Teen Retreat

This weekend is teen retreat. No pb&j sandwiches were served this evening. They all took lasagne & from what I can tell they all liked the homemade stuff. Thanks Aunt BJ, for sharing the recipe via the faculty wives' cookbook. Tomorrow morning is biscuits & gravy and then taco salad for lunch. John has some cousins here as campers this weekend. One of them has already asked for taco salad. His hair is growing quite long so John told him that if he had his haircut, John would make taco salad for lunch. The cousin thought about it for a few minutes...then realized John was teasing him. John has not told him that is what we're having for lunch tomorrow.

The Dave Ramsey class tonight was a good one...like they all are. He is able to share good guidelines via humor. Tonight's video was a little over an hour but you did not realize you had sat there for an hour.

Bible Club Week 4

Before going to Bible Club we had to get a treat for the clubbers. We happened to be on the other side of Kingsport so used the Thomas' Wal-mart as I call it. Mrs. Thomas lives near that Wal-mart & when I am trying to distinguish between our regular one & that one, that is how I refer to it. We purchased a large pack of snack sized Skittles - approximately 40 packs.

Upon arriving at Girls Inc., we got set up, the figures ready & I was able to pray for each seat. Since it was a dreary drizzling at times, raining at times kind of day, the girls were all playing in the gym. I could hear them talking excitedly about the coach. Finally we heard the activities director announce that it was time to clean up the gym & line up on their lines. The girls did so & then a quiet descended upon the gym as the activities director made the announcements. This week is the beginning of a new time schedule. From M-Th, Girls Inc. is open until 7pm. But on Friday they close at 6:30pm. They also are now charging $3/minute/child for however long they have to stay after the closing time. That was one announcement made this afternoon. Followed by "please make sure your parents are here to get you by 6:30. That's a lot of money if they're not." The girls were all agreeing. They also learned that in 2 Fridays they would have their Halloween party & the Thursday before that they would be allowed (if they had behaved & completed all homework) to go trick-or-treating at one of the assisted living places. The girls were excited about that. Next week is the last chapter of this Sunday School Charlie story so we may just not go the week of Halloween. They'll be eager to go get their candy from the "old people" as they call them so there won't be that many on that day.

Finally those that wanted to go to Bible Club were dismissed to our room. We ended up with 14 girls. 2 little girls told me they would be in club as soon as they proved they had done their homework. Only 1 of the 2 came. I guess the other 1 had not finished. I asked the girls their names (I do know quite a few of them) and also asked them to tell me what their favorite thing about school. Most of them said science & history. One girl said math & a few said recess. Only one said lunch...her reasoning for that was that was the only time she could talk with her friends.

We then went into chapter 4 of Missionary to Slocum Alley. Charlie sits in the missionary conference & is excited to see the native items that the missionary speakers have brought to show. The missionary who is giving the sermon that day tells the boys & girls that God wants YOU to serve. I put a pentagon on the board with the word YOU on it. Then I put a triangle on each side of the pentagon. Each triangle named something we can use to serve God - heart, time, wealth, love & body (our feet to take us to someone, our hands to serve, etc.). The speaker pointed out that the triangles on each side of the pentagon now made a star. He also said that our lights are to shine. The girls (at club) really liked that. Charlie goes home & as he's in bed trying to sleep, he keeps thinking how can I tell Red about Jesus. The next morning, Charlie takes the $2.13 out of his piggy bank, gets on his bike & rides to Slocum Alley to see Red. Red is not home & Charlie learns he is at the river. Charlie rides to the river & discovers Red has fallen into the river at "The Bend". Red can't swim so Charlie dives in after him. We left Charlie hanging to a very thin shrub (losing his grip) and Red is digging his sharp fingernails into Charlie's ankles. The girls were VERY disappointed.

John came up & led them in "Wide, Wide as the Ocean", "I'm a Missionary's Helper", "Stop & Go" & "Untold Millions". Then we played the ice cream game (Meltdown) again. I have a few more made up but took this one. After we ended the game, we sang "The B-I-B-L-E" while John added up the scores. After that John gave them 2 of the snack-sized Skittles packs. We dismissed them & then went to purchase groceries for this weekend.

John is responsible for the menus for Teen Retreat. So instead of having hamburgers, we're having lasagne - Aunt BJ's recipe as we call it. For breakfast we're going to serve biscuits & gravy for the teens. We have done that one other teen retreat & they like it. We, as staff, also like it. Lunch will be the teens favorite meal - taco salad. We did buy some bread so we can serve pb&j sandwiches in case none of the other food is acceptable to these teens. You know how picky eaters are.

Visiting...

This evening I went to visit my sister & family. The girls were excited to see us & they were especially glad that Uncle John watched their Latin video with them & then watched Winnie the Pooh also. I enjoyed talking with my sister & nephew. I also was able to give her a facebook lesson. I think she will like facebook once she gets the hang of it.

