my intern adventures!
So, here is my spiel on North Dakota. Which really does exist, I swear.
I left for North Dakota on May...12th and got there on the 13th. I stayed in Eau Claire, Wisconsin with a couple of friends on Thursday night and arrived in Williston on Friday night. I went immediately to the church and met our interim pastor, Tom Karp and his family. I loved all of them from the very beginning! Tom and Brenda have three children: Andrew, Luke and Grace. Andrew and Luke are teenagers and can be bothersome, but they are nice most of the time. Grace is 8 and really clingy, but also really helpful when she wants to be. Brenda, Tom's wife, ran the children's ministry while they were there so I worked under her.
Anyway, after I got there, I went to the house I was going to be staying at for the first half of the summer and met Debbie. She is a single, divorced mom; all of her children are adults now as well, so she lives alone. She has a beautiful house. It was built back in the 20s, I believe, and she leads a very simple life so it is very simply decorated. It was very home-y and I absolutely loved it. Here are some pictures of her house:
This was my bedroom. It was upstairs. And yes, the wall does that because of the shape of the house. It was great, haha.
This is her youngest's son's room. He is an Oklahoma University fan. So his room was red and OU. I thought it was neat~
Her awesome living room. That spinning wheel belonged to her grandmother.
Her white, white kitchen. So cute.
Dining room! Equally as cute!
Her upstairs bathroom. It is REALLY narrow, but the tub is sooooo cute! I took a few baths in it, haha.
So, yeah. That's Debbie's house. Annnd, back to work related things. The following day, Saturday May 14th, I met the other intern that would be working at New Hope Wesleyan Church. Now, when I first heard that someone named Quinn was going to be working with me, I was like......"Is it a boy or girl? o_O" Well, yep. He's a boy, def.
Our first Sunday started off with me meeting the rest of the pastors. We have two associate pastors, Pastor Chris "Swarty" Swarthout and Pastor Matt Seaton. We also have an awesome youth pastor, Pastor Shaun Breiland. Our other staff includes Julie--our office manager, Sharon--our assistant office manager, and Janet--our book keeper/music director/women's ministry leader/funeral and wedding director (yeah, she literally did everything -__-). PICTURES:
Tom and Brenda with their family:
Chris with his beautiful wife, Rachel. They also have four beautiful daughters:
Shaun with his wife Marta and their son Hudson (he is four now though):
Julie with her husband Bob and their two sons, Anton and Beau:
This is literally the only picture I could get of Sharon, lol:
Annnnnnnnd, the Quintern! I miss his amazing face so much:
So, yeah. Those were the amazing people I worked with. I don't have pictures of Pastor Matt or Janet because he doesn't have a facebook and she hasn't added me yet, haha. Anyway, so after meeting everyone that Sunday, we went to prayer meeting, which was a little awkward for me because I don't do well with out-loud prayers in front of people older than me. So, yeah. But, Quinn and I got through it. After that, we enjoyed the 1st service. It was a team teaching day, so our two associate pastors preached together. They also had mohawks, as a side note. It was hilarious.
During 2nd service, I helped Brenda with the children's ministry. During the summer, we only have kid's church for 2nd service. During 1st service, we still have nursery and preschool available, but K-5th. So, I only had to help with 2nd service. Our curriculum is 252 Basics, which concentrates on a virtue each month. The virtue for May was forgiveness. So, basically all I did my first Sunday was go to service and help Brenda as she taught the kids.
Now, after I go there, things took off pretty fast. VBS was June 12-15, so we had to start preparing and fast. Basically for the next month I was only doing VBS stuff with Brenda. We prepared everything, from the decorations (with a little help from Quinn and Pastor Chris) to the food to the volunteers to the games. It was INSANE. But we did it. And we had a FANTASTIC VBS. I remember one specific comment that Quinn made to me, "You did all of this VBS stuff--that's amazing!" Lol, I was so proud for some reason.
