Skirts I've made

I've been making skirts and a dress this summer getting ready for Haiti. I got the idea for the elastic from this blog.

Sisters in Christ and fun times

Anna came to visit me! For those of you who don’t know Anna, we became two of four best friends our freshman year of college. Anna and I took our first trip to Haiti together…and 2^nd…and 3^rd. Well the third, she was here for two months and I visited her.

It was such an encouragement to have her here. I got to introduce her to all my new friends and family and share with her what life is like here. It was good to have another American who loves Haiti to talk with and process through some things with.

She brought some things for me with her. I thought it was just going to be a few things from my parents but I also got two very encouraging notes from two amazing sisters in Christ. I have been overwhelmed recently with the amount of love you all, brothers and sisters, have been pouring out on me. I know you are faithfully praying for me and I thank you so much!

Anna is visiting some other missionaries in Port-de-Paix now and will be back with me for a couple days next week before heading back to America.

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Ronika is the little girl I live with and sometimes her friend, Gonies, comes over with her mom. The last time she came over the two girls handed me paper, a pencil, and some crayons. They first pointed to the placemats and asked me to draw the picture of the wine bottle, grapes, and cheese.  I did and they were impressed. Then they started pointing to things around the room for me to draw. Each time I was finished they would say, “Bravo.” That’s what we tell the kids at school when they do something well.

After the page was full of drawings they would erase a couple so I could draw something else. It was fun to be creative without the pressure of approval or permanency and they got to have fun just being silly with me.

Vision Week

Last week we transformed the basement of the Campus House into ten spaces separated by sheets for students to come and walk through their story. The theme for vision week this year was Storyline. The majority of the material came from Donald Miller’s Storyline book.

In the book Don starts by looking at God’s timeline. Then using Joseph’s life as an example of how our stories fit into God’s story. He shows the positive and negative turns in a person’s life and how that denotes the theme of their life. The theme is the statement which everything you do must pass through. If what you are planning on doing doesn’t line up with your theme you might want to reconsider what you are doing.

A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. After figuring out the theme for of life we moved on to the roles we play, the ambitions we have with each role, the inciting incident (the thing that once it happens you will never be the same), the conflict, and the climactic scene (the scene that can only take place after the ambition is reached).

For me one of my roles is Staff Intern.

My ambitions for that roles are to create art that inspires students and the God's word is understood and can be applied.

Some Inciting Incidents I need to do would be to plan the KC grow trip, ask students questions about what they are learning, and seek out more girls to meet one on one with.

I foresee conflict being that I don't know the answers to questions students ask, no place to stay in KC, or no place to serve in KC.

Climatic Scene I imagine would be when a student gets it and when a student is leading someone else.

It was a very successful week. We heard a lot of good feedback from students. If you want to read people’s  stories, Don set up a website,  you can go to mysubplot.com.  

Welcome to the Garden

Last night we had a garden party at DIG! We had Christmas lights draped from the ceiling and small tables set up for students to sit around. Some of the girls helped me bake Oreo cheesecake, lemon bars, and pinwheels.  We had cans of pop for students to enjoy. Some other girls helped serve Common Meal. One of our students read the creation story during the beginning praise. We wanted to create a beautiful, fun atmosphere for people to enter into the story because God did not only show grace at the cross but also in the beginning in the garden. He showed grace in the undeserved love he showed us. Brad shared a quote from N.T. Wright, “One of the central elements of the Christian story is the claim that the paradox of laughter and tears, woven as it is deep into the heart of all human experience, is woven also deep into the heart of God.” In both joyful laughter and painful tears we can see remnants of the garden. Through tears we see the way things were not intended to be. Contrary, through laughter we glimpse a piece of the perfect creation.

Projects I have been working on this summer

Here are a few projects I have been working on this summer getting ready for the new school year.

  This is the view of the stairs. We used to have the Alumni's pictures framed on this wall. A group of students helped me paint the stairwell and I rehung the Alumni's pictures.

On the main level between the restrooms I

created our Grow trip tree. I drew the tree out, put nails in at all the points,

and wrapped string and twine to create a tree. I hung pictures from the trips

we took last year.

Downstairs we have our vision statement on windows hanging from the ceiling. This was put together last year but the statement was written with window paint. This year I used my sister's Cricut to cut the letters out of contact paper.

Katie, a student last year, made our shalom sign. This summer I added the black wooden frame. It helps it stand out so much more. 

On the main floor I hung four windows. They are labeled Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. We have provided markers so that students can write their prayers on these windows. 

