Saturday, September 23, 2006

Girls' night!


Last night we had a girls' night at our apartment. It was a great way to get to know the girls at our church! We played sleepover games like asking weird questions around the group, making jokes, burping and eating chocolate. (What sleepover would be complete without chocolate?) This morning we woke up ....well Emily, me and Christa woke up around 10am,.....and Irene cooked breakfast (that Emily and I weren't priviledged to eat). THANKS IRENE! And now, Emily and I are chill'n with a girl looking at becoming another UTOPIA missionary. We're having a fun time...and this afternoon, Emily and I are painting Sunday School sets for next week. I'm excited to get started with everything like that. This Sunday we're teaching the Chinese Sunday School for the first time. That should be an adventure. I'll make sure to write about it! Please pray for Emily and I to not feel so overwhelmed right now. Our apartment is the public place for the church....so we don't have a lot of personal space. It's hard some days....so pray for us.

Little Italy Street Fair

Emily and I found an Italian street fair one day.....it was fun. There was sausage and peppers....the greatest thing, and Emily got offered free dinner on the house of a fancy-shmancy restaurant...we said we weren't hungry. I don't know what else happened.....but it was fun!!!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

a tuesday post...

So we had another staff meeting today, and it was.....interesting to say the least. The group of staff here is so funny and kinda quirky too that any time we're together, I know it'll be interesting, and today was not a let down. We thouht we heard something hit the drumset upstairs, so Pastor Tony and Chris went up to check it out. They were gone for awhile, and all of the sudden we heard yelling and running upstairs. We all immediately jumped up and ran towards the two staircases on either side of the church basement to see what was happening.....I WAS FREAKED OUT. (The church has recently had two instances of people living in the church balcony and stealing stuff.) As we're standing in the stairwell, waiting to apprehend some kind of bum, Chris and Tony come out laughing.......they just ran to make us think something was happening. It wasn't funny.......as I am laughing now, it was pretty funny I guess. We received a book too today, called "The Pursuit of Holiness"...I started to read it already, and it's good...can't wait to finish it. :-) I wish you could be here and hear the kids outside screaming.....the chinese kids only have the streets and sidewalks to play on it seems....so they like to make noise. It's funny. Please keep praying for us. We are in the middle of starting the new Sunday School curriculum on Sundays, and in October will be starting the Saturday programs!!

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Moving In

So a lot has happened in the last few days...I started a nanny job (on Thurs. and Fri.) and I wanted to quit right away, but it's bearable for now. But on Saturday Becca and Patty took us to IKEA to get furniture to make our apartment into a liveable space!!! In a small mini-van on the way there, it was Emily, me, Becca, Patty and a friend Zoila. On the way home, it was Emily, me, Becca, Patty, our friend Zoila, two dressers, a bookshelf, a coffee table, another wall bookshelf, 6 med-sized photos, 3 rugs, 2 clocks, one bathroom storage unit, 84 tealights, a blind for the window, and a princess canopy for Emily's bed. It was super tight......'cause there was more, but that was just our stuff. Anyway, when we got home at 1:30pm, some kids from the church came over to help us assemble stuff! It took us almost 7 hours to put everything together, so we ordered pizza for the group, and chilled out with them. It really felt like home that afternoon, because not only did we have things to put our clothes and things in, but the friends that we had, and the time we spent together
building the stuff was really "special". Emily and I talked about how it was so much fun because in MN, if we were working with the youth, most likely we wouldn't invite people over to help us assemble furniture. But HERE the kids just came over because they want somewhere to be, and they want to feel like they belong. We both want them to know that they will ALWAYS belong here. I included some pictures from that day, and what our apartment looked like BEFORE the new stuff....I'll add some new pics soon. (After we clean! ;-))

Monday, September 11, 2006


So I finally arrived in NY. It was a long day yesterday, being in airports from 12noon until around 11:30 pm...but I made it without any real problems. Today, I woke up and was out the door by 8:15am, and I went down to ground zero for the 5th anniversary of 9/11. It was really somber there in some areas, and downright angry in others, very patriotic in yet other areas. I took some pictures, so I'll add those soon. We even went to the church that is accross the street, and saw Robin Robbins, and then Diane Sawyer walked out, and before Emily would admit that I was right about who she was, she bumped into me, and the security guard was like "there goes Diana!" (I was right!) Anyway, i'm not unpacked, but soon.....very soon I hope I will be. All summer I've been in a transition phase it seems, and I am ready to be out of that. I want to stay somewhere longer than 2 months...and I really don't want to live out of a suitcase for more than 2 weeks! Tomorow is our first staff meeting, and I have the responsibility to hold devotions....I'm thinking I'll use some of what I heard preached yesterday at Calvary Baptist in Roseville. The message was "Looking Back, Moving Forward. Where are we going?" It was about the model the church should have, what God is calling the church to do now, and the personal response we should have as people making up the church. It was great. I'll let you know how it turns out tomorrow.