day 4 and 5. the dance party.

hi guys, so its now 2:45 and we are playing our usual "nap time" game of killer, which is a great way to laugh out our exhaustion from a full morning of playing with kids and pouring into them what little we can.. I am one of us who go to the Emmanuel site where we hold a vbs for kids ages 3 to about 16. And oh holy cow they are precious, and smart and funny, and are all convinced kimberly and I are twins as well as taylor and christine... but as far as the vbs part of everything, I teach the memory verse of the day, which have consequently coincided with what we ourselves are going through! Wow God! The children grasp what these verses mean so fully and its soo sweet to hear them repeat after me jeremiah 29:11, proverbs 3:5, psalm 51:10, and joshua 1:9. I ask them what they think the individual words mean and what it means to them and I think, i bet its this stuff that makes god smile big :D
I'll have the pee wees repeat it in whisper, and in yelling it, and in their best robot voice. I love it. There is one little boy named Terumayne who at the end of the verses usually will sing i love you jesus soooo much jesus you're the bestttt... in his high little vocie!
One random fact i'd like to throw in: i'd like to brag on these childrens parents, whoever they are, because these kids have the best manners and are always so sweet to each other and polite to the adults!!!!!
In the evenings though its another story. the choctaw reservation kids are all little banchies, we are throughly wiped after running around like crazy people playing with them, doing nails and coloring!!! But it is great, I don't think we'd have it any other way, and last night some of the choctaw woman suprised us by making some choctaw bread, which is flour and milk mixed fried. um yum!
But one of the best things so far for us personally at our base was worship last night, it was greatly needed and much apreciated, thanks jesus :) We also have gotten close as a group and have become better friends:] as well as gotten to know the family who's with us the Smiths, Keeley, Lori, and Mrs. Robin and the guys here Keon, and Andrew. they are all fantastic people!
sincerly,
nat<3

So along with becoming closer friends, we've developed nicknames for each other and we've all unleashed our crazy sides. Rebekah is pretzel, because she spilled 75% of a NEW bag of pretzels on the floor of the bedroom. Christine is booboo because she broke her bed and hit her foot on the metal frame when it broke. Taylor is ice cube because she put wayy too many ice cubes in her drink. Natalie is popsicle because she somehow spilled her popsicle all over me. I am sweeties because someone brought pretzel m&m's and I wanted to say "oooh sweet and salty!!" but instead I yelled "sweeties!!!!!" So I expect everyone to keep up these nicknames after Natalie and I move in the fall!!! ;)
love,
ashley