It's Almost the End...

Less than a week left on project?! When in the world did that happen? I literally cannot comprehend how I've already been here for a little over a month! Catch up time...

I'm discipling 4 beautiful girls! Lisa, Ashley, Marie, and Kelsey. (I'm in the white, the rest of them are in order from left to right by how I just named them)

They are all so sweet and I love them all a whole lot. It's hard to think that I'm going to be leaving them in 5 DAYS! It's been a journey, but it's been great to get to know them and grow closer to God with them. God has been blessing our summer beyond belief! They have all grown so much and it's been such an incredible experience to see them be shaped this summer.

In other news, it's been a really hard summer. Every day God seems to dish something new at me. He's been so gracious every day with it though. Even though it's hard, He's blessed me with such a great community in my staff team. They have literally become my family in this past month. They have been there with me through all of the spiritual warfare and tough situations. We have worked through them together as a team and have been lifting each other up since the day we got here. That's going to be the hardest part about leaving project- leaving my staff team.

^ Up there is most of the intern team and a few of our full time staffers at hollywood studios on one of our days off. ^

I feel like God gave me best friends for 6 weeks and then is dispersing us all across the country again. It's not fair, but I'm so excited to hear about how they are serving back at their campuses in the fall. Plus, we all have to come back to Disney for a reunion right? No sad faces here.

^Up there is our entire intern team with our two project directors the day we all went indoor surfing before the students got here. Our first look at what surfing every day looks like. Plus, it was a great team building exercise. ^

Other than the staff team, the students here are phenomenal too. We just picked the students who are going to be taking over leadership when we leave and I couldn't be happier with who God placed on our hearts. These men and women are going to be challenged so much these next 5 weeks, but that is going to be so cool to witness. I'm going to be staying in Orlando all summer working at Disney alongside of them. I won't be leading this project anymore, but I will still be able to witness the work that is going on through this project. God is doing some majorly crazy things.

He's leading us to broken people who are teaching us so much about life and what it means to be completely broken, He's raising up new Christians every day, He's helping us love other people and serve them in the best way we can, but most importantly- He's moving in everyone's hearts here.

This has possibly been one of the most encouraging, rough, hard, tough, difficult summers I've ever experienced. From hearing stories of people being led to Christ to having interventions, this summer has been a roller coaster. I wouldn't have it any other way though.

I've seen God do the impossible this summer. I'd love to tell you more about it.

My Summer Was Kind of Spontaneous

WHOA for some reason this didn't post last summer. I wrote it as I was leaving Florida last year!









So, this summer has been absolutely crazy. Apologies for not keeping you up to date.


For instance, Papa John's? Yeah, don't work there anymore. That trip I was taking to Disney World with my friends? Well, you see, I ended up loving it so much that when I went down there I had to go back and spend, you know, the entire remainder of my summer working for the mouse and hanging out with friends.

Today's just a day that I'm missing those friends terribly. I guess it's been since last night that I have had this overwhelming feeling that I just want to see them, hug them, just BE with them.

These are my two dear friends Luke and Jackson (Luke on the left, Jackson on the right). 

Luke is my adorable British friend. I only knew him for 3 weeks before I left Florida for home for good this summer, but the night before I left, we stayed up till 4 in the morning, just us, and talked about how hard it is to leave. He also has to go home to England because his program is over. And while we were having this talk, we both came to the conclusion that even though we only knew each other for 3 weeks, we had no idea what we were going to do without each other. I definitely fell in love with him (absolutely 100% best friend material right here). There were tears involved, huge alligator tears on his end. And then we took him back to his apartment the next morning and I had to have my last Luke hug and we both cried. We've been texting and I called him on my way home and starting crying. Waterworks galore.

Jackson, I only knew for 1 1/2 weeks. We had sooo many adventures in those two weeks. We talked about collar bones, met princesses, watched all 3 night shows in one night, made chocolate covered strawberries and other delicious treats with Stev, worked crazy hours together, and had some really great talks about life. He has definitely changed my view of what a good friend is. When I dropped him off at the airport when he had to go home, I helped him get his suitcases out of my hatchback and after I did we had the most magical hug. Then he grabbed my hand and told me how much he was going to miss me and that I was his favorite person that he had met this time around at Disney. Can you say heartbreak? I've known this guy for only a week and a half and I'm about to break down in tears because I'm going to miss him so much! Now every time I drive down Jackson St. I'll think about him.

Far From Home

So it's been a wild ride so far. Not gonna lie. I've experienced spiritual warfare of all sorts since being here and I'm not alone.

Satan does not want us here. It's so evident it's scary. One of the guys on project broke his arm and needs to have surgery and cannot work at Disney this summer, Satan has tried to break apart condos of men and women through conflict, he's tried to scare people out of sharing their faith, etc. Even though it's terrifying and discouraging when we first face it, God encourages me in all of it. Satan doesn't want us here, which means God is going to be moving through this project so much this summer and I, for one, am most excited to see those things revealed.

My number one source of spiritual warfare has been through my nightmares, which isn't really much of a surprise. Satan continually uses my dreams to scare me away from God. It never works, but he sure does try to get the best of me. So, if you could be praying for me, that would be awesome.

Enough about the negative, let's talk about how God is using this summer for His Kingdom. I am discipling 4 girls. They are precious and God is already using them to challenge me on a daily basis. This is by no means a bad thing. They are an absolute light to me and to everyone around them. It has been so encouraging to see them grow so much in their faith already (they've only been here for about 2 weeks). I've also had the privilege of leading a Bible study alongside two other interns. We had our first study this morning and the Holy Spirit was moving in incredible ways. He was truly speaking through me. Almost nothing I said I planned and I could tell that God was challenging the students who were there.

