Christmas in July

The Guam ladies had already done the lemon retreat, so Christmas in July for the win!  I mean....who doesn't want to get presents mid-year?

In true island fashion, we started 1 1/2 hours late. (That's one good thing about coming home to band. I always start and end on time.)  But once we got going, we had a really great time.

We played a game (and exchanged presents which I didn't take a picture of)...

We enjoyed a time of devotion and small groups...

And we ended with Christmas themed prayer stations

I missed the full day retreat.  However, many of these ladies also work on Saturdays.  So I feel like we had a better turnout having an evening event. Might have to be something I think about for future Guam retreats.  

Things Aren't Always as They Seem

Most of posts are glamourous (ish).  You see the smiles...the hotels...the fancy pools...the amazing views.  That's what people like to see.  The pretty.

In reality most of these people don't live in "the pretty."  

During my Saipan youth retreat, zero kids had been to that resort--to even walk around.  I have dropped in many times over the years to take in the beauty. I had swam in the pools. They live here, and had never stepped foot on that property.  I had asked a few of the girls if they had ever been there before.  Their reply, "Miss, we don't leave Kagman."  That would be the equivalent of me never leaving Francis.  It's true. They don't (except for when the church van picks them up to take them to church). 

During the Guam youth retreat, I asked if any of them had been to Onward waterpark before.  One had...in elementary school.  Me? I would have probably gone several times a year.

We had pizza at both youth retreats. That is certainly something that they never have.  It's just too frivolous and expensive. 

These kids are the kids that call at 9pm asking if you can take them and buy some food because they haven't eaten today.

These kids are the ones that ask if you could stop and get a jug of water because they have no drinking water.

These kids are the ones that are excited it rained because they could take a shower since there is no water.

These kids have no modes of transportation.  No ride. (And even if they did, how do you afford $5+/gallon?) 

These kids like going to summer school because it means they get to eat lunch.  

I'm sure some of them only come to church because it means getting fed.  But I hope that along the way, they are getting spiritually fed which will ease their hunger for an eternity.  

Guam Catch the Wave

Our annual Guam youth retreat was July 9-10 at what was formerly known as Onward Beach Resort.  (It has a new name now. It's Japanese, and all their literature is in Japanese, so I will just call it Onward.)  

We had the same lessons as Saipan, but new kids and a new environment.  There were two new girls (to me) that joined. They had moved to Guam last year from the Philippines.  They were a fun addition to the group. Everyone else had known me for years.  I shared a room with 8 other girls. (And the crazy thing is...I got more sleep that night than I would the next two nights. I whoppin' 5 1/2 hours!)

The resort has a waterpark attached.  I had been to the water park one time...at least ten plus years ago.  But I also recall having a terrible migraine that day, so I really didn't enjoy it.  In fact, very little looked familiar.  I only remembered one slide, but I think that was because it was on the commercial when I lived in Guam.   They have a lazy river, which I did remember.  (And it was actually better than I remembered, which was even better!)  

Only the islands have a covered pool.  And it was the most crowded pool the entire time! 

Since our stay was a week night, it wasn't super crowded.  After our first session and getting checked in, we had about 2 hours until the water park closed.  I counted less than 15 people other than our group of 13.  We only waited on our people for slides. It was awesome!

We ate lots of food and even had a birthday! (I finally got my SPAM fried rice!)

There was a game room open all night long, so late night ping pong and foosball was a must. 

And that was followed by even later night karaoke. (I am so sorry to those in the rooms above and below ours.  Hopefully they were empty!)  Thankfully, I am in control of my blog and don't have to post the video of me doing a Whitney Houston song in a moomoo.   

 But I promise, we had some great Bible studies as well! 

And I can't forget to mention the full moon and firetrucks. (We were afraid the firetruck came because of the birthday candles.)

It was a really special event.  Three of the girls had been sent to live with relatives 7ish years ago. I hadn't seen them since they were very small.  Now they are lovely young ladies and a part of the youth group.  That was a fun reunion!  I love my Guam teens and young adults. 

Perry Lives His Best Life

Perry wasn't in enough of my Facebook pictures, so I needed everyone to know he's been living his best life.  

We recently had a hotel stay in Guam for the youth retreat.  Perry had some quality lazy river time. 

He enjoyed playing referee to the Ping Pong tournament. 

He loved having such a big fluffy bed to sleep in.  (He wasn't very happy when he had to share it with two other people.)

He watched cartoons. 

And found slippers in the closet! 

See....Perry is having a great summer!  (With the exception of two new girls, the other Guam teens have been around Perry for years and years.  I hardly even saw this platypus the last few days. They grab him when I arrive and take charge of him.) 

VBS Day 4

Day 4 of of Vacation Bible School is always the most important.  It's the day we share how Jesus died for us.  

Here the kids were drawing pictures of things they did wrong.  Then we wadded up the paper and threw them in the trash, because Jesus can forgive us of all the bad things. (An 8 year old girl sat there for a really long time.  Then she said, "I just can't think of anything. I have never done anything wrong." 😂  If you have ever read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever--this girl is just like Alice Wendelken.  She wants to read everything...and be in all the pictures...and well, maybe she's a little like me.)

I was finally able to snag a picture with some of the kids and me.

We made window clings for crafts.

And finally it wasn't raining at the end of VBS so we could play!

Catch the Wave Saipan

On July 6-7, we had our annual youth retreat, Catch the Wave.  For Saipan this was a two day event with three sessions.  

Our theme was Catch the Wave: The Great Exchange.  We talked about you don't trade/exchange down. You wouldn't trade your iPhone for an old cd player or your new car for an old car.  It just doesn't work that way.  Until it did.  We went through three sessions learning how Jesus made an incredibly remarkable exchange--for us. (He exchanged heaven for earth. Who does that?) We discussed God's rescue plan and how we can live the exchanged life (aka a life of holiness). 

We kicked off with Session #1: Death for Life at the church followed by small groups.  

Of course, there are always games!  (I'm not exactly sure how many balls we have lost this summer to the neighbors' yards.  Usually they are thrown back in a day or two.) 

Then we headed to Marianas Beach Resort for some fun activities.  This was a great deal!  For $6/kid they got a smoothie and admission to the pool and games.  We played water basketball, water volleyball, and swam. Outside of the water we played ping pong and foosball.  (We enjoyed making up our own games of "ping pong" so we could all play.) As you can see Perry enjoyed his time playing games.  

Session #2:God's Rescue Plan was held at the hotel under a pavilion.  (We actually had an audience of some kids and teens for a while which was kind of neat.) After the session, we had individual reflection and prayer time.  

Session #3: Living the Exchanged Life was back at the church the following day. We learned about how living an exchanged life included living a life of service and sacrifice and that it wasn't always easy. We also discussed ways we can live a life of holiness.  This was followed by another small group session.  

We were going to go to the beach for pizza, sunset, and a beach prayer walk. But by the time our session was over, it was throwing down rain. (Again.) So, I went to Plan B.  We watched a movie called Faith of Angels and enjoyed pizza at the church.