The End of Our Fall Tour/ Training/ Christmas

Hi Everyone,

Sorry that it has been so long since my last blog, but most of the free space was taken by my time at midwinter training, where we didn't have internet.

Friday, December 5, we traveled to a snowy country home near Fairchild, Wisconsin. We didn't have any programming there, but we enjoyed socializing with our teammates and our hosts. While on the drive there, Amber (the team ministries manager from the YE office) called and asked us what we wanted to do for our one week break after Africa because she was booking our flights and needed to know if we wanted an extended layover somewhere. After some deliberation, all of the girls on our team decided that we will go to Sonja's home in Denmark. We are all very excited to meet her family and see her home country! We will go there in May.

Saturday, we left Fairchild for Cottage Grove, Minnesota, a suburb of the Twin Cities. Saturday night, we did our full worship service for a small crowd. For Sunday, the team did two songs for worship. Sadly, I wasn't feeling well at all on Sunday, so I didn't sing for worship that day. I came down with a stomach flu.

After worship on Sunday, we drove into the city and met Rachel, Luke's girlfriend. We went with her to a Swahili church service; Rachel was on the Cross Fire team to East Africa last year. It was an interesting service; we really appreciated having translators during the sermon. Next, we went to the YE office in St. Paul. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon helping teams park their vans in a parking lot across for the office that a business lent to us. We had to squish nine vans and trailers into a very small area because of a cranky man saying no one could park where they had (even though the parking lot was almost empty). It was probably about 10 below, so we weren't happy to be spending and hour or so out in the cold. After going out for supper, we went into the Upper Room to meet all of the teams for worship. We enjoyed a really neat Advent service. Then, went to our host churches to sleep. The girls had to drive way out to Stillwater for their host church.

Beginning on Monday, our time was full of different sessions led mostly by members of the YE office staff. The acoustic international teams had a session on malaria. All of the international teams listened to a few sessions on cross-cultural training, including a long session about how to deal with culture shock. Everyone spent some time do job training; therefore, I talked to Heather (the director of international teams) about how our programming was going. Wednesday, we recorded four of our songs. We had to travel on snow/ice covered roads to get to the house we were recording at. It was a neat studio. Look on the Youth Encounter website for our CDs (I don't know when they'll be coming out). Wednesday night, we enjoyed shared our van song with Dan and all of the other teams. We won the competition for the best van song! Read (or sing) the song below to see why.

'Twas the week before midwinter, and all through the van,
the Cross Fire team was writing this song for Dan.
'Tis spoken by puppets, but this much is true
All that you hear is from Cross Fire's van's view...

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Honk the horn, honk the horn,
I am Cross Fire's van.
They have hitched up Walter to me to drive across the land (Honk!)
Honk the horn, honk the horn,
Trofast is my name,
They will take good care of me for Dan 'cause he's the man.

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Pay the tolls, pay the tolls, pay the tolls!

(to the tune of The First Noel)
The first time they drove me, I broke down three times
So they called to their rescue the vehicle crew guys
Christian Bane, Brandon Golden, & Dain Swanson
And leading them all was our hero, Big Dan.

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Pay the tolls, pay the tolls, pay the tolls!

(to the tune of O Come, O Come Emmanuel)
I drove them safely to Ohio State
Where they worshipped, ate and stayed up late
Then early 'fore the sun arose
A homeless dude stole their laptop, soap, and clothes
Rejoice! Rejoice! The credit cards Jay found
By dumpster driving all around the grounds.

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Pay the tolls, pay the tolls, pay the tolls!

(to the tune of Silent Night)
Who made that dent? Who made that dent?
Cross Fire is innocent.
Many ask, some don't believe,
Another team this dent did leave.
Dan, please fix my dent. Dan, please fix my dent.

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Pay the tolls, pay the tolls, pay the tolls!

(to the tune of Sleigh Ride)
It's Monday morning and we're on the expressway.
We're headed to Virginia Beach for our fun-filled day.
Outside the sun is shining and look there's Johnny McCain
But from further commentary on that we must abstain.

(to the tune of Jingle Bells)
Pay the tolls, pay the tolls, pay the tolls!

(to the tune of Baby, It's Cold Outside)
I should never back up,
But sometimes you have to dear.
I should never back up
'Cause I've got such a big rear.
I should never back up,
But if you do, we'll spot for you if you have to.
So, roll the windows down.
The windows are down.
And turn the radio off.
It's already off.
All the tolls have been paid.
Cross Fire, Bonne journée!

With that song, we won fudge, Christmas cookies and the game 20 questions.

Thursday, all of the teams traveled north to Luther Point Bible Camp near Grantsburg, Wisconsin (where the international teams were for part of their training in the fall). That evening, we did our family night program for all of the team. Strangely, it was our best program yet. It helped to have a bunch of other people to sing along with us. Throughout the rest of our time at camp, we heard all of the teams do their programs. They were all great! We also told stories about our fall tour and met with our team. Each team had a staff person who had helped them talk about tough issues. It was difficult, but helpful. We also enjoyed a time of solitude, during which we remained silent. I really enjoyed the time to just be and think. It was nice to slow down after a busy fall. We also had sometime to enjoy the frigid outdoors at the camp. Most of the days were below 10 degrees; one day, we enjoyed a heat wave of 25 degrees. It is really sad when 25 degrees is a heat wave, but it was amazing how warm it felt after the freezing temps. Much of the time at camp was spent reconnecting with the other teams. Before we knew it, Tuesday, we were headed back to the Cities. Tuesday afternoon/evening, we all went our separate directions. Luke, Lindsay, and Adrienne flew home. Sonja went to Brett's house, where she is with her sister; Brett is her sister's boyfriend. Prosper came home with me. My parents drove to the office to pick us up; this was not an easy task for them. It was snowing a bit and the roads were slick. The four drive took them seven hours because the extra three hours that it took them to drive in the traffic and poor weather of the Twin Cities. Because they arrived late, we decided to drive for a short time and then go to a hotel.

Wednesday, we finally got home. It feels really nice to be home, even though it is cold and there is a lot of snow on the ground. Prosper and I enjoyed playing in the snow for awhile. We cross-country skied, shoveled snow, made snow angels, used the snow blower, through snow at each other and my dog Shiloh, shoveled snow of the roof, and jumped into a snow bank from the roof. It was a good experience for Prosper, since he is from Cameroon, where it never gets below freezing. We have enjoyed a relaxing time at my house. We had Shanes over for Christmas. We had a great Christmas. My most interesting gift was a two string guitar from Africa; I got it from Prosper. Today, we are all going down to my grandparents in Syracuse, Nebraska.

I hope you all had a great Christmas! Happy New Year!

Peace,

Tiffany