Driving in the fast lane

So we have had a very busy last few weeks. After we got back from south Texas with our jr highers, we had a week "break" and then left for Jamaica with our high schoolers!

That was also a little hectic. Our plane got canceled and we got put on a plane that was the next day, but they told us it was the same day only a few hours later. So we got to the airport a day early and had to go home. We missed our first day of work in Jamaica, but our students are amazing. 2 out of the 3 work days they worked past quitting time, all the way to dinner which is a good 2-2.5 extra hours of work. Not many teenagers would do that!
We also has some really good conversation with students. Our students made new commitments to the way they wanted to live their lives once we got home! It was cool!
We got to spend a day in the Jamaican beach which was a little bit nicer than Galveston! And we got to shop up and down the beach and in a market with handmade crafts (that was an experience)! Jamaica is pretty sweet! Ya mon!
Then two days after we got home, four of my favorite people came to visit me in my Texas home! Mom, Dad, Corinne, and Kaylee drove down to come visit! It was a great few days of site seeing and showing off my family to the amazing people down here! Finally they get to meet the people I talked about non stop! I brought the family to all the great Texas restaurants that I love and some that I got to try for the first time with them! We got to play games and redecorate my room. I think my favorite part though was just hanging out talking and laughing with each other! I love my family!
Then last week was our Vacation Bible School for the little kiddos. John and I led the game portion! It was fun! I was Pilot Kim and I felt like a celebrity to some of the littlest ones! What a great experience! But it sure taught me that I am where I am supposed to be with the older students! I can handle the kiddos for a week but it quickly gets crazy!
Finally, this week is Summer Safari! A week long vbs type experience for our jr highers where we have a serving opportunity in the morning around our community and then we go out to some fun activity in the afternoon! We have served at a partner a location making algebra tiles an organizing boxes, we have packed care packs and hygiene packs, we have played bingo with adults with mental disabilities. We have gone go carting, to an aquarium, to the beach, to a place where there are a billion trampolines, and today we are at a water park! It has been an awesome week getting to know our students better, driving them all over town, listening to A LOT of Disney songs and laughing. I seriously have the best job in the world, other than maybe Daniel (watch out I'm taking your job)!
God has blessed me in awesome ways! God is so good!

Jr. Highers AMAZE me!

Scott Rubin, my old jr high youth pastor, said it all the time. Jr. Highers are absolutely amazing. 


1 Timothy 4:12 states "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity."


CLPC Jr. Highers rocked this! 


We just got back from our mission trip to Hidalgo County, South Texas with Mission Discovery where we worked with two families to repair and rebuild their houses. We painted (A LOT), we put up dry wall, insulated, mudded, sided, fixed a bathroom, repaired a roof and so much more. Our students continued to ask, "what else can I do?" or if we asked for help they would step up right away. 

We also ran a VBS (vacation bible school) for the neighborhood kids. The first day we were supposed to start at 10am and there weren't any kids that showed up. We encouraged the students to start praying and Daniel took some kids on a prayer tour around the neighborhood. At 10:45, we had about 20 kids playing with us! God is good! 


The second day we had about the same number and the third day we had around 30 neighborhood kids! 
Our students gave their testimonies, told bible stories, helped make crafts and just played with kids. 


Our Mission Discovery leader, Maury encouraged the kids on the night before the last day of VBS to tell the kids that God loves them. Honestly I had low expectations for this happening, because we had a language barrier with a lot of the kids, but I overheard at least 5 times, our students saying things like "Do you know how much God loves you?" or "Do you know you have a heavenly father that loves you no matter what?" I was blown away. Our kids were asking how to say it in Spanish and wanted to say it more! 

I love this picture because right before I took it, I heard one of my students say, "GOD LOVES YOU!"

God showed up in big ways with our youth and I am so honored that I got to be apart of it! 


We have this week, and then we leave for Jamaica next Sunday for our High school missions trip, also with Mission Discovery! Prayers are appreciated for that trip as well. 


God is good all the time. All the time God is good!

Welcome to Clear Lake!

So, I finally made it to Texas AGAIN!!!! This past week has been absolutely amazing. From spending my last few nights with some of the people I care the most about, to getting on a plane with a great friend who is helping my Chicago world combining to my Texas world, to getting off the plane and seeing the wonderful faces of great friends I have missed! This has been a week of people. I have felt so greatly welcomed back by my Texas family. It almost feels like I never left.

God has already been teaching me so many things even in this first week of my 15 months here. Change is good. It truly is. Change will mold you. It will challenge you. It will make you stronger, so that you are ready for whatever life throws at you. I have experienced so much change in the last month and while it is very sad to leave the North Park part of my life, and to leave my family far far away, I would not have been able to be in this place at this time experiencing a whole new season in my life. God is truly amazing with giving me the peace that makes no sense (Thanks Pastor Judy for engraving this into my head all through school!)

So, I am a week in and the summer is rolling! We are going to be doing some traveling this summer. June 14-16, we are taking the Seniors on a Graduate Retreat to Austin. Then we leave the next day with our Jr Highers to South Texas with Mission Discovery to help build houses and build relationships with the children right on the border. Then we have a week off, and we leave with our High Schoolers to Jamaica, also with Mission Discovery! There we will work with an Orphanage there with some of their needs.


Prayers for this and other activities will be greatly appreciated. Thank you truly for all of your love and support. If you want to know anything about whats going on, let me know! Ask anyone, I love to talk about TEXAS!!!!

