Whew....didn't think Id be able to write about it.... yeah, so Saturday some of went running while others walked and, others shopped. Renee and Beth walked around most of the area around here...good sight seeing I guess. Bekah and Eryca went shopping; Aaron went running his own way at his own super fast speed while Asher and I ran at our own pace. We did some yoga and a bunch of stretching afterwards. So nice! Saturday is our down day for the week. We got a lot of stuff done though! Cleaned the whole apartment even-and get this, the BOYS cleaned the bathroom! Ahhhhh! Good for them. Nice work too. Anyway! Karla is getting tired now so hope this wasn't too boring. Thanks for stopping by! Tune in next time to hear Bekah sing Madame Blueberry! We'll get you guys some picture up in here too! Hopefully we can write again before next Saturday. It's almost 12:34 though so! Time for bed! Goodnight and have a wonderful day! Thanks for reading! :D
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