TEC

Hello again! I feel like it has been ages since I've posted on here. Since coming back from Mississippi, I have had little time for sleep as I spent a good portion of last week preparing to be gone from Friday night through Monday night on a Teens Encounter Christ retreat at Glad Tidings Bible Camp outside of Crofton, NE.

The weekend there was awesome. Despite the fact that it only increased my sleep debt and to-do list back here at school (with missing an entire day of classes and an entire weekend of study time), I feel refreshed and peaceful in my exhaustion.

Let me explain a little bit. First of all, I didn't actually make this retreat. I was working at it. I went on the TEC retreat when I was a senior in high school and have since worked 4 of them. This past weekend was the first time I worked as a table leader though, meaning that I was directly interacting with the candidates (those making the retreat) for the entire weekend. Basically, it is a three day weekend centered on God and growing and sharing faith. Words simply do not do it justice. There are speakers on the weekend, and many powerful surprises. I always find it difficult to actually explain the weekend because so many amazing things happen and so much of it can't be put into words, it just has to be experienced. I came back Monday night completely exhausted, overwhelmed, awed, inspired, humbled, and wowed. I still have a lot to process. There are some amazing young high school students in the area; five of them were members of my small group for the weekend (a.k.a. my family). They are the people in the picture I've posted. In the back row are Josh, Nicolette, and Haley. In the front are Roger, Me, Megan and Miles. We were creatively known as Shiny Puffs and Butterscotch for three days and we pretty much made all of the other groups jealous of our artwork and our discussions and closenss. :) It is always sad to leave after a TEC weekend and say goodbye to all of the wonderful friends you make.

So with my peace and exhaustion, my task for this week is to stay awake in classes, get what needs to be done done, and worry about actually catching up this weekend. Had it not been for a great weekend, I would probably be a stressed monkey right now as I have an overwhelming load to accomplish and an insufficient energy level to do so. Ohhh, and volleyball! We have our first spring ball tournament this Friday at Briar Cliff, so that means will be having a few extra practices to work out the kinks and get rid of winter rustiness.

I won't be feeling bored anytime soon. :)

The end of the year is quickly approaching. Best of luck with focusing and finishing!!

Mississippi

The above pictures are from my Spring Break Mission trip to Mississippi. The top one is of me and Brittany supporting Stephanie, one of the kids at the orphanage, in a cheerleading move. The middle picture is of Brittany and I again, this time posing in front of our creative posts on Elvis's wall at Graceland ("Dear Elivs, you should have met Celine Dion." and "Elvis, my grandma has a crush on you"). The bottom picture is of our group outside the civil rights museum (Erin, Ben, Alicia, Amy, Me, Megan, Brittany, Chris, and S. Maribeth)

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Spring Break is now officially over and I am very sad that the time is gone. I think I mentioned that I was going to Mississippi on a mission trip with a group from MMC, and it was great in sooo many ways. We had to each pay $400 dollars to make the trip, but it was more than worth it. Let me give you a little synopsis.

We left (9 of us - 7 students and 2 faculty members) in a big clunky school van on Saturday morning at 5 a.m. (the first day of break). Brittany (my wonderful friend and travel companion) and I decided it would be wise to not even bother going to bed beforehand. Instead, we went to Augustana College in Sioux Falls to watch a very impressive performance of the play Eating Through the Fabric, a tragedy set during World War II. Perhaps more impressively, we didn't even have time to start packing until about 2:00 a.m., three hours before departure time. Now, you have to admit, that's pretty impressive for two girls going on a week long vacation.

We traveled 14 hours on Saturday and stayed over night in Sikeston, Missouri. On Sunday morning, we hit the road again, stopping in Memphis to write on the Graceland Wall, take a walk down Beale Street, and explore the National Civil Rights Museum. I was very impressed by the museum. It is definitely something everyone should see - incredibly eye-opening and powerful.

We arrived at the Dwelling Place Retreat Center in Brooksville, Mississippi, our final destination, on Sunday night. We spent Monday touring the three small towns in Noxubee County, MS, getting a feel for the culture. In a nutshell: racism in the area is still alive and well, and there is plenty of poverty to supplement it. I was shocked by the reality of it. I had no idea racism was still so prevalent in the U.S. Case in point: at the Brooksville Cemetery, there is a gravestone memorializing the closing of the white school, a gravestone that was decorated with fresh flowers. It was an overwhelming and powerful day.

On Tuesday, we were finally given the opportunity to serve. We spent the morning performing cleaning and maintenance tasks at the Dwelling Place and then took the afternoon to tutor at the county grade school and middle school and play with the children at the Palmer Home Orphanage.

Wednesday was spent helping Clare and Mary of the Dwelling Place move into their new administrative building. It was such an exciting thing for them, and all of us were happy to help them take that big step in continuing and expanding their ministry. We celebrated by spending a second afternoon with the kids at the orphanage.

Thursday was our last day of service, and we made the most of it, spending all day at the schools and the orphanage. I fell in love with the kids. I felt tears wanting to come when we had to say goodbye. It's very humbling to know that you can do such a big service simply by loving someone. Heck, I played zombies with a little girl at the orphanage, and I felt more purposeful than I have in a very long time. The joy that I think all nine of us felt during the trip was surreal.

Friday and Saturday were spent in the van, about 19 hours on the road to home, refreshed and changed and reluctant to begin school again.

Word of the day = frantic.

Well, on this Monday afternoon I find myself one week away from Spring break. Oooh the peace that that realization breaks...after the waves of frantic-ness...

It was another busy weekend that left little time for homework, so here I sit on Monday afternoon, exhausted from 6:00 a.m. practice and lack of sleep in general, contemplating the cramming of my planner for the week. I have a piano midterm at 3:00 to officially set the week spiraling. I'm planning on doing a bit of last minute practicing as soon as I fill you in on my adventures.

Tuesdays are just evil days in general. I essentially have class from 8:00 a.m. until 8:45 p.m., with work study and volleyball squeezed into my breaks. Sooo, I have to complete homework for that craziness tonight and in addition squeeze in Wednesday's homework tonight so that I can spend all of Tuesday night studying for my biochemistry midterm. I....well um....let's just say we had a review quiz today and it really didn't go so well at all. I have quite a bit of studying on my hands.

But after Wednesday morning, I'll breathe again. Our physics final has been moved to Friday, which was my blessing of the morning and I have a conference on Friday for my English class, neither of which weighs as heavily on my mind as biochem.

And then spring break...a week in which I will likely do little if any catching up on my sleep. I'll be spending the week in Mississippi as part of the group heading down there for a mission trip. We leave at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning and return the next Saturday evening. I'll follow up that experience with a road trip back to Humphrey, NE on Sunday for the final TEC meeting before the big weekend. AND then....well school again of course. I'm sure I'll fill you in on the trip in a furture post.

And so, I'm taking a deep breath and hitting the books and piano notes and trudging along. Best of luck to all of you in your endeavors.