June has been a lot. (Quick personal update!)

     Hey there, friends. It has been a few weeks since I've written anything, and I'm sorry about that. I've been really busy, and I would like to share a little bit about all that I've been up to for the past month. I'm not going to say that I haven't been really busy at other times in my life, but I'm having a hard time remembering a month that has been quite as packed as this one! I hope you'll join me as I unpack my work and play times, beginning with a little trip up to the big apple.

I'm a little tired!

    June started with a bang as we boarded a plane with our group of 34 folks (24 students and 10 chaperones) and flew up to New York. While there, we learned a bit about our nation's history as we visited a few historical churches. St. Paul's, which was a church that George Washington attended many times and then much later, was used to house the first responders as they worked to clean up the situation after 9/11. Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, which was a major "hub" for the Underground Railroad, was attended by Abraham Lincoln a few times, and Henry Ward Beecher (husband of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin) was the pastor during his time. We went to see the One World Trade Center and went up to the observation deck on a very cloudy day. They say that you can see "forever" from up there, but on that particular day, we saw a lot of gray, but it was still pretty amazing to look down and see just how some tall buildings looked from a bird's eye view. We stood by the sites where the Twin Towers stood and mourned all of the people that were lost on that day. We worshipped with the community at Metro Baptist Church, close to Times Square, as we sang on Pentacost Sunday, and we sang again at a retirement home in New Jersey to the residents who joined in with some singing of their own. I walked a lot of our students over to Rockafeller Plaza to check out the Nintendo World Store, as well as the Lego Store, then we stopped by the M&M store and Disney on the way back (both of which were in Times Square). We went to see "The Great Gatsby" and ate at Ellen's Stardust Diner. We got soaked when we went to the Statue of Liberty as well as Ellis Island, as it was pouring for a good bit of that day. Central Park was way bigger than I realized as we hiked through it for about 3 and a half hours to get to the Bethesda Fountain. It was exhausting, but so beautiful that I didn't mind too much. It was a packed trip for sure, but June was just beginning, because as soon as we got home, Vacation Bible School was there to greet us.

    I don't want to say that Vacation Bible School was a hard experience, but it's not a "vacation" that's mentioned in the title, or not for the volunteers anyways! That week, we went on a Road Trip with over 100 students and did our best to teach them about God's love in various different ways, and that he's with us wherever we go. I was in charge of leading Recreation (which we all know is something I excel at).  We did a bit of improv, we played with cozy coupes and scooters, we played memory games with hula hoops, and of course the favorite activity of all, anything involving a parachute. We all know how great the parachute is, and it always makes me glad that some things never change. It was a good week for all of the students and allowed some of them to even try out journalism on a little blog that some of the volunteers put together for the fifth graders. I hope everyone enjoyed their experience, and then we had a few days to recover before Sunday rolled around and we headed to Passport camp for our youth group.

    Passport is always a good time, and our students really enjoyed it for the most part. The main issue had to do with the heat, since there was a pretty dramatic heatwave all of last week. We had some days in the mid to high 90's that felt more like they were in the 100s, so we needed to remind everyone to drink plenty of water. The final night of camp was an emotional one, not just because we were celebrating and praying for our seniors getting ready to go off to college, but also as we were wishing the Youth Minister off after three years as she prepared to get married and move away.

    June has been a draining month, both physically and emotionally, but it's something that I've been prepared for for a while. It's harder actually going through it than I thought though. I am so happy for her as she moves into this new chapter, but I'm selfishly sad to have a close friend and a mentor moving away. We're going to stay in touch, but of course, it will be a hard transition as I continue to fill the same role that I have been, along with some new responsibilities. I'm nervous, but excited about all of the new challenges and tasks that I'll be taking on in the next few months or so, and excited for this third year of acting in support of some pretty outstanding young people that I continue to be proud of and encouraged by their example.

    This is a lot already, but there are a lot of gaming developments that I'm so excited to share with you all from while I was busy with all the different events that have been going on recently. We had the launch of the Switch 2 as well as Mario Kart World, and we're just a few weeks away from the release of Donkey Kong Bananza. You can expect a lot of thoughts about the gaming end of the conversation as well, I just wanted to take some time this week to thank you for patience, I just didn't have a whole lot of time to write last month. I'm excited to be back and I hope that you can look forward to a new post every Friday, just like I've been doing. Thank you, friends, for all of the kindness and support over the years. I really appreciate it, and especially after having some time where I haven't been writing, I feel the need to get back on here and just put something down. It's easier for me to post this than to have a whole conversation with folks, and I really hope that I have gotten my thoughts down in an acceptable way. I'm honored to be involved with this group of people that I am with, and hope that this next period is going to go well and lead in a positive direction. Until next time, I'm Jonathan Bowers, a Self-Proclaimed Dreamer, and I'll talk to you again soon.