"Bless Your Heart"

     Knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what God wants you to do with the rest of your life as a ministry is really exciting. If you aren't at that place yet then I truly and earnestly pray that God will take you there at some point. It's thrilling. I don't mean being in a place where you know exactly what is going to happen, when it is going to happen, and what it will look like. I hate to disappoint, but that won't happen. That isn't how God works and, to be totally honest, I love that. It is terrifying, but it forces us to fully trust and realize that we serve a God that will give us precisely what we need precisely when we need it, whether we think that it's what we need or not. Our willingness to allow God to fully control our life will lead to more blessings than we could ever imagine.

     I'm in that place now.  I know a lot of people will doubt when I say that and come back with a "you're too young to REALLY know" or "you have plenty of time. Explore a little bit!" and I can understand where those people are coming from. I am young. I'm only twenty years old, how could I possibly know what I'm meant to do for the rest of my life? That's crazy. That's also God's hand in my life.

     Now, anyone who knows me at all, or has spent even five minutes talking to me, know what God's will is for me because I openly and gladly share it with anyone willing to ask and genuinely listen to my response. I love talking about it. That's one thing that is so amazing about being sure of God's plan and work in your life. You want to share it with anyone and everyone. I could literally talk about how God has worked and is working in my life for hours and not get tired of it. The same can't be said for whoever I may be talking to, unless they have seen first hand the fruits of it in my life. Just in case you don't know, I want to work with middle school students. I don't know what that is going to look like. I might be teaching in a school. I might be working at a church. I might work with a traveling ministry. I might start a ministry of my own. (That last one is laying really heavy on my heart, but that's another topic entirely). However that is manifested in my life, I have no doubt that it is God's will for me. That's where my heart is. That is what literally every aspect of my life somehow connects with. Middle School students are my mission field and I am completely thrilled with that fact. Everyone else I speak to does not share the same enthusiasm.

     Typically, when I tell people what I want to do I get one of two responses. First, I am greeted with heart warming, wonderful enthusiasm. This usually includes something along the lines of "That is so GREAT!! God will use you there. I'm so happy for you!" and I live for those responses. The other response I get is a sort of hesitant, reluctant "Oh, bless your heart. That is going to be TOUGH. Good luck with that!". I know that the people who respond that way have no intention of being rude, and I truly can't fault them for t, but I also don't think that they realize how heartbreaking that kind of response is. Obviously it is hurtful to me personally because that is what my heart is passionate about and they unintentionally treat it like it isn't worthy, but that isn't the most prominent reason that it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart because that kind of response tells me that people view middle school STUDENTS as not worthy. I understand that middle school is a difficult age. Believe me, I have had plenty of first hand experience with just how difficult dealing with middle school students can be, but that doesn't mean that we should shy away from those kids. That's the last thing that they need. Middle school is difficult enough as it is without being treated like a pesky little problem that will hopefully fade away if it isn't paid too much attention. I firmly believe that middle school aged students are facing one of the most difficult transitions of their lives. They want so badly to be treated like adults, but at the same time they are still very much children. They are given more freedom at school, but not at home. They are fighting to figure out who they are, who they can trust and call a friend, and who they need to steer clear of. Obviously, they won't figure all of this out right away, but that's all the more reason for them to have someone there for when they mess up and fall down.

     That's what God has put on my heart. I want to be a person who can be there for these kids in whatever capacity they need. If they need encouragement then I pray that God will give me the words that they need to hear. If they need a shoulder to cry on then I pray that God will give me the strength to be there and help bear whatever burden they are carrying. If they need discipline then I pray that God will give me the solidarity and mindset to discipline them from a place of love and use the time as a teaching tool. My daily prayer is that I am willing to be used by God in whatever way HE needs because that will serve the students best.

