Like I said on Saturday, the last couple of weeks have been crazy. Thus I am posting my 4th of July recap on the 19th. I'm two weeks late but at least I am posting them. For the 4th we go out to the Community College and set up there just after lunch. We bring canopies, chairs, tables, food and water, cornhole, and other games. It is offered at church as an open church event, but within a community event. People from church come out and bring their chairs, food and such and we all just hang out. It's a great time of fellowship while we enjoy a nice day, play frisbee and cornhole, as well as interact with friends from the community who are there.

The guys all look so thrilled and energetic ;)

All of us interns went out just after lunch and set everything up so that it was ready when everyone else go there. Once everything was set up we got to relax for a little bit. The guys just look so thrilled to be out there don't they lol. They actually had a good time, they just didn't know I was taking this picture. We helped monitor the bounce houses again this year which is fun but it can tedious since we just stand there and tell kids when they can go up and come down. But it is fun at the same time since we get to interact with the kids. 

Chad, Mark, Bri and David playing football

Throughout the day we had games of cornhole, frisbee, football and t-ball going on. We had some family visitors there and we always have some people from the Kankakee Valley Theatre Association group come hang out for a little while which is fun. Bri got to join us for the day since she was in town and not touring that day.

Broshi, Caleb, Andy & Jarrod (somewhere) playing football and Caitlyn was playing with a child

All around it was a great day and for the first year in a while it was a mild day. It was perfect to be out and about for the 4th. We got to enjoy the Kankakee Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Kankakee Valley Symphony Orchestra. They also do a military tribute for all the branches and that was hard for some people there as it reminded them of relatives who are no longer with them. The KVSO played the some music from Star Wars if I remember correctly.

Some more of the crew

Ignore the quality of these pictures. I was taking them from my iPad one handed and in a fairly quick manner since my ice cream was melting! And the green smoke in the background was someone setting off a stink bomb. That was not pleasant in the least. Once it hit about 7:30ish we went ahead and took down canopies and tables. We took everything we didn't need to watch fireworks back to the bus so that we didn't have to take it down and carry it down in the midst of the chaos of everyone packing up and heading out. About 8:30 they started the fireworks.

 

It was a great show and it was a beautiful night for it. Minus the bugs who seemed to like everyone that night. Once the show was over we picked up all our trash, gathered the camp chairs, and grabbed the last cooler. We headed to the bus and we prepped for the best part of the night yet. See, we've become smart in how we do the heading out part of the night. There are so many people all trying to get out at once that it is mass chaos and takes forever. So we bring a cooler full of about 6 or 7 watermelon, a big sharp knife, salt, trash bags and plenty of napkins. We popped up a table and laid out a plastic cover, then out came the watermelon. We cut them up and people just come and grab them. Friends are invited to join us and it's a great time to fellowship and enjoying the evening while everyone else is stressed about getting out. We generally have a decent sized group. It doesn't take long to go through all of the watermelons as you can guess! By the time we finish though, the parking lot is pretty much empty and we have an easy time packing up and leaving. It's a great way to end out the day!!

One quick story from the night. A friend of ours, Jade, and her family joined us for watermelon after the show. She had went with us to camp the week before and had become friends with all of us interns. Well, Broshi is affectionately referred to as being "swole". He had told Jade that saying "swole" when you pick up something heavy, or in this case try to break a big triangular piece of watermelon, it makes the task easier. Jade didn't think it would work but tried anyway. So here we are all standing there talking, laughing and enjoying our watermelon when all of a sudden Jade says, "Swole!" quite loudly. At the same time she is saying it she attempts to break the watermelon. Much to her surprise and everyone else's, the piece of watermelon broke ridiculously easy. The look of shock on her face was so great! We all just busted out laughing while she just stood there amazed at what just happened. So funny!! To say the least, she believes him now.

Anyways, that's enough for the crazy stories. Have a great day! God Bless!

Camps Of All Sorts

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!

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!

This Weekend // Memorial Day

It's been a good weekend, but it has definitely felt like an extremely long one even in the midst of a lot of good. There were a lot of things that happened, although only a few were actually related to my internship.

 

 I had the day off Saturday, so I went to the Kankakee Farmer's Market with Bev and enjoyed wandering around the market, eating some great homemade pastries, and listening to some live music. On our way home we stopped by a very large and extremely busy greenhouse to get some flowers. I then enjoyed some time just reading and watching a movie. Then we went out to dinner at Lone Star Steakhouse and then Bev and I went to the movies. We saw Mom's Night Out and it was awesome!! Such a great movie! The cast was wonderful and I absolutely enjoyed it.

We then had an early morning of set up for church, although we didn't get there until about 7am. We did set up and ended up having a bit of a bare bones service due to a number of people being gone. It was still a good morning of worship. That evening I helped with JourneyKids and it was quite an interesting end to the year. It always amazes me the variations of Bible stories that the children come up with!

This morning Andy and I spent time doing some work in town and then came back home with everyone for a Memorial Day cookout/lunch. We had a great lunch of grilled salmon and grilled pork, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, croissants, and fruit salad. Then a really good apple tart dessert. It was a good day just hanging out and relaxing. This afternoon I took the time to make the dessert for small group tomorrow night and used some of Caitlyn's help.

