Beginning the Race

“Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.  Honor one another above yourselves.” –Romans 12:9 & 10

The first group of teens is in!  On Sunday night, the teens showed up in the teen room and the teen staff introduced ourselves and made fools of ourselves through videos and such.  It was nerve-wracking since the group of teens this week was a tough crowd, but the improv ended up really getting to the kids and pulling them into participation.  Here are some of the videos and skits:

Staff Video!

I met with my group of girls – I have 13 and 14 year old girls this week – and man, am I blessed!  We immediately started laughing and discussing the potential cool things that will be in the Kingdom of God (like cloud mopeds and rainbow slides) and singing “Call Me Maybe” and dancing like crazy girls.  I am really excited about this group of girls.  For my first week leading high school girls, God has really blessed me with a funny and outgoing small group. 

This morning, a missionary family came into the teen room and talked about their experiences in Bolivia.  It was such a cool talk!  They have been living there for the past 30 years, have raised 4 children in the jungles in Bolivia, and have lived a type of life that I am completely unable to imagine.  He brought in an anaconda skin that was 22 feet long and talked of alligator tackling – adventures that I never dreamed of!  Ten years of their life was devoted to interpreting the Holy Bible into this people’s language that they have committed to serving. 

When we split into small groups, my group and I discussed this idea of a body of believers and how diverse we all are.  I get so wrapped up in our own little worlds that I forget sometimes that there are followers of Jesus in a different country living their own lives.  I forget that there are people who have never heard the word of God before.  That hit me like a ton of bricks: There are actually people out there in the world who don’t know the Redeemer. 

If that is not something worth committing my life to, I don’t know what is.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” –Matthew 28:19 & 20

“When you find your path, you must ignore fear.  You need to have the courage to risk mistakes.  But once you are on that road… Run, run, run, and don’t stop ‘til you’re reached its end.” –Jose N. Harris

Prayer requests: Please pray for the team staff.  Pray that we come together in support and encouragement of one another.  Please pray that we do not lose sight of why we are here: for God and His Kingdom.

Gettin' Busy

OH MY GOSH IT'S FREAKING AWESOME HERE!

This past week has been planning week for the teen and children staff.  This basically means that we've been having meetings once a day and hanging out with out staff, getting to know each other and preparing for the coming summer.  In no way has it been stressful or busy.  In fact, I actually started desiring a shcedule and things to do because we were relaxing so much!  

We lived in a cute little dollhouse-looking this past week since our teen staff dorm, Lebanon Lodge, wasn't ready.  It was super cute, but very cramped.  Five girls shared a section of the house with one bathroom in which the bathroom connected the two rooms and one of the rooms to the rest of the house.  This was slightly unfortunate when someone was in the bathroom, blocking someone from the rest of the house.  Kendra, Sarah, and I shared the room that coule be easily blocked and we were quite frequently seen climbing out of our room to walk around the house to actually get into the house again. It did have an awesome porch though.  I am definitely going to miss star gazing on that porch.  (:  And the stars here are super awesome!  Oh my goodness gracious, there are so many!  I'm super excited to make star-gazing a frequent activity in my life (:

On Wednesday, the UC kids plus Melissa and Austin (our teen staff leaders - they're basically fantastic) all went to Grand Haven, Michigan to get some food, watch the sunset, and see the musical fountains.  It was beautiful!

The rest of the week has consisted of sand volleyball, playing on the beach, dance parties, telling testimonies, thrifting, and other generally crazy and random things.  It has been such an awesome week!  I can already tell that God is going to show up in some magical ways this summer!

We get our first batch of teens tomorrow evening, and, surprisingly, I am not nervous.  I have such a wonderful team supporting me and loving on me that I know love will be surrounding me no matter what.  I hope to see God work in some amazingly huge ways and I definitely think I will.  For now though, He has blessed me with some amazing friends, some old and some new.  We're going to be a family for the coming summer and I am SO pumped to see what He decided to do with us.  He could do anything!

