The sunrise was gorgeous. This place has some of the loveliest sunrises that I’ve ever seen. While enjoying the morning warmth I caught up on my outline book.
I got a handy dandy notebook to take snippets of the day down so that when I would get to write these blog posts I could use the notebook as a sort of outline for it. So I caught up on that small book. Bronco had left his mobile wifi device for us to use at the house, so I tried to figure it out. I was at once both successful in figuring out the device yet unable to make it function properly. I was able to receive notifications of emails, IG stuffs, and even notifications telling me that I had timed out on all my “Words with Friends” games (sorry Mommy…we can play when I fly back to the States).
After giving up on the wifi, I made a plan to blog in the middle of the day and began to think about the girl’s studies. I was trying to figure out if it was just me that was pushing for them or if the girls as individuals were enjoying them. So, I determined to ask them for their thoughts and thus wrote out a short proposal about it.
When we’d finished lunch all the girls gathered in our room where we talked about our studies, and before I could give my proposal Jenn asked if we could add prayer to our times together. This was enthusiastically adopted into our schedule. Then we discovered that when 5 girls get together to pray for each other, our families, our discipleship trip, those we impact on the trip, and that we’d all grow on the trip and after, that we can pray for quite a long time.
In the middle of our prayer we heard a thump. I thought that maybe a bird had flown into the window. Then again, another thump, then another, then several, finally they became almost rhythmic in their repetition. After a few minutes this stopped, we did our best not to be distracted and continued with our prayers. A bit before we finished praying we heard singing coming from the downstairs areas. When we went to investigate everything became clear.
The boys were holding hands in a circle singing Kumbaya hoping to get our attention. They’d been throwing pairs of socks up at our windows. We quickly informed them that the technic of throwing pebbles at the girls window isn’t the best idea and also that singing in a ritualistic fashion is a great way to get us to preach the gospel to them but maybe not the best way to interrupt our prayers. Overall, it was a hilarious way to get told that it was time for another I Thessalonians study!
After the study, we made lunch. A team also sorted all the music on the trip. It was alphabetized and put into the folder A-F on the left, G-Z on the right. It’s so much fun having so many organizational people on the trip. We came up with plans for making next year more efficient. (It’s a secret…sorry.) All the while we were jamming to 70s rock music while the kitchen crew made dinner for us.
After dinner we had a Biblical Thinking Study. When we’d finished that, we starting singing more songs. This was the moment we realized several things. We have a great vocal group this year, a nice balance of tones and harmonies. We all know the songs well enough that it sounds very smooth. The room has epic acoustics. This year we have a member who does music recording. There are several phones with mics good enough to be used for music recording on the fly. All of those combined made for a recorded jam session.
When we made supper, Connor mixed the recordings so that we’d have a really cool recording. We had a central mic and a mic hung on the second story of the house. So it made for a really cool sound.
I can’t forget to mention my favorite part about making dinner. Patrick attempted to teach me to dance the tango. It was hilarious. He’s so full of movement and rhythm that sometimes he can’t help but just dance.
After all the craziness Emily, Josh, and I made hot chocolate. Yummy…except we didn’t have cloves, so it wasn’t the best we’ve made, BUT it was epic and perfect for the evening.
We settled down for another Biblical Thinking Study. Then talked about our game plan for heading to Rivendell tomorrow. All of us girls would be in charge of making a sandwich lunch for the trip.
In the time between all of this and bedtime, Andrew went outside and started hopping down the stairs. He’d slide his hands down the railing then swing his legs out in front of himself and fly down the stairs. Andrew was able to do it in 3 hops, and Emily and Patrick was able to get it down to 4 hops. It was really neat to watch.
Emily and I also raced up the hill, it is the steepest grade I’ve ever walked on, let alone attempted to “run” up. It was crazy and fun and made us totally breathless. Everyone went to take showers then go to bed. But a few of us girls stayed up talking about important things in our lives: such valuable conversations.
What are you learning in life right now?
What will you do with that?
Love,
Jessie Bear
I Peter 4:19
“Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”
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