hit the ground running.

That's exactly what I've done since returning home Sunday night from Slovenia!  We arrived at LAX around 4:45pm, but had to get 23 people through baggage claim and customs.  I think we finally left the airport around 6, stopped for dinner in Santa Clarita, got to the church and unloaded, and finally made it home around 10pm.  I pretty much carried everything upstairs, put on my pajamas, and crawled into bed. 

The trip was amazing!  It was a ton of work, I was exhausted most of the time, but it was totally worth all of the hard work and preparation.  I took about 300 pictures myself, a few of which I'll share with you soon.  I plan to give you a better summary of each day along with pictures.  But, I can't do that all right now, so here is a quick summary of the trip.

We left Thursday, Jan 20 and arrived at the hotel just after midnight on Saturday morning, Jan 22.  Talk about a LONG trip!  We got little sleep that night and got right to work Saturday morning, getting everything set up and prepared for our first evening session on Saturday night.  The class I worked with was 6-8 year olds, about 45 of them.  We started with 7 teachers and added 1 more about halfway through the week because we just needed another set of hands!  Our purpose was to put on a conference for the kids that focused on different unreached people groups living in the 10/40 window.  Each day for 5 days we focused on a different group, learning about where they live, what their lives are like, tried to follow their eating customs at snack time, and learned about how to reach them. 

I knew that the parents would appreciate our service, but I completely underestimated just how much this would mean to them.  Typically, these kids only get this kind of Sunday school/VBS experience for one week every 3 years.  Most of them have friends all over the world, many of which they only get to see this one week every 3 years.  What a wonderful thing to provide this experience that the kids rarely or never get!  The tears on their faces and hugs as we said good-bye on Thursday night showed us just how much this experience meant to these kids.  Suddenly it seemed like all the work we had done was really no trouble at all and that we would do it again in a heartbeat to minister to these kids and their parents.  I was so blessed to be a part of this team!

Since arriving home (and after waking out of my mini-coma Monday morning), I got my laundry started, got myself ready, and hit the road with Mom headed down to school.  She went with me for safety reasons, just in case I was too tired to drive home.  Slovenia is 9 hours ahead of California, so it's probably going to take about a week to get back into the swing of things.  We had Mexican food for lunch (something I had definitely been missing), Berry Cool yogurt for dessert (yum!) and then it was time for class.  We hit the road again about 7:15 after my class, stopped at the outlet mall for about 30 minutes, and then continued on home.  About 30-40 minutes away from home, I decided I was just too sleepy, so we pulled over and switched seats.  I know I could have kept myself awake if I had had to, but it was wonderful that Mom was there so I didn't have to.

Today I tried to play catch up and figure out what needed to be done.  I was told that coming back home, I might feel disoriented.  I'd say it's more like disorganized.  It seems like I can't really figure out what needs to be done.  I checked all my bank accounts, emails, etc. and tried to see where everything stands.  I've been thinking so much about the class I needed to go to on Monday night, that I almost forgot about starting the other two classes as well.  Starting the new semester is chaotic enough, let alone starting it while experiencing some jet lag!

I'll get the pictures on my computer soon and share them soon after that...I know you can't wait :)