Week 3 1/2

The start of this past week wasn't nearly as exciting as last week. I worked every day this week, which was fun! I'm almost past the training stage, and done wearing my silly "in-training" t-shirt. Also, once I'm done training I will get a part of the daily tip pool, which will be good pocket money.

Also, Monday at our weekly meeting we decided this week would be a good time to fast from something that was distracting us from God. Like many others, I gave up FaceBook, and I also decided to try and eat healthier and try to run once or twice a week. I love running because while I run I recite scripture to myself and pray. It's really a great time for me to spend enjoying God's creation and praising Him. I managed to get one run in this week, and worked on the memory verse for this week while doing it.

Tuesday we had a phenomenal women's time. We were dropped off along a trail with the other girl(s) in our action group and prayed together through James 5:16

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Then we each set off down the trail alone, praying to God the whole way to reveal our sin to us. As it was revealed, we wrote it on our arms with a marker. Once we all made it to the lake, we split up into action groups and our leaders washed the sins off our arms and we all prayed for each other. It was pretty sweet, and I wish I had been more in the mindset to really get a lot out of it.

Group shot of women's development night

The rest of the week was pretty standard. Except for the gallon challenge after weekly meeting.

Ten of us were lucky enough to get the high-speed version of the gallon challenge. The idea is to drink, and hold down, a gallon of milk in one hour or less. We were given 20 minutes. And whole milk.

Sam and I before

Right at the start of the challenge.

One of the guys, the one directly to my right, managed to finish his gallon in seven minutes and hold it down for an impressive ten! After 20 minutes there were still four of us left, so they extended it ten more minutes, but we eventually all threw up. I managed to make it through about 2/3 of my gallon, which is pretty good since last time I did it (with 2%, and a full hour) I probably barely passed halfway. It was definitely an interesting experience.

Friday we were lucky enough to go fishing with a local guy, Shawn. He and some of the project guys took us out on boats and we all got to crab and halibut-fish. Our group had quite the fun time fishing! We got four rods down in Shawn's boat, and then the rod toward the front got a bite. We were using circular hooks, so there's no need to set the hook. The fish eats the bait and the hook works its way into the fish to catch it. Since Sam had caught the first fish, it was my turn to reel this one in. The way to reel in halibut is by pulling the tip of the rod slowly upward, and then reeling in real quick as you lower the tip. Since the rods were let out to the bottom of the lake (about 200 feet), it took quite awhile. After much struggling, we finally got the fish up. He had managed to get the bait off two other hooks on our boat, snagging those lines, and managed to get tangled in one of the lines from our other boat. So by the time he was finally at the top, four of us were fighting over the same fish! The fish, a huge one (to me, though not to halibut standards) at 60 or so pounds, ended up being shot twice to kill it so we could get it in the boat.

The fish in the boat

After getting all the lines untangled (or cut) we were able to get rods down for a little bit longer so April could catch one, which meant all of us in the boat had caught one (excepting Shawn, who fishes all the time).

As we were getting ready to leave, however, Shawn realized that the big fish, which had been hanging over the side with the other smaller fish, had somehow slipped off the rope. Super bummer!! Most of the men were upset that they didn't get to eat any of it, whereas I was bummed I never actually got a picture with the whopper I helped reel in.

Me with the other big fish-about 40 pounds

We finished the night by going back to campus where the guys taught a couple girls to fillet their fish and we boiled the crab that we'd caught. Then we sat around the stove eating freshly cooked crab with butter. Delish!!

Saturday we did a prayer hike up Mt. Roberts. Being part of the prayer team, I got to help organize it, and-belatedly-ran the first station. It was really neat though, because we got to hike among the beautiful mountain while praying, whether out loud or silent.

I'll admit, it was a lot more difficult than I expected it to be! But worth it because we had a worship service at the top. My group made it for the last song and a half, but it was still great. And we saw a para-sailer fly by.

Most of the girls around a cross about halfway up Mt. Roberts

Kelly, April, Emily, Hope, Stephanie, Sam, Me, April, Shelby

Re-Cap

Alright. Ten days later and I'm putting up another post. Whew, so much has happened.

Thursday, June 3 was my birthday! It was a great day. Almost everyone who works downtown came into the Silverbow and surprise serenaded me while I was working. The beginning of a fine day. Then, in the car on the way home I got a couple of gifts: a glazed donut from Breeze In (a place that's kind of like a QT, just without the gas and a lot more donuts and bagels); a mug from one of the girls because, go figure, I'd already broken the handle off my Alaskan mug (just re-glued it last night, though!); and an Alaskan wolf shirt. Simple things that brought me a lot of joy. Plus it was nice just to feel loved in such a new place surrounded by new people.

