The end of the road

Well, we have approached the end of the summer, and oh my-what a summer it has been! This has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life!! I LOVE ALASKA!! I told you when I came up there that you may have a hard time getting me back to Texas, and I wasn't lying!! Anyway, I just returned today (Sunday) and boy, am I exhausted!! I have slept about 6 hours in the last 2 days, so needless to say I am about ready to crash.

I packed a ton in my last couple of weeks...let's see...last Monday I was able to go up the tram and it has the most incredible view of Juneau up there!! It started out being a rainy and cold day, but by the time we got up there...it was sunny, warm and beautiful! There was enough of a breeze to make it even nicer and it was just great to go up there and see the view, and then I was able to walk around for awhile and go up a few trails, and got to take a picture with a cross that is up there. One of the members of our church took me up there for free, so that was great...thanks Mike!! Hmmm...the rest of the week also turned out to be gorgeous, but I can't remember a lot of excitement taking place. We went swimming with the younger kids on Thursday, and then on Friday we went cosmic bowling, and that was fun! Saturday I went out with one of my new friends, Priya for lunch and then we walked down on the dock downtown, and it was wonderful hanging out with someone closer to my age! She is awesome and I am thankful that I met her and hope that we can keep in touch. On Saturday night we had a photo scavenger hunt, and that was a blast!! You can see the pics from my group on the photo website, and of course...my group won because we totally rock!! :-) We ended at the Lewis' house where we had a barbecue, jumped on the trampoline, played volleyball, and roasted Smores...and it was so much fun!! Sunday night we went over the Marshall's to hang out and we saw an awesome lightning storm (which is very rare here) and then the kids played out in the rain and got totally drenched!

Ok, this week...I finally go to go fly fishing, which is something I had been waiting to do all summer! My friend Chris works for a company that puts people on float planes and then flies them out to go fly fishing, and he told me before I came up here that he would take me out sometime, so I held him to it and have been bugging him all summer...and persistence paid off because I got to go! There were a TON of salmon out there, and I had never been fly fishing before, but I slowly caught on and actually caught a few!! It was a blast and the plane ride out there was SO beautiful!! (You can also see pics of me and some of my fish on the photo site!!) Chris also got me on that trip for free, so I owe him a big thanks...so THANKS Chris!! On Wednesday night we went out to the Mondich's and played volleyball again and I kicked some booty!! ;-) It was SO much fun even if the bugs did eat us all up! Thursday night we had a girls night over at one of the elder's wives houses and that was really nice, and of course...we had a wonderful home cooked meal...thanks Kathie!!

Friday night we had our last event of the summer...we had a progressive dinner and then a lock in. We started out at the Henderson's (where I was staying) and had some great Mexican layer dip and we jumped on the trampoline there for awhile. Then we traveled over to the Mondich's and had some awesome tacos (Are you sensing a theme?) and we played volleyball again for a long time, and I have to say...I kicked booty again!! (Aren't I humble?) Then we moved on over to the Marshall's where we had dessert and a surprise for us...they gave me and Daniel gifts and a cake, which was very unexpected...but a wonderful surprise. After we hung out there for awhile we traveled over to the church where we had a lock-in and that was awesome! Lock-ins are usually a youth minister's worst nightmare ;-), but with only 6 kids and our last event of the summer...I had a blast! We played Sardines, Catch Phrase and just had fun hanging out. We were going to stay up all night but we came pretty close-we all ended up crashing out about 5 or 6, but were awakened at 7 with the aroma of pancakes that were being made by some of the members who chose to get up early on a Saturday morning and wake us up! ;-) It was rather nice of them and we appreciated it (even if we weren't very comprehensive). I didn't ever really get nap in on Saturday because I was so busy getting last minute stuff done before I left, packing, washing, etc., and then that night a bunch of us got together for the last time and ate at an incredible place called the Twisted Fish, and we ate outside because it was such a nice evening and we were right on the water downtown, and it was just a great way to wrap things up. Afterwards we went over to the Cox's to have some dessert and I said "Adios" to most of the people. I didn't go to bed until 1 on Sunday morning because I was up packing and finishing up last minute stuff, and then got up at 5:30 to make it to the airport to catch my 7:18 flight. There were actually a lot of people there to see us off, which was so nice and I was surprised to see so many! I don't know if I would've been there! ;-) Anyway, I got to spend a little more time with everyone before I headed back to the Lone Star State! Then after I had gone through security, I was one of the lucky ones to get randomly searched, and so they searched me and all of my stuff, and without even thinking about it, I had an Ulu (an Alaskan knife) that I was bringing home as a souvenir to my parents, in my carry-on and they confiscated it!! So I was the very last person on the plane because all of this took so long, and they were waiting on my to close the doors...although we weren't late or anything...it just wasn't fun because I was tired, emotional and just wanted to get on the plane! We flew into Seattle at about 10:30 or so, I hung out with Daniel a little before he boarded his plane back to Ohio, and then my plane left at about 1:18 putting me in Texas a little after 7. It was a very LONG day, it is nice to be home...but I have to admit I was getting a bit spoiled living where there are mountains, water, glaciers, and just incredibly beauty EVERYwhere I looked!!

I don't think words can really express what I experienced this summer. It was definitely a learning experience, which is exactly what an internship is supposed to be! I made some new friendships; plenty of new memories, discovered a lot about myself and my relationship to God and about youth ministry; and was able to see and experience a lot of wonderful things. That is a great church that is in Juneau, Alaska; I am indebted to them for all of their love, hugs, encouragement, generosity and hospitality that was shown to me while I was there for the summer. I love you all dearly, I was blessed by you greatly...and I truly hope and pray that somehow God used me to touch your lives and that seeds were sown and people were brought closer into the throne room of God.

I chose this title because Juneau is technically on a strip of land, and there is one main road that runs through it called Egan Drive and you can probably drive it end to end in about 45 minutes or so. At each end there is a sign and all it says is "end" so you know you have come to the end of the road! It cracked me up, but in truthfulness I have come to the end of my Alaskan adventure, but I am sure there are many more adventures to come! Thanks for coming along for the ride, make sure you go check out all of my pictures and may God bless you all!!