Honesty is the Best Policy...

Today ends my first week in college. A sentence I never thought I would have the privilege of saying. However, I would be lying if I said it was easy. 

There are so many thoughts that come to me as I walk on campus or try to do my homework. There's quiet a variety to what I think.

Usually it sounds something like this...

"I love my roommate we get a long so well, I'm glad this worked out."

"I feel so privileged to be at a University to learn! Especially knowing why I want to be here."

"Wow, home is only 25 minutes away instead of 2,500 miles away. I can visit almost whenever I want!" 

Or I might have other drastic thoughts such as...

"Why am I doing this? This is hard? I should quit"

"I forgot how hard it can be to make friends. Maybe I should just commute to campus."

"Did God want me in college or was this just my decision?" 

"I just want to sleep and watch movies. I want a break" 

"I just finished a three and a half year journey of almost constant traveling, maybe I should've started next semester."

"Don't give up, keep speaking truth into your life. Satan is dumb and annoying, I can do this by the grace of God."

As you can see I've had a lot of opportunities to keep speaking truth to myself. The moments that become hardest though remind me of a couple I stayed with for one night, that have made a lasting impression on me. We (Life Action Road Team) were in Charleston, SC for the night and a church we had been with the year before set up host homes for us that night. 

An elderly couple I had never met volunteered to keep two girls in their home. They were very nice, we stayed up late chatting, and we were up early chatting again. However, it wasn't until we were getting in the car to leave that my host dad said something I've never forgotten. It was something to the affect of, "Girls, life is hard and the older you get, the harder it becomes. Keep your focus and trust in God." 

To which my host mom, was embarrassed for him not having said something nice, encouraging, or sweet to wish us goodbye. However, I have often thought of what he said. 

In the short two years it's been since he said that to us, these have been some of the most trying times in my life. At some of the most discouraging moments I would remember sitting in the car with the door open, a nice elderly man standing in front of me saying, "Life is hard, and the older you get the harder life becomes... focus and trust in God." 

So even though, he did not wish us a general or cliche kind of goodbye... He spoke truth. 

And that truth, has meant so much more to me, than all these fluffed up (yet truthful) God has a plan for you goodbyes. For that, I'm grateful.  

His honesty was something that didn't give me false hope, it put reality in place, life is hard. However, it also reminded me of 1 Corinthians 10:13 which says, 

"The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure."

I know God's opened so many doors for me to be here. I'm here for a purpose, even though I can't see that purpose, I have to continue to trust Him. Fighting back against lies that I come across or I'm tempted to believe. 

It's only the beginning of school, I know as I get into the groove of this new chapter everything will be much smoother and better. I just wanted to give you some truth today and remember that Christ loves you, he sees where you are, but He won't give you anything you can't handle with His grace. 

Be encouraged. 

The Not-So-Perfect Servant Girl...

For the past three years I played the part of the servant girl in a children's musical we do on the road. We tell the story of Naaman from 2 Kings 5. Naaman's character has a couple problems. One being that he has leprosy, the other is that he is incredibly prideful. Naaman had a servant girl that he had captured for his wife. The servant girl explains that there's a prophet from her homeland who know's God and if, Naaman, could meet him he could be healed.
The servant girl is supposed to be the example of an honest humble believer.

However, it wasn't until after being the servant girl for nearly two years God showed me how prideful I was in being the servant girl. I get to be in the spot light, with lines and sing a song. I've always enjoyed being the center of attention. Most of the time doing Naaman would make me feel important and like I had talent (In reality, I am not an actress whatsoever, and would mess up my song what felt like almost every time).

I portrayed the servant girl and yet my heart was completely full of pride.
When I realized this not only was I shocked, I was ashamed of myself.
I was so blind to the condition of my heart.
I hate pride because God hates pride.
"The Lord detests the proud; surely they will be punished."
Proverbs 16:5
I was surprised to hear that I would be the servant girl for a second year and even more surprised when they gave it to me for a third time.
Now, I know that God wanted me to see the ugliness of my heart.
I'm not sure if I will ever be completely cleared of pride but becoming humble is like Christ.
And I want to be like Christ.

"For me to live is Christ and to die is gain..."
Philippians 1:21

2014-2015

Hello, from Life Action Camp.

