"Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."
--Kurt Vonnegut
So. What's been going on for the past few weeks of my life?
I'm finally getting the hang of being the Waumba LDP. This coming Sunday will be my SEVENTH (wow!) Sunday as the LDP for Waumba Land, and I couldn't be loving it more. I love being poured into as a college student, as a staff member, and as a leader, and being surrounded by such incredible people has already created change in my life. I feel SO blessed for this experience, and know God is going to be doing incredible things this year. Best part? Part of my job, (LITERALLY, it's my job!) is to create RELATIONSHIPS with the volunteers and other staff members of Athens Church. Um, hello. I. Love. This. :) AND I'm finally getting the hang of my Sundays. Last Sunday, I had the realization: Oh my gosh, I ACTUALLY know what I'm doing now! Big step.
Here's the run down of my Saturday-Sundays:
Saturday:
2am: Wake up, think that I've slept in, realize I haven't, and head back to bed.
3am: Wake up, think that I've forgotten something ridiculous, like making cookies. Realize I'm just going crazy, and try to fall back to sleep.
4:30am: Wake up, realize I have about half an hour to sleep, and debate falling back asleep.
5am: FINALLY hear my alarm and bolt out of bed, usually tripping on something, and try to be as graceful and quiet as possible so as not to wake my sleeping roommates. (Funny story... once, when I woke up at 4:30am to tie up some loose ends before church, I ran into one of my roommates. She was going to bed. I was waking up. We both thought the other was crazy)
5:28am: Arrive at the Classic Center and begin unloading everything. As a portable church, literally EVERYTHING is unloaded from a trailer on Sunday morning and then repacked and reloaded. The reality of this can only be fully grasped at either 5:30am, when the sun is rising and the Classic Center looks bare and crates and crates of pre-school toys, portable walls, and resources come pouring out of our trailer, or at 2pm, when the last crates, signs, and doors are loaded back onto the trailer for next Sunday's adventures.
5:45am: "Hmmm. I wonder if this will actually all get set up this morning."
5:47am: "I swear these crates are multiplying."
5:53am: "Oh my gosh. This isn't going to happen. The walls aren't even all here yet. I can't move this. This is ten times my weight. We'll never get everything set up. We'll be lucky if there are doors on the classrooms this morning."
5:59am: One minute until the volunteers arrive. I'm pulling out my hair, scatterbrain-ly putting crates in their respective corners, hoping the volunteers will be more "present" than I am.
6:20am: I breathe a sigh of relief. The volunteers never fail to put up the walls, unload the crates, and set up the jungle that is Waumba calmly, quickly, and efficiently. My thoughts: "Thank goodness, this will actually happen this morning."
6:58am: "I can't believe I've been up for two hours. I'm hungry. I need caffeine. Scratch that: I needed caffeine an hour and a half ago."
7:03am: I hear Adam calling for breakfast and finish whatever I'm doing, my mouth salivating at the thought of a sugary donut and caffeine finally hitting my bloodstream.
7:10am: I sit down for the first time this morning, and breathe a big sigh of relief. We are almost done setting up Waumba Land and I know for a fact that... this will actually happen this morning. We have our roadcrew breakfast meeting, eating Dunkin Donuts, injecting ourselves with caffeine, and telling incredible, inspiring stories from the past week. I love this meeting and the lunch meeting most, because we get to hear stories from all across the ministries--from the 2 year olds in Waumba Land to the 17 year olds in Inside Out. Sharing God's awesomeness? Perfect way to start the day.
7:30am: We head back upstairs and put the final touches on our environment. I change out of my T-shirt and athletic shorts, and get ready for the volunteers to arrive.
8:30am: My first wave of "Oh-my-gosh-I've-been-up-since-5" hits me. Cue Coke Zero.
9:00am: Did I really already finish that Coke Zero?
9:15am: This is when the day settles into a sort of routine (as long as I hopefully remembered to put everything in the zebra bags! Eek!). I head to service. The next three hours are a blur... service, check in (take 2), Large Group with the chickadees, and pick up.
12:30pm: "Is this really over?" Delirium hits, right in time for lunch. We scarf down Meerko/Jason's/Papa Johns and head back upstairs to somehow fit everything back into the crates.
1pm: Did everything really fit this morning?
(This is the point, both in my blog and the actual day, that I run out of witty remarks. So basically what happens is pack up, crack jokes, and hope no one gets run over by a runaway crate cart. yay. The end.)
I head home around 2pm, amazed it isn't dark yet, and marvel at my friends who are somehow still asleep.
Point of the story? Our volunteers, whether they are the ones who come hours before services begin, those who stay well into the perfect Sunday-afternoon-naptime, have a special place in my heart.
7:10am: I sit down for the first time this morning, and breathe a big sigh of relief. We are almost done setting up Waumba Land and I know for a fact that... this will actually happen this morning. We have our roadcrew breakfast meeting, eating Dunkin Donuts, injecting ourselves with caffeine, and telling incredible, inspiring stories from the past week. I love this meeting and the lunch meeting most, because we get to hear stories from all across the ministries--from the 2 year olds in Waumba Land to the 17 year olds in Inside Out. Sharing God's awesomeness? Perfect way to start the day.
7:30am: We head back upstairs and put the final touches on our environment. I change out of my T-shirt and athletic shorts, and get ready for the volunteers to arrive.
8:30am: My first wave of "Oh-my-gosh-I've-been-up-since-5" hits me. Cue Coke Zero.
9:00am: Did I really already finish that Coke Zero?
9:15am: This is when the day settles into a sort of routine (as long as I hopefully remembered to put everything in the zebra bags! Eek!). I head to service. The next three hours are a blur... service, check in (take 2), Large Group with the chickadees, and pick up.
12:30pm: "Is this really over?" Delirium hits, right in time for lunch. We scarf down Meerko/Jason's/Papa Johns and head back upstairs to somehow fit everything back into the crates.
1pm: Did everything really fit this morning?
(This is the point, both in my blog and the actual day, that I run out of witty remarks. So basically what happens is pack up, crack jokes, and hope no one gets run over by a runaway crate cart. yay. The end.)
I head home around 2pm, amazed it isn't dark yet, and marvel at my friends who are somehow still asleep.
Point of the story? Our volunteers, whether they are the ones who come hours before services begin, those who stay well into the perfect Sunday-afternoon-naptime, have a special place in my heart.
