My new little "family"

So I met my teammates for this summer today. Well, I met them on the phone anyway and I must say I am already in love with them. God has done such an amazing job putting our little "family" of four together. One of my teammates mentioned that he must have "lucked out" by getting on the team he did. I told him he didn't really; YouthWorks does a great job interviewing us, gathering personality information and praying over team choices. I believe each team was God-ordained from the start, and I am very excited about mine.

My team is made up of two guys, Adam and Josh and another girl, Maggie. They are all three still in college and all three seem so excited about this summer as I am. All of our prayer requests consist of getting ready for the summer: preparing our hearts, minds and bodies to go on a journey this summer, a journey for which I am convinced that we will not return the same. I already feel I am going to learn so so much from these three people God is bringing into my life.

I felt like all three of my teammates have really unique personalities that will be brought to Team #4. I already love their spirits and willingness to serve and so far they all seem to "get" my sense of humor and "me" ness.

Please, please be in prayer for us BY NAME in the few weeks leading up to June 5/6. I am soooo jealous for your prayers in my life and am so thankful for them. My three "mates" are flying and I will be driving so travel mercies for all would be appreciated. I was told by two people today that this trip was going to "stretch" me today. I have no doubt that God was speaking through those people to me telling me to get ready to be rock and rolled. I pray that I will be and am excited about it.

I'm not gonna lie, the closer I get to June 5th, the more tears show up on a regular basis. Tears of joy, sadness, anxiousness, appreciatevness, stress, love. It depends on what kind of day I'm having basically. lol.

All in all, Slim the Snail and I are ready to do this summer of service. Now my greatest concern other than saying goodbyes is trying to pack - AAAAAACCCKKKKK!

Much love to you all and remember, even through the tears and fears, to embrace and remember the source of our joie de vivre. Just look to the skies and you'll know whom I talk of. ;)

In Him,

Shannon

So we can only wear khakis to church this summer. Trying to not look like I'm going to private school, I picked up these hot little numbers Friday from a cute consignment type shop since I don't think khaki skirts are sold anywhere anymore. Trust me folks, they look way cuter on and I figured hey, I can get the long one for when I don't feel like shaving my legs and the knee length one for when I want to add a little spice! - whoop!

Meet Slim! The newest mascot for my summer-o-fun for the ten weeks I will be traversing across the contiguous United States. His full name is Slim the Sports Life Camp Snail. I told my family I bought a snail and my favorite comment was from my Dad, when he said, "Now make sure you give him plenty of water and make sure that he gets air." I looked at him and laughed and explained that Slim was a giant resin snail, lol not a real one. Needless to say, Slim will be well taken care of and you all will be seeing plenty of fun photo ops with him. This photo was taken in Chattanooga, Slim's birthplace, at Point Park - a civil war historic site

Got my binder mailed back to me so Im glad to be reading through it and continuing to prep for the summer! 27 days!!!!

Focus on the Joie de vivre!

In Him,

Shannon

Training Weekend

(The church we stayed in "Elim" and a skyline of Minneapolis)

So for the first time ever, I flew to the very blustery, very chilly for May, city of Minneapolis, MN. Minus the fact that my alarm went off at 2:45 am (aaack!) I felt like God's hand was on my trip the whole time. Bless the Delta airport workers, as soon as I checked in, they informed me that instead of having to hop on three different flights, I could pay $50 more and fly a direct flight into MN that left only an hour after my first flight was supposed to take off and would get me to MN almost 3 hours earlier than my original flight. I jumped at the chance, especially since the straight through flight was cheaper so I only had to pay around $35 dollars instead of the $50 to switch. We had to bring sleeping things so I was NOT thrilled at having to pay $23 both ways to check my baggage which was basically 2 sets of clothes and a big ole sleeping bag.

The trip wasn't without its hitches however; I happened to forget a towel..ultimate fail! And since I wasn't super good friends with any of my bunkmates, I was hesitant to ask if I could borrow theirs (pretty please). So I sucked it up and dried off with about a forests worth of paper towels to which when I announced this as I was getting dressed a girl hollered out, "you're hardcore!" These Mid-Westerners I tell you, if using your brain to figure out an alternative to drip drying is hardcore, we are all in trouble lol.

On the same topic of Midwesterners...I may be doing a little blaspheming here and I mean no disrespect, but the Mid-Western accent (to me) is comparable to someone scraping their fingernails down a chalkboard - no lie. I wanted to pull my ears off rather than be subjected to what is the extreme opposite to the southern accents I am used to hearing. Mid-Westerners do something to their O's which is akin to swallowing them, remembering you have to pronounce them, and then spitting them back up in a hurry. And don't EVER ask a Mid-Westerner to pronounce their A's correctly, they strangle their A's! Bag is pronounced bag with a long a instead of a short, same with bagel... ad naseum.

As for the training, it was exhausting. We crammed about 5 days of stuff into 2.5 days and that wasn't even a third of it - no kidding - We still have another week of training to do once I reach Minneapolis again for the summer. Needless to say I have bunches of binder reading to do between now and then except I left my binder in the church lol. And they made comments about how organized I was with my note taking and highlighting and underlining - ha! Perhaps it was the sleep-deficit due to my air mattress deflating halfway through the night and never fully reviving or how I was up for 21 hours straight that first day or how I had to use my I-POD for white noise to cover the strangling snores of the poor woman who came on the trip wth a massive cold. All in all, I was glad to be home, and was EXCITED to go back to work! Ha, you know the weekend is rough when that happens.

I am however unendingly excited about what God is doing for this summer. I already love my Area Director, Kurt; he was a perfect fit for my personality. And the other Camp Director who shares Kurt with me, is Mike, who is a non-stop barrel of stories and silliness.

Please be in prayer for me for several things - for my team who I have not met, that we may gel and carry out good things for God this summer. For my Area Director Kurt, that he may lead and I may listen. For the churches and kids and host families we will interact with all summer that we may be reciprocal blessings to each other and for me as I am already very anxious about leaving my family and friends and life as I know it and stepping into very unfamiliar territory. May God lead and I always be willing to follow for that is the true joi de vivre.

In Him,

Shannon