I made Raspberry Fudge Zebra Brownies, although the topping recipe I followed wasn't the greatest, but we made it work. Caitlyn was pleased with herself for cracking an egg without getting any shell in the bowl! 

 

The brownies turned out pretty good! It was fun to be able to do a little baking and to have Caitlyn's help. It definitely made things go a little faster. We were listening to and singing along with the Disney station on Pandora and the boys were complaining that it distracted them from watching baseball two rooms away! :) Silly boys! 

A quick and easy dinner was in order after such a long day and then a movie and some more relaxing. It was a good weekend and a nice day to kind of get a little bit of rest before the week starts and the rest of the interns officially start. It was a good kick off to the summer!

 

Happy Memorial Day! 

Thank you to all of the service men and women in all the 

different branches of the Armed Forces. I am truly grateful for 

all that you do to allow us to have the liberties that we do!

Is Christmas Really Next Week??

Hey everyone!!

Well it's been a short while since i've posted anything and i'm sorry for my absence, but it was needed as the last few weeks have been hectic with finals, job stuff, and figuring out travel plans.

So for a quick overview of my life lately...

About a month ago I got a haircut (finally!) and new glasses! These glasses were about two years late and much needed!

This was right before heading home for Thanksgiving!
The Saturday before Thanksgiving my youngest biological sister came to stay with me at school for a few days before heading to New York for the holiday. Doesn't she just look thrilled to be hanging out with me for a few days?? Lol, she did have a 13 hour train ride before that so...

Getting back from Thanksgiving in NY I had to spend the next two weeks doing homework, practicing piano, finishing up projects and presentations, and getting details of work figured out.
It was pure craziness and sleep was a rarity!
There was one night I only got about an hour and a half because my brain just wouldn't slow down.

I spent several evenings and mornings in Larsen in a practice room for many hours practicing scales, triads, accompaniments, and repertoire pieces.
I really just thought this was a cool picture to record my clearly dedicated and focused practice time... :)

I really didn't have any big finals as they were all chapter tests, with the exception of piano.
One test however was take home, which was wonderful! And another test was open notes so that was a true blessing!!

The last couple days of finals week I spent time with my roomies and my 'roomies'.
All of us will be reunited in January when classes start again, with the exception of one. Nellie will be spending next semester on the other side of the pond. She will be taking classes and living in London. It isn't going to be the same with her gone but I know that she is going to have a great time!! And that God is going to do some amazing things in her and through her while she is there!
Plus we will be Skyping her during weekly Bible study...
Probably not every time but every now and then!

Me, Alaina, Emma, Mary, Alyssa, Jess, Nellie... Anna was working :(

The picture above is all of us minus Anna, who was working if I recall.
This was from the beginning of the semester at the Block Party.
The eight of us have all been living together since freshman year and we will likely be living together next year as well!! Well most of us anyways... (Save that info for later!)

The Sunday after finals I got to be in the Journey Tots room and got to spend time teaching and playing with this adorable little man! Noah is pretty stinking cute!
And he is going to be a big brother in just a few months!! Yay! :)

The beginning of December I officially started working at my church through NAMB.
This will be my job through next November, with the likelihood of continuing for the year after that.
I will continue doing what I already do with a few added jobs.
It is a blessing to be able to work doing what I love and enjoy while in college!
And it fits with my major and minor!
What are the odds?!
It truly is a blessing and I thank God for this opportunity!

Starbucks with Beth, Mary, Alyssa, and Emma!!

This picture really has nothing to do with this post, but I do look forward to spending time with all of those lovely ladies again in the coming semester!

So that is a brief overview and I look forward to getting some more posts up soon and hopefully more regularly this coming year!!
Hard to believe Christmas is next week and New Years the week after that!!
Where has the year gone?

Anyways, time to finish up work and prep for youth group tonight!
God bless you all!!

Words Are Hard... +An Octopus

Yesterday marked the end of the summer internship for 4 of the 6 of us. Everyone packed up their things and headed off their separate directions, some only for a few days as band camp starts on Friday. For one of us he headed home for a few weeks before heading back down to Tennessee. It was a long day for all of us and while tears were not shed it was definitely sad to watch everyone head off.

This summer has been an amazing experience with some incredible people and I am beyond blessed to have experienced it!! There have been changes to the team throughout the summer, but all have been good. We started out with seven, of whom five already knew each other. The two that were new to the team were newlyweds. They were welcomed to the team and we enjoyed getting to know them. Unfortunately, some things just didn't work out and they headed home. While this relieved some stress and made things run smoother, it also added stress to everyone's shoulders as we took on more work and shifted jobs around. This change also meant that some things that everyone thought would be happening didn't happen. While some disappointment was felt, we took it in stride and got excited about the things that were coming up! We ended up having a sixth team member for the past couple weeks and it has been absolutely wonderful!

Without further ado, here is a short overview of the summer via pictures...
(More to come in the coming weeks!!)

Intern Orientation at Streator Baptist Camp

This picture is from our first weekend together as an intern team in June. We were at IBSA's Intern Orientation at Streator Baptist Camp. Everyone in the picture served as an intern through IBSA in various parts of Illinois. The couple of days that we spent there provided all of us an opportunity to get to know these amazing people that were doing the same things as us for the summer. It was truly a blessing and I have enjoyed keeping up with many of them via Facebook. They are an inspiration!

