On another note, Tim and Debbie Funk, our church's elders, and the ministers have been going around and having a dinner with every member in order to give everyone a chance to speak personally with them their concerns and thoughts about our church. Last night was the young group girl's turn. I must say, I did not go into the evening with the most excited and willing attitude as my understanding was that the discussion would be on admonishing the young girls to wear headcoverings higher, wear our hair longer, dress more modest, etc. Not that these are not terrible things to discuss, but it is a very familiar story for us, and, frankly, nothing new. But, that is not what it was about at all. We had some great fellowship over some pizza, fruit salad, and delicious brownies, and then began the discussion part of the evening with a fun icebreaker. Driving illegally, eyes, ears, and other wierd atonomical facts is all I'm going to say about that little activity. Moving on to the more serious section, we broke into two groups (because the turnout was so good.) and first talked about the strengths and positives of our current young group. I will tell you this, my heart was warmed to think of how blessed we are to have a peer group such as this. Some of the positives brought up were that it is "good, clean, fun", there is an amazing amount of accountability, that our young group right now is spiritually focused, that, for the most part, it is not just a cliquey, social group, but something deeper caused by the love that is within it, there is a "lack of judgement" (as in no one feels they are being judged based off of background etc., and, from an outsider's point of view, their is so much joy at just being with eachother while learning and serving God.
Here are some photos of young group girls: Just the usual scenes, like sitting on a beach to watch the sun go down,
Putting on very large, goofy glasses to take a group photo,
And holding eachother down to dump a trashcan full of water on a hot day.
As with everything, there are, of course, the weaknesses within this group, and we would be ignorant to ignore them. Some of the weaknesses, or "opportunities to improve", as Craig put it, were, that there is some amount of cliqueyness and a lack of support of eachother among the girls, that attendance to anything that is not a Bible study is very poor, that the topics of the Bible studies do seem to be a bit more geared toward those that have just started repenting or haven't converted yet, and that there is not alot of age difference. Fortunatly, out of these problems came some wonderful solutions. To break down barriers among the girls an idea from Princeville came up. We would like to set up a "secret siter" system in which one girl will have someone to write to, talk to, and basically get to know better and they switch out every month. Also, we thought of maybe doing a themed supper for the girls every three months or so. I was really excited about this opportunity because I see how the guys seem to have this special fellowship that, in my opinion, just isn't there with the girls. A mentor system for the entire church was brought up, which would also be great. We certainly discussed the fact that we do need to improve attendance to certain events and to do so the idea of having people be accountable for eachother and make phonecalls and arrange for rides so that everyone feels welcome to come despite the fact that their best friend or clique will not be there.
So all in all, I think some really great things came out of the evening. It was a great time of laughter, chatting, and getting to know the ministers and thier wives better.
So, on to another subject, big thing in our house lately has been preparing for our 2 and 1/2 week trip to California and back. Its hard to believe we are leaving in only about five days, Lord willing! So much still needs to be done before hand, though the list has certainly diminished significantly. Thursday we did a very thourough cleaning of the house. It won't stay that clean till we leave, but at least now it is only the surface stuff that will need to be done. We have figured out what we are going to do for entertainment during the long hours driving for the most part. I went to the Sauder's to "steal stolen movies" and set up the motorhome so we will be able to hear the laptop. The Poisonwood Bible (a verywell written fiction story of some missionaries in Africa) was bought to read out loud (a tradition we have had for almost every vacation). Mom bought a bunch of markers and notebooks from the cheap, back to school section of walmart. As far as packing goes, I don't believe anything has actually been put into the motorhome as of yet, but will in no time. A new Road Atlas was bought upon Grandma's suggestion and I worked on marking out our intended course and points of interest and camping spots. Food still needs to be planned and bought and I believe everyone else has alot of laundry to do before we leave. It is amazing how much goes into a venture such as this one. Though it is work, it is well worth it, because, in my opinion, the anticipation is just as great as the trip itself.
No worries, everything will be documented and recorded on this vacation!
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