wow. what a week.

so this week was completely different then last week. we had three groups once again from PA, CT, and MN (minneapolis YAY). the beggining of the week was super hard because i missed all the participants from the first week. they were so great. not that this group wasnt great, they were just completely different.



the ages were younger and also just they way the acted was younger as well. so i wasn't really sure how i felt about the week. but as the week went on some amazing things happened:



1. JANE-right away on monday i noticed how she just really didnt seem into this. she was always by herself not talking to others and she spent the whole day when she was supposed to be working at kids club talking to a local teenager guy. this definately was just a red flag to me and i wanted to get to know her more. so monday at the marina i sat down with her and talked. she told me how she didnt fit in with her church group and how she never felt like she could truly be herself in life. she also opened up about how she was struggling with boys and wanted to let go of all of it. so i knew that God had to do great things for her this week. through out the week i was frustrated, i had a few more conversations with her but she always just looked so sad and never said that she had a great time, just ok. so i really didnt know how to take all of this. i even had to be the "mean one" when she snuck out with the local teenage boy. so i had kinda given up hope. well thursday during the footwashing this all changed. i had just finished washing feet with mark and had sat down when all of a sudden jane came over and just like collapsed on me in tears. i just held her for a few minutes and told her everything was going to be ok. she told me that this was the best week of her life, she truly felt like she could be herself now and that she had the courage to be herself as well. this was amazing. here i thought that she was hating me for being so concerned but really it was just what she had needed. i am excited to go home to minneapolis and be able to hang out with jane, and even take her to church with me sometimes. she is really an amazing child of God and i cant wait to see where she is going to take what she learned here this week!

2: there was a group here from minneapolis. i love it when people from back home come. it is just a breathe of fresh air slash i make friends that i can actually hang out with again!

3: it was rainy all week which was a bummer but we still made everything work!

4: my cell phone broke and i had to get a 30 dollar ghetto one. so i have to do t9 again, which is wayyyy hard to relearn. but it is good. it was also kind of a lesson, i really rely on my cell way to much and the fancy technology of it. i really do think God was just saying that i need to rely souly on him. and not on my communcation to people back home. even though i love everyone back home so much, i need to remember that all i need is God and He will take care of everything else!

5: God is really teaching me to let go. I really do enjoy having people tell me good job or wow this is amazing what you do. and have it be about me, but it isnt about me, it is about Him. and i need to remember that. when particpants come here, I want to be the one to change their life, but that isnt the way it works, yeah they listen to the talks i give and look at my example, but God working in their lives in what truly changes them, i do nothing. and as hard as that is to except and realize it is the truth, God really showed that to me this week and it was a really good thing to learn. although i have always known this it is finally starting to make sense. we are just here planting seeds, God sees the end results in their hearts and really does the work. It is NOT about is, it IS about God!

so that is my week in a nut shell. this weekend has been hard. i really am getting home sick which is something that has never happened before. i miss my friends and family so much that it is really difficult. it is hard to talk to friends back home on the weekends cause that is when they are all busy. and it is just hard living with four strangers all summer, and they are all great and awesome but we are nothing a like and i just miss having people here that know me super well.

but the thing is that God has called me here to be in steubenville, and he has a plan and a will for me. life isnt easy. it is not supposed to be. if being a christian and doing what God wanted was easy, everyone would do it. God calls us to do things that are humanly impossible, but with God all things are possible (Phil 4:13) so he is gonna help me make it through!

i love and miss you all and i hope you all have a beautiful day!