Hey y'all!!

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I have posted. 

I've been a little busy with work and church stuff.

Hmm, so I guess i'll do a quick recap of what I have been up to as of late.

Work is pretty much the same. Long days of cleaning.

I have climbed into far too many lockers, stoves, refrigerators, and other tight spaces for my liking.

(I'm not quite small enough for some of this...contrary to what many may say.)

I have to say that if it weren't for the people I work with I would absolutely positively hate my job.

Last Monday my mom (and her boyfriend) stopped into town and brought my futon and a tv for me. It is great to finally have furniture. (Not being able to get the remote to work the cable and having to settle for watching David Letterman's show for Gay Pride Week...not so much :/ )

After they left I made sure my bike was locked up and went inside to chill.

I came out the next morning (Tuesday) and my bike was gone.

Chain cut and thrown under the bush.

Not what I wanted to find at 6:30am when I had to be to work in 10mins.

However, yesterday (a week after it happened), Public Safety called and said they had my bike.

The police had found some guy riding it around town.

He picked it up off someone else for $15 for crying out loud.

It's good to have it back though.

Other than that things were not all that eventful until about last Thursday.

 But before getting into that I am going to share a little about the missions team at my church this summer.

North American Mission Board (NAMB) sends out Summer Mission Teams to churches throughout the country every summer. This summer my church, Journey Church, got sent one of these teams. There are 7 summer missionaries here, all college age. 

Two of them go to my school here in Illinois and the rest are from various other colleges and universities.

The 7 summer missionaries that we have here this summer are Andy, Malik, McKenzie, Kenan, Joel, Patrick, and Haley.

Andy and Malik are the two that go to school with me.

Most of the missionaries are from some part of Illinois with the exception of three.

Malik is from Maryland, Patrick is from Mississippi, and Haley is from Tennessee. 

The 7 of them are here at Journey to help out for the summer with various things.

As of late they have been going out into the community and going door to door giving out flyers promoting Journey and sharing what we are all about.

Friendship Festival 2012 (Bourbonnais, IL) Left to right: Andy, McKenzie, Patrick, Malik, Haley, Kenan, and Joel

The above picture is a group picture of the mission team.

This was right before we started walking in the Friendship Festival Parade.

Five of the guys, all except Patrick, had been practicing a bucket drum routine that they performed that morning in church and then while we were walking in the Parade.

They did a great job that morning at church as well as during the Parade!!

While the guys were doing their routine (part of the time walking the other part while riding on the float), we had several members of our church walking and passing out beads to kids and cards with our information to adults.

It was a great afternoon and one to be remembered for sure!!

Friendship Festival 2012- Getting ready to walk! (Me, Justine, and Haley)

 Here is another picture from the Parade. It is a bad one of me but the other two look good!

Ok, so now that I have shared a little bit about the mission team I will share a little bit of the last several days.

For anyone who has read my previous posts (which is probably no one...) then y'all know how bored I have been this summer. 

That has changed in large part because of the group pictured above, as well as other members of Journey Church.

This past week was the Friendship Festival (Wed. June 20th-Sun. June 24th).

I went a few times with this group.

Thursday night I went to the Festival with Andy and Malik.

A lady from church works at Great Clips and she had a booth so we stopped and talked to her for a while. Basically we just chilled there until the guys had band practice for Sunday morning.

We then went to band practice and I got to spend time with the most adorable little girl.

Her name is Cali and she is the daughter of our worship leader Nate and his wife Jill.

She is absolutely adorable and thanks to the guys makes a wide variety of animal noises by request. :)

We then went and spent the evening at Chad and Rachel's.

The next evening (Friday) we had a College Student...get together (??)...

We all met up at the church office and then went to the Festival.

Friendship Festival 2012- Back Row: Joel, Andy, Kenan, Emily (?), TJ, and me. Front Row: Derek, Haley, Malik, and McKenzie.

It was a great night!!

We had a couple of additions to the group before we left the Festival and headed to Steak N' Shake.

Steak N' Shake- Left: Haley, Jessica, Kenan, Andy, Justine, and me. Right: Erin (?), TJ, Joel, Malik, and McKenzie.

As you can see we are a decent sized group of college students (except for Emily...?).

(We have some lovely faces going on in this picture...lol)

Then Saturday I worked overtime. We had to turn over dorms for a camp that was coming for a day or two.

After work I went to the softball game. (Journey has a team and we play against other teams from the area. It is a fun outreach ministry and a great way to get to know each other!)