Our theme for VBS was Main Street. I think Brenda picked it because it focused on virtues, which went right along with our curriculum. So, yeah. Here are some VBS pictures:
Our set that Pastor Chris and Quinn literally hand painted:
Opening rally:
This is Pastor Shaun's son, Hudson, who was sooooooooo excited because he though he was going to get to play Duck, Duck, Goose:
Pastor Tom is Chef Pierre:
Another opening rally:
So, yeah. VBS WAS A BLAST! And I seriously did nothing else from May 13th until June 15th, haha. So, after June 15th, I continued to help Brenda with kid's church. Tom and Brenda left at the beginning of July because Pastor Tom was only the interim pastor and because of that, he left the church to go plant one in Pierre, South Dakota. So, basically, the Karp family moved out of Williston at the beginning of July. So, Brenda was trying to prep me to take over kid's church for the month of July. She taught the first three weeks in June and then she let me teach the last week of June while she helped me just so I felt comfortable doing it. It was definitely interesting getting up in front of like...30 K-3rd graders and talking to them about faith, which was June's virtue.
But, I did it! So, the last week of June was also family camp! Family camp is an excuse for all of the Dakota District (which encompasses the states of North & South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah) to get together at the Cedar Canyon Wesleyan Camp in Rapid City, South Dakota. This camp is six hours away from Williston, so I drove down with the Karp family since there were to be leaving right after they got back to Williston.
Family camp was fun and relaxing. The District conference took place the Monday that we were there, so I was basically sitting in a hot tabernacle all day on Monday for the conference. It was very informative though, and I got to witness the ordination of several pastors that night!
Tuesday was...interesting. One of our delegates for New Hope (basically a member of the church that can vote) and my friend cannot eat pork, and we were having pulled pork sandwiches for lunch at camp. Welllll, we decided to go get Little Caesars instead, because it's the best pizza in the world. Except, yeah, uh...we had no idea how to get to the Little Caesars in Rapid City. So, being three women (our other friend LaVon came too) in an unfamiliar city...yeah, we asked Quinn to come with us. So, we took off for pizza! And, we actually found it. LaVon bought six pizzas because she has EIGHT CHILDREN (six of whom were with us at camp), Michelle bought a pizza for herself, and Quinn and I bought a pizza to split between ourselves (because honestly, eating a whole pizza by yourself is dumb). I just bought the pizza because it was $5 and who cares, right? Anyway, he said he'd give me some money, but I was like "Whatever, it doesn't matter." (Well, yeah, like a month later he tries to give me money to pay me back and I'm like "Wtef?! Lol, no.")
Anyway, on Wednesday, Michelle, LaVon and I went shopping in the Rushmore Mall. It was wonderful. I went to Wet Seal and bought some shirts. And we just randomly wandered around the mall for a while. So, yeah. At 5, my friend Nathan came and picked me to take me to Mount Rushmore. I don't have any pictures because I can't get them off my camera right now. But yeah, it was fun just to see it and Nathan :) I got back from Mt. Rushmore late and got to service late that night, haha. But, luckily, my boss (Pastor Matt), wasn't there and I didn't get in trouble.
So, yeah, on Thursday we left to go back to Williston. Quinn came back with us this time, so we were all in a church van together. Quinn basically stayed in the back playing his PSP. Andrew and Luke slept while Grace and I colored, listened to music, etc. Eventually we all went to the back of the van and watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules on the iPad. Cute movie.
When we got back to Williston, it was time to move the Karps out! And let me tell you, I have never moved out an entire house before. It was crazy. Brenda had most of it packed up, but moving have of the stuff was insane. Beds and mattresses, wardrobe boxes, a huge tube TV that Quinn asked me to help carry up from the basement (omggg, soooo heavy. quinn apologized after we set it down, haha), just...lots of stuff. But, we got it done! And well, they left. It was sad, but I didn't cry.
