CSM rocked my world!

I just returned home from CSM Nashville and God was definetly working in my life and moving me to action over the last week!

Sun:
On Sunday we left the Lima Trinity parking lot about 9:15am after being comissioned by the 8:30am church service.  Two adults, two college students, and four high school students, and two middle school students embarked on a 6 hr journey to Nashville, TN.  Our group was made up of youth and adults from four different congregations in the Lima area.  It's hard to believe that we didn't all know each other 1 week ago.  We ate lunch at Taco bell and had many laughs.  Before finally arriving at our CSM housing center we stopped at Wal-Mart.  We were the last group to arrive at CSM and shortly after arrival we had a leaders meeting and then we met our host for the week, Meredith.  That night we went to dinner at Swett's which a southern soul food restaurant.

Mon:
On Monday we woke up at the crack of dawn (7:30am) and showered and had breakfast and then Ethan and I lead our group's devos.  Our scripture was Romans 12:9-13 and we talked about our expectations for the week and what we were hoping to get out of the week.  Ethan and I also talked about the fact that we have a lot more stuff than most people do and that we needed to serve with an open heart/mind and be grateful.
Our first location that we were serving at was an Adult Day Service. We got to interact with a lot of people and hear a lot of great stories.  We met a guy named Wilbur who was 102 yrs old, but he didnt look a day over 80.  He told a lot of stories and even played the harmonica.  We also met a lady named Tonya who shared her story with us.  She said she had been coming to ADS for 11 years because she had 3 brain anerisms and her daughter did not want her to sit around at home all day and do nothing. We also met a guy named Joe Pickett who was pretty ornry.  We ate lunch there and after lunch we provided some entertainment by singing some of our favorite songs.  Before we left Joe Pickett prayed for our group.
I'll admit I was a bit nervous at first but I absolutely had a ball that day.
In the afternoon we went and served at Feed the Children. This is an organiztion similar to the West Ohio Food Bank here in town.  Feed the children provides food and general hygeine products to people in need.  While we were there we sorted boxes, cleaned, and taped boxes.
For our evening activity we went on a prayer tour of Nashville.  We prayed for different areas of the city and this is when God slowly started to soften my heart and my heart began to break.
*Northern Nashville is mostly African Americans
*50% of metro students qualify for free or reduced lunches
*Over 2000 students in the metro area are homeless
*In 2004 15% of students were suspended
*Nashville=Music City USA
*Music Industry makes $6.4 billion
*13% of Nashville's population lives below the povery line
*4000 people a night experience homelessness in Nashville
*Room at the Inn and Nashville Rescue are just two of the shelters in Nashville
*1/3 of the homeless in Nashville have jobs, however min wage is $7.25 an hr, so its hard to save money and live off that
*Nashville has over 700 churches
*"Tent City" flooded last year
While we were on this tour we got to pray for many different things.  We stopped at the capitold building, got out and got to pray for the city and our country.  Matt pointed out that in some countries we wouldn't have been able to do that.  We also got out and prayed and laid face down on the sidewalk. When we did that on one side of the street was a stadium and on the other side was JDC.  We were praying and closing the gap.

Tues:
Tuesday morning we went and helped at a soup kitchen.  It made me sad to know that these people were either homeless or they didn't have enough food at home to make them a meal.  But at the same time it made me happy knowing that there was a place in Nashville that people could come and get a warm meal and they had a place to stay out of the heat for a short time.  It reminded me of ODB here in Lima and being there made me realize that I need to get out of my comfort zone and I need to serve here in Lima.
After eating lunch at Sonic and taking a quick tour of the Parthanon replica we headed to NICE which is an organization that teaches English as a second language to immigrant/refugee children.  While there we administered end of the summer reading assessments to the kids and then we got to hang out and play with the kids for a while. It was so much fun!
For dinner that night we were supposed to eat at an ethiopian restaurant but that fell through so we ate at a turkish restaurant. I was a little nervous but actually the food was good and I even ate LAMB!

Wed:
This morning our plans fell through but we ended up back at Adult Day Service. That allowed us the opportunity to get to know more of the people there. I meant Walter and Anna and we made coin purses with them, colored, and we just got to fellowship with them. 

