In Ohio

Greetings from the Buckeye state (Ohio),

Tuesday we left Lafayette for Christ Lutheran Church in Columbus, Ohio. It is right across the street from Capital University and Trinity Lutheran Seminary. After enjoying some fellowship during dinner, we did a family program at Christ Lutheran. Tuesday and Wednesday night, we stayed at Luke's house in Pinkerington, OH. It was fun to meet his family, where we will be for Thanksgiving.

Wednesday was a pretty relaxing day. We led a few songs with two groups of preschoolers and showed them our puppet show. The kids loved it! It was really fun to see their smiling faces and enthusiasm. We enjoyed hearing how they thought we were only 10. The rest of Wednesday, we worked on team stuff. We each talked individually with Ua (our support staff for the week). We went to a local coffee shop to review our jobs and share how we will need help with our work.

After Jenny (our contact in Columbus) led devos for us Thursday morning, we rehearsed for that night. We rehearsed totally acoustically (without a bass and keys), which we weren't used to. We drove to Ashville, Ohio for our outdoor program. Thankfully, we were able to plug in the bass and keys. It was very different to have an outdoor program. We had to deal with wind and sunlight, but it went pretty well. It was good practice for Africa, where most of our programs will be outdoors.

Friday, we slept in a little, then met at the church. We did not have any programming, so we used the day to work on team stuff. Ua shared his thoughts about our program with us. It was good to hear a program evaluation, but a little intimidating for me--the program and culture coordinator. We have already made some changes in our program to make it even better. Pastor Chuck led a devotion before lunch. After most took a trip to Walgreen's, we rehearsed.

Today (Saturday) we are going to Cincinnati, OH. Tonight we have a program and Sunday we will do something for both worship services at Trinity Lutheran Church.

Hope you are all doing great!


Peace,

Tiffany

More Pics (Training and 1st Week)

Hi Everyone,

This is me at Luther
Point, where we had
international team training.








One of the nights of international training, we ate food from West Africa! It was actually pretty good! This is peanut soup (a soup of peanut butter, tomatoes, chicken, and vegetables. Fufu (boiled yams and plantains is on the right).

They eat oranges by cutting of the top and peeling the outer most layer and then squeezing the juice out (so they don't get their hands dirty). However, as far as I know, they still get their hands dirty, because they eat with them! So, we tried eating with our hands (soup, fufu, fish, etc.). Also, we could only eat with our right hands, which was tough for the left-handers like me (at least I've had some good practice because of my broken arm).

This is fish with cassava (like spinach). As you can see, it was a whole fish. It was surprisingly good (I don't usually like fish)!!

This was the sending service. We did two of our cross cultural songs. My parents, my sister, and Shanes came!

This is our amazing Team Director, Heather Swanson. She is great! She is really supports the international teams and helps them out when needed!

At our first church in Augusta, Wisconsin, we led some sing alongs with Sunday schoolers.

Here is my team!













On our first Monday off, we went to Madison, Wisconsin and visited the capital and State Street.

Sonja and Adrienne being cheese-heads in Wisconsin!

Here is our team leading worship at Grace Lutheran Church in Lafayette, Indiana.

On the right is Ua! He is our awesome on the road support guy for this week. During training, he helped lead rehearsals and sectionals. He has been on a few team before and is very helpful.

Above is my girls! (Adrienne, Lindsay, Sonja, and Me)
To the right is Sonja, Bethany and Adrienne




Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!

Peace,

Tiffany

Surprises in Lafeyette

Bonjour (French for good day or hello),

Saturday, we left Bartlett for Lafayette, Indiana--Adrienne's hometown. We had an evening program (about an hour and a half of music, skits, prayers, a puppet shows, and Gospel messages) at Grace Lutheran Church. It went really well! We had a really small audience, but it was a touching program. We were all glad that we adjusted our program so it flows much better. We were expecting to do only three songs for the two Sunday services. At the end of our program Saturday night, the pastor told us that he liked the program so much that he wanted us to do it for both service on Sunday. SURPRISE!! We did!! Even though, we had only been through our adjusted program once, we did twice this morning. I really wasn't expecting that...especially since it was a LCMS congregation, but I enjoyed the surprise. Both programs were well received. We really enjoyed talking to people after the services about how they were touched by our program or how they wanted to support us.

After the two early morning services, we were exhausted!! After a wonderful lunch, we took naps. Now we are just relaxing. While in Lafayette, we are staying at Joshua's (a YE international music staff) parents. Joshua will be on the road with Cross Fire for one week; he will help us up out with any on the road training we need. Luke is really excited to have another guy with us.

Hopefully, we will soon be getting our other teammate, Prosper. On the 24th, he should be getting his visa and coming here shortly after. We'll find out soon for sure. We are all anxious for him to come!

I'll add pics to my next post! Thanks for keeping up with me!


Peace,

Tiffany

Roselle & Bartlett

Greetings,

After Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, we drove to Roselle, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago). At Trinity Lutheran Church in Roselle, we led some songs for over 100 confirmation kids. Sonja and I enjoyed staying at the same host home with a very nice lady who spoiled us.

On Thursday, we drove for about 25 minutes to Bartlett, Illinois. We went to Living Lord Lutheran Church. In the morning, we rehearsed and had devotions. That night, we sang some worship songs with junior and senior highers. We also told them about what we will be doing and answered some of their questions. It was a fun and relaxing time in their youth room with lots of couches. We had three high-schoolers who were interested in doing team in the future! All of us stayed at the Pastor's house who was on team before. It was nice to share stories with her.

