Do you ever get deja vu?

So I thought I'd finished, but then I found myself on stage as the King's Steward, Mr. Hockenstock and Justin the dog again.  Grief, I thought I'd finished those roles.  And I had to tell my story again to the same group of kids I'd told it to a year ago.  At least I changed it slightly.

Two CI's in under a month.  I'm starting to get a reputation for running less than boring teams.  Actually the team was more responsive this time and more obedient.  We ranged from 5-9 kids, though most of the time it was 7-9 kids.  Lot of younger ones.  Cristin and Kendra were my assistants and they did a good job.  I took advantage of Cristin by dropping several fun things on her like the 'Strongholds in my life' illustration and several crafts.

We played some ultimate frisbee on Saturday and Sunday.  Sunday, I did so bad that after I dropped out, our team started winning! (Actually, the other team gave us one of their players which made the teams even).

Saturday night after the CI, we played some charades which was entertaining.  I was the only non-Weston/Stevens family member there.  Fun times, though. 

Rocky Balboa, our team mascot, which Andrew, a boy in our class made.  Night 1 was design and the kids used wire cleaner to make stuff.  Andrew made Rocky.  Later, someone added a mini "Jesus is my Captain" hat on him and the trend went on from there.  On your left hand side is a treasure of my heart box, and a chain of command.  On the right is a tower of truth.  Around his neck is a round of applause.  There are several love stickers on him.  One is a flower and sun, one is a rainbow, one is Kevin, Kyle and Emily...sort of, and I don't remember the other.  One fell off, though.  I think it was the rainbow.

Tower of truth which I made.  Gotta build those in your life to help protect those bad thoughts from coming in.  Though, why a 'thought protector' is on the hand instead of the head, I don't know.  Not too many bad thoughts comin' in through the hand.  If you look on the bottom left, you'll see three unclear stick figures of the CI bosses.

Treasure of my heart.  Annoyingly unclear.  All these pics were taken on my camera phone.  Trying to get the lighting not too bright and it still decently clear just wasn't working for me.

Round of applause.  Cristin made it....I stapled it on Rocky's neck.

The sun, a flower and...this big blue thing.  Probably water.  Don't blame me, artistry isn't high on my list of accolades.

I'm trying to decide whether I should call this, "Everybody Loves Richard," or "Poor Richard".  Maybe I'll be prosaic and call it, "Richard with Stickers".

The CI bosses weren't sharing the love...stickers.

Drew basking in the relaxation of organizational bliss.  He had his kids in boxes (of tape - see the ground).  Wish I'd thought of that.

On Thursday, Mom, Mitch, the Kilgours and I went to Knotts Berry Farm for the day.  That was pretty cool, hanging out with all the family.

Stu, Lisa, Julie and Tiffany with sunglasses.  I thought she looked cute in those goggles, so I snapped a quick one.

Abbie and a rooster out by the entrance.

Xcelerator.  200 feet up, 200 feet down.  Shot out of the station (just off the right side of the picture) at 80mph in 2 seconds, flying up over the top at a 90 degree angle and down the same way.  Tiffany loved it.  Sadly, she was a little bit short and the second time she tried going on it, they didn't let her.  Hilarious watching the way she got excited after being on it.  All of the kids loved it, though.  At her age, rides like that gave me nightmares.  I got clutchy on "It's a Small World".  jk.

Work has been nice lately.  Thing's have been slow since April 15 and I've gotten free time to study and read.  Spurgeon's autobiography, Calvin's Institutes, some MacArthur books.  Lot of Bible reading, too.

Looks like in the next two months I'll be speaking a couple of times at Carmel Village doing sub work.  If all works according to plan, I'll be speaking on Romans 5:8, which is an incredibly humbling and overwhelming passage to study, I've found.  God's been working on me with it in different ways that I don't feel like sharing on an online blog.

Guess that's all for now.  So long.