The End of the Summer

So, I was wrong in my last update. I have realized that I am awful at keeping a blog. 
Well, as you probably figured, I am back in IL now and my summer is officially over. School is back in session. It is now September. 
The second part of my summer was amazing. I loved every minute of it. 
Our high school group went to Joseph City, AZ where we stayed at a Foster Home called Naomi House. This is a place where Navajo foster kids go. Our group stayed on site at the Foster home and we also worked there. This was the best because we got to hang out with the kids all day long. They would wake up with us in the morning and pretty much go to bed at the same time we would at night.

We worked on the ministry center at the home and painted the entire building with some other odd jobs throughout the week. 
Our students really bonded together that week and we grew as a team. I feel like it was a week that I really formed close relationships with the girls in our group. 

For our day off, we went to the Grand Canyon. This was amazing. Everyone has told me that I would be amazed when i saw it, but I never could have been prepared for what I saw. It was beautiful. God is huge! Daniel, Matt and I were able to break off from the group that day and walk along the path together, which was great. We were able to debrief the trip a little and even just talk and laugh with each other. We walked down one of the paths down and we didn't even get nearly close to halfway before we had to turn around, but it was a hard trip back up, but also totally worth it. 
After the trip I had 3 short weeks before I had to leave for the summer. Those weeks went by so fast. We had a girls night, d-groups, lunch dates, dinner parties, Saturday night hang outs, wave pools, movie nights, and so many other fun things with the students.
The last harah of the summer was at a beach house in Galveston. We took the students down and just enjoyed our last night together. 

It was extremely hard for me to leave. The relationships that I built this summer are relationships that won't go away because I am many states away. 
God taught me many things throughout this summer. I learned about how to be a better youth minister. I learned the importance of a good team dynamic, which I could not have asked for a better one. I learned how to jump into relationships quick and go deep fast. 
I came into the summer with many doubts about my ability to teach. God taught me that I am not the one who is speaking and that he is the one in control of the words. I learned that I am my biggest criticizer. and I need to hear the words of everyone else. 
I learned that I have been telling God what I want him to do with my life and not giving it completely up to him. I need to believe that God knows the plans for my life and I need to trust that he is in control. 
My next step is my last year of college. I am a Senior Resident Assistant at North Park University and I am continuing to stay super busy. I am graduating in May and after that is up to God. My plans for my future are still a little up in the air. I have a few options and I am trying to figure out where it is God wants me to be. 

I wanted to thank you all for supporting me a praying for me throughout this summer. I have truly felt your love. I pray that God blesses you as he did me. 

UPDATE

So its been a while since I last updated. 

We keep saying how this summer is like a sprint. We go from one event to another, which makes my life super exciting. 

I absolutely love what I am doing. 

My last update asked for prayer for our Intermediate school missions trip. That trip was truly amazing. We worked with a group called Mission Discovery and we helped to fix up some houses in South Texas. While we were there we also held a vacation bible school for the kids in the area. That was what I was in charge of. I loved that. I met one girl named Viviana who I hung out with a lot and we really had a good time. Our group really connected well on our trip. 
Then when we got back we had a week where I went home and celebrated my grandparents 50th ANNIVERSARY!!! And then we started a week long Summer Safari, which is a day camp for the intermediate schoolers where we would serve in the morning and then go somewhere fun in the afternoon. We did a lot that week, such as we collected canned goods for Interfaith Care Ministries and we helped a local ministry with some outside work, we worked with a home for the mentally ill. We also went to a water park and a fun center. We went to the zoo and the beach. This week Matt and I also led a bible study on the Superheroes of the Bible. This was my first teaching experience and I think it went really well. 
This past week we have been preparing for our missions trip which we leave for in less than 9 hours. 
We are going to Joseph city AZ where we are going to work with the Naomi house for foster care children. I will again be leading VBS for the kids in the area and for our day off we will be spending it at the Grand Canyon. 
Please pray for our trip. Please pray for safety and strength to get through the week. Each night we will be sharing God sightings, So please pray that God will show himself in many different ways and that we are able to pick out the places that he is working in our lives. 
I will hopefully update when I get back! 
 

Our Group

Here is the group that is going to South Texas! 

 

First Big Trip!

 These past couple weeks have been amazingly busy but incredible. I have been really trying to build relationships with the students that I am working with. I have really been able to connect with many of them and I know that by the end of the summer, I am going to have long lasting friendships.

Lock-In

This past two weeks we have had a beach trip an exhausting lock-in, with Putt-Putt Capture the flag, board games and movie night, the first week of TNT(tuesday night thing) which is the Intermediate School weekly group, D-Groups which is the High School weekly group, roller skating, and make-up on the boys.

Roller Skating at Saturday Night Hang out

TNT (Tuesday Night Thing)

TNT Kickoff Pool/Pizza Party

 This church absolutely loves and completely supports our youth program and they do everything to help it be successful. That puts me in a great place to intern. I am learning a lot about how to do ministry, about who I am, about working on a team and about stepping out of my comfort zone. I have had good ideas, made mistakes, needed forgiveness, and succeeded in many different things. It has been a great time.

D-Groups

Tomorrow morning our Intermediate school group leaves to go to Hidalgo County, TX where we are going to be working with an organization called Mission Discovery. We will be fixing up houses and giving a Children's Bible School for the kids that live in the area. 

Please pray for our trip this week. Please pray for safety in our travels and at the work site. Also pray that we would all learn a lot from this experience and help to be Salt and Light to the people around us.