Snapshot of Month #1

Wow! It's October already! The days have already been going so fast! I can't believe that I've already been here for over a month! I feel like I'm still brand new to all of this!
I especially feel that way with my responsibilities for the year, the biggest one being the Assistant Academic Director of the program. It's definitely a new thing for me and I still feel like I'm figuring it out, but I think that's OK. I will say though that I am SO excited to be walking in that position this year! Academics are definitely a passion of mine and I love being able to help oversee them and to be a part of helping some people figure them out and get better at them. It takes a lot of organization and communication, but I love that! It's something that I get excited about, so I'm really excited to continue to walk in it and to make some things better and to help some people really learn!
Another big role for me has been helping to lead my college and career small group. This isn't exactly a new role for me, but every year I'm challenged to be better and to do more. I'm so excited for my small group, because I think God has some amazing things in store for us this year, I really do. We have to be faithful to listen though and to make our group a priority to allow Him to do that and that's something I have a hard time with sometimes, keeping my group a top priority. It's not that I don't love them or that I don't want it to succeed, it's simply that my schedule gets quite full quite quickly, but I never want that to cause me to put less priority on my group than I should. I think I've been doing well at this lately and I just hope that I can keep it up.
On another note, some big things have happened in September. Not only did the 2nd year students return, but all of the new 1st year students arrived as well. That has definitely been exciting and it's been so awesome to be able to get to know some of them and to begin to learn their stories and who they are. It's going to be awesome to watch God transform their lives this year! In fact, He's already started and it's an incredible thing to see!
Also, on Saturday the church had a reunion. It was a large event where nearly 300 people who attended the church as much as 50 or 60 years ago came back to see their old friends and to see where their beloved church had ended up. It was such a neat experience! I loved being able to meet some of them amazing women that came for the event and to hear small pieces of their lives and their history at the church! They all just had so much history there, so many memories. Several of them got saved in the church, others met their spouses there and got married there, others met their best friends there. The church really just holds more history than I could have thought and I just loved hearing about it! I love being able to get snapshots of peoples' lives, to hear what they've been through and the things that they've experienced. Like one woman I talked to who had married a man in the military right after she graduated. This woman was able to travel to so many exciting places! She lived in Vietnam and Germany and more for at least a year. She had not only done tourist travel, but had lived in foreign countries, experienced incredible things, and learned so much and I got to hear a little about it! It was awesome! And it was just inspiring to live my life to the fullest, to not let time just pass me by, but to really take advantage of the opportunities and experiences that come my way, because I want to be able to tell stories like the people I met did when I'm their age. I want to say that I lived my life in a big way and that I made an impact in people. I want to do huge things.
Also, our youth/young adult retreat is coming up this weekend and it's going to be awesome! Between 200 and 300 youth will be there, all encountering God. I'm so excited! So, if you could just lift that up in your prayers, that would be awesome. Just pray that God would get people there, that He would clear schedules and provide finances and that He would just really show up this weekend and just change lives. :)

Also, as far as personally, I finished reading Acts, which I'm teeny bit sad about, because it was an awesome book! I do want to share a passage that I read though and my thoughts on it, because it really stuck with me. It was Acts 21:10-14. It says,
"Several days later a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea. He came over, took Paul’s belt, and bound his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles.’” When we heard this, we and the local believers all begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but even to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.” When it was clear that we couldn’t persuade him, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”
I love this passage, because it really challenged me! Paul's just chilling at this guy's house and then suddenly a prophet comes, take's Paul's belt and tied his own hands and feet with it, then tells Paul, "Look, buddy, this is going to be you in Jerusalem. You're going to be chained up and handed over to people, so who knows what will happen after that."
Can you imagine if someone came to you and told you that? What if you were going on a missions trip and a prophet came and told you that you would be chained up while you were there? Would you still go or would you cancel the trip and run from it in fear? I have to be honest, I think that I would be pretty fearful if someone told me that. I'm not sure if I would run from it or not. And running was exactly what all of Paul's Christian buddies were telling him to do. They didn't want to lose him and they were scared for him, so they told him not to go on his mission trip, but Paul's response was incredible! He stood his ground and even asked why the people around him were so upset! He then told them that he was prepared to not only be put in jail or tortured or persecuted, but even to die for the cause of Christ. How incredible is that?! I think it's easy to say that we think the same things for ourselves, but Paul was stared in the face with the opposition he would have to endure to stay true to his word and he still stood firm. This so challenges me, because I think that it's easy to say that I'm completely sold it for God, ready to do His will, whatever the cost, when there is no cost, really. There's no man holding a gun to my head or an army searching my church out to harm us. I simply have to wake up early enough to go to church and spend time with God throughout the week. I have to be bold enough to tell people that I believe in God and share Him and what He's done for me with them and the worst thing that could happen is disagreement or perhaps the slightest bit of verbal persecution. Is that really that big of a cost when I think about it? And, yet, sometimes, those things hold me back. I want to change that. I want to be more like Paul. I want to have courage and boldness in Christ, even when I know it will mean that I have to go through some hard things. I want to not just say that I'm completely sold out for God, but to really live it.

