For the first time in five years I'm not leading a Junior High morning bible study. I'm still doing Wyld Life every week, but it's honestly a nice break right now to not be doing an extra weekly meeting. The great thing is I'm now available to occasionally drop in and visit the bible studies that KCraig and Jackie are leading. This week I hung out with a group of 8th grade girls at the Devoe's before school as they started their new study in a book called Dwell.
Friday night Julia and I headed to Zionsville to visit Tecumseh friends at the HSE v. Zionsville football game. While Emma and Maggie were CILTs we'd planned that I would come hang out with them on this night. I've been visit Zionsville for CILT girls for years and tonight there were soooo many camp friends in attendance. We spent most of the night with Emma and Maggie aka Big Girl and Big Girl. I was pumped to see Leonard sisters Colleen and Annie.
I spotted Anna Firmani right as I walked in and we both almost burst into tears. She's actually a freshmen at Butler now but was home visiting for the weekend. I haven't seen her in way too long and love this girl so much. Mollie is a new Varsity recruit and a pen pal of mine this year and we were so excited to see each other.
Julia Plant was on homecoming court during half time and we all screamed for her from the bleachers. She is a gem and someone I'm always learning from.
At one point I gathered as many of our camp friends together as I could-- such a crew of rock stars. I love this Camp T family.
I ran into my friend Emily too, who doesn't even go to Zionsville or HSE, but I was pumped to see her and her friend Amy. They were both sporting double earthquake bracelets they had made each other-- an automatic ticket into the last few spots of Varsity for this year.
Saturday morning we ate donuts together, sent Mags off to cheer and left Emma with Tom and Jerry in the "student section." Julia and I had a whole packed day ahead.
Next we met up with the Andritsch fam at a Team Luke event for kids based off of American Ninja Warrior. While the kids were running the course, Hools, Fudge, Claire and I cheered them on at the end of the sprinting course in the parking lot. A bit of dancing and singing may have been involved.
Then we met up with KCraig, Rachel and Alex at Mama Bear's for a meeting about our trip to Ethiopia with Young Life Expeditions this Spring Break. We're at the point where we're committing to go and figuring out who our team will be. Joining the five of us will be Mitch, Nat Rat, Kaitlyn, and two friends KCraig met at TWL this summer. We're asking a few more people and there are still spots open if you're interested. I can't wait.
Saturday night Julia, Katy and I met up at iTown for their At The Movies series. We got pop and popcorn, watched part of the movie the Edge and listened to their pastor connect it back to God and our lives. It kind of reminded me of a Rob Bell Nooma video. Northview is my church home, but it was fun to get to show up here tonight and see friends that are so excited about this church family.
The night wasn't over yet. We headed to The Cake Bake Shop in Broad Ripple to meet up with Lilly Waltman and her friends for her birthday party. Lilly works at Cake Bake so it only makes sense that her cake would be from here. We all got a slice of six layer caramel cake and it was delicious. The best part was getting to sit and talk with Lilly, her mom and her friends.
Early Sunday morning I woke up and drove to the Andritsch fam's house. Grace and I plotted a caper to surprise Fudge on her birthday. I hid in the back of Grace's car and she woke up Fudge for a secret adventure. They had just barely pulled out of their driveway when I reached over the seat and pulled on Fudge's hair. She made a gagging noise at first and then was just so excited that I was somehow in the car with them. We went to breakfast at Sunrise Cafe and laughed and told stories like you only can with the Andritsch girls.
Today was the last official training of our FCJH and HIJH counselors for the Camp T Field Trip. This training took us all the way out to Tecumseh with the rookie counselors so we can walk the grounds, review lessons and make sure they feel confident about where everything is located. This is my very favorite place.
Ellyn came traipsing through the woods to meet me as we were walking down the switchbacks just after the Wolve's Den. I made all the counselors give her high-5s and then they all chanted "Who do we love? Ellyn!" She's the best.
In recent years, as I've gotten to know more of them, the counselors have become one of my favorite parts of this trip. I love getting to see them leading study groups, getting the whole dining hall to do flies and then be ridiculous in skits on the last night. In just a week, I'll be living the dream with some of my fav YL kids and old students at the best place in the world. This is one of the extremes of different parts of my life overlapping.
When I got back to Fishers I met Emily and Amy for dinner (Yes, the two girls from the game on Friday). They both bought their Varsity shirt and one of our new HSE Wyld Life tshirts that just came out this weekend. We sat and talked for nearly two hours and it was the perfect ending to the weekend. Please notice Emily and Amy's Chaco's below--they're very proud of them.
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