God's Girls Final Update

I know its a bit late, but I wanted to give you a final update about God's Girls! Honestly, most of this is just copied from Carisa's blog, she has all the pictures. :) Anyway, I will give some of my thoughts as well, especially since this was a very different year for me.

Day 2 was a huge success. We began by listening to 4 of the songs from our cd. As we listen we encourage the girls to highlight parts that stand out to them. They each have a songs book containing all of the words to every song on their cd.
The first part of Day 2 is all about the Changing Body of a young lady. We begin by taking a survey (using the privacy box)...We then dive right into a detailed discussion of PERIODS! We use The Body Book: It's A God Thing! as our guide, which all girls also get to keep! The book is full of great Godly info about the changes their bodies are going through.

We then let the girls go "shopping" to select new hygiene products to keep, as a way of encouraging them to take good care of themselves...


After discussing all things body-related we took a break and then dove right into a serious discussion about choices. We had the girls fill out this survey...
And also this, listing their top 3 favorites in each category...
Then we gave them this and challenged them about their choices...
Finally we gave them this, highlighting what the Bible has to say about things we learned today!!

Overall day 2 was pretty simple. Its always pretty challenging for me as we look at the choices we make. I still struggle with making the right choices!



The Sleepover...
It was a long and wonderful night! We started with portraits, which you can see at the end of this post! We then had snacks and a FUN fashion show put on by 2 former God's Girls (Linda and Bonita!!). The girls modeled modest and immodest outfits as we all giggled and gave our thoughts about each.

We then got right into our VERY detailed discussion about sex, right after the girls filled out this survey (privately)...
After glancing quickly at them, we learned that 6 out of the 12 girls would be hearing all about sex for the first time from us! I won't write about it, but we tell them everything, from the physical details to what God's word says. We then lead them in a discussion of the limits they need to decide on BEFORE they are in a relationship with a boy. We used this sheet to guide them this year...
I really enjoyed talking through this sheet with the girls as I still have to pay attention to my own limits. It was a great time of me being able to be honest with them about what God has called us to, but the fact that it is not easy and at 29 I still have to work hard to keep within my limits. They really seemed to be listening, which was encouraging!!

Then we took a break, got jammies on and went downstairs for more fun. I led the girls in filling out this shopping list for their dream man, it was SO much fun to see what they wrote!!! (And yes, I fill one of these out every year!)

After that it was time for the letters to their future husbands, which are always wonderful too. (Yup, I do this one too. So far, my future husband has 4 God's Girls letters waiting for him. I have to admit that this year I started my letter with: "I hope I don't have too many more of these to write"). :)

Finally, here's the verses we used for this evening...
We stopped teaching around 12:30am and let the girls hang out for about an hour. We then showed the movie Fireproof and every girl stayed up till the end, a first! The movie ended at 3am...the whispering ended much later. I finally fell asleep, and didn't really wake up much. I was sleeping right by the fan, so a lot of noise was drowned out for me. It was a long night, but a very fun and purposeful one. Praise God for allowing us to teach these girls !!!

The girls left around 10:30am, with their enormous bag full of stuff (their new Bible, cd, hygiene products, folder stock full of all their papers, etc.). Carisa and I were glad to get home to rest up a bit!

So, that was God's Girls 2009! Overall, it was amazing and I am so thankful that we do this program! This year was very challenging for me, however, and in different ways than it has been in the past. I'm still not sure what to really make of it...

In the past the biggest struggle for me has been the talk of our future husbands, or the talk on beauty. The enemy bombards me with lies that I'm not good enough and will never find a man. While those are challenging to push through, I am actually teaching the girls the exact opposite of those lies, so that is very helpful. This year, my struggle was very different.

