we made the news

For several days during the trip, members of our team and The Bridge's youth group worked together to fix up a house in a rough area of Bradenton. On Wednesday, a reporter from the Bradenton Herald interviewed a few of the workers. Read the article here, and go here to see the pics. (Click on "Church Volunteers Paint Home.") My cousin Chrissy is in picture 6, and Val is in picture 7.

the boy who stole my heart

I've been home from Florida for just over a day now, and I'm sure tales of the trip will come out in bits and pieces. The very first thing I have to talk about is Dylan.

Our main purpose for this trip was to help at a VBS alternative at The Bridge Church in Bradenton, Florida. The VBS (Miss Shelly, the camp director, would kill me if she knew I was calling it that!) was split into four camps--cooking, drama, soccer, and football. We were in charge of the sports camps. I was apprehensive, to say the least, about helping kids learn about sports. Sports instruction from a girl whose only experience was in junior high--and even then she only participated because she had to--how good could that be?

On the first night of camp, I found out that another lady and I would begin as floaters in the sports camps, going wherever they needed extra help. A few minutes later, everything changed. As the kids arrived, we played games with them or supervised them on the playground. I was watching kids on the playground when Kate pulled me aside. "We have a special needs boy that needs someone to play with him until camp starts."

That's when I met Dylan. He's 7, just finished Kindergarten, and has Down Syndrome or something similar. We played outside for a few minutes, then it was time for camp to start. I walked him into the sanctuary, looking for someone who I assumed would "take over" for me. Miss Shelly was helping kids find their places, and I asked her what to do with Dylan. "He's in cooking," she said. "Sit with him over there." Oh, so maybe no one else is going to help him. Throughout the opening, I wondered what would happen when the camps split up. I asked one of the cooking leaders if someone would be helping Dylan cook. "We don't have very many leaders, but we can manage. You can go to sports camp." But I knew I couldn't do that. So I followed Dylan to cooking camp and helped him mix up his Artesian bread. I also cleaned dough out of the water fountain (he used it as a sink to wash his hands), helped him put on and take off his apron repeatedly, and drug him back to the table time after time (he's deceptively quick!). At the end of the evening, I was exhausted. Then I met his mom. She thanked me profusely for helping Dylan. "And you'll be with him all week, right?" Of course I said yes.

The next morning, I told the team about Dylan and asked them to pray for me. I also emailed the people from my church who had signed up to receive email updates and asked them to pray, too. I knew that without God's intervention, I'd never make it through the week--what did I know about special needs kids? On Tuesday, I learned that Dylan would listen to me if I prefaced what I was saying with a firm "Look at me." On Wednesday, I learned that pulling Dylan onto my lap and wrapping my arms around him would calm him down. On Thursday, I learned that whispering into his ear would distract him from whatever he wasn't supposed to be doing. And on Friday, I learned how to dance like the penguin in Happy Feet. (Steph would be happy to tell you about that last one. I've never seen her laugh so hard. I'm sure I looked like a doofus . . . but I didn't care!)

Each day, I'd wait outside for Dylan. Each day, he'd run to me with arms outstretched. Each day, he'd tell me he missed me! On Friday, he and his mom brought me flowers. His mom hugged me and thanked me for making it possible for Dylan to be at camp. But you know what? Dylan blessed me at least as much as, if not more than, I blessed him and his mom. It was hard to say goodbye, especially knowing that I may never see Dylan again in this life. I'm not sure how much he understands, but I do know he loves Jesus, so I have hope that I'll see him in eternity.

On Monday night, I was reading my Bible by the pool (yeah, we had it rough . . . a pool in our backyard!). In my regular Bible reading, I'm in 2 Corinthians--and so many times on the trip, what I read completely matched up with what I was going through. It was very cool. Anyway, Monday night, I read 2 Corinthians 5. Paul talks about our new heavenly bodies, and verse 3 stuck out: "We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing." I couldn't help but think of Dylan. He will go through his life in a body that is far from perfect, but oh, what God has waiting for him in heaven!

one more from nebraska

I have a sleeping problem. Normally, I sleep just fine, but whenever I know I need to get a lot of sleep, I can't. I usually get about three hours of sleep before our first few speech meets, even though I go to bed by 10 or earlier . . . it's just something about knowing that I'll need to get up at 5 that keeps me from getting to sleep. (After about three weeks of speech, fatigue sets in, and I have no trouble sleeping!)

At 8 p.m., we'll leave for a 24-hour trip to Florida. I'm one of the drivers. As I don't sleep very well in cars, I knew that I needed to get a lot of sleep leading up to the trip. It didn't happen. Last night was my last chance. I packed until 11:30, then went to bed. And tossed. And turned. Adjusted my fan. Covered up the numbers on my alarm clock. Finally, I fell asleep. At 4:20, I woke to a strange grinding noise. It was my air conditioner rapidly turning off and on. Then it just turned off . . . I'd lost power. The power was off for 15 minutes--it's amazing how quickly my apartment became stuffy! Once the power came back on, I was awake. So I went through the whole toss-and-turn thing again. And when I did sleep, it wasn't very soundly. Needless to say, I feel like I've been run over by a train. And just sitting here at my desk during my lunch break, I'm about to go to sleep. I'll be taking most of the afternoon off to hopefully take a nap--'cause if I had to drive right now? We'd all be in trouble!

UPDATE: I left work at 1:30 and got in a wonderful 1 1/2 hour nap! I feel like a new person, and I'm ready to get on the road!

the night before

In just under 24 hours, I'll join 11 others for a 24 hour (at least!) drive to Bradenton, Florida. We'll be helping with a sports (!) camp and helping clean up/remodel a house. With only 23 hours to go before I have to arrive at church, I should be a little more focused on packing. Instead, I'm downloading music from Amazon. And here's the thing: I'm downloading country music! Did someone perform a brain transplant on me? I've recently become quite captivated by GAC (Great American Country). Country music videos are so interesting! And some of the music isn't half bad, either. Wow, I can't even believe I just typed those words! (My favorite video of the moment is "This Is Me You're Talking To" by Trisha Yearwood. It makes me want to cry . . . and I don't even have a long lost love!)

I'm having serious trouble fitting everything into my suitcase. I think I may have it whittled down enough, provided I really do only have to look "nice" twice. It's so hard to know how much to take--I want to be prepared but not overprepared.

When I was a kid, it used to drive me nuts that Mom always wanted the house picked up and the dishes washed before we left for a vacation. Now, I totally understand. My apartment is a wreck, and I dread coming home to a messy apartment. I'm not sure how much I'll get cleaned up, though . . . especially since I'm sitting here at the computer instead of packing!

On the last day of the sports camp, I have to give the devotional. The theme is "Heart of a Winner," with one lesson based on each letter in "Heart." I have "T"--Trust. The supplied curriculum isn't very helpful as it's full of games and activities, and the devotional is supposed to take place during the kids' snack break. You'd think that with all of the Sparks lessons I've done, this would be a piece of cake. Nope--I'm still nervous, and I still don't know what to say!

Saturday, we're going to Disney World! I've wanted to go for as long as I can remember. I always said I'd go there on my honeymoon . . . but with no honeymoon in the foreseeable future, I'm sure glad we're going now! I wonder if it will live up to what I've built up in my head . . .

I have to throw in a quick plug for Psych. Season three begins on Friday (10/9 central) on USA. It's full of 80's and 90's pop culture references and is a really fun way to spend an hour. If you don't get USA (or you just want to catch up on old episodes), you can watch full episodes here.

I really do need to get to work now . . . I'll try to post again from Florida.