Here We Go Again

So, here we are, a week into my third year! I'm almost completely moved into my new apartment (which is very exciting), already went on third year retreat, and went on my first ministry trip! It's definitely been a full week!

Third year retreat was amazing. I got to have a bonding night with all of the other girls in my class and my discipleship director this year, found out who I will be leading a mentor group with this year, and left encouraged, but also aware of things that need to change in my life, which I think is a great place to be!

Then we left for our first ministry trip. Ministry trips are where all of us third year interns visit different churches to get a taste of the different styles of churches, services, and ministry. It was a really interesting experience. We started at Elevation church on Saturday night and heard Holly Furtick, Steven Furtick's wife, speak. In the morning we went to NewSpring Church and heard Perry Noble speak and we finished at 12Stone...and I actually can't remember the name of the man that spoke there. We also got to tour the churches and talked to a staff member at each one. It was very interesting to see how such big churches are run and how all of their ministry happens. It was also interesting to hear their leaders speak; to hear their vision and passion for the people that they were leading. It was definitely eye-opening and I definitely recognized some of my own preferences through it, but it was definitely neat to see how God is touching so many people through so many different styles. And it was a lot of fun to spend that time with our class. I'm definitely excited for the other ministry trips we'll be going on this year.

Aside from my schedule, here's what's been going on with me. I've been reading Acts for a couple of weeks now and I've also been reading a book called Radical by David Platt. Both are just that - RADICAL! I've especially enjoyed reading Acts, because although I've heard and read bits and pieces of it, it's so cool to read all of it and to see so many examples of radical faith and belief and boldness in Jesus Christ shared throughout the entire book! It's been amazing to read the stories of believers who would be persecuted, threatened, or forced to leave their homelands who would continue to boldly share their faith. They didn't let fear, other people, or hindrances stop them from sharing the awesome message that had changed their lives and they knew was true. It's been so inspiring to read and has really challenged me to be more bold about my faith in Christ.

Not only that but the book Radical really addresses how some people have settled into American religion rather than pure, bold, radical Christianity. It talks about how the American dream has not only infiltrated our society, but our churches as well and has left us putting more faith in our abilities and our resources than in God's pure power.

The book talks about it a little more at the end of chapter three, when it says, "It is the way of Christ. Instead of asserting ourselves, we crucify ourselves. Instead of imagining all the things we can accomplish, we ask God to do what only he can accomplish. Yes, we work, we plan, we organize, and we create, but we do it all while we fast, while we pray, and while we constantly confess our need for the provision of God. Instead of dependence on ourselves, we express radical desperation for the power of his Spirit, and we trust that Jesus stands ready to give us everything we ask for so that he might make much of our Father in the world.

Think about it. Would you say that your life is marked right now by desperation for the Spirit of God? Would you say that the church you are a part of is characterized by this sense of desperation?"

The book and Acts have really been quite a pair to read together, but so good and so challenging. Both have been reminding me to stand up for my faith and to make it more than religion, but true relationship and faith with the amazing Lord and Savior who gave His Son's life for me.

Anyway, to top it all off I heard a really great Christian rap song the other day called Signed up to Die by This'l and I thought that sharing the lyrics would be an appropriate way to end this blog. Unfortunately, I couldn't find them anywhere, so I'm just going to encourage you to listen to it for yourselves.

Stepping Forward

So, I just got home yesterday from my job at the summer camp. Boy, it was an intense summer. Ten weeks is a long time to be away from home, away from all your friends and family and everything you know. It was good though. I got a lot of opportunities to disciple tons of high school girls, which was so awesome. I loved having the opportunity to just share a week with them and help them to understand God, who He is and what He can do, a little better. I loved showing them that Christians have fun and are silly and goofy and that we're not perfect, that we all make mistakes, and, of course, God's love. I loved being able to pour into them and tell them or remind them that God's love is bigger than everything, it's bigger than anything we could do or say or wish and it's perfect. I also loved encouraging their questions. I loved telling them that it's OK to wonder about things, that we don't have to just blindly believe this Jesus thing. I think it was really new to some of them and it was so great to be able to try my best to help them find answers, whether that meant opening to a certain Scripture or telling them that I honestly didn't know, but that there are books out there on those topics or questions. It was great to be able to just open and real with them. It was also awesome to just remind them of how precious they are to God, how loved, how craved they are by Him and of how great it can be to be transformed by Him and to allow Him to be what we live for. I hope, amidst my shortcomings and failures, they were able to see some glimpses of God's power in me, even if it was through some of my mess ups. Hopefully I made at least a tiny difference in at least one girl's life.

Anyway, now, I'm home and I'm so glad to be here. This summer was great, but it was also really hard and I feel so emptied, from pouring into those girls. I'm so excited to be able to have an hour of prayer a day with God again and to be able to spend more time with some of my peers and classmates. I'm just excited to get recharged a little these next few weeks, before I jump into my third year at MC, because I don't want to walk into this amazing year empty and dry. I want to walk in ready to give it all, ready to pour out all I have. So, here I am, stepping forward these next two weeks, as I prepare for my third year to start. I'm so ready!