Recap

So much to write about and so much free time at work....

I'll start with The Office Party from last Friday night. Liz dressed up as Dwight, then Stephen really ran with the picture. This picture just makes me so happy. Saturday was more than excellent. I didn't have to work! Caleb "took the day off" and we drove all over Mobile (shopping) and it was just a great day. And oh, the best part was that we went to Sam's Club and they were having a CHEESE EVENT! They had tons of little hair-netted ladies serving various types of nice cheeses. I had several types of gouda, mozzarella, and other fancy cheeses I can't spell. It was a classy time.

Sunday I flew out to St. Louis as mentioned previously. I have flown a lot by myself for these projects but ne'er have I had to get myself from the airport, rent a car, then get to my hotel. Then stay by myself in the hotel. Honestly, I had a knot in my stomach about it, but it all went very smoothly. Although at Avis, they just processed my paperwork and told me to find "G13" and the keys are on the dashboard. Well it was pouring down rain, and of course I had only packed short sleeves because I live on the Gulf Coast now and it's always 82 degrees outside. I floundered up and down the rows in the parking lot looking for G13. I found it and it was a Dodge Journey, which I now covet. They are awesome vehicles if anyone is looking into buying a car.

So back to the part of this story where I only packed short sleeves..... it SNOWED on Monday. I referred to it all day as the Snow Storm of '09. I tried not to whine about being cold all day, but lets face it- I'm a whiner ("nothing ever suits me" -Blake Bousson). But a ray of sunshine did bless my day in the form of RO TAYLOR!!! He is at seminary in St. Louis so he stopped by to visit me for breakfast Monday morning. It was so great catching up with an old friend. Who doesn't love Ro Taylor.

(This is a picture of Snow Storm '09)

From there, I met up with Noah who is the Ministry Coordinator for the project and a Group Leader who is bringing a group to the project and we toured the Lodging Facility and all the Church Planters we'll be working with during the project in July. I'll give you a quick rundown of the church plants we'll be serving:


1. Cross Haven- launched in 2007, meet in an elementary school

2. Redeemer- launched in September of '08, about 180 people are already attending

3. Red Tree- meet in a bar! Run about 120 people combined in the morning and evening service
4. Crosspointe- minister to the large immigrant population, which is primarily Bosnians, but also a large population of Pakistanis and about 25 other ethnicities seeking refuge in the U.S.

5. August Gate- launching this August; the demographic of this church is 20-35 yr olds.

So on the way back, I got to the airport 5 hours early and sat in terminal A3 pretty much all day. As I was boarding the airplane, for some reason I looked back and something caught my eye- a familiar face. I thought to myself, "that guy looks a lot like Stephen Arant." I looked back at the guy again and he was staring at me funny too, and lo and behold, it WAS Stephen Arant. He had been sitting in A3 since 1:00pm. We had both been sitting there for 4 hours and could have been catching up. Anyway, I thought that was such a coincidence.

Well that's the end to this long post. OH! And I read the book "Night" and "Marley and Me" while sitting in A3 and I have to say they are both really good reads! Night is very short but very powerful, so even if you don't have a lot of time to read, this is very doable. And I was hesitant about reading "Marley and Me" because for some reason I thought it would be really hokey, but it wasn't and I actually cried at the end- like big time boo hooed in A3.