I apologize for falling off the face of the blog world! I have been quite busy the past few weeks and have some exciting news to share with you all even if it has nothing to do with my Kenya trip : ) So I am officially taking a time out to share what God has been doing in my life in America this month and then I promise I will continue were I left off on the other side of the world!
August 6-10 Grace Church put on Junior Day Camp for around 50 5th and 6th graders. I grew up going to Junior Day camp and have been a leader for the camp now for four or five years. I was blessed to be able to lead the green team with my dear friend Kayla Enabnit. We had 9 fifth grade girls on our team who were such a delight. I was so lucky to be able to have Sage Theule on my team, as I have had the privilege of babysitting her since the Theule family moved to SLO. I spend a lot of time with the Theule kids and have thoroughly enjoyed watching Sage grow into a beautiful young lady. We had a crazy week of fun (emphasis on the word crazy!) between the water slides, lake, boomers, beach, pool, bowling, and a crazy downtown scavenger hunt. However the neatest part of the week came Thursday morning when we took all of the kids to the Achievement House out by Cuesta College. The Achievement House is a place for mentally handicapped adults to come work and learn new skills. Most of the kids have never met adults with disabilities and it can be slightly uncomfortable for them. Each year we take the kids to do a service project out there. We are normally assigned hard work that the adults there are not capable of completing. Kayla and I talked to the girls ahead of time and told them that the people they would meet aren't 'weird' or even that different from them, but that God had created them to be just like they are and that He loves them just as much. We told the girls that because God had blessed us with strong hands and feet we were going to go bless others. My girls really took this to heart. We heard no complaints the whole day even though they were lifting heavy boxes over and over again. The girls filled the time with singing and encouraging words and genuinely loved all of the people we met at the Achievement House. It was such a neat experience for all of us.
Each morning before we start all of the fun we have a wonderful time of worship and teaching. This year Pastor Tim, Pastor Steve, and Pastor Ken taught the kids. The theme for the week was Jesus is Lord. Each morning the kids learned that Jesus is Lord over sickness, nature, death, and that Jesus is Lord of their lives as well. Two of the girls on my team accepted Christ and a third decided to rededicate her life to Christ! After the teaching time we had wonderful small group times. The week was a huge success and such a blessing to everyone involved. I can't wait to be able to have the same girls in my Mount Hermon cabin later this year for winter camp!
After Junior Day camp all of us leaders would get together and "plan" for the next day. Some days this meant transforming the youth room into an Army base, (The camp was Army themed this year and we literally had a real Army parachute hanging from the ceiling!) Other days our "planning" looked more like sipping hot chocolate while we filled water balloons for the beach day, eating dinner at McClintocks and then having a bonfire, or foolishly going to see Bourne Ultimatum at midnight when we had to be at church a few hours later : ) All this to say, we had a wonderful, busy, EXHAUSTING week!
The Monday after Junior Day Camp we received a phone call from the Foster Agency that my parents are licensed with. They called to ask if we could take in a five month old baby boy! Nancy Villa was over and helped me frantically find and wash any boy clothes we had (we were originally told we were only able to have baby girls because the crib is in my room so we had plenty of pink clothes and not many boy clothes!) My mom and I left to go pick him up and, in true Iunker fashion, took him straight to the church for a nursery through 2's and 3's parent meeting. I told him that if he was going to live with the Iunkers he would practically live at church! We our having a wonderful time with our new little man! He is so happy and fun and is keeping us very busy! I am in heaven and absolutely love having him around!
Monday the 20th I started school at Cuesta. I am taking a few classes this year and God willing will move to San Diego next fall to attend Point Loma's nursing program. I am the only Christian in my entire English class at Cuesta and the teacher asked me to write a paper explaining why if God is good he allows children to suffer. I am so excited to be able to be a witness to the class. We are currently discussing abortion and only one other person in the class is Pro Life. I am stoked to see what God will do this semester.
So that is an overview of what I have been up to and my excuses for not blogging lately : ) Now it's back to Africa... but the baby just woke up so we'll have to wait.
