Don't mess with my football!

On Thursday night I was going to Mary's house to watch the Redskins/Giants game. Before I headed over there I stopped at the grocery store for some brownie mix and the liquor store for something fun for us to drink.

I pulled into the parking lot and looked towards the liquor store deciding where I was going to go first. As I was walking up, a group of very large men decked out in Redskins gear were standing in front of the door. I looked down at my Superbowl Giants t-shirt I was wearing and decided to go into the grocery store first.

When I walked out of the grocery store the band of Redskins fans was gone, so I went in. I looked around to see if I wanted to try something new...since normally I go for the Mike's Lemonade and call it a day. (I'm very outside of my realm in there!) There was one guy wearing a Redskins hat and when he saw my shirt he chuckled and said "Its going to be an interesting game tonight." I agreed and walked away. And then I heard it...

"Awww...look at the little girl wearing her Giants Superbowl shirt. She only likes them because they won the Superbowl. She probably doesn't know anything about football." There were 2 guys in Redskins gear continuing on like that for a little bit.

I kept telling myself to ignore them and keep my mouth shut...but its in my genes open my mouth (Thanks Dad! :) ). I turned around and said "I know enough about football to know that the Giants are going to kick the Redskins @$$ tonight!"

They laughed and said, "Oh right, you're probably only a Giants fan because you think Shockey is cute."

I responded, "Well then I wouldn't be a Giants fan anymore would I? Since Shockey doesn't play for them anymore!"

They said, "DAAAAAAAAMN! Girl does know something about football!"

I just walked away completely satisfied about what just occurred.

A Playdate with some adorable friends...

I know...I still haven't posted about Paris or Cameroon yet...and I promise that is coming. This weekend I've been working on my scrapbook from my trip, and my brain is still stuck in Hungary because of that. Instead you can enjoy a few stories from my life recently...

A little over a week ago it was my great friend Amy's birthday. Every year an all you can eat seafood buffet is where we celebrate, where its $30 a person. I'm not a fan of seafood, but I usually go because I love Amy and its usually a lot of fun. This year I decided that it was a little too much to spend on not very good food (the non seafood isn't their specialty), so I watched Christopher and Hannah so Amy and Matt could enjoy a fun night out.

These kids are absolutely adorable, and a lot of fun! When I walked in the door Hannah immediately started saying "Miss Erin we're going on a date!" over and over again...so cute! We went to Chick-fil-a for dinner and some playtime. While we were eating I was asking Christopher if he was excited to start school. He said "Yes! We're going swimming in the big pool and GIRLS WILL BE THERE!" I tried to get more out of him about his excitement for the girls...but nothing came of it. I guess he's starting early! haha! (Look out Amy!)

Here are some pictures from our time together on the play place...








And watching the rain pour down...

Connect 2008

In my trip to Hungary this year God really rocked my world! I learned so much, and I am still processing everything that God is teaching me!

I was blown away from our students that went. They really served these kids and families with all their heart. It was fun to see some old friends like Jordan! She has grown up some much this past year!

Isaiah was my buddy last year, his family lives in France. Isaiah would save a seat for me at almost every meal. We had a lot of fun together. I was with the 3 and 4 year olds this year, so I wasn't with his group. On the last night he ran up to me and asked if we could have his dad take a picture of us together! That made me really happy! :) He and Trevin had fun together this year!

Last year I met the Stephan and Laura, who live in Brussels. Laura is actually from the same home town, and we discovered that we know a ton of the same people! Its funny how it took us both traveling to Hungary to meet each other. I have kept in close touch with the them over the past year, and it was a lot of fun to see them again at Connect. I was able to spend a lot of time with them, talking about ministry and just life in general. Here is a picture of their son Andrew and I. I asked Stephan what I could bring their family from the states. Among other things I brought Andrew some Scooby Doo and John Deere Fruit Snacks. Everyday he would run up to me and tell me how I brought him his fruit snacks. He is so cute!

I worked with the 3 and 4 year olds this year, which was a lot of fun. Andrew is 3, so he was in the group and so was Malachi. Malachi was my little buddy this year. He really had a hard time being away from his parents. He also really desires one on one time. My job for the week became hanging out with Malachi. Towards the beginning of the week it was a lot of crying, but I finally learned that asking him "What do you want to do while we wait for Daddy?" worked like a charm. We read books together, played on the playground, blew bubbles...lots of fun!

During the day our students ran an Olympic Themed program for the kids that they wrote! It was complete with games, videos, bible lessons, and crafts. Each night had a different theme for the kids to dress up; Pirates and Princesses, PJ party Campfire; Wacky Tacky Superheroes. These nights were very special for the missionary kids because they don't really get to experience things like that while living overseas. Charles won for the best Pirate costume!
We all had some fun on Wacky Tacky night...gotta love Tricia's hair!!
Ethan and Caleb came dressed in their sister Jordan's clothes and diapers! Needless to say they won for the best dressed! haha!




