Nearing the Finish Line

     Okay, I know I haven't been great about posting updates or anything at all, but I've been doing a lot lately and haven't had much free time. This entry will be short and sweet. I'll be coming home in about 10 days!!! Hopefully, I'll be talking to ya'll soon enough so I can tell you in person about all the fun/work I've been doing. We just finished our VBS on Friday, and it was great! So much fun! This week I've got two fun days with the youth, one with the children, Bible study, and a David Crowder concert to go to. Then next weekend I'm going to visit Arizona for a couple of days - I'm so excited. After that, I'm gonna have to start packing... 

     I'm getting baptized in the Bay tomorrow. I've been baptized (sprinkled) twice before: once as a baby and once as an adult, but I've always wanted to be immersed. So I finally got the chance, so Pastor Alan is baptizing me tomorrow (Sunday) evening. I think that's all the updates I have for now. Love you all and see you soon!

The Tale of the Trolley and other Adventures

    Last Thursday I went on a scavenger hunt around the city with the girls from Vision San Diego. We rode on the trolley to find each landmark for our hunt. First we stopped by Old Town which is like an old western version of San Diego. Our next stop was "The Kissing Couple" a.k.a. "Unconditional Surrender" which is a statue that I've wanted to see since I got here. Then we went to the Gaslamp Quarter and ate lunch at the Cheese Shop! Next we stopped by Fashion Valley (a mall) and Qualcom Stadium. Finally, we made it to the border of Mexico for our last stop of the day. It was a lot of fun, but we were really tired after it was over. 

    I met an interesting character while we were riding the trolley to the border. He was an older black man ( I think in his 60's) named Leroy. He was sitting behind me on the trolley talking to two of our girls. I overheard him say his name was Leroy. As we passed Petco Park, I turned to show the girls, and he turned to look at me. When he did I said, "Hey, Leroy!" So he got all excited and gave me a hug because he thought I knew him. So then he talked to me for the rest of the ride to the border, which was about 20 minutes. He definitely made my day because he was so funny and really liked to talk. I couldn't understand half of what he said, but I would just nod and agree with him. It's not very often that you get to meet a person like Leroy. 

    

    On Tuesday, I got into a fight with some Jewish kids. It was all in good fun, though. Their youth group invited us to join their annual water balloon/cream pie capture the flag, and of course we accepted the challenge. So naturally, Tuesday was very cold here, but once we started playing we warmed up. We all got soaked, and I still haven't gotten my feet clean from running around barefoot on the concrete. It was definitely worth it, though. We had a lot of fun - but the Jews were much better than us.

    Then yesterday (Wednesday), I had to teach the children a Bible lesson again. It went much better this week because the lesson was on their level so they could actually understand what I was saying, and I tried to make it fun for them. They were so cute - I would ask them a question and they would kind of answer it but then get distracted and talk about something totally different. They did a good job listening though. I only have one more lesson to teach them next week, and then I'm gonna be teaching the youth on Wednesday's. I'm really excited! I finally feel like I'm getting something accomplished.

Breezin' Through

On Saturday, the Mississippi Youth Choir flew back home. It's surprising how attached you can get to people after knowing them for only a week. As I watched my new friends drive away to the airport, I found myself feeling sad and lonely. I knew that I wouldn't be alone for long, but it was sad to think that I might never see these people again. I really wanted to cry, and anyone who knows me, knows that is a rare occurrence. However, thanks to the internet I am able to keep in contact with my southern friends. The question is "how long will we stay in touch?". I hope that we will keep it up for years to come.

After they left, I began my real work for the summer. The past couple of days have been filled with printing, copying, addressing, and licking envelopes. I'm working on sending out the summer calendar to the current and prospective youth in the surrounding area. I'm also preparing for our big kick-off concert that's this Saturday. So I've been keeping busy lately. For the next three weeks I'll be in charge of 30 minutes recreation and 30 minutes of Bible time for the children every Wednesday night. And our youth meets on Friday evenings for now - I'm in charge of the games here, too. I love games, though, so I think it will work out great.

Now that the Mississippi group left, twelve girls from various states have moved in with me at the church. They're working with Vision San Diego for the summer. I haven't been able to talk with them a whole lot yet, but I think we'll get along good. I already knew one of the girls with Vision San Diego because she goes to school with me. How cool is it that I come all the way to San Diego, CA just to run into someone I know from Athens, GA! Well, I thought it was pretty awesome.

That's all for now. I've got to go to a picnic at Balboa Park with the other missionaries - hard times.

First Sunday

     My first Sunday at First Baptist Church at Clairemont was an intimidating step of faith. I knew that I had to teach Sunday School at 9am to a group of about 40 students who were visiting from Mississippi, so I woke up around 5:30 to get ready for church and then prepare my lesson. I had a lot of books and resources to help me, but it turned out that they weren't quite as helpful as I hoped. I mean, they helped a lot, but putting a lesson together on such short notice was more difficult than I thought it would be. 

     Finally the time came to teach the lesson I had prepared, and it turned out okay. I started out with a game called gorilla-man-gun (kinda like rock-paper-scissors only you use your body instead of your fist). Everyone, especially the guys, really loved the game. Then we did another game that led into a discussion about evangelism. The point of the game was to guess how long a stick was and then break up into groups based upon the length you guessed. Then you go around to other groups and try to get them to join your group by convincing them that your length is correct. It worked really well. Some groups got others to convert, but most people stuck with their first choice. The point was to understand evangelism from both perspectives. It opened up a good discussion and brought up some good questions. I'm sure it could have been done better, but I think I did an okay job for my first Sunday school lesson. After we finished, they all wanted to play gorilla-man-gun again. 

     In church, the pastor introduced me to everyone, and I felt really welcomed. For the most part, a lot of older people attend this church. That's fine with me, but it's not so great when you're trying to lead a youth ministry. I think the challenge this summer will be to attract new members for the youth group. It should be an interesting summer filled with surprises - hopefully good ones.