Highs and Lows

Last night during action group (small group Bible study), we went around the circle and talked about our highs and lows of the past week. I thought it would make for a good update to share them with you. I always start with my lows because, hey, who wants to hear the bad news last?? No one.


Lows:

I haven't gotten a whole lot of sleep lately which makes it pretty difficult for me to function. Some people are "okay" on three hours a night, but I am really run-down by getting five hours a night. My brain and body are much less reliable and that's hard for me.

My job at Walmart isn't awesome (yet). The work feels tedious, meaningless, and it can be frustrating at times when the tasks we're given don't work the way they should. It's also hard to connect with people there because there are so many employees and we don't get a lot of time with any one of them to get close and make a difference. I think it will get better though, as long as I continue to try to talk to people and make friends while I'm there. I work with four other Project people, so that helps a lot too.


Highs:

Last Thursday, we had an "International Dinner" which I learned a lot from. It feels so much in the past though that all I'm going to say is that it helped open my eyes to global need for the Gospel and the importance of missions all across the world.

On Friday night we went camping. It was the latest sunset of the year (10:08 p.m.) because of the summer solstice, and we women hung out on a fairly small island that we had pretty much to ourselves. I went off by myself and explored, walking along the rocky beach, finding some cool things, climbing the big hill which made me feel like a mountaineer, climbing back down and gtting quite tangled up in the brush and "devil's club." It was awesome to have my own personal adventure for a while. I loved bonding with the other women afterward for the rest of the night.

Saturday rolled around and we went downtown to evangelize for a little bit. I paired with Ryan B. and we had an awesome conversation with two women while doing Soularium with them.

After that, we had a bonfire on Sandy Beach that we used as an outreach. That is, making people feel a part of our group and just being friends with the locals. Social events like that are great chances to make connections and be inclusive. It was a lot of fun.

That night, a lot of us ran the "Only Fools Run at Midnight" 5k. We all dressed up in costumes, like fools, and ran around Juneau in the middle of the night. Because it was overcast, it was pretty dark, too. I fell behind everyone else in Cru because I have been really slacking on my running lately and am not super in-shape right now. I kept a slow and steady pace because I didn't want to wear myself out and have to walk, especially with some of the steep hills making it more difficult. I succeeded in "running" the entire time, even though I was running alone. I was pleased to find that I did not feel abandoned or alone, but enjoyed the time alone with my thoughts and observations as I ran along. I sprinted my fastest at the end, of course, and all the Cru people were there cheering for me.

On Sunday, I was a total grump about "ladies' fishing day" because it meant missing church, relaxing time, and Ultimate Frisbee, and because I don't have my fishing license and don't really enjoy fishing at all (sorry, Dad). However, I saw some pretty miraculous things, like being on the water surrounded by mountains, getting to hike up to a waterfall at first, and just being in awe of God's beauty. By the way, I wrote a post about this experience for the Project blog, which I will share with you once it's posted.

On Monday, we had a panel of men during the women's Bible study. Our questions were anonymous because we wrote them on notecards. It was not all relevant information to us (as a lot of what was talked about related to marriage; meanwhile, most of us women are single), but it was super informative and it re-awoke a respect and appreciation for men and inspired me to serve them and love them as my brothers.

On Tuesday after our Cru weekly meeting, we had a "$5 prom" where we all wore dorky dress clothes from the thrift store and had a dance party. It was really fun, and I really let go of any and all shame I had and danced as crazily as I could the entire night. A lot of people laughed at me (not mockingly, but because I was funny--who knew?) and I was really surprised when several people told me I was a good dancer. I guess the key to good dancing is not caring about whether or not I'm moving too much, but moving as much as I want without shame. One of my guy friends tried to partner dance with me at one point, and I utterly failed at it. I had no idea how to respond to his movements or go along with it. I also know I'm confined by choreographed dances. It was nice to just have a great beat for two hours and do whatever I wanted with it.

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to express my desire to serve my brothers, because during women's development time, all of us baked sweets for the men while they were gone, wrote them notes, and picked daisies for them. We got to sneak into their apartments and leave our goodies for them to find, and I think they felt super honored by it. Afterward, we all got "affirmed" one by one by our leaders, which was super encouraging and honoring.

That's a lot of highs!! So happy to report this.


Today (Friday), we had intentional "quiet time"and are soon going to go rock climbing and mountain-climbing. All the men are going camping all weekend, so the women are going to be having "adventure weekend" by ourselves and doing fun stuff today and tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a growing, bonding experience.

Thank you, readers, for all your prayers, encouragement, and support. I have been doing some thinking about how we can deepen our impact here instead of focusing on so much personal growth, but frankly, the personal growth I have been experiencing is/was much-needed.


God bless.