Friends and Commitments

Life has changed drastically for me.

This past year, I've made friends with so many people at my new church, and I never thought that would happen. At my old church, small as it was, I knew pretty much all the kids that attended. All fifteen of them.

Now, when I first started going to BBC (Biltmore Baptist Church), I was in the middle of 5th grade, and had zero friends. It remained that way for about two years, when I became friends with Nicole, who is now my best friend. Life was great. Just me and my bestie.

Then one year later, I started getting more involved in the student ministry, just serving behind the scenes. No one knew me, and that was fine. In fact, I tried to avoid people. Because most of them seemed loud and annoying to me. Then, I went to a weekend conference at my church called DNow, and decided to recommit myself to God. It wasn't a walk-down-the-aisle and announce that I got saved or anything, because I already was saved... But it during one of the worship sessions, and I just made a commitment to God. I promised him that I was going to give everything I am to him.

And in that split second, my eyes were opened. I realized how much I loved all the people that were worshiping around me. Even the ones I didn't know. I suddenly had a heart for people.

Was I still mildly scared of people? Heck, yeah. Did I reach out to be friends with all of them? Heck, no.

The only thing that had changed that weekend was my commitment level to God. I gave it to him to decide who I would be friends with and who I wouldn't be. Life resumed normally for a while, serving behind the scenes and being ignored by people.

Then I went on a mission trip to Atlanta, Georgia, and made a few friends. I guess God decided to start small, which was probably a good thing.

I can't really describe what has happened since then, because I haven't really figured out myself. But five months since DNow, and now I know almost every student at my church, and they know me. And it's not that we just know each other... But I've started to form friendships with them.

In five months, I've gone from the girl that no one knows, to the girl that people want to hang out and be friends with. Which has definitely been strange for me. It's made life more complicated in a way, but so much more worth it.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, people have never really been my favorite thing... But I've learned how to be less shy and a better friend. Sometimes, I just sit in my room wondering how lucky I am to have friends like mine.

I have more friends than I've ever dreamed I would, and they aren't just people anymore. They're legit Christ-followers who encourage. Amazing teens who serve harder than any I've ever seen. And I love each one of them.

Heroic Deeds

It's two in the morning, and I can't sleep.

Swell.

I'm writing this at my deck on a scrap of paper, hoping that writing will help me sleep.

My mind keeps going back to the time I skinned my knee in a church service...

Backing up.

See, I used to go to a little church with pews, hymn books, and blue carpets. Like most churches, during the beginning of the service, the pastor would ask everyone to stand and walk around and greet each other... Well, every Sunday since we graduated into big church (Yeah, that's what it's called), my friends and I would take this opportunity to run around the worship center to get some of the little-kid energy that comes from who-knows-where out of our systems and say a few hellos to people on the way.

This particular service, I was running down of the side aisles when some smart person decided to step out of his pew and right into my line of fire. Quick-witted as I was, I figured I would save the man's life, and dove onto the floor beside him.

And the reward for my heroic deed? A skinned knee.

I guess someone caught sight of my rescuing and somehow word got to the pastor...

We never had any more meet and greets.

Tuesday, July 24, Day Ten

Woke up again at 5:15 to go to the market to get food. This time, we brought not only the trailer, but also a UHaul truck. Jose's goal was the fill the UHaul truck.

What was my goal? Glad you asked. My goal was to fill both the UHaul truck and the trailer.

Not halfway until lunchtime and we already had the UHaul truck filled up. We filled the trailer up too, and ran out of crates. We were pretty much forced to stop, and had lunch.

Jose took the trailer back an Falstove took the UHaul with Clay and Nathan.

Ofelia led us to the public bus and we rode that back to our bus.

We then unloaded, sorted, and handed out all the food, which took twice as long as last time! We had so much, that Jose took quite a bit to other ministries in Zone 18.

