14 Hours Later
After 14 hours of sitting in a car, drinking Diet Dr Peppers and eating gobstoppers, I am FINALLY in Panama City Beach!! Praise the Lord! As soon as I got here I started to realize how much I love being here with all my friends that share the same passion as me.
Throughout this extra week, all DGL’s (DGroup Leaders) go through training and job search. It gets kind of difficult to find a job when 28 other leaders are trying to find a job with the same exact hours. I am one of the lucky ones to say that I got a job in a matter of 3 hours. I will be working with my best friend Blake Matthews at a restaurant in Seaside, FL called Pickles and I am SO excited. Seaside is an extremely rich part of Florida. I like to think it is where all the CEO’s go for vacation. So, as you probably guessed, It is a high class place. It is such a cute little town and the people there are normally older people who have retired or something. It is just precious and I am so excited for work.
Besides looking for a job, we still through trainings that help us prep our small groups and get a head start on our inductive bible study. Even though, it is in my tendency to complain about sitting through training for 8 hours, I am so so so thankful for the leadership that is at the project. The staff that is here is so helpful and encouraging and I know for a fact that they would do anything for us and I am just so thankful for that characteristic in them.
My DGroup will arrive on Friday and I am seriously counting down minutes!!
PRAYERS:
-If you would be will to pray for Courtney, Bri and Lauren. Specifically pray that God will start to open there hearts and mind to my leadership and the gospel. Pray that they would get a heart for the nation and that they would grow exponentially in their faith over the summer.
-Pray that I would be a servant to my group and that my DGroup and I would be a servant to my co-workers.
Thanks you all so much for your prayers.
Throughout this extra week, all DGL’s (DGroup Leaders) go through training and job search. It gets kind of difficult to find a job when 28 other leaders are trying to find a job with the same exact hours. I am one of the lucky ones to say that I got a job in a matter of 3 hours. I will be working with my best friend Blake Matthews at a restaurant in Seaside, FL called Pickles and I am SO excited. Seaside is an extremely rich part of Florida. I like to think it is where all the CEO’s go for vacation. So, as you probably guessed, It is a high class place. It is such a cute little town and the people there are normally older people who have retired or something. It is just precious and I am so excited for work.
Besides looking for a job, we still through trainings that help us prep our small groups and get a head start on our inductive bible study. Even though, it is in my tendency to complain about sitting through training for 8 hours, I am so so so thankful for the leadership that is at the project. The staff that is here is so helpful and encouraging and I know for a fact that they would do anything for us and I am just so thankful for that characteristic in them.
My DGroup will arrive on Friday and I am seriously counting down minutes!!
PRAYERS:
-If you would be will to pray for Courtney, Bri and Lauren. Specifically pray that God will start to open there hearts and mind to my leadership and the gospel. Pray that they would get a heart for the nation and that they would grow exponentially in their faith over the summer.
-Pray that I would be a servant to my group and that my DGroup and I would be a servant to my co-workers.
Thanks you all so much for your prayers.
Swamped.
I just want to start out saying that I am so sorry I have only blogged once since I got here. I have to admit that I have had no downtime this last week. I am going to try and keep everyone up to date on what is going on here and how God is moving so get excited!!
With that being said, we have made it through the first week and a half of Kaleo!!! WOOOOO! This first week is always stressful for the participants. As soon as they got here we had a relaxing day on the beach with a stressful day of beach evangelism and inductive to follow. Even though the first week is a lot to take in, my girls did a fantastic job! They are constantly positive and excited to see what comes next and I am extremely thankful for that!
Some funny things that have already happened in this short time of us being here deal with my girls thinking that it is hilarious to prank me…. I’d have to admit that it probably is hilarious because I fall for it every time! For example, when I came home from work today I had to use the restroom. When I went to sit down on the toilet, I soon came to the realization that they has coated it in butter… It. Was. Awful. Of course they are dying laughing in the other room because they know that I just about fell off the toilet. Something else that has quickly become the entertainment of the room is sock wrestling. Sock wrestling is when each person wears a sock and the objective is to try and get the other persons sock off. It is so funny! It always seems to find itself into our late night highs of energy. My girls are hilarious and I love it.
On a more serious note, I can already see my girls growing. They are committing to going on prayer walks, studying scripture and memorizing scripture. I am truly blessed to have girls that are excited to learn about the Lord. They are being bold in sharing their faith on the beach and they are being teachable to me. I couldn’t be more happy.
Some things that I could use prayer about are:
Bri: Pray that she would continue to be positive and patient with some of the issue that are going on in our DGroup. Pray that she would continue to be open to me and that she would really let me into her life. Pray that Bri’s heart would grow for the nations and the importance of sharing your faith. Pray that she would have a conviction to meet with the Lord everyday before she goes to work. Pray that Bri will continue to be the loving, kind self that she is. Pray the Bri would have the conviction to want to share the gospel with her friends in Alpha Gam when we get back to school.
