Finally! An Update!

I know I haven't updated in a while, but honestly I have been so busy that I haven't even had time to think about what to write. There is just so much going on!

The Teen Camp ended and it was incredible!!! The teens have really been changed and I am so excited to see the fruit from what God has done. On Saturday, after everyone went home, however, I found myself getting depressed and questioning a lot from the week. Thankfully, I immediately recognized it as an attack from the enemy. This has happened to me every time I come home from a mission trip. Oh how Satan sucks! In fact, I talked to several of the teens on Sunday and they had been feeling the same way!!

Church on Sunday was incredible and the worship was the best we have ever had. It was so amazing. The teens have taken things to the next level and we as a church have no choice but to follow!!

This week is turning out to be a much busier week than I thought it would be. Several people from my home church are still here finishing up my kitchen...and so much more! They are fixing all the walls and painting them, refinishing the floors...and I wouldn't be surprised if they did something else crazy.

I'm going on 2 months of not being alone at all and it is starting to get to me. I have come to the realization that I am an introvert. Not an extreme introvert, I do enjoy being around people and at times am energized by them. However, I have my limits...and I have reached that limit. This Saturday my church leaves, we don't have a new group in and no one will be living in my house except me and Gizmo...I can't wait! :)

I don't anticipate getting real rest until after the mission trip. We have God's Girls next week and I am co-leading an AIM project, and we have the Reading Rocks Party on Thursday. Then we have a week to get ready for the mission trip, then there is the week of the mission trip and then staff retreat. We have so much momentum coming from the teens right now that I don't want to rest! I'm praying for the energy to really push through the next few weeks, cause I don't think God is finished!!!!

Awe Inspiring

I still don't have much to say, but I have more pictures. They say it all much better than I could...

No words to describe...

Okay, so I don't have much time, but I HAD to write because this week has been AMAZING!!! Both groups are incredible and God is rocking our worlds! I haven't spent as much time with the Ohio group, except when they have been running Reading Rocks and Kids Club... and doing a great job. They are working a lot with Frank at the Miracle House and they LOVE him. :) Thanks to Frank I don't have to do much for them. I have spent most of my time with my home church and the teens are we are seeing some incredible moves of God! I couldn't even put it into words if I wanted to!!!! So, here are some pictures:

They start their morning with devotions:

After devotions the different groups head out to do different service projects. The only group I have seen has been the one working on tearing apart my house (don't worry, they are going to put it back together next week). Here are some pictures of my house:

This is a before picture...

And now....

Here is another before...
And now...

Here is the ceiling in the kitchen and the floors in the living room...

After lunch they do team building activities:

From there we have some free time, dinner and then head back out as a whole group to play some crazy fun games. I don't have any pictures of the group games yet because I always play them, haha. But so far we have played Push Ball (each team tries to push a GIANT ball into the goal...so the 2 teams are pushing against each other) and Human Foosball (which I actually wasn't there for, but I heard it was hilarious).

After the game time we head back for worship and a message, both of which have been amazing all week. Last night I saw the spirit of god move in our teens like never before as they all surrounded one another and prayed for hours...literally hours. They worshipped God with all their hearts and sat in His presence. God's Spirit descended upon our church, and we were all changed. It was incredible!

Mostly Pictures...

I don't have a lot to write, but I have some fun pictures that I want to share with you! Reading Rocks continues to go really well and I am so in love with this program! If you remember, last week on Wednesday we did "Pastor Reading Day". Pastor Andy and Pastor did so well, the kids are still talking about the stories!














This week we had even more fun! We split the kids into 3 groups. Each group read a story and then made puppets of the characters. Once all the groups finished they each performed their puppet show story for the group. It was AWESOME!! The teens each took charge of a group and led the puppet making and story telling. They were great. They especially loved it when I referred to the groups as their "class". The kids did an amazing job at creating the puppets and the performances were wonderful. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! It worked out really well too because it rained on Wednesday, so we couldn't send them on the playground like usual. The puppets took up a good amount of time, so the kids were never bored.

