Sunday and Monday

First, before I get to Monday, let me start with Sunday.

I didn't realize that I had gotten used to going to church at least once (or twice or three times...) every weekend until I unquestioningly got up for church on Sunday morning. I think that's a good sign.
I have to say that Spirit & Truth Fellowship is a church after my own heart. They're technically CRC, but sort of seem NL-ish, in that they're a very diverse crowd. The thing that stood out most dramatically to me, however, was their worship. They sang several songs that I knew, one of them being Days of Elijah. But they sang those songs like they were the only songs in the world. At one point, I could swear that they'd stopped singing and were just screaming. I LOVED it. Plus, as a bonus, we sang several songs in Spanish.

Molly, Joe and I walked down to Dunkin' Donuts, the Hunting Park version of Starbucks, and got horrible coffee - that they sweetened despite our appeals against it - argh. I'm guessing their regular coffee is alright but whatever...the stuff I had was barely drinkable. Once I had my coffee, I managed to get in 4 very important phone conversations with people back in Lincoln, and also with my sister and brother-in-law. Thus, my Sunday passed by with no real issues.

Now...it's Monday.
The first problem? The fact that I slept in until 10:30. Thankfully, the teachers and Cynthia were very forgiving. Then add 3 more kids to my class, and you have my MONDAY.
We have one new kid, who is the cutest little boy in the world, but he really has a temper. His name is Quadir (spelling?). The biggest thing you all could do, if you're reading this, is send up a prayer on his behalf. The moment I got to class, I was bombarded with kids tattling on him, telling me they didn't like him, etc. Then, he was sort of stubborn about a variety of minor things, and ended up getting so upset that he threw a few things and was hurried out of the classroom by one of the teachers. I can understand how frustrating it would be to be a new kid in a class where no one likes you, and I tried to help him as much as possible. Please pray that God will give me wisdom on how to deal with him and how to LOVE him. He really needs love - that I can see really clearly.
For the most part, I had a pretty good day, though. The kids are fun, and I've been preparing some "lessons" for them to do tomorrow (body bingo anyone?). This afternoon, I got the chance to talk to Ryan more and get to know him a little better. He's also said that he'd take me to meet Shane Claiborne (which would be cool, but whatever). Apparently, he and Shane are friends...yeah. Anyway, I can't say how good it is that I got the chance to spend some time with Ryan, talking etc. God's really doing some cool stuff in my life and around me while I'm here, and this is one of the things He's done (as small as it may seem).
Well, I need to sleep, but I'm pretty excited about this week. On Wednesday, we're going swimming all day, and then on Friday we're going bowling. Yeah!
Keep praying for us and the kids in our classes, as well as the adults we work with (that are incredibly burned out and definitely need some prayer).