routine

So here’s the routine if you’re in St. Louis on a week-long work project.
Breakfast
Devotional
Tutoring kids
Lunch
Work! (tutoring, building things, cleaning stuff…)
(rest??)
neighborhood kids club
slushee/ice cream run
debrief
(band practice??)
BED!
Just like regular life, right?

Update from Francisco (a sophomore) who is tutoring Joshua (a first grader) this week: “Joshua is a pretty big hassle, but he likes helping people as far as I can tell. But maybe if I get to know him better, it will be easier. Oh, and he has a pet tiger.”

a quick Sunday note (pictures hopefully to follow)

Sundays at New City are just amazing – particularly when you’re starting off a high school work week! There’s plenty of prep and orientation, but there’s also worshipping with an unusually ethnically diverse group, eating dinner at the homes of strangers (who don’t stay that way long), and heading out for the first neighborhood kids club of the week.

Our team is in the same place this year as it has been the past two – an apartment complex where many of the families are new to the ‘States. A Burmese family we spent time with has been here 11 months, and an Iraqi family – only one month. It’s fun and fascinating to seek to connect and find ways to communicate as we’re playing with kids, feeding them snow cones, and just generally having a lovely (if hot and sweaty) time!

Oh, and when we were at kids club we found a new challenge for the week: the swings from the swing set we built last year have somehow disappeared!

and if that blue blue bird don’t sing

Saturday is “Tour St. Louis” day. We had a leisurely morning hanging around the dorms, packed lunches, and headed to the Arch. It’s just amazing, really – even those who had seen it before found ourselves still found it jaw-dropping. We also spent time in the museum beneath the arch before heading out again.

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We found a park-like area where a bunch of kids were playing in a stone-rimmed pool and decided it would be a perfect lunching spot. It was! Getting back into the air conditioning at the next spot was lovely – we went to the Science Museum and wandered around quite  a bit. Next stop?  The Dyers’! The Dyers were a part of our church in Appleton until 1 1/2 years ago when a job brought them here. It was great to meet up with them again. We were able to hang around, sleep, play games, and eat to our heart’s content (no small feat with a group of high schoolers!) thanks to their hospitality.

We made it back to New City for the first orientation talk where we got to meet up with Andrew and the two other groups we’ll be with this week – one from Iowa, one from Pardeeville, WI.

The week promises to be interesting: we’re short a group (one cancelled at the 11th hour) and the weather is predicted to be mid-90’s every day. Sounds like our kind of challenge!

Oh – and Lori found a little feathery blue bird left behind in one of the dorm rooms. He has since been adopted, named Pete, and pretty much become our mascot for the week. Look for him in pictures – and (if he does anything interesting!) in stories going forward!

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Are you David Taylor?

What do a police car, a silver van and a Mike Collison have in common?... David Taylor. Read on!

Well, we’re in St. Louis. Three vehicles meant to leave from the church building at 8 am and finally rolled out “for real” around 10:30. The traffic wasn’t bad, though, so we got to the rendezvous with Mike’s sister (for some cousin swapping) at the same time she did. Hot yummy pizza in under a park pavilion  in humid 95-degree weather after  4 hours in the car? What could be better?!

Next stop? The Cahokia Mounds! Also known as the Giant Twinkie :), Monk’s Mound was constructed  by hand between from 900 to1100 AD. It still stands 100 feet tall and provides a fantastic view of the St. Louis – particularly at sunset! We wandered and played around a bit, prayed for the city, and headed back down.

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Just as we neared the New City neighborhood, a squad car shot around Bob and Angela’s cars and pulled Mike’s van over. The officer came up to the van and asked Mike if he was David Taylor. Mike assured him that he was no such person, and we learned that there was an alert out for a silver van in connection with a domestic disturbance. We were soon en route once again and made it to the New City Dorms without further incident. 

The long day wrapped up with a general takeover of a local Steak and Shake restaurant and then crashing on floors as the dorm rooms were still being occupied by this past week's student groups. On to tomorrow's exploration of the City!

t-shirts!

So – the girls who are part of St. Louis adventure 2010 are making t-shirts for the adventure!

It's a Wrap

Sunday wound up our trip quite nicely. Gaining an extra hour with Daylight Savings was a bonus - we were actually pretty much packed and ready to go by the time the church service started! Dan, Mike's brother, is pastor at First Covenant, the church where we stayed. He asked Mike to come up and share his story. It was fun seeing the two of them interact.

Then we headed out!

Lessons Learned:

1. Everything in Minneapolis is "near the Metrodome" and nothing is more than a block away.
2. Get out of this church - NOW! (you'll have to ask Mike for that story!)
3. Not everything that looks like a rock is a rock. This includes situations where you're sure the sewage pipe is somewhere else.
   

Happy thoughts: Peter (the guy at The Source) said we were the best group they've ever had. They have a LOT of groups that come through, so we're pretty sure they say that to everyone. But the thing that was cool was that everyone remembered us: "Oh, you're that group from Appleton!". We assume that's a compliment.

Three Little Groups

Today was fun - kinda more of the same as yesterday - only different.

One little group was back at the Source, working on various projects around the Fallout. Check out a series of Twitpic updates for them: http://twitpic.com/photos/appletruenorth

One little group stayed at First Covenant and helped with painting and other projects here: http://picasaweb.google.com/aPatientDr/FallRetreat09Day2#

One little group worked at the Joshua house, doing more wiring and fixing the broken pipe (pics here)

All little groups had a great time meeting up with more alums & friends at Pizza Luce (YUM!) and playing Catacombs!

And tomorrow?! All little groups will go woo hoo hooh all the way home!

(Can you tell we're wearing out?! )