My Summer Adventures

I suppose if anyone reads this, I should update you on my life. A lot has changed since the last time I posted. I just spent a month with the youth group from Littleton, CO. Somehow I managed to get a month off work, I really have no idea how. God is on my side. I flew out to Denver and the airport is HUGE! I had to ride a shuttle from the gate to the baggage claim and those things go perty darn fast so I played this game where I tried to stand up without holding on to anything and see how long it took before it threw me into a wall or another person. Either it wasn’t as fast as I thought it was or I have stout leg muscles because I managed to stay standing the entire time. Chalk one up for all those water-skiing hours, I knew they would come in handy someday. Then there were six different baggage drop-offs just for United so I naturally went to the first five before I found the right one. Hopefully Jared and Jessica weren’t waiting too long for me. After all that adventure we left bright and early the next morning for Soul Quest in lovely York, Nebraska. It was a wonderful week. 7 hours on an old school bus that has been painted white and gets no radio reception is always fun. I didn’t bring a sleeping bag because you have to pay $25 extra for another bag at the airport so I just planned on going to Walmart and buying a $5 blanket before camp only I haven’t had time. SO I saw my good friend Chelsea, and she lives here so I asked her to borrow some bedding. Ardmore's youth group was there so I got to see Billie Sue and Levi, and Madi. (I used to be a youth intern for their church) Man that girl rocks!!
Then I spent a few days in Littleton preparing for our trip to Germany, which we left for just 4 days later. We spent two weeks in Hildesheim. We flew all night and arrived at 7am. The sun set over the ocean and then 15 minutes later rose again. That was a weird experience. I'd been awake for most of the last 24 hours, with only 3 hours of sleep the night before. Needless to say I was not an extremely cheerful person when we arrived. I was a bit slap-happy though.
Germany made it to the finals in the Euro Cup, and played Spain while we were there, so we got to go to the public viewing and experience soccer on a whole new level. What a great time! Unfortunately, Germany lost but what a night!
At first I felt a little bit frustrated with our mission trip, feeling like we weren't really making a difference, and similar thoughts, but then God proved me wrong once again. We started having people show up to our parties over and over again, and then showing up other random times just to hang out, and by the time we left there was at least one kid who I am convinced is now a member of the church.
While we were in Germany something else happened. I started dating a guy who has been one of my good friends for the last 8 years. I know that I'm going to spend a year in China, so this is going to be very difficult for us, but we both feel like it's possible. With anyone else I wouldn't even try but I think we can make it.
God has been taking care of me in every way lately. A friend of mine, who I just met recently, has offered to pay for my health insurance this coming year, which is a big expense that I was very worried about. I am blown away by the generosity of people. Then two wonderful girls that I spent the last month with, helped me out so that I could buy my plane ticket, because I didn't have quite enough. I never even had to ask. God anticipated my every need before I even spoke it.