Castles and Turkish Coffee

(written 1:30pm Sunday October 14, 2007)

We are in the car right now on our way from Toledo, Ohio to Warren, Ohio. This morning we did a worship service at Salem Lutheran, an inner city Toledo church. Last night we stayed with Mary Bull’s parents, Steve and Lisa. Mary works in the office at Youth Encounter and we got to know her pretty well through training. It was fun to see lots of pictures of her growing up and get to meet her parents. They spoiled us and took us out to Buffalo Wild Wings and Coldstone Creamery for dinner last night. So good! The bed I slept on last night was phenomenal! It had a foam mattress and a heated blanket and was so comfy!

This past week has been very low key and we have not been doing very many programs. This has kind of thrown off our team’s momentum and I think it’s hard for most of us during the times when we are not doing much. It has been really fun getting to spend more time with our host families though. We have spent much of the past week in Toledo, Ohio and for two nights we stayed with a couple named Marty and Angela and their two kids: Seth (8) and Chelsea (4). We spent a lot of time in their home and got to play with the kids. Seth enjoyed playing video games and loved that he had some guys around to play with him. Chelsea had so much energy and enjoyed jumping from couch to couch, yelling things about monkeys. During the day that we spent with Chelsea we put together a princess castle from lots of pieces scattered throughout her toy box. We definitely did not find them all but I think it turned out pretty well. Chelsea also loved taking pictures with my camera and it was fun to see things from the perspective of a four year old. The castle picture below is compliments of Chelsea. J Both nights that we were there we had Turkish coffee with Marty. It’s very strong and you don’t filter out the grounds so you have a nice layer of coffee mud at the bottom of your tiny mug when you are finished. The first night, the Turkish coffee really wired us and we were wide awake, up late playing games. Marty and Angela are both pastors and we did programs at both of their churches. They were so generous to us and we really connected with their family.

We had our first team outing on Friday night. We went to a Mexican restaurant in Toledo called El Camino Real. Very good food and quick service. After dinner we played mini golf, which is always a good idea when it is 45 degrees outside. It was dark and cold and we were the only ones at the mini golf place but we had a blast! We played two rounds and we all got at least one hole-in-one! Afterward we warmed up by a fireplace at a pastor’s house where we were staying and visited with the pastor, Chris and his wife, Chris. They made us an amazing French toast breakfast on Saturday morning and it was our first Saturday morning that felt like a normal Saturday morning at home. J