It is time...

I learned something new tonight.

Now I know how to jump the battery on the bus.  It's a bit more complicated than my little car.  

But now that I've had that wonderful learning experience in the cold rain I am ready to welcome a new battery into the family!

Preparations

In a little less than a month I will be leaving the country for a month of Spanish immersion!  I will be gone for one month.  In one sense that is a very short amount of time and I wonder how much I will learn.  When I think about what I am leaving behind and how to prepare for being away, it seems like a very long time.  It has been amazing to watch how the Lord has brought all of the details together for this.  To me, the whole idea was dropped in my lap without warning, yet my heart lept at the first mention of it.  Leaving for a month effects so many people, yet there has been support from every direction and people have arisen on all sides to cover things and continue ministry in my communitites while I am away.  (With new people serving, I will also be able to focus my time more on hispanic ministry when I return.)  Today one of the last details was covered when someone agreed to stay in my apartment and care for my cat while I am away.  (That is a relief to both me and my mom since the alternative was to send him on a 6 hour car ride to stay with my parents!) 

These last few weeks I am focusing on getting everything in line to make life as easy as possible for those continuing the ministry here.  I've been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing!  Marcy and her girls were a huge blessing when they came out today and thoroughly cleaned out the play room in the community center!  I have 9 more lessons to complete Level 1 of the Rosetta Stone Spanish program.  I had hoped to finish by Christmas, but at least I will finish before I leave for Costa Rica.  One of my youth thinks I'm crazy for talking this trip up so much when it's still several weeks away, but I don't want to leave any room for the kids or youth to be confused or doubt whether I will return.  For them, the month will be long.  2 weeks is the longest I have been away from CP in the 5 years I have lived here and that was 2 years ago.

I love youth!

Wow! What a day!

This afternoon I went out to Dev to meet with 3 boys who recently professed Christ so that we could start a Bible Study. This attracted the attention of 2 more boys who wanted to join us - one said he had already accepted Christ and the other said he was ready. So I prayed with the second one, explained what we would be doing (as much as I know!) and got them all started on memorizing Ephesians 2:8-9.

This evening I went to CP for my regularly scheduled Youth Night. One of the boys had requested dinner, so I cooked spaghetti while we were hanging out and then we all sat down and ate dinner together. It was nice. Brad came out for his first night at CP, so we played a wild round of the Name Game. That always gets everyone hyper. We regained enough control to have a good discussion about who made God (no, Mary is not the correct answer!) and some other questions they brought up. We made it through 2 of the 4 passages of Scripture I had in my notes...

I love the energy, inquisitiveness, and honesty of youth! They're real and they keep me on my toes.

It was a really good day!

"...and thank God that today is Kids Club!"

That's a quote from the boy who prayed to start us off this afternoon.  : ) 

It's so fun to see the kids again after taking some time off for a holiday.  Whatever the actual amount of time, it always seems like an eternity to some of them.  It brings some of the new school year excitement.  It is a good time to refocus and start fresh.  I'm looking forward to meeting with other children's workers this month to pray and plan how our Kids Clubs can be more effective at leading the kids to know God more intimately.

On my way to Kids Club this afternoon I saw two ladies whose children were at the community center and my apartment all the time when they lived here.  I was so excited to see them and hear how the kids are doing.  I wasn't sure if they were still in the area.  When people move you never know if it's the last time you will see them, or if the Lord will allow your paths to cross again later on.  (I'm so thankful for the times He does!)