I’m enjoying my first week of school, mission Theology is our morning class, it’s easy. Sustain in the evenings is a bit different and may be more challenging.

I don’t typically see myself as a “kids person” as in I don’t usually find myself playing with kids. That might be because at home I always got something else to do and my siblings take care of it… But here, there’s usually 3 or 4 missionary kids just running around while the adults all talk.

Once they found out that I have energy and a willingness to be silly, they began to seek me out for shenanigans. I’d take a couple on my shoulders at a time and literally run around in full sprints.

Then Jane Marie had us run for 20 minutes, I wore myself out (I went as fast as I could I guess), and then we did 4 sets of 10 push-ups, and then various stretches and things. I still can’t touch my toes, but neither can Hopper. Shoulders were sore the next day, I think it was the push-ups.

This week we learned about Sustain, which is “farming God’s way” and gets people self-sufficent and out of poverty and using their resources wisely and efficiently. It focuses around discipleship and getting people to understand who they are in Christ. I really like the system, I want to try it back in the states.

Phil Smethurst (the President of Overland) spoke to us about our identity in Christ and picked on me and Theara. He said that everyone from Dubuque carries a recorder in their back pocket. Lol. His message was about us no longer being citizens of particular places, but being from the Kingdom of Heaven. And when we’re from the Kingdom of Heaven, we’re no longer predictable, we don’t act like “people from Dubuque, or Cambodia, or whatever” we have Christ’s character.

We hiked down the gorge, I timed it, it took me 3:48 down, and 16:30 back up eventually. I’m going to try to cut my times down. While we were down there we tried fishing with Casey’s fishing equipment. But we didn’t catch anything. Corey has some ideas for catching some giant catfish later… I’m game to try that.

That night we played soccer, it was rather intense. I was a bit aggressive and knocked some people over, sorry. Corey was a fantastic goalie, and everyone else played a good game too. Roderick never tired, it was impressive.

I’m writing some papers, they’re teeming with sarcasm and logic, and love for Jesus. I hope my teachers have great senses of humor, but then again, it’d be funnier if they don’t.

Whenever someone walks by with a plate of partially finished food, Joy, or Hopper, or I will snatch it up and finish it. I used to have a germ fear of eating someone else’s food, but I’ve been fully cured. Corey and Holden say the dogs have been starving since we got here… Well, “it’s not right to feed the children’s food to the dogs.”