Wednesday

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing well and that God has blessed you.

Today we received our Area Church assignments and my Wednesday Night class assignment. I get to be a regular attendee at 21st st Church of Christ of Clovis, NM. Wednesday, I've been chosen to assist in the kindergarten class! I'm excited for both.

For those who don't understand, let me explain. Each AIM student is assigned into a group to go to a nearby church(up to 2 hours away) every Sunday as our Area Church commonly (commonly abbreviated AC). Our job is to learn and work. Mostly we spend our time with the youth group, but we also clean the church and do what ever odd job the church thinks we should do. I'm with a group of five other students and 3 assistants. Every Sunday we'll get up early so we can leave at 7:50am to drive one hour to Clovis and arrive (magically) at 8 am for service. We'll then spend the day in Clovis working, playing, and being fed(usually) with the church members. Then we'll leave and arrive home about 11pm.

On Wednesday, we are each assigned to a class to help with. Some of the kids are assigned to the high school class, and some to College, and some of us are assigned to children classes. I think being assigned to kids classes is better than high school or college. In the kid's classes we get to work directly with the kids and help the teacher get through their lesson. But in the high school and college class, you just listen to the lesson and try not to answer to many questions.

Tonight for dinner, I made beef Stroganoff and baked potatoes. It was fantastic, and now I have two pre-made meals for the rest of the week. But since I used the last of my ground beef, I need to go shopping. Tonight I'm going to try Lowes, a local food store that is supposed to have good prices. And I have a gift card for them.

Take Care and keep God in your Hearts.

(PS. Go check out the new Prayer page!)

Canadian Summary

Please forgive me for not writing earlier this week. We ended up returning later than originally planned due to bus problems and then had lots of test to study for all week... I think that since this will be a regular problem I will apologies now, just once, in advance for all the time I must post belatedly.

The Canadian trip went splendidly and we had many adventures through out. The trip out went easily and many of us caught up on some of the sleep we had missed during the week, myself especially. Upon arriving at the church in Canadian, we were promptly fed a nice dinner of pizza, salad and girl scout cookies. While we were eating, the church members who had pledged room in their houses for us arrived and we were nicely grouped up and assigned hosts by the end of the meal. I got to stay with five other girls on a farm that had a nice house with carpeted bathrooms, two horses, two cows, and an energetic grandson. The had two guest rooms, so we had two girls in each room and then Angie on the couch and me on a blowup mattress. Mr. David, our host, let us ride on the trailer of his pickup on the way to to house and we took pictures and laughed the whole way. Upon arriving at the house we found they had such a nice backyard that we had to go outside and take lots of pictures(which resulted in a lot of laughter). We also played with our hosts' grandchild who had us laughing nonstop. I'd like to say that we went to bed early and got the best sleep of the year, but in truth we ended up staying up talking and laughing. We did a lot of laughing.

The next morning, after a nice breakfast from a local cafe provided by our host, we met back up with the rest of the AIMers for a mini-seminar given by the preacher from the church there. Then we were fed a fantastic lunch of hot dogs before being released for free time. They gave two options, we could go to one of the church-member's farm to play in their pool or we could go to town and visit the old fashioned drugstore for sodas and then walk down the historic 1 mile bridge to play in a shallow river on the other side. I choose to go to town and the river, which proved to be quite an adventure. The drug store was cute and antique-y and served good ice cream for a fair price. I got a Strawberry milkshake(my favorite) and helped Angel(our Mexican student) to order his own. A couple of the kids mentioned going down to the cities museum for a look-and-see and though I meant to go with them, I missed their departure and decided to stay at the drugstore. Kris Smith then drove us down to the bridge once he decided that the town people had had enough of our unexpected crowd. He dropped us off at the main side of the bridge and instructed us that the river was on the other side and that we'd better get walking for maximum play time. The bridge really felt looked and felt like a mile, though I don't know if it really was or not. It was originally built for wagons to cross when the stream was actually closer to a mile long, but the river had long since shrunk. Walking down the bridge was just like what you'd expect walking down a bridge would be like. Not terribly exciting. But through patients and perseverance, we managed to reach the other side where the river was located.

So they forgot to tell us how to get to the river after we reached the end of the of the bridge, but we figured it out. And we should have taken them seriously when they told us that the river was only a foot deep at most.... We did have a lot of fun, and I managed to find some clay in the sand including some little red coloured balls that we used as paint. Some of the kids that went to the museum arrived after a few minutes. It turns out they had all been worrying thier faces off because one of them, Trenton, assumed I was going to the museum with them and then got lost trying to follow them. They set themselves into a panic just because I didn't have a cell phone they could reach me at.

After playing in the river(ok, it was a stream) we walked back to the bus quickly to escape the rain storm. We were then driven to a near by lake for a barbecue with the church. But, of course, the rain followed us there and we had to eat inside. Fortunately after dinner, the sky cleared up and we got to play outside for a couple hours. This lake made me think of Eden with it's plethora of plants, some of which bore edible fruit.

The next morning was Sunday so we went to worship with the Church in Canadian. Afterwards we had lunch and then began driving back to Lubbock. Unfortunately, Ebenezer(the bus) only made it to Panhandle, TX. It managed to stop right in front of a liqueur store across the street from the only wrecker in town (but they didn't have anything strong enough to move us). Since we had to spend a few hours in Panhandle waiting for a new bus to come get us, they let us explore town. We all ended up at the Dairy Queen down the road where we met the father of the preacher from the local Church. So the church took care of us for the afternoon. (Coincidence or blessing? I think you know.) We had a good time and when the bus arrived, we all jumped in to head home.

