Had a good day off today. Went for my walk....caught up on a lot of laundry....gave the kitchen a really good cleaning....made dessert for our dinner party tonight and a tator tot casserole for the kids. The Children's Ministry deacons and pastors got together==I was invited by the host as well. It was a fun time. Prolly ate wayyyyyyyyyyy more calories than I should have, so I'll have to make sure that I walk an extra lap around the river tomorrow...lol. Dinner was sooo good. Robin made this wonderful cranberry pork==so yummy! I'll have to try and get the recipe.

Yesterday Edie and I went to Crosstrainers Academy in Milwaukee. I've been there before (you may have read my past blogs when I spoke there for a chapel time in December) but Edie had never. I love it there. We were talking with the principal, my friend Jan, about some partnering we might be able to do. Our summer overnight camp, Kids Kamp, needs to mission to support...but I want to have Cross Trainers as our mission for the K-1 program at Elmbrook. In the past our supported missionary was a family with children that were the K-1 age. They moved back to Elmbrook from the mission field over a year ago and a new mission was never chosen. I would love to have Cross Trainers for a lot of reasons, but the main one is because of the relationship that might be built between children that are the same ages but from different worlds. So many differences, but a lot of similarities as well. My head is swimming with the ideas. I have visions of what it could be....now we just need to let God form what it really will become. I think some easy beginning points would be: 1)weekly offering which the school would have discretion to use as they needed, 2) pen pals, 3) prayer partners.

While I generalize to some extent in this next paragraph---please know that I am speaking from my heart. I don't want there to be another generation of white kids from the suburbs that have never met, befriended, interacted with, shared life with a person of a different race. I think of when I was growing up in Oconomowoc. There was virtually no diversity. Just a handful of kids in the entire school district. Most of my friends didn't even know I was Mexican. I was good friends with the only two black girls in the middle school. In high school I kissed my first young man who was black---Derek Vanderpool...lol. We met at a St. John's Academy dance. I remember two of the friends that I was there with asked me why did I pick a "black" guy to dance with? I said, "I don't know...he's cute!" They were like totally amazed that I thought a "black" guy was better looking than the other guys there. Then my freshman year==I was amazed at the number of my friends who had never had a black friend...or interacted with a black person. Forget that===we don't need to go back that far===I have friends NOW that have never had another minority friend. How does that even happen? That is amazing to me. I am not in judgement. It's just so far from my life that I don't even know how it occurs. That brings me back to why I think something needs to be done to bridge that racial divide. If you grow up in an environment where everyone is like you. Similar backgrounds, similar financial situations, similar family backgrounds...you might tend to stay with what you are comfortable with when you become an adult. It's why I can tell some people are ackward around Marlon or me and the kids....they don't know how to behave because it is so foreign. It goes both ways. Young kids often haven't picked up prejudices yet. Even if they have...once they start to play together==differences fade away. I envision Elmbrook K1 kids seeing their friends at Cross Trainers as more than just a cause to help. But as friends to share life with. I envision the kids at Cross Trainers sharing and giving of themselves to the Elmbrook kids---offering the talents and gifts that they have to the table. It'll be exciting to see where God takes this. I am blessed to be a part of it.

Well, it's almost 1 am! Yikes--where does the time go??? Off to bed. Everyone will be up and out of the house early tomorrow so I am going to get snuggly and sleep in!! Yahoo!! :)