Illinois Super Summer 2013

This picture is from our next big thing from the summer. We went to Illinois Super Summer and we were Family Leaders for the various schools. This was a challenging week for us as none of us had really done anything like that previously. We went into the week not knowing entirely what was going to happen, but we were excited none the less. While the week was stressful at times, this week was such an amazing experience for all of us! Sometimes it is experiences like this that show us just how much we have to left to learn. Speaking on a personal note, this week was definitely a huge blessing to me and really showed me some things that I need to work on in my life with Christ. It was an incredible week! (A post will be coming soon about this camp!!)

Hanging at the beach in Chicago  (...with Joel according to Facebook)

Just a day at the beach

One of our next big things happened to be having the IBSA All State Youth Choir come and hangout for a weekend. We took them to Chicago and took them on tours around the city, then we ended the day with an ultimate frisbee tournament at a sports complex here in town. They then sang at Journey on Sunday morning, followed by Auerlio's for lunch. You may be wondering what this has to do with the above pictures... The tour we took them on happened to be a bus tour. The tickets for the tour happened to be valid through Monday, so us interns took a trip to the city. We hung out at the beach for a few hours, grabbed dinner at Giordano's and ended the day on the night tour. It was a great day to just hang out and spend time with each other without having to do a bunch of work or be focused on other things despite being together. There's nothing like a long day in the city enjoying each other's company to make for a great day off!!

Kenan's Birthday

During the midst of the summer we got to celebrate two birthdays. Kenan's birthday and Kristin's birthday both happened to be in July within just a couple days of each other. Kristin and I, along with Rachel, made a birthday cake for Kenan!

Kristin's birthday was two days later and the guys made a beautiful cake for her!!

Kristin and her cake!! (Picture courtesy of Kenan Keller)

Getting to celebrate their birthdays with them this summer was awesome!! It is such a blessing to know them both and be able to share those special moments with them! Such an awesome time with amazing people :)

All 6 of us interns with the octopus!!

Our next big event came not long after. The day before leaving Bri came down to join us for the last couple weeks and to work with me for the next few. We left the next afternoon to head to Streator Baptist Camp for IBSA Co-ed Missions Camp North. Since Chad was camp director we were in charge of running the whole camp. The six of us were tribe leaders, we lead worship for all the services, filled various other roles from set up and tear down crew to registration and night time game coordinators, and Kenan ran sound and did tech for the week along with running recreation time. Prior to camp Malik worked with a lady from our church to fix and edit Bible studies and missions lessons for the different age groups at camp. The camp ranged from 2nd graders all the way up to those who just graduate high school. It was a long week that put us all in places that put us outside of our comfort zones. We were stretched in various ways throughout the week, some good and some not so good. Yet at the end of the week we had to say that it was an incredible experience!!! Personally, I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. It was a huge blessing to share with the students and serve God in all of the ways I did.
Also, that thing that Bri is holding in the picture...that's an octopus. Yes, you read that right...an octopus. We played a variation of ultimate frisbee at camp using an octopus. It was quite hilarious!!

Kristin and I at Art Camp (Courtesy of Trent Walstra)

Our last big thing for the summer was an Art Camp that Journey hosted. It was a five day art camp with an art show this past Sunday morning. One of the ladies at church is an art teacher at one of the local schools and she taught the children this past week. They learned about various artists and were given the chance to imitate the techniques of the artists. We had 4th-6th graders in the morning and 1st-3rd in the afternoon.  It was an awesome week and a great outreach for our church into the community! It was tiring but a great experience!!

So there is a quick overview of the summer, some details were omitted and hopefully I will get a chance to share them in the coming weeks. I just wanted to right this post to wrap up the summer with everyone here. We are an interesting group, but we all bring different things to the table and that has been huge this summer. It was such an awesome opportunity to work with Andy, Malik, and Kenan again. Last summer was awesome but this summer was amazing!! I couldn't have asked for a better chance to get to know them better and spend more time with them. They continue to teach me new things and I am blessed to have them as friends, and as brother figures when they pull the card out. God knew I needed them in my life and He has continued to use them in positive ways. Such an incredible blessing to know them!!! And getting to work with Kristin and Bri has been awesome. Yeah, we knew each other at school but spending so much time together we haven't got to know each other in different ways. I can definitely say that they are both absolute blessings to me and I look forward to getting to know them better throughout the school year!!!

I can't say enough about each of them, as that would take forever, but I can say that I can't possibly put into words how much of a blessing they have all been to me! They have seen me on my not so good days and on the days where i'm just happy as can be. They have seen me be lazy and totally checked out and they have seen me pull crazy antics out of nowhere. This summer definitely proved to bring me out of my shell and they got the chance to see that first hand...whether they wanted to or not. :)

I pray that God will guide their paths and lead them to do more incredible things for Him! I pray that God has His hands on them through everything they go through this school year, whether it be good or bad. May He provide everything they need. May He give them peace in every situation and joy as well. I pray that He uses each of them to share His love and grace to everyone they come in contact with. May He bless them and use them to bless others.

