Of Joining the Circus

It's always been one of my dreams to pack up a red Volkswagen Bus with a team of people and live. I never really specified or cared about the "how" of living. I just like the idea of a nomadic life. Well that's pretty much how I've been living for the past two weeks.

Two weeks ago tomorrow, four Axis team members and two interns squished into a van full of equipment, luggage, and one bongo drum. Then drove a total of 20 hours and spoke at 4 different schools.

I'm frustrated right now that I didn't update this blog sooner because there's so much that happened that I'm not remembering or that won't seem to flow...

I guess first off I should tell you about the barn. I slept in a huge Amish barn, in a horse stall. On hay. Ok, just kidding about the hay. It was a fully furnished barn, with a kitchen. But it was still a barn. Here's kinda what that looked like.

This is the loft...

A cozy fire..

An aerial view of the cozy fire...

An aerial view of the kitchen from the loft...

It kinda smelled funny, but our host lady made the best food I ever eaten in my life, and the bed was comfortable. They owned two Buffalo just for the heck of it. That night, they took us to see the school play, Heidi. Being from California, and thus, a theatre snob...I will not talk about the play except to say that the kids were quite talented and entertaining.

Now I'm lying on a bed in a house owned by the principal of a boarding school in the middle of South Dakota. I expected that a boarding school would be awful, but the kids are actually really awesome. I had lunch with a 7th grader named Jayden who was the happiest child I have ever seen. He cleared my plate for me and could carry on an adult conversation. Ok, well it was more like a "what's your favorite movie" kind of conversation, but still, if I ever have a child I hope it's just like that kid.

Here are some highlights:

1. A four year old girl named Rebekka singing "I like to move it move it" to Jared...

2. Running with a host named Tom...

3. Mary's lasagna...

4. Seeing a buffalo up close...

5. Eating dinner with German speaking Hutterites while our German (Kristina) wasn't even there...

6. Pillow talk with Hope...

7. Playing basketball with students...

8. Living from town to town, talking about God, and Truth, and pouring into kid's lives.

9. Being a nomad and impacting my culture.

10. Learning to trust God when it was really hard.