A couple weeks ago we finished the road year. 

I just wanted to send you an update.

On our way to the last church the bus broke down so we had to all pile into different vehicles to get to our destination (3 hours from where we had to leave our bus).

We made fun out of the situation. 

It wasn't until the night before we had to leave that they had the bus fixed.

The church we were in had a considerably large amount of attendants for the size of the building. However, there was no room for two kids clubs. Just one.
Which means we combined our age groups and taught just one large Happy Heart City.

It was a blast!
We all had fun being able to teach together, and it was an experience I never thought would happen. 

It was surreal finishing up what had become just regular life for me these past few years.
However, now I am in Buchanan, Michigan.
I get the privilege of serving families while they come to family camp for a week at a time.
Last week I had the sweetest, fun, family. I was very happy to serve them and it was great connecting with them while they where here.

I look forward to serving five more families and moving back home next month.

For now I'm resting until camp starts again on Monday.
If you'd like to see more of what my last travel year looked like here's our end of the year video:
YouTube.com

And just for fun, I made this video: I Can't Cook while I was here waiting for families to arrive.

Until next time,
Marina Nellie. 

An Unexpected Surprise

While traveling on the road full time you end up going through luggage pieces more often than you'd like. The constant packing, unpacking, and pulling of your suitcases from place to place takes a toll on them. Here you are only allowed to have one big suitcase, and a duffle. You also have a personal closet on the truck to store things which helps a lot. However, when you have to pack for all weather circumstances, and you're traveling for 10 months, it just never feels like there's enough room.
That is, I am speaking for myself.

Yet, everyone has their own system for how to travel and mine seems to change more often than I'd like. For all my travel time I have not used a duffle. I would use some type of travel piece smaller than a duffle. At the beginning I thought I would be ok. Until a few months in, I wished I had one of those Vera Bradley duffles. I've never been a fan of how they look but moreover how well they function. Basically just being able to cram anything into it and having a side pocket that never seemed to let anything slip out.

While we were in Florida about a month ago I was able to stay with a family for two nights that I had previously stayed with on the road last year. It was great being able to visit and catch up with them. They are such a sweet family. My roommate and I grew very close with them when we were there for a summit last year. So it meant a lot to be able to see them for just a couple days.

While we were talking on the last night my host mom asked about how our luggage works. I mentioned the big suitcase, and duffle bag. Now, I wouldn't normally mention how I'd like a Vera Bradley duffle bag over what I did have for a couple of reasons. Sometimes people just really want to bless you and if they hear you want something they will go out and get it. Other times, if you say it in such a way they might feel like you are hinting at wanting them to get something for you. So I never mention things like that. I despise it when people are free loaders and I do my best to not come off like one.
However, I knew them and we were just having a conversation, I happened to mention it.
No later than ten minutes she tells me she had something for me.

A Vera Bradley duffle. She had it for when she gave birth to her son, James who was a three month old at the time. She used it once to take what she needed with her to the hospital.

I had no intention of hinting about it, I was purely just sharing about my life and how traveling works. To say the least, I was incredibly shocked and yes, the cliche christian "I'm so #blessed" sentence. But hey, I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true. That bag has been so nice to have. Every time I look at it I'm still shocked.
It may seem silly to you, but I'll be forever grateful.

You never know when or where God is going to bless you next.
It may not be something like a duffle bag, but it could mean just as much to you.

Live in the Moment

We just finished a full summit in Aledo, Illinois where I was able to sit through all the services and just soak in for a break. It was awesome. I had not sat in but one service since last spring. Granted that’s my fault because I’m in charge and could have made time for myself to get in service but… life.

The other night while in service it dawned on me all of the “last time” moments I am about to have. The last time I will wear the team dress I’ve had since my first year. The last time I’ll get to teach my favorite lesson. Or the last time I’ll tell a story that’s made the most impact on my life.  The last time I get to go out to lunch or coffee with my close friends. The list is endless and I can’t help but get emotional over some of these things. So I asked my boyfriend, to help me come up with a word or phrase that I could say to myself to keep me from slipping into sadness.

And yes, I did say boyfriend. Like how I snuck that in there? His name is Nathan, he’s from Michigan, and he leads the older kids club called, Base Camp.  Now you have enough information to stalk him, so in the words of my father, “Get crackin!”

