A lil recap

I can't believe that it is already December 4th! These past few months since being in Charlotte have flown by so quickly! This week has been full of its usual craziness with a twist of being sick. I don't love being sick.... I don't know many people who do. I hate laying around doing nothing and that's what I did Monday. Tuesday I stayed in bed all day but did some emailing and Wednesday I had lunch with Queen and then I was off to Elevation. We had an Uptown Volunteer Event that night that I was helping out with. It was beautifully decorated with white linens, roses, marbles, tea lights and a sparkley (is that a word?) ribbon down the center of the table....and Elevation has these HUGE Christmas trees that are just absolutely gorgeous and went very nicely with our table decor. We had yummy food and a wonderful time of fellowship with other volunteers from Uptown. The band sang some of my favorite songs...it was a very much needed time of worship for me.

Thursday I went back to Elevation and worked on various projects for Chris and Errica. I was asked to be the liaison for Urban Ministries, which is a homeless shelter not far from my house. I have a meeting with them tomorrow afternoon and I'm very excited to start volunteering for them and begin to build relationships! Druid Hills (the elem school in my neighborhood) had their Christmas program last night and let me tell you....it was AWESOME!! Probably one of the cutest things I have ever seen!! Sam and Jaimee work there throughout the week and we all felt like proud parents watching our kids sing! Queen's class did a hip-hop rendition of Rudolph and it was HILARIOUS!!! I wish you all could have seen it. She was soo good in it too! Sister can move!

There were cookies and stuff after the program and Queen ran up and hugged me and I saw her dad and a few of her siblings. I just love that little girl. Her birthday is next Wednesday and I am bringing cupcakes for her class and we are going to have a lil party....so excited!

After the program we came home and ate some leftover pizza and pasta (thank you Elevation!) and then Sam and I rode the bus into Uptown (aka dowtown Charlotte) and roamed around for a bit and saw some of the most beautiful Christmas lights! Right as we got off the bus we heard a very loud voice singing from across the street so we went to check it out. It was an older gentleman singing gospel songs...he even played the saxophone! It was so fun to hang out and listen to him for a while.

I found it interesting that the only people (besides Sam and I) that were standing there were homeless guys. A few came over and talked to us for a lil bit and they didn't even ask us for money, which surprised me a bit. However we did get approached multiple times by people asking us for money while we were walking around. I always feel this combination of annoyance, sympathy and guilt when I'm asked for change and I say no. I never give anyone money, I will buy food but will never give money...just my rule for myself. If I know about a place nearby that is serving a meal I will try to direct them there. It's always hard though, especially on chilly nights like last night.

The next few weeks are going to be busy busy busy! Please keep myself, Sam, Jaimiee and Barak in your prayers for energy, endurance, love, patience and good attitudes as we go throughout these next couple weeks before Christmas break.