Rain

The other day Rachel and I decided to go to a movie. Afterward we were hungry, so we went and got Chinese takeout and took it to a local park to eat it. It started pouring down rain, so we packed up our lunch and ran to the van. By the time we got to the van it was hailing. We finished our lunch in the van, although it was a little soggy.
At the library, surrounded by books, it seems you can enter another world. Actually, thousands of other worlds. A world with no pain. Escaping into books allows you to forget about the past, future, and present. Books are full of color, illustrating remarkable scenes of beauty. Many people wish to escape out of this dull and gray world, to escape from hardship. But if they were to open their eyes, they would see that the world isn't such a gray and dull place. The fact that they don't know or understand is that we are only here for a short time, and God put it here for us to enjoy while we're here.

A couple of members of our school got baptized the other night. Did I mention it was outside? And it was about fifty degrees out? Or that the water still had ice in it? Anyway, it was a beautiful spot. The snow just added a bit of glitter. The three getting baptized were literally thrown into the water, and the third was dropped. I don't think any of them will ever forget that experience.
One if the students is from Hong Kong, and she is teaching me Mandarin. I'm excited about this because it's a language I've always wanted to learn. It's very complex, and I only know a few phrases so far, but I have five years to learn (it's also for high school credit). I don't think I'll be learning any characters anytime soon.
Faith and Lydia have a new friend named Ellie. She's a native American that does Origami, and Faith and Lydia have figured this out. Now every evening before dinner, poor Ellie is stuck making paper elephants, swans, and baskets. She finally told them to go find her a pink elephant, but Faith and Lydia figured it out after a few days. Little girls, you gotta love 'em.