Kentucky Missions, Day 4

Day 4 - August 13th: The day started earlier for me than I certainly wanted to. I awoke at 3:45am because, for some unknown reason, I had somewhat thrown up, but nothing came out, it just kinda went back down. Gross, I know. I was feeling wicked nauseaous, and I had that horrendous acidic puke taste in my mouth, so I made post-haste for the bathroom. I waited a bit in there for the nausea to wear off, then brushed my teeth and went back to bed. Woke up again at 7am for breakfast, then went back to sleep. Woke up at 10am and got ready for our day.

Our first venue was an elementary school up the road. It went from K-6th grade. Our goal going into the school wasn't to evangelize, because we were told that we really couldn't have anything overtly religious in our program. So we set our goal as to make the kids think we were so uber cool, that they would come see us on Friday night, when we are doing a program in the community park. We got ready, then all the kids filed in. There were about 212 kids there, plus teachers and faculty. The show started off amazingly. The kids were so attentive and active, and loved every bit of the juggling and skit and song we did. Then came the...THING...the crazy, insane ruiner of our program. We had just started the Pebbles skit, and I was wondering where my class was, when out of nowhere this BAT starts flying crazily all around the room! Of course, if you know anything about kids, you know that's there's nothing we could have done with a bat flying around the room. To the kids' credit, even though they were all excited and pointing and laughing, they listened well and stayed in their seats. Unfortunately, there was no way we could get the bat out, so we had to end the program early. We decided to drown our sorrows of an unfinished program with milkshakes at Hardee's. When we got back to the mission house, the construction team, who is working this week on a house down the road, told us the kids who were getting off the buses were so excited and talking about the bat at school and how cool everything was. So even though we had an unfinished program, we accomplished our goal: the kids thought we were uber cool. They actually thought, initially, that the bat was a part of our program, and were asking us how we got it to come out! It was quite entertaining, all in all.

This evening we did a service at a church. It went very well. There were only about 15 people of their congregation there, and then our team. It worked, though, because we have three different teams within our group, and the other two teams don't always get to see or hear what the performing arts team is doing, so it was a service for them as well as for the regular congregation. Afterwards, we had refreshments and such in the fellowship hall. For such a small group, there was enough there to feed a whole army!!!! It was very good. Then, on the way back, Katrina wrote a catchy little parody to Be Thou My Vision called Please Be My Grandma. Absolutely. Stinking. Hilarious. When we got back to the mission house, myself and three others began a two game stretch of partner cribbage. Charlie and I lost to Pat and Robin by three points the first game, but came back to kick their butts by beating them by 17 points the second game. Apparently tomorrow is supposed to be the game to end all games. We'll see...lol. Now I am getting ready to go to bed. I can't believe the week is almost done. I'm not sure how well I'm going to handle having to say goodbye to the Hagerstrom's and the rest of the team again. It's heartbreaking, really. God has a reason, though. I know He does.

Kentucky Trip, Days 1-3

Day 1 - Sunday, August 10: After about three hours of sleep and a computer that didn't want to cooperate, myself and my friend Sarah, who flew down from Maine to hang out then drive up with me, left Fort Pierce to head up to Jenkins, Kentucky. It was 4am. We pulled into McDonald's for a quick breakfast, then hit I-95 and began the adventure! The whole sunrise thing kinda freaked me out a little. Not because I was scared of the sun (last time I checked, I was not a vampire, in case anyone was wondering), but because I'm used to the sun rising at, like, 4:30am in Northern Maine, and pretty much beginning to around that time in Southern Maine. However, down in Florida, it was about 5:30am, and there was still no sign of sunrise anywhere on the horizon. I thought maybe God decided to cancel it for that day or something. We kept watching, and finally, at close to 6:45am, the sky decided to start to lighten up. This, however, was dampened by the fact that the fog was so thick I could barely see the cars in front of me. It took a long time and another state to finally drive out of the fog. In South Carolina somewhere, I had really ticked off this trucker. Granted, he ticked me off first, because he was driving crazy, completely cut off a van, and was travelling way over the speed limit. I was wicked mad at him, but pulled off to get some gas, and figured I'd never see him again. I wish. I caught up with him up the road a ways. That's when I made him mad, I guess. He was still driving all crazy, and tried to pass me in the right lane, after coming up quickly behind me. I was like, I don't freakin' think so, *insert word here I will not right in this blog* (I have verbal road rage, btw...not vulgar or anything, but mean and sarcastic). So I sped up. He didn't like that. He laid on his horn and started coming over into my lane when he was only half-passed me. I hit the breaks and went off the road a little. He got in front of me and kept zipping right along. After a few minutes he was so far ahead of me I couldn't see him anymore. Sarah got his plate number, but he was a private driver, so there were no "How's my driving?" sticker on the back of his truck, and I decided not to call highway patrol. I was sorely tempted to, though. I also, for the first time ever, decided to try that 5 Hour Energy drink you see advertised everywhere. I was just too tired to contine without something. Well, the best way that I can describe the taste is that of a 7-Up that had been left in the sun all day. But it really worked! I felt more awake than I did beforehand, and my eyes weren't closing while I was driving, which I am told is a good thing. Anyhoo, kept driving and eventually made it here, after going through some amazing mountain passes and ending up at elevations of up to 3700 feet. We got to Jenkins after about 13 1/2 hours and $150 in gas money spent. It was great reuniting with the Hagerstroms and old friends from Bridgton Alliance Church. Dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, peas, corn, buns and a chocolate cake followed. The place we are staying at is interesting. Upstairs is a kitchen and what can be used as a meeting place. There are also a lot of diapers. It's a missions house specifically geared to mothers with babies/young children in the area. It's called My Father's House. The hosts' names are Lester and Bessie McPeeks. Told you I was in the hills, lol! They are amazing, though. The downstairs of this place, which isn't very wide but is very long, like a rectangle, is the living quarters. There are three rooms with bunk beds. When I first walked in, my first thought was, I'm sleeping in a slave ship, lol! The rooms are about 10x7, with three bunk beds in each one. Two are parallel to each other, and one is at the end of the parallel ones. I am on the end bunk, on the bottom. The space I have to crawl through to get into my bed, without crawling onto one of the other beds, is two feet wide. I feel like a circus act getting in and out of bed! There are five other girls in here with me. It makes for great fun! We're all becoming very, um, close. So that was the first day.