After leaving my sister's, we went to the airport. Oma & Opa arrived around 8:30p.m. They were a little late getting to the airport in Frankfort so weren't sure they would be able to get on their flight but made it. Unfortunately the plane landed late in Philadelphia so they didn't have enough time to get through customs & to the place they needed to be for the connecting flight to Charlotte. Fortunately they were able to get the next flight out & then were able to get their original flight from Charlotte to the Tri. One of their suitcases didn't make it. We went over to their house after leaving the airport and left with 2 loaves of marzipan for my mother, some candy bars for the girls & then some chocolate for ourselves. About 1/2 of their chocolate is in the missing suitcase so I guess we will get some more when that arrives. We did eat some of the chocolate there at their house. They had been able to get some "unwanted" chocolate from a butcher shop. It is dark chocolate with a hint of orange flavoring to it. We snacked on that. And opened one loaf of marzipan to snack on. John came home with one box of Mon Cheris - chocolate covered cherries. That will be his to eat...I'm not too fond of them.

1000 gifts #3

21. an aunt's encouraging phone call
22. a family member's 76 birthday celebration
23. cool breeze at night from open windows
24. Christmas music in October
25. promise of currant crescents in the morning
26. family fellowship while eating promised currant crescents
27. finding another copy of a book I had loaned to someone & never returned
28. having $24 left over from grocery budget
29. smell of lunch in the crockpot
30. nieces' excitement to see me

Junior Retreat

Retreat has gone well. We've had 17 campers. We were expecting 21 but 4 didn't show up. One is sick. We're not sure what happened to the other 4. Supper yesterday evening was the usual hamburger. John grilled them outside. Breakfast this morning was pancakes, grapes & cereal. John & I fixed breakfast. Of course every table had syrup on them. And I did remember to put the peanut butter on the counter beside the pancakes. I don't know though if anyone took any this retreat. We had some peach preserves down at our house so I quickly went down & brought them up. John thinned them down to make a peach syrup to put on the pancakes. The staff really enjoyed those. This morning the pancakes were just plain pancakes. During the summer John experimented different weeks by adding either blueberries or chocolate chips to a little of the batter. One boy came through the line this morning wondering what kind of pancakes. John told him plain & he said "Good. This summer you had some chocolate chip ones & I requested some of the plain ones." I smiled at the little boy & said, "We made the plain ones just for you." He said, "Really!" I think that made his day.

After breakfast was cleaned up I went down to the morning chapel service. I still am old school for children's chapel services. I'm not into the power point presentations. I believe if you're not going to just talk then you need to either use flannelgraph or the visual stories. The chapel speaker's curriculum has a lot of powerpoint & sound clips. Fortunately this morning, there were no sound clips. This summer I had difficulty in chapel...because the sound clips drove me crazy. He used them quite often. The children seem to enjoy the services so I guess that is good.

For lunch we had spaghetti, garlic bread, green beans & a salad. For dessert there was either bread pudding or brownies which had a white frosting on them. I opted for neither. The plain pancakes little boy has a sister who is also here. I was talking to her for a few minutes at lunch. This family travels to the college games every week. Their family is there today. I asked the sister if she were glad she had come. She answered affirmatively. Then I said is this more fun than going to the ball games. Her eyes lit up and she said definitely yes. I was concerned that maybe they might be a little "homesick" for the normal weekend activity. Of course these two when they found out that their family summer vacation fell the week their cousins were going to be here at camp, told their parents that they could go on to the beach without them. They'd just stay home & go to camp on Monday. So the family changed plans for a little bit. The children came to overnight camp & the parents went out of town for a few days. Of course the children have aunts, uncles, great aunts, great uncles & grandparents here in this area so they were never without someone stopping in to see them.

Right now the children are down at the store/canteen. After they finish they may have a few minutes to play and then closing chapel will be at 3. I don't think I will go to that. Campers will go home when that is finished. My prayer is that they go home with a new awareness of God's love. I also pray that if they have any homework to be done that they will not be too tired to get it done tonight.

We'll go to John's parents after camp. The family dog has cancer in its paw. We're going over every few days to check on her. Hopefully she'll survive until Oma & Opa (John's parents - German for grandma & grandpa) get back home. They've been in Germany. I know they have enjoyed their time. They have purchased lots of marzipan & other German chocolate. I look forward to getting some of that chocolate, hearing how the family is doing & seeing pictures of everyone. You did note the chocolate was listed first as the things to which I was looking forward!

Tomorrow is Friend Day at church. I have not invited anyone to be my friend. I'm not sure how many students I'll have. I know 2 of them will be out of town. One will be in "Deeana" as he calls it. His uncle's wedding is today in Indiana. Another girl's family is going away for the weekend. Depending on how long the ballgame goes today & how many of the rest of them attend it will probably determine how many of the others are there. The 2 kindergarten classes may combine again. We did last week.

1000 gifts #2

11. brother-in-law waking with the thought to check the car & finding something needed attaching
12. taking the next parking garage we found & finding it attached to the convention center
13. little traffic on roads we were unsure about
14. a shopping plaza within walking distance of motel
15. finding sign pointing to US52 when we thought we had missed the turn
16. a rainbow
17. SS students' versions of that day's story
18. Sunday School Charlie
19. an unexpected gift just when it was needed
20. a nephew's smile

Bible Club Week 3

Upon arriving at Girls Inc., the girls have a chance to play. On pretty days most of them go outside & play. But there are some that stay in the gym. This year I have noticed they have a coach. When the girls come into Bible club, they are talking about him & the activity he has led.

We meet in the teen room. Last year during the play time, the teenagers would be lounging around in the teen room. Some of them would be watching the TV or a video or DVD. We'd have to "run them off". This year they have lost their privileges to the teen room so there is no one in there when we arrive. It makes it much easier to get the room set up. Between 4-4:15, the activities coordinator calls over the loud speaker, "Girls it's time to clean up the gym & line up on your line." That is our signal that the girls will be in the room soon. The teen room is located beside the gym so we can hear all the activity. After the announcement is made, there is quite a bit of confusion as the girls clean up & get situated on their lines. Then there is complete silence. One of the leaders comes in & makes announcements. Sometimes there is a sleepover. Sometimes they are announcing a new activity or an upcoming field trip. Since today was the first day of October, they were giving out the Character Counts rewards for September. The girls all sat quietly until their name was called. Then they went to the office to choose their reward. The reward was based upon the number of points they had. The girl who has earned the most Character Counts points at the end of the year is awarded with a gift certificate or cash at the annual board meeting in December.

Since most of them receive some sort of Character Counts reward, it was a little later before they arrived in the room. The two sisters/cousins (I'm not sure which they are) who had come for the first time last week were here again this week & sitting on the front row. In the back was little J who I discovered was E's little sister. How much like E she is! E was very talkative & couldn't sit still at that age. E has matured & was quite embarrassed by her little sister's behavior. Today after asking the girls their name I asked if they had a pet, what kind of pet & what was it's name. I told them if they didn't have a pet they could tell me what they would like for a pet & what they would name it. But they all had a pet. Foreseeing that some of them could have several pets, I told them to tell me just one & it's name. They liked that. And they all had at least one pet.

Chapter 3 of Sunday School Charlie was next. The pastor spoke on missions. Charlie is wondering what makes missions so important all of a sudden. They had talked about missionaries last Sunday in Sunday School, then on Wednesday during church they had met a missionary & seen his slides. This Sunday they were hearing about missions & next week would be a missions conference. After church was over, Charlie rode over to Slocum Alley where Red lives. He stopped in front of Red's house. When Red realized he was there, Red came outside & told Charlie he would not pay for Charlie's dad's fishing rod (which had been broken). Then Red asked if he could ride Charlie's bike. Charlie really didn't want him to but told Red he could if he would come to Sunday School with him next week. Red says he is no sissy and does NOT want Charlie's bike let alone ride it if that will happen. Red runs inside his house & Charlie rides home realizing how hard it is to be a missionary. The girls were disappointed that the story was over for this week & when they realized they would have to wait 2 weeks, you could just see the disappointment in their eyes. When I see the disappointment I know I have done a good job with the story.

John came up and led them in Father Abraham and 1-2-3 Jesus loves me, 1-2 Jesus loves you. Then it was time for the game.

This game came from Ed Dunlop also. It was called Noah's Ark. We talked about how the Lord had brought all the animals to the ark. We also talked about how hard it would be for Noah if he had to go & get them. After answering a question correctly, they could come up & pull a circle from the calico gift bag. The circles had different animals on them with points. The girls got the number of points on the animal. They could choose up to 3 circles. If they chose a Stampede though they lost all the points they had pulled. If they stopped choosing circles before getting a Stampede they were able to pull a circle from the silver gift bag. If they chose a circle with an ark on it, they got to keep the points. If they pulled a circle with a rainbow on it, they got to keep their points and also got 500 bonus points. But if they pulled an escape they lost all their points. There were too many stampede circles for the amount of time we had so the next time I do this game for Girls Inc. I will take away some of the Stampede circles. They did enjoy the game. There was only one girl who did not pull a Stampede circle at some point in her choosing. So it didn't take John long to figure out the total. But while he was doing that, we sang "This Little Light of Mine" (just the first verse).

After we finished the game, it was 5:05 so we had the girls line up at the door. John gave out some more of the Tootsie Roll suckers. They were glad all the banana flavor was gone & they had a possibility of getting grape, raspberry, cherry, orange or chocolate. After today we don't have that many suckers left so I will have to get something else for next week.

We packed up and left. On our way home we stopped at Office Depot so I could get supplies for the office. Then stopped at Lowe's to get a key made. Now we are home and I plan on relaxing for the evening. I will review the Dave Ramsey reading material for tomorrow & check if I need to print out something from his website - I believe I do.