Next week is the last week of Reading Rocks, and I am going to be so sad when its finished. I went over to Shannon's house today to see all the book bags and school supplies that we have, and this will definitely be the best year yet for the party! Pedro came today and earned 30 points, the minimum necessary to get invited to the party. Its actually a huge step for Pedro to even want to come...and the last 2 years he has earned barely 30 points over the entire summer, so 30 points in a day is awesome! Yay Pedro! Bonita is tied for first with 373 points. Unfortunately, she will be at camp all next week and won't be able to earn points. She really wanted to be first this year, but is okay with trying again next year. She worked so hard and I am SO proud of her!!

Today we also did some more Extreme Team stuff with the teens. Today was our Track and Field day. We spent the morning running, jumping, playing ultimate frisbee and then throwing water balloons. It was a really fun and I am so excited about all the teens that have been participating in the Extreme Team this summer. Most of the will be participating in the leadership camp next week, which should be amazing.
Speaking of next week, its almost here and I am TERRIFIED. Running 2 groups doing 2 completely different things, staying in 2 different buildings...there is just so much room for failure here. Its kind of a Catch-22 for me...if next week goes well I will know it is because of the incredible help I had (thank you again Hinson family and Brooke!), but if next week is a failure, I will take all the blame on myself. It is so easy for me to get caught up in logistics and especially what is expected of me and forget the God that is the center of all of this. Please pray for me throughout this week...I am already struggling with thinking that I have to do everything rather than simply trusting in Him. I am really struggling with people pleasing...I feel like (and this is probably all in my head) there is a lot expected of me in a million different areas and I don't want to fail anyone. I just need to remember what all of this is about...cause its definitely not me! :)

Some General Musings...

I don't have anything major to update, but I do have a few things that I wanted to share that will probably only be appreciated by people that really like me. So, if you only sorta like me...or don't like me at all, you can stop reading now. :)

So, I sprained my wrist a few weeks ago and its gotten pretty bad. I think I did it when I fell at the church picnic (my wrists kept my face from hitting the ground, haha). Anyway, later that day I played volleyball for several hours, apparently aggravating the injury. Since then I have just kind of ignored the growing pain as I picked up kids, played more volleyball, climbed rocks, etc. Unfortunately, I have pushed it too far and I can no longer really use my right hand. I am positive nothing is broken, I can still move all my fingers. But, for now my right hand is useless...and in a lot of pain.

The funny part about this story is that about a month ago I decided it would be really cool if I was left-handed. I don't know why, but I think lefties are cool and I want to be one. So, I started practicing writing with my left hand. Seriously. I took notes with my left hand, wrote in my journal, even signed for things with my left hand. Who knew I would soon actually have to write with my left hand?!? My handwriting is still very childish, but it is legible. :) Despite being much cooler now that I am a pseudo lefty, I am icing my hand at night and looking forward to using my right hand again soon. I love to write, and its much more tedious with my left hand.

I am very ready for Carisa to come home. Things are going really well and I don't feel overly stressed out (although I am extremely busy), but I just hate leading things! I love being behind the scenes and being able to help make things happen...I love having Carisa lead things while I do whatever she needs me to. We work well that way, and I'm ready to get back to that. :)

Despite being really ready for Carisa to come home, the last week and a half have gone much better than I expected them to. Sunday School was the thing I was most worried about, it generally doesn't go well when Carisa isn't leading it. To my surprise, though, this week it went very well. I actually enjoyed it, which usually doesn't happen when I am leading it.

Reading Rocks has also gone really well with at least 20 kids each day. The teens have been coming consistently and I have really enjoyed watching them interact with the kids. I have also gotten the chance to read with kids each day, which is always fun. I just can't believe that we have over 50 kids that have chosen to spend their summer days reading books with us! I'm sad that next week is the last week, but also pretty excited about the party coming in August!

My time with the teens is going GREAT as well!! I am meeting with several for mentorship and I am seeing such a hunger for God! We have several young believers in God Squad that are so hungry for God, and its so amazing! We also have several teens that think they know everything and have become very complacent in their faith, and I am hoping these "younger" teens (some are older in age, just younger in Christ) will set our "older" teens on fire.