Then we went back to the seminary and had dinner. After dinner, our leaders had planned a surprise campfire, and so we walked up the hill a little ways to where it was. The funny thing, though, is that they couldn't get the fire started. So we just sand worship songs in the dark. After worship, Levi gave us a few minutes for whoever wanted to share his/her testimony. Then we all started to make our way to bed.

Riding in the trailer.
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More trailer action.
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Working hard together.

          

                                                                               

BANANAS!!!!



Monday, July 23, Day Nine

We said goodbye to the Zone 46 Group again as they returned to Zone 46, sad to see them leave.

Team Hope went back to Hope For Guatemala and had a pretty typical day. We've finished the second story, so now Jose has to find more for us to do.

We're all getting so close to the people at Hope. Week one is over, and week two is going to fly by.

Guatemala is amazing.

Sunday, July 22, Day Eight

Wow, another big day. (What's with all of these big days??)

We went to Jose's church again, except this time with Parromos and 46. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

After the service, everyone went to play soccer, but I offered to babysit Jose's kids, so he and his wife could go out to eat. They left for dinner at 6. Sophie, Daniel and I watched Kung Fu Panda at Jose's house, then I put them in bed. At 8, they came back. Turns out, I needed to be in a meeting back at the seminary, so he called Jose so he could bring me back. Turns out, they had just sat down to eat, so in the end. They never really got to eat out.

Sad story. :(

On top of that, Kevin was the only one who knew I had left, so instead of simply asking him, quite a few people were freaked out wondering where I was... Then they finally asked Kevin. I felt bad.

The meeting was good. Again, we did highs and lows, Levi led worship, and Ryan spoke. He talked about when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey, and how he sent two disciples to get the donkey for him. Basically, we're the disciples, and getting the donkey means preparing the way for Jesus getting all the glory, because in everything we do we need to amplify God, not us. Otherwise, as Christ followers, what do we have to live for?

Saturday, July 21, Day Seven

Looooooong day.

We had breakfast with Parromos and Zone 46 teams, and loaded the buses for Antigua. We had lunch at Pollo Campero, then walked down to the market. I had $40 to spend, and bought a bracelet, a ring for mom, an elephant made out of porcelain, a backpack, a coffee bag, coffee for my parents, and a 'Guatever' shirt.

We then walked from the market, to a restaurant called Mono Loco. I wasn't hungry (not to mention I was low on money), so I didn't eat, but some people from our group bought a nacho platter that looked big enough to feed 5,000!! (Get it?)











We returned to the seminary and all three groups had a meeting together. We went over the highs and lows of the day, and Levi led worship, then Ryan talked about Jacob and Esau, and how important it is not to make decisions when you're tired, hungry, and/or emotional. Look at Esau, he gave away his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of soup. And if that's not bad enough, that birthright included being part of the family tree of Jesus. Esau is no longer the great-great-great-great-etc grandfather of Jesus. Instead, Jacob, because of the birthright, has been put in Esau's place.

Ouch.

I was supposed to Skype with mom and dad today, but the laptop stopped working just as we tried to connect.

Joy.

There's always tomorrow...

Spotify... Love Comes Loudly

Friday, July 20, Day Six

 

Long, but amazing day!!

First, we dropped the boys off at Hope, then us girls went to the park to play with the kids for game day. I played with a little girl names Daniella, who was 4. She was so cute!!

Around 11:30, we loaded the buses full of kids, and went back to Hope. We serves the kids lunch, and then cleaned up. Then we reloaded the buses with the older kids and went back to the park. After an hour or so, we played soccer (FUTBOL!!)  against some Guatemalan kids, which was a blast.

We then went back to the seminary to change out of our sweaty clothes, and revisited the mall. This time, we had pizza from El Macorone in the food court, and then went to watch The Amazing Spiderman at the movie theater in 3D (Side note: We were among the first Americans to see this movie. It came out in Guatemala before America.). The Hope staff was there: Ofelia, Helen, Aura, Falstove, Jose, and Harrison. The movie was in English, to our delight (With Spanish subtitles for our Guatemalan friends).

