Hey everyone! I've slacked on posts over the last week and a half. Most of it is due to a lot of extra prep work that was going on for upcoming church events both locally and for the state. I had intended to get some posts ready and queued up for this week on Saturday but my schedule ended up not allowing me to do that. I was being social with friends/fellow interns and my host family which is important. In a lot of cases more so than this blog.

The last four days have been pretty much non-stop going. From last minute prep for the All Church Campout that happened Friday through Saturday morning to running a whole bunch of DMX cables for light towers at the discipleship camp we're at for the week. We have been moving from one activity to another with a few hours of final prep time in between them. One nice thing this weekend was that our Saturday softball game was cancelled due to rain...so we got a little extra time that we probably a little too excited for! All in all it was a crazy weekend that led into today which was a long day of set up and training for Super Summer. It's been a busy day and it has been tiring, but the students get here tomorrow and soon we will see the impact that all of this will have.

Super Summer Worship Band Practice

Tonight was our last night before the students arrive. So we did all of the big prep and we will finish up in the morning. It also meant that it was the last chance for the band to do a full run through of all of the music for the week. It was a late night but so worth it.

I'm excited for the students to arrive tomorrow! My role this year is a little different than it was last year, but it will be a fun one none the less. I look forward to seeing how God will work in the lives of the students, as well as in the lives of all of us who are on staff for the week. I will write more and do a recap next week. I may get around to posting something later this week as well, but who knows. Now i'm going to finish some intern work for back home and then head to bed to hopefully get some rest before tomorrow...or today!

Good Night! ...or Good Morning!

"You're Killing Me Smalls!" || Weekend In Review

As I sit here reminiscing about this past weekend I have the privilege to listen to church band practice. The guys in that room who play for us are truly talented and it sounds great! They are currently working on figuring out all the chords for the song Cornerstone by Hillsong. If you don't know this song you should definitely check it out here! It is a great song and I am enjoying listening to them practice this song along with others.
This weekend was pretty full and we were going almost non-stop, especially on Sunday. We didn't have anything going on Saturday during the day, but that evening we had a softball game. Originally we were supposed to drive almost 40mins in order to play a team that lives about 10mins from us. Crazy!! Luckily someone had a bit of common sense and changed the schedule and we were able to play on a field in town. This made the evening so much shorter in regards to the game and allowed us to spend more time fellowshipping together after the game. We all headed over to Beef O'Brady's to grab some dinner and just enjoy each other's company for a while. It was a great night!
This lead quickly into a very early Sunday morning. I woke up without the aide of an alarm clock around 3:40...and I wasn't too thrilled about it. However, I got up and got ready for the day. We were in town and unloading trailers by 6am. There was one plus to this Sunday that made getting up that early worth it. Seeing as we are a church plant we set up and tear down everything every Sunday morning. This means that we have early mornings and a little longer time getting out afterwards. The school that we set up in decided to help us out this summer by allowing us a totally awesome opportunity. We don't have to set up again for 10 weeks!!! YAY!! :) While we would have gotten up and set up every Sunday all summer if we had to this is a welcomed break for everyone. 
Church went well and we transitioned straight from service to prepping for our JourneyKids event that evening and our first Super Summer activity, a Community Movie Night. We were gathering our supplies and then doing set up for the evening. We spent a couple hours setting up our movie screen, picking up popcorn and helping trim hedges. We went straight from there to our Kids event with a car load of kids. Two hours of games, small groups, bible lessons, worship, and of course, food. It was fun and we have gotten some more kids coming to JourneyKids since we are doing it on Sunday evenings now. It is awesome to see how it grown in just two weeks and how excited the kids are!!
After JourneyKids we loaded up the church bus and one other vehicle with kids and took them over to the movie night. We watched a good ol' classic...The Sandlot. There were several kids and adults who hadn't seen the movie and it was so funny to watch them watch it! It was a cool evening, but not uncomfortable. We had lawn chairs and blankets set up in Mike & Amy's lawn and popcorn all around. It was a great night with some awesome people!! I'm definitely looking forward to our other two movie nights this summer!
After all of that we had yesterday off to recoup and get ready to take on the week. I was up and doing absolutely nothing productive with my live. Sometimes that kind of day is just needed lol! A friend and fellow intern decided that it was a good day to sleep in...until 5pm. I'm still trying to figure out how someone can sleep that long! He slept for 17hrs. Seventeen straight hours. That's ridiculous. But as long as he is rested I guess. Last night we headed to BDubs (a.k.a. Buffalo Wild Wings) to play Late Shift Trivia and hang out. It was definitely fun! 
There was something else that really hit me this weekend but i'll save that for a post later this week. I'll also have to post some pictures from the weekend later since I can't access them right now. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a great start to the week!!!
God Bless!!