Friday, we sang two songs with the preschoolers at the church and we did our puppet show. We went to a nearby senior center to sing some songs. We had them join us for two hymns, then we sang several of our program songs. They really enjoyed it! We shared a little bit of culture with them and told them what we would be doing. Afterwards, we talked to some of them for awhile; including a trip to the pond to watch the geese and swans. After lunch, we led another session with preschoolers. Then, we rehearsed our programs songs. We used that rehearsal to make our program flow better--it is so much better!

Friday night, we went to a host family for supper. Before and after the meal, we enjoyed playing lots of games with them; including football, ping-pong, pool, darts, and Wi. We also tried out their drum set. It was a relaxing evening full of playing!! Our team also enjoyed a fun trip out for ice cream!!

Stay tuned for more updates!!


Peace,

Tiffany

First Two Bookings

Hi Everyone,

Training is over! It is nice to be done with training. The last few days of training were actually pretty interesting; we talked about poverty, other religions, and the countries we will be going to. We watched a really interesting documentary called "The Corporation"; it was about how companies mess up the world by the poor decisions they make that destroy human rights. Good movie, but it left us feeling overwhelmed and helpless.

One of the nights, Cross Fire ate food from the countries that we will be going to. We had peanut stew (a stew/sauce with peanut butter, tomato sauce, and chicken used to top things), cassava (like spinach--used on rice and fufu), fish, rice, fufu (boiled yams or plantains--tastes like bread dough/looks like play-dough, oranges, and Fanta. We ate with our hands. It was surprisingly good!! We ate with previous teamers who had gonna to West Africa; their insights into the culture were very interesting and helpful. After eating table from our food, we were able to try food from Denmark, Germany, and Southeast Asia. Next, we talked more with the teamers from previous Cross Fire teams. I really enjoyed all they had to tell us. So far, we will be going to Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon. We may also be going to Mali and Guinea.

Friday was our sending service. My parents, Lara, and Shanes (family friends) came for that. It was nice to see them and spend some time with them. Each team did a song for the sending service. There was a vast difference between the electric and acoustic teams--most of it was too loud for me!

On Saturday, we got on the road. Our first stop was a country church near Augusta, Wisconsin. We ate supper there, then Lindsay led some games with the youth. They were a lot of fun to play with. Sunday morning, we led sing-alongs for the Sunday School kids. We ended up leading longer than we expected, but it worked out fine. We also led worship. For the most part, it went really well. After worship, we headed off to Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. At First Evangelical Lutheran, we had our first program on the road Sunday night. The program went well with some surprises, including getting mics half way through (we are an acoustic team!) and having a small audience. Monday we enjoyed our day off; we slept in! We also went to Madison, Wisconsin; where we walked on State Street and went to the capital. The time off was much needed and very enjoyable. In Beaver Dam, Adrienne and I stayed together at a host home. They were also hosting a couple from Israel--it was really interesting to hear their story about being Christians in Israel--not an easy thing to do!

After enjoying a slow paced morning on Wednesday (packing, reorganizing the van, and calling in to the YE office), we left for Roselle, Illinois, where we are now. Today, we will have time to work on team stuff (meetings, devos, learning French, rehearsals, etc.). Tonight, we will be helping with confirmation by leading songs and a skit.

I hope that you are all doing well. Thanks for keeping up with me!!


Peace,

Tiffany

More Pics of Training

Hi Everyone,

This is Christ the King Lutheran Church in the cities. The first week of training was spent there. After a week at Christ the King, we went to Luther Dell Bible Camp in Minnesota. We drove as teams. On the way there, my teams' van broke down--three times. The battery was dead and alternator had problems, but they have been fixed. It will be interesting travelling around the country in a 15 passenger van with a trailer. I'm glad I don't have drive and I'm thankful for my teammates that are driving the van.

Luther Dell was a beautiful place to enjoy nature. The lake and trees were awesome. During free time, I would go for a hike, canoe, or swim. I loved spending time outside. We spent one of the days at Luther Dell in silence, which was a really nice time to relax and enjoy the beauty around me. I miss that.

After Luther Dell, we had our practice booking in the cities, then came to Luther Point near Grantsburg, WI. We had our first night here off and it was Sonja's birthday, so we went out to celebrate and had ice cream. Below is a picture of Sonja and Mikey (someone on a Watermark team) enjoying ice cream.

More pics to come soon!

Peace,

Tiffany

Pics of Training

Hi Everyone,


Finally, here are some pics of my
amazing teammates. From left to right
they are: Lindsay, Luke, Adrienne, me, and Sonja.

















This is Luke, Adrienne and me.
















Below is our Danish teammate Sonja and me













More to come soon....

More about Training

Hi Friends and Family,

How is everything going with all of you?

Training is going well. It has been really fun getting to know the other teams and my own! After a week full of practicing and learning about our jobs, Cross Fire had our practice booking at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Woodbury, MN. We had event with 7th through 12th graders with games, songs, and ice cream. On Sunday, we sang a French song for worship and helped out with Sunday school by performing a puppet show and sing on sing a-longs.

Each of the team members has two or three jobs. I am the Program & Culture Coordinator and Technology Manager. As Program & Culture Coordinator, I will lead our music rehearsals, lead discussions about programming, and inform my team about culture in other countries. As Technology Manager, I will set up our projector and laptop when we have programs with projected lyrics and I will take care our our team computer. I will also make the slideshow with MediaShout (kind of like Powerpoint).

Now, all the international team members are at Luther Point near Grantsburg, WI. We are here for culture training. Luther Point is another nice camp on a lake. Tomorrow night, we will be performing our first full program for the other teams and the YE staff. I am nervous, but really excited.

Yesterday was Sonja's birthday. We had the night off, so we went to Pine Valley, MN to celebrate. We had a lot of fun!!

For our sending service, Cross Fire will perform some cross-cultural songs and all of the teams will perform a song. Then we will be on the road!!


Peace,

Tiffany