What more can we cram into one weekend

This weekend was a crazy one! Here is a run-down of the events:

Friday night - Painted the remaining 60 or so hats that were made but had yet to be painted. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. I pulled together everything we needed for the next morning and waited for Art to get home. As soon as he got home we loaded our Saturn VUE to the top. We made sure we had enough room to get us and the kids in but other than that it was paper bag hats and supplies. After that we came in and crashed knowing that Saturday was going to be a whirlwind.

Saturday -FESTIVAL OF HOPE
I have been waiting for this event all year! We woke up at 6:30 and didn't stop until 11 pm. It was insane but rewarding. We woke the girls and finished getting ready ourselves. We loaded the last few things and we were off. We drove through Mickey D's (McDonald's) and headed downtown. Set up for the festival was starting at 7:30 am. I knew I didn't need to be there that early, but 8:00 seemed better. I know it is only a 1/2 hour, but 8 seems so much nicer an hour than 7 to me. We arrived and found out that we were able to park just down from where our booth was located which was awesome! Last year we had to walk a block to get our stuff from our car to the booth.

Mr. A, AJ, KA and I went off to find out where the rest of our hats were located. The rescue mission was nice enough to allow our pastor to bring about 200 hats down the night before. He was going to be out of town and we were worried about how we were getting these hats there. They found an empty office and let us fill it to the ceiling with paper bag hats.

Slowly our group arrived and we began setting up our booth. We had a great location this year next to a stage where we could see different performers and where our ladies also performed. We were also near bathrooms and food which made it easy for any of us to go take a quick break and not have to go far.

The dances turned out great. Our human video with our students was awesome. They performed to Skillet's Last Nite off the Comtose album. They rocked it...even though we actually only had two true practices. I love those kids. They have such a huge heart and that songs speaks to so many people.

The people started coming around 9:45 and didn't stop until 2:00. We were literally tearing the booth down and people were still coming to make hats. We were really busy from 10:30 - 11:30 and again from 1:00-2:00. We think we actually gave away about 200 hats. We had made a little over 300. Not bad for my estimate. We have approximately 100 or so hats left, but we can use them for smaller community outreaches and things that we do as a group.

We were exhausted but we were happy!

Off to our next event: Youth Movie Night

We had been promising our youth we would do more events. We had a sleepover last weekend at our house which was cool. We hung out and talked and watched the Borne Triology - yes all three movies back to back. It was insane, but we finished at 2 AM. After the movie, some of the students began talking about stuff going on in their lives. As tired as we were, it was an awesome time of connecting with our students.

We had found out that a lot of the students were interested in the Iron Man movie so we decided to go see it opening weekend which happened to be the same weekend as the Festival of Hope. We said let's make it a full day and go watch the movie after the event.

Luckily a student's parents invited us over to their house for dinner and to chill out between events. It was an awesome time to just relax after the festival and get to know this family better.

The movie was good. One of our female students and I didn't get into it as much as the guys, but it was a good time to just hang out with the kids and show them that we care about them.

We got home a little after 11pm. I think as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out. I wouldn't change it for anything though. Helping others, getting out of our comfort zone for a few hours, building relationships with new people and hanging out with students showing them we care was the best 17 hours I could have spent.