Thursday nights are action group nights, so we had our first action group! But before that all the girls sang to me and we ate a cake, as well as I got a super sweet card that all the girls signed. Then we all split off into our groups of three or four. Shelby (our group/project leader), Hope, and I walked to the waterfall next to the Mendenhall Glacier just to get out for awhile before doing our activity. We took the most awesome jump picture, and then spent some quality time really getting to know one another.

Me, Hope, Shelby

Friday we volunteered at a Native American festival in Juneau. Pretty much just ushering for the dancers and working retail, wherever we were needed. Friday night we went camping on a beach and had some really good times eating hot dogs and giant marshmallows. It was absolutely beautiful, just like everything else here.

cooking hot dogs around the fire

Saturday we volunteered some more and then we had an open mic night at Waffle Co., a local coffee shop/waffle shop that is owned by some local Christians. It was just a really fun night to see people's talents and get to know some more people.

Some of the boys playing and singing

Robert, Jesse, Brandon, Justin, David, Ian, Caleb

Sunday was back to Douglas Island Bible Church. I still love it there and we've been having lots of fun in sunday school: last week we decorated cakes to represent different days of creation, and this week we made up songs to Christian doctrines.

Monday I didn't work, and there are also a bunch of people who don't start work until tomorrow. So we took the day and climbed Mt. Juneau. It was incredibly challenging and took us around 5 hours roundtrip. The last hour or so of the climb was steep and even had some snow.

The whole gang at the trail head

me, Ben, Kelly, Sam, Austin, Ian, Will, James, Ben, Justin, Jeff, Jay, Caleb, and Andrew

Some of the steep climbing we did

climbing through snow right before the summit

the gang that summited:

Jay, James, Justin, Caleb, Austin, Ben, Will, Ian, Kelly, Jeff, Me, Sam

Tuesday we learned our new theme for the week, which is life-giving.

The verse to go along with it is Hebrews 10: 24-25 "Let us consider ways to stir up one another toward love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

We ran a mile, Indian style, where the last person has to sprint up to the front. But with a variation being that we passed a ball from one person to the next, and whoever was behind the person with the ball said "with you," which was encouraging and to help better bind us together. Then the last person would run up and the process started over again.

Honestly, I started out in a bad mood, but through the encouragement of the girls and who knows what else I was having a good time by the end of it. Once we got to the Shrine of St. Therese we stopped running, admired the scenery, and then spent time calling out greatness in each other. The idea of this was that we were giving each other life by telling them what we admired about them and how they encourage us. Like the running, I thought it was corny at first, but as we went on it was truly awesome. It was fun to hear what others admire about me, but more fun to be able to tell others what I love about them.

All the women at the shrine of St. Therese

Jacqueline, Abbi, Sam, Ashley, Steph, Me, April, Shelby, Hope, Emily, Kelly

flowers at the shrine of st. therese

Wednesday we had a sweet dance party, and Thursday was more action groups. Friday we volunteered at a rustic Methodist camp with an eccentric and fun woman named Lori. We drove around the camp on a lawn mower and put up the new camp signs while taking the old ones down.

Friday night was the annual lock in, and it was really great. We were in a local church, and we played games and had break out sessions for junior high, high school, and some college kids. We stayed awake all night, mainly because around 2 or 3 am we started learning two-step/swing dance flips and intense moves. It was really fun, and dancing makes it awesome to be the girl because you get flipped and just have to follow. So great. Then we wrapped it all up with 5:30 am worship. What a great night.

Slept all day and then had a dodgeball tournament last night. The weather was cold and rainy, so it wasn't ideal, but it was a really great event-many people had invited their co-workers and they showed up!

Some prayers:

• continued growth (and desire to grow)
• continued relational development
• opportunities and boldness to reach out to my co-workers (now that I'm getting more comfortable with my job and its duties, hopefully I can feel more comfortable having intentional conversations with the people I work with)
• energy and productive time management

Week 1

Alright.
So after meeting Jasmine we went on our first group hike. We hiked 3.5 miles to a beautiful cabin in the Tongass National Forest. At the top we made hobo meals (my first!) where you take an assortment of veggies-peppers, potatoes, carrots, onions-and hamburger and put it inside an aluminum foil pouch. Then you put the pouch in the fire, or on the grill above the fire, and soon you have a wonderful dinner. It was absolutely incredible.
After the dinner we got our first Henry's, which is a root beer that holds a special place in the hearts of project people. Not sure of the full story, but it was very delicious. It was like a cream soda root beer.