52 Lists || Weeks 1-3

Hey everyone!! I hope you've all had a great week! One more day and it's the weekend. For me it's half relaxing, half work but hey, it's still the weekend! 

Today I am starting a project that spans the whole year. However, I am coming in a little late (okay...maybe a lot late) so I am playing catch up here for a little bit. These first few weeks i'll be posting three or four weeks worth of lists at one time in an attempt to catch up. 

This project is called The 52 Lists Project and more information can be found over on Moorea Seal's blog. The project is all about making lists. Lists covering various aspects of life. Some are just things that you don't have to think about (such as your favorite comforts or words that touch your soul) and some are harder, requiring more thinking and reflection (such as things you should be proud of). I think it will really be an interesting project to take part in, so here it goes.

I'm sharing weeks 1-3 with you today.

List Words That Touch Your Soul

 Week One: Books . Blankets . Warmth . Fire . Fireplace . Food . Comfort . Friends . Bestfriend . Family . Animals . Babies . Kids . Peace . Quiet . Rain . Storm . Night . Drive . Run . Movement . Courage . Perseverance . Strength . Journey . Adventure . Hope . Future . Home . Daughter . Healing . Purpose . Intentional . Chocolate . Coffee . Country . Safety . Baking . People . Creativity 

List Your Greatest Comforts

Week Two: Curling up with a good book. Big, warm blankets. Country music. Having close friends & adopted 'family' near by. Speidies & Grandma Brown's Baked Beans. Talking to my bestfriend, Mike. Ted Dekker or Dee Henderson Books. Cherry Pepsi. My Kids. Having someone play with my hair or rub my back. Listening to City Harbor. Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate. Snuggling with a baby or toddler. Hugs.

List The Things You Should Be Proud Of

Week Three: I survived junior & senior high school. I have successfully finished my first three years of college. I got certified in First Aid & CPR. I have learned the value in vulnerability. I have been lucky enough to have a job/internship that I love. I have successfully maintained a long-distance friendship for six years. My faith and trust in God is stronger than it has ever been. I finally made the Dean's List after working for two years to get back up there.

There are the first three weeks. Mind you, I didn't list everything because they are long and it would just be too much for here. As I get down to just doing one a week it will be easier to list everything because it won't take up as much space. Just bear with me in the coming weeks as I get up to speed with the Project. This is an awesome project and I can't wait to see what the rest of the list topics will be!!

If you have a minute swing over to Moorea's blog and check out the List Project or some of her other posts!

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!

God Bless!

Somebody's Chesea

Throughout this past school year I watched many, many friends and classmates get their "Ring by Spring", a.k.a. get engaged. Some of them were close friends and some were just acquaintances from classes. Either way there hit a point where I wondered if our whole class was going to be engaged before the school year was over. It was an exciting time for them and I was just as excited for them as they embarked on this new stage of their lives. Many of our conversations have revolved around dresses, shoes, flowers, locations, decorations, number of bridesmaids and so on. I've seen and skimmed more wedding magazines in the last year or so than I have in my life. Wedding talk was a norm throughout this school year and for the most part it was fun. I really enjoyed being able to help them bounce ideas around and flesh some things out. There were some days though where it was hard to sit there and listen to all this talk of weddings when you're sitting there single.

