best pics so far

i'm sitting at starbucks in greenville, nc, and i'm not thinking much about YouthWorks at all today. it's so nice to step outside that bubble for a little while. i've been away from home for 7 weeks, in Hyde County for 6 weeks, and hosting youth groups for 4 weeks. we have 4 weeks of programming left--in fact, my flight home leaves one month from today. this weekend has been strange in that sense. i feel as though i'm perched on a precipice, having made the long climb to the summitt, and now i'm waiting to begin the descent. but until the new groups arrive tomorrow night, i'm just watching & waiting. and second half of the summer will not be "downhill" in the sense that it will be a breeze--it will be as tough of a climb down as it was on the way up, i'm sure. but we've crossed the halfway point. i think we're all a little unsure how to feel about it. is it going to fly by? or as we get more tired & home/real life draws closer, is time going to start dragging? will we be able to keep our energy up to serve the last 4 groups as well as we could the first 4? i'm not really sure what to think or how to feel. so for now, i'm just perched here, watching.

here's a few of my favorite pictures from the summer: