Training Plan

There is something utopic about planning for future races, there are the things I hope for (much fast times and personal records), the plan that seems totally do-able at the start (clearly not considering life, the weather, or any injury that will inevitably happen), and there is the excitement of upcoming races. I think I have most of my races planned out for the summer and into the fall. I need to fill in a few more races in September, November, and December, but I am excited to say that I am finally going to earn my coast to coast medal in 2013.  Ever since I heard of this medal I have wanted to earn it. I signed up for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon this coming January.

I just sat down and mapped out my training plan up through this race. I worked my schedule so that it easily fits the other races that I am registered for. It will take dedication to be committed to my training schedule, particularly since I have a couple mission trips this summer.

Note to self:

• you will miss some of the training runs and cross trainings that you have planned - it'll be okay
• keep dreaming big - keep challenging yourself - keep working hard
• update your ipod - stop being lazy - you know you are sick of the music on there
• this is a challenge between you and yourself - don't compare yourself to others - you are unique and you will have great victories and great challenges - embrace them - grow from them
• update your ipod - seriously - get it done

Jesus in unexpected places

Almost all of the 100 2012 Summer Stretchers

    Often times when I tell people that I get to work with middle schoolers, they laugh, make some sort of an apology, or say something along the lines of "I am glad it is you and not me." Many people detest working with middle schoolers and I can't quite understand why. I know they are middle schoolers, sometimes they smell, sometimes they have an attitude, some times they talk back, sometimes they are rude, sometimes they are hard to understand. Often times middle schoolers are: generous, hospitable, loving, caring, concerned, questioning, confused, open, and willing. There are many adults who I could say sometimes: smell, have an attitude, talk back, are rude, and are hard to understand and there are adults who are:  generous, hospitable, loving, caring, concerned, questioning, confused, open, and willing. It all works out in the end and I love working with middle schoolers.

   Here in the Brainerd Lakes Area there is a ministry known as Summer Stretch. Thursdays middle schoolers from all over the area here do a wide variety of service projects (each church works on their own projects because no one has projects for 100), we eat our brown bag lunch, share in bible study (the summer we are looking at "Living Water"), and then we gather together for fun and games (last week it was games in the yard and ice cream, this week we are playing mini-golf). Together these youth represent five lutheran churches.

  It was amazing to see the kids as we were gathering last Thursday for the first time and they were shocked to see which of their friends were also participating and to realize that they too go to church, just not the same church. The kids are beginning to see that they are a part of something bigger than they are and that God has in fact called them to love and serve in the midst of a community, they have not been sent out into the world to fly solo, rather to live in community.

  The group I get to work alongside (8 boys and 1 girl) went to serve at the middle school here, this was the service project I was most nervous about. I wasn't certain how the kids would view cleaning up a locker room. So as we arrived they met the janitor, Ron, and they all said things along the lines of "we have seen you around but never knew your name" and so they became fast friends. Ron equipped the kids with buckets, rags, and gloves and sent us off to the 7th & 8th grade boys locker room. (Talk about stinky) The task before us was to clean up the lockers: wipe them all down with a special solution and clean out anything that is left in them.

   At first there were a few grumbles about the task ahead but soon the kids saw the ways the lockers were looking and became proud of their work and the work that they were doing. They talked about how they were helping Ron out and all the middle schoolers. They discussed life, upcoming movies, and plans for the summer. In the midst of it they said that they were excited to come back next fall and share with their classmates that they got to clean these lockers. As we walked out of the cleaned locker room the boys pushed the cart of buckets back to in front of the office, they asked about coming back, knowing that there were several more locker rooms that needed cleaned. They held their heads up high knowing that they had made a difference in their middle school community.

   It was there in the locker room with those boys that I met Jesus. I met Jesus as the boys (my 1 girl was not present last Thursday) scrubbed the lockers clean and made them shine. As the boys scrubbed crusty old deodorant out of the lockers, Jesus was there using these middle school hands to help out the community. The Holy Spirit was working in and through the lives of these middle schoolers for the betterment of the world. In the middle school boys who many want to label as less than or not worthy or something else I saw Jesus moving, speaking, working, and continuing to transform the broken world. I have hope for the future - I see good in these middle school boys as well as the other 100 middle schoolers I get to walk alongside this summer.

  Thanks be to God for middle schoolers.
  Thanks be to God who loves and works in the lives of everyone, despite what the world may think of them.
   Thank be to God for the opportunity to journey with these youth.

Gilbert Lake

Since moving to Minnesota I have realized that Minnesota has several things that South Dakota does not, one of them being tons and tons of lakes. I will always be a South Dakotan at heart, even if I am misplaced in one of the other 49 states, none the less I must move on. Anyways. Recently I bought my first kayak, she is beautiful, a Wilderness Systems Pungo 120. I love her, not only is she a beautiful boat but she is lime green, making said boat even more beautiful! I have recently fallen in love with kayaking. Last summer was rough because I lived in Minnesota and saw all of these beautiful lakes and had no way to get out on them, other than a random invite from someone else with a boat. This spring I cured that problem and bought a kayak and I love being out on the water.

As you can probably tell from the photo above, Dakota also loves the water. She managed to sit in the front of the kayak for about 45 minutes before she became all too restless to sit in the kayak any longer and jumped out. She needs a bit more training but I think eventually she will be an awesome little kayaker - or maybe a rider would be a better description of what Dakota does.

Marc and I have decided that we need to paddle in every lake in Crow Wing County Minnesota. Now coming from South Dakota this at first seemed like a super simple goal and something we could potentially accomplish this summer but then as we began thinking about it and doing a little bit of research we have found out that there are actually a few hundred lakes in this area, moving our goal from to paddling in them all this summer to paddling in them all in the next five years or so. We need to find a Crow Wing County map with all the lakes on them so we can mark off which ones we have paddled together.

Saturday we crossed the first lake off the list: Gilbert Lake. This one maybe hard to top. It was a beautifully sized lake, not too big nor not too small and it had lots of bays all around it. Although in terms of ideal I did wish it was a little bigger not a ton but some would be nice. From what we know of this lake most of the residents on this lake are local so the lake hardly had any boats on it, we maybe saw two boats on the lake while we were out - and it was even a Saturday afternoon on a beautiful day. We did see a mamma loon and her three baby loons who couldn't be much more than about a week old while we were paddling and mamma loon let us get a pretty close look at her and her babies, but daddy loon quickly got possessive of his pretty family and we paddled on.

I think I will start to rate the lakes on a scale from one to ten, with then being the top and one being the bottom. I would easily give Gilbert Lake a 9.5 out of 10. I deducted a half point because I wish it was a little bigger, Marc and I easily paddled around the whole lake in the afternoon.