The Saturday before week five started we took the staff on an outing into Kamloops. We gave them some time at the mall, went and watched Batman, and went for dinner. I slept through parts of Batman, this is what happens when Melissa finally gets to sit down and stop for awhile. Three board members of Sorrento Centre drove us all in, which was very nice of them. And the staff had a great time off site!
Week four was good, a very long time ago now so I don't remember much of it! The music leadership for week four was amazing, just a great group of musicians! Week five, our last week, was amazing but sad. Jay, our summer liturgist/chaplain, left early on Thursday morning which was extremely sad. We had a going away party for Jay on Wednesday night, we were all disappointed about Jay leaving. Jay has provided me with so many opportunities and encouragement over the summer. I've written prayers of the people, presided at a number of services, and had many conversations about life and the church. I oversaw the running of both the Eucharist service on Thursday, and the closing service on Friday. It was really cool because Bishop Jim Cruickshank (former Bishop of Cariboo - what was my diocese) was there and presided. It was interesting because he started asking me what we were doing and when. To organize the service, and serve communion, among other things, along side with Bishop Jim was just a great experience. Bishop Jim remembers me when he was still Bishop, I was the youngest Sunday school teacher at the time, and my parish wanted the world to know! :0) He is thrilled with my work in the church in the present time, and was so happy to see me working at Sorrento Centre. +Jim was the first director of the Centre... many years ago. Okay... one more thing about +Jim, he loves to dance and is a great dancer. He had me spinning, and dancing more than I normally do at the dance on Friday night. And when I was talking with Mark (the music director for the week, +Jim's dear friend... I met him last year) he came over and said that if he wasn't going to dance with me then he was taking me back.
Last Monday night while I was coming back from getting my laundry at 11:30pm someone started ringing the bell which is only suppose to be rung during emergencies. As I looked into the distance I saw bright orange flames. A tent on site caught on fire because a lamp fell over, a tent with three children in it at the time. The mother got the children out, she had smoke inhalation, otherwise everyone was fine. But we had to go into full emergency protocol, and I didn't get into bed until 2:20am - after everything was sorted out and all was fine. When I laid in bed I began to realize how much worse the whole situation could have been, I'm pretty sure I went into minor shock as I was freezing and shaking quite well. It was a miracle that was witnessed at Sorrento Centre, we couldn't have asked for a better turn out for the situation. It was scary, but I've learned that you just do what needs to be done. Since coming here I have mastered the ability to just do what needs to be done, and do it quickly and efficiently. For the rest of the week I had people coming up to me and telling me how great of a job I did when I was able to announce to the guests that they could return to their accommodation if they were in the buildings. That I stayed calm, organized, and said words of comfort. These comments mean a lot, although I sometimes wish I could see myself doing these things that people think are so wonderful. I suppose this is where trusting what others are saying comes into play.
So now we have a week of Pentecostal Pastors, then Swing, and then two weeks of Bluegrass. It's going to be busy but very fun (I hope!). Summer is almost over, I am done here on the 31st of August and start school on September 2nd. Then youth group and Sunday school will start and I will begin attended meetings and councils, and try and do school work at the same time. I'm hoping to go home in the next few weeks, it's been a very long time since I've seen my family. I'm hoping to start planning youth group and Sunday school activities/events/lessons during August, between work and everything else.
Let me know how your summer is going... I hope you are all enjoying it.
Take Care!
Love and prayers,
Melissa
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