After dinner we spent time around the campfire talking about our lives and being real with one another. It was absolutely awesome. Then we spent the night in a sweet cabin and hiked back in the morning.

That afternoon when we got back I had a call back from Silverbow Inn & Bakery, which is where I've been wanting to work since I found out it existed. Check it out here. Two other girls did, also, so we had our first dilemma as only two of us can work there. After a couple of days the wonderful Sam decided to let me and Ashley be the ones to work there.

The weekend as a whole was pretty chill. We had lots of time to spend looking for jobs and just kind of settling in, and since my job situation was settled I spent some time just lazing around.

Sunday we divided and conquered some churches in Juneau. I'm going to Douglas Island Bible Chapel with another girl, Hope, and then about 7 project guys. I loved it. My friend's dad actually grew up in Juneau, and went to DIBC's partner church Auke Bay Bible Church. He got back in touch with his youth group leader from back when, and they currently go to DIBC, so I got to meet Stan and Dellene. They, along with the rest of the DIBC community were so sweet and welcoming. I'm so excited for the rest of the summer. Not only were the people wonderful, but the messages from both Sunday School and the service were absolutely wonderful. Plus, it's kind of old fashioned and we sing out of hymnals.

Also, after the service I met this wonderful woman named Leslie. She just moved to Juneau in January from Washington, where she has a 10 acre farm. On this farm she has her own garden, and a wonderful dog. While she was showing me pictures of her dog, almost every other picture was of some beautiful cake she'd made for a wedding or birthday party. Get this: she's the bakery manager for the local SafeWay. Not only that, but we talked about Mary Jane, a wonderfully savvy country girl who loves living organically and finding unique ways to do-it-herself. Basically Leslie is my new role model. I'm hoping to get to spend some time with her, as well as others within the DIBC community throughout the summer.

Monday we took some serious faith steps (for some, including me) and went downtown to instigate spiritual discussions and share our faith. I was in a group with Ashley and Emily. Downtown Juneau was practically deserted, as it was memorial day and still early enough (10ish) that the cruise ships and multitudes were not in yet. First we talked to a guy, Jeff, who was working down by the docks. We chatted with him while he was setting up the booth for his new business, a brokerage firm that sells whale tours and all sorts of other things. We were given a Quest survey, as well as these Knowing God Personally booklets (KGP's). The survey consisted of five questions:

1. Three words to describe your life right now.
2. What one thing would make your life better.
3. What do you think happens after you die?
4. In your opinion, who is Jesus Christ?
5. On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your desire to know God?

We went through these questions with him, and it was really interesting. We found out that Jeff was raised Catholic, but the more he learned, the less he believed. He trusted more in science, and found enjoying nature to be his way of worshipping, if there was a god.

His opinion was similar to that of Stevi, the woman we talked to after him. Stevi is from California and is back in Juneau for her second summer to do seasonal work on the docks selling tours. Her belief was one of moderation and balance. She explained that for every one of the deadly sins there was a spiritual goodnesss-patience, kindness, etc. So for anger there was kindness, for lust chastity, and so on. Our conversation with her got cut kind of short because she had to go to work.

Tuesday was my first day of work. There's a lot of information to take in, but I've absolutely been loving it. The Silverbow is basically my dream job-I'm working in a bakery that also sells coffee. I don't really do much baking (although today I prepped macaroons), but I do get to toast bagels. Plus learning how to make espresso and espresso drinks has just rocked my world. This job will definitely be challenging, though, because many of my coworkers just seem kind of sad, and I already feel like building relationships with them will be challenging. I've been trying to remind myself that

God gave us spirits not of fear, but of power and love and self control 2 Tim 1: 17

Last night we did women's development time, which was good but really hard for me. This week our theme is identity in Christ, and putting to death the lies we believe from the world.

Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Col 3:2-3

We started off with a beautiful hike and then spent some time in a beautiful place thinking and praying about the lies we believe. We also burned lies in a fire later and just really lifted one another up. It was hard for me because I believe a lot of lies, and I think I just got so overwhelmed that I shut down. But all in all it was good.

Other highlights so far:

nightly tea time with my roommates and often all of us girls.

cookie dough and milk at midnight on my birthday.

good time reading 1 Samuel.