While this post could go on for days, I will wrap it up on this last note. I couldn't have asked for a better summer with better people. I was right where I was supposed to be with the people I was supposed to be with. It was truly a wonderful blessing and I am glad I get the chance to share about it! My words are many but those that are spoken are jumbled at best. Like we've said all summer....Words are hard. Words are very hard.

Thank you all for an incredible summer!!

Sincerely,
Shelbi

Throwback Thursday & Summer Interns

Hey everyone!!
I feel bad for not posting much this past week but it's been a little busy.

There's been lots of prep work to get ready for the summer intern team that is here for the summer.

Today happened to be the big day.

All of the summer interns are finally here!!

I have been anxiously awaiting this day for weeks now.

With all of the rain and crazy weather we have been having I am glad everyone made it safely.

It was so awesome to get to connect with Kenan as I hadn't seen him in almost a year.

It was good to spend some time talking with Kristin since we haven't seen each other in almost a month.

It was even better finally getting to meet 'The Married Couple' as they have been dubbed at church.

Andrew and Anna got here this afternoon and it was great to get to meet them and talk with them.

I am really looking forward to getting to know them better!

We went over rules and guidelines for the summer, as well as what our responsibilities will be each week.

It is going to be very different from last summer but it's still going to be great.

I'm looking forward to everything that we have planned.

It is going to be awesome to see how God uses all of us this summer!

The fact that all the interns got here today made for a perfect Throwback Thursday post.

It was only about a year ago but so much has changed since then.

This was the mission team, plus a few others, from last summer.

This was an awesome group of interns, all of whom I am still friends with.

They were such a blessing and we all learned a lot about ourselves and each other through everything.

God knew exactly what He was doing when He put that group together and I have no doubt that all of us on the intern team for this summer where put together for a reason.

What that is I don't know.

However, if it is anything as awesome as last year (hopefully much more awesome), then it's going to be an awesome summer and a true blessing.

I have no doubt that God has big plans for this summer and I look forward to seeing what they are!!

Here's to an awesome summer full of adventures, relationship building, personal growth, and spiritual strengthening!!

Throwback Thursday & Summer Mission Team 2013

Hey there!!

So today is my first Throwback Thursday post and I am really excited to share with you!

I think this is the perfect time to start this because of what I am looking back on and the upcoming summer plans.

Today I want to take a look back to last summer. I know it isn't too far back in the past, but it seems like so long ago and I find it fitting considering that it is all going to be starting back up a week from today.

Last summer was full of long work days, crazy schedules, good days and bad days, as well as a ton of wonderful memories!!

I posted about the summer a couple of times and you can see one of them here!

For those who don't know, I stayed on my college's campus last summer and worked full time in the custodial department.

That was often days a lot of work, a lot of stress, and a lot of frustration.

Little did I know when I started working for the summer that I would end up also being an unofficial part of the Summer Mission Team that Journey was hosting through NAMB.

I got up and dealt with the long days of work because I knew that I would get to work and hangout with all of the summer missionaries.

From left: Andy, McKenzie, Patrick, Malik, Haley, Kenan, & Joel

This was the official team that started out the summer, but only the six guys ended up staying on with Journey.

I was beyond blessed to get to work with them and spend time getting to know them!

These guys are seriously some of the most awesome people I know!!

The connections have been lasting and we have been able to make many memories beyond the summer and throughout this past school year.

It has been such an amazing blessing to have these guys be a part of my life and I thank God for the friendship and all of the different aspects that it consists of on a daily basis.

While only three of the guys will be coming back, Andy, Malik, and Kenan, to be a part of the Summer Mission Team for this summer, it is looking like it is going to be an awesome team!!

There will be seven people on team this summer, five of which already have worked, are working and are attending Journey and all know each other fairly well.

As previously mentioned, Andy, Malik, and Kenan will be back for the summer.

Kristin Marshall, a fellow ONU student and good friend, will be on team this summer as well, along with myself.

That makes up the five of us who have already worked with Journey or have been working with and attending Journey.

In addition to the five, we will also have two others from Arkansas joining us, Andrew & Anna Bell.

They are (or will be getting) married and are coming to join us just ten days after their wedding.

I do not know much more about them, but I look forward to getting to know them and work with them this summer.

(Little do they know there is already going to be a blog post about them before they get here (:  )

Things are going to be set up a bit differently this summer but it is looking like it will be an amazing summer none the less!

From the sounds of things the team is going to be a really great fit for the church and as a team in general.

So many awesome things are already planned and in the works for the summer and it is going to be awesome to be able to work with this team to make everything happen!!

We are a mere 7 days away from everyone arriving (officially) and I am getting excited!

I pray that God will just work in the lives of everyone both before they arrive next week and while they are here for the summer.

I pray that He will work through us to accomplish His will through all that we do.

I pray that we will daily seek Him in all that we say, do, and think.

May we be so focused on Him that everything we do directly reflects Him.

May His hands be on us and guide us.

May we be a blessing to the church and the community through this opportunity that we have been given.

I pray that we will draw closer to Him both individually and as a team through everything that we experience this summer.

