woops

AHH I have been meaning to update this thing for weeks. I'm really sorry. This will probably be long. Bare with me.

Quick overview:

Work every Tuesday-Saturday. 6 am shifts have by far been the best part of my summer (yes, that is sarcasm). Overall though, I've love the people I work with. I'm really sad that I will be leaving them and probably won't see the majority of them ever again. Really sad is an understatement. I'm going to miss Jeanane (my second mother), Donna, Lori, Lori K, Yan, Zaya, Jason, Rocko, Jay, other Jason, Yani, Alex, Dimi, Illia, Kostia, Shay, Marietta, Kayley, Julia, and anyone else that I didn't mention. These people have been in my life for the last 2 months. It's so upsetting to leave them. What makes it harder is that they're sad for us to leave too.

Things that have happened since my last post:

Another social- it was "twinkie" themed. So OF COURSE we went all out. I would go as far as saying that we were the most original group there. Then again, I just really love my dgroup.

Gotta love Goodwill :)

The Fourth of July was a couple of weeks ago. Most of Kaleo went to Seaside, which is about 30 mins away. It was a lot of fun. We all hung out in the town and then saw fireworks on the beach. Once again, I think we should have gotten a bested-dressed award :)

Out on the beach before the fireworks started.

Last weekend was MISSIONS CONFERENCE. One word: amazing. It was probably my favorite thing so far. Todd Ahrend, who is part of The Traveling Team spoke and it was incredible. I also bought his new book "In This Generation." Get it, read it. 

After missions conference, I really wanted to just jump on a plane. Physically, I'm ready to go overseas. Mentally, I think I'm ready to go overseas, but probably not. Spiritually, I need to grow even more before I can go overseas. 

Kaleo people from Panama and Gulf Shores came here for missions conference, so when it was over on Saturday, we all went to the beach and hung out. It was really fun. We haven't done something like that in a really long time. It was great to just relax. 

On Monday I was able to go with some of my friends to Panera and talk to the Stumo Team Leader in Hyderabad, India. It was great to talk with someone who has been there for the last 5 years and is getting ready to head back this weekend. I learned so much from talking with him for only an hour and a half. I didn't realize until later that I chit-chatted with a real missionary. I find that so cool. I am so blessed to be where I am here as well as back in Fayetteville.

Let me introduce you to some of my friends that I met at work:

(there is a pic of all of the "Whataburger crew" from the 4th, but alas, it's not on my camera)

Me, Yan, Nika (Kaleo) and Zaya

Micah (Kaleo), Jason, Rocko

Yan, Jason and Rocko are from China and Zaya is from Mongolia. They're awesome and I love hanging out with them. They came to Stumo with us last Thursday. After, Emily, Kelsey, Yan, Zaya and I went to Books A Million and bought them Bibles. Yan asked us "Can anyone buy a Bible here? Even if you're not a Christian?" That was so heartbreaking because we are so blessed to live in America where anyone can buy anything whenever they want. Where Yan is from, you can only buy a Bible if you're a Christian, sometimes. That is such a reality check for me, because I am friends with someone who is interested in Christ, but knows nothing about Him because she has never been able to read a Bible. 

I think that's just about all I have to talk about right now. Rent is due next week, so bye bye paycheck! It's okay though, because even though I didn't raise all of my support to come here, I am SO glad that I came anyway. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made. 

Well, we're about to leave to go to Stumo right now. Hopefully I'll update before I leave IN 9 DAYS. That is crazy.

XOXO

coffee.

I am currently sitting in our condo with my group, sipping a cup of coffee, listening to some "sweet jams" and learning about God's word through inductive study.

I never want to leave.


I will update soon with pictures and details, I promise :)

ee-taow

Well, I guess it's about time I make another update on here. I've been meaning to for the last week. So, here it is. Enjoy :)

I just want to start off with a picture of my entire "family" that is here at Kaleo.

Back Row: Brittany, Natalie, Rachel

Middle Row: Morgan, Lauren, Me

Bottom Row: Colby, Kelsey, Kristin, Kaitlyn, Kelsey, Abbey

I love these girls. They are all so amazing. 

