Paper Fish

Hello again from Clovis! :) The last couple of days have been a lot of fun and I just wanted to write a quick update.

Sunday I went to Clovis Hills for the first time and it was great! I went to the first youth service and got to meet some of the teenagers that I'll be working with this summer! It was definitely a little intimidating, but good. I had read just that morning in 1 Thessalonians about the faithfulness of God as I was getting ready to go, and He was definitely faithful to give me some courage to talk to some of the students. While most of the time, my personality is to be very outgoing, sometimes it takes me a little time to warm up to people and be that outgoing one, but praise God that He gave me that courage on Sunday. I really enjoyed the services at Clovis Hills. Dave (my supervisor)'s wife, Kimberly, is the worship leader for "big church" and it was great to watch her praise God on Sunday morning. I also enjoyed the preaching time and found the pastor to be very easy to listen to. While Clovis Hills is definitely a little different than what I am used to (Grace Temple or Central), I think I'm going to like it. Change is good, and I think it's something that I need right now. While I haven't been actively leading worship for over a month now, I must say that it is so nice to sit in the congregation and be an active participant instead of playing the piano all of the time. :)

Sunday night Kara and I went to ICON, the college group. It was exciting to meet some other college students @ Clovis Hills and I really hope that I'll get to spend more time with them and get to know them better in the coming weeks. :) I know I'll eventually need a break from the teenagers. :) We went over to Dave's house afterwards for hamburgers and to hang out. Two of our friends from Orientation were there. They are also serving in Fresno and one of them's host home are friends of Dave and Kimberly's. It was good to see them and hang out with them again. :) Hopefully we'll see them often this summer.

Yesterday (Monday) we had the day off. Kara and I ventured to Wal-Mart (let me just say that they are not as good as back in Texas!) and then hung out by the pool at my house for most of the afternoon. :) It was glorious! :) The kids came and played with us for a while and it was so much fun! I love having kids around all the time. It's so much fun! Never a boring moment. :) Kara and I went to her house and watched a movie (well, I slept through most of it---the sun is so draining here!) and then had dinner together. It was definitely a great day of relaxing and hanging out.

Today was my 1st day of "work" I guess you could say. I'm working in the office this week helping out various people and doing various things. I cut out paper fish of all colors (hence the title of this blog) for a good 5 hours today. They are going to be used in the Children's Ministry for Scripture memory or something like that. It was fun and it gave Kara and I more time to talk and get to know each other so it was good. We got to meet some more people that work in the office and I must say, it's a pretty fun place. :) Dave also gave us something to think about along the lines of doing something for the girls of the youth group. Because we are not going to Philly anymore for M-Fuge (so sad about that!), we will have a week here with nothing really planned so he wants us to plan something for the girls of the youth group for that week. Something like a Princess Camp or something like that. Pray that we will be able to get a lot of the planning for that done this week because we will be gone the next two on different mission trips. I'm really excited about doing this because it's definitely something that is close to my heart, but pray that I wouldn't let myself get in the way of God's plans for that week. It's so easy for me to get caught up in what I want, so please join me in praying that I will be open to what He wants us to do to reach out to these girls. :) Thanks so much!

Anyway, I'll try to post some pictures on here later this week so you guys can have some sort of reference as to where I am and what I've been up to. :) Also, if you are reading this and you would like my address for any reason, email me and let me know and I'll get that to you. I think that most of my readers are already on my email list, but just in case you aren't, let me know. :)

Prayer Requests at the moment:
-boldness in making relationships with teenagers and all those I come in contact with
-strong relationships with Dave (my supervisor) and Kara (my partner)
-continued adjustment to the time zone difference
-mission trip to San Francisco next week with Junior Highers :)

Thanks so much for praying!! I love you all and miss you!

Falling in Love with California,
Kimberly :)