Carisa does "the" talk every year. I have never had sex so I don't have a lot to teach the girls about that, other than what I learned in health class. This year, she was much more descriptive than usual and I struggled big time to control my thoughts. My mind was constantly wandering to places it shouldn't and I literally couldn't pay attention to 80% of the talk because I was working to hard to take my thoughts captive. In fact, at one point I was about to leave the room (not sure how I was going to explain it to the girls). At that exact moment, one of our girls got sick and THANKFULLY distracted me. I know it sounds kinda weird to think that God caused her to throw up in order to help me, but I think He might have. I was really struggling!!

There is a big part of me that feels like a failure for even struggling with those thoughts, but I know that's not true. I fought hard to take the thoughts captive and the enemy did not win that battle. I wonder if God was opening my eyes to one of the things we don't usually talk about with the girls; our struggle with lust. I tried really hard throughout God's Girls to emphasize that some day all this stuff won't seem gross to them. At some point, it won't just be pressure from boys and friends, but your own heart and mind will be struggling. I want them to be prepared because it is a serious battle! I'm not saying that we should necessarily specifically about lust, but it at least reminded me that I need to pray for these girls minds as well as their bodies.

The other struggle was me and Carisa being distracted by things outside of God's Girls. Carisa especially was pretty overwhelmed with being a mom of 3, a wife of a man constantly in demand and trying to be fully engaged in the ministry. I still don't know how she did all of it. Her being so distracted made it hard for me to really be fully engaged, so I often felt just kind of out of it. It didn't help that I was also trying to make sure everything was taken care of for Bonita and Linda. I know God did amazing things, but in some ways I feel like I was more just there than actually pouring into the girls like I have in the past.

So, it was an interesting year, but still a good one. I have no idea what is in store for next year, but I'm okay with waiting to find out. In the meantime, these faces just make me smile. :)

Day 3: Still having fun!

Its another late night, after another great day! I will share the highlights with you.

The leaders and I stayed on our side of the lake all morning. The teens have quiet times, devotions and then bible lessons in the morning, so there isn't much opportunity to hang out with them. So, I stayed back and got some work done and the guys played tennis and hung out. We all met up for lunch only to discover that we have to pay for lunch. We managed to afford it today, but we decided that we are just going to skip lunch each day and load up on breakfast and dinner for the rest of the week since those are free.

After lunch, the guys decided to stay and play softball with the people at the Inn while I decided to head over to the Island and see how the teens were doing. 1:30-5:30 every day is their free time. They can pretty much do whatever they want, as long as their counselors know where they are. This is also the time that they participate in the special activities that they signed up for. A few of the teens did the high ropes course today, but most were just hanging out. Here are some pictures I snapped:







After the free time I went back to the Inn to meet up with the guys for dinner (it was free!). After dinner, J and I went back to the Island to join the teens for "Improv night". We didn't really know what that was, but it turned out to be hilarious!!! The Word of Life staff basically performed skits that they made up on the fly, and we all laughed so hard!!

My favorite was a group of guys who called themselves "Men in white tees" that performed funny skits that really had us rolling. It was a really great time.

After the Improv night several of our teens headed out onto the "Party Barge". The barge took them all over the lake while they ate endless amounts of ice cream. I wasn't there, so I don't have any pictures, but it sounds like they had fun!! About half the group went tonight and the other half will go tomorrow night.

After the party barge arrived we all gathered together again for some worship and then a drama. The worship was great and and the drama was extremely well done (it was the story of the prodigal son, modernized). The camp director shared his testimony and it was really good and something a lot of the teens could relate to.

J and I had to leave before the drama was over (the last boat leaves at 11, so we can't miss it!), but we enjoyed what we saw. I'm excited to hear what the teens have to say tomorrow!

So, that was today. Sorry this update is a little short, I wasn't around for a lot of stuff today. Plus, most of the guys spent all afternoon playing football, so there weren't many exciting pictures to take. We'll see what happens tomorrow!! OH! And Linda and Cupcake passed the swim test today!! I'm SO proud of them! Bonita isn't too happy about it, haha, but she'll be okay. Anyway, goodnight everyone!

Day 2: Is it really only Sunday??