The trip to Canadian took 4 hours, and the trip home took 10... Ah well...

Classes and a Road Trip!

We spend all Wednesday and Thursday in classes and working on the resulting homework. We're having quite a time trying to organize our binders for each class. There's lots to do and we've only been in each class once. But don't worry, we always find time to feed ourselves a good dinner. For instance, last night we had Rotisserie chicken, squash, and green beans. We even managed to go outside and sing for an hour or so.

Today, we get to go on our first trip to Canadian, TX. We are all very excited to go! The details of what we get to do are a little fuzzy still, but there will be a bible lesson form the preacher there and a barbecue with the church. Also, we get to stay with members of the church and be spoiled by them. From what we've heard, they sound like a very nice church and that just makes us more excited to go.

There is one problem to this great trip, we all have a ton of homework to do before Monday, so we'll be studying our backsides off the whole way. And we have to take Ebenezer, the church's old bus. He's not the most reliable bus around... So, keep praying for us all!

God speed, Dawna

First Sunday, First Chapel, First Rain Storm!

Since I talked about Saturday on Sunday, I must now talk about Sunday and Monday both today. Sunday was our first worship service with the Sunset church. First we had a nice bible class in the basket ball room(another room I don't know the real name for yet) and then we cleaned up the hall quickly to set it up for a banquet the next people to use the room were throwing. Having finished the setting up tables and chairs, we walked across campus for worship service in the main Auditorium. All of us AIM students were asked to sit in the first couple of rows, but spread out so when we stood to be presented to the church, it would be easier for the church to see us.

After service I was greeted by Dusty, who invited me over for dinner with him and his wife, Cheri. We've decided to get together in a couple of weeks when I have a free spot on my schedule. Sunday night was spent away from the rest of he congregation in what they call "Power House." There we hung out for a while before eating and playing the Name Game. After a great review on everyone's names, we sang together. Then we went home and went to bed.

This morning morning Grandma, Aunt Verna, and Uncle Marvin left to return for Canada. They were still rejoicing at the return of the AC. I didn't get to see them off as they left during Chapel. Today's Chapel was the first chapel of the 81st SIBI class. It was held in the Main Auditorium today,but from now on it will be held in the Flag Room. At the end of the Chapel service, we had a flag ceremony with the Great Commission read aloud in the language of each country as it's flag was presented.

After Chapel, we were instructed to go downstairs to the AIM Class room (the room we registered in.) We had two full class periods of Orientation today which included talking about why we were at AIM, what could keep us from reaching our goals, and a in depth look at the rules.

After class, we stepped outside to find the skies filled with clouds and by the time we reached our apartment, it was raining. My suit-mates and I found the rain exciting and we played in it for a while. We even went to visit some of our peers just as an excuse to walk through it.

Tonight we had Broccoli, cauliflower, and cheese soup with chicken for dinner. We invited Trenton over to share with us since the rest of his apartment was going out for dinner before they went to open gym. Afterwards, one of the girls that lives next door to us, Jessica Cope, invited us over for some sherbert and we ended up staying the evening there. We turned on the disco ball and the Christmas lights and then turned off the overheads. We had a great time and the apartment just got fuller and fuller with people till we were sure the fire marshal would have shut us down if he knew. Highlights included Rebekah dancing and watching the DVD player screen saver.

A Quick Post Before Bed.

Yes! We not only made it to Lubbock safely, but we all have internet now! We all seem pretty excited and I think a few of us might miss some sleep tonight...

My Grandmother, Alice Williams, drove me to AIM. Aunt Verna and Uncle Marv also drove with us. We stayed Friday night at a Super8 in Fort Sumner and then drove the last three hours in the morning. At the Hotel, I met a lady who had lived near Lubbock for some time. She advised me to get some boots because there would assuredly be snow in the Winter (I'm sure I'll regret this, but I'll say it any ways: Yay!) and that Lubbock was built in a grid pattern and would be easy to get around. Another guest of the hotel that I met was from Illinois and told me about a prairie dog preserve she and group(her husband, her sister and her sister's husband) and how she annoyed lizard by following it around a tree trying to get a picture of it. Also, the AC on the car quit right before Grandma picked me up, but thankfully it came back... 1 and a half hours from Lubbock. If you ever intend to drive from Arizona to Texas in the summer I suggest you ride in a car with reliable AC, otherwise your trip may be a little unpleasant.

Upon arriving in Lubbock we got a little lost, but I managed to remember the cross streets of the apartments and then get directions from one of the AIM Assistants. We then got to puzzle out how to go under the overpass and wind back up on 34th street(who designed this place!) When we finally made it to the Sunset building I was so nervous I brought the wrong papers in to registration and had to make an extra trip out to the car. Upon reaching the basement of the building, I immediately found myself passing my future suit mate, Sarah McCormick, in the hall way. I entered the room where we registered(I still don't know what this room is called yet, though I get the feeling I'll be spending a lot of time in there) and met Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the director and his wife/secretary. But before I could get registered Mr. Patrick Sheaffer, co-director, pulled me aside to go over some basic apartment rules with a couple other kids because he didn't to have to repeat them for each student. I then received my apartment key and registered.
The last two days have been spent getting to know my classmates and organizing the apartment that I share with the previously mention Sarah McCormick and my room mate Hannah Yeats. More to come, but I'm too tired now.

Godspeed.

Packing

I back in Arizona for the week until my Grandma Alice comes. There's lots to do- packing, getting papers together, finishing financial arrangements... Not to mention two of my brothers are in town and one brought his wife.