Andrew decided that he wanted to be baptized while we were away, which was really special. We opened it up to the entire conference to come and watch. It was so great to see him declare his love for Christ. When one of the 10 year old boys heard that there was going to be a baptism he decided that he wanted to be baptized too, which was really encouraging. Later in the week we heard that at least 2 of the kids had accepted Christ that week. What an amazing experience we had! The families were very thankful...and so were we! God is so good!

Seeing some sights...

While we were away we had the privilege of taking some time for some sight seeing. Here are a select few pictures from the thousands of pictures that I took over the month (I'm not kidding about the thousands!). These pictures are from our time in Vienna, Austria; and Sopron, Hungary, the little town that the conference was held.

We had the kids navigate us through Vienna to find City Hall, and here is one of my favorite pictures of Andrew, Jenny, and Kt.

We also went to two palaces...Belvedere Palace, which was Prince Eugene of Savoy's Summer home; and Schonbrunn Palace, which was Maria Theresa's summer home. Vienna was the place to be in the summer!
To the right are the Juniors standing in front of Belvedere Palace;



Jenny, Lexi, and I standing in front of Schonbrunn Palace








Since our group was so large, each of the leaders were assigned 2-3 students to keep track of while we were traveling. I had Karl, Andrew, and Lexi, aka My Duckies!



Thursday afternoon of the conference we had a break, so the whole team took the bus into Downtown Sopron, a quaint little town. The area of Western Hungary was a province of the Roman Empire. Its forum was located where the main square of Sopron is found today.

We all walked together to the square where the Fire Tower (Pictured to the left) and City Hall are located, and then split into smaller groups to walk around the city.

There are remnants of Roman Ruins in the city. Here's a picture of Andrew, Jenny and Karl sitting on a Roman ruin wall.

We had fun wandering around the town...I love this picture! haha!

Now the dust has started to settle...

It has been a long time since my last post. I apologize for that. We didn't have any internet access at the conference in Cameroon and I didn't want to spend my last days in Cameroon and Paris on the computer.
Coming home I hit the ground running having to finish planning our leaders retreat that was this past weekend, and trying to reconnect with friends. I also had my nights filled with watching the Olympics! (a slight obsession I have!)
Now that the dust has settled some, the retreat is over, and the Winter Olympics are 2 years away I will devote sometime in sharing my stories and some pictures with you. I finally posted my pictures on facebook, so if we're facebook friends please look!

The trip was amazing! The stories, the lessons learned, the relationships formed, all things I would never trade for the world! I know that my life has definitely been changed for the better from the month away. The theme that I was learning through my time away was that:

God will always be with you wherever you go, but He doesn't promise that it will always be easy.

While in Hungary I talked to many different missionaries from all different backgrounds and serving in different capacities. A lot of them shared with me their joys and also their sorrows. Many women shared that they struggled with the lack of relationships on the field, or the ones that they were missing from home. The Thursday afternoon of the conference all the women boarded a boat for an afternoon of fellowship. We took a little ride in what I think was a lake, had lunch and talked. Towards the end of the ride some women got on the loud speaker and shared about how Jesus doesn't call to us from the side of the shore, he gets into the boat with us, and through there might be sharks around the boat nibbling our toes, He is still with us.
In Cameroon we had team time each evening sitting on the rooftop of the building that the girls stayed in. Various passages were shared, including Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." and other verses that continued my theme...and I didn't plan any of the devotion times! God was definitely speaking right to my heart.

God and I spent a lot of good time together...and I'm still trying to process things that He is teaching me, and what the future might hold. More stories and pictures to come...

Cameroon

I am here in Cameroon! So far things have been great! We had a little scare, thinking that the 4 of us who went to Hungary weren't going to make it on the flight because it was overbooked...but God is good and we all got on. We landed, got ALL 32 BAGS (YAY!) and headed out to the cars. We all went back to Peters house where we were assigned our home stays.

Today we had an orientation day, which was great since its the first time our entire team was together! We went over our plan for the week, had a devotion together, and hung out. Tomorrow we have some more team time, then to the zoo! Thursday we head to the conference center where we will be working with the kids running our Superhero program! We will be there until Wednesday night. We head back to Paris Thursday night, and home Saturday!

Things are going well! Please continue praying for strength, endurance, safety and health!

PARIS!!!!

We are here in Paris! Our time in Hungary was great! Lots of lessoned were leqrned and new friendshipswere formed. It was quite an adventure getting our team of 26 through the subways of Paris with all our luggage. The students had a great attitude about it. We will debrief tomorrow about our time in Hungay, and the 4 of us are gearing up for Cameroon, which the rest of the Cam team is flying here as I type. We will also get to see the sites of Paris! I cannot wait!Keep praying! God is doing some amazing things!

(If there are typeos it is because this french keyboard is very confusing!)