It's all in His hands!!!

~~~

On a side note, I found out some totally awesome news!!!

Olivet sent out a survey to the students asking about where they go to church, how often they attend, and so on.

Turns out that Journey Church is the 6th most attended church by ONU students!!!

How awesome is that?!?

While this does not give necessarily the most accurate count, it is still awesome knowing that we are one of the churches that ONU students go to most frequently!

I know a lot of the students who come to Journey and I see new faces quite often.

I just pray that we are truly showing them God's love in all that we do and that we are providing them the opportunity to grow closer to God through the worship and message on Sundays.

I pray that we are being the guiding light that they need to stay focused on God.

I pray that we are being His hands and feet to all those that are coming.

We serve such an awesome God!

He is doing amazing things even when we cannot see it.

Sometimes it is just little things like the results of a survey to be reminded that we are making a difference.

It may not be to a huge number of people, but we are reaching a lot of people.

We are making an impact and it is all because of Him.

By keeping our eyes on Him and continuing to do His work we will be able to see results reaped tenfold.

Sometimes it may be tough, but He never fails to show us that our perseverance is producing results.

He never lets us down or fails us.

We just need patience and a little more faith in His plan.

It always works out for the best for the those who love Him!!

Youth Group: Past, Present, & Future

     So last night was youth group, better known as Journey Live. I have been going to Journey Live and helping out (of sorts) since the fall. When I say helping out it generally means that i've helped to hold the peace, add a comment in here or there, and cook when needed. I have not had to step into the role of actually leading youth group or taking a more proactive leadership role. I have mainly gotten to work on getting to know the teens and connect with them. This whole sorta backseat role i've been occupying this year is going to get bumped up several levels in the next couple weeks. As a part of doing summer missions team (a post will be coming about mission team and the upcoming summer soon) everyone on team will be split up to focus on certain areas of ministry. I will be staying with the teens. However, me and the other one to two people who will be working with the teens will pretty much be in charge of leading all of the activities and small group interactions this summer. This really hit me tonight both during youth group and after in conversations with the teens and fellow adult leaders. I was informed by my pastor of something that I already knew about and have been working on, but sometimes feel like i'm getting nowhere. I need to speak up during small group interactions and Bible lessons. I have been trying to work on this but feel like I get stuck or as soon as I start moving forward I get pushed back again. You may be asking why I even have to work on this to begin with? Well I have an answer for you. Just give me some time to explain...

Youth group was not a pleasant experience for me for the most part. I found it to be one of the places where I actually got torn down and pushed away more than I was lifted up and welcomed. It really ended up shaping me into the person that I am today and that is not entirely a positive thing. Growing up I was pretty talkative, especially once I got to know someone and was comfortable, and this trait followed me into middle school. I went into youth group fairly outgoing since I knew most everyone and I was not afraid to talk and share my thoughts. This lasted for about the first year, so through 7th grade. During that year and the year that followed I really got a lot of negative remarks coming from those in my youth group. I quite frequently heard it said that no one cared what I had to say and no one wanted to hear my thoughts or my feelings. I was pretty much told that I needed to stop talking because no one wanted to hear what I had to say. This really tore me apart and by the time I hit freshman year of high school I rarely talked during youth group, especially during our Bible lesson. Due to other circumstances, this new found habit of not talking became the only way to survive. It didn't help that my mom was in a youth pastor position and my grandpa was the pastor of the church. This meant that everyone expected my life to be perfect. Little known fact: being a PK doesn't mean your life is perfect and you never mess up. We mess up on a daily basis just like everyone else. But I wasn't allowed to share this with people because I was instantly judged and it immediately looked bad on my family. By the time junior and senior year came around I was only going to youth group once or twice a month, if that. There were times I wouldn't go for two to three months at a time. I didn't like being there and with family circumstances it was easy to come up with reasons not to go.

Now that I am a part of a youth group and in a leadership position, I am forced to look back at my youth group experience and see what went wrong and try to keep those things from happening in this youth group.

When you think of a youth group, specifically a healthy youth group that has a regular group of attendees and is growing, you think of a place where students can come and feel welcome. They can come into youth group and feel like they are safe. They should feel like they can share what they are thinking, feeling, and experiencing without being judged. They should be shown God's love by their peers and those that are leading the group. We often think of many of the things that are shown in the image below...

     These things were apart of my youth group at various times but never at the same time. Transitioning from having real youth pastors to having people just fill a rotation schedule so someone was always with us made this hard as well. We never felt like anyone actually wanted to be with us. The new youth pastor they have now doesn't even want to be there. The things in this image are what I longed to have on a regular basis in youth group, but I never got them. These things are also the very things that I want the teens in Journey Live to experience on a regular basis. I want them to come in and feel the presence of strong, positive leadership, a sense of connection and openness with one another, and feel that they are accepted in the group no matter who they are, what they have done, or where they are in the lives.

I want the teens to have that amazing youth group experience that I wish I had had. I hear stories from friends at college about their youth groups and in all honesty I get jealous. Their groups always sound like they were the best! I really want to be a part of making Journey Live that kind of a group/place for these students. I want them to be able to look back on it when they grow up and have positive memories from it. I felt a little like a dork because I was thinking about this on my drive home after youth group and I started tearing up because I just feel so strongly about this issue. These students deserve the best that we can give them and I really want to give that to them! I just need to remember that part of giving that to them is getting past the negative impact of my youth group experiences. It probably won't be easy, but I think it will be worth it in the end.

