Done!

It is a sad, but refreshing thing to be writing my final post of the summer from home. Home as in my real home. In Arkansas. With my wonderful parents and brother :) I'm very very excited to be home and see the fam, but I love Kaleo and could definitely have spent more time there.

Fun things~

We went on a Christmas in July themed D-Group date and it was so fun! The guys did awesome! They built a fireplace with a fire in it (a computer playing a fire screen saver), made hot chocolate for us, did white elephant gift exchange, and even took us caroling after we made cookies!



A lot of us from the project also went on short float down Turkey Creek. It was so so fun.



The day before everyone left we went to this place called Crab Island and it was also a blast!



Greatest things I've learned this summer:
~There is no such thing as sacrifice for God. Anything that we are "sacrificing" to do something for Him isn't a sacrifice. It's what He deserves and what we don't. He doesn't have to use us to spread His Gospel and be in His Kingdom, but He chooses to.

Thank you all so so much for your prayer and monetary support. I am so thankful for all of you and can't imagine what my summer would've been like without you. A super thanks to my parents for being so generous and supportive. They are such a blessing. I love you all and hope to talk to you soon!

Happy end of summer!

9 days?!?!

Yes. I know. I have failed miserably at updating often. Once again, I apologize.

However, I’m super excited about everything that has been going on here! Again, my thoughts will be random and in no specific order.

WE HAVE 9 DAYS LEFT!!!! That's ridiculous. Know what else is ridiculous? The fact that I wrote a huge update the other day, but when I tried to post it it disappeared. Tragic, I know.

Story: One Saturday, my girls and I were going to my coworker’s son’s birthday party in a wonderful place called Navarre. We’d never been there, but it’s a pretty little island. So, while driving around this island after the super awkward but fun birthday party, we saw a sign that said Arkansas St. We/I freaked out. We decided we must take a picture by it because hello. We go to Arkansas. Side note about Navarre: There’s sand everywhere and very little vegetation. So, leaving the island we were going to stop by the sign and take a picture. Navarre is very not busy, so there was NO ONE around the sign. Wanting all of us to be in the picture, I asked if I should pull off to the side of the road, set the camera on my car, and turn on the timer so we could all be in the picture. My girls said yes. I pull off the road. The minute all four tires hit the sand (it looked like sand/gravel daddy), my tires started spinning. We started laughing hysterically because earlier that day we were talking about our friend Matt getting his truck (2wd) stuck in the sand. While laughing we were like, “no big deal, we have four wheel drive.” I soon came to find that I had no clue how to put my car in 4wd (I’ve never had to.) All of our windows were down and around the corner came a golf cart. I/we started laughing more because as I said earlier, no one was in sight. THEN an expedition with 3 guys came around the corner behind the golf cart which had slowed down to see what was going on. They asked if we were stuck. We said a little bit. One of the men (which turned out to be a dad and his two sons), asked (rather rudely) if I was trying to take a shortcut or what I was doing. I was confused. I didn’t understand what I would be taking a shortcut to, but I just replied (because at this point I was laughing so hard I was crying) “Well you see sir, we’re from Arkansas, and that sign says Arkansas, and we just wanted to take a picture by it.” I thought this was a fine response because it was the truth, however this man kept asking if I was trying to take a shortcut. After the questioning and I think realizing that I was being serious he told me to straighten up my wheels (as did another car that came by) and how to put my car in 4wd. Then he and his sons began to push my car, but really they didn’t have to push at all. I just crawled out (because I have a Jeep. Duh.) I said thank you (still laughing) and they left. It was a wonderful memory and lucky for you it’s on film. J (Don’t worry daddy. Jep is fine. I learned my lesson.)

We had Missions Conference last weekend, and it was incredible. Life changing. Awesome. I think I wanna be a missionary.

5 things I've become more thankful for this summer:

• How organized Kevin is (and the rest of the Springdale crew of course)
• My family and friends. I love and miss ya'll a TON!
• Jesus' death on the cross. Seriously, think about it. Someone PERFECT loved YOU so much that He died a horribly gruesome death for you. He WANTS to spend eternity with you.
  
• Quietness.
• Large bodies of water
  

One thing God has really been growing in me this summer is a heart for the lost. I mean, there are people that have NEVER heard His name. They have no idea how much He loves them, and scarier than that is that they will spend an eternity in hell. That's sad.

I love coffee a lot.

I love you all a lot.

Favorites:
~Jon Mclaughin
~Panera Bread
~Cambodia
~Kansas State
~2Corinthians 5:21: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Isn't that INCREDIBLE?! A man. A perfect man who never sinned died....willingly....because God loves us and WANTS us to want and have a relationship with Him!

I forgot my camera, but I'll put more pictures up soon! Love you all so so much!