So, now, let me tell you a little bit about my social life outside of work. I lived with Debbie from when I got there until July 5th. She has six sisters and one brother. So, she has a HUGE family. Lots of nieces and nephews, grandchildren, etc. And I got to meet most of them and they were SO amazing to me. The Skurdal family was like a second family to me. They treated me like one of their own. There were many days that members of her family would invite me over to dinner or they would come to Debbie's house to hang out and have fun. I had so much fun with them.
Outside of hanging out with the Skurdals, I hung out with Michelle and I started attending the ladies Bible study at New Hope. I loved that Bible study and all of those ladies. They were also very amazing to me :)
After July 4th, I moved in to the second house that I would be staying in for the last half of the summer. And, omggg...this house...is a mansion. AND, OMG, NICK KILLED A MOUNTAIN LION AND HAS IT MOUNTED IN HIS LIVING ROOM, WTEFFFF. Again, I have no pictures because I can't get them off my camera now, but I will get them off tomorrow and put them up. So, these people that I moved in with are older and retired. They have 5 grown children, so...they are basically living the high life. They even just got a brand new cherry red Corvette. Well, they were to be gone basically the whole month of July. First they went to Colorado for a week for a wedding and then when they got back, they left again immediately for their 3-week cruise in Alaska. So, basically, I had to watch the house for a month. Pick up the mail and paper, water the flowers, and take care of their dog. It wasn't so bad, except that I was also to be gone for three weeks in July, haha.
From July 4th-7th, I was back in Rapid City for kid's camp. I didn't do much, since I wasn't a counselor. I was just an activities person, so I ran the Bible scavenger hunt for the kids. It basically rained the whole week, which suuuuuucked, haha. So, yeah. The big thing I did for kid's camp was that I organized the charter bus that took the kids down there, I got all the money for the food organized and I chaperoned the kids on the way down there and back. It was good on the way down, but I was so tired on the way back that I got kind of irritated. Haha.
So, while I wasn't at camp, I stayed at the house. By myself. And it was glorious. They have a jacuzzi tub and a WALK-IN SHOWER. Pictures later.
So, July 18-21, I was at middle school camp. I was a counselor for this one, and I must say, I did not particularly enjoy many of my girls. They were not the girls from New Hope. I did get to drive one of the church vans down there and Quinn rode with me, so we had like a four hour conversation on the way down about a bunch of different stuff. It was really nice :)
So, middle school camp was...ehhh. The only really amazing thing was the band! Cities Under Fire was AMAZING. I loved, loved, loved them. They were really nice guys and were really amazing at playing/singing. And JARDETH. UGH. He's so cute. And sort of Native American. And he plays guitar. And UGH. Yeah.
I do have a story about middle school camp though. On the way back, I drove for the last hour of the trip through a CRAZY storm. Quinn was in the van with me again, praise the Lord! So, when it started raining really hard, he looks around at the sky, which had turned green, and then asks me..."Green means tornado, right?" I FREAKED. LOL. So, I am white-knuckled gripping the steering wheel while praying out loud, the kids are screaming in the back, completely oblivious to everything, and I couldn't see anything hardly! Quinn actually got up out of his seat to turn my flashers on at one point because I refused to look away to find them. I freaked out and told him to SIT DOWN, NOW, OMG. LOL.
After the rain calmed down a little bit, he asked if I wanted to hear something that would take my mind off the storm. I said yes, of course. And then he precedes to tell me how he has a zombie apocalypse plan. Like, a real one. In full detail. I was so happy to find someone who understood me, lol. Oh yeah, speaking of that, when we went to the mall, Quinn and I spent most of our time in the Hot Topic looking at discounted t-shirts. We both like Gorillaz and Invader Zim. I was like, "omggg, can i love this man, plzkthx?" Haha.
