Week 2: Boys' BBall Camp and a Highway 34 Rally

Dear Friends, Family, and Readers,

What a week! Full moon, Friday the 13th, Highway 34 Coalition Rally for funding, boys ages 8-15 running around in circles for camp, and dodging gnats at ball games...Aka another great week of summer ;)

• Boys' Basketball Camp. It went so well!! The improvement made in just those few days was remarkable and I was so proud of the kids by the end of the week. I definitely had to yell more this week than last week :) but by Friday, we had all improved our listening skills. Check out my facebook page to see a whole album of photos. I'll post the two team photos from Elementary camp and Middle School (+9th grade) camp on here. Thank you to everyone who made those two weeks of camp possible!
  
• Highway 34 Coalition. When it is a political movement and you are the co-president of a high school organization...I guess it's ok to carry that title until there is a successor? :) 34 VOICES is a policy reform-based organization of high school students and West Central affiliates that are promoting the designation of funds toward making the two-lane stretch of Highway 34 from Monmouth, IL, to Burlington, IA, a four-lane highway. Funds came through for the bypass around Biggsville, IL, and the school building, which is great! BUT that will only bottle neck traffic and make it that much more dangerous on both ends of the bypass. The road to the west will take a long time due to the levee system breakdown during the flood a few years back. The road between Biggsville and Monmouth...why not? Now the trouble with these rallies is we are always speaking to the ones that agree with us. So what is the point of the rally? To raise a unified voice up to our legislators that we need the funds for this highway. This means on both sides of the Mississippi River, in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, on both the State and the Federal level. The road is dangerous. Period. As Senator John Sullivan said, there will always be more problems than resources to fix them. Sadly, this is very true. And there are problems everywhere--so why worry about a little highway in middle of nowhere Illinois? It is the duty and the responsibility of those of us who live near and travel on that highway to inform those outside of the area of exactly why it is a dangerous road. Keep us safe, keep our kids safe, keep our farmers safe, keep our community safe, and keep travelers safe. Promote the designation of funds to making that stretch of highway four-lane.
  
• Ball games, Movie nights, Little moments. To those of you in my home community, thank you. Home will ALWAYS be home and I couldn't be more thankful for the past few months to remind me of that. Who knows what comes next, but I know where home is--without a doubt in my mind. Thank you for that.
  
• News Release Basketball Tour Funding. Support is coming in, both in encouragement and prayer, as well as in monetary gifts. Continued prayers for the leadership team of NRB as well as those who are fundraising to provide these camps for the kids. It is such a privilege to learn from these kids, and then to share with them my love for basketball, and even more importantly the Gospel of Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I was watching Criminal Minds on my flight yesterday and they actually quoted the Bible quite a few different times. It was actually a Biblically sound reminder that first and foremost, putting my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior means that I show love to all those around me. My personal prayer is that God would daily work in me to bring that about--and a praise for those women (especially) in my life who provide incredible examples of what true sacrificial love looks like when it is lived out. Might not be perfect, but I see the effort and applaud you!
  
• BOULDER, CO. Next camp, here we go! Spending some time with some wonderful friends running around the mountains and learning from an excellent coaching staff at University of Colorado. Excited for the next couple of weeks :)
  
  O&O,
  
  M
  
  P.s. Click on the photos to enlarge them.
  
  

  

  Elementary Camp

  

  Middle School Camp

  

  PeeWee Baseball aka Pro Gnat Dodgers
  (GOOD LUCK to all the teams in the Tournament this week!!)

  

  Oquawka Sandbar Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza--Tina, you are too good!!

  

  Movie night w/ the boys: How to Train Your Dragon 2...great movie!