Mondaymail July 28 July 28, 2008

Top o’ the mornin’ to you!

I hope you all had wonderful weekend in spite of our famous Texas heat! Certainly in the mid-Splash exhaustion your youth were somewhat sedated! If not, well, we’ll try to wear them out this week.

1) Incidentally, Summer Splash is going well! It seems like the two weeks will be enough to quench the appetite without wearing people out. A big, big, HUGE thanks to the Beecherls for lending us their house and pool as well as to our fabulous drivers who have been so good to show up and ferry everyone around, particularly Teresa Clarke, Ellen Welch, Elizabeth Tschiemer, Beth Bilbo, Liz Dunn, Anne Mackintosh and Louise Watkins. We truly couldn’t have done it without you!

2) Chi Rho this week will NOT be at Aziza and Alexia’s home as advertised in the bulletin. By popular demand, we’ll be going to the Studio Movie Grill located at Royal and Central Expressway to see Mamma Mia. The movie starts at 7:10, but let’s try to gather at 6:45 to get situated and visit a bit. The film should end at 9 pm. Tickets are $6.50 for children, and the menu can be found at http://www.studiomoviegrill.com/menu.html. Kids will be responsible for paying for their food.

3) EYC and Chi Rho will have our end of the summer shebang on Sunday at the home of Ellen, Bobby and Caroline Beecherl (and Susan, Ernest and Ernie too!) starting at 5:30 pm. We’ll hang out, grill, and generally have a good time!

Of course, this does tie up our summer! It’s time for a tiny break before school starts again! But lest you fear that I’ll be sitting here gathering moss, I’ll give you a run down of things you can expect to be happening:

1) Peter Overland, formerly of the outreach department, is in charge of sprucing up the youth room before Betsy and Bishop Burton arrive. He and I will be liaising and working out the details in coming weeks to be able to rock things out August 22 and 23. If you’d like to come help, please sign up at www.incarnation.org. We’d love to have you!

2) We’ll be having our own department kickoff on the evening of Sept 7. Yes, we will be at the church-wide rally day that morning, but you don’t want to miss the evening activities! Claire Upham, Melinda Draper and Ellen Welch are cooking up a festival to behold! We’ll have all manner of food, inflatable bungee runs, and, for the more organizationally minded among us, the upcoming year’s calendar and forms. I cannot tell you how excited we are!

3) We are revamping our Sunday school with the help of our consultants, and we’d love a few more teachers to come onboard so that we can spend some time in August engaging each other over the new curriculum.

4) Betsy will be arriving August 27! Hurrrrrraaaaah!!!!!

Monday Night Mondaymail July 22, 2008

Hey hey!

It is indeed still a Mondaymail, even if it is coming a little later in the day than the standard! Please accept our apologies—the internet was completely down at the office for the greater part of the day, and I naturally was out Summer Splashin’ it up the rest of the day! I am now, as promised previously on the blog, perched at a coffee shop ready to fill you in.

1. Which, of course, brings me to the Summer Splash phenomenon which is doing phenomenally! We even had a few more people show up today who hadn’t quite yet gotten in their registration, but that was fine by us once we rustled up a few extra drivers to fill in the gaps! For those of you who are scratching your heads, Summer Splash is the youth-run VBS currently in session. If you have some free time this week, stop by and check it out! At the pool, you will likely find the boys trying to see who can splash me the most via cannonball. Bradley Bilbo currently leads the team, though Wheeler Butler is a close second.

1. Also this week, Chi Rho will be meeting at Willy Beecherl’s house, 3818 Shenandoah, at 5:30 pm for burgers, swimming and a movie. The boys are threatening not to come because I’m wanting Mamma Mia. Soooo, since I heard a request for the Inwood and Journey to the Center of the Earth is playing there, we’ll be seeing the 7:15 showing of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Please tell your boys. at 1 hr 32 minutes, we should be finished a quarter to 9. Also, always, I can use some drivers!

1. EYC will be meeting at Sarah Beecherl’s house this coming Sunday, surprisingly also 3818 Shenandoah, also at 5:30 pm. Based on this week’s movie poll, we’ll likely be seeing the Dark Knight at some as yet undetermined theater.

Alrighty then! My bed is calling from a few miles away since I need to be up bright and early to fill the baby pools for the sports section of Splash!

Good night and God bless!

Bev

ewww computers! July 21, 2008

Sadly, the net is down at COTI and has been all morning, and I just can’t bring myself to write my Mondaymail on blackberry! So, I’ll write you tonight from some coffee house with free wifi!

Mondaymail July 7 July 14, 2008

Dear Everyone,

We’re back from our mission trips for the summer, both having been wonderful! The youth were terrific and the sponsors incredible. I can’t thank all of you enough for the parts you’ve given to the program! I spoke briefly with our missionary friends in Costa Rica today who again thanked us for coming and were very touched by the enthusiasm and hard work that we did. I’ll send a special edition missions report to recount the high points from both weeks.

Back home, though, the work continues!

1. We are running full steam ahead towards Summer Splash, training starting tomorrow for counselors and Thursday for junior counselors. Summer Splash itself will be next week and the week following. We do need more drivers! We can’t do the camp in its current configuration at all, let alone safely, without drivers. Even a few hours for one day or a day a week would be great. The trip is to and from Will and Kay Beecherl’s house on Shenandoah.
2. Wednesday at 5:30 pm, Chi Rho will be hosted by Willy Beecherl at 3818 Shenandoah. Following the fun in the sun and devotional, we will be seeing Wall-E at the Magnolia at 7:15 pm. It has a running time of 1 hr 43 minutes, so we should have finished by 9 pm.
3. EYC this week will be at Scottie Clarke’s house, 3105 St Johns, also at 5:30 pm. Our movie and location has yet to be selected as the theaters have not released next Sunday’s information. I really look forward to seeing our EYCers—the mission trip dates this year have made it hard to have EYC, and it would be great to have a good, strong end to the summer!
4. As hopefully you have all heard, we have a new DIRECTOR! Betsy will be joining us in late August, and I for one am very excited about her. I was quite impressed during her interview and cannot tell you how happy I expect to be working with her.

Alrighty, one and all, go forth and have a GREAT week knowing that God has great plans for the youth group and for all of us as individuals and families. I’m thankful for you and for the glory that He shows through you.

In His Grip,

Bev

Arrival in CR July 8, 2008

Our computers here are a little iffy, so please bear with me!

We all arrived in good order, being met at the customs exit by Will and our driver. Madi worked as our counter, and happily all people were accounted for! The ride to the seminary was uneventful–we were all certainly tired (I especially so!) and got to bed in relatively short order, if a little chattering was heard in the girls’ rooms.

 

The work day was great– the kids love the missionaries, and the worksite will amply accommodate tons of work. We are primarily working on walls as they are working through the permits for buildings proper. There is tons to do, including all manner of tasks that the youth have little experience with. There are even a few kids who speak a bit of Spanish, keeping things interesting and bonding with our coworkers and foreman.

 

The seminary is proving to be a great place to stay– the chef is sweet and keeps us well fed, the close quarters keep us all together for the bulk of the time, which the youth and sponsors alike like. The one thing the youth aren’t so keen on is the fact that we’ve taken up ipods and phones. However, they don’t seem to miss them too much….

 

We also prepped for the VBS tomorrow, and lemme tell ya, our kids have some massively impressive dance moves they’re ready to bust out for the kids tomorrow! The crafts and games are all looking good to go as well.

 

It’s going to be a busy week to be sure, but a great one!