Anyways, he took some time to think about it and called me later than night. He told me about how it can be easy to compare travel years and nitpick at what you do and don’t like between all of them. But rather than doing that, just live in the moment. Enjoy the blessing that moment is.

Since then there have been so many times I’ve had to say to myself, “Marina, just live in the moment. It’s going to be OK.” It’s been so very helpful. Just reminding myslef not to get anxious over it and pray for grace.

Now we are in route to The Barn at Buladean. A place you may have heard me mention before. We’ve spent a couple of Thanksgivings there since I started traveling in 2012. We’ll be staying there till Sunday then going to a conference at the Billy Graham Center in North Carolina.  We’ll be helping and attending with some of it. So that’s my update on life for you!

Thanks for reading!

When Crayons Make You Cry...

Hi from the Blue Team in Harrison, Tennessee!
Services just ended yesterday and I just had to share with you something God did for us teachers!

The other night as we were signing in kids a little girl gave us a hand made card. 

It expressed how she had loved coming to Happy Heart City and that she was thankful for all she had learned. Along with the card was a little box of 24 brand new crayons. I immediately was filled with love and joy. Feeling incredibly grateful for a brand new box of crayons. She knew we needed them because our old ones are so shot and gross. Many of them 1/4 of an inch long. We had been needing new crayons for months. Just a week or so ago I put a request for 192 new crayons. Which can take a long time to get. Like maybe by May sometime we would get them. No joke. 

I was already starting to try and figure out how to use them. 

Should I just add them to the bucket? 

Or should I look for our worst crayons to through away?

How can I best use these without ruining them?

Every night when we do craft and we have to hand out little bits of crayons for the kids to use I feel so bad. But now we have some new ones to add to the group. So it will be a little better. 

Then another little girl came in with her own little baggie of crayons for the same reason. She wanted to bless us with some new crayons, knowing we needed them.

How sweet can they be?

That was so thoughtful of them. 

When the kids were signed in we got started with the rules. 

When the children's minister from the church came in and said,

"Stop! I need all the teachers to the front! The kids have something they want to bless you with" 

She was holding a huge box in her hands and she said, 

"Kids what are the two things the Happy Heart City teachers needed the most?" 

The kids shouted, "Crayons and markers!" 

At that point one of the little girls Caris (5 years old) had the biggest grin on her face and she said, 

"This is going to bless y'all's life so much!"

Kerri handed us the giant box filled with hundreds and hundreds of new crayons and new sharpies. 

Never in my life has a church been so thoughtful and sweet.

I stood there with the other teachers just in complete shock. 

I may have shed some tears. May have... ok I didn't but I definitely wanted too!

Their kindness was huge to not only our teachers but for me personally... my heart was full. 

Even after that night parents would come in with more and more crayons, highlighters, and sharpies. 

This was huge, and all I had hoped for was 192 crayons by May. 

Thank you God for going above and beyond our needs. 

"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:19

Snow, Ice, Sleet, Repeat

This half of the year we tend to run into cold weather often. However, at the moment the cold weather has taken a toll on us. Our four-day conference for a church in Bartlett, Tennessee had three out of four days cancelled due to weather. We set up on Saturday had services on Sunday and then cancelled Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we came in to tear down, and left Thursday. Now we’re traveling to Harrison, Tennessee where there’s also a storm coming in tonight.

At this point it feels like you can only have so many off days.

  

Of course I was productive though. You know me; I can relax for a little while but only to a certain degree or I’ll go crazy.

So, I finished engagement pictures for a couple of my friends Kendra and Mark…

Then, I worked on a video for my friend Matthew’s birthday which is entirely made up of inside jokes so you may or may not get it but in case you wanted to see it here it is:

And then tried to relax a little bit!

I’m looking forward to finally have a full summit though. We’ve been out of our normal routine for almost a month and traveled to five different place, had five different beds and families to connect with. Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome to be able to invest in so many people but I’m only human and desire to land here soon.

Other than that, I’ve registered for my college classes and picked out my dorm that I’ll be living in come the Fall. Oh yeah, and I was accepted to GCU. Which in order to accomplish what I just said you probably figured that out.

Thanks for reading, I’ve been working on more super amature and random videos of road life I hope to get to you soon.

Until next time!