In Need of a Break

Tonight was our staff Christmas party. It was a ton of fun, even though I ended up with this pathetic t-shirt from the white elephant exchange (I can't believe I gave up purple striped arm warmers for that!). The good thing is that I'm probably going to another gift exchange where I can unload it. The best part was playing extreme ping pong, starting out with the preteen girls, and somehow it turned into a few of the twentysomethings by the end of the night. 

On the way back home, Erin texted me. I realized that, other than the Christmas party I just attended, I had nothing to report about anything, especially not any good news. I kind of got in a slump, and began thinking about everything I had set out to accomplish this year, and have done nothing to work towards them. Some things it seems like I even gave up or took a step backwards on.

I don't think coming to Rivercrest was a mistake by any means. God definitely called me here. But I am beginning to question if this was ALL God called me to. After all, the internship only lasts until summer, and then I'm on my own, and I have no idea what to do. If anything, this internship has only brought up more questions about my life instead of answers. And, right now, I'm really not hearing anything. 

I'm definitely in need of a break, which is good because that's exactly what I'm getting come Wednesday. I'll have a week and a half off enjoying a change of pace, and then maybe (hopefully), coming back to Camp Rivercrest will be refreshing instead of unfulfilling and incredibly mundane. And maybe the different surroundings will help me to hear God's word better, so that I can act on it. I really hope I can act on it while still interning, but if for some reason God tells me otherwise, I'm willing to go (but I will cry and quite possibly throw a fit!). 

So to make things clear, I have NO PLANS OF QUITTING. I don't even WANT to quit. I just think that there's so much more out there that I'm missing out on... and I intend to find it. 

In the Dead of Winter: Snow, Kansas City, EMT Training, and Student Ministry

It finally snowed on Saturday! And boy, did it ever snow! I don't know how many inches we got, but I never saw so much snow besides in the mountains! This was perfect for our open house on Sunday, where we finally got to use the sledding hill. Since a bunch of people and their families were here, we had a lot of fun. We tried to see how many people we could fit on one tube (I think our record was six), "accidentally" crashed into other people (although the side of my face really hurts from one of these incidents), and just hung out in general.

Then on Monday, the five of us left in the full-time internship program headed to Kansas City. On the way there, I got to taste something that my taste buds have been longing for during the past 12 years: Chick-Fil-A! I got a spicy chicken sandwich, and it was delish. Then we continued on to Missouri.We stayed at the KC Sentral house, which was ridiculous:

The bedroom I stayed in- I guess I've gotta get used to having my own room!

 We stayed at the house awhile, eating pizza and playing games, but then later in the evening we went to a church for our evening session. It was a cool little church, inside an unfurnished basement. The topic of the meeting that day and the next was about spiritual wellness. The speaker was great and she really got me thinking of the ways I've been neglecting my relationship with the Spirit lately. After that, we went back to the house, watched the newest episode of How I Met Your Mother, and stayed up late just talking. The next morning, I woke up to this:

We brought the snow with us from Nebraska! Apparently, though, us bringing the cold to Kansas City only made Nebraska colder; we found out it was 1 degree in Omaha that morning! After some breakfast and general chilling out, we went back to the church for an all-day session.

It was a great session. I loved seeing the variety of people, but the connection because of the Holy Spirit. I loved experimenting through the conversations, walks, and prayers. During the breaks, we were treated with some great food like scones, chai, sandwiches, and water that didn't taste like sulfur!

To top off a nice time away from Nebraska, we ate at the above Bar-b-q restaurant. It's kind of weird to think that Missouri actually is kind of "Down South". Other than a couple murals of famous black people, I didn't really seem to notice it until we went to this joint. I've never been South before, but this is exactly what I suspect it would be like! The rest of the trip home was filled with conversations of what we learned and what we are currently going through. 

Today was our first day of EMT class! I'm really excited about it, even though it seems like a lot of time and effort to go through (and probably lots of situations that will make me squeamish!) Besides the seven of us from camp, there are maybe five other guys. Oh yeah, and I'm the only girl in the class! Jeff is teaching the class part-time along with another instructor. The college campus itself seems alright. It was originally a middle school building, so it's not too fancy or big, but there's an ambulance that we get to use (in addition to our time at the fire department), and it comes with many "college benefits", like tutoring, tax benefits, student discounts in several places in town, etc. They also have a popcorn day once a week, and this week's popcorn day happened to be today. We loaded up on lots of free popcorn!

It's been a full day; recovering from Kansas City, going to a really long day of class, and winding down with leading student ministry (Sarah's in Vegas so Jr Hi was all on my shoulders!). I played Bible games with them in an attempt to get the girls to get excited about it and learn some things. I hope it worked at least a little!

In conclusion, winter doesn't bring much excitement to camp, but that's great because it's obvious that my schedule's pretty full anyway!

My Room is a Mess Right Now

My room is a mess right now...


...but it's NOT my fault!


...not really, anyway...