So, after we got back to Williston, we got the kids home safe and sound...and then I realized that I had left my car at home because I didn't want to leave it in the church parking lot all week. So, Quinn took me home, haha. We hopped in his forerunner (jeep/suv thing) and took off down a back road to get to the bypass. Welllllll, there had been flash flooding in Williston with all the rain. And the back road was flooded. We didn't see the water until we were IN the water. So, we were driving through the water. And the water was coming INTO the forerunner. And I was FREAKING OUT. Lol. But, he got me home and I spent most of the rest of the night in the basement because the wind was blowing like 80+ mph, haha.
So, yeah, that was probably the craziest thing that happened to me while in Williston.
After the weekend, where I still taught children's church, we headed out for high school camp! Back to Rapid! High school camp was a little more enjoyable because I had all the girls from New Hope in my cabin. We also had a great cabin of guys on our team. They were so nice! During the week we had a "Make a Drink" contest at the coffee shop on camp and the twins in our boy's cabin made drinks that were DELICIOUS. I think Caden made the Daygoneboi. Delicious. And Cole made the Belgium Dip. And when they told me about them, they were both in my face going, "YOU HAVE TO TRY MINE!", "NO, TRY MINE FIRST!" And I was like, "Haha, calm down boys, Mom will try them both!" (lol, not really). But it was super cute.
So, yeah, high school camp was cooler (temp wise) and more enjoyable. And I was really happy when it was over, to tell you the truth because I was WIPED.
After camp was over, I still had a week of the house to myself because Nick and Marti were still in Alaska. So, I enjoyed the week. And Friday, August 5th, the day before they came back, I invited some friends over to watch movies. I invited Quinn, Sadie and Sami (who are two high school girls). Sadie, Sami, and I watched Tangled first, then Quinn came over to watch Red Riding Hood with us. Quinn and I laughed through the whole movie because it was soooo dumb and so much like Twilight. At one point I was like, "Did they get sued for this? They should have." Haha. And then we watched The Eagle with Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell in it. Good movie, but Quinn and I were disappointed that there wasn't more history to it.
So, as for work-related stuff, during the weeks that I was at camp, New Hope got an official senior pastor. His name is Mike and I heart the man to death! He has a real vision from God for New Hope and I am so glad he is there! Here is a picture of him and his family:
Pastor Mike, Kiley, Brendon (the older) and Ian:
They are an amazing family! Before coming to Williston, Mike pastored in Sacramento, CA. So, I am super jealous of him, haha. His oldest son Brendon, after being in Williston for only a few days, goes to mid-high camp. Without knowing anyone. Totally the bravest kid I know.
So, yeah, amazing new pastor whom I instantly loved to death. Great guy who has great plans for that church and Williston!
After camp, I continued teaching children's church every Sunday. Our July virtue was perseverance! Haha, one day Quinn was doing sound for me and he drew me a lion that was yelling "PERSEVERANCE!!!" lol. Totally cute :3
I was also preparing Pastor Chris to lead the children's ministry after I left. I redid all bulletin boards, restocked all the cabinets in the rooms for children's ministry, etc. I also called a LOT of volunteers. And while this was all happening, Quinn took on the project of painting the Lighthouse room. He started painting the week he left. It still wasn't done when he left. Lol. I helped a little, but I am crap at painting, so I just taped and did the edging.
So, yeah, the Thursday before Quinn left, one of our mutual friends threw us a going away party. We had smores and lots of friends over. It was a really good time. ALL of LaVon's children came, so there were a LOT of people, haha. I said goodbye to Quinn that night (still refused to cry) and then went home. The next day, I go in and Quinn has pranked Pastor Matt and Pastor Shaun. Friday is the day that all the pastors have off, so none of them would have come in if it had not been payday, lol. Here is what Quinn did to Shaun's office:
All of those cups are filled with water. Yep. Haha.
So, yeah. Quinn was gone and I was sad. The last week of my internship was spent getting everything ready for when I left. Nothing really to tell. Then, I said many tearful goodbyes, packed up, and went home. It was a long, long, looooong and boring drive. But, yeah.
So, that's my internship. Oh, and here's a cool video from CNBC about Williston and what's going on there:
Oh, yeah, and sorry about your f-lists...this post is long.
