Prepare, prepare and prepare some more

This week has been filled with trainings, lesson planning, skit writing, and decorating. We have/are writing out everything that we will need for each of the days that we have the kids. Bryan has been working on his Bible lessons, and Stephanie has been helping plan the art classes with Ms. Vicki. We need to have all the time filled, because we would rather have a well structured plan for the 85 kids that are showing up here in a few days, than nothing which would lead to chaos.

We are doing the armor of God as the theme for this summer. For this we painted large backdrops with the pieces of armor on them. We also painted a few 4'soldiers that are wearing the armor of God.

The kids that we hired have received their letters telling them so and have been very excited. One of the kids called in to the church as soon as he read far enough to see that he had been hired. We begin working with them next week Monday and will be going on an overnight camping trip on Tuesday/Wednesday. This will be a new experience for many of these kids. We have found that a lot of the youth do not care for camping. They are worried that they will be eaten by bears.

Tuesday, for our anniversary, we went out for dinner at a local restaurant called Amelia's. The food was excellent. After dinner we went for dessert at an ice cream shop called Torico's. The family we are staying with said we needed to visit as this is the best ice cream shop around. They have been making homemade ice cream for 40 years, and they have a variety of flavors including avocado. We had coconut joy and vanilla bean with peanut butter and we decided it was the best ice cream we have ever had. It is better than Blue Bunny, Ben and Jerry's, and Hudsonville! We will definitely be going back soon.

Today we have the day off since we worked last week Saturday. We are hoping to make it into Manhattan and visit Central Park if Bryan starts to feel a little better. His nose is pretending it is a faucet the last few days. Pray that he starts to feel better soon. We will update more in a few days or so.