A Busy Time of Year

Wow, and once again its been a month since I have updated. I guess all I can say is, its a VERY busy time of year for me!! I do want to keep everyone who is interested (all 3 of you!) updated with what's going on, so I have committed to writing several posts today to hopefully catch you up on everything (including my thoughts of turning 30 a few weeks ago!!). First, I will start with the ministry happenings of the last month!

The most exciting and fun thing happening, in terms of ministry, has been Reading Rocks. Reading Rocks started just after my last post, and its been going strong every Tuesday and Thursday! We have a total of 83 kids on our roster! We are averaging about 30 kids a day, which is the biggest year yet for us!! We have made some big changes this year, that I was EXTREMELY nervous about, at first, but seem to really be working out for the best.

(That's me up front! Ahhh!)

(If this picture doesn't make you jealous of my job, there is something wrong with you! Haha) :)

In the past, Carisa and I were in charge of the younger kids (the ones who need help reading and/or just aren't quite up to reading chapter books), while Laurie and Shannon took care of the older kids; the chapter book readers. This summer, we decided that Carisa would partner with Shannon with the chapter book readers and I would take charge of the younger kids; with the help of my intern of course! :)

This new role means that I am up front more and in charge of more, both of which I was very nervous about, but it has all actually worked out beautifully. Lindsay and I are enjoying our time with the younger ones, and Carisa and Shannon are (of course) doing an incredible job with the chapter book readers. In fact, this is my favorite year of Reading Rocks!! (How Shannon and Carisa manage to do all that they do while also taking care of their own families... I will never understand... but I'm SO thankful that they do!!!)

**In my previous posts I referred to Lindsay as Cupcake. I don't like to use kids' real names, but now that Lindsay is 18, is my intern and will be my newest roommate soon, Cupcake seemed kinda juvenile for her, haha. So, I got her permission to start using her real name! :)

We have also had one week of VBS already at church (no pics, sorry!), with another one on its way next week, as well as a Kids Day on July 2nd, and another one (hosted by the mission trip teens!) on July 15th! The kids (and I!!) are having a really busy, and fun summer!

I have to apologize for not having many pictures. I usually forget my camera, though even if I had it, I'm usually too busy to take pictures. The only reason that there are Reading Rocks pictures is because of Carisa! I'm going to try and work on that though...

So, that's whats been going on with the kids (as well as, of course, Kids Club every week). But that's not all that I have been up to! The teens are keeping me pretty busy this summer as well, and I have to admit I'm enjoying them as much as I'm enjoying the kids! The Extreme Team is in full swing and we have had many awesome events. First, several of the teens are regular helpers at Reading Rocks (I will take more pics of them soon!). In fact, in my opinion, they are the core of Reading Rocks and I know I couldn't survive without them!

My favorite teen event, so far, was our read through the bible. We got together and for 4 hours on a Sunday night to read through 40 essential bible passages, from Genesis to Revelation. We had 20 teens come and participate! It was amazing!

After the bible reading, we let the teens sleep over at the church because at 6:00 the next morning we all loaded onto a bus to drive to Blue Rocks to spend the day hiking. It was a VERY intense day of hiking over boulders and through the woods, but we all survived! I HATE hiking, but I REALLY enjoyed the day with the teens!

I am also heading up our teen mission trip this summer, and we have been VERY busy preparing for it. We will be driving 12 hours to Jacksonville, FL this year! We started with 12 people; 9 teens and 3 leaders. Unfortunately, we are down to 10, having had a teen and a leader step down, but we are still VERY excited about the trip... and we leave in 3 weeks! Right now we are in the midst of some major fund raising. First, we hosted a spirit night at Chick Fil A, where the teens served customers and we were given a percentage of the profits to put toward the trip. Tons of people from the church came out to support us that night, so it was a lot of fun!

The teens are also sending out support letters, and tomorrow we will start our hoagie sale! We have to raise over $4000 total, which is a bit daunting for an inner city church (especially with my own personal support struggling). God is teaching us all SO much through all of this, though, and the teens (and leaders!) are really being in their faith, and its awesome! I'm trying not to get too overwhelmed with all the things that need to be done to prepare for the trip. The teens hosted and ran a Kids Day at church this past Thursday and while I expected them to do well, they did even better than I expected!! Its been really great to see God stretching each of them and watching them rise to the challenge every time. I'm so excited for the trip!! Now, if I can just stop stressing about all of the details....

In the midst of ALL that is going on, though, the #1 highlight for me this summer (in terms of ministry) has been my weekly mentoring with 2 of the teens. I have the incredible privileged of meeting weekly with these two beautiful ladies:

(The pic is from their prom. Aren't they SO BEAUTIFUL???)

We are studying the book "Experiencing God" together, and we are all being blown away. These two young women both have such incredible hearts for the Lord (they are both going on the mission trip!), and I love every minute I get to spend with them! We have already realized that we won't finish the book this summer, but all agree that we want to keep going in the fall. What a blessing!!!
Of course, in addition to these special events, we have been having God Squad and Teen Club regularly. Our numbers have been down this summer, but commitment has been stronger from the teens that are coming out, so that's exciting!

Well, I think that's pretty much been ministry in a nut shell for the past month, though I'm sure I have left a ton out. I still have about a month of ministry being in full swing, culminating with the mission trip, before we take a little break. So, please continue to pray!! My house is on the verge of being declared a national disaster zone, and yet I can't seem to find the time or energy to clean it. I'm just hoping Ashley can put up with it for one more month before threatening to move out!

Speaking of Ashley, we have been up to some fun stuff over the past few weeks as well... I will post about that next! (Apparently my motto for this summer is to go non-stop with work and fun for 3 months and then collapse in August. Let's hope I survive until then!)