Well, obviously I am up much later today than I was yesterday, so this may be a shorter post. I am tired, and we still have 5 days left! Its been another really great day though!

Cupcake was feeling much better today, so after breakfast I took her back over to the Island so she could rejoin her cabin. We got there just as the morning bible session began, so I stayed for that before heading back over to the Inn to meet the guys for lunch. D convinced the people at the Inn to let us eat there even though we don't have the proper dress attire. Thank goodness, because it turns out we have to pay $5 for every meal we want to eat on the Island!

The bible session this morning was really good. They have a really great worship team and I enjoyed worshipping with them. After worship, they performed a VERY powerful drama that really spoke to a lot of the teens. In fact, they have all been talking to me about it all day. I was definitely impacted as I watched it, so I was excited to hear that the teens were as well. The drama depicted a girl hanging out with God but then being led astray by a lot of bad choices and temptations (money, sex, alcohol, cutting, etc). Then, as she realizes that she wants to go back with God, those choices keep pushing her back and away from Him. (The drama team did a really good job with this not holding back at all. Those bad choices were seriously pushing her away!). Then Jesus comes through and pushes the choices off of her so she can get on her knees to pray, and the bad choices seem to overwhelm Jesus. Finally, Jesus pushes back on all the choices and they fall to the ground and she walks off with Jesus. It was really amazing.

While I was at the service on the Island, the other leaders went to the church service at the Inn. They apparently weren't dressed up enough for the service, but they let them in anyway. The guys said the service was okay, but a lot of things here are clearly geared toward an older generation. :)

After the services were over we all met up for lunch. After lunch all the leaders took a quick (free) boat tour of he lake that took us all around the Island. It wasn't overly exciting, but it was free, so it was worth it. :)

After the boat ride we all went back to the Island to hang out with the teens during their free time. When we got there we discovered that everyone has to pass a pretty intense swim test in order to do the blob and the other lake activities. You have to swim 2 laps about the distance of a swimming pool (back and forth for each lap...and it is way harder than a swimming pool since you have all the waves to deal with). Your first lap (over and back) MUST be swam freestyle with your arms coming clearly out of the water with each stroke. The second lap can be swam any way you want, except doggy style. After completing that part of the test you then have to tread water for 5 minutes. It was a challenge!!

Unfortunately, only 3 of our teens passed. And in fact, only 2 of our leaders passed (I was one of them! Woohoo!!!). Linda made it through the swimming part and only had 30 seconds left in the treading water part, but had to quit. I think she is going to try again tomorrow. Bonita only lasted about a lap and a half before needing to quit. I guess I should look into swimming lessons...

After being in the lake for a while, though, I became pretty thankful for the swim test. You have to swim out to the blob, which is about the same distance as the test, so if the teens couldn't pass the test, they would likely get stuck in the water on their way to the blob. I'm not sure why they don't just use life jackets, but oh well. There are still shallow places for the teens to swim and TONS of other activities for them to choose from.

I was pretty tired after passing the swim test so I decided to walk around and find some of our teens instead of wasting more energy on the blob. I might save that for tomorrow. I found a lot of our teens just hanging out and walking, so I got to talk to them some. Then, as I was walking back toward the cabins, I heard my name being yelled. I looked over and saw this:


That is Bonita on the climbing wall. Look how high up she is!!!

Linda did it too, although she was a little more scared than Bonita. She finished it though! And, she was pretty tired when she got off the wall. :)

Rocky was there climbing too, and he was definitely the quickest up the wall.

After watching my girls on the rock wall I went to find everyone else, and ran into this:

There was a big rally tonight beginning the competition between the blue team and the red team, so the girls were getting ready. They all looked awesome!!

After hanging out with the teens for a little while, the guys and I went back over to the Inn to chill a bit before dinner. We wanted to be back on the Island by 7:30 for their evening worship time. Unfortunately, dinner was at 7 for us, which meant that we would miss the 7 o'clock boat to the Island. There was another boat at 7:30, so we all ate VERY quickly and then ran to the dock to catch the 7:30 boat. We made it and only missed a few things at the rally.