Next week is going to be INSANE, and preparing for it has become pretty intense as well. My home church, Grace Covenant, will be here running a leadership camp for our teens. We will have 2o of our teens, along with 15 of their teens staying at the church participating in service projects, challenge events, spiritual challenges and amazing teaching and worship. While this is going on, we have another group of about 20 staying at another church building doing work projects, running Reading Rocks and doing other outreaches as well as prayer walks and anything else we need. I am in charge of BOTH groups. I have a lot of help (praise God for the Hinsons and Brooke), but its still going to be a lot of work. I am so excited about both groups, though, so it will all be worth it!

Starting Sunday I am moving out of my house for 2 weeks. I will be staying at the church for the leadership camp next week along with the teens, and the following week I will be staying with my friend Chris while my kitchen is demolished and rebuilt. My friend Shera is babysitting Gizmo so he won't be in the way. :) Bonita, Linda and M also leave for camp this Sunday, so I have to get all of us packed up...adding to the busyness of this week. After my kitchen is finished we will be heading into the week of God's Girls, then mission trip planning (I am supposed to prepare VBS, which I haven't even begun to think about), followed by the mission trip and then staff retreat. I am looking forward to every single one of those things, but I am also excited to get through all of that and hopefully visit my family for a little bit of rest. I don't want to call it the light at the end of the tunnel because I don't feel like I am in the tunnel...I guess it will be the icing on the cake.

Okay, it has taken me a ridiculously long time to type this with only my left hand...good night!

Now I'm Extreme!!

Today I participated on probably the craziest hike of my life. And I finished it! I doubt I will ever do it again, haha, but I did it! I, along with 3 other leaders and 19 teenagers from Philadelphia completed one of the hardest climbs of our lives!

We left the church around 8:00 this morning (we would have left earlier but Dario took a very long time finding his shoes) and drove to Blue Rock Camp Grounds, about an hour and a half away. I was under the impression that we were going to go on a somewhat leisurely hike for a few hours and then swim for a little while before heading home. I was wrong.

We started the day with a boulder climb. Yes, we climbed up a mountain of boulders. Here is a picture from the bottom looking up...

You can't even see the top from this picture. The climb took about 45 minutes each way. Some people went slower than others, but we all completed it. There were a few minor falls, but nothing serious. We were all just so excited to complete it!!

From there we ate lunch and we assumed that we would head to the pool afterwards. Instead, there was another hike planned. We decided to split into 2 groups...one would go on an easier 2 mile hike while the other would head up the mountain on about a 4.5 mile hike. I asked if there was any difference between the two hikes besides that distance and was told that there really wasn't. I was pretty energized from the boulder climb so I thought I could handle a 4 mile hike...plus I really wanted to be extreme. :)

It wasn't long after we started the extreme hike before I realized that there was more than a distance difference between the 2 hikes. The first mile and a half of the extreme hike was straight up! I am not exaggerating at all...we were going straight up! It was the steepest climb I have ever done!! Many of us were surprised at the severity of the climb and thought about turning back several times, but decided to push through. I did not move fast, I rested often...but I made it. We all did!! It was hard, we pushed through and made it to the top of the mountain. And the view....

As we were climbing the mountain (when we weren't out of breath), we had some incredible conversations about God. "How do you get anywhere in your spiritual life? You struggle". That is a quote from Jonerik's last sermon that has been ringing in my head for the last few days. I thought about it a lot recently as I struggled with my sin, and I thought about it today as I struggled up the mountain.

Neither struggle was pretty, and I wasn't too excited that people we watching me struggle. I would have much rather gotten to the top of the mountain without anyone seeing how hard it was for me to get there. However, when I got to the top...when I saw the incredible beauty before me the struggle didn't matter any more, and neither did the fact that people watched me struggle.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" ~Hebrews 12:2

I want to get somewhere in my spiritual life...I want to get to the top of the mountain and behold the glory that awaits me there. How do I get there? I struggle. But I will make it. :)