The Return of the Teacher and Girl Gab aint all Bad!

One of my housemates from last year has returned to sub for the Bible Teachers who are on Home Assignment with their Children until Easter Break. It is so great to have Lisa back in town! The first day back at school, I was walking to the office and I heard a loud voice calling, "MISS CONNELL!!" I turned around and saw Lisa running towards me. So I responded, with equal enthusiasm, "MISS HENDERSON!" We hugged, jumped up and down, and squealed as only two extroverted, uninhibited women could do while surrounded by astounded students. (Just the ones who were new this year... everyone else understood what was going on.)

It's nice having Lisa around again... and since we have already been through the "You're driving me crazy, rinse your dishes!" and "Well, you ate all the peanut butter!" it is much easier to just hang out and talk. Like old friends... picking up right where we left off.

Last week, we went out for coffee to chat, hang out and talk about our vision for the Youth Group here at HOPAC. (Since the Bible Teachers were also my co-leaders, Lisa has stepped in to help with the Large Group Teaching on Friday nights.) It has been great to watch God at work... at first, Lisa and I had very different ideas about what God wanted us to do. But, after much girl gab about various feelings, emotions and desires for the future, God gave me a topic for the next theme: Heart Surgery. Lisa had also been wanting to do something to encourage our students to give away their WHOLE hearts to God... not just part of it, or to just connect intellectually with Him, but their WHOLE Hearts. And of course, our current theme will end the week of Valentine's Day... so starting a new theme with the word HEART in it is just cheesy enough to work for Youth Group!

maybe we should decorate in red and pink that first night...

...maybe not.