The rally was crazy! All of the teens were yelling and cheering and having so much fun...and they were all COVERED in red and blue! Our teens certainly didn't hold back!

The rally time wasn't just all about fun and craziness though. They also had a great time of worship and then a speaker talked to them about salvation. At the end of the speaker's talk he invited any teens that wanted to speak one on one with a counselor to come up to the stage. More than half of our teens went!!

The leaders and I stuck around so we could talk to the teens after and it was really great. These teens are definitely having a lot of fun, but they are also really seeking to grow. We are REALLY praying that this isn't just an experience for them, but an actual life changing time.

After the rally was over, we all went to the dome for a night of red vs. blue competitions. They competed in SO many events, it was insane! EVERYONE was cheering and excited the whole time! It was like being at a final four game or something! They had tug of war, balloon popping, crazy relay races, and other stuff that I didn't even get to see. Everyone was having so much fun!

The final event of the evening was to announce the overall winner of the evening's competitions. Each competition is worth points, and each team is trying to accumulate as many points as possible. Points are earned throughout the week and at the end of the week one of the teams will be the overall winner. Also, throughout the week there will be daily winners as well.

Thankfully, tonight the blue team won! Everyone was pumped!

After the events were finished all the teens went back to their cabins to get ready for bed and the guys and I went back to the Inn to get some sleep!

So far this camp has been incredible! The counselors are great and very well trained. The events are awesome, the camp looks amazing and all of the teens are having so much fun! So far the only thing I am not really enjoying are the speakers. They haven't been very clear or easy to understand and they don't seem to really understand how to speak to this age group. Both of the speakers that I have seen have been over 70 years old and while they are absolutely speaking truth, they were both very hard to follow. The guy this morning used the story of Tamar being raped to talk to the teens about choosing the right friends (I still don't really understand it), and J and I both had a hard time following the guy tonight, so I can't imagine what the teens were thinking. I am hoping there will be better speakers as the week goes on, but it doesn't really seem to be affecting the teens much. The Holy Spirit is clearly moving, and the teens are definitely being impacted. Its GREAT!! Let's see what tomorrow has in store!

We're Here!!

Okay, its 9:30 pm and I am EXHAUSTED. That is most likely because I went to bed at 2 a.m. and had to get up at 4:15 a.m. to get ready to meet all the teens at the church at 5:30 a.m. It has already been totally worth it though!!

As you can see, the day started bright and early. We had a little trouble loading all of us and our stuff on the bus, but we were still able to depart the church by about 6:15 a.m. None of us have ever been to this camp, so we were definitely excited, although we really had no idea what to expect.

The trip was a pretty long one, about 7 hours. We did make 2 stops for bathroom and food, but they didn't take long, so we spent most of those 7 hours on the road. I am SO proud of these teens!! They didn't complain at all and the ride, although long, was very enjoyable. We even spent a good portion of it worshiping together!! (I think we leaders enjoyed it because none of us had to drive!).

We arrived at the camp around 1:00 p.m. and were all immediately in awe of the beauty all around us. We unloaded the bus in front of a huge and absolutely beautiful lake.

By this time, we were VERY excited!!It took about another hour to get all of us registered, screened for lice and on the boat that would take us to the Island where the teens will spend their week. Of course, this was all happening during the hottest part of the day, so some complaining did happen, but I think it mostly came from the leaders, haha. We are certainly going to sweat a lot this week!

We have a total of 18 teens with us this week, 8 girls and 10 guys. All of the girls are in the same cabin, and the guys are split into 2 cabins. We all really believe that the teens that are here were hand picked by God to be here and we are SO excited to see what He has in store for them!!

Once we were all checked in, we all boarded our transportation to the Island.

(The leaders get to ride in this several times a day as we go back and forth from our housing to the teens!)

