And after a 6 month hiatus...

Here's what you missed (aka, what I failed to document)

• My 1st semester of my junior year at Iowa.
• I was admitted to the School of Ed (yay!)
• An apartment with some sweet roommates
• Amazing discipleship with junior high girls, college girls, and older women. (soooo good!)
• Shakespeare. All the time. I think there were blank verse lines oozing out of my ears at one point.
• Skiing with the junior high crew this winter. It was a blast!
• A fantastic birthday on January 20th. I am now 21. Sweet.

So currently, there is a huge snowstorm that is supposed to continue for the next several hours. But besides that and the fact that I am happy to be blogging again, there's not much to report.

Back in Iowa (Part I)

First of all, thank you to everyone who has been praying for me, and has supported me during these past few months! I greatly appreciate it and I know God has used you in some incredible ways!

I arrived in Iowa City on Tuesday night, safe and sound. Most of the program participants carpooled as campuses back to the Midwest, and there was a church near Nashville, Tennessee that let us stay in its facility overnight. The crew from the University of Iowa did a two-day caravan back home. It was so much fun to spend that time together. Also, one of the guys from Iowa had his birthday while we were on the road so we made a birthday trip to the nearest Waffle House that morning and we had a great time having breakfast together. It was so encouraging to talk with the other people in my car about their experiences and to observe how much God had grown them during the course of the summer.

The last week of the program was spent talking about working for God's Kingdom back at our Campuses. Scott Gaskill, the College Pastor for 24:7 and his family, came to visit us and helped us process and create a vision for what God can do on the University of Iowa Campus in the future and how we can advance the name of Christ there. It was wonderful to have them there. I got to spend sometime with his wife Emily and learn from her wisdom and share with her about what I learned this summer. That week stirred up a lot of excitement in me, and among my fellow Iowans about the coming school year.

During that last week I was amazed at how much the girls on my team had grown. It was clear that they had all really changed in big and small ways and that God had opened their eyes to who God is, who He made them to be, and His heart for the World. It was an honor to live with those girls all summer, and I cannot believe that I had the privilege of being their team leader.

Saturday was the last day of the program, and it was so bittersweet. We opened up the day by watching the sun rise on the beach as a team, and it was breath taking to see. I have done that several times, but that last time was really something special; the sky was incredible and being there with my girls was so wonderful. We spent the rest of the day, packing, cleaning and doing a few last fun things, and had one last team time together.

All four of my girls live fairly close by, and I am fairly certain that we will see each other again, but that night was the end of our time as a team. Many times people are in our lives only for a season. Though I will continue my relationships with those girls for as long as they are willing, they are moving on to their lives back home and I am confident that God will continue to grow them and use them for His glory.

Last Day

Today I am packing up all my things and cleaning up so that we can head out bright and early tomorrow morning. There is so much to say and so little time.

My team and I went and watched the sunrise at the beach this morning and it was phenomenal. God's glory in the heavens was so beautiful and I continue to be challenged and inspired by my girls and how they have grown as they have walked with the Lord this summer.

These next few weeks between the end of the program and beginning of the school year will be a big challenge, as we switch gears and are challenged to walk with God faithfully without the constant fellowship, accountability, and pace that we have been used to this summer.

Please pray for safe travels for everyone as we drive and fly back home and thanks for keeping up with me this summer!

What a week!

The theme this past week was others centered living,. On of the main things we talked about is our motivation to serve. Christ followers are called to serve God first. If we are first filled with the spirit of God, that enables us to truly love others and serve them. When we try to serve without that initial fulfilment from Him, it is superficial. Our motivation comes from either a feeling of worthlessness and we feel like we are forced to serve others, or we want others to see our good works and our service comes from a need for approval from others. My favorite definition of Humility is: it's not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. This is because when the Creator of the Universe tells you that you matter, that gives you the freedom to be a servant because you know that your identity is secure.

Also, at work this past week, one of my co-workers started really opening up some more. His name is Jon and he is from Albania. His English is very good, but his accent is heavy and I've had a hard time understanding him and the only things we've talked about have been related to the Bakery, but this week, we've gotten into some really good conversations. So please be praying for more conversations with him and that God would be moving in his heart.

So that was the week, and this weekend was one of the best. Ever. Friday night was Thrift Store Prom, and what a night it was. The idea behind it is, it's prom, but everyone gets their outfit from a thrift store. It was an absolute blast.