     Another reason that the second response breaks my heart is because it sells those students short. The flippancy with which middle school students are so often addressed is infuriating. I will be the first to admit that middle school students are often frustrating and difficult to work with, but that is precisely WHY I love working with them. How can we possibly help them grow into the respectable, Godly adults that they can be if we only view them as silly, difficult children who are too frustrating to work with? That's simple. We won't. It won't be easy to deal with the students and sometimes they will make you want to pull your hair out, but I promise you, with everything that I have in me, that it WILL be worth it. I have stood on a stage in front of over 100 middle school students and watched them pour their hearts out in worship to the God that placed me in their lives. I have sat in a room full of eighth grade girls and listened to them discuss the scripture lesson and apply it to their lives in ways that I never would have. I have laughed and cried with middle school students who view the world in a way so much deeper than I would have thought they could have. Once they realize that they have someone who believes in them wholeheartedly and will support and love them no matter what they have blossomed. If you are reading this and you have ever thought of middle school students as simple, silly, difficult children I only have one request. Please rethink that. Please do not sell those kids short. Spend some time with them. Get to know them. Listen to them. Really, truly take the time to listen to what they have to say. Give them a chance to reach their full potential. Support their ideas, no matter how crazy they might seem to you. Love them with everything you have and watch them blossom. I promise that God will surprise you.

   

Unconditionally

     God has a funny way of reminding us of His love and His presence in ways that are not what we would ever expect. If I am being completely honest, school this semester has been a struggle. My heart isn't in it as much as it usually is and that is absolutely terrifying. I have know since the moment that my feet hit this campus my junior year of high school that Mars Hill was where I was meant to be. It was home. I felt safe here. That all changed this semester. Nothing has really changed academically, in fact, I love my classes more than usual this semester, but spiritually and emotionally something is different. My heart is somewhere else and I have no idea where that somewhere else is. I think that may be the scariest part for me, the not knowing. I have always been the one who knew. I knew where I was going to college. I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Now, God is changing everything and I feel totally lost. It's like I don't know anything and the feeling of utter uselessness that stems from that is paralyzing.

     I suppose I should come full circle to why I am actually writing this. This past weekend I went home for about a day and half partially to see a show, but also because I just needed to get off campus. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something felt wrong and I needed to be at home. I needed to have my family wrapped all around me. I needed that familiar and welcome suffocation of love. I didn't get as much time as I would have liked, but the time that I did have was cherished and well spent. On the drive back Saturday I was dreading getting back into my "School" mindset so, to distract myself, I was scanning radio stations looking for something to listen to. My radio paused on a song that I had never heard, but something made me stop and listen for a while. The song ended up being Katy Parry's new song "Unconditionally" and as I listened God just broke my heart. It sounded eerily familiar and, for whatever reason, I just knew that this was what my heart needed. The song is relatively simple

Oh no, did I get too close?
Oh, did I almost see
What's really on the inside?
All your insecurities
All the dirty laundry
Never made me blink one time

 

Unconditional, unconditionally
I will love you unconditionally
There is no fear now
Let go and just be free
I will love you unconditionally

 

So come just as you are to me
Don't need apologies
Know that you are all worthy
I'll take your bad days with your good
Walk through the storm I would
I do it all because I love you
I love you l love you

 

Unconditional, unconditionally
I will love you unconditionally
There is no fear now
Let go and just be free
I will love you unconditionally

 

So open up your heart and just let it begin
Open up your heart and just let it begin
Open up your heart and just let it begin
Open up your heart

Acceptance is the key to be
To be truly free
Will you do the same for me?

 

Unconditional, unconditionally
I will love you unconditionally
And there is no fear now
Let go and just be free
'Cause I will love you unconditionally (oh yeah)

I will love you
I will love you
I will love you unconditionally
so i will love you unconditionally

 

I couldn't help but wonder as I weakly attempted to hold back my tears if this was exactly the message that I refused to hear from my heavenly Father over the past however many weeks that I had been struggling and practically drowning in my own mind. Isn't this exactly what God tells us every day? Isn't this exactly what we refuse to believe, no matter how often we hear it?

 

I think that the second half of the first verse is the most powerful message that Christians and non-Christians alike can ever hear. "All your insecurities, all the dirty laundry, never made me blink one time." It's so matter of fact. It's so simple. It is pure truth that God is telling us daily and we refuse to accept it. Why is that? Are we scared? Are we ashamed? Do we think that once we are totally honest and open about everything that we have done then God will all of a sudden change his mind and walk away from us? He won't! That's the beauty of this message. That's the beauty of God's grace and never ending love. No matter how many times we turn our backs and walk away HE is always there, holding out his arms, pleading with us to hear Him. To accept His offer of unconditional love. Isn't that all we've ever really wanted? 

