I have already learned a bit about my other Chapel staff cohorts, though there are still many mysteries yet to be revealed. Sarah loves relationship & psychology books about as much as me (we sat at Hooked on Books in the Relationship section for a good half hour), enjoys taking great pictures, and loves painting nails. I shall be visiting her salon A La Her Room very soon. In addition, I find her humor to be incredibly similar to mine & her sound effects and honesty about struggles to be glorious. Alexandra has this sense of childhood joy that I love very much! I was watching her at the beach the other day as she gloried in watching dolphins for longer than anyone else and almost squealed with joy when she spotted a crab returning to its hole in the ground. She ends up clapping her hands in excitement a lot and she eats ice cream despite the frigid winds of reality. I could get used to hanging out with such a ray of light and adorableness. Susie is a wonderful extrovert who I can't wait to evangelize with, and Isaiah and I start running with her tomorrow morning, which I am simultaneously jazzed about (Susie has tons of energy and will probably make me happier about the process) and a bit scared of (since I am indeed a horrible runner).
Ben is incredibly passionate about war veterans and honoring those lost. I learn more about how to be respectful & silent in the midst of tragedy and loss every day from him. He doesn't talk a ton, but even simply watching his facial expressions sometimes shows one how to act in situations. I get a sense of what growing up with no small sense of decorum would have been like from him. Elizabeth is this entity that most find very quiet and forever sensibly normal, but rooming with Bonnie McCoy taught me a lot, and from the time I first met Elizabeth, I knew she had tons of spice, energy, and life. Watching her complete an entire Shakespeare dialog made of magnets & wrap herself burka-style in a blanket on the beach have only confirmed my suspicions that she is cray-cray and that I love it. Teri is still a mystery to me though I know I will get to know her little by little. I am excited to do so.
After we christened the Dunn House, this new group of eight which I am growing to love more & more everyday, visited Sunset Beach with our new friend Tom, who spent the weekend painting the Chapel. Sunset Beach is beautiful. We watched dolphins play near a war memorial wreck as the sun slowly sank into the sky, and as we watched I thought about how very blessed I am to be here: a newly married, Chapel newbie who already feels very accepted and valued by everyone here. Isaiah & I got some couple time acting like children in the sand, and Elizabeth paid a huge compliment by saying that as far as couples were concerned, we were pretty cool. I suppose she thought the fact that I was playing massage parlor and covering Isaiah's belly with stones whilst speaking in an Iranian accent was cute; I supposed this would look weird, but odder things have been endearing. A stranger also snapped a pic of us while we did our couple thing on the beach; she though we were cute too (score one for the Englishes!) The picture is below. She sent it to my phone. Isaiah is laying in my lap (as per usual).
After feeling like we were all cute at the beach, Isaiah & I hopped in the car and rode home with Sarah & Tom, which was a way cool time because Tom popped in his church choir CD, and we were all confronted with the most glorious music which sounded like it came from heaven itself. The music was so good and affected me so much in a spiritual sense, that when we returned home to the Dunn House, we kept listening whilst drinking some tea and preparing our minds for sleep. The music, including the pieces that Tom wrote, was similar to the Gregorian Chants I used to hear at Agia Sophia's Orthodox Coffee House in Colorado. It was so wonderful to be reminded of such wonderful times.
On Saturday, We all went to Chris Byrd's (Evangelism Coordinator with Isaiah this summer) and Ross's (last year's Drama Coordinator & friend of the chapel) for a Goodbye House Party since they are both moving soon. I enjoyed talking to strangers and getting shown off by my husband. His favorite line is, "And this is my new wife..." He is very proud to be married to me, and this makes me happy. I also love the fact that Chris Byrd understands my rants; I had a major fangirl moment over his writing desk and kept talking about how my favorite things are mixtures of antiquated beauty & glory and practical application, and how writing desks and Jesus are both like this. And he understood everything I said! Awesome Sauce! We returned to Douglass Fudge bought by Tom and enjoyed eating amazingness until bedtime.
On Sunday, Isaiah & I went to Lighthouse Church, and I must say we are fans of it. I loved the environment in general. There was a girl with Down's who danced in the aisle and paced back and forth at the front, a youth group member led the worship, and the pastor was very bold & zealous. There were also really cool wood depictions of Christ's Crucifixion around the room, and I liked the way they did communion. It reminded me of the way Suzan & Cope's Episcopal Church did it. It felt more like a communal body rather than an individual thing, and I am a big fan of this because the Church as One is huge to me. We gave the pastor an invite to Dr. Krabbendam's School of Evangelism at the Boardwalk, and I hope some people from there come since I believe that the church in general is full of people who are already great evangelists. They could become even more bold under crazy, radical Dr. K.
After church, we went to the Secret Beach and filled ourselves with sun, laughter, and conversation. Sarah and I later visited a book store before going to Night Chapel and hearing Tim Cummings preach. He is another man of God who is full of boldness. He also has a lot of experience in the scriptures which seeps through his pores when he speaks. I hope to one day be like this. Me thinks Isaiah is closer than I to being this way. Perhaps he can teach me how to be more dedicated to studying the Word, though I must say reading Acts together has already started refueling the fire I once had in high school for the reading of the Word. This makes me hopeful.
We returned to the house to care for the wounded (those with sunburns, namely Susie & Sarah), play Apples to Apples, and eat jelly beans (provided by Teri) and brownies (made by Susie). It was a grand evening, full enough to shorten the morning...since everyone is still not awake. Pray for us as more staff arrives. Pray that the unit we have already formed will continue to grow in relational connection and in Spirit and Prayer!
Calli-Jade, I'm so glad you are doing these blog posts! I know you guys will be super busy, but please please don't stop! I miss my Susie and Ben so much and I like to hear what they're doing. :)
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