I am looking forward to the challenges that working with these students this summer will present, as well as the many, many, many wonderful and amazing moments and memories that will come about!! They are such an awesome group of students and I pray that I will be able to provide what they need this summer alongside my fellow mission team members and adult leaders from church. I have no doubt that this summer will be an awesome season of growth for these students, as well as those of us working with them. It may not be in the numbers of students attending, but it will no doubt be in the hearts and lives of the students. I am excited to see the students grow and change in their faith!! It will no doubt be a summer to remember!!

If Only...

What if?

We often ask this question every day in regards to something that has been said or done at some point in out lives.

Maybe we ask it in regards to little things, such as "What if I had roomed with someone else Freshman year of college?" or maybe we ask it in regards to big things, such as "What if I hadn't yelled at & degraded my significant other?".

This question can take on many forms and it can range from extremely little things to extremely large, life altering things.

Sometimes we can find ourselves getting lost in our thoughts as we question "What if..." in regards to different aspects of our lives, whether we could have altered it or if our "What ifs..." are really what it would have been like.

We can become so consumed with trying to figure out what could have been if we did something differently, that we often times find ourselves unable to keep ourselves from making decisions that leave us with more "What if..." moments.

On a personal level, I ask myself "What if..." on a regular basis in regards to things that have happened.

What if I had chosen to go to bed early the other night?

What if I hadn't ordered pizza for supper two nights this week?

What if I hadn't reacted that way to his simple inquiry about how I was doing?

What if I would have stepped out of my comfort zone and asked what his intentions were?

What if I would have opened myself up to let him into my heart?

What if I did not have trust issues?

What if I had had a father who was active in my life?

What if I had had a father who was a positive presence in my life?

What if?

I could go on and on with this list, but I think this makes my point.

I ask myself these questions about multitudes of things on a daily basis.

As much as I hate to admit it, I often find myself dwelling on these "What ifs" and it ends up affecting my mood & my life.

It is not that it is always bad for me to wonder, but when I let that affect the way I live now...that's when there is a problem.

I cannot change what has happened and it can be damaging to me to dwell on those things.

God does not want me to dwell on those things.

He wants me to focus on my present so that I can try to limit the number of "What ifs" I have later on.

When we focus on our past and the "What ifs" that come along with that, we are likely to end up having "What ifs" about how our lives are going now because we were so worried about the past.

We need to seek God's help in accepting the past and working on doing our best to remove "What if" moments from life.

We will never be able to completely avoid "What if" moments, but we can do our best to limit them.

There is also a part of us as humans that feels the need to talk about these things with someone, but maybe we're afraid.

But as members of a Christian community, we always have people to talk to who will not judge us.

Seek out those people and ask them to talk with you and pray with you, even hold you accountable to handle things differently in similar situations in the future.

If you're not a part of a Christian (Church) family/community, then look for a friend who you feel you can trust or look for a church and get to know someone there and talk to them.

The family of God is our support system, whether Christians or not, and that does not just mean on the good days.

They are there on the bad days and through the tough times.

It is so much easier to go through these things with people by your side.

I encourage to find someone to talk to or to talk to God.

I also encourage you not to dwell on the "What ifs".

Do not let them control your life.

Put them behind you, put them in God's hands.

He has far greater things for you!!

***NOTE: My pastor has been doing a series on this topic at church on Sunday mornings and you can find recordings of these to listen to on our website... Journey Church

Send Me

Summer just got over about a month ago, or a little shorter than that for some of us.

You would think that I should be focusing on today.

Yet I am spending time figuring out what I am going to do next summer.

I think I already have it figured out, which may seem kinda crazy to some of you out there.

But I do not think it is crazy.

Rather I think that it is a good thing that I feel lead to what I am doing next summer this far in advance.

I can more adequately prepare and make sure I am spiritually ready for it.

It releases the stress of trying to figure out what I will be doing in April.

I can relax and just spend time with God getting myself ready to face whatever challenges may come my way.

For those of you who may be curious as to what I am planning on doing this coming summer, I will give a quick overview.

I am planning on staying here in Illinois and doing missions work with my church.

This can, and most likely will, include various aspects of ministry.

From office and administrative, to kids and students ministries.

If I can figure out some instrument stuff, then quite possibly some music stuff will be in there as well.

The specifics are yet to necessarily be nailed down, but they will be the closer the summer gets.

Now some of you may be asking why I would want to spend my summer doing this.

Simply put...I feel like God wants me to.

It isn't anything complicated that requires a ten page answer.

I just simply feel called to do it.

To some this may seem odd, yet to some it may seem like a tremendous opportunity.

I see it as another step in my journey with God.

He has a plan for this coming summer and I have no clue what it is, but I am extremely excited to find out!

I could not ask for a better opportunity.

God has opened a door for me and I feel blessed to be able to walk through it.

 

I feel that although I feel called to partake in this opportunity, I am going to be faced with many people who are greatly opposed to the idea of my staying here and doing this.

I have an idea of who some of these people are.

