Did you fall off the face of the earth?

Essentially, Yes.
I have been sucked into the great vaccum of VTI training of late!
I love it.

On June 10, my friend Lili arrived from Mexico. Good times were had as we made her go quadding at my parent's farm, hiking in the Rockies, to Canada day celebrations and oh, so much more. In Banff, we were up the creek without a paddle on where to stay, and they were all like "we'll just sleep in the car"... bad attitude beth was not happy about that one... so I was like "hey, we're Christians, let's see if we can stay in the church in Banff..." so I walked in and looked around (strange that it was even open on a weeknight) and who did I see but a VTI alumnus standing there! So, although I'm sure she didn't even know my name, the three of us girls crashed at her place in Banff and spent some solid time chillaxing... and now Lili can add sleeping in strangers' homes to part of her grand Canadian adventure.

WE did a little leadership training in late June... had a few days off again... and then started GAP training on July 3. That's when I fell off the map. I am the Trinidad team's female advisor. If you want a taxing job, sign yourself up for that one... sooo good, and yet I feel like I was running nonstop for 10 days. An introvert in an extroverted job, staying up late listening to the places people are coming from and catching up with old friends... having a BLAST teaching the arts to people and watching them get really good. Struggling so much with wanting to be able to go with them but knowing that for some reason, God has put me on staff for the summer.
It's tough to know I'm grounded here while they all get to go... but now I understand why teh staff always wanted to hear ministry stories - esentially, the teams do the ministry that we can't do. I've been pretty challenged to hear God's voice and look for chances to minister here though.
Mostly I'm just so tired I can't think straight at the moment. I feel really worn thin at the moment. If you want to pray for me, you can pray that I'll not try to carry people's burdens, and that I'll take each day one at a time and not worry about what's to come. And that I'll use my life effectively for God this summer.

This is getting long though. There were some pretty funny times. I learned how to hardcore sing (yay Matt!) and made a new friend as we waited for the real person she was calling to show up. I did lots of hiking/running, and had some really strange stress dreams.
Rawk on y'all. I'll write again in awhile...