I'm gonna try to update this at least one more time before I go home :)

Lots and lots of coffee

Hey again ya'll! So, to start off, I must tell ya'll that no one from Kansas says ya'll. It's really weird. Ha. I love them though!

I'm sorry again that it takes me like 20 years to update this, but being internetless is difficult.

Random updates in no specific order:

We've had 2 functions/socials so far. The first one was a neon rave, and last night we had a function called Mathletes and Athletes and my group dressed up as a ping pong team. Yep. They're awesome.

Also, mom, if you ever doubted I was your daughter, I look just like you. See the neon picture?

Work is going well. This Office Depot is a whole different world for me. Even the customers are different, but it's good, and I have regulars so that's exciting!

We have been talking a lot about prayer this week and I love it! It's really neat to be reminded of the power of prayer and how God listens to our prayers.

Also, we're doing a 2 week series on Holiness in the media we intake and it's so awesome! I loved it last summer and I feel like I appreciate it even more now. It's crazy how the stuff we watch/listen to affects our walk with God.

AND, this Sunday is Father's day. I felt like ya'll should know that I have the best daddy in the world. Promise. Happy almost Father's day daddy! I love you a lot!

We have been on 3 D-group dates thus far (where a guys D-group takes a girls D-group on a date) and they have been super fun! All the guys here are great, so it's awesome getting to know them in a not awkward situation. What's really neat is that none of them have been with Arkansas groups, so we are getting to know people from other schools really well! For one date we went with an OSU group to get dessert, then walked around the bay, and then went to a surprise birthday party for one of the staff wives.

On the second one we went with a K-State group to play volleyball on the beach and then ate delicious food at this place called Crab Trap. It was so good and so fun!

For the most recent one we went to another OSU groups condo and played cranium, drank Shirley Temples (virgin ones of course), and ate brownies that the guys forgot to put eggs in. It was like chocolate gum. Delicious chocolate gum. Also, fun. My team (the other leader and myself) won. Go leaders.That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but I would love to know what's goin on in ya'll's lives, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep me posted! I love and miss you all! Praying for you!

Finally settled in.........

Hey everyone! Sorry it's taken me so long to get in touch, but I'll be updating this as I have time and let ya'll know what's going on as promised. (That being said, we're super busy and don't have email where we live, so it may be sporatic :)

It is D-group weekend right now which means that we (my D-group and I) had to leave Bluewater Bay (where we live) and can't come back until Sunday afternoon. We were given $200 to spend, but instead of spending our money on hotel/gas, we decided to stay in Baytown (about 25 minutes from Bluewater) in a house that my parents' friend generously offered us. We have spent our money on food, arts and crafts stuff (long story), piercings (a rook, 2 ears, and a replacement ring), and ice cream (yes, I know, this is food also.)

OH! For those of you who may not know, my D-group is the group of girls (Natalie, Brittany, and Rachel) who I'm leading (D-group leader) and living with this summer. They are incredible.

After days of job searching I'm actually working at Office Depot (where I worked for about 2.5 years at home.) I'm the ONLY girl that works there. Yep.

Now, I'm gonna give a quick rundown of what we do on a day-to-day basis because so many people have asked, and it will help to not have to explain everything in posts to come.

Sunday

• Church
• Evangelism training (learning how to share the Gospel both cold turkey and relationally.)
  
• Beach evangelism (going up to people on the beach and sharing the Gospel/cold turkey.)
• World Prayer (learn about/pray for a certain people group that is unreached. Unreached meaning that all or most have never heard of Jesus or the Gospel.) Probably my favorite. It's life changing.

Monday

• Participants work and the D-group leaders (myself) have training
  
• D-group Bible Study (we're studying the book of James)
  

Tuesday

• Work
• TVT (Teaching Vision Training. How to inductively study the Bible/lead a Bible study)

Wednesday

• Work

Thursday

• Work
• TNT (Like StuMo. Our large weekly meeting.)
  

Friday

• Work

Saturday

• Free day unless there's something going on! (Relationships Conference/Missions Conference)

So, now you know what our weeks generally look like. If you have any questions/are curious about anything else please ask!

I'm gonna leave ya'll with a few prayer points if you don't mind!

• I would be open and teachable to my leaders, so that I can best lead my girls.
• I can manage my time well, so I am able to get all of my Bible study, book study, support raising, and preparing done and done well.
  
• My whole group will find complete dependence on the Lord.
  
• Ephesians 6:19-20 Pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth words will be given me, so that I will fearlessly make known the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should.
• How do I do ministry with a bunch of not my age guys at work?!

Thanks for reading!

Have a blessed week, and please please please send your prayer requests my way! My group and I would love to pray for you!