98 degrees

my life is 98 degrees - not the band...the weather.

It is the hottest summer of my LIFE. Not much has been happening except for a lot of sweating. I opened a bank account at Bank of America to concede to Texas' lack of the bank I've used since I was sixteen. It felt like betrayal. I spent this past weekend just hanging out, getting ready for this week. Had a real short work group experience on Saturday with a group of frilly girls from Tulsa that I supervised cleaning the World Cup Cafe. It was uuuuhhh... "great". Haha I can't be positive all the time. Last night, we went to Micah's house (one of the grad school interns) and had dinner and he introduced us to Coco's ice cream afterwards. Yum sketchy ice cream place.

Went to Church Under the Bridge (look through that website, some of the pictures are incredible) on Sunday for the first time and it was so neat. Jimmy Dorrell (the director of MW) pastors the church but he wasn't there this sunday. Nonetheless, it was cool. They serve breakfast before the service and there are ton of people there from the homeless to well-to-do families. Okay, and they call people that go to CUB...trolls. How funny is that? Someone told me that RelevantMag did an article on the church in like April/May. I wish I had a way to read it. [Molly, do you have it?? haha]
Here are some pictures that Susan Mullally took of CUB:















Today, we started our real summer! yeeeeah! I spent the morning with three guys from The Village Church in Dallas. They are a part of a visiting work group. We were on snack duty, so basically that meant I took them to walmart while answering questions about waco and showing them things i thought were cool, we made snack, and then delivered it to the other sites. After that they mowed at the intern house and did some much needed clean-up, while i was inside "supervising". Haha. At lunch with the groups, I had a really cool conversation with the people at my table about how my views of poverty, community and church responsibility has changed. These adults really listened to what I had to say. It felt good.

Then I headed over to the office to do some assistant work and learn those ropes in the afternoon. I ended up sorting through the new summer t-shirts. They look like this:After that I felt disgusting from sweating all stinking day. I'm going to take a picture of my chacos soon and show you their current state, you'd never think i got them two months ago. Thanks to you guys for the birthday gift. They are a godsend this summer.

Finished reading our next book a few days ago. I liked it so much more than the first. By the way, I know I said I'd post my book reflection from the first but I don't like what I wrote and it wouldn't benefit anyone to read it haha. Maybe next time. Our second book is: In the Name of Jesus by Henri J.M. Nouwen. This book has less to do with homelessness, poverty, or community, but focuses on the future of Christian leadership. Nouwen who writes it, is a priest that serves and lives in a community for the mentally handicapped in Canada. His book is about how the secularization of Christianity has really changed what is now called for in Christian leaders. He says that the future Christian leaders are going to have be completely irrelevant by today's standards It is really interesting to read and super short. I recommend it.

So this coffee shop has a huge back patio area where they have live music and apparently movies. Tonight's is the Goonies. So while I'm enjoying an iced coffee and free wifi outside on this aesthetically pleasing patio, I can listen and watch a classic film on a giant screen. I'm trying to convince myself that this place isn't cooler than Broad River, but I'm having a hard time. The only argument I still have is that BRCC is in NC.

Things I miss this week from home (other than people): Rain. It hasn't rained since I got here. AT ALL. I hope the next time it does...if ever... i'll be able to go outside and get soaked. I'll take pictures.

Home Accents. The whole hick routine is getting old. Today, I was told by a mother in the Work Group that my accent was so "thick".....

My books. I should've brought more. I have nothing else to do during down time. I've read four books since I got here. I know next week I'm going to have to get a library card.

P.S. I've been getting incredible things in the mail and hear that there is more to come. Thank you so much for caring. I miss home a lot. So much so that today, when one of my fellow interns had a NC map delivered to her in a care-package (She's from Kansas but loves NC and is probably going to move there) that I flipped and had to open it up to find Kernersville.

Hopefully, this has entertained you a bit.
Thanks for reading. peace to you