Having said that, allow me to give you a window (not a door) into my summer of 2010. At the end of my previous post, I was on my way home for “vacation” with my family in the Twin Cities. We found plenty of ways to amuse ourselves, including the Mill City Museum, the U of MN Arboretum, the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Science Museum, and several movie nights. We even took some pictures!
Then I headed back to SD to teach summer school, which was good, but pushed me a little bit further into exhaustion than I really wanted to go. I wondered several times what I had been thinking when I had signed up to teach back in April, but the kids and I survived barely the worse for wear. After that I headed back to Minnesota to spend about five days with family and friends. I met up with Shauna Rosen and Becca Hjermstad + Casey at Music in Plymouth, had a lovely day in Edina with Miss Jenna Temte, a fabulous adventure with Seth De Penning in Minneapolis (and Shauna and Bethany when they eventually joined us), and a bit of quality time with Marretta and my parents as we marched in the 4th of July parade and then went to the pizza buffet at CiCi’s.
It would be easy to characterize the whole month of July as Vacation Bible School, but it was a lot more than that, and didn’t feel like school at all, trust me! I got back to Eagle Butte on the fourth of July, and then had my first year as a bona fide “church lady” during Emmanuel’s VBS. My responsibilities consisted of hosting the girls from AFLBS, Audrey Nash and Erin Harris, leading crafts one day, feeding kids at snack time, keeping the Timothy team (the girls + Caleb Fugleberg and Ben Dahl) up late at night, and trying to make little Shawn Anderson smile! We had a pretty small crowd, but it was great fun!
Shoot, this post is already getting long, but you didn’t you just long to know every single thing I did this whole summer? I might as well keep going. The next week was basically travel time, hanging out with my mom and my uncles and stopping at Pickerel Lake Bible Camp! Of course, I already missed the Timothy team, so it was very convenient that they were at PLLBC that week for middle school camp. When I arrived back in MN it was almost time for VBS at Minnesota Valley, and I was teaching preschool, so I was a bit apprehensive, as always. That ended up being a great week, of course, and my little sister was once again my comrade-at-arms down in the church basement!
After that, we went up to St. Cloud to see my little cousins who are hardly little anymore! Even though they aren’t that little, they sure are cute, aren’t they? Though I did many delightful things this summer, I must say the highlight was probably going to Bear Trap Ranch again for family camp! I went there once during college to volunteer during another region’s chapter camp, but ever since then I’ve been hankering to go back, and now that I am a teacher and no longer a broke student who needs to make gas money every summer, timing worked out! I rode out and back with George and Sharon, my InterVarsity parents, and I even got in on house-hunting with them for a bit in Manhattan, Kansas. It was so good to be with them again, though they have stopped in Eagle Butte to visit a few times this year!
I helped the camp director’s wife with the four and five year olds for the week, and I adored our class! We had seven little kids the whole week, and two extras came to visit the last day. I fell in love with all of them, and we had our share of adventures together. Who takes four and five year olds rock climbing and camping out without their parents for the night? Well, we did, and miraculously it all turned out all right. I got to do some very fun things that week—I went to a coffee-tasting and managed to slug down taster cup after taster cup of black coffee, paired with the perfect food item, I went on three longer hikes, two of them for the sunrise, I went to a square dance, which my family camp growing up never had, and I got to hang out with some cool people.
I already mentioned how much I enjoyed being with George and Sharon again, and besides that I got to see my friend Will Michaloski again and meet his amazing wife Beth and their kids, I got to spend time with my friend Richard and finally caught him long enough at the end of the week to hear a tiny bit about the work he’s doing with One Challenge International, I met some really sweet kids, as I have already mentioned, and I made some good buddies who were on the summer crew. I especially had fun hanging out with my roommate Mary, the talented musician Emily, and my fellow “adult” CiCi! What a lovely place Bear Trap is… methinks I will not be able to wait so long to revisit this time!
While I was buzzing through Fargo on my way back I caught up briefly with Krista, Luke, and Elise, then with the rest of my spare time until school I set Andrew Olson off on his roadtrip west, caught coffee with Therese, and attended two weddings of friends from Bible School. Wonderful, wonderful summer! Shoot, not so much pith to this post! I’ll keep working on it!
As I start the school year, with kids returning this Monday, I would love prayer for…
• Productivity and creativity on my part as I plan
• My students, that they would be motivated to work hard and that they would see Jesus in me and be drawn to Him
• The new teachers in our district, particularly the two brand-new college grads that we have at the EAGLE Center teaching special education and social studies
• Our youth group at Emmanuel—we’re having a back-to-school party tomorrow and then doing some graffiti removal this Wednesday, so pray that we get off to a strong start!
• My sister as she is student-teaching in Brazil this semester
• My brother as he is applying for parish building ministry for this year
• My younger sister as she is starting Bible School
• My parents as they are probably missing us all… probably!
Thank you for being my support as I try to love like crazy here on the reservation… and without reservations! Love, Christina
