Sunday is a good day (but maybe not a day of rest here in St. Louis!)

The kids began today with an energetic start - on time for breakfast and ready to go well before our 9:30 meeting. We'll see how that trend continues! After a discussion with Josh Chapeau (yes THE Josh that has come multiple times to visit us in Appleton!) about what we might expect from the week, we headed to church. At church we sang songs in multiple languages and a bunch of us participated in a conga line that spontaneously started during one of the songs. After church, we were divided into smaller groups and went home with various families from the church. We were fed amazing food and answered and asked many questions. One story that arose was of a family that owned a huge house and then learned of a family in the church with 14 (yes, 1-4) children. Four of their own and several sibling groups of foster kids that came in batches. So the first family moved to a smaller house to make their six-bedroom home available to the larger family. Ironically - both families hosted part of our group today, so it was fun to compare stories! Quite an example of the kind of stuff that goes on in this church.
Next, you're probably thinking it was time to rest. Nope! Not remotely! We split into groups of kids and "grown-ups" and were oriented separately, then brought back together to finish up orientation. That brought us to supper (pizza! Hooray!)

Then it was time to clean up and head to our Kids Club sites.  Our team was assigned to a neighborhood called North Hodiamont, a place we have visited before.  Sadly, Tater Tot took ill and stayed back to recuperate.  Mike pulled the trailer right onto the grass in the middle of the courtyard where there were a few kids, but not many.  As we set up the popcorn and snowcone table, this quickly changed.  We played games with many of our young neighbors for a few memorable hours.  Rachel was an awesome bouncer and broke up a potential throwdown between a couple small children.  She was greatly loved by many of the kids there because of her awesome heart.  Many others in the group were just as awesome and awesomely loved by our young neighbors.  We wrapped up our time by prying some children off the trailer so we could back it up and out.  We celebrated a great kickoff to the week with slushees and debriefing time.  Tomorrow we are looking forward to meeting our tutoring kids, starting our work project and continuing our awesome adventure!
~Angela, Lori, Erica and Rachel