So this week so far has been my favorite. I looooved St. Louis! What a neat city and what a neat church! We started the week by going to a Lutheran service which reminded me a lot of the church I grew up going to, although they did say the Apostle’s Creed slightly different than I was used to… This church was so welcoming, they actually had us come to the front and answer questions about SLC in the middle of service! Afterthe service, they had us stand in a receiving line and we shook everyones hand! So cool!

We ended up staying with the church coordinator as one of our host families and she lived at Concordia Seminary because her husband taught there. They had these really pretty old school houses from the 1920s or so and they had the HUGEST doors I’ve ever seen! I actually had major problems getting in and out of the doors too for whatever reason. I’m used to the cheapy apartment doors, but these were for real, solid oak, you’d have to use a battering ram to break in. They were for sure something out of a C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien novel.

One of the nights we were in St. Louis, we went downtown to Union Station which was an old school train station that was basically turned into a shopping complex. It was very pretty inside. We didn’t shop in there much but did see just about the most entertaining fudge show at The Fudgery that I have ever seen. They harmonized with each other and everything! Amazing! After Union Station we walked down to a well known pizza place called Imo’s Pizza. I ordered a Canadian Bacon medium pizza and ate The. Whole. Thing. Speaking of eating, we had ice cream at last count I think 5 times last week. Not just ice cream though, ice cream and custard. For some reason, St. Louis is gaga over custard. One day we even had ice cream in the afternoon and custard at night.

One of my favorite ice cream memories was Kurt, my Area Director coming in with four, count em, four half gallons of ice cream, all based off of flavors he knew we liked, and he had gotten me a Glamour magazine as well. My jaw dropped because this months was quite a flashy cover and I was surprised he’d picked it up and knew what it was lol. SCORE! It was really hard for m to leave my leftover ice cream behind, but I drew the line at bringin it in the car and eating as much of what was left as I could before it melted. Mianly because we did that with leftover pizza lol.


My most/least favorite memory besides eating ice cream too much was visiting the St. Louis Arch. It was so beautiful and simple, I loved it. I could have taken so many neat pictures from so many neat angles, all day long and not gotten tired of it. One thing I did fail to realize however was just how teeny, weeeny, tiny, the inside of that thing would be. I do have diagnosed mild claustrophobia (I say its mild because part of one of my skits is to curl up inside of a trashcan with the lid on and make a lot of noise and that doesn’t bother me), but boy being in a small space with a lot of people, and not a clear exit? That freaks me out. If you’ve never been in it, you go up in these tiny, tiny little pods that fit five people but really should fit only three and you go up in this Willy Wonka type pipe thingie that got suuuuuuper close to the wall at times. You then disembark at the top where they try and fit 500 people in a space that comfortably fits 5. You do get to see pretty sweet views though. My favorite was looking down and seeing my Area Director, Kurt run across the lawn, throw himself to the ground and make grass angels. I videoed him and it was HILARIOUS! Needless to say, I was doing everything short of kissing the ground when we came out of there.


Another super fun activity we got to do in St. Louis was the freeee zoo. In fact, St. Louis has a ton of free things, like a free Science, History and Art museum. The zoo was huge and amazing! They charge for shows which is probably where they make up a lot of their money, but they had a ton of animals. It kind of reminded me of Animal Kingdom, but not as jazzy. Their penguin exhibit was so open you could literally lean down and touch one of the penguins if you had a mind to. My fravorite, fravorite part of the zoo by far was the Insectarium. I spent so much time in there, it was fascinating! I looked at everything! My team was hardcore making fun of me for it, but I didn’t care although I did feel bad that I stayed in there so long that Maggie missed seeing the elephants, but I didn’t do it on purpose, I just lost track of time lol. I went into the butterfly aviary and laughed so hard at this group of African American ladies with their babies who were literally running, screaming and shreiking from these butterflies. One lady used her baby to shield herself from this HUGE blue and black one that was about the size of my head, it was sooo funny I almost peed myself.

We met two different groups of super cool guys on our way up to St. Louis. The first group was two black guys painting the outside of the Fazolis and their names were Larry and Ray. I had had a very discouraging week the week before and was talking to Larry about camp and what we did week to week and out of nowhere Larry starts saying how what we are doing is amazing and how he wanted to encourage us to keep doing it, even though it may be hard and even though we may want to quit because what we are doing is good and the Lord will reward us. He couldn’t have known except for God laying it on his heart, that I needed to hear his exact words of encouragement and it helped a lot knowing that God had heard my prayers and was sending me encouragement through a random angel painting the side of a Fazolis.

The second group of guys we met was Bryan and Josh. They were trying to get to California because they knew people out there who could help them. I was so humbled by these two because they asked if we could give them a ride to which I replied that I couldn’t but could I get them anything inside? Bryan got up and I told him he could get anything he wanted/needed in the store. He came back with a bottle of water. I asked if he wanted to get his friend anything and he meekly replied that one bottle was enough and he would share with his friend. I all about choked. Here I have all my meals and anything I need paid for this summer and I’m coming in all big and bad thinking I’m gonna help this guy and that he’s gonna buy up the place because I’m being so generous and he comes back with water – to share. I changed my tactic and decided to get them meals at the Hardees that was connected to the gas station. I figured I could at least make sure they were eating an actual meal and were full for a little while. He obliged and we were able to get something into their bellies. I talked to him for a little and the guys on my team were able to talk to Josh some outside. I wish I was able to spend more time with him and know him better. The one thing he said that stuck out to me was he wanted to get rich and make money so he could help other people as a way to say thanks to people like me who helped him. And all I did was treat him like the child of God I saw before me and bought him a meal from Hardees and yet to this man, for an hour or so at least, I was a hero.

I was really sad to leave this little church. Our volunteer coaches were so fun and I loved being around them. I especially appreciated the older ones because all of my grandparents have passed away long ago and it was nice to have some again, even if it was only for a week. My little girls (I had a ton of 5 and 6 year olds) loved cheer and I had a blast teaching them new cheers because they picked them up so quickly and all 5 ballet positions. Seeing them do ballet fposition number 5 was priceless I tell you and many of them were really good at it!


I will leave you with a funny story from my Lincoln week which I forgot to put into my blog for that week. So we do a segment with the kids where we dig deep and talk about Jesus dying on the cross and God's grace for our sins. When we finished, the camp coordinator was supposed to come up and give a talk to the kids and basically lay out the plan of salvation for them. Adam and I looked up after our spiel and see the camp coordinator run out of the room. Adam looks at me like “what do we do!” and all I could think of was we need to sing a song! So I start singing “I love you Lord and I lift my voice…” thinking that someone on my team is going to back me up, because I’m singing into a microphone…by myself. And those who know me know the only time I do that is during Karaoke nights and generally I bring a friend with me annnd I have background music and words on the screen lol. Needless to say I flew solo on that one and as I kept singing I definitely had to will myself not to pass out at the fact that I was singing in front of 80 campers and about 20 volunteer coaches. I didn’t win any Grammys for sure, but I did finish the song just in time for the Camp Coordinator to come back. Lol If only it had been videoed, my face was priceless!

Hug someone you love this week and get on the phone, facebook or text or email and tell someone how much they mean to you, it can make your day and their day so much richer!
That’s the true joie de vivre!

In Him and with much love,

Shannon