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
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.
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
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