Craziness…? I think yes!

Well, it’s been several months since I’ve blogged last…and due to the time that has past since it occurred…I think I shall postpone the continuation of my story for now, to update you on how I am currently!

We have “dived deep” into Teen Mania summer – with the craziness and hecticness of GE registrations, Extreme Camps…and still have back-to-back weekends of GE registrations followed by the last week of Extreme Camps, and then debriefing and then the August interns and GIs (including myself) will graduated on August 7th! It’s just a bit over a month left…and at times it feels like it couldn’t come sooner, and at others I wish it wouldn’t come. I suspect I will continue to go back and forth between the two sides…as I often do…especially as I continue to decrease the amount of the steroid and Lord willing will be off of it by graduation, or shortly thereafter! I’m doing much better, for the most part – almost back to normal, aside from what my body goes through when adjusting to the steroid medication amount changes…

Here are some recent pictures! Enjoy! (and comment, please! :) )

Melissa, the Graduate!

Friends, after Buffalo Wild Wings and Andy’s Custard

Finance on Cinco de Mayo

Casey, coremate and housemate

The new/old juke box I made for the swing performance I was in in May

Quad 4 (my house) all together for the last time!

With our beloved Casey…before she left for home, in Idaho…

An update? Really? Yes!

God has been so good these past several weeks! I have been very busy in continuing to do several jobs within my ministry placement, while adjusting to taking a 9-12 credit hours of college classes. The new August Intern class arrived on August 14th, to begin an incredible year of their lives! It was very interesting to be on the other side of things as the interns arrived, as I helped work registration. It is always interesting to do that as you get to see the interns as they first arrive and then see how much they change later on. It was very exciting for the interns to arrive, as we desperately need their help to run the ministry! However, even though they had arrived, we would still wait another week until they would find out their job placements and would begin to work in their new positions. Transition was a lot of hard work but it was also a lot of fun. We were able to get to know a lot of people who have stayed a second year but that I did not have a lot of interaction with during my undergraduate year.
August 21st was the commitment banquet for both the new August Interns as well as the incoming Graduate Interns (that would be me and anyone who stayed a second year). It was a special time to finalize the importance of committing for a second year, giving one the opportunity to reflect on the past year and look forward to the year to come.
Since then I have continued to be busy: training the new August banker to take my position, learning my new position, beginning four college classes, (realizing I couldn’t keep up with all the homework, so dropping a class), and preparing for ESOAL – Emotionally Stretching Opportunity of A Lifetime. It’s a rather crazy Life Transforming Event that Teen Mania puts on for the Honor Academy Interns. It’s going to be an interesting, but good, next 4-5 days. I am participating for the second time, for a number of different reasons. It’s going to be extremely challenging, but so good. I am looking forward to growing a lot. My manager, Austie Woodall, is the Captain of my Company, Massachusetts. Captains, companies, and all that? What is going on, you might be thinking…yes, ESOAL does have a pretty prevalent military theme. You will hear more about it in the coming weeks, but for now you can check out trailerclub.blogspot.com and xanga.com/gvpuma for ESOAL updates. Please pray for safety for all involved, and that the Lord will stretch and grow each and every one of us!

A peak into my life…

Yes, my world has slowed down a bit, but I can’t seem to blog more then one a month…humm…I shall try to change that. Wait, I think I already am! Let’s see if I can keep this up. :)

June was somewhat slow, somewhat busy month for me, as I have finished all of my classes and finals (finally! they seemed to last forever) and began the shift into Teen Mania summer maddness. Maddness you might ask? Yes, it has been. You never quite know what to expect. From missions trips all over the world, to driving all night to get back from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, MO, to 15 days of being stretched in yet another way that I hadn’t been yet, to spending time with friends, to surprise birthday parties, to going home for two weekends in a row! (when does that happen?! very rarely…)

I have only a few pictures for you as my camera bit the dust toward the end of my trip to Israel this April, and even less now as I’ve had some problems with my Macbook (it’s currently being worked on by a friend…though I had to leave it with him when I came back to campus yesterday from my last trip home).  Here are a few from when I was home visiting June 27-28. :)

Reading at the most amazing used bookstore I’ve ever seen

Melissa and I before I left on the 28th

Me and Ellie (the photographer of most of these pictures)

Amazing fireworks!

Please continue to pray that God will bring in my support for next year! So far I have two monthly supporters and enough in my account to pay for the first month! Pray that I will have the opportunity to do fundraisers as well, as my time is limited this summer.

Please also pray that my Macbook will be able to be fixed and I will not need to replace any parts! It unexpectedly froze up while I was home this weekend and wouldn’t restart…A good friend is working on it to see what he can do. As of right now it looks like I’ll need to replace the disc drive/hard drive…and I am rather low on finances right now! But God is mighty and can do wonders! :)

Yes, I had saved this draft two months ago…here it is now! Sorry!