I didn't feel like writing about this in yesterday's blog post, but yesterday at the end of the work day, Erin (program coordinator/my roommate) announced that she was leaving. Her last day will be Tuesday, so she had to begin packing that night too. Chris and Kristjun (my two best friends in Nebraska... emphasis on Nebraska! lol) were hanging with me in my room while Erin was packing, so we got sucked into helping her pack. But that's okay, because we all ended up with some cool things of Erin's...except the couch, which is the one thing that we REALLY wanted. (In fact, just the day before, Kristjun and I were fighting over the couch... which one of us would get to keep it if Erin got married and decided she didn't need it anymore?)

Erin's relaxing on the phone while three of us are screaming our heads off in the next room? Hmm.... yeah, she'll miss us tons. :)

Yes, this is ERIN'S mess. Well, the stuff in the laundry basket is mine, but I'm blaming that on her (she's taking away my dresser... but in a few days I'll have two closets).

Only some of Erin's things are gone now, but I can already tell that my place will look so bland compared to how it used to be! She had so many paintings up on the wall, and without them, the walls just look ugly and boring. So when I wasn't helping her pack, I was redecorating. I had a collage of my initials above my bed, so I decided to move it out to the living room so that there's something on the wall when you first walk in. I also decided to make it bigger by writing "Lippe" instead of "JL". Once Erin is completely moved out, I'll have to redecorate more and bring in some furniture.

The beginning of my Lippe collage. A sad-looking Chris sits  below it on the couch that we CAN'T keep! :(

One good thing about this is if Erin HAD to leave at some point during the year, then this is the perfect time. Nearly all the dishware I've been using has been hers (after packing everything last night, I'm left with tupperware, a pot, a pan, a coffeemaker, a couple pieces of silverware, and a mug that I encouraged Erin to give me), so I'll be able to pick up some of the things I'll need while I'm in Oregon for Christmas. 

Most of the stuff in the living room belonged to Erin... what will it look like when she's gone?

I may or may not get a new roommate sometime in the future. I kind of wish I knew, but I completely understand that there's no knowing. If Erin's replacement is a single girl, she'll probably stay with me. If it's a guy, then there will be yet another guy in the next room over. Plus, we have no idea when a good hire will come up. 

Maybe Erin can leave me, but our imaginary friends couldn't live without each other! Reggie the Robot and Phineas are very happy that Erin let us keep their friend. :)

In other news, I went back-to-school today! The EMT class doesn't start until next week, but we had to be certified Healthcare Providers as a prerequisite. So today, we all went to Metro Community College and got CPR training. Since the class is more than just a regular CPR class, we got to learn 2-person CPR, which I had never been taught before even though it is a much better way to perform CPR. I only missed one question on the test, and EVERYONE in the class passed! So now we all get to move onto EMT training together! I'm really excited for that!

November Reach: Scavenger Hunt

First off, the reason why I haven't written much is because nothing exciting has happened recently. We haven't had any groups for the past week, and no group with meals or activities for the past month. That makes the search for leftovers kind of interesting...

Eli topped old croissants with mashed potatoes, tater squares and  melted shredded cheese. I'm dining on a pop tart, juice box, twizzlers and carrots.

 Last night at our Student Ministry's Reach Event, we had a scavenger hunt. I walked in, was put in charge of the snack bar, and then Rothe was explaining to the guys that they might need to drive if there were lots of kids. Then he turned to me and said, "and you ARE driving". Me? Driving a car in a place that I've never really been to in an attempt to find a bunch of stuff on a scavenger hunt list? I said "okay", but was actually pretty nervous. But then after a can of Dr Pepper (the first I had in a month and a half!), I was jittery and ready to have some fun! When the kids broke off into teams, some girls chose me as their driver, but a few seconds later found some friends who were on another team, so I was off the hook. But then I realized that, for possibly the first time in my life, I actually WANTED to drive. (It was probably the Dr Pepper speaking!) I've really only driven twice on public roads since coming to Nebraska, and those were just a few miles and out of necessity. For example, last week, the Solmens took the camp van to a musical and I went with them. The van needed to be back at camp that night since the directors had an early meeting the next day, and they were discussing how to get the van back at camp and still be able to go home. From the back seat, I suggested "Um, I could just drive it back." But anyway, back to last night, there were four boys in a team who didn't have a driver, so I volunteered to drive them. However, the car I was supposed to drive was already taken, so Rothe, after being a good cop and ensuring that I was a good driver, gave me the keys to his mom's car.

Four boys in a car is difficult. I didn't run around too much, but I got exhausted from shouting things like "Put your seatbelt on NOW!" "Where am I going?" "What's on the list?" "Which lane should I be in?" "No, that's illegal!" "Turn the music down, I can't hear you!" "Is it legal to pop a "U"-ey here?" and so on. But I really did have a lot of fun. Check out some of the stuff we had to do:

Sharing a drink

Playing on a playground/Making a pyramid

My team ended up in dead last place, and they blamed it on their Oregon driver. Oh well. The important part is that this, our biggest Reach event of the year, meant that lots of new kids got to hear one of Jesus' parables,  and that they got to connect with other believers!