The week at Brackenhurst was not an official conference for the AG M’s. They are only allowed to have one every two years where everyone is obligated to come. This year’s conference was an off-year, but the director strongly felt urged to convene the M’s to have them participate in three days of security training and as well as a time of re-evaluating their mission statement and purpose by individual and corporate fields.
Because the security training involved simulating kidnapping and hostage situations, we had to have the kids out of earshot some of the sessions. Therefore, down to the playground we went. This was just one of the many activities we used to keep the kids entertained. And that leads me to the second part of the Brackenhurst blog.
2. Activities. Stuff. Events. You know, the things that keep us entertained.
The playground is certainly one of the things that fits nicely in this category. I’m pretty sure every day at some point, we rounded up the kiddos, slathered them in either sunscreen or princess lotion according to preference, and shuffled down to the pit where the swings, slide, teeter totters, and dirt/sand piles were located. The elementary kids loved playing with our toddlers, and the staff of both groups couldn’t have asked for a better arrangement :) Ruthie and I worked on exposing our pathetically blinding-white selves to the burning sun during this time. And we accomplished our goal by the end of the week…wait for it…yep, sandal tanned feet! Haha. Actually, we are quite a nice shade of tan. Although Ruthie burned and started peeling to the point of resembling either a mild case of leprosy or a bad case of dandruff, we were pleased with our efforts.
I couldn’t forget to mention tea time. Although I’m sure I’ve mentioned it briefly in a previous post somewhere, it is important enough to do so again. At Brackenhurst, time had no meaning except when it came to tea. You could set your watch by it if you wanted to. Every day at 10 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, we would break for tea, coffee, biscuits (cookies) and sometimes juice. In our toddler case, we had juice time and cake. Or cinnamon rolls. Or banana bread. Or the best doughnuts in the universe. Or whatever they decided to bring us for the day. It was hilarious watching the kids try to eat their snacks. Most of the snack ended up in one of three places: 1) the table, 2) the floor, or 3) their face. Rarely did the snack make it in the mouth :) Totally adorable. With all the tea times, though, I’m fairly certain I could have floated away form drinking so much that week. Or been wired for a year with all the caffeine we consumed. Haha!
Not only was there tea time, but many of the adults went walking in the tea fields for exercise every day. The last day Ruthie and I thought we would explore the paths ourselves, so we headed out with Brooke (a music teacher in Sudan with Julia) and made the journey up the dusty roads to the top. The view was spectacular. The smell of tea bushes and the fields is so distinct as well – it will forever be engrained in my mind’s memory.
The evenings did not have a structured service schedule as usual. Monday night we had a brief time of childcare during security training, but then had the rest of the evening to ourselves. Tuesday night we attended a presentation revealing the new East Africa initiative called Live Dead. It focused on recruiting and sending out teams to the unreached people groups of East Africa, and the lady in the states who is working on the ads and design was there to discuss them. Wednesday night was free, Thursday I had to work childcare again, and Friday I was able to attend the last service where Papa Lowenberg spoke. The high school seniors were honored, the individual fields read their re-worked mission statements, and we had a time of worship and prayer.
When we weren’t otherwise engaged in the evenings, we spent a huge amount of time playing Phase 10 and Dutch Blitz. Our usual group consisted of me, Ruthie, Priscilla, Josiah, Reed, and Jordan. Occasional other players included Nicole, Caleb, Josh, and Gus. We would end up at Uncle Mike’s trying to a claim a large enough table for our intent, order cokes in the glass bottles and possibly mozzarella sticks or sloppy nachos, and settle in for several hours of fun with each other. I felt like I was back at youth camp again, except I never went to youth camp, so even better. Maybe it’s closer to being on tour with my college friends in choir. Either way, we had a most wonderful time, and it was one of my favorite times of the week.
During the week, Ruthie and I were also asked to lead a song for worship after morning tea time. She, Julia, and I practiced one night and it turned into a much-needed, impromptu time of worshiping. If there’s one thing I know in life, it’s that I was made to worship through music and singing. There’s nothing quite like worshiping the Savior with the gifts he gave you.
So there are the main activities that took place throughout the week. Then there were the late night chats with Julia, laying in the grass reading and making up silly poems while listening to Justin Bieber, watching the boys play soccer in the dark, playing pass-pass* barefoot, the slip-n-slide for the kids, fighting off safari ants, lunch conversations, and meeting new people. On Friday I also visited a group home and clinic that I will write about in my next blog. But now you know how we spent some of our time at Bracken. Sorry it’s so long of a description…
And for those of you unfortunate enough to be ignorant of what pass-pass is, let me provide a definition to clarify ;)
*Pass-pass: a game we invented that involved passing the Frisbee from one person to another. If anyone dropped the Frisbee, Priscilla was required to run around the orange cones spread out across the lawn (her idea, which made it even better). Eventually we modified the rules so that whoever dropped the Frisbee had to do 5 jumping jacks (to save on time) before they could pass it off again. Haha! So much fun.
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