Courtney: Pray that courtney would open up to me and share things with me that she doesn’t share with others. Pray that she will also have the conviction to meet with the Lord everyday and that her heart would grow for the Lord and nations. Pray that she will also continue to be positive and patient with the issues that are going on in our DGroup. Pray that courtney will be bold with gospel when we come back to school. Pray that courtney will continue to be the entertainment of the group and that she would continue to be her positive self.
Lauren: Pray that lauren would also open up to me. Pray that she would become excited about inductive and beach evangelism. Pray that she would become teachable to me and allow me to lead her throughout this summer. Pray that lauren will continue to get her stuff completed when it is due. Pray that she will continue to enjoy her job and that she would continue to do her applications.
Now that you know about my girls, I’ll inform you on how I am doing. I am exhausted and drained if you want me to be honest. Being a DGroup leader is hard, I didn’t know it was going to be this challenging. Satan is attacking me and testing me in areas that I haven’t had struggles with before. Thank the Lord that I have Nikki (my team leader) to encourage me and keep me accountable.
The thing that I need the most right now is prayer.
-Pray that I will have patience with the issues in our DGroup.
-Pray that I will continue to seek guidance.
-Pray that the Lord would give me knowledge when it comes to leading DGroup and my 1-1’s.
-Pray that the Lord would continue to grow and stretch me this summer.
Love all of y’all.
With that being said, we have made it through the first week and a half of Kaleo!!! WOOOOO! This first week is always stressful for the participants. As soon as they got here we had a relaxing day on the beach with a stressful day of beach evangelism and inductive to follow. Even though the first week is a lot to take in, my girls did a fantastic job! They are constantly positive and excited to see what comes next and I am extremely thankful for that!
Some funny things that have already happened in this short time of us being here deal with my girls thinking that it is hilarious to prank me…. I’d have to admit that it probably is hilarious because I fall for it every time! For example, when I came home from work today I had to use the restroom. When I went to sit down on the toilet, I soon came to the realization that they has coated it in butter… It. Was. Awful. Of course they are dying laughing in the other room because they know that I just about fell off the toilet. Something else that has quickly become the entertainment of the room is sock wrestling. Sock wrestling is when each person wears a sock and the objective is to try and get the other persons sock off. It is so funny! It always seems to find itself into our late night highs of energy. My girls are hilarious and I love it.
On a more serious note, I can already see my girls growing. They are committing to going on prayer walks, studying scripture and memorizing scripture. I am truly blessed to have girls that are excited to learn about the Lord. They are being bold in sharing their faith on the beach and they are being teachable to me. I couldn’t be more happy.
Some things that I could use prayer about are:
Bri: Pray that she would continue to be positive and patient with some of the issue that are going on in our DGroup. Pray that she would continue to be open to me and that she would really let me into her life. Pray that Bri’s heart would grow for the nations and the importance of sharing your faith. Pray that she would have a conviction to meet with the Lord everyday before she goes to work. Pray that Bri will continue to be the loving, kind self that she is. Pray the Bri would have the conviction to want to share the gospel with her friends in Alpha Gam when we get back to school.
Courtney: Pray that courtney would open up to me and share things with me that she doesn’t share with others. Pray that she will also have the conviction to meet with the Lord everyday and that her heart would grow for the Lord and nations. Pray that she will also continue to be positive and patient with the issues that are going on in our DGroup. Pray that courtney will be bold with gospel when we come back to school. Pray that courtney will continue to be the entertainment of the group and that she would continue to be her positive self.
Lauren: Pray that lauren would also open up to me. Pray that she would become excited about inductive and beach evangelism. Pray that she would become teachable to me and allow me to lead her throughout this summer. Pray that lauren will continue to get her stuff completed when it is due. Pray that she will continue to enjoy her job and that she would continue to do her applications.
Now that you know about my girls, I’ll inform you on how I am doing. I am exhausted and drained if you want me to be honest. Being a DGroup leader is hard, I didn’t know it was going to be this challenging. Satan is attacking me and testing me in areas that I haven’t had struggles with before. Thank the Lord that I have Nikki (my team leader) to encourage me and keep me accountable.
The thing that I need the most right now is prayer.
-Pray that I will have patience with the issues in our DGroup.
-Pray that I will continue to seek guidance.
-Pray that the Lord would give me knowledge when it comes to leading DGroup and my 1-1’s.
-Pray that the Lord would continue to grow and stretch me this summer.
Love all of y’all.
Summer Home
The SS
I got a job at the Shrimp Shack in Seaside, FL and these are my wonderful co-workers.
They are the best!
They are the best!