Only at Sand Creek . . .

It was a most beautiful day at Sand Creek, filled mostly with fun, friendly people.  We did have one birthday party we could have lived without, but only because it was a squirrelly group of eighth grade girls with attitude.  When I spoke to the mom later, the God-story far overshadowed the behavior exhibited.  Sadly, it was a tip free day but we got done early because everyone arrived on time!  

Lunch with Friends

Since we were almost in Canada, Micah and I joined some friends in Lino Lakes for lunch.  We had not seen these friends since Christmas and were wondering how it would go as the wife has early onset Alzheimers.  Micah was so gracious and good as she was asked for the third time what she was doing this summer.  We really had a delightful time and are looking to returning soon to "tackle the pink flamingo".  Stay tuned . . .  

Scott, Jacki and Me

 This morning, Scott Pelley, Jacki Huestis and I shared "Mercy Ships" with twenty-seven nursing students at the University of Northwestern in St. Paul.  Scott came via his "Sixty Minutes" segment on Mercy Ships that was filmed in Togo in 2012 (our last time on the ship).  Jacki's sister, Melissa, and I worked together in the children's summer program in 2011 in Sierra Leone.  I contacted Melissa who talked to Jacki who's been a nurse on the ship eight times.  Jacki and Melissa sent me the following from Bisbane, Australia.  I don't know if you'll be able to open it, but if you can, it's absolutely amazing!

https://wwwdropbox.com/sh/w1dmvlm14efnh2h/AACIehW4eP8XshvAoPf-2joea?dl=0  

I guess that made me the only "live and in-person" speaker!  It was a most excellent opportunity to share not only Mercy Ships, but the faithfulness of God.  To Him be the glory!

Thankful Thursday!

 In all honesty, I can only say that I was so "peopled out" by yesterday that all I wanted to do was sit in the backyard and pull weeds.  I am thankful, that besides my family, I only said "hi" to two men who biked past me and one neighbor who I hadn't seen all year.  And I pulled a lot of weeds! 

School's out for summer!!!

Today was last day of school in Lakeville for elementary students!  We brought out a bucket of chalk so that the kids could mark up the blacktop.  Second grade recess went fine.  First grade recess went fine.  Then came fifth grade recess . . . 

One of the fifth grade girls came over to me and said one of the boys had written a naughty word in Spanish.  Naturally, I asked the fifth grade boy if he had and sure enough, his friend told him to, so he did, but he didn't know what it meant.  I guarantee you his friend did!

About that time Aimee came out with her fifth graders and came over to see what was going on.  One of her Spanish-speaking students verified that it was a naughty word and would not tell us what it meant because it was so bad.

That left the writer and the instigator coloring with chalk in the heat of the day until the word disappeared.  They also got disciplined by the principal.

I asked Aimee later what it meant.  She said it was really bad and I should Google it.  I Googled it.  It was really bad.  But, hey, school's out for summer . . .

Only at Sand Creek . . . on a Sunday!

Saturday night, Ethan asked me if I could work at Sand Creek on Sunday.  I said, "Ethan, I have had one day off in the past thirteen days.  No."  But as I drove home and prayed, I decided it would not kill me to come in for the one hour of extreme client overload which was absolutely NOT Ethan's fault and relieve his pressure.

Sam and I talked about it when I got home and we decided if he stayed home from church and got his report cards, he would come, too.  Decision made, Ethan thrilled, I went off to church this morning while Sam stayed home to work on those dastardly report cards.  

Speaking of off, our internet went off this morning which meant not a single report card was done before lunch.  Sam, being a man of his word, said he would still come to Sand Creek since it would only be an hour.  He was going to do some low ropes with a group of Girl Scouts and I was going to do a zip-line tour with twelve.

Naturally, his Girl Scouts were all fifth graders from the Roseville area and he had an amazing time with them.  

On the flip side, I had a soon-to-be-married couple and ten family members who had been together at a wedding yesterday - ALL twelve believers!  Even better than that - some of them were YWAMers*!  We had a blast!  Faith is such an amazing bond!  As they left, we were able to say, "See you in heaven!"  Glorious.

Sadly, due to the high winds today, Blaize GOT to do four or five rescues off of platform two (we lost count!) which made us late finishing up.  Sam's 1.5 hours of work ended up being 2.5.  He's downstairs now, showered, eating and using the internet which came on at 1:00 p.m. to finish his report cards.  No regrets, just lots to do.

*Until 2003, Mercy Ships was a part of YWAM, leaving an amazing bond between these two organizations.  Shippers and YWAMers share lots of love!  

    

Only at Sand Creek . . . on a Saturday!

It was a toasty 101º on my car thermometer when I pulled into Sand Creek around 4:00 p.m. yesterday to do a team build for the Air Force.  I was pretty excited because, as most of you know, Sam was in the Air Force for almost six years.

I got to do a quick zip-line tour before they arrived - always fun!  Then I got the unexpected.  It wasn't the Air Force.  It was the Air Force Reserve with their families and they didn't know each other.  We made a quick change of plans and had a blast!

We did some low ropes team building, the leap of faith and the giant's ladder down in the high ropes, and ended with a three-zip. tour.  Unfortunately, co-worker Blaize never got the memo on the zip line.  He was supposed to keep some people at platform two so I could zip down and send them to platform three while he caught and sent at platform three and Ethan caught at platform four.  I must have asked five or six people to use their best military voice and COMMAND Blaize to hold people at platform two.  Eventually he did and the rest of the night went great!