The first two weeks of August were booked solid with youth group bonding and community service. We had a weekend sleepover event that featured a campfire-side talk about marriage and dating, puppy chow, Guesstures, and a drive to the mountains and back. The next day, we decided to go to Tacoma for the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium and mini-golf. Picture me driving 8 teenage girls down a wet freeway in a gigantic 11 passenger van: just a little stressful. Once we arrived, it was a bit rainy but we saw all sorts of fun animals, like baby tigers, walruses (HUGE!), puffins, polar bears, and the tiniest, cutest seahorses ever. When you shepherd teenagers in your free time, you have to be prepared for a perpetual state of mild embarrassment. Most of the girls paid and stood in line with preschoolers to ride a camel. The day also featured singing "that's so Raven" to the raven (of course). After the zoo, we decided to take a rain check on mini-golf and enjoyed bottomless fries at Red Robin instead.
The following week, we had our car wash to raise money for Tent City. Despite the sprinkling rain, we washed 8 cars or so, made about $150, and celebrated with pizza and Guesstures at Emily and Courtney's house. On Thursday, we served a meal at Tent City, a moving homeless community that sets up camp in church parking lots for about 90 days at a time. The residents there were so gracious and thankful (and patient) as they waited for our grills to heat up. For a while, we were grilling only 6 hamburgers at a time for 85 people! It was a great experience overall, and we looked forward to seeing them again for our second meal in September.
One of my favorite times with youth group this year was our encouragement note session. We have been studying Ephesians this year in Bible study, and my girls were excited to practice their encouragement skills by writing notes to each other. "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up, according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." I wrote two page letters to each of my 13 girls and was touched to receive their notes and see/read how much they've grown in Christ. We spent the entire evening talking about each girl in turn and taking some much-overdue group pictures. My, how God has developed in me a deep sisterly love for these teenagers!
In between all these special events, Kayle and I kept up our regular commitments, including community group, teaching Sunday school, and Kayle's early Saturday men's accountability group. We celebrated two births this month: Caleb and Laura Bell just had baby Andrew in Texas and Kim and Jay (our previous CG hosts) welcomed baby Davis. We also had a big scare: at Disneyland, a woman in our CG tripped and fell on the concrete with her babe in arms, and her baby suffered a skull fracture. There was lots of waiting and praying to see if any permanent damage was done, but it looks like the baby will heal completely with no serious side effects. Even more, his mom was free from guilt and full of peace in Christ through the whole process. Finally, our church campus had a summer baptism event while we were away in Las Vegas. Many people we know got baptized, including Lyric (who also gave her testimony) and the Martinez girls we used to babysit for. Praise God for new life and healing!
CLICK HERE for a video/picture montage of the summer baptisms
The second half of the month was filled with lots of reunions and traveling. Kayle and I spent August 19-21 in Las Vegas for Claire's wedding. We stayed on an air mattress in the apartment of another bridesmaid. The 3 days were a whirlwind of activity with a dress fitting, karaoke bachelorette party, rehearsal, home-cooked Filippino dinner, and a hair appointment. The wedding itself was at 7pm on Saturday and Claire was simply gorgeous! We danced the night away at the reception, and I particularly enjoyed seeing tons of Notre Dame friends, including all my senior year roommates and many other enginerds. Kayle and I arrived at the airport around 2am, right after the reception, for our 6am flight and caught some zzz's on the floor near our gate. Claire and Michael Desrochers (Day-row-shay) will be living only 3 hours away in Vancouver, Canada, so we hope to see them soon and finally be motivated to get our passports!
And, last but not least, we rounded off the month with a visit from my mom and grandma the following weekend. It was very fun to have three generations of Oskamps together for dominoes, shopping, and touring Redmond/Seattle. Mom and grandma arrived on Thursday evening and ate an enjoyed but exhausted meal at our favorite downtown Bellevue restaurant. The next morning, we left for San Juan Island, a 2.5 hour drive and ferry ride away. We stayed in a nice, converted motel and rented a car to tour the beautiful island and stop at Lime Kiln Park. LK Park is an absolutely beautiful sea-side park and one of the best places in the world to see Orca whales in the wild and up-close. After 4 hours of strolling, squinting, taking pictures, eyeing tiny hermit crabs, spotting porpoises and seals, and playing Euchre, we gave up our quest to see whales but maintained that it was a good day nonetheless. On Saturday, we walked all around Friday Harbor, ate breakfast in a bustling diner, shopped many little touristy shops, stopped at the whale museum and a few art galleries, and grabbed some homemade ice cream in waffle cones before boarding the ferry back to the mainland. That night, we ate dinner at Coho Cafe, which had mom and grandma raving about Seattle seafood for days.
Sunday was mostly a quiet day. We went to church in the morning and baked homemade rosemary chicken and bacon/pineapple pizzas. Then, I enjoyed an afternoon nap followed by a full game of dominoes from double 12's to 0's. The only unfortunate part of the day was that Kayle creamed the rest of us in dominoes. In fact, I think the final score was Kayle at 150 and a different person in each of the 200s, 300s, and 400s. Kayle is just about as ruthless as Grandpa Oskamp, who shows no mercy no matter how far ahead he is!
On Monday, Kayle went to work and the girls took to shopping in Seattle. We rode the metro bus across the bridge, giving mom and grandma the leisure to sightsee out the windows. They were just delighted by Pike Place Market, eagerly browsing all the local artists' stalls and taking taste tests of homemade jerky, jams, pasta, and produce. Mom and grandma couldn't get over how beautiful and big all the flower bouquets were nor how perfect and colorful the fruits and veggies on display. I think we ate about 6 samples of peaches and each one left our mouths watering. We enjoyed peach, pluot (new fruit = plum + apricot), and strawberry smoothies for lunch before heading to the Seattle Aquarium for a quick tour. The highlight of the aquarium was watching the marine mammals being fed. The harbor seals were eating fish and performing a few silly tricks for a crowd of onlookers. The sea otters were so cute, floating on their backs eating crab and spinning around to dump the shells underwater. Mom and grandma were also quite funny as they reached in the tanks to touch anenomes, tube worms, sea stars, and sea cucumbers. There was more than one expression of surprise or disgust. After a full day of walking, we nearly missed our bus home while getting our picture taken on a bench. We made it, collapsed in the comfy bus seats, and finished off the day at CoHo cafe (again- I told you they couldn't stop raving!).
Kayle and I have mostly spent the last week recovering from the month of August. We had great fun with youth group, friends, and family but welcome the school year again with a craving for routine and rest. My schedule at work will be light until classes pick up the pace, and I went to Eastside Academy again for the 1st time today. We also bought pizza on Saturday for Tent City and played some board games with the homeless there.
I've been realizing lately that I have the tendency to allow busyness to crowd out my personal time with God and cloud my priorities and sense of purpose in life. For a while there, I was mostly happy but missing that sense of pervading joy that comes from knowing God, doing His work, and hoping for Heaven. The sermon on Sunday was an enthusiastic reminder of where our joy should be based and what factors can rob us of the joy that should come from our relationship with God. For the first time in a while, I felt as if I was just bursting with the excitement of worshipping God, smiling so hard as I sang that my cheeks hurt. I was also reminded that God Himself is more joy-filled and happy than any human could ever be. If this is the case (and I think it is), then God is not a grumpy dad that looks at me with a critical eye and an urge to complain about all my imperfections. Instead, His joy in Himself is not dampened by my failures but, rather, He is eager to celebrate with me in my moments of daughterly obedience, when my love of God begins to reflect His overflowing love and acceptance of me. "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song." (Psalm 28:7)
CLICK HERE for the Sunday Sermon: "Jesus Rejoices in the Holy Spirit"
CLICK HERE for more pictures from August
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