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Another week. Another update.

Well, it seems I'm back in my 7-or-so-day cycle of posting updates. I hope the past week has been kind to all of you and that God has been teaching you more about him and his character.

Thursday was another meeting day, so not a whole lot to address there. The projector has been nice to me the past few weeks, I think because it felt bad for all the trouble it's given me, and has worked like a champ. The student leadership has been doing a great job organizing the meetings, too; it hardly feels like the staff is gone at all. We've also been seeing a lot of students from campuses coming to the meetings, which is encouraging.

This weekend was an awesome community-building experience for me. I've been getting to know people better and better on the project and we are all coming together as a group. Friday I went out with a group of guys to play basketball in a park near where we live. That was an awesome community time, and good exercise, too! Friday night I had dinner with some of the OSU girls and then we watched "Country Strong" and laughed at how confusing and terrible it was.

Saturday I went to Goodwill with a group so that we could get outfits for our "Five Dollar Prom" on Sunday. We were such kids in a candy store as we mixed and matched superbly absurd outfits. It was a really fun and goofy time. I ended up going as a bro, with a crazy patterned shirt and tacky pants.

On Sunday, we had a progressive dinner, which was basically the girls making the guys dinner as appreciation for all our appreciation to them. We split up into groups of eight guys and then traveled around to different rooms for different courses. First there were appetizers. Our girls made us buffalo chicken nuggets and nachos with sausage cheese dip. It was so good it ended up filling us up pretty good. For the main course we had stir-fry, also tasty and wonderful, though I think only one of us finished a bowl because we were so full. By the time we got to dessert, I didn't know if we could eat anymore, but since the dessert was Oreo cheesecake and sugar cookies, I had to try some. It was so worth it.

The icing on this awesome cake of community was the dance party Sunday night. We set up a computer with tunes in the meeting room and then partied like it was Twenty-Eleven. It was a hot, crazy time - I was sweating buckets by the end - but so fun, and yes, I did break it down several times myself. I think we all enjoyed just being able to go nuts and have a good time after the past seven weeks.

We are definitely getting closer as a group, and in these last three weeks we have here I think God will continue to build us up as a group. If there's one thing that God has taught me in the past week, it's that community is so very important. Don't neglect community.