There was another missions group that came from another church to help out.

(I forgot where they came from.)

So we met them at the offices and helped finish bagging up the flyers for the guys to give out while going door to door.

Then dinner at Aurelio's.

Then the guys had to practice their bucket drumline routine and since I had nothing else to do I went with them and was their audience for the evening.

Sunday was a crazy busy day for all of us!

I had to be at church an hour earlier than usual in order to do nursery.

The guys had all been there for a while before I go there and were practicing their routine again.

After church we all went to Burger King to grab lunch and then headed out to BBCHS to get ready for the Parade!

We walked in the Parade for about an hour or so.

It was such a great way for us to reach out and be a part of the community!!!

(We also found out later on that we won the Director's Choice Award for out float and the church got a plaque and everything!!!)

After a crazy time of destroying the float and taking all the staples out of the trailer (which was graciously loaned to us for the afternoon from Jessica!!), we all headed back to Chad and Rachel's.

Little did we all know there was someone moving in next door.

We offered to help them finish moving their things in and they accepted.

So for the next hour or so the guys and I helped them unload their large moving truck.

We all pushed ourselves and I definitely went above and beyond my usual.

As we were helping them we got to talking to them and sharing about Journey and the missions team and everything.

When we got done we got a chance to introduce Mark and his family to Chad (Journey's pastor) and Rachel. We got a chance to share more about Journey and invite them to church.

It was such a great witnessing opportunity!! 

Who knew?!

We were all crazy tired and crashed in Chad and Rachel's living room for the rest of the evening.

Chad grilled up some hot dogs and sausage for dinner.

We all ended up watching The Ringer that evening.

(Joel can do a crazy good impression of one of the characters!!)

Overall the last several days have been crazy busy but I loved it!!

I also have to say that I think that God definitely used this past week to show me some things.

After all of it I feel like I am most definitely right at the place where God wants me to be for the summer, even if it is different to be here instead of at home.

God is doing big things in my life through Journey and through the mission team.

I could not have asked for a better summer.

God is showing me that sometimes the simplest of gestures can be the strongest witnessing opportunities that we can get.

Case in point when talking about helping Mark and his family move in.

How could we know that we would have that opportunity Sunday afternoon??

Yeah, we may have all been pushed beyond our limits both physically and in terms of our comfort zone, but look at how God used it!!!

His plan is far greater than ours and who knows what would have happened if we hadn't stepped out and offered to help them move all of their things into their house!

And I have to say personally that God has provided me an incredible group of friends for the summer, and hopefully longer, even when I didn't think I would meet anyone this summer.

I was not planning on all of this, but He is providing in more ways than I could have ever imagined!

These guys have been going out of their way to be chivalrous and to show that there are still guys out there who take it seriously and act on it.

I am not used to it at all and therefore it is weird for me, but at the same time it is incredible to be exposed to guys who want to go that extra step and open the car door, let me sit in the front seat, serve my food for me, or carry something for me (even when i'm obstinate about it...lol).

I was not expecting God to provide that kind of an example for me this summer, but I appreciate it.

(However, these guys are gonna have me all kinds of spoiled by the end of the summer!!)

(And if you guys read this...Thank you for being an example of what true gentlemen should act like! It is greatly appreciated even if I nag you about it!! I have never seen guys treat girls/women with the respect that you all do. You're all pretty amazing guys and i'm lucky to know you all!!)

Well, there ya have it!

A quick (sorta....) recap of my life as of late!

There is much more I could share but I will leave it at that.

God keeps surprising me daily and I am excited to see what is going to happen in the coming weeks and months of the summer!!! :)


***All pictures in this post are courtesy of the lovely Haley Richards, member of the NAMB Summer Mission Team***

God works in amazing ways!!

Hm, life seems like a crazy whirlwind right now.

The summer has gone by so fast already, yet at the same time it seems to be going so slow.

I still have a hard time believing that it is already June.

Absolute craziness if you ask me.

Work is just work.

I can't say that cleaning for eight hours Monday through Friday is exciting.

But the people I work with definitely make those eight hours quite entertaining for me.

I would not like going to work if it were not for those on my team.

I have two amazing ladies for team leaders, Susie and Dawn :)

And regularly the students on the team are Ethan, Robensky, Karen, and I.

However, we have had a few additions the last week or two, such as Emily, Adrian, and Geoff.

Getting to work with various people has definitely been a learning experience.

I have also enjoyed getting to know everyone.

