Where to start?

This post was began at 10:48 p.m. 7/6/11. It is incredible to think about all that has transpired in one short month. Hard to believe this is my final post on this blog.

It is now July 23rd @ 5:13 p.m. I did not plan to take so long to get back to this. BVS has been the blessing of a lifetime! The goodbyes (or so-longs) have begun as have the tears to go along with them. Tonight I plan to work on preparations for the July 31 church service which will be a Children's Sunday. (This means the kids will be "running" the church service.) I already know what we will be sharing but there is much preparation to do.

My family that is coming to help me get my things home, arrive Wednesday and I am trying to compile a list of things we should see/do.

The car is being picked up by the Bruins on Tuesday evening. My project would have been much more difficult had I not had that wonderful little Mazda! They are some of the most generous people I have ever met!

Packing is as far as it can go before actually leaving. This week on Monday afternoon I'll be at the daycare for one final "shift" and in the evening I will help with the "bread drop" at the Mennonite Church. Then on Tuesday I will help with their community meal for the final time. Wednesday morning is my final time at Open Door Ministry (an emergency food pantry).

Woodland Altars (the Church of the Brethren camp that is closest to Cincinnati) is gorgeous! I have slowly begun uploading my pictures of my experiences there on fb. (It is time-consuming!) The people there are fantastic and I made many new friends and rekindled some previous kinships!

I submitted an application to Lawrence Public Schools for a middle school position that I would LOVE to have.

I am sitting here, with tears building, thinking there will be many things I wish I would have said as soon as I hit publish post. Thorsten and Jonny I love you both and will always consider you my brothers!

Camp Season is upon me

Well, as I am the only one who posts on here I do not feel the need to identify myself. :) I leave tomorrow evening (June 17) and will be gone until June 25. At that point I will return to Cincinnati to wash some clothes and be at church on the 26th. Then I will go back to camp and stay there until the 29th. It is going to be intense.

It seems impossible that I only have one more month in Cincinnati. It would be fantastic if someone from the orientation that is currently in progress chose to come volunteer at the church.

I have officially filed my graduate school application. (For those of you reading this in Kansas you are probably scratching your head, but this is an accurate statement.) :) I have every intention of continuing to apply for teaching positions this fall, but if it does not happen then I will maintain my peace.

I will actually be able to finish my part-time Americorp position at the end of the month too. God is amazing, what else can I say?

My miracle for the week occurred on Tuesday. I'll try to fill in the gaps. Last Friday I went to counselor training and discovered they could possibly have a need for a counselor from the 19th to the 25th. There was another lady who was possibly going to receive a job and take her away from counseling. On Saturday night I prayed that if God wanted me to go to camp He would work out all of the details for my other volunteering commitments. The main one I was concerned about was the emergency food bank.

I had planned to stop by the organization on Monday but the day got away from me. Then on Tuesday the cake I made for my afternoon organization had a slight complication and delayed me. I determined that God must want me to wait until my regularly scheduled time to speak with my supervisor. Then God acted; after I got out of the way. That afternoon I had the opportunity of working with a high school junior who just happened to be looking for other places to volunteer. She came on Wednesday and is planning to fill the gap for me. Praise the Lord!

Quick Catch Up

April went quickly and my semester is almost over! The Easter egg hunt and garden dedication was a blast! Check out my FB page for more pictures. God had it planned all along for our events to fit neatly within His showers. There has been an intense amount of rain here in Cincy this spring. We are over 12 inches above average! I think these crazy weather patterns just waited until I arrived to display themselves. :)

Things could not be going better here. My volunteering is on target to complete my Americorp part-time position. I love being in the neighborhood and seeing familiar faces! I have already been to 2 Reds games (but don't mistake this for being a fan; I just love to be at the game)!

Camp at Woodland Alters is just around the corner and I am excited to share that experience with the youth of Cincy Church of the Brethren. Perhaps it will be a little like Camp Mt. Hermon in Tonganoxie, KS.

I really have to get back to my finals! I leave for Kansas to celebrate the college graduation of my baby sister in four days! Have a great month everyone!

Big Weekend at the Cincy House

Tomorrow we are going to the Opening Night Game for the Reds! It will be a blast I'm sure! There will be firewords afterwards and the pre-game is sure to be entertaining. I appreciate the Walters family's generosity!

Then on Sunday we get to go to the zoo courtesy of Ronald McDonald House. There is a volunteer appreciation picnic and families are invited. As the guys are the closest thing I have to family here I got tickets for them. I'm sure there will be pictures to share on FB from both events!

Mid-year retreat was truly a blessing for me. Then the surprise visit home was the icing on the cake! It was super to see my family and friends.

This week has been a bit of a struggle getting back into the routine of school. The rejection letters from my teahcing applications have started trickling in and that is always a tough pill to swallow. Thankfully I did receive fantastic news about next year and my schooling. Emporia State has devised a way for me to finish my master degree one way or the other and for that I am truly thankful. Now I will wait and see if that is God's will for the next year of my life or if something else comes first.

