not all who wander are lost…

  This is a picture from this weekend….when we were having way too much fun decorating for my brother’s engagement.  No denying we’re related, we all look really alike in this picture (just in case you can’t tell us apart it is - my youngest sister, Katie on left; me in the middle; my other sister Emily on the right). 

Well today is my last day at DI.  I’m pretty happy about it, as I have felt uncomfortable and unmotivated here for a while now.  I am heading to a new job with an engineering company in Columbia that seems like a better fit for me - we’ll see.  Hopefully it is, but the other happy part is that they are paying me better and I will get more than double the vacation time I had at DI. 

I start my new job on Monday….

and only 2 weeks until the mission trip!  So excited!

Tiring but good weekend….Friday and Saturday I hung out with a few friends and tried to catch up on some housework.  Then Saturday evening I headed over to church for the 2nd annual MHPC youth camp out.  It was nice to just show up and not worry about the details, because one of the dads had organized the whole thing last year and did it again this year.  We had about 18 youth show up and 4 dads were helping chaperone.  It was neat to have more of the dads than usual get involved with things.  And we had a great time - we did some group activities, did a little work around the church, and the kids going on the mission trip did the pre-trip project of making a “new” cross out of something “old”.  We actually used our old cross from the ampitheater and cut it down to size and then painted it.  There was some discussion about the appropriateness of cutting a cross, but they realized it was for a good cause and better than fate it had of being thrown away otherwise.  My good friend, Bethany (B-Dub) came up from St. Mary’s county and did some music for us and gave a devo about hearing God and talking honestly to Him.  It was good - and also good when one of the dads told her and I afterwards that he thought it was something that one of the kids (who was a visitor who came with his son) needed to hear.  This kid’s dad had been diagnoised with an agreesive form of cancer and was dying - and the dad said that he had heard this kid make comments about how he was praying for his dad, but didn’t think God was listening because his dad wasn’t getting any better. 

Only downside - though it wasn’t even that bad - was that we had a visit from the police.  Someone apparently saw a bunch of teens milling around the parking lot at11:30pm and thought it looked suspicious.   But we told them it was a church function and that they were being supervised.  Also we were told to keep the noise down, so it gave us a good excuse to start the kids winding down and start heading to tents.  I was lucky enough to be in the tent with the middle school girls who were crazy hyper…..they finally got quiet around 2am.  So I got a few hours in before waking up at 6-something to get up and start getting ready for breakfast.  We did breakfast and then helped set break down the tents and set up for outside church service in the ampitheater.  This church is neat in that they hold outside services 3-4 times a year in the summer - its fun to worship God outside!  And I had forgotten, but it was teacher appreciation Sunday.  My church is amazingly generous and gave me a few small gifts…and a gift certificate of $150 to my favorite art store!  I was amazed at how they possibly could’ve known that, but then when I was talking to my mom later, she said they had secretly asked her what I would like when she came to visit the church with me a few weeks back.   It was really thoughtful of them all around though and I really appreciated it - plus now I can get a nice easel that I’ve really been wanting! 

I came home and crashed for a few hours and then my sisters and I helped decorate my brother’s house with rose petals and lots of candles for his *engagement!* to Jen!  They are so cute!  And we totally approve of her.  It’s been neat to watch their relationship unfold and see a couple pursuing God’s best for their lives individually and together.  I love my little bro!  And actually, my younger sister, Katie, and I have both agreed that there needs to be more single guys out there as great as Patrick - we want one like him! 

Last night I got to go to an advance screening of Evan Almighty for free.  The screening was offered by Grace Hill Media partnering with Youth Specialties and was specifically for youth leaders and pastors in several theaters across the nation.  It was fun to see the movie a few weeks before its out - and free is always good!  There were several people from Universal Pictures there who talked a little before the movie and asked our opinions after it was over.  And there were a few guys taking pictures of the audience and my sister said that there was someone videotaping us.  It was an interesting experience.

About the movie - it was funny.  A little cheesy sometimes for me, but there were definitely some good parts.  I liked that it was really clean - its rated PG (2 words and “themes of destruction” or something like that on the website).  I think it was cleaner and more family-friendly than I remember Bruce Almighty being.  It was more geared towards families too, which is nice.  And I didn’t feel that it made fun of God or Christianity in any way.  It was interesting to see how they made you aware of how ludicrous building an ark would seem to everyone watching.  Put in modern day, in DC suburbs, it was an interesting comparison.  Overall, I wasn’t amazed by the movie, but I liked it and will probably recommend it to my youth and their families as a movie worth watching.  Its nice to actually have some decent movies out there and good to see that Hollywood is recognizing the strength of the Christian population and trying to put out movies that we can support.