the road is a dangerous place to be July 15, 2008

yesterday- after lunch, we went to walgreens for a few things. on our way there, some dork side swiped our side mirror (we were in a van, not the bus) and he kept going. so we backed up real fast to try to catch him. doing this, we backed into someone (who was really close to our rear end). the first guy finally stopped. the only damage was we cracked the plastic liscense plate holder on the car behind us. so they all shook hands, got back in their cars, and drove off. and that was that. praise god. two collisions and about $1.00 worth of damage. no one was hurt or even sore.

today- we swept out the bus and were waiting to talk to the building staff to borrow a hose and some cleaning junk. the staff were having a meeting so we had some time to kill. so naturally, tom let a few of us drive the bus around the parking lot. it was awesome. i thought cody was going to take us through a fence and down a big hill but we were fine. i think i did the best if i do say so my self. i’m not going to apply for a CDL anytime soon though. i would hate to drive that hippopotamic hunk of metal around the city. (hippopotamic is a word used in the princess bride. heck yess)

chris and amanda are coming back today. yay. then who knows what’s next.

Gift of Cool by Rock ‘N’ Roll Worship Circus July 15, 2008

i remember the day when the love of God landed in our town
He took all the silent and broken hearts, fixed them up and gave them a sound
you had almost every different kind of kid from every different kind of social background
taking all the cool they had and praising God, as He spun them around
when God came to town…
and the people in our churches, they were constantly amazed
at the kids kneeling at the altar with their different fashion flares
you had squares, preps, and skater punks, goths and techno-ravers
and the tattooed kids with colored hair…and they wer all getting saved

you think the 60’s had good vibrations?
well, check out my generation…

we will run and never stop
yeah, we all will stand together
taking everything we are
and then praising Him forever
well, anyone and everyone, come and join us for a good time
we are breaking all the rules by praising God will your Gift of Cool…

suddenly almost every kid in town had finally found their way
to take all the gifts and talents ane beauty they had and worship God every day
man, you had all the high school parties, and they were turning them into worship raves
and the sounds of the underground in town had turned to praise

when Your people sing, all of heaven sings…
so sing! is that cool?
lift your hands up to the sky
yeah, we all will sing together
taking everything we are
and then praising Him forever

more pics July 15, 2008

hey check it out. i have more pictures at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27992&id=748469821

Saying Goodbye July 14, 2008

Most of the students left on Saturday. It was a sad day. Even though there have definately been moments when I’ve been ready to strangle someone, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye. I’ve made some lifelong friends on this project. I cried so big. I’m still sad about it. But I know that we will make and effort to stay in touch. I already have plans lined up to see some of them before the summer is over.

After some serious icing eating and a little shopping, I was composed enough to keep going. Now we’re preparing for the national here’s life inner city staff conference that will be hosted here in seattle. it starts on sunday but i’ll be involved in lots of preparation before i leave on thursday.

the dorm is so empty. there are only 8 people here right now including staff. there are 2 more staff (chris and amanda) but they’re visiting Amanda’s dad in Yakima. he was in a motorcycle accident last week and is in pretty rough shape. he’ll be okay but it will take a while. dang crap. i have to go to another meeting. love you all and i’ll be home soon.

24 by Switchfoot July 8, 2008

Twenty four oceans
Twenty four skies
Twenty four failures
Twenty four tries
Twenty four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
Twenty four drop outs
At the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty four hours ago

Still I’m singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And I’m not who I thought I was twenty four hours ago
Still I’m singing Spirit take me up in arms with You

Twenty four reasons to admit that I’m wrong
With all my excuses still twenty four strong

See I’m not copping out not copping out not copping out
When You’re raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now

And You’re raising these twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts
But I wan to be one today
Centered and true

I’m singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
You’re raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now
And You’re raising the dead in me

I want to see miracles, see the world change
Wrestled the angel, for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I’m singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And You’re raising the dead in me
Twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts.
I’m not copping out. Not copping out. Not copping out.