The group of us girls and the group of guys we interact with have made the joke that all but a couple of us are single. There were two engagements in my fairly immediate groups of friends. There are one or two dating couples. The majority of us though are still single with no likely prospects on the horizon. Now that is not saying that we all don't have our eye on someone because we definitely do (at least most of us). It's just that the likelihood of any of us actually coming to be in a relationship with the person we have our eye on is either pretty slim or we're friends with the person and there would be a lot riding on that decision if we moved forward. 

We all are enjoying being a part of our friends' weddings and getting to share and celebrate them as they make this transition into married life. It is so exciting to see them taking these steps together! Yet I know that sometimes it is hard to be surrounded with so many people getting married when you have yet to end up finding someone to even date. It can be a bit of a downer, especially for those of us who are going into our senior year of college and are all going to be 22 or 23 within the next year and a half or so. I know that some of our sentiments regarding marriage comes from how we grew up and the college that we attend, but it can still be discouraging. Throw in parents, extended family and church family asking every time they see you if you're dating anyone yet, if you're interested in anyone and if there is anyone you would like to eventually marry. Or a myriad of other questions dealing with the subjects of dating and marriage.

Personally I get my mom and grandma asking me when me and a close friend of mine are going to start dating and eventually get engaged. In recent months church family here has started asking if anything is going to happen between the two of us. I don't know if anything will happen. Although we have been throwing out the idea of getting married for almost two years. We've talked about it pretty seriously multiple times, but haven't acted on it. One of the main benefits being reduced tuition at school. We've legitimately talked about it multiple times and pretty much everyone I know has said that they think it would be great. My family thinks that it would be absolutely wonderful in every way, even the family who hasn't met him. Yet here we sit both single and while being pretty serious about it we aren't making any serious moves that direction.

It just gets a little hard watching multiple weddings this summer (i'm in the double digits so far...) along with other engagements. But I am trusting God with it even when it's hard. He has a plan and I know it is good. I just need to remember that things will fall together in alignment with His plan when they are supposed to.

This song came to my mind yesterday and it pretty well describes most of my thoughts lately. Enjoy!

This Weekend

This was our first weekend with everyone here and it ended up kind of being a chill weekend at the beginning and a little but of a busy weekend by the end. We didn't have any real plans on Friday night or Saturday morning so we just hung out at the house. Saturday afternoon we found out we were leading kids small groups and worship tonight and then we had a softball game. 

Our first softball game of the season was a bit rough since no one had played in almost a year, but this time we held our own. We were up one at the bottom of the seventh and they scored two runs. I think that after a rough first game only losing by one run was pretty good. It was a fun game and a good time with some awesome people!

We then grabbed a bite for dinner and headed to our pastor's house to go over songs and motions for Journey Kids worship tonight with his wife and daughter. We had actions for two songs and came up with motions for the third right then. It made for a fairly late night with our normal 6am Sunday, but it was fun and we were able to get it done.

 

Today we had church in the morning, then all four of us interns spent the afternoon at the office prepping for Journey Kids tonight. We're doing a temporary new thing with our kids program for the month of June. Instead of doing their lesson and small groups in the morning, we are having them go into the service in the morning and then having their normal Sunday morning activities in the evening. If we keep getting a turn out like tonight (and hopefully larger next week!) then it might be beneficial to keep it going on Sunday nights. We had twelve kids with about half of them being new or kids who hadn't been there in a long time. It was a really active night and the kids really seemed to enjoy it! Most, if not all, are planning to come back next week and are planning on bringing more friends. It would be so awesome if God is able to use this time on Sunday evenings for us to impact kids in a better and more effective way! I'm excited to see what happens!

Now we're all just sitting around the house in our own areas doing our own things in hopes of a little recoup before some heavy work tomorrow. It was a good first week of the summer with all of us interns here and I look forward to a great week leading up to our first summer activity!

So there's a little recap of the weekend!

Have a great night and a great start to your week tomorrow!

God Bless!