The bus had been fixed, but, unfortunately, when we left the mall to go back to the seminary, the bus door was locked, so it took about 30 minutes of standing in the cold (again, Guatemala here, cold and no rain, how weird is that??), before they could squeeze Harrison through one of the windows.

We arrived back at the seminary at 10pm. The Zone 46 Team had returned for the weekend from Zone 46. We got to hang out with them for few minutes before bed. It was great seeing them. I missed them all so much, especially Ryan and the McElhaneys. Tomorrow, we head out to Antigua for some shopping.

Thoughout the day, Matt Papa's song, Here I am, Send Me, has been going through my head, especially the chorus. It really reminded me why we're all here, and gave me a bit of encouragement.

"Lord, here I am, send me.
I'll follow wherever you lead. I will tell the world that Jesus is the way.
Won't you send me Lord? Here I am,
I offer my dreams, my plans.
I will give my life, a living sacrifice.
Lord, here I am."

Thursday, July 19, Day Five

Another 'normal' day, the food is good, the people are so sweet, and it's really hot outside. No rain.

We're all working so hard. I know not only Team Hope, but also Team Parromos, and I have a feeling Ryan is pushing Team 46 to their limits. Speaking of which, we'll be seeing them tomorrow. So excited to be reunited with them!!

I read my Bible for almost two hours this morning, and found peace in every single moment. I really enjoy Team Hope, we're becoming so close, and I love every single one of them. :)

There are some teenage boys at Hope, and we're starting to make friends with them. Omar, who's 18. His younger brother, Harrison, who's 16. Then there's Axel, Carlos, and a couple of others.

I know how cliche this sounds, but God is moving through us. I can feel him.

Group we were working with today.
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My two sweet friends, Anna and Morgan (from left to right). <3
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Making corn tortillas with two more of my amazing friends, Sarah and Francesca (from left to right).
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Wednesday, July 18, Day Four

Today was what they called a 'normal day'. We went to hope and served lunch and played with the kids. The guys have been working so hard on building the second story of Hope. Really proud of them.

 

After working, we went to the seminary and ate with Jose. Then, he took us to his church. It was really cool and a lot of fun!! Everything was in Spanish (big duh here), but I knew most of the songs in English, and Jose translated the sermon for us. It was really cool to see how free the members of the church felt to worship, they danced and shouted and raised their hands. They didn't care what we thought about them. They just wanted to praise God.

It occurred to me that even though it's rainy season here, it hasn't rained at all. It's supposed to rain almost every day... Odd.

Tuesday, July 17, Day Three

Feeling pretty sore right now, but it's been totally worth it.

Today, we went to a huge outdoor market to ask people to donate food for Hope. At first, it was kind of strange just walking up to people and basically begging for free food was a little strange, but once we warmed up to it, it was actually a lot of fun.

After six hours, we filled up a trailer full of food. While eating lunch in a little restaurant at the market, Jose told us that it was the first time in seven years that he's ever gotten donations from a certain two big-time sellers. Pretty cool.

The girls then went with Jose and Kevin to the bank to exchange our money for Guatemalan currency while the boys went back to Hope. The bank was inside a mall, and the mall was super cool. There were fountains that shot out colored water, and a waterfall that somehow got water to fall in the shape of different words. It was weird going from a neighborhood of people so poor, to a mall full of people so well off. The mall reminded me just how much it's the more blessed peoples jobs to lend a hand to the less fortunate. It was also a shocker to walk into a mall much nicer than the one at home.

After the mall, we went back to Hope to start handing out food to Zone 18 families. The boys had already unloading everything and sorted it while we were at the mall, so all we had left to go was hand it out. It was amazing to see how much these people depended on Hope, how much faith they had that they would receive enough food for the week.

After that, we all got into the trailer -- The one that recently had food in it, as the bus was still not working -- and headed back to the seminary to eat dinner with Parromos group.

Then, we went to bed. (Yay!!)

Monday, July 16, Day Two

Today is mom's birthday... I wonder what she has planned.