Brittany, Natalie, and Rachel (the leaders)

Well nothing much has changed as far as my schedule goes. Tuesday nights are still devoted to bible study and dinner with my d-group.I love these nights, especially the AMAZING food that we eat every week. It's always so delicious. Wednesday nights are training nights. We've moved on to Interpretation, so that's something new and exciting. Once again, this is something very new and different for me, and I love it. Thursday nights are StuMo nights. Always amazing with awesome speakers. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself when I get home and I won't be able to go to StuMo until school starts back. Eeekkk. Friday nights are cleaning nights. Every Friday there are room checks to make sure that we're not trashing our condo. Aka, we have to CLEAN the room. I mean, scrub the bathtub and everything! I do love to clean though, so I don't mind it. Saturday nights is now World Prayer. We learned about Tribal religions this week. It was really interesting and moving. Sundays are still Beach Evangelism.

I work everyday. This is so new to me. I have never had a job before, let alone one where I work 35 hours a week and stand on my feet literally all day. It is a new adventure for me and I'm definitely learning from it. 

Last weekend we had Relationships Conference. It was reallllyyy good. I feel like I've learned a lot about what the Bible says about relationships because of it. A lot.

Things I've learned since I've been at Kaleo:

• How to really read the Bible and not just skim the surface. God reveals himself in every passage, every verse, you just have to look at it, word by word. 
• How to pray with others and not be intimidated, even if they are strangers.
• How to live with others. I've never lived anywhere besides my home and my dorm. Here, it's like an apartment that I share with 5 other girls. It is so wonderful and I would never trade this time that I have with them. 
• How to work with people who are very different than I am. This is something that I'm still learning and working through. The people at work are not here for the same reason I am. Most of them have lived here their entire life, work multiple jobs, etc. It is really great to be put into an environment like that, because it does make me think and makes my heart break a little when I really think about it. Yes, I may complain about work sometimes, but when I really think about it, I am really happy to be where I am. Like I said when I was first hired, I'm there for a reason. Whether it be for my coworkers or for me to grow, I haven't found out yet. I keep telling myself every day, even when I go to work at 6 am, that God put me there for a reason, even if I don't always want to go. 

That's all I can think of at the moment. I must work on inductive now and eat lunch. I'm really enjoying going to the 8:50 service at Good News because it gives me time to do other things before evangelism. You know, the things that I've either put off all week or haven't found time to do yet. Although, this week my application from bible study has been no internet. By no internet, I mean no Facebook, no Twitter, no watching shows on Hulu, and definitely no watching Lost on Netflix.  It has freed up time for me to work on things, so I'm actually really enjoying it. I might keep it up. I like getting things done throughout the week and not waiting until the last minute to do everything. Since I have work and events almost every night, waiting until the last minute is hard not to do. I'm working on that though. I have never been the best with time management...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Until next time,

XOXO


--Oh I forgot to mention EE-TAOW. It means "it is good/it is true." We learned it in Tribal World Prayer last night. There is a video on YouTube if you're interested. Just search for "EE-TAOW." :)

just a little something

God has really put the country of Mali on my mind a lot the last 6 months or so, and I recieved an email last week that included these people at the bottom:

The Tahoua Tuareg of Mali, Africa

 

The Tuareg people are a nomadic people, depending largely in their animals that travel with them. They practice a very lose version of Sunni Islam mixed with superstitions and magic.  Interestingly, in this culture the men instead of the women wear veils. There are less than 0.01% Christians living among this people group. 

This breaks my heart and almost puts me to tears. Just knowing that there are less than 0.01% of Christians living among these people makes me so upset. This is the reason I'm sharing this on here, because they are not the only group of people in the world who are like this. Some people have absolutely no Christian influence among them. These people are not simply lost, they are unreached.

Here are the prayer points that were in the email:

• Pray for the gospel to be revealed through dreams and visions,
• Pray that influential leaders would follow Jesus and encourage others in their community to do the same,
• Pray that gospel broadcasts and Bibles would be translated into their language.

That is all for today. I just wanted to share this with others.

