THERE IS NO... ARIZONA...

Oh wait actually there is. That's a country song if you missed the reference. On that note if anyone in my life feels like they're missing the reference it is pretty much always a country song that you don't know. Just assume, go ahead. Oh and this will be long so, um, thanks for reading?

Ok, so I went to Arizona for a week with my BigKids the week before Easter. It was fantastic, for me, and it was pretty darn good as a youth group missions trip as well. It was awesome to be able to focus on ONE thing, instead of three or four as I usually do, for a week. I mean, we did a lot, and I was going going going and making sure the girls were doing okay, but they were all I had to focus on and it was a nice break. And it combined the two things I love most - missions and the Church.

I'm not sure how to describe this trip. We were a large group of people for the amount of Apaches around the ministry we worked with, and even larger once word got out that all the white people were there and all the Apaches disappeared. Sad day. We did get to build relationships with quite a few of them, though. What poverty they live in on the reservation - 65% unemployment, 70% living below the poverty level, alcohol, drugs, crap family lives, no transportation off the reservation, you name it- it's bad. I truly enjoyed getting to know the few Apaches that I did in that short amount of time. We were able to work with a family of new believers in restoring their walls (filling holes, painting over nasty graffitti inside) and in prayer marathons, all so they could get their kids back and be growing in the faith. This couple literally showed up at the door of the missionaries' place and said, "we want to come to Jesus. we've tried and tried to change on our own (from cocaine, alcohol, etc.) and we can't do it. We need Jesus. Will you pray with us?" Wow. It was pretty rad to participate in the work the Lord is working in their lives. And updates continue to let us know how well they're doing. Praise Jesus for changing lives!

Because there were a lot of us, and 25 high school students on about three acres + free time = trouble, we did a lot of construction/cleanup/painting/literal trailblazing. We worked HARD. Exhaused at the end of the day. I was super-proud of the students. For me, it felt so good to work that hard, and see results. I love love loved being able to serve the missionaries there so that we could enable them to be doing the work they were there to do.

I braided many, many heads of hair into french braids. I had good one-to-one conversations with several of the young women who were struggling with something, and good times of prayer with them as well. I was excited to see how the students were able to get over themselves enough to let God work through them in all the different things we were doing. Church was an experience. An elderly Apache woman who was short with a flat, wrinkled face and long, thick black-grey hair led worship, song-to-song without a break for about half an hour. It sounded like a cross between the early "worship music" and something you'd hear an Apache singing at a powow. It was awesome. Sometime in the middle of some service, I almost laughed out loud. I love following Christ. How else would I end up in the middle the desert at a pennecostal service led by Apaches?

We climbed the hill behind the church and watched the sunrise over the mesa-moutains every morning, because the first morning, it was red. The whole sky. And then orange, and then pink. And we went back to bed (had gotten up to use the bathroom which was outside). Idiots. So every day after that we got up to wait for it to be the same color again. And it never was, but it was beautiful every morning. And it was refreshing to get up that early, praise God, think of the possiblity of the day to come, and sit on a log in the middle of an Apache reservation in Arizona and watch the sun rise.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

One of the greatest things I love about traveling, or being on vacation, is being able to relax and do the things I never get time to do anymore, like read and watch movies and shows.

I read, this weekend, The Life of Pi, and The Beautiful and Damned, and The Second Assistant. The first was entertaining with a reflective end, the third was frivolous and fun, and the second was DEPRESSING for pretty much the last half. I know, I know, what else do I expect from reading a long Fitzgerald novel? It was a really good book, but the last half just made me cringe because they kept going, and going, and didn't know how to stop. It was awful.

On the plane back (from first-class, cheers to love causing a man with a first-class ticket wanting to sit in steerage with his girlfriend and thus switch me seats) I watched Last Chance Harvey. It made me smile. A lot. It made me want to cry, but I didn't of course. And you know how you have those conversations, usually while waiting in line for something or on a long car ride, about who would play you in the movie of your life? Mine would definitely be Emma Thompson. Hands down. Not just from this movie - I've been a fan since she did Sense and Sensibility. In movies she plays the understated character, supporting in the beginning but often in the end the strongest character. In real life she is quite normal and funny, if you believe imbd at all, and is the only person ever to have won an oscar both for acting and for writing. Emma Thompson is my new fav, yo.

Oh and Ash and I watched the newlyweds on tv which is incredibly funny, the asian couple is my favorite. Definitely my main show this summer.

That movie everyone is talking about...

With the attractive young cast flying around in space...

I liked it a lot...

Am I the only one who automatically thought, when the drill touched down into the SF Bay, "well yeah they would drill there. It's the most logical starting point as the San Andreas Faultline goes straight through the bay and drilling between two tectonic plates would make breaking through the earth's crust a lot easier..."

Yup I do belong in the theatre watching this movie. It's quite fitting for my level of nerd.

Spice-y

For some time now I've cut way back on the caffenated soda (FYI, Caffeine-free Diet Coke is fine, but Caffeine-free Diet Pepsi is n-n-n-nastay). We're talking I have only between two and four cans per day. That's less than 44oz usually, which I used to drink before nine am. Now I don't start until ten. It's a nice mid-morning treat.

That isn't the point. Point is, lately I've been seriously craving things like a banana, an apple, spinach, an orange, broccoli, you name the vegetable and I've probably had a craving for it in the last few weeks. I've thought this really strange since I never crave these things. But then I got to thinking, hmmm, no caffeine? Since I have not much caffeine in my system, am I able to pay better attention to what nutrients my body needs? I do think so. My body, without the inhibition of caffeine, now tells me what it wants. So every once in a while, I look down and my stomach and say, "Tell me what you want, what you really really want," and then my stomach says, "I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want," "I want a-, I want a-" BANANA.

Sidenote - they should really figure out how to post sidenotes up the sides of posts
Actual Sidenote - they used to call me sporty spice. That is gross.

coming out of the closet

So on Wednesday night Jodi and I had to have a conversation before youth group began, so we were like WHERE can we even meet where there's no students? Cause they are EVERYWHERE. Which is good. So we went into one of the supply closets off the game room, where there was barely enough room for the two of us to sit on the ground. We were talking for a while, can kinda hear the kids outside, and a few of the j/h boys were messing around and one of them hung on the door handle and opened it and jumped. You should have seen his face - he seriously almost peed his pants. So that was funny, we laughed and then talk talk talk.

And THEN I guess there was this mom wandering around who had brought a new j/h student and a new high school student and wanted to talk to a leader real quick to make sure they'd be alright. And Jenn (a j/h leader who was in the game room when we shocked the kid earlier) couldn't find any other leaders and so she was like, well..., um, you see..., ah, I think theeeyyrree in here. And she opens the door and we tumble out of the closet and are like, hey, new mom, sure we'll take care of your kid, no funny business here.

And we shook her hand and went back into the closet and shut the door cause we weren't finished. sO maybe you had to be there but it was pretty funny. And it was totally the perfect place for private convos - I am so using it from now on. The end.