I left for North Dakota on May...12th and got there on the 13th. I stayed in Eau Claire, Wisconsin with a couple of friends on Thursday night and arrived in Williston on Friday night. I went immediately to the church and met our interim pastor, Tom Karp and his family. I loved all of them from the very beginning! Tom and Brenda have three children: Andrew, Luke and Grace. Andrew and Luke are teenagers and can be bothersome, but they are nice most of the time. Grace is 8 and really clingy, but also really helpful when she wants to be. Brenda, Tom's wife, ran the children's ministry while they were there so I worked under her.
Anyway, after I got there, I went to the house I was going to be staying at for the first half of the summer and met Debbie. She is a single, divorced mom; all of her children are adults now as well, so she lives alone. She has a beautiful house. It was built back in the 20s, I believe, and she leads a very simple life so it is very simply decorated. It was very home-y and I absolutely loved it. Here are some pictures of her house:
This was my bedroom. It was upstairs. And yes, the wall does that because of the shape of the house. It was great, haha.
This is her youngest's son's room. He is an Oklahoma University fan. So his room was red and OU. I thought it was neat~
Her awesome living room. That spinning wheel belonged to her grandmother.
Her white, white kitchen. So cute.
Dining room! Equally as cute!
Her upstairs bathroom. It is REALLY narrow, but the tub is sooooo cute! I took a few baths in it, haha.
So, yeah. That's Debbie's house. Annnd, back to work related things. The following day, Saturday May 14th, I met the other intern that would be working at New Hope Wesleyan Church. Now, when I first heard that someone named Quinn was going to be working with me, I was like......"Is it a boy or girl? o_O" Well, yep. He's a boy, def.
Our first Sunday started off with me meeting the rest of the pastors. We have two associate pastors, Pastor Chris "Swarty" Swarthout and Pastor Matt Seaton. We also have an awesome youth pastor, Pastor Shaun Breiland. Our other staff includes Julie--our office manager, Sharon--our assistant office manager, and Janet--our book keeper/music director/women's ministry leader/funeral and wedding director (yeah, she literally did everything -__-). PICTURES:
Tom and Brenda with their family:
Chris with his beautiful wife, Rachel. They also have four beautiful daughters:
Shaun with his wife Marta and their son Hudson (he is four now though):
Julie with her husband Bob and their two sons, Anton and Beau:
This is literally the only picture I could get of Sharon, lol:
Annnnnnnnd, the Quintern! I miss his amazing face so much:
So, yeah. Those were the amazing people I worked with. I don't have pictures of Pastor Matt or Janet because he doesn't have a facebook and she hasn't added me yet, haha. Anyway, so after meeting everyone that Sunday, we went to prayer meeting, which was a little awkward for me because I don't do well with out-loud prayers in front of people older than me. So, yeah. But, Quinn and I got through it. After that, we enjoyed the 1st service. It was a team teaching day, so our two associate pastors preached together. They also had mohawks, as a side note. It was hilarious.
During 2nd service, I helped Brenda with the children's ministry. During the summer, we only have kid's church for 2nd service. During 1st service, we still have nursery and preschool available, but K-5th. So, I only had to help with 2nd service. Our curriculum is 252 Basics, which concentrates on a virtue each month. The virtue for May was forgiveness. So, basically all I did my first Sunday was go to service and help Brenda as she taught the kids.
Now, after I go there, things took off pretty fast. VBS was June 12-15, so we had to start preparing and fast. Basically for the next month I was only doing VBS stuff with Brenda. We prepared everything, from the decorations (with a little help from Quinn and Pastor Chris) to the food to the volunteers to the games. It was INSANE. But we did it. And we had a FANTASTIC VBS. I remember one specific comment that Quinn made to me, "You did all of this VBS stuff--that's amazing!" Lol, I was so proud for some reason.
