Bloody Murdy

This is my new call name, Murdy for short, as I was freaking out one night as we were roaming around the church & my teammate, Anthony was teasing me because there's a bat roaming free around here that nobody's been able to find & I'm terrified of bats & I got so worked up that I said if I saw the bat I was going to scream bloody murdy. Yeah, I meant bloody murder, but it didn't come out like that. My teammates have definitely learned that I have my own language & way of saying things especially when I'm sleep deprived.

Another week of training down! This week we spent 3 days in the YE office building taking a class through Youth Specialties with around 20 other youth worker people from around the states. It was interesting. I actually met the former pastor of Bethel Lutheran (the church in Noblesville that I attend in the summers while living down there). He now lives in the UP. Gotta love the small Lutheran connections! The last few days have been spent in different lessons/classes at the church here in Stillwater. We've learned a lot & been challenged a lot. Tiger McLuen and a few guest speakers were the ones that taught at the class earlier in the week & then TJ Anderson is the pastor here & led the sessions that the wonder Lisa RK didn't lead. Lisa is the Mosaic team boss basically. I know that's not her technical title, but she's great & actually my prayer partner for there as well as Amber. We decided to have prayer partners within the Mosaic community since most of the other teamers, actually prolly all of 'em only had that week to get to know theirs, not 6 years like Amber & I have had.

This week I've questioned a lot if I've been placed in the right area or am doing the right thing. It's really scary as I rarely question what I'm doing to this extent. I know that God is working constantly in, through, and around me though. It may be hard to see some times, but He's there. I really wanted to be placed with the Ohio State team, but I know that would've been a comfort thing since I would've been working with college students. Working in Racine is going to be a challenge, not necessarily bad, but it'll be new. A good portion of the people in Racine are unemployed & I lived the last 4 years of my life in a very wealthy suburb of Columbus. I may be questioning what I'm doing, but I am very anxious and excited to get to our site. We only have a few days left here with the other Mosaic teams & then on Thursday morning we'll be heading across the river & on into the cheese state for the year. I like cheese!

Tomorrow some of us are going to church at my friend's Kristen's home congregation & then spending the afternoon at the Mall of America (none of us have money or any need for anything though) & then going to Kristen's house for dinner & Upper Room for worship. Hopefully I'll get to see some SFers tomorrow or later this week. I've invited a few to the sending service & I haven't invited you & you live in the area then it'd be great to see familiar faces. The sending service is at Trinity Lutheran in Stillwater, MN Wed. Sept. 5 at 7pm. Anyway, it's about time for Last Word so that's it for now. God's peace & love!