Wednesday, December 11, 2013

128 Days, 16 Different Beds, and 10 Families Later...

Here's some pictures to catch you up on what's been going on

This is just a few of our kids in Fayetteville, GA. We all huddled up and shared stories before going into worship time.


A blurry memory of my good friends Karis and Trysta at our team Christmas party.


This is just a little snapshot of all the snow that was falling the day before Thanksgiving. We were in North Carolina and had a nice relaxing holiday together as a team.


My mom wishing me a happy birthday on FaceTime a few weeks ago.




This is the only coffee shop near the church we were in during our summit in Princeton, Kentucky last week. We loved going, it was very unique.



Every once in awhile Zac will give the kids a lesson on life sayings.


My roommate and I took the privilege of moving our host families "Elf on the Shelf" one early morning


This is my dear friend Austin. He's leaving for bootcamp to be a Marine and I won't be able to see him for a long time. Being able to travel with him for the past year and a half has been a blessing not only to me but the whole team. He's one of the most humble and loyal people I know and he will be greatly missed! 

  
If you're like me and you come from a background of warm weather where the sun is so hot it’s like an outdoor sauna.
Then you will not be able to relate to what I'm about to tell you.
When I first heard the rumors I was reluctant to believe them. I refused to listen or give into the fear.
Could this really be happening right now? Of all the times just a few days before we leave to go home for Christmas break. The weatherman had to say those two dreadful words that mean so much more than what it sounds like.

Ice storm…


An ice storm has the potential to wipe out all the electricity in the city, keep everyone from getting food, or anywhere for that matter. The last time an ice storm came to the city of Princeton everyone was out of electricity for three weeks. Fortunately, we never ran out of electricity but we did have to cancel three services due to weather. On Sunday morning my roommate and I were getting ready for service and just after I finished doing my hair and makeup (at six in the am) we get a text about morning service being cancelled. Needless to say we crawled back in bed and I slept until eleven that day.
On Sunday night however we finally had our last service and I had the privilege of being able to tell the kids about how Jesus died on the cross for us. Before I taught that night I made a quick post on Facebook asking for prayer and it made the biggest difference. Thank you so much for all who prayed for me!

The next day (Monday) we left from Kentucky to go to Michigan. There where twelve of us on the bus traveling together yesterday. We stopped for lunch at Subway and on our way back to the bus, as we were about to get on, there was shattered glass everywhere. Our bus had been broken into…
We all were immediately jolted with fear. As one by one people were stepping off the bus saying, “My Macbook was taken” and another, “My backpack is gone” I was scared to see if anything of mine was gone. I had chosen to sit in the far back of the bus and by the grace of God none of my stuff had been touched.
Altogether, three backpacks were stolen along with wallets, laptops, iPads, and other valuable things. Although everything that was taken is just stuff, what everyone was hurting most for was all of their memories. Thousands of pictures, videos, and even homework for some of them. What I hurt the most for is my friend who had her novels in her laptop. Year’s worth of work for her and its all gone.
You would be surprised by how the team handled this. With grace, nobody got mad and yelled. There was no fighting. Just a calm and disappointed spirit.
When the police came, they filed several reports and recorded what all had happened. But there was nothing else they could do. Even though something awful like that had just happened we still had four hours of driving before we would get to Michigan. So we cleaned up the glass and someone ran over to the liquor store and asked if we could have some cardboard to cover our broken door with. No sooner than later (three hours) we were driving on the highway with Vodka cardboard on the outside of our Life Action bus. For the last hour of our trip we all laughed and made jokes together about what had all happened. Yes, they were joking about it. They could cry, or whine, or decide to stay upset for a long time but instead they chose joy.

(Team member coming from the liquor store bringing the cardboard to cover up our broken door)

The best part of this story is that my friend Zac who is a diabetic had all of his medicine in his backpack. Whoever tried to take his backpack couldn’t get it through the small door and they had to leave it on the steps. Granted they took out his Macbook Pro. However, if Zac didn’t have his insulin he could have easily gotten blood poisoning before we could get to the camp and we would have had to take him to the hospital. Praise God.
(My friend Trysta and I snuggling up in a cabin at the camp the night before we went home for break)

So even though the Life Action Blue Team has had a rough start to our Christmas break, we know God is sovereign and continue to celebrate the holidays with joy.
I wish you a Merry Christmas.

It’s good to finally be home!

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