Prayer Needed

The group that is currently driving and supposed to arrive tomorrow afternoon just called because the youth leader's grandpa died. They are in the process of trying to get a different leader to come or they may have to turn around. Also be in prayer about our group's energy level. This was a great and big group this last week and it tired us out. We get about 24 hours between groups and a lot of that goes to prep for the next week, so not a lot of time to rest. Also the Mother Ship (our S10 truck) died this week so we are down a vehicle. It will be a challenge but we will manage.

Also I will try to add pics soon the internet just is not the greatest here.

Southern Hospitality

So when I first got down here I began losing weight because of the heat, our busy schedules, and serving dinner and not a lot of time to eat, but now i am gaining some weight because our residents that we are helping are cooking many meals for us. I am eating tao soup, biscuits, beans and rice, and more!! I am eating like a southern :)

A friend we find all other!

Becoming White

On Thursday I was on a work site with six high school girls. We were sanding off the unneeded layers of mud they put on the dry wall the day before! We danced around the room to Taylor Swift and other songs while we sanded away and then painted all morning. By lunch time I had turned white from the dust but we had laughed the morning away. The girls were so special to me this week, they all opened up to our small group during lunch devos sharing the reasons they are so broken. My heart broke when they shared that one struggled with anorexia, another with a recent peer death, another with a sister with an illness, and another who has spent two separate times at a mental hospital. These girls are so broken and the Lord allowed me the privilege to love on them and pray for each one of them this week! I have been so blessed this week by these girls and I think many of them walked away this morning with a blessing from the Lord this week. On Thursday night most of the 80 students came up to one of the leaders for some sort of prayer. It was incredible different denomination all on one mission forgetting about their differences and embracing their similarities! It was beautiful :) God is so good!

Turning Point

Wednesday is always our foot washing service. We talk about how Jesus is a servant during service and then send them to the gym that is lit by candles and stations are set up where they go as their crew they have worked with throughout the week and wash each other's feet and pray over one another. We knew from training week on that this was an essential part of the week and a big turning point for a lot of the students, but what I didn't realize is that it is a big turning point for my attitude each week as well. My attitude this week started out really tired and indifferent about these students and last night once again reminded me why I am here. The crew I have been working with this week was a group of six girls and they all are very broken and opened up to the group about their lives. One of the girls struggled with anorexia, another girl has a sister who is terminally ill, a girl's boyfriend got an STD because he had been cheating on her, another girl had been in an insane hospital twice in her life. One of these girls that I prayed with after told me she is an atheist because how could a God that is supposed to be loving allow those awful things in her life to occur, where she had no one to love her. I shared the Gospel with her and told her that God loves her so much and His heart breaks for the events that happened. I also looked her straight in the eye and told her that I love her. She was sobbing the whole night but has not come to Christ yet but the Lord is working so I am praying for tonight! At the end of the night we ended in a circle all arm in arm different denomination all united in song together.. what a great picture of what the kingdom of God looks like!

The next night she did pray with me to accept Christ in order to receive the healing that only comes from surrendering to Him!

A bit Under the Weather

My dear Prayer Team,

Please pray for my health and overall energy. A group of about 85 is here this week. I woke up with a sore throat and a head ache this morning. I want to be able to pour into these students this week but I am finding it difficult to transition when we got to know all the students that just left.

Thank you for your prayers!!

Learning to be a Mary and not a Martha

As the week is over, the students left this morning, I reflect on all that happened this week. First I started thinking about all the little details that went wrong: when dinner wasn’t served on time, when JC didn’t say the right thing at worship, how some of the staff wasn’t good at helping out when we need it in the kitchen etc. I wanted everything to go just right and just how I pictured it. The Lord reminded me that the goal as whole was actually met because the Lord moved as He need to. We had people who dedicated their lives to Jesus for the first time, leaders who prayed for someone for the first time, lots of tear shed while we washed each others feet and while we burned the sins that were nailed onto the cross. The Lord did show up in a mighty ways and He will continue to teach me this summer how to be a Mary and enjoy the Lord’s work instead of a Martha who needs all the details in place while missing the Lord’s gentle movement.

³⁸As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

⁴¹"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:38-42

No Chance Encounters

Every Friday the students get a free day at the ocean. This week we went to Ship Island where we take a Ferry from the coast out to the island. The ride is about and hour each way. I was one of the four that went with to supervise this week. On the way back I went to the lower level of the ferry to buy something to eat. When I got down there, there was already a big line of students who were also hungry, so instead of waiting in line I noticed an older couple was sitting at a table by themselves with a whole side open by the line. I asked if I could sit down just as I wait for the line to die down. They agreed and I sat down and began to share with them what I was in Mississippi for and what our ministries was all about. After a while, I asked the couple what they do for a profession. The male answered that he was a pastor for a small church on the North Shore of Louisiana. We spent the next hour sharing our lives, visions, and passions. We exchanged email addresses and my blog upon their request. They prayed over me and asked for the address of Next Step ministries because their church gives to various organizations. I just love how God works through encounters!

Hope in Lucile

This week I spent my mornings with crew one at Grandma Judith’s house. She needed a new floor that had gotten wet during Katrina and continued to rot ever since. The crew started out by taking out the floor and found rotten beams underneath, so they replaced it all throughout the week. Because they had a big enough crew and I did not want to take away from their tasks I was able to spend quite a bit of time with the residents. Grandma Judith’s daughter Marsha was there everyday with her two children Lucile (16) and James (11). Her other grandson Doc (17) was also there when he wasn’t working.

They all helped to rebuild their grandma’s house. They made the entire group a homemade meal every day for lunch (spaghetti, sausage, hamburgers, and pork roast and always different sides). Early on in the week I was talking to Doc and found out that he had dropped out of school last year and was taking a “break” now before work. I found this sad that a complacency was being passed down by generations in many families I this community, but my hope was restored through Lucile. She has dreams to go to college and be a nurse. She also is a club leader of the red cross at her school and rallied for the most blood given in a year for the entire state of Mississippi! She seems very driven when she puts her mind to something. I was able to pour into her this week and encourage those dreams of hers! On Friday the group that was down, who were actually a choir at their church, gave a concert for the community and we fed the people who joined us. Judy, Marsha, Lucile and James came. They stayed for the concert and then even for our own Next Step worship after that. During worship every night we do a thing called “Yay God!”(s) where we share with our crew where we saw God that day. The four of them joined our crew and cried as they shared the ways they saw God through us. Lucile broke down and shared that she had been seeking for the Lord and asking Him to show Himself to her and that she saw Him through the work we did this week. James also cried sharing that he usually avoids work like the plague but that as we were there he was excited to join in and work hard, and that that had brought him closer to God. It was such an encouragement to see the effects on the community already!

Pleasantly Surprised

This week has been pretty crazy, as leaders going from 6am till 11pm. On Monday, I was put on shower duty where I monitor the girls going in and out of showering. At first I was silently complaining that I had to sit and watch them for 30-45 min, but then the Lord reminded me how I had been begging for a chance to just sit during the day. The Next day I embraced the break and brought my Bible to read through some Philippians while I waited for the girls to finish showering!

Loving Even When it's Hard

There is a woman leader this week who is just a bit difficult. She is a finicky eater and likes things just so. It has already made it kind of difficult on us as a team who are trying to figure out this whole leading thing still. After only s day, we all each had our stories of how she had made one of our tasks harder. After a little ranting, Chase stopped us and said that this isn’t helpful. That we need to change our mindset about her and we need to love her. He reminded us that there would only be one way to do that, through prayer. It is a good thing for us to realize at the beginning of this summer because there are going to be some students we don’t like, some leaders we don’t like, and even some community members who are crabby and unappreciative. When all this comes up, we are called to love, and love, and love, as Jesus loves us. This summer is all about loving, and Jesus even told His disciples that it wasn’t hard to love those who are easy to love but what sets us apart is showing love to those others don’t find it easy to love. The Lord blessed us though this week with ten other leaders that are incredible!! I will be adding pics and describing the site I am working on whenever my next break will be tis week.. I am be beckoned into the sanctuary for some praise practice now.

Chaos

The first students arrived on Sunday night. This is my first actual break since then! Because the church we are staying at is a really solid active church, we run into some schedule conflicts. One being that VBS had a commencement ceremony on Sunday at 4 and then a dinner. Our group was arriving around 4. The Lord was so faithful and the time that they arrived, now looking back we see, was the perfect time for them to arrive. It has been really crazy trying to fit into our roles and run a mission trip! The hardest part has been feeling out what feeding 60+ people is like and next week it will be 90+! Pray for peace for our whole team as we try to fit our roles and let the Lord be the ultimate leader of this ministry!

Clean Up Crews for the students.

Some have said my sponge looks like a peanut!

This is our daily Schedule for the students

We are having the students each week sign the Mississippi sign so it is full of signatures by the end of the summer. I started with Miss Amy!

