Apr 24, 2009

al...most...there...

Today I finished one of the last few papers that I have to write before graduating. I have three weeks left. It's pretty crazy to think, but I will be a college graduate in three weeks.

In five weeks I'm getting married. That's crazy.

That's all for this post, just a little update on my life.

Apr 15, 2009

Week of E: Part 2

Monday morning on week of e (the e, by the way, stands for evangelism) we were back at the church building painting. We were putting the finishing touches on the youth room upstairs at the same time part of the group was beginning work on the new coffeeshop downstairs in the main worship area. ECC was turning what was once a couch area where the youth met into a coffeeshop for Sunday mornings. Getting these two things done took the majority of the day. The evening we spent at home and we watched the NCAA championship game that night. Sadly, MSU lost.

Tuesday we put the finishing touches on the coffeeshop and moved all of the couches from downstairs to the new third floor youth room. Unfortunately, at least 3 of them were couch-bed combos. They were heavy, but we got them all up there. After lunch we split up into groups of 2 and 3 and went to pass out the door hangers for the Easter service on Sunday. Spencer and I walked two neighborhoods for 2.5 hours putting door hangers on doors. It was fun to walk and talk, but after a while our feet got tired. We did it though, and then came back and relaxed until wally-ball that night. We played at a local racquetball court with the small group that I met with while I was in Maine. When we got back we hung out at the church and ate food.

The next day was our day in Boston. This was another fun day just walking around and hanging out and seeing the sights. I've been to Boston several times before, and so it was a pretty typical day. The best part of the day was heading to Fenway Park. I've been to Fenway a bunch of times. I had, however, never been in the park. This time I made it in. Thanks to one of my friends on the trip, we got two standing room only tickets for Fenway and watched and inning of the game. It was fantastic. Next I go, though, I'm staying for a whole game.

Our last day was spent with the other New England trips celebrating what we had done. We flew back to Illinois that afternoon, after a 45ish minute delay. Thankfully, we got back to Lincoln before midnight.

That was my wonderful trip to Maine and Boston, and sometimes I wish I hadn't left.

Apr 13, 2009

Week of E: Part 1

Last week I went back to the place that I lived for 4 months. It's interesting how much being gone for another four months changes things. There were a lot of new faces to see and a lot of old ones that I didn't see. I also saw places and did things that I didn't see and do while I was there. It was quite an interesting to return to Maine.

We first went to the Root Cellar when we got to Maine. We spent a few hours there hanging out with teens and getting schooled in foosball (2 college students vs. 1 teen: we lost 4-10). It was a an interesting experience. The Root Cellar gets a lot of intercultural kids and when we got there we were outnumbered by teens who African. After about 10 minutes of awkwardness we started playing and hanging out and it was a great time.

The next morning we spent the day painting and getting the new youth room ready. It was a long day, but it was fun. We worked on the room with some of the youth group students and then that evening we got ready for the lesson the next night. Then we went home and spent some time with our host families and I got to stay and catch up with the family who kept me over my internship.

Sunday was mostly about Sunday morning Service and Fusion that night. In the morning we went to first service and the split during second service. Some of us talked to the high schoolers about bible college and others went to work with the children's ministry. In the afternoon we went to the Lobster Shack for lunch and saw some lighthouses, and then that night we went back for youth group. It was awesome to be back with the middle schoolers, they are great kids and really fun to hang out with. Afterwards, we sat and talked with the high school students about what it's like to be a Christian in a non-Christian world. This was very insightful. Then we went home.

That's all for now on Part 1 of week of E. Part 2 will come later. Part 2 will include walking for 2.5 hours, the Boston Red Sox, and an extra 45 minutes in Manchester's Airport.

For pictures of the trip see the albums down and to the right.