I guess it's been a while since I posted last. Mostly I have been getting used to my new job at EA2 and continuing to volunteer at Eastside Academy. I now have 5 students at EA2, two of which are taking classes with me for credit and three which come for homework support. I'm up to 16 hours/week there though I could still be assigned another student or two in the coming weeks. I'm enjoying my job very much!
I've also been pretty involved in Eastside Academy although I've understandably had to cut back my volunteer hours there from 20-30 hours/week to about 15 hours. Last Friday was a movie and smoothie night featuring Shrek and multiple blenders, fruit, ice cream, and whipped cream. I made a delicious strawberry/pineapple/mango smoothie and got brain freeze trying to eat it so fast! I especially enjoyed hanging out with the students outside of school and meeting one of the girl's two kids and husband. She is currently working really hard to finish her senior year and be a mom at the same time!
On Tuesdays, community group has been going really well. I'm starting to really connect with the other women and our prayer time has been especially meaningful lately. We've been talking about the sermon series on Luke and had some good discussion. Our potluck meals (which I'm in charge of planning: eek!) have also been delicious lately. On Wednesday, I visited Kim (who hosts our CG) during the day to hang out and talk before work. It was nice to get to know her outside of CG too.
On Wednesday, we went to the regional vision event. The Eastside of Seattle, which is served by our Mars Hill Bellevue campus, has been divided into 4 regions each aiming to improve at serving our communities where we live. Eventually, the goal is to have a new campus church plant in each region after the idea of "being the church in our region" has been more internalized by the members. Right now, the meetings are intended to brainstorm ideas and equip the church to better serve and meet the needs of our neighbors, so the community feels well-loved by Mars Hill before a new church starts there. The last meeting involved breaking the 200 or so attendees into groups of 8-10 to share how we are already loving our areas and what needs we are aware of. It was pretty cool and I'm interested to see how these ideas are put into action.
On Saturday, Kayle and I attended our big event of the week: the Eastside Academy charity auction. With a sliding scale tuition schedule, EA only makes about 6% of its budget from student tuition. The auction and dinner is the biggest fund-raising event of the year. Kayle and I went together and met Charles (from church- a guy who "loves" charity auctions :) ) and his guest. We got all dressed up and went to the Bellevue Hilton, ate a wonderful salmon and beef dinner, participated in the silent auction, listened to some student testimony, and sat in awe at the craziness of the live auction. Another cool part was a "dessert frenzy" in which each table bid money and the pick of dessert depends on how your table's total ranks compared to other tables. Our table came in 4th from last (out of about 30) but we still got a wonderful cherry chocolate cake to share since our runner actually sprinted to stick our flag in the cake when we were called (a few other runners took their time to get to the table). We ended up coming home with a gift certificate for a weekend at the Bellevue Hilton and a large basket of organic, fair-trade chocolate bars. We both had a lot of fun, and it was nice to be able to introduce Kayle to some of the staff and students I work with. In particular, we sat right next to the math teacher in whose room I spend most of my time at EA. I should also say that I am still so impressed with the work and mission of EA, particularly the way the students are so loved, encouraged, disciplined, and cheered for. Coming from all sorts of tough situations, I can honestly say that the staff never gives up on any student and is really changing the direction of many lives. I feel so happy to be able to support their work by volunteering and cheering on the students myself as I get to know them.
Today, Sunday, we were pretty tired from having arrived home late the previous night. We made it to church at 8am to serve in tech and children's ministry. I greatly enjoyed teaching the primary class (1st-5th grade) for the first time this morning. They are learning about the Lord's Prayer and their comments and eagerness to read the Bible and discuss it are so touching. We spoke about forgiveness this week and read the story of Stephen from Acts. I found myself smiling often as they wrestled with the meaning of different words (like debts, debtor, and forgive) and I challenged them with many questions. I might be filling in as a primary teacher for a few months (every other month rotation). Things are still up in the air as our campus might start a new service time, since almost all the seats at the morning services are full. They urged members this week to start coming to the evening service at 5pm to make room for guests.
Well, that's about all for this week. Next week is more of the same with no plans for Halloween yet. We will probably end up hanging out at a friend's house. We love you and miss you all!
Angie and Kayle
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