*This information can be found on the Joshua Project website

Oh, one last thing... I'm currently listening to Jon Foreman. Check him out :)

XOXO

as of late

Quick run through of the last week...

Started Whataburger on Thursday. It was intense. I will never again be upset because someone didn't give me extra napkins. Also, I will never again order in the way that every other human being on this planet orders. FYI: You have to say whether or not you want cheese on your burger before continuing on to saying you would like only lettuce tomato and pickles. Then I went back to work on Saturday. I did the drive thru orders by myself. It was much easier the second time around. I really do love the people at Whataburger. They're all super nice and friendly.

Bible Study night was on Tuesday. I cooked dinner and then we had our bible study out on the beach. Can't really complain about that. The ocean is beautiful at night.

Training again on Wednesday night. We weren't as confused this time around, so it went much smoother. This week I think we're moving on to learning how to do Interpretation. I'll let you know how that goes.

Thursday was another lovely night of StuMo. I loveeee StuMo nights.

Friday night my group went on our first d-group date! This is when a boy d-group asks one of the girl d-groups out on a date. It was a lot of fun. We did a photo scavenger hunt. My group (Rachel, Ben, JK, and I) won by a lot. Then we attempted to geo-catch, but failed. Oh well.

Rachel, Kelsey, Abbey, and I before we went on our date!

Saturday, after work, we left for d-group weekend! My group went to Pensacola. Just in case you were wondering, Pensacola and Pensacola Beach are two different things. We didn't find out until after driving around Pensacola for hours in the not-so-nice parts of town. However, we visited a super cool lighthouse.

After driving for about 2 hours, we found the Crab Trap Then, we met up with some other d-groups and went crab catching Sunday night. It was fun, as long as the crabs were in the bucket. haha

The view from our table at the Crab Trap

Today, we woke up and left our hotel and went to Navarre Beach. We didn't stay long because we were all a little home-sick. So we came home this afternoon and I've just been around here catching up on some things. 

Tomorrow morning I go to work, and then it's another bible study night. Yay!

I have to wake up in a few hours, so goodnight!

XOXO

family!

I thought I'd put some pictures up of my family here at Kaleo.

Abbey, Kelsey, Rachel (my leader), and me!

My "extended" family. Krisin, Lauren, Natalie (their leader), and Kaitlyn. Oh and Kelsey is just hanging out in the background.

Twinkie "cousins."

Mathletes vs. Athletes night!

I love these girls so much :)

Family pic! Abbey is the only non-nerdy one.

This pictures can not be fully expressed with words. This is one of my friends from U of A, Justin, by the way.

Well, other that I don't have much to update on. Yesterday (Sunday) was Beach Evangelism and World Prayer. It rained  while we were on the beach, so Rachel and I weren't able to talk to many people. World Prayer last night was SO COOL. We learned about Islam. When we got there, the boys were taken into the room first, and then we went in. The room was set up like a mosque. The guys were facing the front and weren't allowed to look back at us, and we had to stand behind them. Then we went through the movements that they do when they're praying. It was really interesting. Then we prayed for the Muslim community, etc. 

Well right now I'm working on inductive bible study. Super intense. 

Until next time...

XOXO

lovely.

Found a job!

Well, I think I found a job at least. Kelsey, Emily and I are going later today to full out paper work at....

WHATABURGER.

We're still laughing about it actually. Desperate times call for desperate measures. But hey, if this is where we're supposed to be, then cool. It'll all work out.

I was finally able to spend a little bit of time on the beach yesterday since we found a job. I brought one of my books out to read about Evangelism, but reading that didn't really work out. Not too far away from us some guys were blaring Lil Wayne and doing some weird thing with a pipe and beer? I found it a little hard to concentrate.

OH and I bought the cutest Bible yesterday. It is small and green with huge pink flowers on it. Probably one of the girliest things I own.

Last night we began learning how to Inductively study the Bible. One of the most difficult things I've tried to learn? Yes. This will be a process.

Here are a few pictures that I've finally uploaded to my computer:

We went and ate at a restaurant in Destin. This was the dock behind it. SO pretty.