Car Wash Marathon

I’m helping out with a Car Wash Marathon on June 20th, with a goal to wash 1000 cars for free.
The point of the car wash is to raise money for scholarships for the next class of interns at the Honor Academy.
To make it free, the goal of those washing the cars is to raise $1 per car in donations. Would you consider sponsoring me for $.01 to $.10 per car? (That would come out to be $10-$100 total, depending on the number of cars that are washed; which you send in by June 29th, after the car wash.) So far I have raised a total of $.13 per car.
If you would like to sponsor me, and would like more information about this, please let me know!
My goal by this Friday is to have $.55 per car raised.

Thanks!

A glimpse into my not quite so busy world…before it speeds up again…

Yes, I know, I said I would write again soon…and here it has been over a month! Well, pretty much all of May was very busy with classes, homework, sewing, hanging out with friends when I managed to make some time (usually by not doing something else), little sleep, a brief vacation, finals and then the Celebration Life Transforming Event (LTE). Anyhow, that was pretty much all over on May 31st, which was the closing day of the Celebration LTE. (Now you may be wondering what that way…and I shall explain.)
The Celebration was a time of fun and games, accompanied with competitions that kept family core rivalry high. In a way, it was almost like the Honor Academy’s version of the Olympics…though on a much smaller scale of course. We competed in soccer, basketball, volleyball, syncronized swimming, a belly-flop contest, pie eatingcontests, “jousting,” frisbee-toss, three legged race and then a massive track meet. We all had a blast, though I ended up rather sore and a bit sunburnt, as I am not used to sprinting (rather attempting to) and being in the sun as much as I was. We were also able to watch a few movies on a massive screen that the recently returned Ministry Team (the graduate interns who run all of the Acquire the Fire events throughout the school year) had put up. All in all it was great way to end the busy semester – even though I was even more tired becasue of participating in it than I had been after finals! My family core “Italy” didn’t win any of the competitions, but we enjoyed spending time together and making great memories.
Since then I’ve not been up to very much, as I have been enjoying the past few days of not having much to do…and not really doing anything important! It has been a very nice, and much needed, change. However, it is not to last as we’ll be gearing up for the beginning of “summer immersion” when all of the people going on summer missions trips arrive at the end of next week. It will be crazy, but it will be good! While I will be more busy then usual with work, I will not have a ton of homework, so I’m hoping to be able to keep you updated more often, and hopefully put a slide show (or link to one) of my Israel pictures! We shall see, though…

Around the World and back again….

Yes, I have been to Israel, had a 24hr. lay-over in Paris, and I am back safe and sound! Thank you so much for your prayers and support! It was a fantastic!

After traveling for over 24 hrs, having left on March 31st, we arrived in Bethlehem, Israel, where were were going to be staying for the first several days of our trip. We stayed in a few small apartments which were above a pizza place, with Mama Ruth, who worked with Father’s House in running the Prayer Room. Because of the high Muslim population of the Bethlehem area, we were not able to do much ministry, and for ministry to be effective in both the Muslim and Jewish culture, you need to build relationships before they will even begin to listen to you. So, that’s what we did. It was the best part of the trip! I can now say that I have Palastinian friends who live in Bethlehem.

From Bethlehem we traveled to the Galilee area. On the way we stopped in Nazareth, where we went through a type of a “living history” museum, which was to show us what Nazareth would have looked like when Jesus had lived there. We also stopped in Ceasera, at a beach, where we played in the Mediterranean for about an hour. That was amazing! I’ve never seen the ocean look more beautiful….

Mama Ruth

Elias, our Palestinian friend, with several of us from our group

Arielle and I at the Mediterranean

With friends, standing out on this rock ledge in the Mediterranean

Core names

I shall write more when I have more time…

I’m leaving for Israel in 8 days!

The day is quickly approaching…I’m leaving in 8 days! Please continue to pray that God will prepare myself and the team for the trip. Please pray that our hearts will be prepared for what He is going to show us while we are there.

On antoher note, this weekend I participated in the Unreached People Group Life Transforming Event (UPG LTE). The entire internship participates in this event: we are all split up into groups of either missionaries or tribes. The tribal groups come up with costumes, customs and their own languages. The missionaries prepare to enter a hostile “foreign” country (the woods that are a part of the Teen Mania campus) and be witnesses to these unreached people. We are all role-playing, so it is rather interesting though very eye-opening at the same time. I was a missionary to the Kalmyk tribe. (The tribes are based off of real unreached people groups). It was quite the challenge to get to know this group of people, their language and share the gospel with them, all the while trying not to get caught by the “government.” I enjoyed it and also learned a lot. I hope to post a few pictures from the event soon, as well as explain it in a bit more detail.