Break Every Chain.

        I wish so much that this could be one of those cute, fluffy, silly blogs where I apologize for being MIA for so long, pick up where I left off, and run, but it's not. I wish I could say that I've just been busy and that's why my blog hasn't been updated, but that would only be half true. I have been busy. I've been out of town on a mission trip, so I haven't exactly had time to write, but in all honesty I've been avoiding this post. It's not bad. In fact, it's really good, it's just powerful. I haven't been sure how to approach it. I don't know how to share my heart this time. This one goes deep. This one is mine. This one is so good that it's almost painful. This is the story of my life changed.
        A little back story. If you've been following my blog at all this summer then you know what I'm doing. If you haven't been following, then let me catch you up. I'm in Alabama for the summer. I am working at a church here. I am working with high school and middle school students. I am totally in love with every single part of it. My responsibilities for my internship include going on mission trips with the students. Atlanta was a few weeks ago with the high school kids and it was great. I loved it. I got to know them and see how their ministry lives and works. Wonderful.
        If I am being completely honest, I was a little bit nervous about the middle school trip. I hadn't had as much time with these kids. I didn't know them as well. I wasn't sure how they were going to accept me, or if they were at all. I knew this trip would be more difficult. Less sleep, more drama. I didn't know if I was fully prepared for it. Thank the Lord I wasn't. The middle school mission trip to Monroe, Louisiana was probably the single most amazing thing that God has done in my life up to this point. My students, and yes I do feel comfortable referring to them as mine, are absolutely wonderful. There was no much worship taking place last week. God was tangible. You could practically taste His presence whenever we were all gathered together. Not to mention the staff of the ministry we were at was phenomenal. They made the week run smoothly and were just fun to be around.
        Almost every part of last week was great, but our group worship time every night before lights out was on an entirely different level. Tyler asked me a few weeks before the trip if I would help lead worship on the trip. I agreed, but I was a little bit nervous. No one here had heard me sing. I had never helped lead corporate worship like this. Would I be good enough? Would the kids like it? Would it minister to the students? I was practically a basket case. It turns out, as it usually does where God is involved, that all of my worrying and stress was for no reason. God took hold of our band last week and worked in ways that I never could have imagined. The third night of the trip we started like we had the two nights prior and it went well. We had some share time for students to tell their stories up to that point of the week and the stories of how God worked were heart warming and fantastic. We were content with how Wednesday night had gone. We thought it was awesome.

God had other plans.