Day 2 - Monday, August 11th: Breakfast was at 7am. We kinda all stumbled upstairs in our pajamas and went to work on sausage, bananas, toast and boiled eggs. Then the rest of the day was mainly spent in preparation. Since we had traveled up separately, and I, being the one to lead drama and Sarah, co-leader in music, were not able to practice any with the team beforehand, we used Monday to accomplish this. We also went down to look at the house that the construction team is working on. It's right down the road. The house belongs to a widow, and it's amazing to me the place has not been condemned yet. It is falling apart, and apparently even has exposed power lines running along the side of it. The construction team will be working on her house all this week. It is in desparate need, and it'll be awesome to see what God does through the team in a week. Lunch was sandwiches, and dinner was chicken stew topped with biscuits. Very yummy! The day ended with devotions and a game of charades. There were many first time players, so it was highly entertaining.

Day 3 - Tuesday, August 12th: Today kinda started at 5:30am, when Sarah and I woke up to see if we could see any of the meteor shower, since sunrise wasn't supposed to be until 6:45am. We went out there, but there were too many street lights to really see anything, which really kinda made me sad and wishing for day camp, where there wouldn't have been a light to be found. We came in after about 10 unsuccessful minutes, and went back to sleep. Breakfast at 7: sausage and pancakes. After breakfast we all got ready for the day, and I reviewed extensively an interpretive skit to our youngest girls, 5, 6, and 8, who where going to help myself and two other girls do the skit. It's an interpretive movement to Mark Schultz's Time That's Left. Then we went to Wal-Mart. Not to shop, which ended up happening anyways, but to perform for anyone who decided to stop and watch on their way in or out of the store. It went all right. We had a few people here and there, but none who really stayed the length of a short program, save a mother and her two children. It was a good practice run, though. There's no telling who heard that we couldn't see. Part of our ministry we have here is a juggling ministry. So some of the jugglers went out into the parking lot and along the street to attract attention. One of our young ladies, Katrina, was juggling three sticks with fire on the end of them. When she was in the parking lot, who should pull over to talk to her but two members of the fire department in a haz-mat truck! We thought they were going to make her put them out, but they were just impressed she could juggle them! After we packed up there, we headed out to a housing project. Not the slums that you would probably think of when you hear that term, but nice places provided by the housing authority for low-income families. We had all the kids we found go around the neighborhood and spread the word that there would be a juggling and magic show at 2:30. They went around and told their friends, and some of our girls walked around and knocked on some doors. When we got started, we had about 10 kids and a few adults. It wasn't big, but it was fun. The kids LOVED the juggling. Adrian Hagerstrom is absolutely incredible at it. Very gifted. Jona-Lynn and Katrina did a camp song, and Jo and I did a skit. All in all, it was a great time. Now here I am, almost 6pm and typing this very long post. But it's my fault for not getting it done sooner. So that's been the first three days. Tomorrow we will be going to an elementary school (can you believe they're already in school down here?) and a church service tomorrow night. More update then!!