At first I do not think that they will necessarily approve, but I think that eventually they will be okay with it.

I just do not want to back out of this because of what people think, because ultimately it is God who will grant the ultimate approval for this opportunity.

If I feel like God has called me to do this, then I am going to do it.

It may upset some people or even make some people blow me off because they don't understand.

But I'm not supposed to be pleasing people, but rather God.

I may feel sad that people may feel negative feelings toward this, but I feel like if it is in God's will I will feel at peace about this decision that I have made.

 

I am just going to be continuously praying that God will provide whatever is necessary.

I am also praying that He will give me confidence in this decision as I move forward in the application process.

I am trusting that this is where He wants me to be and that everything will work out for His purpose.

I am confident in His plan and am willing to follow where ever He may lead.

A Final Goodbye

So the Summer Mission/Intern Team left this past weekend.

It was one of those weekends that i'll remember for the great memories made, but even more so for the goodbyes that were said (although somewhat reluctantly).

I managed to keep myself in check, but i'm sure it'll all hit me sometime this week.

I think knowing that there is a really good chance that we'll all see each other again made it easier.

However, I felt that I needed to say a few things to all of the guys.

I just couldn't bring myself to say it to them, mainly because I knew I didn't know what to say let alone if I would be able to hold it together while doing so.

So that is what this post is going to be.

My chance to share some things that the guys have taught me, how they've changed me, how God has blessed me through them, and how thankful I am to have met them.

I'll try to keep it short, sweet and to the point, but if I get to rambling please forgive me.

At the beginning of May when my summer began I didn't have a clue what was in store for me.

I didn't know what work would necessarily entail.

I didn't know what would happen in regards to church.

I didn't know that I would make any friends.

I didn't know what would happen.

I didn't know that God was going to bless me in more ways than I ever could have possibly imagined!!

The summer didn't start out so great due to a very negative roommate experience, but thankfully I got through it all with the help of friends and a load of patience from God.

I ended up with an apartment to myself after Block 1 and I was helping at church.

Yet I was still feeling disconnected from everything.

I was just going through the motions of work and going to church.

Then I found out that the mission team was coming for the summer.

I was excited about the possibility of having some fellow college students around.

Little did I know, but they were going to become a very big part of my life this summer.

I first found out that Malik and Andy were apart of the team, which was awesome.

It was good to have a couple people from school that I actually knew around for the summer.

I very quickly met and got to know the rest of the mission team.

The same day I met them we had our first college get together at the church office.

From that night on I became the +1 on the mission team and I spent a lot of my time outside of work with the guys.

In the next two months we made a lot of memories, had a lot of laughs, and spent a lot of time getting to know each other as we did things for the church.

I could tell you some of them, but I don't know that they would be as funny and make as good of a story as I think they would.

(If you would like to hear some details about the summer and what we did feel free to comment on here or message me in some way!! I'd love to share it with you!)

These past two months have presented many of awesome times, as well as some moments where I was challenged in my ways of doing things.

For the first time I was spending time with a group of guys who were chivalrous.

(This day and age it is very hard to come by, so I was kinda surprised I must admit.)

As I shared in an earlier post, the guys made no hesitation to give me shotgun in vehicles, hold doors, make sure I got served first at meals, and so on.

It took me a little while to get used to it all and I gave them a hard time about it for the first couple of weeks.

And then one night after they dropped me off I got to thinking about everything and realized that I was treating the situation all wrong.

I shouldn't have been giving them a hard time about it, but rather as a woman of God I was supposed to be encouraging them and supporting them as they were doing something that is not at all common in our world or culture these days.

By giving them a hard time I wasn't encouraging them and helping them as they are trying to become the Godly men that they are to be.

I was slacking on my job.

I didn't mean to be and it was only because I hadn't been exposed to it, but I very quickly realized that they needed the encouragement and as I was doing so it was helping me to become the Godly woman that I am to be, the Proverbs 31 woman that I desire to be.

I now have a new appreciation for the guys and their consistency in the chivalry department.

I learned a lesson through it all this summer and I couldn't be more thankful.

(Although I may be slightly spoiled now...lol. But appreciative none the less.)

Then there is the fact that I got to see them all interact with each other and see changes happen for all of them throughout the summer.

They may not have been hugely noticeable to others, but I noticed.

I don't necessarily know how to explain the changes that I saw, but I have no doubt that it was God working in their lives through their experiences with Journey, NAMB, and each other.

I saw them all get put into situations that they weren't the most comfortable with.

And in some cases they were just straight up uncomfortable.

They were pushed outside of their boxes, outside of their comfort zones.

But they all made an effort and stuck it out even if it might have been easier to let someone else do whatever it may have been.

They could have stepped back and said no.

They could have refused to do whatever they were supposed to be doing.

But I didn't see a one of them give up or take the easy way out.

It may have taken a lot of perseverance, encouragement, and a lot of faith in God, but they all did some amazing things in the midst of uncomfortable circumstances.

I commend them on their ability to step out in faith and take on whatever challenges that were put in front of them throughout this summer.

Whether it was doing bucket drumline, having tough conversations with people about faith, dealing with city officials, or figuring out how to react to stories/information about fellow college students.

The guys handled it all extremely well and it seemed that they all learned from the various situations and took something from them and grew from those experiences.

It was amazing to see God work through them.