There is no explanation for what happened next other than God grabbed hold of our worship and flipped it on its head. Once we finished our closing set we expected the kids to file out and hit the showers like they always did, but to our surprise there were kids all over the gym. Still worshiping. Still praying. Broken hearted for their friends. In tears for how they had personally hurt the heart of their God and how they had strayed in their life. They sat in the floor or on the bleachers or stood in circles or in the corners. They prayed over each other. They cried out to Abba. They didn't want to stop. We didn't make them. After almost an hour we decided to do another worship set and it was beautiful. We didn't leave the gym until almost 1am. Even at that point the students were fighting us tooth and nail to stay and keep worshiping. That was one of the moments God used from that trip to change my life.
        The final night was another one. Thursday night was planned to be special. It was our last night there and we wanted it to be something that the students would remember. We had stations set up around the gym. There was a communion station, a foot washing station, a praise wall, a journaling station, and a prayer station called 'Nail it to the Cross'. The theme of worship Thursday night was freedom in worship. We wanted the kids to embrace the spirit and whatever it was leading them to do. There was a solid group in front of the stage that was just enthralled by the music and how God was working through that, but there were also plenty of students filtering through the different stations all night. The sheer length of that worship service is what amazes me. We started to worship at 8:45 and ended our corporate worship time a little after midnight. Almost four hours of soul-filling, heart-freeing worship with these beautiful middle school students that I continue to fall more and more in love with. Not only how long we worshiped, but the fact that we weren't tired when we finished. Physically, yes we were tired, but emotionally and spiritually we were on fire! I am still breathlessly in awe of just how much God is changing the lives of these kids. They are not just going to change the world for their Jesus. No. They are going to tear this world apart and rebuild it in the image of how God wants it to be.
        We all witnessed the power of God so powerfully last week. In every aspect of our trip, His presence and power was right there. One example of God's power that stands out in my mind is the band's prep time for worship. By the time Wednesday and Thursday night rolled around we were exhausted. We hadn't slept well, we were running around crazy all day, it was hot, we were sweaty. It just was not a fun time. Wednesday before worship started I was so tired that I could barely keep myself upright. None of the songs were going right in rehearsal and I was getting frustrated. I was on the verge of tears. The band could tell. I was frayed and worn. I needed a boost. During our group prayer time I asked the band if they could just lift me up in prayer because I was tired and didn't know how I would make it through our set that night. We had a prayer for the set and that it went well and then JT, our worship leader for the week (who is all kinds of Jesus-loving wonderful) asked Ryan to come and pray over the other vocalist and me. He prayed for healing and restoration. He prayed that God would fill us and give us exactly what we needed for that night of worship. God delivered. He delivered in a mighty way. As soon as Ryan began to pray over us I felt my exhaustion slowly slipping away. I was wide awake and ready to spend my night praising the one who fearfully and wonderfully made me. As soon as I realized what was happening I just started crying. There was no other response. I was overwhelmed and amazed and in awe of the God that I serve. A similar thing happened Thursday night leading up to our big night. I will gladly and openly tell you that we did not make it through those nights on our own. I had no strength left in me and God stepped in, put his hands on me, and held me up.
        I am constantly being amazed by the power of my God. My Abba. The One who created the entire universe and knit each of us together in exactly the way He wanted. He is all powerful. He can do ANYTHING that he wants to. Why do I so often doubt His strength? Why is He not the first one I go to when I have a bad day or my road gets rough? Why do I so often think that I can't bring my problems before God? I have been so convicted this last week. I claim Christianity and I say that I am a daughter of the King, but when it comes right down to it, I don't trust him! I have seen God's power first hand this week in a way that I have never seen. I have been shown, through so many people and so many circumstances, that prayer really is powerful, but not just the words of prayer. We are told that the spirit and power of Christ dwells in us. What would happen if American Christians began to pray and actually call on the power of Christ that we have in us? What if we ACTUALLY BELIEVED what we are told in scripture? I can tell you exactly what would happen. We would change the world. My sweet, wonderful, awkward, hilarious, God-filled middle school students witnessed the power of God in the same way that I did this week. I am just here to send out a message.

WE ARE AN ARMY RISING UP TO BREAK EVERY CHAIN.

We WILL tear this world apart with the message of Christ that we are. Be prepared.

Friendship Bracelets & Dippin' Dots

My host family is wonderful and I am so thankful for them, but I feel like I never get to see them! Either I'm gone on a trip or they're at the beach. I think I've only had maybe two solid weeks of us all being here at the same time. I was in Atlanta, then we had about two weeks, then they were at the beach this past week, and now I leave Monday for Louisiana. It's crazy! I am certainly looking forward to seeing them tonight, even if it's only for a little bit. I missed them, but their trip may have been a little bit of a blessing in disguise. Since they were gone all week I had to relocate to a temporary host home. I'll admit that I was a little nervous. It's hard enough to adjust to ONE new house, how would I handle having to do it twice?! Well, this family made that no issue. They are absolutely wonderful and I am so glad that God put me with them this week. The mom is the director of pre-school ministry at the church and she is a hoot. She has boundless energy and loves to just sit and talk. Her husband is hilarious. He has a very dry sense of humor, but I think it's hilarious. The girls are absolutely wonderful. One going into eighth grade and one going into third and I adore them. One day last weekend we sat for probably a little over an hour making friendship bracelets and it was so much fun! They are precious and I'm going to miss seeing them when I get back to my host home tonight. I have such a wonderful time with this family this week. They took me in with no hesitation and I became a part of their family for the week. I made tie-dye cupcakes with the girls on Wednesday night, sat up late talking with them, had dinner and lunch with them as often as I could, went and got Dippin' Dots with them after dinner, and just spent time with them. The mom is from North Carolina, which was a God send this week since I have been homesick as of late. I can't even adequately put into words how much of a blessing this family has been to be this week. I am forever grateful and once again amazed at how God works out even the smallest things for us.

