Time sure does fly...

Wow, this summer has been flying by!! It has been great so far though! I am completely exhausted at this point...we have been preparing for VBS all last week and it started last night, and of course the first night is always crazy, but we made it through and we had 30 kids or so and that was awesome!! Anyway, the theme is "Settlers of the Last Frontier" and last night we talked about Jacob when he wrestled with God. Tonight is on Elijah (which is my favorite Bible character!) when he was on Mount Carmel and was calling on God to put fire on the altar. We made a backdrop with a huge caramel bottle and mountains on it to represent "Mount Carmel" ;-) and that was pretty fun. Tuesday night is about Daniel in the Lion's Den, and then Wednesday night (the night that I will be teaching) will be on John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus to come.

Anyway, last week was a really good, but incredibly busy week!! We were at the church pretty much every day getting stuff ready for VBS. Then on Tuesday I began my girls Bible study and that went well (I think!) One of the girls in the youth group brought one of her friends with her that doesn't attend church anywhere, and she enjoyed it and wants to come back...so that is good! I was excited about that. Thursday was awesome because the Dean's (who are my best friends parents and they are like family) came in on a cruise ship and I took them around town. It was such an absolutely gorgeous day...it was sunny and they haze had gone away and it even got pretty hot! I took them out the glacier and then to a shrine that we have out here that has just the most peaceful feeling to it. We also picked some delicious blueberries out there and they loved that! Then we went to an awesome restaurant which I had not been to yet but had heard was great, and it is called the Twisted Fish...and we had fresh fish...and it rocked! Anyway, it was just incredible to see them and spend some time with them. On Friday we took the little kids to a place called the Rock Dump and it is an inside rock climbing gym and they had a blast!! They did that for probably 2 1/2 hours and I think that they would've kept going, but we had to leave. Then on Saturday we helped out with the cancer Relay For Life. We have an older lady in our church who is a survivor of cancer, and then someone else whose husband died of cancer, so they were walking and we walked with them. Then we went out to the Marshall's house because they live right on the beach and it was a gorgeous night, and had a cookout. Then we returned to the walk and helped set out 900 or so luminary bags all around the track that everyone was walking on. Each one had been purchased in honor of someone who had either survived or who had died from cancer, and their names were on the bags. Then at about 11:30 we went out and lit each one of them and it looked really awesome when they were all lit up. They had a special ceremony and then people were taking turns walking until 8:00 the next morning, but we went home about midnight. Needless to say, I am exhausted so I am about to go take a nap!!

I hope that all is well in your lives, please go look at the pictures when you get a chance, especially those under "Majesty of God" ~ He really is majestic and it is just so incredibly evident in His creation! This has been such an unusually nice summer here, weather wise...but I sure am enjoying it and taking advantage of it. I think I am going to go through reverse culture shock when I return to Texas! ;-)

God bless you all-you are in my thoughts and prayers...please keep me and the work here in yours!!