Haviland Break

Sept 15th

So, I just filled a whole journal entry, and it got deleted as I tried uploading it :(

Here I go again.

I am currently in an extremely small town in Kansas called Haviland. It was sort of kind of on the way to our next school and since Tiff went to college here, she was hoping we could stop by so she could see some old friends. So while she is catching up with them, and old profs, and kids she used to work with, I am sitting in a cute little coffe shop updating you on my life :)


I haven't really written much in the past couple of days, mainly cus nothing to exciting has happened. But I figured this change of scenery (not really, we are still in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields and the smell of cow poop haha) was worth sharing.

So we've created a little routine over the past 3 days. Since we stayed in the same place for longer than a night, we were able to do so. We were at a cute little bed and breakfast in Scott city, KS. We would wake up, get ready, have breakfast, and head to our school. After setting up and tearing down our shows, we'd head back to "our place." Talk on the phone to friends and family. While I watch Chuck, she would facebook chat. Read a bit. Take a walk. Get on the phone again. This would go on till bedtime and we'd wake up and start all over.

We've had 5 shows in the past 3 days and they all went pretty well. We had our very first elementary presentation today and it was so good. I loved watching the excitement on the kids' faces from beginning to end of the show.
Ah little kids are so precious, and innocent, and most of them aren't corrupted yet from this world. How refreshing are they!?

I've been a bit discouraged for the past couple days because we've been showing these presentations to small schools and the kids haven't seemed as excited or "into it" as I would hope they were. This doesn't make sense to me, I had assumed that these presentations would be such a big hit in small towns. I assumed this because most small towns don't really have movie theatres anywhere near, and since we are essentially setting up a movie theatre in their schools to show this film, I figured they'd be super impressed and excited.
It gets discouraging especially at the end when I get up and ask all excitedly "Sooo did you guys like it??" and they hesitantly respond "yeaaah" almost as if they are forced to resond that way.
And my immediate thought is "Ok, wow, so we just drove a ton, woke up super early, spent 1h30 setting this up, and this is what we get?"
Then God tells me "just trust me!" And  I am reminded that if everything we do even affects or changes ONE child all year, it is totally worht it. Also even if the majority of the kids didn't care, some that were affected by the message, might be embarrassed to express it, and that's ok.
We are God's messengers and as long as we do our job right with enthusiasm and love, God will do the rest.

I've also been very moody and no fun to be around. Espeically on monday, I was tired and had had no sleep the night before and was just very grumpy. God reminds me to keep seeking His word and not to let my human nature control me but instead to let His spirit fill me with love, peace, joy, patience, gentleness, and kindness. So I am still working on that.

Last night, my french technology classes in middle school finally paid off. I was able to repair a microphone that had quit working on us. ha. I was quite proud of myself. It also worked out perfectly earlier today when I had to call my boss to tell him I had forgotten a projector cord at the school we were at yesterday. This way, I was able to give him a "good nrews/bad news" phone call instead of just a "Hey by the way, I'm an airhead and forgot a really important cord at another school." :)

I love this job, I love the traveling and moving around and whatnot but I must admit it's getting harder and harder without a stable community.

I guess God prepared me for that during my time in Colorado, where I lacked the community I've always had growing up (whether in Dakar, or when we would come to the US with my family, or the amazing community I had in Huntington through the 509 that I miss dearly.)
Nonetheless, it's still difficult. Thankfully, the Camfel technicians have created quite a community through the distance. We all bonded pretty well during training and we've been able to stay in touch through each other's blogs, or facebook, or even our cellphones, which has been a blessing. It's nice to be able to talk to others who know exactly what you are going through whether it's sharing how well a show went, or little technical difficulties that happened, or whether we are sharing people we've run into or places we've seen, expressing hard times we go through, and some of us (not me) were able to meet significant others through this job, so hearing about the involvments of that is quite exciting. So that's been quite a blessing.
For example, yesterday morning my friend texted me saying she was feeling really lonely and asking me to pray for her because she was feeling that same lack of community I've been feeling and I prayed for her and texted her words of encouragement in response. A couple hours later, she texted me saying 'Praise God ! We met some folks at a church and are sitting with them at Chick-Fil-Et and am just having a great time of fellowship with them ! So things like that are quite encouraging.

Also, Ive been quite homesick through all of this traveling, mainly because all the driving around the US reminds me of when my folks, siblings, and I would travel around the US during our furlow years. Those were good times, times that definitely created quite a unique bond between my siblings and I haha. I miss them terribly.
Also setting up shows in these small schools these past couple of days has reminded me of my highschool. :( I miss that type of community where every one knows each other and supports each other. Granted back in those days, I would get frustrated due to the fact that everyone was in everyone else's business. :) But looking back, I miss it all.
I miss middleschool, highschool, and college. SO MUCH. I miss going to classes, Learning new things. Getting dressed up and looking cute just because. Going to soccer practice afterwards. Hanging out with friends super late doing dumb things and laughing like crazy. I pretty much miss creating memories with a large group of friends and loved ones. BUT such are the sacrifices one must make for this job, which I repeatI I love despite it all.

Well we have a show in a bigger school tomorrow morning, so it should be a nice change.

Thanks for Reading this. I miss you guys and hope your life is filled with awesomeness.

I send you God's abundant blessings from above, along with my love. (yup that rhymed).

Xoxo

DJO