Not only has this family been an enormous blessing, but I am falling more and more in love with these students. The fact that every time I see one of the girls from my Sunday school class or small group they are genuinely excited to see me and introduce me to whoever they're with (even if it's friends!) makes my heart so happy. I am excited to go on this mission trip with them and see how God is going to use them in the lives of the kids we're working with in Louisiana. The high school group is all kinds of wonderful too. A few students in particular have made me smile this week. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to hang out with some of the guys for a few hours and it was so much fun. Initially they were helping us sand down wood blocks for a project, but it turned into a trip to Dippin' Dots before heading to middle school house church to lead worship. Such an amazing time. That was probably one of the highlights of the week. It was the first time I had sung for the middle school group, so I was nervous, as usual, but the guys that lead with me took that away in no time. The guys are crazy and hilarious and remind me so much of my small group guys at home that it's almost like I'm not away at all. I am so thankful that they are willing to let me in and spend time with me and not feel weird because I'm not 'one of the guys'. They will never know how much they have blessed me. There are also some girls that I have gotten close to. Sisters that remind me so much of my best friend and her little sister that it's insanity. I got to hang out with them Thursday night at the Freedom Celebration and it was fun. We've made plans to go to the art museum in Birmingham on one of my days off. I can't wait! I am constantly amazed by how my God orchestrates things exactly how he wants them and most of the time I have no idea what he's doing for me until after the fact. I have met so many amazing new people here this summer, but I have also found people who feel like home. This place and these people will forever hold a piece of my heart.

-C

Highs and Lows

Any type of new adventure is bound to have high points and low points. That's just the way life works. I knew what I was getting into when I accepted the position here in Trussville. I knew that I would have really great moments and that I'd have moments that weren't too great. That was inevitable. I did not, however, expect some of those moments to happen simultaneously. Is that even possible? Is it possible to have a great moment and a not so great moment at the same time? Well, it is. It happened. To me.

I prefer to hear bad news first so there's nowhere to go but up, so I'll start with lows.

 The low moments have been mostly personal, especially within the last few days. I had to have a really difficult conversation with someone that I really care about last night and it was not a good time. If you know me at all, then you know that I HATE confrontation. I am not the person who is ok with telling someone when I'm mad or upset with them. I don't want to cause problems or make a situation worse, so usually I walk away for a few minutes and keep my mouth shut. I had already tried that approach with this situation, so I  had to bite the bullet and confront this person with how I was feeling. The conversation was tough and there were tears involved and I felt worlds better after, but the time leading up to the phone call was absolutely miserable. I was literally making myself sick thinking about having to make this call. I dreaded dialing that number and putting the phone to my ear. I had no idea how this person would react and that was scary. Not knowing results is also a tension point for me, so all of that piling up was draining all of my energy.

Another low point for this week was homesickness. I ADORE my family. I am probably the ultimate homebody. My ideal evening is sitting on the couch with mom and daddio, watching a movie, eating popcorn. That sounds absolutely HEAVENLY to me. It's not just mom and daddio, either. I would love to do that with pretty much any member of my family. They are, without a doubt, the most important thing in my world, so not having them with me has been really difficult. I love Trussville and the people that I have met here and the students who have taken me in and accepted me in all my awkward glory and for the longest time I wasn't homesick in the slightest. That may seem silly, but that's an enormous deal for me. Usually I'm ready to pack up and roll out by the time I've been away from home for about three days, so making it three WEEKS without homesickness creeping in was amazing. Even now, my homesickness isn't cripling, but it's there and it's noticable. One thing that has been a trigger for it has been Wagon Wheel. It's on the radio all the time, so it's an almost constant reminder of home. That hasn't been easy, but I've learned to sort of use it as encouragement instead of detriment. My team at work and my amazing host family have certainly served to lessen the pain and I am forever thankful for them and their willingness to take me in a love me like I was one of their own.

So, there are my low points. Now for the fun part. My high points!