Our theme for VBS was Main Street. I think Brenda picked it because it focused on virtues, which went right along with our curriculum. So, yeah. Here are some VBS pictures:
Our set that Pastor Chris and Quinn literally hand painted:
Opening rally:
This is Pastor Shaun's son, Hudson, who was sooooooooo excited because he though he was going to get to play Duck, Duck, Goose:
Pastor Tom is Chef Pierre:
Another opening rally:
So, yeah. VBS WAS A BLAST! And I seriously did nothing else from May 13th until June 15th, haha. So, after June 15th, I continued to help Brenda with kid's church. Tom and Brenda left at the beginning of July because Pastor Tom was only the interim pastor and because of that, he left the church to go plant one in Pierre, South Dakota. So, basically, the Karp family moved out of Williston at the beginning of July. So, Brenda was trying to prep me to take over kid's church for the month of July. She taught the first three weeks in June and then she let me teach the last week of June while she helped me just so I felt comfortable doing it. It was definitely interesting getting up in front of like...30 K-3rd graders and talking to them about faith, which was June's virtue.
But, I did it! So, the last week of June was also family camp! Family camp is an excuse for all of the Dakota District (which encompasses the states of North & South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah) to get together at the Cedar Canyon Wesleyan Camp in Rapid City, South Dakota. This camp is six hours away from Williston, so I drove down with the Karp family since there were to be leaving right after they got back to Williston.
Family camp was fun and relaxing. The District conference took place the Monday that we were there, so I was basically sitting in a hot tabernacle all day on Monday for the conference. It was very informative though, and I got to witness the ordination of several pastors that night!
Tuesday was...interesting. One of our delegates for New Hope (basically a member of the church that can vote) and my friend cannot eat pork, and we were having pulled pork sandwiches for lunch at camp. Welllll, we decided to go get Little Caesars instead, because it's the best pizza in the world. Except, yeah, uh...we had no idea how to get to the Little Caesars in Rapid City. So, being three women (our other friend LaVon came too) in an unfamiliar city...yeah, we asked Quinn to come with us. So, we took off for pizza! And, we actually found it. LaVon bought six pizzas because she has EIGHT CHILDREN (six of whom were with us at camp), Michelle bought a pizza for herself, and Quinn and I bought a pizza to split between ourselves (because honestly, eating a whole pizza by yourself is dumb). I just bought the pizza because it was $5 and who cares, right? Anyway, he said he'd give me some money, but I was like "Whatever, it doesn't matter." (Well, yeah, like a month later he tries to give me money to pay me back and I'm like "Wtef?! Lol, no.")
Anyway, on Wednesday, Michelle, LaVon and I went shopping in the Rushmore Mall. It was wonderful. I went to Wet Seal and bought some shirts. And we just randomly wandered around the mall for a while. So, yeah. At 5, my friend Nathan came and picked me to take me to Mount Rushmore. I don't have any pictures because I can't get them off my camera right now. But yeah, it was fun just to see it and Nathan :) I got back from Mt. Rushmore late and got to service late that night, haha. But, luckily, my boss (Pastor Matt), wasn't there and I didn't get in trouble.
So, yeah, on Thursday we left to go back to Williston. Quinn came back with us this time, so we were all in a church van together. Quinn basically stayed in the back playing his PSP. Andrew and Luke slept while Grace and I colored, listened to music, etc. Eventually we all went to the back of the van and watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules on the iPad. Cute movie.
When we got back to Williston, it was time to move the Karps out! And let me tell you, I have never moved out an entire house before. It was crazy. Brenda had most of it packed up, but moving have of the stuff was insane. Beds and mattresses, wardrobe boxes, a huge tube TV that Quinn asked me to help carry up from the basement (omggg, soooo heavy. quinn apologized after we set it down, haha), just...lots of stuff. But, we got it done! And well, they left. It was sad, but I didn't cry.