It amazes me how varied all of our personalities are.

I am just curious to see what God may have planned this summer because I have not doubt that those of us who are working this summer are not here by coincidence. 

We are all here for a reason and God knows what those reasons are.

I also feel like God has definitely brought me into a church that is more than willing to welcome me into their groups and surround me this summer.

I am highly grateful for all of the wonderful people at church that God has put in my life.

I am truly excited to see what He has planned this summer with my involvement in my church.

I have no doubt it will be amazing!!

His plans tend to be just that :)

Blown Away

Well...life has been like a whirlwind the last month or so. 

It seems like there is always something new going on and it keeps me busy.

Here's a quick recap...

I finished up all of my classes and took my finals the last week of April/first week of May.

I decided to stay in Bourbonnais for the summer.

I'm working with the Physical Plant here at Olivet as a Custodian.

I got an interview to work the Bears Training Camp but had to decline since I accepted the other position first.

My roommate for Block 1 is 22yrs old and doesn't clean up after herself (not a highlight...).

I will be rooming by myself for Block 2 and for Block 3 I will be rooming with the lovely Sarah High.

Celebrate Life!

I found out I get to go to Hastings and then St. Louis for family reunion for a whole week in July. (40 family members and two houses...this is gonna be fun!!)

I also found out i'm working for Cody Overocker's mom. (Surprise!!)

So that is a quick recap of the major parts of the last month.

I finished my second week of work on Friday by working overtime that night for 4 1/2 hours. I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of working that night, but it's time and a half so i'm not complaining

about the money I will be getting because of it!!

Oh, I also am officially down to a size 7 pant. Who said you only gain weight your freshman year of college?? The "Freshman 15" is not as prominent as you may think. It did make my day that I lost weight this year  and some of my friends did as well. However, there were a lot that gained weight, some more than the dreaded 15. 

I also must admit that Illinois weather during the summer is weird. It's going to take some getting used to. I miss the summer storms that we got back home on a regular basis.

I'm going to take a minute here to share a little about the current roommate situation.

I ended up agreeing to room with Sarah for the summer, however, unbeknownst to me there was someone who had been living in this apartment for the school year and opted to stay here for the short time she was staying for the summer. I didn't find this out until two days before I was set to move some of my things in. She told the RD that the apartment was move in ready. Little needs 

to be said other than it wasn't. I have found out over the last two weeks that she doesn't pick up after herself, yet she continuously reminds me about how mature she is for someone who is 22.

I have to disagree. Strongly.

I work custodial 8hrs every day and then I come back and the apartment is a complete mess. Why? Because this girl gets things out or makes food and then doesn't put things away or clean up the cooking mess. It is a half hour to an hour cleaning process just to clean the kitchen to the point of being able to make anything for myself to eat for a meal. It's ridiculous.

I have decided that this is a great chance for me to strengthen my ability to be patient in all situations. My friend Chris gave me a passage of scripture to encourage me about the fact that this is short term and that God has things under control. There is a good chance that a lesson will come out of all of this. I may not be sure what it is, but He knows and that is all that matters.

Well, now that I have spilled my thoughts real quick i'm going to work on some other things for a little while this afternoon. 

OH!! Also, I cannot wait for church next week!! We're having church at Perry Farms and then having a cookout afterwards! I'm just a little excited for this chance to get to know more 

of the people that I am currently going to church with!! It's a great opportunity

and I cannot wait to fully take advantage of it!!

GOD IS GOOD!!! 

Ya Just Gotta Have A Little Faith

So I have been looking at the possibility of staying in Illinois for the summer and working.

I have applied for three jobs, a summer RA position, a job painting, and a job working security for the Bears Training Camp. I also applied for summer housing. I had to turn in the summer housing application and the summer RA application at the same time, but I turned them in more than a week early. So I am not sure what to expect with that, but I am hoping that I can get the RA position.

I did get a call about the painting job this afternoon while I was in my Finite Mathematics class. I have to call the lady back tomorrow and do an interview of sorts. I am excited but nervous all at the same time. I really hope that I can get this job so that I can stay here for the summer.

It just proves that trusting God to provide can work for your advantage. If it fits into His plan and His will for your life then there is a good chance that it will happen. I hope that this fits into His will for my life and that I will be able to walk in His light through whatever He brings me to this summer, whether that be a job here in Illinois or going home and working and sponsoring district events.

I believe that it will all work out for His good and to His glory.

My life is His.