I got a VERY exciting phone call on saturday. My best friend! For some reason we decided that we wanted to torture ourselves this summer and pretty much go for weeks and weeks without speaking. That was a bad plan. He is up in Maryland right now teaching archery and ropes courses to eleven year old boys (bless his heart) and, as you can imagine, that takes up pretty much all of his time. Not only is he busy, but most of the time he doesn't even have his phone on him or near him, much less facebook. Hearing from him was exactly what I needed.

I feel like I brag on my work team all the time, but believe me, they are fully deserving of it. Megan spoke sunday night at our high school house church and oh my stars, it was phenominal. She opened up herself and let God use her and speak through her and did he ever! I never thought that comparing Christians and the gospel to a pair of work pants would make any kind of sense, but it was perfect. God's presence was so powerful in that living room full of eager high schoolers that you could almost taste it. Not only did Megan allow herself to be a blessing, but then the high school girls in our smaller group session were wonderful. I sat in the back of the group and just sort of observed and God pointed every single word that these beautiful girls said straight to my heart. They didn't even know it, but they were feeding me and pouring into my heart in exactly the way that I needed. I am so blessed by this youth group that sometimes it steals my words.

Finally, tonight. I am absolutely exhausted sitting here in the floor of my little room, but it is the most beautiful exhaustion I think I have ever felt. I had to opportunity to speak at middle school house church tonight. That was monumental for me. God has placed a call on my heart to middle school ministry and/or teaching and tonight was the first time that I was able to put that call into action in an actual, structured, large group, teaching setting. In a spirit of honesty, I was nervous. I was self-concious. I wanted the students to listen to what I had to say. I wanted them to like ME. I quickly came to the realization that the students liking ME wasn't what mattered as I planned out what I would say. These precious middle schoolers needed to hear whatever God wanted to say through me tonight. The topic was being a lukewarm Christian, which is never an easy topic for anyone, much less middle schoolers, who build thier entire lives around what their friends and peers think and do. It is so easy for students their age to get caught up in being 'good enough' to get by and not actually make God the most important thing in their life. My prayer tonight was that God use me to bring his message and that I speak the words that he gave me in love, not in judgement and I think He did. I have a very strange relationship with public speaking. I get stage fright. I psyche myself out leading up to whatever I have to do and make myself insanely nervous. I always have, which is funny, because the calling that God has placed on my life requires me to stand in front of groups of people and speak on a pretty regular basis. God certainly has a funny sense of humor. Anyhow, whenever I have to speak somewhere I get so nervous I can hardly stand it right up until I open my mouth. As soon as I actually start talking I am an entirely different person. I can confident and steady and solid. That is all God. There isn't any other explanation for it. I pray that the message that I brought tonight was used in the students' lives exactly how God needed it to be.

So, that's what my life has been like the last few days. I sometimes feel like I can't catch my breath, but I am loving every moment of this. I'm still not entirely sure why God put me where he did this summer, but I am starting to see small pieces of a bigger whole. I am anxiously awaiting whatever God has around the next corner and I'll try my best to keep you informed.

-C

Atlanta 2.0: Mission Trip Madness

So, my life lately has been absolute INSANITY. As you may remember, my first week on the job was mainly prep for our trip to Atlanta, which happened last week and it was absolutely wonderful. I was able to spend time with the students, get to know the kids I didn't know, and get closer to the people I did know.

One person that I met while on this trip was Haley. She was another one of the chaperons and she is AMAZING! She only about a year older than me and she and I became very fast friends. The self-conscious, scared, little girl part of me was nervous starting the trip with so many fellow leaders that I didn't know, but God showed me, once again, that I had no reason to be afraid. Haley is sweet and funny and adorable and awkward and so similar to me. She has been a God send these last few weeks and I am so thankful for her.

There was one students in particular that I really connected with on the trip. She is a getting ready to be a sophomore and she is me when I was in high school. It took a little while for her to open up, which I expected, but once she did I was absolutely amazed. She is the sweetest, quietest, kindest, strangest, most wonderful girl. Almost every thing that came out of her mouth was something that I have said or probably would say. I am really looking forward to where God allows that relationship to go.

Atlanta was wonderful and I am still amazed that God has been so gracious and giving to me this summer. This small Alabama town has completely stolen my heart and I am so thankful for everyone here.

C

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!