This day has felt really long. We made our first trip to Hope for Guatemala today. It's really cool! For the entire two weeks, we're going to be serving the Zone 18 kids breakfast and lunch, and a few of the guys are going to work on building a second story expansion on the Hope building.

Zone 18 is pretty rough. I mean, many of the houses are made of concrete walls and floors, tin roofs, and have no running water. Hope has water, but a limited supply for every day. They make every drop count!!

My goodness, the kids are adorable!! The majority of them were friendly and they tried to teach us a little Spanish...

Good luck with that one.

We worked all day until 4:30, then loaded the bus. Which is where I am right now. Something's wrong with the bus and it won't start. It's starting to get a little hot... But we're all trying to keep up a good attitude. Morgan, Henry, Ian, and Anna are talking about movies they've seen recently. I was considering joining in, but decided not to. By the time I watch 'new' movies, they're already out on DVD.

We're supposed to eat dinner at 6:30... I'm starving.

Sunday, July 15, Day One...

Today has been very long.

We spent the whole day traveling. It's been crazy, but crazy in a good way.

We woke up at 4 am and left to church. At 6, we made a quick goodbye video for the Students service, and loaded a Young bus, pulling out of the church parking lot at 6:30.

We arrived at the airport and spent a couple hours checking everyone in and going through security. Then, we made a mad dash to a Wendy's inside the airport to grab food to tide us over until we could have a decent meal.

We then all got on the plane, and flew down to the Dallas airport and had an hour or so to eat an early dinner. Clay, Adam, Alex, Levi and I went to T.G. I. Friday. The food was really good, and we all had a blast talking and laughing.

After dinner, we met up with the group and boarded the plane for Guatemala. It was about three and a half hours long, but it was a nice flight. At the end, when we started to descend, we broke through the layer of clouds and were overlooking an amazing, beautiful view of Guatemala City. The lights were like stars in the dark night. Breathtaking...

We got off the plane and went through customs, which was a quick process. By then, we were all exhausted and ready to go to bed. Luckily, the team that flew through Miami joined us before too long, and we were able to board a big yellow school bus to ride to the seminary. It was a pretty quiet drive, thank goodness, because most of the chatterboxes were too tired to talk.

Looking out the windows on the way to the seminary, it didn't look like Guatemala needed much service. In fact, it looked a lot like downtown back at home. Big buildings and nice houses. After a few minutes, though, I figured out that we were in Zone 1, one of the nicer zones.

Wonder what Zone 18 has in store. Can't wait to start serving!!

Uncut writing

It's taken a lot of writing, erasing, re-writing, re-erasing, and re-writing again to get this post written.

I don't know why. I suppose it takes a bit to get the stuff in my head out on paper (Er... Screen)... But maybe that's a good thing. Anyway, enough of my dodging.

34 days ago (July 15), I set out to Guatemala with my lovely church for a mission trip. If you've been reading my recent posts at all, you've heard me talk about it a little bit...

Backing up:

Last September, I filled out a form along with 56 other teenagers. It requested my personal information amongst other things. Then, I had an interview with two staff members of my church. I waited in anticipation for a few days and finally, an intern from the church called to say I made the team.

Since then, I've spent nine months serving, training, and preparing to go to Guatemala. And man, was it ever worth it. Even though I had to raise quite a bit of money, and it didn't seem like we would pull through -- which, by the way, I didn't pull through... God did -- and we faced quite a few obstacles in those long nine months, I found myself sitting in my church's student room on July 15th, about to get on a bus to leave for the airport.

I've decided to spend the next couple of weeks posting my journal entries. (Idea credit to my good friend Anna... Follow her at http://standingfirm4him.wordpress.com/)

What?... You can't expect me to come up with all the good ideas. Besides, just think of it as the uncut version of my writing. No editing, no 'cleaning up'. Just pure me (a.k.a pure awesomeness).

My apologies for not writing to you sooner.

Meteor Shower

This song sums up the previous couple weeks of my life.

"I am not my own, for I have been made new.
Please don't let me go, I desperately need You..."