One day of Bible School is done. Two more to go. Compared to working at camp, days like today are relatively simple. 8:30 to 12:45 with six 3rd through 5th graders for three days pales in comparison to 7 or 8 boys from various ages for parts of 6 days and 5 nights. At Penn York Camp, the counselor led all the activities and was responsible for the kids at all times. At Bible School I may be responsible for the kids the whole time, but I only lead them alone for about an hour a day. At camp I was very pleased if I got a full hour off every day, while here we are given about 45 minutes for breaks that don't even feel deserved. I'd rather play with the kids during break times anyway.

These three days we are learning about the Holy Spirit using the "Catch the Spirit" VBS guide. The guide is for 5 days, but for many various reasons we are scrunching it into 3 days. That gives an overabundance of material to fit into the limited class times. And with a group as talkative as mine it's quite a challenge to get to the next task. We have several activity centers each day to focus on some action of the church, like praying, playing, and gathering today. And we'll be going through quite a bit of the book of Acts as we learn. It was Acts 1:1-2:12 and 2:37-47 today. I'm looking forward to tomorrow!

Since I last posted, I have spent most of my time at the church in my simple little office. I've been reading and writing and planing and preparing for several things. Getting ready for Bible School was a large part of it. And we're well underway on final preparations for the Columbus convention at the end of the month. For me that involves mainly leading Bible studies with the MYF. The first was last Sunday and there will be two more before we head off for convention.

The biggest event for me this past week was a trip to Minneapolis for a meeting on Monday. Dave and I left Sunday evening and spent the night in a Holiday Inn, then we finished the trip Monday morning. The purpose for the meeting was to address a proposal for establishing a second Hmong church in the Minneapolis area. The Hmong leader started the first one 4 or 5 years ago and feels like it is time to start a second one. Various leaders from the Central Plains Conference met with him to see how this could work.

In the morning, just the Central Plains representatives talked to see how the proposal looked to them. Everyone agreed that starting this church was an important cause, but saw the timescale and financial plan as impossibilities. When the Hmong leaders came at lunch time, we ate and socialized and then got back to business. Dealing with the different cultures provided some challenges, but everyone seemed to understand the powers at play and negotiations happened easily enough. The timeline was pushed back one year and various funding streams were named. I won't be around as these people continue to meet, but it looks like there will be a second Hmong Mennonite church in Minneapolis by summer of 2011.

In out of church news, I am no longer living alone! That's pretty fantastic! I could not ask for better hosts than Wilbur and Helen. And it feels much better to return home to people after a day of work rather than looking forward to an evening alone. We will continue to get to know each other and figure out routines, but I'm confident everything will work very well.

That's enough for now. As always, I enjoy hearing from whoever is reading this!