The month of June...

So a whole month goes by without any new posts from me and I apologize. Here's a whirlwind tour...

I worked a lot. Pure Energy youth choir left and thus most of my friends were gone but I survived and had a good time with the interns and some new friends. My dad had a birthday. I went to Magic Springs. I went on a mission trip to Arlington.

About the mission trip, I went with a group of 30 people to Arlington, Texas on Sunday the 24th. We stayed at the Hawthorn Suites, which was a great hotel, and worked with Mission Arlington (missionarlington.org). For more of the day-to-day and for some different perspectives, check out the blog from us at Blogger. Pictures at Picasa Web Albums. Each morning, we went to the Cypress Club apartments and did a hour and a half backyard Bible club type thing with music, games, a story, memory verse, a craft or coloring, and snacks. In the afternoon, we would repeat at Arlington Square. I was nudged outside of my comfort zone, as I should be, and taught the Bible story. I don't think I did all that great at the actual storytelling but I think the kids got the main points that I put out there. If you know me, you probably know I'm a mostly reserved person. If I am a leader, I lead more by example than by instructing. But I did it and I think the kids at least learned a bit. Another thing that was outside of my comfort zone was that I only knew four people well instead of knowing most of those going (like I would on the upcoming Peru trip if I was going) but that made some great friendships and I got to know some great people. So that was really cool how God put everything together. After four days of the clubs, we finished up the trip by going to Hurricane Harbor which was a blast. I love waterparks and they have some great rides there. We left to come home and got back around 9:45 Friday night. Great trip. Mission Arlington is a great organization and worth checking out if you're in the Dallas area and have some time.

So that's a little bit of my June. Onto July. I had my 90 day evaluation yesterday at work. I exceeded expectation on some areas, met expectation on all the others. Overall, I met expectations so that was good. They praised my dependability (no tardys, no absents), my lack of complaining, and my flexibility so that was good. I will now be paid over eight bucks an hour so that's pretty cool too. This week I'm working over the maximum of 5 hours for minors set forth by Wal-Mart or by the store, I'm not sure but they need people and the manager authorized it so I'm working 5.5 hour shifts. Not much but a little extra money. And at least I get the 4th off. Last night I got to use the "Mule" to push carts which was pretty cool. It can push 20 carts remotely. A lot easier than manually pushing 8 carts at a time. Last night was actually really cool. I kind of like pushing carts every once in a while, wouldn't want to do it all the time. But for the last two hours, when things were slowing down, I would sing some worship songs and I prayed for the Peru mission trip and for my friends and I praised God pushing carts in the parking lot. Those are some of my favorite times, it's just me and carts and I'm singing His praises and talking to Him and trying to listen and hear Him above the noise. So that's why I actually like to push carts some nights. It's a great fellowship time with God.

I played some tennis this morning. Now I'm about to head off to work. Not sure what I'm doing tomorrow but it will be good because I'm free! Celebrate your freedom!

-Kevin