Wednesday Why Em See Ay?

Wednesday

I got to sleep in for a little bit during the morning, then had my quiet time and spent some time hanging around, talking and listening to various people. I read a bit in my book. I haven't had much time to read but I get a few pages in here and there. David laughed at me and said he loves how I always drag the book around but never have time to read it, or so it seems!

We went evangelizing (surveying really) in the morning. Laura and Bruce came along and Laura asked to go with me again, since I didn't have a partner yet. We gathered our papers and went off with Anna and Evelyn, hopping around from door to door. When we reached the end of the block, we split up to opposite sides of the street and then Laura and I kept going around the block.

There were several empty houses but one man who was on a motorcycle, just about to leave who stopped and spoke with us for a short time. He was a Catholic and we asked if he would be interested in more information if he was incorrect in his beliefs but he said no. Thanks for stopping by though! It's people like that who make me shake my head in wonder and sadness. We actually had quite a few people today who gave us good, solid answers! I was thankful for that.

Down the other side of the street we saw a man standing out on the front lawn of an old house, badly in need of repair. He saw us coming and asked what he could do for us. He was rather short and stocky, with a high-browed baseball cap and periodically took a puff on a pipe he was holding. When he spoke I could see that he had only two teeth left, both were his lower incisors (I think, I'm no dentist) and his gums were worn down, which made the teeth look like tusks. He motioned us to come to the porch and then spoke for a while with us.

His name was David and he had previously endured problems with alcohol abuse but thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous, he had been sober for nearly eleven years now. He rambled off on to a whole lot of different subject and Laura had a hard time getting the questions in because once one was asked, he'd go off onto it and then wind up in some completely different area of conversation. He had been to many, many churches in his lifetime and was apparently even a deacon in the Catholic Church, but he saw so much hypocrisy and people trying to force their opinions on himself that he had pretty much given it all up, though he certainly believed in a God. There was much more that he said on various issues but the main thing was that we got his name and address and hopefully someone can come back and visit with him. He said he was happy with his life now and knew that he couldn't have gotten out of the alcohol abuse without God helping him. We pray that it would become a personal faith.

Then we headed over to the YMCA for the afternoon, first to cool off by going swimming, and then to work with the kids during VBS. On the way over, I was making noises in the backseat of Brad's car. I made a suction noise (like pulling oneself out of mud) followed by a sharp "pop!" Brad laughed and said "L-, your kids are going to love you." Well, I don't know about that, but I'm sure where I get most of these sounds from is my father, who has been mewing, popping, dripping, and whistling ever since I can remember. I recall seeing an old video of me at about a year old and my father shooting ping-pong balls out of his mouth "p-too!" which made me go into hysterical laughter.

The pool was nice but there were some older ladies in there on their water noodles who didn't seem to like the invasion, especially because youth often splash when they swim. I hope we didn't disturb them too much. I raced David to the other side of the pool, him with flippers on and me without, but he ran me off into the divider. He would have won anyway since he was creeping ahead. I swam the length of the pool completely underwater without taking a breath, watched Clay and Brad, David and Bruce, tried a pair of flippers on, and just swam around for a while. Clay said he was going to get out and get something to eat (Mrs W had brought out lunch out) and I decided it was time for me to get out too, though apparently he stayed for a little while longer. My eyes were smarting from the chlorine and made me feel tired. I ate my lunch in the room where we do VBS and then read for a little while.

Missy and Beth were sitting on these large rubber balls (about two foot diameter) and Brad grabbed a pink one and tried to balance on it, falling over backwards. It looked absolutely ridiculous (and it was) but I had to try it too. Brad and I had a contest (on Bruce's mark), first one to touch the floor, loses. I jiggled around, bounced a few times, and then rolled right off. Brad was very good at balancing and definitely won. A little while after that, he asked me if I'd ever done Alligator Wrestling, and challenged me to that. It was pretty fun, I'll have to try that with my siblings when I get home!

