I move to discuss our topic for today.

(Second!)

Today Randy Halstead talked to us about conducting a business meeting using Robert's Rules of Order. He's apparently the resident expert on the topic, having been very involved in it in college. (Did you know they actually have competitions for that sort of thing?! Scary. No offense intended.) Anyway, it is definitely a challenge for some of us. It's really hard for me to wait until I am recognized to speak- I just don't work that way! But I do see the good in using the rules so I will try.

On another note, we had a great meeting tonight about our core values, featuring Jennifer's chili and Alicia's famous salad. It was a good discussion, mostly just brainstorming. It's interesting, though, when you get so many people who are passionate about their faith in one room and try to come up with something to put on paper. This document could easily be several pages if we're not careful!

Oh dear. I have now become one of those people I complain about, the ones who never update their blogs. To catch up, here is an excerpt from an email I wrote to my mom two weeks ago:

Things are going very well. Our classes are so interesting. Last we we finished our study of "Urban Evangelism and Church Planting" and we are now in the middle of "Team Missions". What fascinating stuff. The greatest blessing about our classes is that they are SO empowering. I used to think, "What on earth am I doing? I don't know the first place to start in planting a church!" But now, I feel like I DO have a clue. We're taking the first steps toward our team strategy document. In December, we will have a couple of weeks to sit down and work on it, but there's so much to do even before that stage. When you're bringing together nine people, all with different backgrounds and expectations, there's a lot to hammer out. Our first step is to determine our core values. These are our beliefs that we do agree on, that our church will be built on and that we will all hold to unwaveringly. (It's much better to start where we all agree!) Our Team Missions class is giving us the skills we need to have all the discussions and meetings. We're learning about how teams function, how to handle conflict and what to expect of doing mission work as a team. (Some of it, obviously, overlaps what I studied in college, but I figure it's probably beneficial to hear it again!).

Our team has continued to gel wonderfully. We try to spend time together as much as possible. We have Brazil night every Tuesday night at the Freitas'. They both work for Continent, are about your age, and are awesome people. They worked in Curitiba, Brazil for several years. Every week, Georgia makes some Brazilan dish (and dessert) and we have a time afterwards where they give us cultural insights. They're not always DEEP cultural insights (last week, we talked about Roberto Carlos, Brazil's answer to Elvis) but they will be so useful for fitting in in Brazilian society. We spend a lot of our time over at the Parkers'. Their house is perfect for holding lots of people. A lot of times, it's just Russ and me over there- we're a part of the family now (tio Russ and tia Val). Mondays and Wednesdays after class, the gals go over to Georgia's to learn axé, a Brazilian dance. It's what they would do on the beach to a samba. It's quite tricky (and you have to shake all kinds of body parts) but we're having fun. Each song has its own dance- so far, after about a month, we've learned one whole dance. What gringos we are!

One disadvantage we've learned about being on a team and spending so much time together is that we all get sick!!! There's been a cold passed through the team, and I thought I had successfully avoided it (even though Russ had it). But Sunday night, I started getting sniffly. It's not bad- mostly just congestion. It's been interesting, though, to watch it spread. It seemed like one spouse from each family had it and not the other. Now it's our turn!