New Job!

Wow!! I guess I've been busier than I thought the past few weeks, so I'll try to catch you up on our lives. Kayle said everyone was anxious for an update, and my family's been giving me a hard time as well! (I've got Google Calendar open, so I don't forget anything.)

Well, first of all, my actual birthday went really well. At school, some of my co-workers decorated my desk and two of my students made me a card. I also brought brownies for all the kids I tutor, so that, of course, was much appreciated. After school, I had an interview with Mathnasium, a math tutoring place in Redmond. The guy who interviewed me was really nice and the location couldn't be more convenient. He said I was at the top of his list of people to hire for the part-time position (only 16 hours/week), but he didn't know if he could until his current staff gave their summer plans and he had a better idea of summer enrollment.

The following Saturday (5/23), our social life kicked it up a notch with not one but two one-year-old birthday parties in the same day. One was for Cole, the son of the couple that hosts our current community group (robot theme, first cake, BBQ...too cute!). The other was for Clara, the daughter of a couple in our previous CG- this one was at a park with friends and relatives. Both were fun (we knew a lot of people) though we thought it was funny how different our friends are now from those in college. Well, different life stage anyway...

On 6/25 (Monday night), we had a dessert potluck at Brenda's house with all-you-can-eat of every sweet thing you can imagine. We made dirt cake for the second time in two weeks and enjoyed playing Pictionary on a white board with two teams. I should just say Kayle was hilarious with his drawing, since he seemed to have a limited number of shapes that all greatly resembled each other. He had everyone laughing so hard we couldn't even guess anymore.

The big news for youth group lately is that we're changing up the entire program. Instead of weekly meetings with games, teaching, hang out time, and small groups, we're switching to a community group model where teams will meet with each other once/week (still on Wednesday nights) in homes. There are many good reasons for this change but, mostly, it will enhance our ability to go deeper into Scripture and build better relationships for discipleship. Also, many of the kids come from pretty far away, and we can better use that time if they can stay in their communities and better invite friends from school. I guess a bunch of recent studies have shown that the old 90s youth group model is just not continuing to be effective, so we're changing it up to, hopefully, better minister to our youth. The new groups should be up and running sometime this summer, so I'll let you know how they go. We're still meeting 1/month with our family-style 4th week feeds as well. Overall, I think the change will be beneficial.

Last Saturday, Kayle and I babysat for the Martinez family from our CG, a family with 4 wonderful kids and a great marriage. They have two girls who are in about 4th and 6th grade (not quite sure) and a boy who's about 3 or 4 and another boy who's a toddler. We did everything including making paper airplanes from a book (very popular), helping the oldest with a story for school, teach round-offs to the younger daughter in the backyard, read stories, watch a movie, and play "Spiderman" with stuffed animals. It was so fun, and I'm glad that we could give Dawn and Frank a date night. We told them we're happy to babysit again in the future but we're also glad to bond with a solid older couple to go to for advice as well.

Last weekend, I also worked super hard on a book we're publishing, full of student poems, stories, and essays from their classes this year. Last year, the book was extremely successful, so we're happy to produce our own version featuring the work of about 75 students. Allison and Casey spent their week tracking down teachers and students for pieces to include and typing what they found. My job was to lay out the whole book with different fonts and designs. It seemed to turn out well, and the book is now at the printer as we await a proof before getting 500 copies made! The school is paying for everyone to get a copy and the PTSA gave us money for food for our Book Release Party and Summer Activities Fair that we're hosting on Thursday. The books should all be printed by then and it'll be our last, big fling. We only have 2 weeks left of school with the final week including field day, an 8th grade field trip and graduation, and a 6th grade movie among other celebration activities. We're in the final stretch, and it's kind of sad to think about saying goodbye soon to all my students...

On Tuesday, we had "ethnic heritage" as our potluck theme for CG. Kayle really wanted to make banket with the almond paste I ordered online, but we settled for the easier almond bars. They were a big hit and the entire pan was eaten by the end of the night. It's one of the first times we haven't come home with anything left over!

Also on Tuesday, I got a call from a women from Science Adventure Camps. She asked me some questions over the phone after school and wanted to do an interview on Friday. Long story short, the interview yesterday went really well and I was impressed by the program, which has been around for over 30 years. So, I attended an 8 hour paid training today, which made me even more excited about the summer. I'll be working with students in grades 1-6, teaching science concepts and doing about 20 science-related activities each week that pertain to 4 week-long rotating themes. At the very least, I won't be bored! At the training, we did just 10 of the activities and they were a lot of fun. I made a fizz tablet rocket, a really cool six-legged Knex bug robot, an electromagnet, a rubber-band-powered wooden race car, several polymer "goops," an experiment for testing helmet materials, and a hydraulic robot figure using plastic tubes and plastic syringes. Though the details aren't quite finalized, I should have a full-time position as an instructor and possibly a lead instructor (site supervisor). Tomorrow, I have a 7-hour lead instructor and CPR/First Aid training. I got hired right before all the trainings started, so I got suddenly busy this weekend. Poor Kayle...I've been gone all weekend! Since the camp will start the week after school ends, I have my last 8 hour training in two weeks. Even better, the site I'll be at most weeks is just 5-7 minutes away from home!

Finally, yesterday I went to a baby shower for two women in our CG. We all pitched in for keepsake boxes and wrote notes to both. We also shared desserts together, and I really enjoyed the time to just talk and get to know the other women better. I posted some pictures on Picasa from the shower that someone else posted online. Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/Angie.Hinkle/JenniAndEmilySBabyShower Kayle and I have another baby shower next weekend that we're going to together- it's for Cameron and Tim, the couple that now leads our CG.

I also wanted to post some updates from church. We're adding two new campuses this year, one in the Seattle area and one in Albuquerque, NM. We also launched Mars Hill Global to continue to plant churches around the world. Someone offered to match the first $1 million and they hope to raise $4 million in one year. A new theological missions training center will open this fall and they are launching a music distributor called Re:Sound in about 1 week. It's pretty thrilling to see God work in so many various ways and mostly in our own hearts as we grow in community and through the sermons. One of the most recent sermons is really good- mostly a passionate description of the gospel through explaining justification and regeneration. Highly, highly recommended. You can find it here: http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/faith-in-your-new-birth

On a more personal ministry note, Kayle and I also recently wrote a letter to each of the kids we sponsor in India (a task I've been meaning to do for a while). We have already received initial letters from 3 of the kids, and I look forward to getting their replies! The youth group library has also become quite a project- I've been getting packages filled with books every day for about a week, I bought a $10 bookshelf, and I received donations of books and DVDs from both Discovery Institute and Reasons to Believe. I should be setting up everything at our next YG meeting.

Well, I think that's all for these past few weeks. We miss you all a lot. Thanks for being patient as you waited for an update. I really try hard not to miss a week, but sometimes the weekends get away from me!

Much love,
Angie and Kayle