Proclamations

Normally on a rainy night, people stay inside. Normal people want to stay dry. Not the case with my group here in Burlington...although come to think of it, normal college students wouldn't give their summer to know Jesus more. Wednesday night was a special night. In the midst of a downpour, we went to one of the beaches here....lined the beach with umbrellas as we celebrated with friends who were proclaiming their faith in Jesus by being baptized. The original plan was that 3 of our students would get baptized. After the 3rd person got baptized, another girl ran into the water. And so it continued until 8 people got baptized. What a sight! We've had the students give their testimonies each night after dinner...so we've had the chance to see what God has done in their lives. How amazing to then see them make this step...knowing how God has so visibly changed them. They are leaving Vermont in a much different way than when they arrived. I love these students who aren't normal...but how I wish they were the norm.

Finale

So Monday was my last hip hop class. Our instructor, Lois, told us that we could invite friends to come and watch us do a final performance. Lois had no idea what she had just done. I'm sure in her mind she thought we might invite a few friends. Little did she know that Caitlin and I would invite, oh, 50 people. Our little dance studio had never seen so many people in it at once. We had about 15 students come and cheer us on...along with a video camera. They were so excited to come and cheer us on...even bringing flowers! Not gonna lie, I had some butterflies. You're supposed to ham it up for an audience and in hip hop your supposed to make kinda serious faces. I found it rather hard to do that while my audience was only about 5 feet from where I was performing. Rather, I found myself laughing and smiling...and maybe screaming a few times! I'm glad I took the class...it took me beyond my comfort zone a little and I ended up having a lot of fun along the way. Enjoy the pics...the nice one of the girls...and then the guys came along as put on our best hip hop faces.

My new favorite state??

This past weekend was team weekend…the team leaders each planned a weekend get-away for their team. This meant a free weekend for the staff team! It got to be the middle of last week and Caitlin and I realized we had nothing planned. I sent a quick email to our Divisional Leader (he oversees Nav ministries in at least 15 states..maybe more) and within 24 hours he set us up with a free place to stay! (People we had never met before let us use their house while they were away!) What an incredible gift! So, off to Maine we went!!! It certainly lived up to some of it’s slogans, like “vacationland” or “Maine…the way life should be.” They’re not kiddin! I’m not being at all dramatic when I say that it was the best weekend I’ve had in a really long time. I don’t think either one of us realized how much we needed a break. We went to multiple beaches, saw two lighthouses, shopped at outlets, got lobster, and saw breath taking views of the cliffs that line the ocean. We laughed and slept A LOT! I was reminded over and over again of God’s love for me. I thought a lot about Psalm 139:17-18: “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them, they outnumber the grains of sand!” This one’s a bit hard to grasp…especially after laying on the sand and realizing how much sand there was just in the few inches around me (not to mention all over my body). The other one that hit me was Song of Solomon 8:7: “Many waters cannot quench love…” I looked out over the ocean…water beyond what I could see…and was blown away by the fact that all of that water can’t put out God’s love for me. Do I really live like I believe that He loves me that much?

PRIDE

Last week I experienced two forms of pride. Yes, two. During our workshop this past week we had the students take some time to examine their pride. We took a list of examples from the book Brokenness: The Heart God Revives by Nancy Leigh Demoss. Here are a few “ouchies” for me:

*Proud people desire to be known as a success.
*Broken people are motivated to be faithful and to make others successful.

*Proud people have a drive to be recognized and appreciated for their efforts.
*Broken people have a sense of their own unworthiness; they are thrilled that God would use them at all.

*Proud people have a hard time saying “I was wrong; will you please forgive me?”
*Broken people are quick to admit their failure and to seek forgiveness when necessary.

These are only a few to describe me…I’ll keep the rest for my journal! What was really cool though was that after we took some time alone, everyone got back with their team and shared some things that described them…a way to let down the wall of pride in their life. Not easy, but necessary if you want to live in true community.

While I was realizing the sinful pride that lies within me, I was also feeling very proud of the students. We had our weekly sharing time and at the end I was trying to tell them to break up into small groups to pray, but I couldn’t quite get all the words out of my mouth without having the tears start. (another thing you need to know about me…I cry easily…especially when it comes to people I care about) I just couldn’t help the feeling of being completely overwhelmed with pride by how far these students have come this summer. People shared about moving forward in relationships with their parents-learning to love them and be open with them, people were sharing about how God was using them to touch their co-workers and one shared about overcoming fear and starting a conversation about God with a homeless man. What an amazing gift I’ve been given…I have the chance to be a part of these students’ lives.

Woaahhh…We’re Half Way There…

Yesterday officially marked the half way mark of our summer in Burlington. And I’m realizing more and more the need to depend on Jesus. Without Jesus, no good thing will come from me. The need to be living a life that is centered around prayer. Not to say that I do that…I’m saying that I’m realizing how much more I need to live my life that way.

It’s been a great summer so far, but after some conversations with women this morning, I’m realizing that quite a few of us are thinking “Oh no, the summer is half way over and I haven’t accomplished things that I wanted to accomplish”. Rather than beat ourselves up, I encouraged each of us to remember that there are still so many things that God can accomplish in and through us. I want us to think through how we can finish strong. How can we encourage the people we mentor, how can we speak truth to them, how can we call them out to live a more holy life? And in the midst of pouring our lives out to others, how do we take time out of the busyness for our own hearts to meet Jesus?

I love Psalm 126:3 – “the Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy”. My prayer is that at the end of this summer we will be able to look back and be filled with tremendous joy over what Jesus has done.

Hip Hop Hooray.....

There’s something you should know about me…I LOVE to dance. I mean, really love to dance. If there is a dance floor, I’m on it. If there’s a beat, my leg is tappin. When there’s a dance, I’m out there the entire time…only breaking for water. Why am I sharing this? Well, it explains the fact that I’m taking a hip hop class this summer! My friend, Caitlin, and I are taking a class once a week. I’ve never done hip hop before and I’ve never taken a real dance class (well, ok, I did when I was in like kindergarten…a ballet class and I got to wear a cute little pink tutu) , so to be honest it freaked me out at first. It’s tons of fun and a great workout. We performed our dance on Saturday night at our Thrift Store formal (as a matter of fact, we practiced it so many times for the performance that by the time we got to class on Monday we had it down pretty good...so good in fact that the instructor had us re-teach it to the class!) This was the first dance performance I’ve done in, well like 12 years…which takes me back to my cheerleading days. Yep, I’m admitting that for all to see. So anyway…here are a few pics to prove the performance.