Update From Redding

School has been excellent! The kick off was not as extreme as I had expected. We were told that Bill and Kris would kind of take off like a rocket when we got to school and both of them have been relatively mellow. Bill took most of one day to share with us a bunch of his favorite proverbs and Kris started talking about the government of God. Kris says he will continue to talk about that for the whole year with other stuff mixed in.

I found out last Friday that I am a small group leader. I had not been selected earlier in the summer, but at some point they decided they did want me to lead but did not bother telling me. So the way I found out was when one of the other leaders of my group came up to me and asked why I had missed the leader’s meeting that morning… :) My small group is an experimental mix. Normally there are five in a small group; one leader with two people they coach and one co-leader with one person he/she coaches. My small group has eight people in it. The leader’s name is John Matthews and he is coaching two. I am one of the co­-leaders and I am coaching two. And a guy named Todd is another co-leader and he is coaching one. I think they must have had the number of leaders come out in our revival group in a funny way. Short term this means that I am reading the Leadership Coaching book by Tony Stoltzfus and doing a book report on it. Long term it will mean having a lot more experience in giving people life coaching!

My birthday was on Monday and I had a blast. I meant to take pictures but pretty much forgot that the camera was in my backpack. Just imagine a beautifully clear lake and about seven really cool people named Mirlandra, Merlin, Justin, Ruthie, Lisa, Joel, and Michael. Joel and I had a lot of fun wrestling in the water. Michael would have joined in, but he is a really tall, strong guy… so I am kind of glad he didn’t! I love you all!