The kids began to arrive and we started another rousing game of duck-duck-goose. They wanted to play it, though I figured that by this time they would be getting rather bored with it. I guess it's just the excitement of the chase, the running around, the (gently) whacking of people on the heads.

I taught the story time but felt much more comfortable with the younger group than with the older group, I felt as though a lot of my examples were geared for a younger mindset. Overall it went well though. There were several boys who were a bit rambunctious and would run around the room, not sit still etc. There was one young boy (five) who was named Drake, and he was always crying, whining, or complaining about something. I had him and another chap on my lap for the closing skit, they took their sandals off and put them on their hands. It's hard to keep little boys focused on what is going on, their attention is SO easily drawn to something else!

It was all over for the day and we gathered things up and left after a few suggestions from Bruce as to what we should to next. Thursday we should be doing some climbing on the "rock" wall, which will be fun. Hopefully the ones who aren't climbing won't be unengaged with some activity or something interesting.

After a brief time at the Wagners (where we practised the song that we are to be singing for the talent show Thursday night) we followed Brad over to his parent's house. It was a good evening and I really enjoyed getting to know them a bit better. Brad is absolutely crazy and on the trip over, was turning on his blinker, changing lanes, and violently driving (like Brad always does). He says he's just an aggressive driver, not an unsafe one.

He barbequed some chicken and we ate that together with potato salad, spaghetti squash, and some honey-dew melon with strawberries. It was all very good and we enjoyed the evening. Brad ran and got the tractor after supper and taught everyone how to drive it around, which they thoroughly enjoyed. Brad was having a great time. He drove over with Katie and got a sledge to pull around behind it, which was two 2x4 studs stacked on each side, with plywood across the top. He came back pulling Katie on it. Some other youth hopped on and he gave them a short ride around the yard. Nathaniel got on the back and Brad started to take off and there was room so I ran and jumped on "surfing" around the yard. Brad circled around so that he was pointed in the opposite direction, gave the tractor her head, which in turn gave the sledge a violent jerk. I knew I probably wouldn't stay on when he was winding around for that, and I didn't. Ah, it was fun. The Wagners (most of them) left while some of the rest of us stayed behind.

Brad took us on a "Nature Walk" out in the woods, where they had mowed a path. I had a chance to talk to Evelyn about various things, about the lack of fireflies where our family used to live (they were blinking tonight, though not a whole lot of them) and then I went rambling off on something about my Grandpa William and his younger days (which was spawned by a memory of "Chiggahs." I thoroughly enjoyed my time. Mrs C, Brad's mom, kept telling us not to get hurt or lost, and to watch out for the poison ivy, and all in all, mothering us. She is a very nice lady and I'm not sure how she wound up with Brad for a son! We were sitting out by the picnic table chatting and could see Brad's parents and Nathaniel (who was doing something with his Palm Pilot) inside, so Brad said we should go up to the window like Zombies. He snuck over and put a couple of chairs under the windows and then we crept up and when he said go, Brad, myself, David, and Clay, plastered ourselves against the windows and glass doors with horrible, wide-eyed, gaping expressions on our faces. Nathaniel glanced up but that's about it, Mrs C went running from the room with her hands on her eyes and temples. We just couldn't stop laughing. We were so silly. Mrs C came out and thankfully she was used to Brad enough to not have been really frightened and she was laughing too. I would have felt bad if we had really given her a bad start. She said she might have bad dreams though.

We needed to get going but Brad still wanted to try to elicit some response from Nathaniel so we staggered in and fell on the couch, moaning, mouths open and blank stares on our faces. He didn't even look up. I said something like "Oh, come on Nathaniel! Play along!" He just wasn't in the mood I guess. I thought the evening was very enjoyable and I was thankful for the opportunity. On the ride back home, we prayed for Calvin and sang a couple of songs, Nathaniel read a few Psalms which I appreciated, then we (Nathaniel, Ruth, Evelyn, and myself) discussed the Chronicles of Narnia for a time. As soon as we got home, I prepared for bed and tried to go to sleep. It took a while but at last I dozed off and got up the next morning at about 6:15. Time for another day!