Hello to August...
Well, July will be officially over in about two hours. To me, August is still summer, but to the stores, magazines, and Maranatha, it's officially the beginning of fall. Sad isn't it? I love summer, but before I get too depressed, I need to remember that there is still a good month until school starts, well, almost a month, and they are still selling swimsuits, so it can't be too soon to fall. Campfest 2006 is officially over, and camping for a week with my family in the woods is usually the last sign of summer. O well, right? We've still got a few days to go, let's make them count...
My Current Endeavor
Yes-I bit off yet another project-I'm taking 45 girls camping in the North Woods! It all started when my youth pastor reminded me that the girls all nighter was coming up, but they couldn't do it this year due to lack of volunteers-well if any of you know me-i had to do it! The girls all nighter is the single best activity of the summer-so anyway, I volunteered! Think of the fun! Bon fires on the beach, hikes in the woods, swimming in the bay with the waves, bible study at two in the morning! I'm so excited!! Love Ya'll! O-that's not me in the pic by the way
The Crazy Summer Life of the Young Elizabeth Hangen
Yes ladies and gentleman, welcome to my crazy life. The following is a short update in the life and times of my life, as wonderful and exciting as it is.
So anyway, I'm officially back from NYC less then twenty four hours and I find out that my mother of all people is expecting a baby. Dude, I can't believe I just wrote that and it's true. So I have another brother or sister coming and I will be officially 18.57 years older than this child. Let's put that in prospective. When the kid is born I will be 19.2 years old. When the kid graduates from high school I will be 37 years old. 37!!! When the kid turns 60 I will be 79. I won't live to see this kid turn 79. Nuts huh? Let's see, what else makes my life crazy. O I'm taking 35 teenage girls on an overnight camping trip in tents in July, like the last few weekends before school resumes. I have a special friend in Baghdad who officially said hello to me today, a nice bachelor at church sending attention my way, and I cannot make up my mind. I know I know, I'm not that fine of a catch, however, that's what's happening. Tomorrow I'm going to see Pirates of the Carribean, dead man's chest with my cousins, my brother, and my brothers friends. Last night was Cruise Night Classic Cars at the A&W, so I served approximately 375 people dinner, including my entire youth group, my friends from Gap, my friends from church, and my family. Crazy!!!!! So that's an update for all of you, I hope you're doing well and I can't wait to see you'll in just a few short weeks!!!!! By the way, how do you like my new look????
Shopping and the Looong bus ride...
Ok, last NYC update. I promised people that I would finish this long trip diary, so here it is. On Thursday we went down to Canal Street in Chinatown. See, this is a district in Manhattan that is full of immigrants, most of whom are illegal. The police and the city of NY let them live down there and sell stuff because it brings in millions of dollars a day in tourism. So for fun we took the group of kids down there. Well, a beautiful thing about downtown NY is stolen purses. You see these Chinese people have friends that work in stors like Coach, Louis Vutoinne, Gucci, Prada, etc. Sadly, many of these people steal purses and sell them to others to sell in NY. That's where the tourists come in. See, people like me who love a good deal and love to bargain with people are marketed and recruited to buy the purses which give money to the immigrants who can then continue to live in NY and make money for the city and so on and so forth. So I'm standing on the street just minding my own business and some Chinese guy confronts me and asks if I would be interested in a purse, and of course, I said yes. So me and a couple of the girls who wanted a purse too, follow this guy to his store. Well, that's what we thought. Anyway, he takes us to this huge wall right outside on the street covered in movie posters. He then gets on his Nextel walkie talkie and says something in Chinese which causes the door to open. It's pitch black inside and he waves us in. Scary right? Well, before I could even realize what was going on , we were following him up three flights of stairs in the darkness. Just when I thought we were all going to die for sure, he takes us into this little room. The door slowly opens and inside is the most beautiful little air conditioned store you've ever see, stocked full of these purses. How exciting right? Well, later that day we decided that it probably wasn't the safest thing to do and we vowed never to do it again. I bought some NYC t-shirts and a turtle (whose named Conan after the Late Show tv set we visited) . It was a great trip. All in all we saw 21 people saved and many more become interested in the gospel. So it was a great trip. Next year it seems like we are going to go to Paris. I'm so excited. Please continue to pray that the decisions made on the trip last a lifetime.
Monday-Wednesday, Thursday, and Finally Friday
Sorry this trip diary is taking soo long, I've been trying to work two jobs, volunteer with my youth group, keep in touch with my friends, spend time with my family, and o yeah, sleep and eat. Anyway Monday through Wednesday were identical trip days. Up at 8, breakfast, missions meeting, cleaning, power nap, lunch, canvassing and street preaching (they wouldn't let me street preach, still bitter), dinner, war/VBS in the park, missions meeting, shower time (best time of the day) and bed, usually around 1am. Crazy huh? well no one said a missions trip was going to be easy and fun. Shower time was always an adventure. The church had a definit cochroach (spelling?) problem. O yeah, and despite what people say, they like water. They were all over the shower as you took one. Now for those of you who know me, I'm usually a trooper and can handle just about any disgusting situation, however this was not the case. These disgusting bugs were like, five inches+ in length, plus antennea. Anyway, thrusday was our last official day in the city, and we had probably the best day i've had in a loooong time. We began the day with a brisk morning walk through downtown Manhattan. You could smell the bistros and Starbucks and feel the night slowly drift away and the morning smell come. For those of you who haven't been to NYC, that didn't make any sense to you. Then we went to St. Patricks cathedral, a very religious church in the city. It's also very Catholic. Buried there are people like Joe DeMaggio, Babe Ruth, and a whole lotta bishops. It was not a Christian place, but religious places like thath have always provided me with a chance to quietly rededicate my life/ministry. I know it sounds dumb, but hey, it's me. After that it was to NBC studio's for a tour of tv's most watched network. There we saw the studio for NBC sports, the late show with Conan O'Brian, SNL, and Dateline. After NBC it was off to Rockefeller Center for lunch and shopping, or in my case lunch and caffeine pills. Then it was shopping on Canal Street, more about that later...