Footnotes is a place where each student decorates a paper page with their name on it and hangs it on the twine with a clothespin. Then the students are encouraged to write notes to each other to encourage their team mates throughout the week! I stepped in paint and made foot prints yesterday for the edges of the twine!

JC, Luke, an Azad preparing our main food: sandwiches

Nate, Marisa, Brandon, Chase

Longing for the Ocean

I am a bit drained. It is hot which slows us all down and sucks our energy. Everyone is a bit irritable. A lot of site visits and material preparing has consumed the construction guys, the looming messages and songs have loomed over Jc and Brandon, and Grocery shopping for 60 people (my least favorite part thus far) and other little prep things has warn out Marisa and I. It is time for the students to arrive; We need a specific reason to be working together and for all of us to fall into place with our roles. The students will also bring a new needed energy that we can feed off of!

What is so enticing about the ocean? Is it the fact that there appears to have no end? Is it the sound of the waves crashing on shore? For me it is the fact that I can get lost just gazing, leaving all else behind: all cares, worries, life. It is funny how close I am to the ocean right now, about a half hour, and yet it is so far since tasks and transportation stand in my way. Then I realized that I have other "oceans" and that all I need to do is intentionally take time for myself. So here I am writing in a dark room, my ipod on high volume, and laying on my air mattress. I am reflecting on who my creator is and allowing Him to refill me!

Country Fried Steak

I had my very first southern meal for lunch today. Marissa and I went with Brother Harry to Jacob’s Well and had a true southern meal. I had country fried steak covered in gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, southern fried zucchini, onions, and squash, and of course some sweet tea. It was all for $6. I loved it J

Your Approval Alone

My first tears of the summer were shed least night. It was a long day and feelings of inadequacy and helplessness swept over me. Once the tears started, I had a hard time stopping them. I sat outside (the temp still pretty warm but humidity down at 11pm) and cried out to my God. I asked things, in between sobs, such as why He chose me when I have nothing to offer. The Lord showed me that I was looking at things in terms of men and trying to please men instead of the Lord. He showed me that my only true task this summer is to seek His face and learn His ways more. Through that, He will outpour through me the love and other tasks I have for the summer. Summer task number one: seek approval from my Lord alone!

Fully Dependent

This morning we had a little bit of a scare. We had lost the only key to one of our vans we will use for the summer and that was full of tools etc. We looked and looked. We all traced the steps of where it could be. Then we came together and prayer about it. We realized that we really had started our day with a full to do list and with a break we went off our ways without seeking the Lord first. So we prayed in repentance, and asked the Lord to bless our searching as well as restore our joy. After spending time as a team with the Lord, we decided we would not take anymore steps until tomorrow hoping it would show up and continue on out tasks for the day. About an hour later the keys did show up in the grass where the 8 of us had walked past many times before! This was just a really good reminder that this is His ministry and that we must come to Him first! Sorry, I will be posting pics really soon. Unfortunately for us, the church is running evening VBS this week so we cannot set up any of our needed stuff until right before the students come, but the church has been so great to us and have let us eat dinner with the VBS students! Tomorrow is another full day of prep, and I am getting a bit overwhelmed. I am so grateful ya’ll are praying for us J

Day One in Missip!

I hear southern accents downstairs; I am waking up this morning in Mississippi!! Last week was incredible, tiring, and productive. We had many meetings about safety, code of conduct, and logistics. On top of that we had worship (beginning game, songs, testimony, message, etc) three times a day. Each site crew, since all sites including Mississippi were training together last week, would lead a certain day of worship that we would be leading all summer. I am going to be our female vocals this summer as well. I sang more this last week than I have in a LONG time! My team is wonderful! I am really excited to work with them all summer. My team includes: Chase (our site director), Marisa (co-site assistant and worship assistant), Jacee (Worship Director who will give most messages at night), Brandon (worship assistant, really good on the drums!), Azad (Construction director), Nate (construction assistant), and Luke (construction assistant). These people are so fun and come from around the country. I will be adding a picture really soon of my team. This week is now intensive prep for the summer since we have 56 students coming already next Sunday. This morning, once the rest of my team is up, we will be touring our home for the next two months. We have a suburban that we call Miss Betsy, so we will all be piling into her for our tour. The rest of the time this week will be continuing to get the messages ready, finding and prepping the construction sites (we need 7 for this Sunday), and preparing all the details that make a week long mission trip flow smoothly and change lives! So here it officially begins, Mississippi, Miss Amy and the rest of her crew has arrived, and I AM will be with us, so prepare to be changed!!