Afternoon in Paradise

What a beautiful day! The sun is out with a few cooling clouds - the breeze is blowing, and the deck is a happy place to be. Church was wonderful this morning. Even though I'm the new intern, today I got to be the "old pro" and help out our guest priest. We made it through the services without breaking anything, so I'd say we did okay. :)

Last night, Boyd and Joe arrived and we all sat around on the back deck talking, star gazing, and watching those hysterical multicolored flame torches that Boyd brought up from camp. After that was my first solid night's sleep in the new house - we're house sitting and the animals have consistently been waking me up throughout the night. Being exhausted helps sleep - the gin and tonic couldn't have hurt.

I'm still processing camp. Every year after camp, my mom asks me to tell her all about it and I can't. Not a thing comes to mind other than "it was wonderful, one of the best years we've had. Everyone had fun and the weather was fantastic." But I can sit around with camp friends and talk about it for hours. I guess that when I talk to people who were there, I don't have to introduce and explain everything. The context is there and we just chug away at the storytelling and laughing. Creating that context for someone who hasn't been there is a daunting task and probably impossible to really recreate. I'm struggling with that now in my sermon writing. I preach a week from today and want to work in a sweet story from camp. Whenever I hear Kee talk about camp, whenever we share stories in staff training... no explanations are necessary. We just jump in and tell it. The purpose of the story is clearly understood from the get go. I'll let you know how this turns out as I work on it.

While Blake and I are still very much in a serious state of limbo, we know a bit more about what lies ahead (short term, anyway). I put in my two week's notice with Donald and I accepted my job at Salem College back in the admissions office for my 7th recruiting season. Blake and I will live in Winston until mid to late October (depending on how long Whit and Ry can stand us invading their space) and he will continue to job hunt until something develops on that front. I'll continue my internship at St. Luke's in Boone by commuting a bit. The second overnight at Lake Logan is in October and that when I find out if (& where) I will be continuing on to seminary.

The beach house sold and we'll be heading down there for one last family trip. It's sad but we knew it had to happen eventually.

That's all for now, pray for some substance to come into my sermon notes this week!

love love love
Anne