This duck was walking around a little shopping center. She kept being really close to us, too.

Kesley while on job hunt day 3.

Well, that's all for now. I have a lot of things that I need to work on today.

XOXO

job hunting.

Tropical Smoothie fell through, so today was full of job hunting.

From 9-5, Kelsey and I searched for jobs. It was really hot outside too, so it was a little bit miserable. I came home with 37 applications and filled out a few on site. I never thought I'd finish those things!!! Tomorrow will be a re-do of today. Kelsey and I will go out in the morning, turn in our applications, and then job hunt some more. Fun, I know. 

Some things that were said today that I want to document (all of which were said while we were delirious and desperate for jobs):

"LOVE ME!"

"We went to Socks Galore, Rachel!"

"No, I can't do that"

"How desperate do I look?" "Really desperate"

"Hi, are you high right now?"

"I can't do Dress Barn."

Tomorrow night is our first "D-group night." I'm excited. Rachel is cooking for us this week, and then we have bible study all night long. I love my "family" so much. 

OH, I almost forgot to talk about yesterday. Well, we got up and went to first service at Good New Methodist Church. It was very different from what I'm used to, but I enjoyed it. Then we had Evangelism training. We had our first run of  "Beach Evangelism". That was an interesting experience. One lady informed me that she lives a life without sin, but Jesus wasn't perfect because he sinned. Sure... 

Then last night we went to World Prayer. I think that will be one of my favorite things that we do all summer. We use the "THUMB" method and we pray for Tribal religions, Hindu, Unreligious/ Chinese, Muslim (Islam), and Buddhist. I LOVE this part so far. World Prayer always makes me emotional. 

Ok well I am worn out from walking all over the Outlet Mall today. Off to bed for me.

XOXO

first day.

I'M HERE!!!

It doesn't seem real at all. I arrived yesterday afternoon. We caravaned with 2 other cars, so that was nice, a little nerve racking, but nice not to be alone. We had so much stuff in Kelsey's car. By we, I mean Kelsey and I. Poor Justin could barely fit his one box and duffel bag in the back.

The beach is beautiful. The sand here is SO soft. Once everyone got here last night we had a relay race. It was really funny. Kelsey, Abbey and I competed in leap frog. Honestly, it was probably the first time I've ever played leap frog. Pathetic, I know. There was also a watermelon competition that only the boys could compete in. After seeing it, I'm glad only the boys could do it. They had to swim out to a watermelon in the ocean and then try to get it, but the watermelon had Crisco all over it. They fought to their death. It was scary and comical all at the same time. Silly boys...

Then after we hung out at the beach for a bit, my d-group (Disciple group) came back to our condo and unpacked. Somehow, we have managed to find a place for all of our stuff. In our condo, it is Kesley, Abbey, Rachel and I. Rachel is our d-group leader and she is amazing. Abbey and I are sharing a room and Kelsey and Rachel have the living room. We also have two more girls in our condo who are in another d-group. They're great as well. I'm so happy here.

Today we woke up bright and early and went to an Orientation meeting for a few hours. I'm glad I know what is going on now! After our meeting, my "family" and I went to lunch and then came back to the room. Tonight, we made our first Walmart run....

This was only for 3 of us. Abbey also had a cart. Once again, somehow we managed to find a place for all of it in our kitchen. To get it from the car to the room, we had to use 2 bell carts. Ridiculous, I know. I have a feeling we won't be returning to Walmart much more after this. 

I should get to bed. We're going to the early service at church in the morning. After that, we have lunch, Evangelism training in the afternoon, and World Prayer tomorrow night. I'm so excited. 

Until next time,

XOXO

summer.

This is my first post on this blog. So to all who read this, Welcome!!

I am very excited to be leaving for Kaleo in only 12 more days! It seems almost unreal. I just came home Friday, so I am in the "relax" mode after finals week. Tomorrow is Monday, which means that I must start buying things for my trip as well as working on support. I am currently at about 30% of my total funds.

Well, I guess this post has served its purpose. Off to help my little brother with some homework before dinner!

XOXO