Well, yesterday began our first project in Gallup, NM as the kids arrived in all sorts of vehicles at all hours of the afternoon. They were, for the most part tired from driving at most 20 hours to get here from Texas or Arizona, etc. They came along way and are wonderful kids and I am very excited for them to be here! (As a matter of fact, one of the group leaders here was at one of my projects last summer in Puerto Rico! small world!) THere is a group here from Arizona. In Arizona, the time change is not recognized and so, when they crossed over into Mountain Time, they did not realize that they were going to be missing the entire welcome celebration and be here 45 minutes AFTER registration ended. So that was fun! But they made it safely and we are glad they're here.
Welcome Celebration, something that happens at every World Changers project to get the kids pumped up about the week, was, in my opinion, a disaster. Our video was not finished; I introduced the World Changers song only to be met by silence and a scrambling AV plugging and unplugging chords to the sound booth in the back; and one of my genius games that i stole from this website I found bombed because of technical difficulties. Also, I played a couple of worship songs to close that time out and my guitar was blaring and shooting out feedback so bad that I had to cover my strings and go at it a cappella. It was....rough. Anyway - welcome celebration was followed by a much smoother and much more successful worship service which was awesome! It was a great start for us in that arena and I think bolstered the confidence of our new and stressed out AV.
The west is beautiful. I love it out here. The mountains are like something from a movie or a painting - something completely 2D and unreal until Thursday when we arrived. We went to a church this morning (which i will get to in a bit) which has, as we were told, the best view in the city...and I wouldn't dare argue. From the stairs of the sanctuary, we looked out to nothing but mountains and red dirt, striped and rugged and beautiful! The sun was bright and the sky here....the sky here is bluer than any I've ever seen...It was incredible.
So church....ummm was fine. It was sort of a small church: First Baptist of Gallup and the pastor is an extremely...pontifical (look it up). So he had already begun to rub people on staff the wrong way which led to a semi-disinterest in being there in the first place. However, I didn't have a problem with anything he said today which was comforting. However, I was a bit thrown off when I looked up at the screen to being singing with the music minister only to be met by a blue background featuring a guy standing with his arms crossed, wearing an abercrombie hat photographed at an extreme overhead angle. Why, one might ask, would someone chose to display that alongside the lyrics to "Shout to the Lord"? I asked myself the same question and came up with nothing satisfactory. Ha....later on, as the pastor began his sermon, the screen displayed the first point of his sermon in front of a background picture of hot air balloons. Again....seriously? Why?
I will say this - we had some AWESOME food that was provided by the members of that church and I am definitely grateful for the authentic "NEw Mexican" food..aka - Mexican.
I also had an interesting encounter last night as Danielle and I walked around to the girls' rooms bidding them goodnight and attempting to learn their names. Now, I noticed a lady yesterday afternoon during arrival time who was nearly completely decked out in leopard print. I mean, leopard shirt, leopard bag, leopard blanket, leopard backpack purse. This lady has to be in her 50s. Seriously. So...last night, as we made the rounds, we entered into this particular church's room and saw, directly in the doorway an air mattress with leopar sheets, leopard blanket, leopard pillowcase. On the air mattress sat Carol. That is her name. Carol. I look to the side of her air mattress to find 3 bags adorned in the same precious animal print and a pair of studded leopard print platform shoes. As I comment on how much I like her leopard print items, she points out the picture that she brought along with her and had taped to the blackboard above her head of...yes....a leopard. She proceeds to tell me this:
"You know, leopards are biblical...they are!"
to which I answered, "really?"
"Yes." she said. "because Jesus healed the leopard's spots."
"oh...yep...that's right."
I mean, honestly, what am I supposed to say to an adult who obsessed with an animal who thinks that "lepers" were "leopards"? Geeze.
That's about all i have. Picture should be up under "Gallup"
