Pull Up A Chair

The adventure begins!  After months and months of planning, praying, crying, and a wee bit of procrastination, the time has come for Gateway- the 4week training program in Texas.

Let me catch you up to today.  Last week, after I moved out of my apartment, I spent the weekend up in Estes Park- hanging out with friends and enjoying Colorado in the fall.  I then drove home- with my cat- and stayed with my parents.  After a short week in Independence, saying goodbye to everyone and repacking 6,000 times.

Dad took me to the airport, bright and early Saturday morning (ie: 5:00am)  Before I knew it, I was in Texas and driving to the IOC (International Operations Center- the headquarters for Mercy Ships).

I meet 21 other people, who like me, are crazy enough to sign on for a longer time.  After a fun day of group building, including a chocolate relay races (which my team won!).  We learned about the local wildlife when we found scorpions on the floors and even on the walls in our rooms!  But if you call out, the Scorpion Wranglers will come to your rescue! 

Ken- our hero!

The Scorpion Wranglers to the rescue!

Today was our first day of classroom work.  We spent the day learning about the character of God and who He is.  We focused a lot on Exodus 34: 6-7

"And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.'"

It was an interesting discussion, including the different sterotypes people preceive of God and how God releved Himself through different scriptures.

Our nights, so far, have ended pretty much the same- everyone gethering in the lounge of our dorm with their computers or games and creating fun nights of entertainment.

The "internet cafe" in the dorm

Texas is experiencing a very severe drought, with lots of wildfires popping up around the state.  We had a nice thunderstorm last night, but as of right now, we might not be able to do our firefighting class (its supposed to be really fun) so please help us pray for rain, not just for our ability to play "firemen", but for the people of Texas who are having a hard time with this drought.