God's Kingdom is going to be changed for eternity. And even though I feel so far from home at the moment- even though things are rough and I'm battling every day to get through, I know that God is constant and he is going to continue to provide me the strength, courage and boldness to go surfing some gnarly waves alongside my girls every day.










(If you have questions about that last wave riding comment, ask away... it's a project metaphor)

It's only been 2 days?!

Yes, it's only been two FULL days back on project as student staff and I'm exhausted!

This has been one heck of an adventure already! It's been so great to be able to have such an amazing team. We're already family and I love it. So, our first couple of days have gone like this

Day 1: Check-in, dinner, dessert, go home, get to know my roommates, sleep.
Day 2: Wake up, meeting at 8:30- 3:00. Another meeting at 4:15, grocery shopping, reading applications, studying materials, personality tests, more getting to know my super fantastic staff team, bed.
Day 3: Wake up, run, meetings 9-3:30 with a break for lunch, 3:30-5:30 planning and preparing and shopping for super secret project stuff, 5:30-6:30 dinner, 6:30-8:30 evangelism and debriefing, and now- I'm blogging.

Yep. Soon to be playing volleyball and swimming and then probably studying up on our materials again.

Then bed.

Then waking up for a 9-5 work day tomorrow. Meaning a 9-5 meeting with Dr. Phil deciphering our personality tests. This is whole different kind of experience. And I like it.

More information to come. Life is too hectic right now for an actual blog post, so this will have to do. I apologize for the lack of flow and competence. It's been a long couple of days.

Time for VOLLEYBALL!

Hospitality

Howdy folks!

I made it back down to Florida and just finished up my first week back at Disney (in Frontierland if you couldn't guess)!

This post isn't going to be about Disney though. Okay... maybe it will be indirectly. So, I have this amazing friend, Jess. She has this fiance, Jimmy. They're great. Probably two of the most generous, most hospitable people I know. Here's a picture.

Back to the point. They have willingly opened their house to me this past week, a week over Christmas break, and Thanksgiving break. AND they're letting me move in after project for five weeks AND they have offered me a possible place to live if I move down to the good old sunshine state after I graduate. They have been such blessings in my life and I don't think they know it.

They have been so selfless and through their selflessness, I have realized my selfishness. In a lot of things. In my relationships, in my work ethic, in my thoughts, in my money, in my entire life. Conviction. God calls us to be selfless as these two have been. He calls us to give to others who are in need and to serve everyone around us (see Mark 10:44-45, Philippians 2:1-11, 1 Peter 4:10-11, Acts 20:35, etc.). Basically- serving others is a very prominent theme in the Bible.

I realized today at work (while I was doing it I might add) how selfish I had become. I was working drinks and someone got themselves a cup of gatorade while I was working on an order. On the outside I was calm... quiet, but calm. On the inside, I was getting really angry. Not to mention thinking all of these horrible things about this person being so selfish and not caring about anyone except for themselves. And then it was like I was responding to myself in my own head and simply said, "Oh really now? Who's the selfish one?" Immediate guilt, but no change in my attitude.

I feel like God is slapping me on the hand. Showing me how a servant is supposed to be. I'm not the perfect roommate. And the only time that Jess and I ever get to see each other is when I'm down here asking her to let me sleep at her house.

God is teaching me how to be a servant by allowing me to be served. Talk about grace.

SO CLOSE!

THIS is the face of a very happy girl who just hit 75% supported! God has been moving these past couple of days! Only $368 to go! Relying on God to provide the rest! So blessed. So astounded. So dumbfounded.



So humbled.

On The Road

Being on the road definitely isn't a foreign concept to me. Every summer I find myself being a bit of a gypsy. On the road to and from Florida, visiting my dad in Alabama, and visiting friends in different states. Not to mention going home for about a week at a time. I always seem to be on the move and never stay in one place for too long.

God has definitely blessed me with an adventurous life full of surprises. Some of these surprises aren't necessarily desired because of the nature of my lifestyle. All of this traveling means always relying on the grace of my friends or family friends to stay with them.

Thankfully, I have been blessed with places to stay everywhere I go. For instance:

Right now: I get to stay in Alabama with my dad for a couple of days so I can continue to raise support and call the girls that are going on project so that I don't have to do that while I'm on the road or busy with work in Florida.

Thursday- first day of project: My friend, Jess, has opened her home to me (just as she has several times before). Her fiancee's family is even in town and she is still willing to let me crash on her couch (even her floor would suffice). I can't even begin to explain how thankful I am for this woman in my life. She has always been so generous and loving towards me and has never asked for anything in return. True friend ladies and gents. True friend.

Then, from May 23rd-July 7th I will be living with the Walt Disney World Summer Project at the Mike Ditka Resort! This is going to flashback central. These condos are some of the best housing that summer project has to offer its students and I couldn't be more grateful for the living arrangements there.

July 8th- August 8th: This is what I need prayer for. I still haven't made concrete plans for this month. Hopefully my friend, Jackson, who I became friends with last summer and his roommates will lovingly and graciously accept me into their apartment and allow me to rest my head on their floor, but it's not for sure.

Being on the road. My adventurous life. Never thought I would be here as a 20 year old. Traveling back and forth to Florida by myself twice, maybe three times a year. Making a drive to Alabama seem like a puddle jump. So great.

I absolutely love my life.