Saturday we headed down for a weekend in Orlando and hit the Wycliffe Bible Translators Headquarters, and Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure. For the majority of the summer we spend time in our teams, which are made up of people from various campuses. My team of 4 girls has 3 different campuses represented. This weekend we spent most of the time with our home campuses. We drove down to Orlando and spent the afternoon at Wycliffe Bible Translators and talked about God's heart for the Nations, and the significance of the Word of God. It was incredible. I'll probably have to make a separate post about it. Seriously. So much awesome stuff!

The people who are here from Iowa are a really close knit group and we had a great time together. We drove down together, and shared dinner had some time to share what we've learned this summer and it's really exciting to see how much God has been working in everyone's lives. Then on Sunday we spent the day at the theme parks, had dinner at a Waffle house and drove back to Jacksonville. I have had an incredible summer at STP so far and I will be very sad to leave, but I am also so excited for this coming school year and spending time with the people from my campus was a huge encouragement.

On a side note, Happy (late) Birthday to my fantastic brother Hunter. July 15 was his 16th Birthday, and I wish him the very best! I have really missed him this summer; he is an incredible guy and I am so blessed to have him as a brother.

July 12

For a group date we went to St. Augustine to see the fort there and look around the downtown area. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the U.S. The fort is really neat to see and the dowtown is so cute! Alot of the buildings there are over 100 years old. We had a great time with the guys, and also found this incredible playground (where the picture was taken) with all kinds of towers and staircases.

There are only 3 more weeks which is sad in a way, but I'm also so excited for this coming school year. It's incredible to see how much my girls have grown and how God is moving in their lives. This summer has truly been blessed.

Happy Day-After 4th of July!

Yesterday most of us from the program went to the beach to watch the fireworks. We spent the late afternoon hanging out, goofing around in the ocean, eating, talking, playing frisbee, etc. It was such a fun day.

There's a long pier on the beach, and the fireworks are shot off from there. There were a lot of people there shooting off their own fireworks before hand. The little ones are okay and they give off a dull pop or very shrill whistle. Then we heard this deep, loud BOOM! It was the the real fireworks, and you can tell that they're done by the pros. The fireworks were fantastic. Though while I was watching, I started to think, as beautiful as these fire works are, it's nothing compared to how amazing it will be when we see Jesus in all His glory in Heaven.

There is about a month left in the program. I can't believe this is the halfway point. It feels like I've been here for my whole life, but at the same time, it seems like the time has gone by so fast.

Tonight I'm sharing a little bit of my testimony and my experiences with prayer. The main thing that I'll be talking about is this past semester, when me and two of my closet friends got up every morning to pray at 6:30 and the incredible fruit that we saw God produce during that time. A verse that I'm going to mention is Ezekiel 36:22-23 which says,

Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the Nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD declares the Lord GOD, which through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

Some of the key things that I see in this passage are a) that God is a god of action, He does stuff, big stuff, like changing people's lives, b) we (all people) have turned away from God, who is all powerful, Loving, Just and Perfect, and c) God is going to do some big stuff so that people will be able to see how amazing God is.

Please pray for continued growth for my girls, me, as well as the students that are here from my campus, as well as the other 150-some students here. Also, please pray for my co-workers at the Bakery, I really want to continue to build my relationships with them and be able to point them to Christ during my time here in Florida. Also, 247 - the college ministry that I'm apart of at Iowa - is shifting hands a little bit, Nate Hobart who was previously the college pastor has moved with his family to the Madison area to start a church plant. This year, Scott Gaskill who has been on staff with 247 is stepping into that role of college pastor. Please pray for both of their families as they transition, and for the 247 ministry as the school year approaches.

Thank you all so much!

I work part time at the Hyatt Bakery. It's the best job ever.

These are the things I want to do before I leave:

• Go a whole day without having to ask how to do things or where to find the right type of bowl.
• Make bread all by myself in the gigantic mixer…without the flour flying everywhere because I don’t understand the speed settings.
• Eat a flourless chocolate cake. (It’s a little cake - about as big around as a cookie – and I’ve probably made about a thousand already, but I’ve never tasted one and they look so good!)
• Stop being afraid of the cooler (seriously, it’s sooooo cold in there).
• Break my dependence on coffee in the mornings.
• Eat a cookie. Before it’s been baked.