A Glimpse of Mi Vida...

It started with a missions trip to Camden, where my life and perspective were changed and where this blog began. Life has been a roller coaster filled with its ups and downs and I'm excited for the adventure and discovering what God has in store, even though I really dislike roller coasters... I am a Lady in Waiting...

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Last Week of Camp...

Monday… a week and two days left!!!

Five days of camp are left and I am leaving Camden/ New Jersey in just over two days and then I’ll be back home.

Monday and Tuesday we just worked on All Camp Day stuff like our camp song and activities and such.
All Camp Day is an event on Thursday hosted by Urban Promise and all of the camps compete against each other for the Golden Crate (a crate spray painted gold and stuffed with tons of candy for the kids) and the big kid camps against each other and then the little kid camps against each other. You’re judge on your camp song, competitions, and excitement/cheering, as well as the ability to sit down and be quite on queue or the quickest.

Also Tuesday was one of the hottest days of the summer so far and they were thinking of canceling camp, also because of the heat the kids were very restless and a few walked out of camp to go to the corner store and a food fight broke out during lunch… craziness!

Wednesday was swim day which was really nice and relaxing and then we had our intern lunch after camp. Since it was our day off they planned a trip for the interns to go to a nearby private lake to go swimming and kayaking and so I went. There ended up only being 8 of us which was sad but I actually really enjoyed being in the small group and hanging out and I went kayaking for the first time! It was great!
The evening was not so great because after going out for Katie’s goodbye dinner (she’s leaving four days earlier than everyone), we (Leann and I) were stranded at headquarters for almost two hours until about 1:30am and I was having horrible neck pain and became extremely sick and emotional. We finally ended up getting a ride home from a former intern who is staying in the area for a week, but thanks to my loving friends here they calmed me down and thanks for having Jesselyn to vent to back home because I was frustrated. Love you all!

Today was ALL CAMP DAY!!! The big day arrived and we were all decked out and hyped for the day and the kids behaved. And I think we may have won… we’ll find out in the morning…

Tomorrow is the last day of camp…

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition comes to Camden!!!

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition comes to Camden!

Although most of us had heard the new unofficially, we found out today! Billy Joe and his family were featured in the 20/20 Special on Camden back in January and they were nominated and in the running to have a house built for them, after talking with Urban the deal was almost set in stone. The stipulation of being apart of the show is that your have to own the house/property and the Marrero family did not, but Urban had an empty lot that they donated so that the family could have a home built.

The whole process has really been amazing and the end result was amazing. With the show at headquarters things have been hectic because we couldn’t go there unless we were volunteering.

Saturday, we went to the beach and hung out… my whole group all got sunburned but it was a nice break from all of the chaos of the week.

Sunday was the unveiling of the house and choir got to sing for it as well and we sang three songs so maybe they will be featured on the show in November during sweep weeks when the show will be shown as the season premiere- 2 hours long, so watch it come November!

Later on we had our normal Sunday night, but we all cried a bit because the last week is approaching us and two of the interns will be leaving early and when Chris made an announcement he was all teary eyed and then we all began to cry a little and then Nina sang and gave some thank you’s and encouragements to all the interns.

Few and far posts... sorry!

I’m sorry, my posts and updates have been really behind and now are all just a blur. I have not had very much access to the internet to do posts nor the time to journal, most free time is spent sleeping, enjoying the limited time getting to know interns before we leave, and doing laundry or preparing for the next day.

Two Saturdays ago we went to D.C. which was amazing and yet exhausting… we did so much walking but the sights were quite amazing. The Holocaust Musemum was powerful and then we went to the Capitol Building, Library of Congress, Supreme Court, and one of the Smithonian Museums. Afterwards we went to see the Lincoln Mounument with all the interns and the Vietnam Memorial and then we headed to Georgetown for dinner. We did not arrive at home until about 2:30am and did not go to bed until 3am and I had to get up the next morning for choir at 7am.

Sunday the made the official announcement of that Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was coming to Camden. Yes, it’s true!

Minor Updates

Holla!

Brief continuation of last week-

Friday:

We went to another interns night out and it was a host dinner in Buck’s County and we had dinner (a pig roast) and then sat around the pool and had discussion about Camden and we got to know some of the old people apart of this ministry that was sponsoring us for dinner.

Saturday:

Chelsea, Danny, and I went to Philadelphia to sight see. We had quite the time, we went to Independence Hall and then to see the Liberty Bell. We then walked to have lunch at the Hard Rock Café and then walked back and stopped at the mall and a few stores. Then we went to the United States Mint, but it was closed and so we walked across the street to the Constitution Center and watched a presentation and walked around I had fun looking at all the touristy history stuff.

We then came back and relaxed and then a group of about 12 of us went to Friendly’s (which is like Denny’s for us). It was a lot of fun there and then one of the girls paid for everyone’s dinner, which was so sweet but was also a lot of money.

Sunday:

After going to bed super late (3am… was up late talking with Molly and Josh), we slept in for a bit and then went to church here in Camden. Afterwards, we all relaxed and napped and then we went to our Sunday Service together and had dinner and then came back and hung out for a bit.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Two more weeks...

Hello...

I truthfully don't remember much from last week really.

On Wednesday, we went to Camp Edge but on the way there one of the girls started to have an allergic reaction to some latex her and another girl were playing with. So we pulled over the bus and had to take her off and call 911 because her eye began to swell up and was doubling within a few minutes time. Finally the peramedics arrived to pick her up and then we were back on the road to camp edge. That camp was an outdoor camp for the kids and we went on a nature walk and they got to swim in a lake. The leadership and organization was pretty much "butt" (as the kids say).

Thursday, we didn't have a basketball game so me, Leann, and Holly went out for coffee and an early dinner and then afterwards we had camp night with the downtown kids which lasted about two hours. Later that evening a group of us went to Friendly's for dessert and so I didn't get back home till 1am or so.

Friday, we had another intern staff night and we went to a pool club and hung out and swimmed. I didn't go swimming because I was still sick, but I read my book by the pool and finally finished it! Yay! After we got back, Chelsea, Hugh, and I went to see the 10:30pm showing of the Simpsons movie, but it was sold out! :( So we bought tickets for the 11:30pm showing and went and had an amazing time. It was nice to be away from everyone and just laugh!

Saturday... what a day... we went to Washington, D.C. and it was so exhausting. We left Urban Promise at 9am and didn't arrive until 1:15pm because of traffic and stopping to go to the bathroom and such. We first went to the White House and the Washington Mounument and then we went to the Holocaust Musemum. We spent about 2 hours there and it was amazing and saddening and you just felt all these emotions and hunger was one of them. None of us in my small group and eaten so after we left grabbed some hot dogs and preztels at about 5pm. We then walked to the Capital Building, Supreme Court Building, and the Library of Congress- all of which were closed by the time we hit each one. Then we went to one of the Smithonian Musemums and walked around there for a bit and then we met up with everyone at 8pm to head to Georgetown for dinner. We stopped at the Lincoln Mounumet first and the Vietnam Memorial and that took a little over an hour. We stopped in Georgetown to have dinner for an hour and then we headed home. We didn't arrive back until 2:30am and I didn't get to bed until 3am.

Sunday... woke up at 7:15am to shower and get ready for choir. We sand for about half and hour and then we helped east move out of their house for the surprise...

I was so exhausted on Sunday just because of the lack of sleep and all the non-stop moving and such...