May 5

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Now that that's over with, here's what went down today:
Once I got to work at 8:58am, I realized I don't have a key to the church. Great. I had to wait for someone else to show up to work so I could get in. Luckily, 9am is when most everyone shows up to work, and only had to wait for about 29.3 seconds.

Every Wednesday morning = the weekly staff meeting. Sometimes these last til lunch, sometimes it can let out earlier. The staff meeting was nothing special, but I might just be biased because I knew no one on the prayer list, nor did I know about any of the issues being discussed. I was welcomed by Bill Thornton (the Senior Minister/preacher) to the meeting, we joked for a minute about how I'm an Okie and OU fan (hardy harr harr)... then the meeting really began. I just sat there and soaked it all in, once again, not knowing anyone or anything being discussed. It's safe to say that I was rather bored... but it wasn't painful; that's a plus.

After the meeting, I went up to my office and helped Eden clean and pack up her stuff. She showed me a couple things that she was leaving behind... and I'm glad she did. A few papers with numbers on it, along with examples of what she did over the past year. Now I have adequate information on what to do and what not to do based on what Eden did over the past year.

Lunch (LUNCH!!!!) at China Buffet... was good! Mongolian grill, Chinese buffet, all you can eat... for 7 bucks! WOW! I will be returning there, despite my diminishing dislike for Chinese. I could begin to love Chinese for 7-buck-all-you-can-eat buffets. Regardless, this lunch was not about me, but for Garet, Eden, and Roger (the Missions minister), because they are all leaving the church soon. I got to meet a couple staff members that I hadn't got the pleasure of talking to, and the conversation was fun and warm and gooey. Well, maybe not gooey, but it was pleasant.

After lunch, I talked to Joy about background checks that are now being required from everyone who works in the Children's ministry... even if they've been there for 100 years. Doesn't matter... the elders want EVERYONE that volunteers on record. Even non-volunteers, including myself. Weird, but whatever. I understand the reasons. Safety first... and CYB (cover your butt). It's all about liability! (thanks bus barn for branding that idea into my thought process!)

I went up to my office and finished helping Eden move stuff out. Once her stuff was gone, I finished cleaning the rest of the office and putting my stuff away. I never thought myself to be obsessively organized... but I'm finding that I really am. It's a relief to see my things in order on the desk. It'll change... maybe... but still, I'm learning something new about myself. Obsessive compulsive? No. Beginning signs of OCD? Possibly.

Joy came up and saw the nice clean organized office and approved. Not that I needed her approval for my office... but I don't know... it's nice and different from Eden's, I guess? Bah, I don't know what I'm getting at here.

Alright! Tonight was the last Wednesday night programming for the school year. The Children's ministry takes a break during the summer for the Wednesday nights. In saying that, this was the "party" night, signaling the end of the program, as well as Eden's final event. With it being Cinco de Mayo, the theme was, well, Mexican. There were 4 stations for the 4 groups of kids to go to: Mexican hat dance, Windsock craft, Gigantic inflatable slide, and a soccer game. While I was excited about doing the soccer game, I let someone else do it so I could play on the slide.

This is where my first encounters with the kids begins. First impressions are everything, I hear... so from the comments I got from the kids... I'm "weird", "funny", "hairy" and "loco" (thanks Cinco de Mayo for giving kids another name to call me). I call that a success. They all liked me, at least from what I could tell, and we had a good time on the slide.

Once all the kids had rotated through the 4 stations, we headed inside for nachos and a puppet show. All the kids were high-fiving me, wanting me to sit at their table or sit with them on the floor, and all calling me "loco". I enjoyed it. Not all the parents knew who I was, and I was actually never announced as to me being the new CM intern. Oh well, they'll figure out what weird-looking funny hairy loco guy is playing with their kids. Haha... it'll be interesting to see if I get any comments because of my "newness".

I helped clean up everything, helped Eden with the last few things to be packed in her car, went up to my office to my desktop to download and install some video editing software, looked up, saw it was 10pm... and decided 9am-10pm was a long enough work day... and called it quits.

Overall, I loved the event and playing with the kids for the first time. I think I'll have more of an impact with them, face-to-face, than Eden did. I think I just care to relate to them more. That's just the perception I'm getting. Could be wrong... but I didn't see any kids upset that Eden was leaving... nor did I see very many kids say "goodbye" to her. That's a goal of mine: to have the kids visibly upset when my last event/day rolls around. Haha... that's bad, I know, but I want them to know I care for them, and as egotistical as it may sound, I want them to care about me too.

Day 3 on the job is tomorrow, and it'll be my first day without Joy... her and her husband are leaving for NYC and a 2-week vacation-cruise... lucky! I've got a lot of work to do, but now that Garet is out of the office for the rest of the week (vacation to home), I should get some stuff done.

Til next time... which is tomorrow night...
clint

DAY 2 COMPLETE