Vacation Adventures: Part II

So you're back for more? I hope I didn't exhaust you with my last posting...I'll try not to be so long-winded (can you say that about the written word?) this time.

We arrived home safely from Brazil with all our luggage (thanks Lord!) on Saturday, then had one day before SAMBO's (South America Mission Bolivia) field conference began. Each day was basically the same schedule. We had a time of praise and worship together, then our speaker gave a message, then we had a business meeting where each team shared highlights of the past year and goals for the coming one. Then we lunched together and had a relaxing time of fun and fellowship in the afternoon before returning for dinner and the evening session. We had a team come down from the States to lead worship and do a program for the children while the adults were in meetings. It was a very enjoyable time. Our speaker was wonderful...a missionary from Nepal and England who just recently moved back to the States, so he knew exactly where we were coming from. He was very honest and transparent with us, which really opened the door for us to be real with him and each other.

We were supposed to go away to a retreat center for the conference, but the home office decided that because of the political unrest in the outlying areas (no cause for alarm, just some roadblocks) they wanted us to stay inside the city. Our meetings were held at the Hotel Cortez, where we had dinner as well. It was a very nice facility with air conditioning! (Of course since we weren't used to it most of us froze...but we didn't complain! =)) I don't want to bore you with details of the meetings, but I have some pictures of the "fun times" in the afternoon that I thought I'd share.

Tuesday: Games and water fun at the SAM base

They rented a "bouncy castle" for the kids, but a few adults tried it out too. Here's Elliott (a new missionary who is working in one of the smaller towns outside of Santa Cruz) sliding down...fortunately he managed not to fly off the end. Our speaker (his name's Wade) had worse luck - he tried a summersault and felt right out!

Katherine and Raquel Strebig with David Gambrell standing by the slip-n-slide. I was all for going down it myself, but somehow I remember slip-n-slides being so much longer! I decided it wasn't worth the pain of throwing myself on the ground to slide for only a few feet. Instead I played cards and Apples to Apples with a bunch of the other party-poopers (i.e. adults)

Wednesday: Bowling and the Singles' Sleepover

I don't have pictures of bowling...sorry (they actually do have a bowling alley in SC...it's called Cosmic Bowling. It brings back memories of college!) My team got second place - but then we were bowling with the rails up. Hey, we wouldn't want the kids to get discouraged would we?

Wednesday night the "singles" stayed at the hotel. We got 2 guesthouses (one for girls, one for boys of course) and stayed up until 2 am playing Mofia and Dutch Blitz. We all yawned our way through Thursday's session, but it was worth it!

The girls had this huge "chalet" all to ourselves, so that's where we all hung out. It had this weird looking divider running through the entryway...here are some of us peeking through the various openings. (This was at about 1:30 am, and some had already gone to bed).

Katie (Art teacher, newly arrived from furlough) Elliott, Richard (one of the music leaders down for the conference from the States) Sunny, Dana 1 (I'm Dana 2...isn't it weird that there are two of us? I've never had that happen before - I don't even know any other Danas), Matt (also a musican from the States) and Virginia.

Here's Laura with Katie...reunited after a six-month furlough (they are really close friends). Katie is great...I really love her already. It's fun having another single teacher to hang with!

Thursday: The Talent Show

I really can't describe this to you...it was an amazing mix of talent and ridiculousness, hosted by Mr. Moo the Cow (Jeff Hause translated for him, but threw in too many bovine jokes so Mr. Moo got mad and refused to MC for a while...the Snail filled in). Some of my favorite acts were:

The Spoon Balancers (speaker Wade and Jonah Vanderswaag demonstrated the fine are of balancing a spoon on the end of one's nose...very impressive)

Jump 4 (Katie, Heather, Emily and Rebecca, who performed an amazing dance number which included much hand slapping and leap frogging)

Did You Know? (an audience participation game wherein someone would stand up and announce a little known fact about themselves. Virginia told us she had an uncle in Congress...Ohio)

And so many more I couldn't possibly name them. This was definitely a highlight of the week!

The kids ended the Talent Show by performing some of the songs they had learned in their program. I just have to say that each one of these kids is so precious...definitely a testimony to the faithfulness and concern of their parents. I'm so grateful for the chance to get to know them!

We finished Friday at noon, but the "singles" (I use quotation marks because we also included the married-but-here-alone musician and a married-no-children missionary couple) decided we hadn't had enough fun - we got together that night for more games and spent the evening laughing and behaving like kids...which of course we all are. It was such a great way to end my break.

I'm now starting my second week back, and it's a busy one! I have a commitment every night this week, and the Princess Conference the SAM is hosting for girls is all day Friday and Saturday. Check back next week to see how I survived!