Summer

It was officially summer in Warrensburg last Monday which means I was able to start on my summer to-do list. It seems for every thing I have marked off in the last week I have added two more things. But I love it! I am excited to have time to think out and make the small changes that are going to have big impacts this next year. One project I finished last night was painting my wing-back chair in my apartment. A couple of years ago I was out for a walk with my friends and I saw this chair out on the curb in front of some one's house. We carried it back to my house. But as you can see it was pink with blue flowers. Ick! So I found instructions on how to paint upholstered furniture here and set off transforming my chair.



Before

After



A little of what I did over break

Back to work and it is wonderful. I have loved hearing about what God did over break in everyone’s lives. And there are still so many more stories to be heard. My break was great! I got to spend time with family and do some pretty cool projects with my sister (pictures below). Christmas was great! I had a chance to talk with my parents about my future plans after this internship, not that I have anything really planned, just many things festering in my head.


Hannah and I bought black sneakers from Walmart

We put them in a bleach bath for two days. We put them in the
washing machine but that tore them up so I would
not suggest doing it that way unless you want the worn look.

I drew with Elmer's glue where I wanted to dye to
resist then dyed my shoes purple.

I dyed the shoe laces orange and used Sharpie fabic markers
to draw on the shoes. Here is the finished project!

Vision Week

This week we took a week “off.” We transformed the basement of CCH (where we usually have chairs set up to listen to Brad on Wednesday nights) into a place students could get out of their ordinary routines and encounter God. The building was open so that students could come anytime that worked with their schedule.

We hung sheets to separate the space into different stations. Each station had a different theme. Some were review about what we have been studying in David, while others were new, we had a station where students could give $1.20 and package 6 meals to be sent to Africa through Something To Eat.

This year there were several new things we added to vision week. Every night at midnight we had worship, some students fasted for one, two, or three days, and for the first 36 hours students were praying continually in the prayer room upstairs.

Thursday night we had our wrap-up. It was laid back with worship and some sharing of what God had revealed to us.

One of the coolest things for me was the Intro. It was based around John 13:1-17 when Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. At this station there were washable markers where you could sit down and write your sins on your foot and then step into a tub of water and the marker would disappear from your foot as a picture of Jesus making you clean. If you don’t know, I have a tattoo of a cross on my foot, so when I was writing sins on my foot I was writing them on the cross, and when the marker was washing off my foot it was an awesome picture of because Christ died on the cross is the reason my sins are being cleansed.

Turning a Page

               It has been an interesting beginning to the start of the next chapter of my life. I spent the last semester of my college career reevaluating what it would look like for me to be an Interior Designer. I let God know I was up for where ever He wanted to take me. It turned out He was not finished with me living here in Warrensburg.

                I started my internship at the Christian Campus House on July 5^th. I took over the basement floor with projects getting CCH ready for returning students. No one project could get down without many steps so while a painting was drying I would start another one. I surprised myself a few times with how good a project turned out.

                There was a week or so when I was the only one in the office this summer. This was a tremendous learning experience. I discovered that when I feel overwhelmed I need to stop and take each situation separately and work through it. I am so glad I learned this during the summer and not after school had started.

                I was thankful when the whole staff was back and students started returning. Our leadership team this year is amazing! This includes the 5 staff members, 5 student interns, and 10 community group leaders. To learn more about them here. Before the school year started the leadership team went to the National Student Conference. It was a chance for us to grow closer as a team and become stronger leaders. Tim Sutherland was the main speaker. He spoke about the story of everything. He had great things to say every night but the thing that stood out to me the most was how vulnerable he was towards us. Speaking to 300 people he not only told us about hard times in his life, his son leaving for college and his wife leaving him, but he shared with us how he felt in those situations. There are very few people I can be that honest with and through Tim doing so God presented it as a challenge to me. Maybe not to speak to 300 people, but to be more open to share my life with others. That is one of the reasons I started this blog.

                One of my fears of coming on staff the summer after I graduated was that the students, my friends, would still see me as such and not respect my authority. I have had not one instance of that happening yet. When we got back from NSC the leadership team had two days to prepare for students arrival. Brad and I had a list of everything that needed to get done. Once someone was done with the task they were assigned they would come asking for more to do. When we were setting up for the Week of Welcome activities, a student intern was in charge of each night, they came and asked me what needs to get done or how does it need to be set up. It brings me joy to see their servant hearts.

                Also at NSC I went to the women in ministry luncheon. It was encouraging to see and hear from the other women in ministry. One woman spoke about whether you are single or married you need to find time for yourself outside of the ministry. I thought since I am single I can focus everything on the ministry. But I understand her point and I am still in the process of figuring out what that looks like for me. I came to the conclusion; this is going to be the hardest year of my life thus far. A few days ago God reminded me of the girl I was when I first came to college compared to who I am today. After this year, of who know what crazy things God is going to do, I am going to be changed and it will be good.