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live." -John 14:18-19

And We're Off!

This past week of summer has been relaxing... too relaxing, in my opinion.  But the day has come!  Tomorrow morning, Sarah and I will roll out of Claire's bed that we have lived in over the weekend, try and put it back together as beautiful as it once was (sorry Claire), and then head out to Muskegon, Michigan with 7 other wonderful leaders. I am SO freaking excited!

This past week has been full of really cool things though!  Our first weekend out of school, Sarah, Jon, Collin and I drove up to Wisconsin to see our friends Taylor and Vienna get married.  We left Jon's house at an early 3 in the morning to get there on time.  Don't worry, we definitely got there on time.  We arrive approximately 3 hours early.  We got to greet Taylor at his own wedding!
The wedding celebration was beautiful.  I am so blessed to have been a witness to their unity.

After that fun little trip, I went home for the week.  It was so nice to not have anything to do!  To spice things up a little bit, I decided to switch my major.  This has been something that has been on my mind for the past 6 months now, but I only have given it any serious thought recently when I realized the daunting 2 years of education classes that were in my future.  After talking to a friend of mine who graduated with a degree in communications, I made the plunge!  I contacted my advisors and changed my classes.  Since it was a pretty rash decision, I prayed that God would make it very clear that this was the right or wrong decision.  A major change usually takes a couple of days at minimum - mine took about an hour!  So folks, I am now majoring in communications and am THRILLED.  I am so excited for my classes next semester... which I haven't said with real honestly since probably the 3rd grade.  So this is good.  This is right and I am PUMPED.

On Wednesday, I had a mother-daughter day!  It was really nice to relax and have lovely conversation with my mom.  We don't get to do that often anymore, and I really valued our time together.

This past weekend while in Cincinnati, I went to Aaron and Emily's wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding full of friends and laughter and just stunning beauty.  My breath was taken away numerous times at the simple genuineness of the coming together of friends to support some amazing people.  It was so much fun!  Plus there was delicious food and dancing to go with it (:

And now we head out on a completely new adventure.  The summer is beginning!

"Since we have now been justified byhis blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wraths through him!  For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 

-Romans 5:9, 10

Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is always the time when I realize just how blessed I am.  Even though I am very sad to be leaving my community for the summer and saying goodbye to some good friends for a long time, it's always at these times when my eyes are opened to how amazing the love is that we share.  It's mind blowing.

Last night, eight other girls and myself gathered at my friend Katy's house.  She is going to Purdue University this coming Fall and will be leaving our wonderful community.  I have no doubt that she will have such a beautiful experience at Purdue, but my heart is sad to see her go.  So we all gathered at her house, ate delicious ice cream with too many toppings, and reminisced on the past two years we have all known each other.  Katy brought up this idea of remembering.  She read to us Psalm 77:

"I will remember the deeds of the Lord;

yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

I will consider all your works

and meditate on all your mighty deeds."

We then went around and shared how God has worked in our lives.  We even got the opportunity to share with others how we have seen them change.  Let me tell you, it was a beautiful gathering of women.  The room was filled with such peace and acceptance.  

This morning, I gathered with my sisters.  We try and get together at least once a quarter to come together and share life, pray, and confess.  It is always such a spirit-filled time, but this morning especially.  God has been working very intently on all of us recently.  It was amazing to see my sisters being vulnerable and open in their brokenness.  I am truly blessed to have such committed and loving women in my life.  Man, God has blessed me!

As my finals week arrives and the year comes to an end, I am reminded of how present God is in my life.  Even at the times I have felt abandoned, I have always had people come up beside me and support and love on me.  Even in the times of immense sadness and grief, I have been held up by my community.  The Lord has never left my side.  He resides, not only in me, but in the people that surround me everyday.  God's light shines through the people who love on me.

What an amazing God we have.

Also, here is a song that has been stuck in my head throughout the weekend.  It's got some good words. (:  

"Live Like That" - Sidewalk Prophets