****PILATES****

AKA GUYS' HONORING

Sneaky huh, to use a code name like that? Yeah, I know, we are so cool. So here's the deal... it has become a tradition in the school (which began with the boys) that the guys take a day to honor the girls and the girls take a day to honor the guys. One of the weeks of school is honor so it ties in, but our "Honor" week isn't til the end of school so I guess we'll learn after we practice. Anyway we girls have been having "Pilates" meetings to discuss our plans for how to honor the guys and today was the day to see everything fall into place. O WOW what the Holy Spirit all over that one because I don't know how the day could have gone much smoother! I love hosting parties/throwing parties/catering/event planning/whatever... so I'm used to stress and work and running around and all that. This had some running around (what kind of event would it be without that?) but the ridiculous stress was not there at all. It was actually a really odd feeling.

Here's the plan: Previously each girls' room was designated a guys' room to write prophetic words about and pray for. The words were put in green bottles ("message in a bottle") and placed in their rooms during the evening events. Saturday a bunch of girls baked cookies, cupcakes, and muffins for the day- yummy. Sunday evening we decorated the whole auditorium, the hallways, the guys' doors, and blacked out the windows so they couldn't see in. Oh yeah, and a couple girls and I changed the words to a song and made up a dance here too. Awesome. My room still had prophesying to do (so fun! it's getting easier too- my brain was not functioning but I was able to write words down in the flow. makes sense since I'm not speaking from my head anyway, right?), made it to bed ~3. TODAY>>> woke up way to early. Francis (cook) didn't start breakfast until 30 mins til we wanted to serve it, but he's experienced and knows what he's doing. Ladies cut fruit, set up tables, yada, yada, you know the drill. 

Breakfast at 10 went well minus having to bug Francis for more eggs for the bfast burritos. Spread included burritos, muffins, Starbucks coffee (this is a big deal- cafe coffee is not good), and a boat load of bread that we got from Italian bread factory across the street FOR FREE! FAVA! We did a bit of honoring and worship and then we sent them on a video scavengerhunt while we slipped into their rooms with glasses full of candies. The afternoon was chill and we served them tacos in the cafe before free time with popcorn and snowcones and XBox projected on the wall. A mini break came with outreach prep but ours included watching X Men over ice cream while Lizi and James chatted with each of us. After time picked up a bit with getting everything for dinner ready. Mission Impossible/Casino Royale is the theme with dice, poker chips, and cards on the tables, balloons everywhere and streamers of course. We asked them to dress nicely and we wore black, white, and red and served them steak, good veggies, potatoes and more bread (still have a truck load). I did plate up and it went really smoothly... so happy. Then there was a Mission Impossible game and then some performances by the girls over banana splits, cookies, and hot chocolate. To finish it off we watched a compiled video of some of the footage the guys took during the day.

IT WAS SUCH A GOOD DAY!!! I would love to do this all the time! The guys here Really are great and it's not just like one or two, every one of them is a great guy, upstanding, genuine, etc. People you want to hang around, good influences, etc. Honoring them has been a treat. Now I get to look forward to this Saturday when the boys are planning on honoring the girls, though honestly I would feel a lot more comfortable honoring someone else than being the one who's honored. That does not mean in any way that I would pass it up because I know it's going to be another amazing day for sure though...can't wait!