So, now, let me tell you a little bit about my social life outside of work. I lived with Debbie from when I got there until July 5th. She has six sisters and one brother. So, she has a HUGE family. Lots of nieces and nephews, grandchildren, etc. And I got to meet most of them and they were SO amazing to me. The Skurdal family was like a second family to me. They treated me like one of their own. There were many days that members of her family would invite me over to dinner or they would come to Debbie's house to hang out and have fun. I had so much fun with them.
Outside of hanging out with the Skurdals, I hung out with Michelle and I started attending the ladies Bible study at New Hope. I loved that Bible study and all of those ladies. They were also very amazing to me :)
After July 4th, I moved in to the second house that I would be staying in for the last half of the summer. And, omggg...this house...is a mansion. AND, OMG, NICK KILLED A MOUNTAIN LION AND HAS IT MOUNTED IN HIS LIVING ROOM, WTEFFFF. Again, I have no pictures because I can't get them off my camera now, but I will get them off tomorrow and put them up. So, these people that I moved in with are older and retired. They have 5 grown children, so...they are basically living the high life. They even just got a brand new cherry red Corvette. Well, they were to be gone basically the whole month of July. First they went to Colorado for a week for a wedding and then when they got back, they left again immediately for their 3-week cruise in Alaska. So, basically, I had to watch the house for a month. Pick up the mail and paper, water the flowers, and take care of their dog. It wasn't so bad, except that I was also to be gone for three weeks in July, haha.
From July 4th-7th, I was back in Rapid City for kid's camp. I didn't do much, since I wasn't a counselor. I was just an activities person, so I ran the Bible scavenger hunt for the kids. It basically rained the whole week, which suuuuuucked, haha. So, yeah. The big thing I did for kid's camp was that I organized the charter bus that took the kids down there, I got all the money for the food organized and I chaperoned the kids on the way down there and back. It was good on the way down, but I was so tired on the way back that I got kind of irritated. Haha.
So, while I wasn't at camp, I stayed at the house. By myself. And it was glorious. They have a jacuzzi tub and a WALK-IN SHOWER. Pictures later.
So, July 18-21, I was at middle school camp. I was a counselor for this one, and I must say, I did not particularly enjoy many of my girls. They were not the girls from New Hope. I did get to drive one of the church vans down there and Quinn rode with me, so we had like a four hour conversation on the way down about a bunch of different stuff. It was really nice :)
So, middle school camp was...ehhh. The only really amazing thing was the band! Cities Under Fire was AMAZING. I loved, loved, loved them. They were really nice guys and were really amazing at playing/singing. And JARDETH. UGH. He's so cute. And sort of Native American. And he plays guitar. And UGH. Yeah.
I do have a story about middle school camp though. On the way back, I drove for the last hour of the trip through a CRAZY storm. Quinn was in the van with me again, praise the Lord! So, when it started raining really hard, he looks around at the sky, which had turned green, and then asks me..."Green means tornado, right?" I FREAKED. LOL. So, I am white-knuckled gripping the steering wheel while praying out loud, the kids are screaming in the back, completely oblivious to everything, and I couldn't see anything hardly! Quinn actually got up out of his seat to turn my flashers on at one point because I refused to look away to find them. I freaked out and told him to SIT DOWN, NOW, OMG. LOL.
After the rain calmed down a little bit, he asked if I wanted to hear something that would take my mind off the storm. I said yes, of course. And then he precedes to tell me how he has a zombie apocalypse plan. Like, a real one. In full detail. I was so happy to find someone who understood me, lol. Oh yeah, speaking of that, when we went to the mall, Quinn and I spent most of our time in the Hot Topic looking at discounted t-shirts. We both like Gorillaz and Invader Zim. I was like, "omggg, can i love this man, plzkthx?" Haha.
So, after we got back to Williston, we got the kids home safe and sound...and then I realized that I had left my car at home because I didn't want to leave it in the church parking lot all week. So, Quinn took me home, haha. We hopped in his forerunner (jeep/suv thing) and took off down a back road to get to the bypass. Welllllll, there had been flash flooding in Williston with all the rain. And the back road was flooded. We didn't see the water until we were IN the water. So, we were driving through the water. And the water was coming INTO the forerunner. And I was FREAKING OUT. Lol. But, he got me home and I spent most of the rest of the night in the basement because the wind was blowing like 80+ mph, haha.
So, yeah, that was probably the craziest thing that happened to me while in Williston.
After the weekend, where I still taught children's church, we headed out for high school camp! Back to Rapid! High school camp was a little more enjoyable because I had all the girls from New Hope in my cabin. We also had a great cabin of guys on our team. They were so nice! During the week we had a "Make a Drink" contest at the coffee shop on camp and the twins in our boy's cabin made drinks that were DELICIOUS. I think Caden made the Daygoneboi. Delicious. And Cole made the Belgium Dip. And when they told me about them, they were both in my face going, "YOU HAVE TO TRY MINE!", "NO, TRY MINE FIRST!" And I was like, "Haha, calm down boys, Mom will try them both!" (lol, not really). But it was super cute.
So, yeah, high school camp was cooler (temp wise) and more enjoyable. And I was really happy when it was over, to tell you the truth because I was WIPED.
After camp was over, I still had a week of the house to myself because Nick and Marti were still in Alaska. So, I enjoyed the week. And Friday, August 5th, the day before they came back, I invited some friends over to watch movies. I invited Quinn, Sadie and Sami (who are two high school girls). Sadie, Sami, and I watched Tangled first, then Quinn came over to watch Red Riding Hood with us. Quinn and I laughed through the whole movie because it was soooo dumb and so much like Twilight. At one point I was like, "Did they get sued for this? They should have." Haha. And then we watched The Eagle with Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell in it. Good movie, but Quinn and I were disappointed that there wasn't more history to it.
So, as for work-related stuff, during the weeks that I was at camp, New Hope got an official senior pastor. His name is Mike and I heart the man to death! He has a real vision from God for New Hope and I am so glad he is there! Here is a picture of him and his family:
Pastor Mike, Kiley, Brendon (the older) and Ian:
They are an amazing family! Before coming to Williston, Mike pastored in Sacramento, CA. So, I am super jealous of him, haha. His oldest son Brendon, after being in Williston for only a few days, goes to mid-high camp. Without knowing anyone. Totally the bravest kid I know.
So, yeah, amazing new pastor whom I instantly loved to death. Great guy who has great plans for that church and Williston!
After camp, I continued teaching children's church every Sunday. Our July virtue was perseverance! Haha, one day Quinn was doing sound for me and he drew me a lion that was yelling "PERSEVERANCE!!!" lol. Totally cute :3
I was also preparing Pastor Chris to lead the children's ministry after I left. I redid all bulletin boards, restocked all the cabinets in the rooms for children's ministry, etc. I also called a LOT of volunteers. And while this was all happening, Quinn took on the project of painting the Lighthouse room. He started painting the week he left. It still wasn't done when he left. Lol. I helped a little, but I am crap at painting, so I just taped and did the edging.
So, yeah, the Thursday before Quinn left, one of our mutual friends threw us a going away party. We had smores and lots of friends over. It was a really good time. ALL of LaVon's children came, so there were a LOT of people, haha. I said goodbye to Quinn that night (still refused to cry) and then went home. The next day, I go in and Quinn has pranked Pastor Matt and Pastor Shaun. Friday is the day that all the pastors have off, so none of them would have come in if it had not been payday, lol. Here is what Quinn did to Shaun's office:
All of those cups are filled with water. Yep. Haha.
So, yeah. Quinn was gone and I was sad. The last week of my internship was spent getting everything ready for when I left. Nothing really to tell. Then, I said many tearful goodbyes, packed up, and went home. It was a long, long, looooong and boring drive. But, yeah.
So, that's my internship. Oh, and here's a cool video from CNBC about Williston and what's going on there:
Click to viewOh, yeah, and sorry about your f-lists...this post is long.