May 6

Greetings and salutations from the desk of Clint Bowles:

Today was the first day without Joy being here. Her and Dave left this morning at 4am to make their 7:30 flight in Omaha. So, I slept through them leaving, but I did wish them a happy trip before they went to bed.

For a first day by myself, I don't feel like I accomplished much. I mean, I felt more focused and like I was working almost all day... but nothing was completed, I should say. I like having at least something completed by the end of the day... no matter how small. It helps me feel useful and keeps my production level high. I understand that when the school year starts back up in the fall, the lull of ministry will become apparent. Until then, I need the satisfaction of completing a project.

In the morning, I made out a huge list of things to do before May 28. This includes:
- immediately upcoming Sunday morning preparations,
- a Sunday morning curriculum schedule for the summer (it's different and crazier than the normal school-year repetition),
- set design for summer Sunday mornings,
- Camp Timberlake challenges, worship, verses, games, awards, and the camp Booklet that I'll be making from scratch,
- deciding what mini-musical to pick for Kid's Live Camp
- possible set and costume design for the mini-musical
- see what needs to be done for VBS, even though that's in July
- call some volunteers, including new volunteers that haven't taught at Quad-C
- add some people on facebook from the church... helps me to connect with them
- create a calendar of events for the summer
- type out a "About Me" for the weekly Quad-C newsletter
- pray about finding a place to live*** this is a must.

Alright, so that was my list... to do before the 28th. I'll be back and forth between Manhattan and Lincoln over the next 2 weeks, but hopefully I can get most, if not all of this done or nearly done. Then my desire for completion will be quenched, if not temporarily.

I met with some staff people, just friendly talk, then went and ate lunch by myself.


The biggest thing that I have to do over the next month is get ready for Camp Timberlake. We are converting a 5-week lesson curriculum from Craig Jutila (the former Children's Minister at mega-church Saddleback Church in California, now fully devoted to his curriculum-creating company, Empowering Kids). The curriculum is video-driven, so I'm weeding out and deciding on what we can and cannot use for church camp. Everything in it is funny, of course, but not necessarily usable for church camp. I've picked the 3 of the 5 lessons to do at camp, and the other 2 lessons will be used on the Sunday morning before camp and the Sunday morning after camp. This way, it should keep the kid's attention and also be fresh in their memory.

With this camp, I have to design the camp booklet that will be handed out to every camper. I don't know how many are going, in case you were wondering. So this booklet thing could be a huge task, or... by looking at previous brochures and booklets... I wouldn't have to do much work at all. Just typing in information and the booklet looking like it took 10 minutes. I'd like for it to look FREAKIN AWESOME!! ...I just hope I have enough time to do it.

I also have to make up challenges everyday for the kids to do for 45 minutes before evening chapel. I haven't even begun to think of what to do, but I know I will soon.

AND... whew... I am leading the worship for camp. I am still not sure if we are going to try a full band or just use the CD. The CD would be easier and less stressful and less time consuming... but it would be so fun to have a full band, made up of some talented kids. This decision will be made very soon, because if we decide to do this... then we'll need to practice soon... and have the song picked by then. Whew!

Alright, so, today I got the About Me thing done, as well as facebook added people, watched the Wake Up! curriculum we'll be using for camp, the "Pair O' Bulls" curriculum we'll be using for the summer Sunday mornings. I am 100% sure that I will be watching/studying these DVD/curriculums over the next month... over and over again. That's just how it goes.

That's all for today. It's almost midnight, and I'm going to talk to me wife on the phone and fall asleep to the sound of rain and thunder.

clint

DAY 3 COMPLETE