After everyone arrived on the Island, all of the teens met their cabin counselors and signed up for fun activities for the week. Aside from their normal daily activities, which include: daily beach time (which includes a 200 foot water slide into the lake and a blob where they can bounce one another into the lake), daily team challenges like volleyball, dodgeball, etc., a climbing tower, water skiing, tubing and MORE; the teens also had the chance to sign up for optional fun activities that would cost a little bit extra. These options included; paintball (which I'm pretty sure all the guys signed up for), a high ropes course, arts and crafts (which I'm pretty sure none of the guys signed up for, haha), an all you can eat ice cream party and a party barge cruise around the lake that includes all you can eat food and ice cream. It was really fun watching them all get so excited about all the activities for the week!!

(I don't know if you can tell, but what you are looking at is the blob where the teens will launch one another into the water, and the water trampoline).

Once all the teens met their counselors and were signed up (and paid for) all of their activities, all of us leaders decided to head back across the lake to get settled into where we are staying for the week. We have 4 leaders this week; 3 guys and me, haha. J, D, A and I boarded the boat, went back across the lake to pick up our stuff and checked into the Word of Life Inn. This place is SO nice!! We are staying in the cheapest rooms, so we aren't sleeping in style, but it doesn't matter at all. Aside from incredible views every where we turn, we also have a ton of opportunities ourselves for the week.

Since we are here as leaders for our teens, we are welcome to participate in any and all activities that they do. In addition, there are several activities (like day trips to Vermont, jet ski rentals, white water rafting, and more!) that we can participate in without the teens. Also, on the property where we are staying there is an indoor pool with jacuzzi, access to the lake, a miniature gold course, tennis courts, a volleyball court...and so much more that we haven't even found yet. We are all so excited!!

And, apparently...we are going to eat quite well. Here is what dinner looked like for us tonight:


J and I kept commenting that it felt like we were on a cruise, it was all so nice!!

Unfortunately, they do have a "dress code" for some of their dinners which means that the guys have to wear a sport coat and I have to wear a skirt. I think we will be eating with our teens on those nights. :)

After dinner, we leaders decided to head back to the Island to check on our teens. We arrived just in time to hear a lot of yelling and excited chanting as they teens we learning all about what was in store for them this week. The entire island (which consists of several hundred teens) is split into 2 teams, the Red team and the Blue team. All of our teens are on the Blue team. The two teams will be competing throughout the week in many different competitions in order to win the overall prize at the end of the week. Our teens love competition, so this should be good!!

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay long after we arrived on the Island. Cupcake was starting to feel pretty sick and needed to come back with me and get some rest in my room. She was actually in the hospital most of Thursday night and into Friday with an infection in the cartilage around her rib cage. She is fine and will heal completely soon, but the healing process has just begun, so she needs to take it easy activity wise for a while. I told her counselor this, but they still ended up walking her (and the rest of the girls) all around the Island for several hours. It was too much for Cupcake and she needed to rest. So, I picked her up and brought her back to my room with me so she could rest for the night and hopefully return to her cabin tomorrow.

It actually worked out great for me because all of the stress, chaos and exhaustion of the day (we were in the extreme heat for a very long time) plus my lack of sleep was starting to catch up to me. I was in charge of all the paperwork and all the communication before we left (which was basically 2 weeks of crazyness with tons of phone calls, emails, photocopies, etc), and I am the designated "trip leader" so all questions were directed at me. I was the one who had to make sure all the teens had everything they needed, turned all their forms in, I had to take care of any issues that arose, etc. It was a lot of work!! (But has already proved to be totally worth it!) I was actually starting to feel really light headed, so Cupcake provided me a good excuse to come and rest (although I really wanted to hang out with the teens! I had to remind myself that we will be here for a week!).

So, Cupcake and I are resting in the room, getting ready for tomorrow...which will be when the week really kicks off. D and A are swimming on the pool and relaxing and J is over on the Island hanging out with the teens. Oh, and did I mention that it is pitch black outside and totally silent??? This is so amazing!!

