Another week completed

Well another crazy busy week has been completed and I am sitting in a nice restaurant/coffee shop instead of the typical bar that is right by the school that I am living in. This week we had groups from Wisconsin and Indiana. The youth were really awesome this week and we had a good time. One pretty cool thing that happened was for Sports Camp this week we had a native come and teach everyone how to play Lacrosse and that was a lot of fun. Then Thursday I took everyone to a workshop on Slam Poetry which is almost like rap and it was a really awesome time. Now this weekend we are having an area retreat so I have been able to hang out with a lot of people that I did my early bird week with. It is also nice because I won't be able to see them at exit ramp since I have to leave early for Honduras so this is my chance to say goodbye. Other then that life has been good and we slept in tepees last night. We even had an elk stew which was pretty awesome. Here are just a couple pictures from the week. They all start to look the same after a while. One other fun thing was I got a nice letter from my Grandma and Grandpa and it really made my day so thank you! Joe and Leah's wedding is now in less then 2 weeks which is really crazy to think about. It will be awesome seeing everyone who is in the area again.

This is our group from the past week. An amazing group!
Here is all the staff that came to the area retreat. They are all really amazing people.

I think that is all. I can't believe I leave August 10 for Honduras it is really crazy to think about but exciting as well. It will be a whirlwind last couple weeks up here at Cass Lake.

The 4th of July and Weeks 4 and 5

Wow what a whirlwind of a couple weeks. Life really seems to be moving at about a billion miles an hour. Two weeks ago we had a really awesome group come through. There were some guys who were all seniors and were really great guys.
They did this to me as well I just don't have a picture of it since I was getting hung over the water.

Here are a couple of the girls that were on the trip, Beth and Maggie and this picture was taken in front of Bemidji Lake.

Here is the whole group we had that week posing in front of our school. The end to a busy but good week.

That weekend Ryan, Emily, Sarah and Lisa came out to visit me from Dordt and it was really awesome. It was amazing seeing familiar faces and just having a chance to see some of my best friends. They were really awesome for driving out to see me because it was a pretty good drive. It was an awesome weekend and just what I needed. Having good friends is awesome. We had the opportunity to go to a Pow Wow and also check out the 4th of July Fireworks while they were here. We had some nice campfires and spent the day on the beach all Saturday.
This picture was taken at the Pow Wow. It was really cool to watch. There were about 500 dancers out at one point.

Here we all are at the fireworks it was a good night. It was Sarah's birthday that weekend as well so it was awesome to be able to celebrate it with her.

So that was my weekend last weekend. It was a really awesome weekend and just what I needed at that point.

This last week was a harder week but we made it through. The students came from a little bit wealthier backgrounds and in some cases acted like they were entitled to things which was hard but we got really good feedback from them anyway and they said they had a very life changing week. So I will continue to hope and pray that God continues to work through the group we had last week just like I will pray for every other group we have had come through. Here is a picture of the whole group.

This morning I got to go fishing for Walleye and it was amazing although it was quite windy. We got 3 keepers and lots of small ones and well as some perch and northern pike. Now I am sitting at a bar writing this. Its a good day :). I also just found out Emily Wierenga got engaged not to long ago so congratulations to her!

One last update. I just got an email from the people in Honduras and they booked my plane ticket for me so I will be leaving Minnesota on August 10 to start there. It is a really crazy surreal feeling so if you could keep me in your prayers that would be amazing because I am at the point of actually realizing that this is for real and it is a little nerve racking. Well best wishes to you all and God's Blessings.