"This is not an idol..."

 Yes, that is a 30 ft statue of the Daniel 2 image in front of our church.  No, that is not an idol, haha.  It was an attempt at an attention getter for our fall evangelistic series, but unfortunately a lot of people said it blended in to the church.   Nonetheless, there he stood, for about two weeks, guarding the church.  When the Pastor told us we were getting him, there were a lot of jokes made (admittedly, quite a few of them by me).  Some said we should get some flood lights so people could see him at night, others said we should put red lights in his eyes, maybe draw a mustache.  People were curious how many accidents he would cause when drivers first saw him (our church is right on the highway).  And as guys were having trouble getting him tied down, they had this hilarious image in their heads of him floating away going out to see, or having to have the navy jets gun him down.  Nothing quite as exciting as that every happened (sadly?). 



The meetings went well though.  We had a guy named Hiram Rester come out from Missouri for a month.  He brought his wife and three kids, which was cool and nice for our school to have a couple awesome new kids for a month.  Anyway, the meetings were a bit different from your typical Adventist evangelistic meeting in that we had them three nights a week, Thurs-Sat (instead of 4-5), 2- 2 1/2 hours each with a break for (awesome) snacks in between.  Also different was that instead of pews or rows of chairs, we did tables.  Each table had a leader, someone from the church, who would get to know their table members and lead them through a discussion/worksheet questions.  I got to be one and it was pretty fun. 

Hiking Goose Rock at Deception Pass Park

 Even though it was only 3 nights a week, it was still kinda exhausting, and we were all a bit relieved when it was over.  We had a good turnout from members, and an average of 20 visitors a night.  At the end, we had two baptisms and one rebaptism, and today we had two professions of faith, with the possibility of more in the future. 


So that kept us pretty busy in September, but so did a couple of other things.  First of all, right before we left for our anniversary trip, I got hired as an advocate!  Before anyone gets too excited, it's a full time but temporary job.  Two out of the three advocates at the place I've volunteered since January are going on maternity leave at the same time, due two weeks apart :) The organization works with victims of sexual and domestic violence.  My main job will be manning the front desk- welcoming incoming clients, answering phones, scheduling appointments, etc.  This is similar to what I did as a volunteer when the other advocate was on maternity leave (stay away from the water there, unless you want to get pregnant, hehe).  However, now if someone is in crisis I am better equipped to deal with them without having to hand them off to someone else.  I will also be taking on some advocacy roles with certain clients, to what extent I'm not sure yet.  This is what I'm super excited about.  I will also be taking the crisis cell phone for two weeks, and will be the advocate the hospital calls if there is an sexual assault occurrences on the island.  So, the reason I have been busy in September and the reason I'm better equipped to handle crisis situations is that I had four intense eight hour days where I and some other volunteers received some awesome training.  I will not actually begin work until December when they go on leave, but I received the training early so that I can be able to shadow any hospital calls that come in now, so I'm better equipped to deal with it on my own.  All of November I'll be shadowing at the office (paid!), and then December and January I'll be on my own.  I assume in February I'll be done, but you never know! Maybe the two new moms will be so happy with their little kiddos they'll never want to come back, haha.  We'll see. 

Anyway, the final thing that has occupied September is this little cutie.  Well, kinda.  I've been puppy walking a 9 week old pug/schnauzer mix, Laila, who looks something like this little girl ( I don't have a picture of Laila).  It's been super fun- all the puppy fun I want without the mess or responsibility.  So I go twice a day, 2-3 x per week, playing with her, walking her, feeding her, and general cuddling.  So it's been an interesting, fun, exciting, and busy month...who knows what the next one will bring!