Anyway, there you have our first day! I can't wait to hear a report from J about how everyone is doing on the Island, and I'm even more excited for what God has in store for tomorrow!!

**Oh, and did I mention that all of this is FREE??? Word of Life offered us FULL scholarships for the teens to come, AND provided us transportation to and from the camp. That's worth over $7000, not including the free accommodations for the leaders!!!! This is SUCH an AMAZING blessing!!!

Upcoming Schedule

I am leaving in 4 and a half hours to take 20 teens to upstate New York for a week at an awesome camp. That will begin several weeks of insane travel that is already making my head spin! I will have internet most places that I am going, so hopefully I will be able to keep up with my blog while I'm away (Shera says I am on tour, haha). I know I still have God's Girls stuff to share! (This was a VERY different year for me). For now, I'm going to share with you what the girls and I will be up to.

Aug. 15-21 - Word of Life Camp with the teens (we got scholarships for them to attend for free!)
Aug. 22- Cornerstone Block Party
Aug. 24-26- Cornerstone Staff Retreat
Aug. 27-Sept. 2- visit my parents in NC (Linda, Bonita and Cupcake are all coming!!)
**Aug. 31- First Day of Cyber School for the girls!! We're starting the year in NC! FUN!!
Sept. 4-8- I will be in Indiana visiting some VERY good friends that I haven't seen in forever! The girls will stay with my roommate on the 4th, and then their mom for the weekend (they have off from school that Monday).

Then I will finally be home, for at least a little while. I am traveling some more in Sept. and Oct., but I will think about that once I make it through this part of the "tour". :) We are really praying that the house will sell sometime while we are traveling so we can come back, pack up, and get settled in our new home!! We'll see though, so far we haven't even had any showings. I'm finding it hard to trust in the Lord, but I know that He is SO GOOD!!!

For now, I need to get some sleep. This should be a really fun week, but I'm not expecting to get a lot of rest. Let the tour begin!

CRAZY!

Life is INSANE right now! I actually only have a minute to write, but I needed to get some of this stress out, so I thought I would take that minute to share the craziness with all of you!

Here is what is going on with me right now:

1) God's Girls. Pretty much takes up ALL of my time on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Tonight is the sleepover, so at least half of tomorrow will be spent recovering

2) Preparing to take 20 teens to a camp in upstate New York next week. We just found out about this camp 2 weeks ago, so we are in the crazy process of last minute permission slips, shot records, millions of phone calls, transportation planning, etc.

3) Getting the girls ready for school. Bonita is ready to go, all of her stuff has arrived and she should be ready to start on time. She is taking 2 self paced courses this year, which makes me a little nervous as I will have to be the one really keeping her accountable. There is some hang up with Linda's stuff, although I have no idea what that is and can't seem to find anyone who does. The girls and I will be in town for a total of 2 days between Saturday and when school starts (and we will be in NC when they start school), so I need to get Linda's stuff worked out ASAP!

4) AIM has a BIG project that I am working on that needs to be completed on the next 2 weeks. Normally its the kind of project I would enjoy, if I didn't have a million other things going on. Its very time consuming, and means I am not sleeping much.

5) Selling my house. It has to be spotless clean all the time in case anyone wants to come see it. Apparently, the girls and I are kinda messy. :)

6) Getting my finances together to be ready to buy/sell a house and still not go broke.

7) Training for a half marathon. I have to admit, this one is last on my priority list and has gotten pushed aside several times. I am committed to doing this, though, so the training must happen!!!

WHEW! Can you see why I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed? I also have my newsletter to write, several support raising trips in the coming weeks, the fall season of Kid Club to prepare for, and 2 teenage girls living with me that (for some reason) actually need to eat 3 times a day.

So, if you think about it, say a little prayer for me. :) (And everyone that has to deal with me, haha). Everything on my list is totally worth the stress, its just one of those crazy times.

Off to God's Girls prep!! :)