March Craziness

This is DL here, the 13 year old in the family. I’m going to try to write a post every month at least. More posts within the month if something comes up. But since Mom and Dad don’t really have time to maintain the blog, then I’m going to try to do it. Posting something every month, I’ll keep you updated on what’s going on. Or at least, attempting to. I don’t have a good title for this month’s but I’ll try to make up something more catchy for April. So what happened this March…

Well, the old saying that ‘March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb’ is more or less true here in New England. It was pretty cold at the beginning of March but now at the end of March, it’s been getting warmer. A good lot of the snow has melted and we don’t have to wear our puffy winter coats very often. So spring feels like it’s coming. We’re just hoping that it won’t snow. Snowstorms have been known to come as late as April. For one week, we had HCC here at His Mansion. HCC is Healing in the Context of Community. It’s a chance for people from the outside world to come and learn about what we’re doing at His Mansion. Then they can take what they have learned and apply to their own churches, communities and neighborhoods. It was a smaller class, about 12 people. Also during that week, we had a group from Messiah College come to work here. The week before HCC, we had a group from Wheaton College come out and stay and work for a week. So for 2 weeks, we had lots of extra people here on the hill. HCC went really well and everyone enjoyed having the college students with us. After those two weeks, things calmed down a bit. But they didn’t stop. Something is always going on around here.

This is personal since I’m the only one in my family who experienced it but I want to write about it. I went on a retreat with my youth group to a place called Camp Berea, which is a little more than an hour north of where I live. There were 9 kids, 5 high schoolers and 4 jr. highers and 3 leaders who went from my youth group. It was the 12 of us and about 300 other kids and leaders there that weekend. We all had a really good time. There was a band called Attaboy which drove all the way from Indiana for the weekend. Our speaker for the weekend was Brian Pruitt. The whole weekend was a blast. Since our group wasn’t very big, everyone mostly stuck together. Occasionally a couple people would go off and do something or half the group would go watch volleyball but everyone hung out at the same place generally. It was a really good chance to bond and be able to connect with each other. That was the best part for me. The best part was spending time with my friends. Getting to know them better, hanging out, cheering them on and just being together. I very much enjoyed the time with my youth group. I know that since I’m an introvert, this sounds a little strange but it’s true. That was a highlight for me this month.

Easter is just around the corner. Time to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection! Wait, isn’t Easter about jellybeans, chocolate bunnies and creme eggs? No, silly Easter Bunny, Easter is about Jesus and his wonderful grace and love. We will be celebrating Easter with our Mansion family. I don’t know if we’ll be doing anything special but we’ll be together and that’s what counts. I hope that you have a good Easter. That’s all for now from the Tso Family. Signing off. -DL