Texas Heat.

Sorry that I have been bad at blogging. I have completed my first week at Gateway, my month long training for Mercy Ships. And it has been so good, I almost don't even know what to write. We spend about 8 hours Monday- Friday in a classroom listening to speakers, reading scripture, praying, discussing books that we were asked to read before coming about different cultures and the Old Testament. Some days can be long, but I find all the information so interesting. 22 people are in my class, about half are Americans and the other half come from Canada, South Africa, South Korea, Holland and England. I love getting to be around people from different cultures and learning from them and getting to call them my friends. I know this is going to be an amazing couple of weeks, the past week and a half already has been. I have been stretched and challenged and know that it will continue.

I'm in Lindale, TX which is about 25 miles west of Tyler, TX. It's hot and humid, but that has not stopped us from running in the mornings and playing sports in the gym. This heat and humidity is preparing us to be in West Africa.

Some pictures from the past week...

All the girls at our Friday night BBQ..

(there are 3 married couples, 2 boys and 13 girls)

The Arizona Girls: Kelly, Christina and me

Saturday night we all went to Big Sandy's which is a country/ western dance hall. We were definitely the youngest group there by a few decades, but had a lot of fun dancing with cowboys and line dancing. It was for many their first country dancing experience.

Waiting in "line" to dance with the cowboys!

Kelly and I taking a picture with the live band.