a weekend away July 7, 2008

we left early friday morning for a weekend retreat. as you may have noticed in my posts, we’re tired all the time. it was nice to have some time to just relax and hang out and NOT worry about packing our lunches, ironing, getting up on time (ridiculously early), laundry, meetings, brushing our teeth, wearing deodorant, and being presentable or non-gag-reflex-inducing. the first night had some serious girl drama but things and people chilled out. people stayed up late working on puzzles and talking. we slept in on saturday and went to town. port townhend i think was the name. it was a cute little town with some awesome shops. we flew some kites. well i tried and failed. but some other people flew kites. they had one kite 15 strings high. that’s 1800 feet of string. that’s just over 1/3 of a mile. the string eventually broke but we found the kite and lots of random string the next morning. being responsible citizens, we picked it up. while the kite flying was going on, i  had a hair dying party with one of our leaders. heck yes chemically enhanced beauty.

once again we stayed up late talking and playing games and getting into trouble. the camp we stayed at had beach access to a bay. the stairs were ridiculous. seriously, not even indiana jones would have attempted it. if you’ve seen national treasure, the stairs under the cathedral? yeah but add some mud and waist high weeds to the picture and you have a pretty good idea of how treacherous the stairs were. they zigged and zagged at bizarre horizontal and vertical angles. whoever deemed these stairs safe was clearly intoxicated. the picture only shows a small portion of the wooden death trap.

in the   morning we had an awesome time of worship. then we took a ferry back to seattle. very cool. some stupid seagull was flying along side the boat even when we were going fast. then he flew over us and we all thought he’d poop on us. i realized i was looking up with my mouth open. anyone for some target practice?

now we’re back at campus getting ready for a week of prison ministry. it’s strange how glad we all were to be back on campus. it feels like home. without my aminals and mommy and jamie. silly jamie.

Weirdos July 4, 2008

i love the people on my team… well most of them most of the time.

This is at the DOC during our weeklong internship. We all got a little crazy/irritable after a lot of long lectures. It would have been fine if we were functioning on a little more sleep.

This is Megan, Anna, and I on our excursion into the city on our day off. A Lot of Walking. It was hot and sunny and we were sweaty and tired. a little shopping therapy goes a long way. I got this amazing dress. for ten bucks. heck yes.

 This was taken the day i “happened” to have sidewalk chalk with me. I colored the whole pack. what a great day.

This is Carly. She’s a silly goose.

I tried to write a message for Teresa on the beach. but since the beach was made of rocks it was incredibly hard to read. she liked it anyway.

This is Laura and Margerette (pronounced mar-guh-reet) in the city on our day off. incredibly, neither of them got arrested. Margererette is my room mate. she snores but i think she’s snoring less than when the project started. it may have something to do with me trying to smother her. maybe.

down and dirty July 1, 2008

today we split into small groups to start a bible study. even though two of the most challenging people on the project were in my group, it was still great. teresa is amazing. so funny. she has an amazing knowledge of the bible and she’s definately gifted with wisdom. talking with her makes me want to study the bible like i’ve never studied it before.

then we helped get stuff ready for the sports camp at a local church’s youth center. the camp lasts for six weeks and starts this week. the focus of this week is sports but the theme of the entire camp is outdoors with God. there are middle schoolers and elementary kids. there are 70 some elementary kids and i don’t know how many middle school kids.

we thought today would be an orientation but we were put to work doing odd jobs. we mopped, weeded, planted flowers, played in the dirt, and colored with side walk chalk. the side walk chalk part wasn’t a job but i happened to have some with me so we colored the parking lot. i colored four whole pieces of chalk. it was great!

tonight i’m going to bed at nine thirty. yay! i’ve been tired this whole project but today i had about 3 cans of pop w/ caffeine and still the waves of sleepiness were overwhelming. sleep was calling my name. “sarah. sarah. SArah. SARAH. come to slumber.” that was cody’s interpretation of sleep calling my name. mildly- no, pretty dang- creepy.

