Intern Adventures & Middle School Madness

I know that I said this would probably be a weekly thing, but I am so happy after the day I had that I just had to share it. So, even though yesterday was my first official day of work at FBCT, today was sort of  my first official, official day at work becase today was the day we actually did work things to prep for our mission trip to Atlanta next week. It was also the first time that I got the chance to interact with the middle schoolers. All in all, it was a pretty eventful, crazy, exhausting day.

The interns got to have all kinds of crazy adventures today. We were running from one end of the church to the other getting all kinds of things, which may sound simple, but keep in mind that the three of us sent on these little missions had no idea where we were going. It was exciting, to say the least. We had some unfortunate mishaps involving several rather large coolers (looking back, we realize one trip probably wasn't enough to transport 10+ coolers. Oh well.) I got to spend several minutes in a walk in freezer looking for popcicles (that didn't freeze), which was not a fun time because I am so unbelieveably cold natured. I think my favorite part of our Intern Adventures today was the shopping trip we took. Sending three college aged students to get a large list of game supplies was bound to get interesting. We learned rather quickly that we are very easily distracted. Also, no one in the Trussville area seems to carry the appropriate colored pony beads for Salvation Bracelets. That was a bummer. It took Megan, Ryan, and myself almost two hours, four different stores, two instances of knocking our heads on Megan's car, and countless laughs to FINALLY complete the list (except for those darn BEADS). The best part of the adventure was the bonding we got to do. I think we are finally getting to the point where we are a little more comfortable with each other, which is amazing. We also accidentally got to have some extra bonding time with some of our amazing high schoolers! We stopped to grab some lunch before heading back to the church and, lo and behold, the high school VBS workers (and Allie) had to same great idea we did. Needless to say, my work day was very exciting and full of craziness and adventure, which is obviously the best way to spend a work day.

After we were done with the work for the day (and after a MUCH needed coffee run) we had middle school house church. In all honesty, we did not have very high expectations for middle school house church. I don't say that to be mean, it's just the truth. It's always harder to get a lot of middle schoolers to house church because they can't drive themselves and people are busy. It's just how it is. We invited high school students to join us and help to lead small groups and we were expecting to have more high schoolers than middle schoolers. That was certainly NOT the case tonight at house church. There were a pretty good number of high schoolers, all of whom I am very thankful for, but there were SO MANY middle schoolers! The living room, kitchen, and dining room of the host house were PACKED!! I didn't get an exact count, but there had to be at least thirty middle schoolers jammed into this house, if not more. It was chaotic, loud, crazy, messy, and wonderful! We spent some time worshiping with Jesse and then watched a video that accompanies Francis Chan's "Crazy Love" (which was amazing, of course. It's Chan). Jesse spoke for a few minutes and then the real fun began. We got split up into our small groups. I was lucky enough to get three sweet eighth grade girls and I can't even put into words how excited I am about this small group. Tonight was just a tiny bit awkward, but that's to be expected on the first night. I mean, these girls got thrown with a total stranger and were expected to have a discussion. Obviously, there was some awkwardness. I'm sure my natural state of awkward didn't help, but we'll get there. All joking aside, I am extremely excited to get to love on and pour into these girls as much as I can this summer.  I would greatly appreciate your prayers and love as I continue this journey. These girls have so much potential in them and I just want to be able to nurture it and watch them bloom. I am open to more girls joining our group as the summer progresses, but I would be just as happy keeping my three.

I'll try and update as often as I can. Thank you in advace for your love, support, and prayers!

-C

P.S. if anyone is interested, this adorable little chair has become my new favorite spot. So comfy!