I'm going to make this one of the last things, but it's the one that definitely touched me the most during their time here in Bourbonnais and at Journey.

I don't think that I have spent so much time with a group of young men who have such a desire to do what God wants them to and to share His word and His love with everyone they can.

It means a lot to see a group of guys, or even just one guy, be so willing to serve.

It was also encouraging to see watch them all when they were up singing or playing an instrument, or even watching them during worship at the beginning of service.

Watching them get so into the music and into worship is encouraging and a blessing.

It is rare to see a guy (let alone guys) get so into worship.

And I don't want this next thing to sound creeperish in any way, but I got a chance to watch all of the guys interact with children throughout the past couple months.

I have to say that it is awesome to me to see guys be so good with kids of varying ages.

Being someone who loves kids and cares about them immensely, it is always a huge blessing to see guys who are good with kids and enjoying spending time interacting with them.

And all of the guys were great with the kids at church, kids we met at block parties, and other kids that I only got to hear stories about.

It is such an encouragement to me to see that there are guys out there who know how to treat kids right and are so good with them!!

Overall I just feel extremely, extremely blessed to have been able to spend this summer getting to know this group of guys!

I wish I could put into words everything that is going through my mind right now, but I know there is no way that I can do so.

I just wanted to share a little about how blessed I have been this summer.

Had someone told me at the beginning of May that I would be trying to figure out a way to adequately say thank you to this group of guys for everything that taught me this summer and all the ways the have blessed my life...I would have told ya that ya were crazy!

And now i'm sitting here doing just that.

I don't know if I am even doing a good job of doing so, but I needed to do so.

I can't even put into words how blessed I have been by this great group of guys.

I feel like God knew that I needed these lessons this summer and my staying here and getting to know the guys was the best way for me to do so.

The way that God has worked in me this summer through the guys has been phenomenal.

God definitely knew what He was doing this summer, even if I didn't.

To the guys:

Thank you all so much for being such positive influences in my life this summer!

I couldn't have asked for a better group of Godly men to spend the last couple of months with.

It has been awesome to see all the ways that you guys have made impact in the lives of those at Journey, as well as the lives of many, many people in the community!

You have all been such a blessing!!

I hope that we will all stay in touch and hopefully be able to see each other again.

There have been rumors about a road trip at the end of this fall semester and i'm sure we will get a chance to see each other at various other times in the future.

I will be praying for you all as a new school year starts for almost all of you and wedding plans and job search kick into high gear for one of you.

I will be praying that God will bless you all immensely in the coming months.

I have no doubt that God has huge plans for all of you.

It'll be awesome to see how He does so!

Now that I have written one of the longest posts on here, I will call it good at this.

God has blessed me in more ways than I could have imagined!!

This summer has proved this in so many ways!!

I have no doubt that the coming year will prove to be full of more of His blessings!!

Just Needed To Share Something

Ok, so I just wanted to share something and thought this was the perfect place.

This week we are doing Block Parties at parks throughout the community.

We have been joined this week by a missions team from Arkansas (about 30 people).

Patrick had quite a day yesterday organizing everything with the team throughout the day as well as getting things ready for the Block Party last night.

So after he came and got me we headed back to the park.

We get there and the mission team is out there just having a blast with everything.

They had different booths set up with various things.

They had a tent set up where Faith was doing balloon animals (and other things) and Naomi and some of the other girls were doing face painting.

Jerry was all about doing the cotton candy. Well at least he was when he wasn't going around to other booths and talking with us and the kids that were there.

Justin had a game set up and so did Jessica.

There were hot dogs, popcorn, and sno cones.

There was music going. (And some dancing every now and then as well.)

It was a great time getting to talk with some of the people from the neighborhood and even getting a chance to get better acquainted with the mission team from Arkansas.

Being me, I was watching the different people come and go and kinda watching how long they were lingering around and talking to people.

There was one couple that was there who i'd been watching, and apparently so had some of the Arkansas mission team.

This couple had gotten there when it started and they were definitely lingering.

I grabbed a card with some of our info and a little map of our location and then headed on over to talk to them some more.

I sat down and got to talking with them again.

Made some connections with them through Olivet, as well as through where we were from.

We then got to talking about some random things and then he asked me how I got connected with Journey Church.

So I told him how I started coming and how I really started getting involved.

I talked a little about the summer mission team.

And then he surprised me by sharing some of his church history.

As he shared that and I talked to him a little more about Journey, it was clear that he was interested in Journey and thinking about coming to church.

They both seemed very interested in the church and said they'd really like to check it out.

Talk about the whole crazy day being worth it.

And like Patrick made a point of, those two people may never have even considered going to church, specifically speaking ours, if we hadn't sat down and talked with them for two hours.

That process of building a relationship with them and building trust with them is what opens the doors to get them interested in the church and interested in learning more about God.

It was such a great opportunity to get to know them!

Seeing them warm up to us and to the possibility of coming to church as we were sitting there talking was incredible.

I'm praying that God will be working in their hearts this week through the seed that we planted last night.

And even if we don't see them at church, at least we know that we made an impact in there lives.

And that is why we are doing this.

That is what we are all about.

The devil may have tried to tear everyone down all day, but in the end God prevailed.

God was moving and He will continue to move this week!