the kids come to camp tomorrow and i’m part of the group helping with that. it should be a fun day. i think i have less of a problem with kids being immature than with adults being immature.

there’s this one lady staying here who is really mean. nasty.   but not as nasty as this other girl. or that guy in the shirt. oh but that man with the face was meaner. oh and i can’t forget what’s-her-name.

we learned this amazing game called signs. too hard to type an explanation but don’t worry. i’ll teach everyone when i get back. it’s the best game ever and my skills are improving.

uh oh. 9:23. i gotsta go if i’m gonna be in bed by 9:30!!!

the best things in life are free June 30, 2008

so i guess we’re running low on money. not everyone in the group was able to raise the $2300 required for each person. thanks to all of you guys I was able to meet the goal. even still- if anyone is able to spare a few extra dollars for this trip, it would make the next two weeks much less stressful for the entire group.

today we went to church and painted an abandoned building. of course it was the hottest day seattle will have all summer. yuck. then we went to a lake. some people swam but i just napped in the shade.

there’s a group staying in our building that is supposedly here on a weeklong missions trip but every encounter we’ve had with them has been negative. some kid was standing on a car while the person inside was driving in the parking lot. when our leaders told him to get down, they replied “he’s an adult”    yeah- tell him to act like it. dumb high school boys. dumb boys in general.

tomorrow we’re doing some bible studies then going to help set up an inner city sports camp. we’ll be helping with that for the rest of the week and possibly helping with a handicapped kids summer program. i think that one includes a trip to the zoo. we’re not sure yet if that is going to work out because the people in charge haven’t called us back for a while.

so we’ll see. we’re going to have a time for testimonies then i’m hittin the hay. once again i’m exhausted. between the heat and the hills, Seattle is kicking my butt.

end of week 2 June 29, 2008

friday was our last day at the department of corrections. we spent the morning wrapping up, then had a barbecue with all of the staff. very fun. then we drove to Tacoma (about 45 minutes from Seattle) to a church where we made 700 pbj sandwiches. the guy in charge was kind of crazy. he and his two old lady helpers kept telling us how to make a pbj. like really? i think i’ve got it. it was comical.

then we picked up some dinner and took it to a park on the shore of puget sound. it was beautiful. i picked up trash from our group that blew down the rocky beach. silly college kids. pick up your own trash.

after dinner, we joined multiple church groups under a freeway overpass where we all passed out food, toiletries, and clothes. we passed out pbj and helped other groups make box dinners. there were about 300 homeless and poor people. there were some scary people there. we had to stick together. a christian biker church was on security duty. very funny. those guys spend their weekend nights doing this. they haul the tables to and from every friday and saturday and take care of trash. they may be on the outskirts of main stream culture but they know what it means to be a servant. on the other hand, a guy from a staight-laced white-faced christian church was a total jerk. he may have been there serving but his heart was not there at all.

today (saturday) was our free day. we got to sleep in and do whatever. i went with a group to pikes place market in downtown seattle. we ate lunch together then split into 3 smaller groups. i was with my friends megan and anna all day. we left pike place and went to the heart of down town for some serious shopping therapy. we finally got back to campus around 6:45. my first experience on public transportation was great. everyone really just needed a day to chill and have some space from the whole group. i’m exhausted. we walked so much today. of course i wore flip flops so my feet are disgustingly dirty. i’m still going to go running tonight with a couple of people.

the weather has been in the eighties the past few days. today was really hot. with the sun, heat, and amount of walking we did, i’m a sweaty pig. it’s been a great day.

tomorrow we’re painting an abandoned pancake house with an inner city church. they offered to clean up the lot for the elderly woman who owns it. when we heard, we offered to paint the building too. we’re pros at painting buildings now. it’s crazy how quickly it goes when you have 25 paintbrushes/ rollers going. you finish your little square and then KABLAMMM everyone’s done.

one thing’s for sure, i’m going to sleep very well tonight.