The last month has been CRAZY, but I will try and give you the highlights.
May ended with me spending the weekend in New York with my family for my cousin's wedding. It was an GREAT weekend!! My dad and brother had never been to NY, so we had fun touring the city and taking pictures of all the sights. The rehearsal dinner and wedding were a lot of fun as well. I was so impressed with my cousin; she really made her wedding very "her", but also made sure the rest of us had a really great time. It was definitely worth the trip. :)
We didn't take many "family pics", but I did get one of my dad and brother at the site of George Washington's Inauguration (we are all history dorks, haha).
Here is a pic of me and my mom at the wedding. We look good! :)
Once I got back from the wedding, I jumped right into my crazy summer schedule. First, came the 5th annual CCC Block Party. This year we decided to do it on a Sunday, which made for a really long day, but it was totally worth it! After church, we blocked off the entire street in front of the church and from 3-7 had a blast with the neighborhood! We had 3 giant inflatables set up, basketball courts, face painting, free food (pizza, hot dogs, sno cones and popcorn!), a puppet show for the kids, Christian music, and a drama and hourly gospel presentation. Oh, and free t-shirts! It was an insanely awesome day!!
That same week was the re-start of all of our regular clubs: God Squad, Kids Club, Teen Club and Prayer Pals. Its also my month to lead Children's Church and with Carisa out of town on vacation, I'm also leading Sunday School last Sunday and this upcoming Sunday. Its a busy time!One of the best days of my life so far came on Saturday, June 12th. That is the day that Cupcake graduated from High School!!!! (She also turned 18 on May 25th! I'm not ready for her to be so grown up!!). I am constantly amazed at the work God has done in her. When I met her she was a feisty little (very little) 11 year old girl, and now she is an absolutely beautiful young woman. And she has worked SO HARD to get to where she is. She graduated with a higher GPA than I had in high school, along with 6 college credits. In a neighborhood where 82% of high school students drop out, she didn't. She persevered and I am SO PROUD of her!!! After spending her summer interning with me, Cupcake will continue taking classes at Community College of Philadelphia in the fall and then transfer for a 4 year college to major in early childhood education, so she can come back and teach kids in Philly to follow her example instead of everyone else's. She is nothing short of amazing.
This is one of my earliest memories of Cupcake, at a wedding in 2005. Little 13 year old girl knocking on my door, literally asking me to come out and play with her. :)
And here she is, an 18 year old graduating from High School! (I've been in Philly for a long time!)
I am so blessed to have her in my life!!The day after Cupcake's graduation we left for our annual Teen Club retreat. This year we took 25 teens (with 6 leaders), out to Camp Men O Lan to enjoy nature (something most of the teens don't do very often), and learn more about God. The focus this year was the following statement: "Salvation is by grace ALONE, through faith ALONE, in Christ ALONE, according to the scriptures ALONE". We had some really awesome and powerful teaching, and several of the teens seem to come home really changed. Of course, we also had a lot of fun playing football in the mud (during and after a huge rain storm!), competing in a team quad-athalon (running, biking, canoeing and paddle boating), swimming, going down the water slide, and even cooking smores and hot dogs over the fire. And, we had almost no drama! (Which is unusual for a teen retreat, haha). Overall it was a really fun 2 days! (And I'm so glad it wasn't any longer, haha).
We got back from the retreat on Monday night, and I immediately went back to my normal, busy, weekly schedule. Each week I have Sunday School and Children's Church in Sundays, God Squad on Mondays, Reading Rocks (which begins in just 2 weeks!) and Kids Club on Tuesdays, Staff Prayer, Mentoring Teens, Prayer Pals and my Theology Class (I'll tell you more about that in a minute) on Wednesdays, and Reading Rocks and Teen Club on Thursdays. In addition, there are 3 VBS's planned for the summer, at least 5 Extreme Team (a part of God Squad) events planned, several more Kids Days and smaller Block Parties, as well as preparing for the Teen Mission Trip, which I am in charge of this year. I am already feeling a little (okay, probably more than a little, haha) overwhelmed! This was a perfect summer for me to have an intern helping, now I just pray I can raise enough money to be able to pay her!!
I am already having a lot of fun and I'm so excited about everything coming up this summer, especially the opportunity to spend it with Cupcake. I am also a little nervous about how much I have on my plate. So, I am really working hard to make sure I keep my daily time with God, something that has been a struggle for me for the last several years. One thing that is really (and I mean REALLY) helping me out with this is the Theology class that I am taking.
Jeff, one of our staff members (and the person I bought my new house from!) graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary and decided to teach a Theology class for our church this summer! Actually, its going to last for 3 summers, I guess kinda like a 101, 201 and 301 type class. We started 3 weeks ago, and it has been AMAZING!!! (Its also really nice to take a class that's just about learning and not grades!). I have learned SO MUCH, and get so excited about the class every week. And, this class is coming at a perfect time in my life. With everything that has happened over the last 6 months, especially with Linda and Bonita, my faith has been challenged.. a lot. This class is not only drawing me closer and closer to the REAL God, but its strengthening my faith in ways I didn't even realize it needed to be. God is so good!!
So, there you have an update on what I've been up to, and an explanation as to why I keep taking so long to post (although I'm really going to be better about that, really!).
Did I also mention that I'm carrying 2 mortgages right now, and my support account is depleted from all my medical bills, so I may or may not get paid this summer? Life is crazy! But God is good!!! :) Wait, let me rephrase that. Life is crazy AND God is good! :)
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