Volunteering was good; I started at Ten Thousand Villages and that is truly a one-of-akind store. I'm in awe as I look at the artwork of people from all over the world. They are extremely creative!

I'm going to call it a night as I was up until 1 a.m. working on school. Have a great month everyone!

~ Jamie

Just Kidding

Well, Thorsten thought there would be three new posts last week. Jonny and Thorsten left last night to go to Chicago and based on the pictures on FB I know they made it okay. :)

In our house meeting last Sunday we discussed changing our blogging technique to once a month and writing on the white board on our fridge when we each have completed our entry. I hope this will work better. It has been challenging to keep up with the suggested rotation.

Last week I had the opportunity to go to the Volunteers Exploring Vocation conference sponsored by the Fund for Theological Education. It was absolutely amazing! I was blessed repeatedly during the conference.

I learned more about community living. I was able to connect with others who love Jesus! The highlight was probably hearing Becca Steven speak about love, Thistle Farms, and Magdalene.

I do not know exactly what God has planned for me by the end of the year, but I know I want to continue in His will. His timing is perfect. My responsibility is to listen.

Now I need to go finish preparing for retreat next week! Talk to you all in April.

Its Been A While...

Hey! Its me again, Thorsten!

First of all I want to apologize for the longer interruption since my last post. Actually this blog could have also been named "nothing new", because since the last time nothing really spectacular happened neither at my project nor at our community house. Maybe Johnny and Jamie will see this a little bit different but this is just the way I experienced the last days. But today we finally went for an activity with the church again. The majority of all members (BVS'ers + kids included) went to the bowling alley to let some pins fly! My group consisted of Jamie and two married couples and had the highest overall points of all groups. Jamie, one married couple and I had a close battle in the first round, but I finished first with the highest score at this time with 150 points. The second and third round was just between Jamie and me because the other members of our group had to leave due to their young children. But unfortunately Ben Walters, the pastor of the church, broke my high score with 176 points, which I couldn't break anymore during the rest of the time. But we all had much fun and it was very nice to be around the children again for a little bit longer!


Oh and this week you will find 3 additional blog entries here because Jamie will leave for Nashville and we all try to fill the gap that accrued! So be prepared for lots of news!

Greetings to all,

Thorsten

Every Day

Sometimes being a lone female is a drag. I feel like emotions only exist for my sex. I just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Actually today has been really good. I cooked a meal for Ronald McDonald House and it was well-received. One man even told me he would order it at a restaurant. :)

Since I have been back in Cincinnati life has changed for the better. I am busier now and I am trying to start volunteering with two different school systems.

Speaking of school, my online classes are in full swing and keeping me on my toes. I need to start gearing up for the application process again too.

Time continues to pass some days faster than others. On the whole I cannot believe it is February 7. One moment I wish March was already here and the next I think I have a lot to do before then.

I need to go check the status of my psychology class for the day. I'll be back to write again in three weeks.

we had a good week, dissolving into a good weekend.
dinner at a former bvs couple's house on friday and fun ice skating with the congregation's kids on Sunday.

A New Beginning

My blog title this week is called "A New Beginning" for a sound reason:

At my workplace (The Talbert House) a new "Nurturing Fathers Class" has started, which means that another group of approximately 30 to 40 guys will be coming in every Tuesday from 6:00pm to 8:30pm for the next ten weeks trying to become better fathers and learn lessons for their future life.

But also Jamie came back from Kansas, what also felt to me like a new beginning in terms of getting acclimated again and so on...

And not only this, it is also the month of January, which means we just entered a brand new year!

We three are really looking forward to the BVS retreat in March in Elgin, IL! For Jonathan and me it is going even further, directly after that we have also a retreat from our German organization on Jekyll-Island.

So far I really enjoy having more responsibility at my position and have really great visions for the upcoming months! I just hope that it is going to be the same for Jamie. I don't really worry about Johnny because I know that he is doing a great job and he has a lot of stuff to do. Even though he gets snow days quite often recently...

But anyway, thanks for listening (or reading)
and I greet everybody who's following our
progress here in Cincinnati,

Thorsten

devil, may you burn in hell

I'm sick of the devil stealing my joy! Tonight I am not going to give into him. This week has been full of volunteering and blessings! Monday afternoon a 2-year-old fell asleep on my lap. Tuesday morning I was able to help care for an 8-week-old. Tuesday afternoon I was at Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship to help prepare their community meal. Wednesday morning I was at Open Door Ministry and it was awesome to see everyone again! Wednesday afternoon I troubleshot and ended up walking to the WAY Program to volunteer. It actually felt good to be outside. Last night I stayed with a friend and had a girls' movie night; that was really fun! Today I started at the daycare again but they did not need me for the full time which led me to come home and have a breather.

Sharing the car is an adventure. Thorsten can come to the house for lunch and then I can take him back to Talbert House.

Tomorrow morning I am supposed to talk with Dan; I hope he has some insight. It has been a whirlwind of a week. I'm trying to be content/satisfied with God's "Plan B" but that, I am finding, requires a daily death to self.