Never Going Back To OK

It's strange, how stuff really can get in the way. Some of it is important, and some of it really doesn't matter at all. Things have been going well for the past few weeks since I last posted a quick update. Work is good, if slightly on the stressful side due to the volume of work expected of us recently. There are just projects that continue to come up, with little or no time to take a breather. It's good, as a whole, since that is what makes the company money. It's bad, from a personal standpoint, because there is never any time to further train me on things that they are wanting me to do. All 3 of us are essentially running around like crazy all day, with me doing the surprisingly large number of things that I can do on my own, and my two bosses more or less trying to keep their heads above water as people keep coming to them with rush work needing to be done in a day (or even less). Hopefully there will be something of a break in the near future, as one of my bosses will again be out of town, and there are a number of things that I'm needing to learn how to do to be able to help out more. With how things are going right now, though, I don't really see that happening.

Soccer is actually going surprisingly well. We are 4 games in to the season, and have won all of them, with scores of 6-3, 6-3, 4-0, and 5-2. They seem more like a set of tennis box scores for the end of a match. We're (the coaches) are not entirely sure whether our team is a lot better than we would have thought, or if dropping down 1 division from where we were last year put us with a bunch of teams that are not anywhere near as good as they were last year. It's a strange predicament. I think we have a better team this year, but not to the point where we're scoring 4 or more goals per game. It's a good place to be though, as the kids are having fun, and we're able to play everyone, whereas should things have been like they were last year, there would maybe be 2 subs out of 5 that we would play, with the other three never getting in. So I guess for all involved, we're doing alright. The soccer that I am playing (along with Mandi) has also finally gotten under way after all the weekends rained out. Unfortunately, they've scheduled many of our games at 5, so we only play a half, but it's been fun nonetheless.

Probably the biggest news to have occurred in the past few weeks is that I will be going with our church on a mission trip to Escobedo, Mexico. I'll be having to work extra before and after since I don't officially have any time off, but we'll be down there for a week working with a church that our congregation sponsors, and putting on a VBS. I've heard that I'll even see Whit while I'm down there, although I wasn't sure if he would still be there come the end of July. It just kind of came up as an opportunity, and I thought it would be one that would be worth taking advantage of. Now, for next year, to have some vacation time and squeeze in camp as well as this would be fantastic.

It has certainly been an interesting couple of months. Although it's been somewhat sporadic due to scheduling conflicts and events, I have been teaching our small group on Sunday evenings. All of you that know me know that I am of the quiet variety and often do not speak. It was difficult at first, but has gradually been getting easier. It's a lot like it was for teaching labs at UT while I was there, in that you're pretty nervous your first few outings, but it gets better as time goes on. I've been teaching on prayer, and it's been a good study for our group, I believe (certainly not based on anything that I have done personally). Some people have been turned off by it I think, since our numbers aren't as big as they are on Sunday morning, but a lot of it, in my opinion, is that a number of people in our group don't want to get in to anything except the superficial. Mandi and I both get that impression a lot, just based on how things go in class Sunday morning, and discussions that have ensued. We've also discussed it a lot between ourselves on how it seems that few people wants to be pushed, but simply show up and have a good time, and throw in a little "spiritual" discussion on the side.

I don't know, but it seems like that is such an easy place for everyone to slip in to. It's like those "highs" you get when you go on a mission trip, or to a retreat or something that is a little out of the ordinary that makes you feel so different for a while...and then it's back to your usual self. The fire that you had is gone, and everything just degenerates back to where you feel comfortable, which is an area where you aren't pushing yourself to grow or to think, but just to go through the motions for another day. I'm not saying that I'm always on a spiritual high, since I know that is not how things go, but it does seem hard for people, in general, to want to get back up to those peaks without some extraordinary event. I don't know if it's even a general trend for people to not want to be pushed while at church or devos or whatever...

I have to say, that doing these lessons, and needing to take time to study and prepare and everything has been a good experience for me. I'm even to the point now that I'm enjoying teaching and stuff, and hopefully I'll be able to do more of it in the future. I just hope that the feeling that I have while I'm doing it doesn't wear off the second my time to teach is done. I know it's impossible to never go back to OK, but I hope that, at some point, I'll be able to find a way that I can keep it from happening so easily. And maybe that will encourage others to strive for more as well.