Only at Sand Creek . . .

 Ethan worked his other job today so that put me in charge at Sand Creek.  Our first zip contained the three cousins, the Russians and the latecomers.  

The cousins were great.  One went to Lakeville North and when he named his least favorite teacher there, I responded with, "Oh, the crazy cat lady."  Yikes!  Now how did I know that, Micah?  

The Russians were just a fun family with dual citizenship.  I learned some cultural things from them and enjoyed watching their faces go from fear to fun!

The latecomers were just unhappy, bordering on crabby.  Now, it certainly wasn't my fault they were late, but somehow I was the one to blame!  For everything they didn't like.  Which was mostly everything.  Oh, well . . .

Thanks to the latecomers, we missed our lunch time and hurried to send a family from Nebraska zipping.  Never have I ever been unable to put someone on the cable on platform two, but I couldn't get the oldest (unbelievably short) daughter up.  I finally got the step stool, put it on the platform and was able to hook her up.

Another fun day at Sand Creek, also known as "Terrific Tips on Tuesday"!  

Who Needs a Graphic Novel?

Really.  Who needs a graphic novel when you can have Matt share his day in graphic detail!  He had us all in stitches Sunday night when he shared about the "high guy".  Was it drugs or alcohol?  Who knows?  Fortunately, he left before the fist fight.  Two mothers were throwing punches at each other on the pool deck.  Matt's description of he and his supervisor running over to save the day had us all cracking up!  Add a little police action and he was ready to come home Sunday night.    

On the Way Home . . .

. . . From church tonight, we passed by a car on the other side of the road with a young lady standing by her trunk in the rain fiddling with a gas can.  We turned the car around and asked if she needed help.  Sure enough, her car had run out of gas and we were given the privilege of taking her to a gas station, filling up her gas can, returning her to her car and putting the gas in.  May the love we showed bring her one step closer to Jesus!  

Only at Sand Creek . . .

 Our first group on the zipline this morning included four friends and six Girl Scouts with their leader, Missy.  It was a cloudy, dark day with threatening rain.  Our conversation went something like this:

Girl Scout on Platform One:  "I felt a raindrop.  It's raining."

Me:  "I'm sure a bird just flew overhead and you got a drop of bird pee."

Different Girl Scout on Platform Two:  "I felt a raindrop.  It's raining."

Me:  "I felt a rain drop, too, but that only means it's sprinkling."

Different Girl Scout on Platform Three:  "I felt a raindrop.  It's raining." 

Me: "You're right!  It is!"

And so the rain fell, through the rest of that zip, over our lunch break and on into the second zip of the day and into the third zip.  I bring up the third zip only because we had two sisters from Portland on that zip and they were overheard saying, "Hey, this is just like home!"  

Fortunately for Ethan and I, all of our 4:30 p.m. zippers either cancelled or rescheduled and we were able to go home soaking wet.    

Only at Sand Creek - My Mistake!

As I drove out to Sand Creek this morning, I mentally planned my team build for the Steele County YOUTH.  When I arrived, Ethan was down setting up the high ropes and two big burly guys were looking out on platform one.  I asked them if they were with Steele County and they said they were.  I asked when the students would be arriving and they looked at me strangely.

"Um, everyone is driving themselves."

"Really?  Why?"

"Because we're the Steele County PROBATION OFFICERS."

"All of you?"

"Yup."

"No students?  Man, I've got to change my plans!"

Not what I was expecting, still great fun!  And, yeah, they were mostly big and burly!

Thankful Thursday!

A few weeks ago, we had Ben Pierce with Steiger International give our Sunday sermon.  Micah and I had originally met Ben when we went to Ukraine with his band "No Longer Music".  At church, Ben mentioned his podcast, "Provoke and Inspire".  

Since then, Sam and I have been listening to it while doing mulch in our back yard or on road trips or basically whenever and wherever we can.  

We are thankful for this podcast as it attempts to answer the question "How do we live for Jesus in a post-Christian culture?" in what we find to be a very Biblically sound way.         

A Belated Happy Father's Day!

We were able to celebrate Father's Day with my Dad on Tuesday: