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Back from the US!| | Wow! It’s been a while, and a lot has happened. We went to the US last week, so that explains why we have all been gone for so long. Sorry for notifying all of you before leaving…
So, I will do this in sections. For all of you reading this, be prepared for a LOOOOOONG post, because A LOT has happened. I just hope that I can remember it all… So, first we went and visited Aunt Ruth. Man, I haven’t seen her in a while. For all of those who don’t know her, she was my schoolteacher in grade… three I think it was. It might have been four, but it was somewhere around there. At that time she was the teacher at the MK school, that my mum has now been teaching at. Her husband died a couple years ago, which was really sad, but she is re-married now. I don’t remember her new husband’s first name, or last name for that matter. It was my first time seeing him. He seems really nice, and the kids really respect him like their dad, so that is good. :) Jonathan and Elizabeth (Aunt Ruth’s kids) are a lot older now, but they are still both really cute. ;) :) They weren’t really so different that I couldn’t recognise them. :) We hung out at their house for a while, and then went out for supper. I forget the name of the place that we went… Khai! There is the first thing that I forgot. I hope that I don’t forget anything really big…
So, ya, next we went to visit the Bromans. They were the Dorm parent down in Koutou for the past two years that we were there. I have posted about them before, but this is just a reminder. ;) So, we arrived at their house at I think it 1:00 in the morning. It’s not because it was a long trip, we were only going from Michigan to the border between Ohio and Indiana, but we got lost, going to their house! We had two sets of directions, one set that Uncle Kerwin wrote in a e-mail, and one that dad got off of the Internet. These two sets of directions contflicted, and were a little confusing, resulting in a late arrival at the Bromans, but it was okay. So, we did all of that travelling in one day. We spent the night at the Bromans and then stayed two days, I think that it was. I believe that we left on the third morning, but it may have been the fourth. I don’t quite remember… So, I don’t remember what orde3r we did this stuff in, or what day we did it, but I will tell you it all.
The Bromans live in an Amish (sp?) part of the country on the border between Ohio and Indiana. We went to two Amish stores while we were there. The Bromans buy as much as possible at these stores, because it is all a lot cheaper. Maybe that is because they don’t have to pay for electriucity, and all of those luxuries that they don’t use… hmmmmmmmm… So ya… While at one of the Amish stores I found a little scene of a deer carved out of some pretty rock, so I bought it. It was only like, six dollars! :) We went to some other stores just to merely look. There was all sorts of cool stuff there. There was one store with a whole bunch of hand-crafted tables, chairs, clocks, desks, armoures, and all sorts of stuff like that. That was pretty neat. We went to another store that had a whole bunch of decorative stuff. It was really neat. :) We got to see the Bromans dog. He is really nice, and freondlt to everyone! :) Really nice.:) I think that I woulod like to live in the country, like they do. Urban life is no mach to the beauty and freedom of rural life! *sigh* So, I believe that that is all for the Bromans. Now, onto the bulk of the week. (What? Bulk of the week?! This is already long enouhyg, right? Oh well, bear with me! You can read it in multiple sections if it is too long for you…)
PART TWO!! REAP!!!
Saturday:
So, we arrived at REAP on Saturday. For those of you who don’t know what REAP is, it’s a missions conference for those who are re-entering America. We aren’t really re-entering “America”, but we went anywayz. Most of us really weren’t that gung-ho about it, but I wanted to go. It turned out to be VERYT fun! I totally enjoyed the week. The first thing on the schedual at REAP was dinner. That is always enjoyable… ;) So, before dinner I got into my room and unpacked all of my stuff. Some people think that I am weird because I unpack all of my stuff, even if we are just staying there for junst a couple days, or in this case, a week, but whatever… I enjoy unpacking, so it was kewl for me. :) I got to meet my first roommate, and his twin brother before going to supper. My roommate’s name was Joey Spinella. His twin brother was Robby. Jopey plays guitar, and he is REALLY good! He has been playing since grade four, I think it was, and it was really kewl to have such an experienced guitarist as my roommate! :) He also composes songs, so that was kewl too. :) Most of His songs are about girls though, and a lot fo them are about one particular girl; that really doesn’t like that much, but whatever. So, we went to supper. Don’t ask me what we had to eat, because there were so many details thoughout this past week to remember that you will be lucky if you get all of the things that we did, nevermind what we ate! The conference was at a college in Iullinois called Judson College. We all had nametags, which were our “ticket” to “free” food in the caffeteria there. Withouyt our nametag, we had to pay eight dollars to eat there. Luckily I don’t think that any of us had to do that. I do remember one time when all of us had to go in without our name tags, because the elevators in the place that we were staying were brogken, and the only stairs in the building were the fire escape (you’ll be hearing more about those later… ;) ). So, we just went up and explained our problem, and we were let in without a probem. That was a reliefe. :) I guess that our story was believable enough. It happened later in the week, so I guess that many of our faces were recognisable by then anywayz.. ;) :)
So, back to the first day… After supper we went to a thing with just us kids so that we could get to know each other, anhd what we were doing throughout the week. We were led to a buiilding where we would be meeting for the rest of the week and we all told our names, and where we were from. The only other Chad MK was Lisa Haberkamp (sp?). Aunt Janet Murray was there too, but as she is a singal, no other MK’s wer added to our group because of her.. ;) I just thought that I’d mention her. :) We were about 45 MK’s in total. We were split up into three sections, which were all about 15 kids. There were the gr. 10 – college group (which they called the highschool group), the middle school group, and the elementry school group. Stephen and I were in the high school group, and Jessica was in the middle school group.
So, after that little introduction thing that we did something with the adults. We made a little play thing, and split up into groups. We all had to make up different skits about missionaries. It was pretty fun. :) Joey and Robby (the two twins I was talking about) and Sarah (their sister) did a rap about Taiwan. It was really kewl. They weren’t the best rappers that I’ve heard, but it was still good. :) They made their own sound effects and stuff for background. So, the first night in my room Joey was my only roommate, because my other one hadn’t arrived yet. He was from Taiwan (as you may have figured out from the talk about the rap above). We mostly talked about guitars and Chad. It was nice.
Oh, I almost forgot. After all of that stuff we went out and played Ultimate Frisbee. Robby really likes Ultimate, so we played it quite a bit that week. We played until like about 10:00 P.M. After playing Ultimate, Joey and I went up to our rooms to get our guitars, and we came down to the main floor where we had a sort of worship time. It was really nice. :) That was probably one of my most favourite things that we did all week. :) Some of the songs that were “requested” I didn’t have in my little collection, but Joey either knew them, or we were really good at figuring out the chords. :) It was good.
Sunday:
We didn’t really do anything “churchy” on Sunday, but we were doing spiritual stuff all week, so it was kewl. :) We had breakfast at 7:30, and many of the kids thought that that was “really early.” I thought that it was pretty late, but after staying up ‘til like 12:00 on Saturday night I was glad for the “late” breakfast. I’ll have to get used to going to bed later, and waking up later than I did in Chad. The Canadian schedule that most people run on is a little different than I’m used to from Chad, but that’s okay…
After breakfast we went over to the building which we had gone to on Saturday night for our first meeting. We had this kewl guy named Gerald do our morning sessions. First we did a bit of singing, with Gerald accompanying on guitar. Actually, it was kewl, because we had a little bit of extra time, so Joey went over to our room and got his guitar and mine. We joined Gerald in the playing. It was nice. :) We kind of had to get used to playing with each other, but it was fun. :) There wasn’t any music, so I basically tried to follow what Gerald was doing. By the end of the week I was kind of getting the hang of “figuring out” the chords to the songs. After a bit of singing, we started a Bible study thing that we did every morning though out the week. It was on the book of Daniel. The first section was on Daniel 1:1-7. It was talking about a Challenge to our Identity. There are many kinds of “identities” and sometimes people try putting on different ones. There was a whole talk about this, and the “Survival Principle” for this section was that you need to know who you are in Christ. No matter who you are on the outside, you need to know who you are in Christ, and always keep to Him.
After this study we split up into small groups to talk about the study, and discuss some questions about it. My small group consisted of 5 people. I had Stephanie Binion, Robby Spinella (one of the twins), Lisa Haberkamp (the one other MK from Chad), Erika Owen (she is the Spinella’s cousin!), and of course me. I liked splitting up into small groups, because it gave me a further insight into just a few people’s lives. :) I don’t know why, but I actually felt quite free sharing in my small group. :) It was pretty good. I really enjoyed drawing closer to the others around me, and to God throughout the week. I believe that I grew close to my small group than the others in the group, but I liked how we all just seemed to bond so quickly. Maybe iut was because we are all MKs or something, but it was really nice to gain so many friends is just a week of time. :)
After our small groups we had a break and then a little discussion with our entire group leader. The dicussion title was “Who am I?” but these discussion times were pretty open, and it was nice to just sort of talk about whatever. :) After the discussion there was lunch, and then games. I think that I liked the recreational activities that we did on this day the best out of all of them. We played all sorts of games where we had to work as a team to complete them. We played one where we had a tennis ball on a pole and we had to suspend it in the air on a tune by all pulling on strings to add tention. We had to get the ball all the way to the other end of a pond and set it down on a pole very similar to the one that we took it off. We were pretending that it was nuclear, so if we dropped it, then we would all die. We all died once, but got it all the way over the second time. :) We played another game with a pole where we all had a long pole on our figers, and we had to bring it down to the ground without it leaving anyone’s finger. That one we played guys against girls. Another we played was my favourite one. This one was a “cavern” that we had to cross using five pieces of wood. Each piece of wood had to be touched by someone’s foot at all times or it would “fall down the cavern” (the leader would take it away. It wasn’t a real cavern. ;) ). I got to sort of be the leader int hat game, and we all got across. I kind of had to pull some of the people over to the other side, because they couldn’t step far enough. I liked this game the best because it kept my blood pumping, and it made me feel like I was “on the edge”, as it were. We played some other “getting to know each other” games, and those were pretty fun. It was interesting to find out some of the things that some of the people had done, or want to do. I believe that that was all of the games that we played that afternoon.
So, after games we had supper. After supper there was a little meeting with the adults that we participated in. I don’t really remember much of what it was about, because I was really tired. After this meeting we had what they called a Tailgate Party. I think that it is an American thing, cause I’ve never heard of it before, and neither have any of my Canadian friends or family, but whatever. It was kewl. :) We basically just hung out on the parking lot in front of the building where we were all sleeping, and we drank pop and fried up stuff on the portable grill that was in the trunk of a car. It was fun. :)
Monday - Wednesday
These next couple sections will be a lot shorter, because it was pretty much the same schedual, except for subtle differences. We had breakfast, and then went for our first meeting. This one was on the Challenge to our Integrity. Joey and I got to play guitar again. :) We got to play every morning through until the last meeting on Wednesday. The Thursday schedual was a little bit different, so that is why I have included it seperately. ;) :) On Tuesday the study was on a Challenge to our Safety, and Wednesday was a Challenge to our Focus. We had our Small Groups after these sessions everyday. I believe that the mornings, before break, were probably the most interesting spiritaully. :) After our Small Goups we had a break, and then we had our open discussions. The discussion on Monday, and Tuesday was on the topic: “I’m a TCK. So what?”, and then on Wednesday it was “How will I make a friend?” These discussions were quite interesting. It was funny to see how many of the ways that I see things, many other MKs see those things in the same ways! I thought that that was just the way that I thought of things, or did things, but it’s really unique to MKs! I don’t really remember any specific examples, but it was really neat to see how many of us thought very similarily. :)
So, after all of this we had lunch. After lunch was our “recreational time” everyday. On Monday we went out for Mini Golf. All of our travelling thoughout the week was done on a bus, which was interesting, because I actually felt a little sick with every bus ride. I never “chucked up” (sorry for being so blunt) or anything, but I just felt a little sick to my stomach. I learned that sitting near the front of the bus really helped, so I did that on subsequent bus rides, after the first ones. ;) Mini Golf was pretty fun. :) Because we were so many people, we kind of backed up the course a lot, even though we split up into groups of 2-4. On Tuesday we went swimming. At one point we all got together, and tried to make a whirlpool by spinning around in a circle as fast as we could. So, we also played a game called signs while at the pool. It isn’t really a pool game, but it was fun, anywayz. ;) :) On Wednesday we had a scavenger hunt in a mall. We all split up into our small groups and were given disposable cameras. We were also given a list of things that we had to find and take a picture of. There were things on the list like “the price of jeans” and “your group on an escallator” and stuff like that. It’s not like they “hid” things in the mall, but we merely had to find things that you would generally find in a mall. It was pretty fun. :) At one point, our group was done, and the bus wasn’t going to come to pick us up for another 45 yet, so my small group went to the Disney store and sate down on the floor and watched the television set that was there. It was pretty fun. ;) :)
So, after the “recreational afternoons” we had supper, and then had more meetings, or sessions, or whatever. On Monday we had another session like in the mornings. This one was a Challenge to our Security. On Tuesday we had another “open discussion” time. This one was more centred around transitioning into North American life from where you had lived before. On Wednesday we had another session like in the mornings, again. This one was on a Challenge to our Faith. After all of these things we had a Tailgate Party all of the nights Sunday-Wednesday. It was really fun. :) One evening before the Tailgate Party we played a game called “Wink ‘em.” This is a game where there is a girl on a chair, and there is a guy behind her. The girls all sit in a circle, and there is one guy who does not have a girl in his chair. All of the other guys, ecxept for the one without a girl, have to just look at the back of their girl’s head. The guy without a girl has to wink at a girl in the cirlce, and they have to try to get off of the chair that they are on, and get to the other guy’s chair. Once you sense your girl starting to move you have to try to grab her shoulders to keep her on the chair. It is a REALLY fun game! :) I really enjoyed it, even though I wasn’t very good at keeping my girl on the chair. I kept being afraid that when I grabbed them, I would hurt. I guess that I’m just a tad too sensative for the game, but whatever. We also played the game the other way around, so that the girls had to try to keep the guys on the chairs. It was fun that way too. :) So, I believe that that is everything for Monday-Wednesday. On to Thursday! (The final day of the Conference… Whew! This post is long enough already, right?… ;) ).
Thursday-Fiday:
So, on Thursday, right after breakfast, we went to downtown Chicago! The morning was spent on a tour around Moody Bible Institute. It was pretty fun. :) We had a picnic box lunxh and then went to Navy Pier. I don’t really know how to explain Navy Pioer, but for those of you who know what it is, good for you. :)
So, after the day we came back to our rooms and had Chicago style pizza. It was really good! :) The bus ride back to where we were staying from downtown Chicago was a whole two hour ride, because we came back during rush hour! While on the bus I had a heart to heart discussion with oine of the leaders. :) It really good to get some affirmation about some of my beliefs about some things from an older Christian guy! :)
So, supper was basically the last thing that we had. We did not have a Tailgate Party oin Thursday, but we stayed up WAY later! ;) :) We had an all-nighter! Since it was our last time together, probably forever, we decided that we needed as much time with each other as possible. It turned out that only six of us stayed up the entire night. It was really funny, because, out of us all, there was only one girl htat stayed up! She was leaving with her family at 6:00 in the morning on Friday, so we decided to stay up with her until she left. All six of us stayed up until 5:15 when she went to pack her bags and such, but only me and one other guy (Chris Roussoue (sp?) ) stayed up until 6:00 to see them off. The others went straight to bed! ;) I guess that they were a little tired… Me, Chris, Stephanie (the only girl), and Ian (a guy from the middle group) stayed up, and played cards basically the whole night. All of the others that stayed up watched King Kong until liike 2:00 in the morning, and then they just sort of hung around, and sometimnes joined us in cards. We were all seriously crazy by the next morning. Ian couldn’t even think properly, and Stephanie couldn’t move. Chris, Ian, and I practically carried her to the elevator, because she had to go up and pack her stuff. Once she went, and had a shower, she looked a lot better, but she was really sad. She wanted to stay up that late, though, so I hope that she feels good about herself, that she managed to stay up that late. I tried to wake myself up a bit before breakfast, because whenever I sat down, my eyes got all droopy, and I started to fall asleep. I tried played a bit of my guitar, but I was so tired, that I was even falling asleep as I played my guitar! Oh well, after all of those horrible goodbyes we were on the rode, and then I got some real quality sleeping time. ;) :) I probably got about five hours of sleep that day in the car. We travelled all the way back up to Michigan on Friday. We stayed the night over at the Beaches. They were missionaries in Chad many years ago. We played foose-ball (sp?) while there, because they had a table in their basement.
Saturday:
Not much to say here. We left in the morning from the Beaches, and headed for home. Once we got home there was no Internet! The Internet is still out as I write this in a Word document… It is Monday morning now. I hope that the Internet gets up soon so that I can actually post this! Well, it’s time for breakfast! There’s my LOOOOOOOOONG update! ;) :)
Daniel J. Weber
| | | Posted 7/31/2006 8:49 PM - 19 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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