In the afternoon we participated in Urban Exposure.  We broke up into two smaller groups and this meant that we were "homeless" for 4 hrs.  We each were given a waterbottle for ourselves, one to give away to someone else, and $1.00 to live off of for lunch. If we wanted to we could get creative within our group and combine our money and get something to eat.  During our 4 hrs we had to talk to a police officer, tourist and nashville resident and get there take on homelessness in the city, as well as talk to a homeless person selling the contributer newspaper.  Our police officer that we spoke with was very enlightening and he told us that we had to be careful about enabling the homeless, but instead of enabling them we should really try and help them.  We met a guy selling the contributer and he told us that he didnt know if he would make enough money to be able to afford a hotel that night.  It made me sad to think that thats how he had to live.  We also went to the library which was air conditioned. While in there we noticed a lot of homeless people just sitting at the tables and some were even sleeping sitting up.  The library was a safe/cool place where they could come and get out of the heat for a couple hours w/o being kicked out.  Even though it was extrememly hot that day I'm glad I got to experience Urban Exposure. It made me really thankful for the roof over my head and food i have. My group ended up buying two snicker bars and splitting them for lunch

We ate mexican food back at the housing site and then we enjoyed worship night together. God totally rocked my world that night!

Thurs:
We woke pretty early again and an organization called End Slavery came and talked to us about the different forms of slavery that still exist in our world today. We were informed about human traficking and the fact that some kids are still sold into slavery today and forced to work.  We walked around Nashville and asked different businesses if they would be willing to post flyers in there businesses.
We ate lunch at taco bell/pizza hut and then we went back to the housing site for a little bit.  While there we wrote notes to people that we had met over the week and we lifted them up in prayer.  Then we made care packages before heading off to another day at NICE.
While at NICE we adminastered reading assessments to another group of kids and then we got to play with them for a little bit.  They seemed to speak English a little bit better than the group of kids we worked with on Tuesday. The kids were so cute and they broke our hearts when we told them we had to leave and they didn't want us to leave. It was so cool to be a part of something like this and something so much bigger than myself!

For dinner we ate at an Indian restaurant.  After dinner we went and got Fro-Yo (kinda near downtown) at a place that Taylor Swift goes and we were hoping to run into her but that didn't happen=(

Fri:
Friday was our last day working with CSM.  We were supposed to work at a soup kitchen but that fell through so went to McDonalds for breakfast.  We were each given $3 and told that we were to buy ourselves breakfast and with any change left over we were to buy someone else breakfast.  We weren't allowed to sit with our entire group because we had to mingle with other people and hear there stories. At first Lauren and I really struggled with this because we felt like we were invading on peoples space and this was not something we would normally do.  however, we did step outta our little boxes we gave a sandwhich to a homeless man outside Mcdonalds and then we bought a lady a hashbrown, and finally we got to sit and talk with 3 different people before leaving.
Our next stop was younglife.  But before the lady in charge arrived, we did some ZUMBA in the parking lot.  While at young life we did some cleaning. We ate lunch at a park and then headed to operation stand down which is a place that helps Veterans.  While there we sorted clothes and food.

Friday evening was our night off and we went to dinner at SATCO and then we headed downtown.  All 6 of our girls bought cowboy boots! It was cool to see downtown Nashville at night and unfortantly we saw a lot of homeless people and musicians playing for money. It just really broke my heart.

Sat:
We woke up early and cleaned CSM housing before heading out.  before leaving we said goodbye to Meredith our city host and gave her a gift.  We left about 8:30am and drove for about an hour and then stopped at Mammoth Cave, where we spent the morning.  We went on a tour of the cave and then we went on a few trails and even saw a butterfly garden.  For lunch we ate at Cheddars and then headed to our hotel.  After a long week we just needed a day to relax and bond with each other. We swam for a little bit before eating pizza for dinner and then finishing up the trip with awesome devos!

Sun:
It's different being home and I already miss nashville, but at the same time I know that there are so many things that I can be doing here in Lima.  Lima is a broken city just like Nashville and I want to serve.  I miss everyone already but the cool thing is that we are all from Lima so we have the ability to stay in touch! Thanks CSM(and God) for allowing me to experience this! and thanks Lima Trinity for making me feel like a part of your group and for loving me for who I am! God truly rocked my world this past week!!

CSM-Nashville 2011-Lets be the hands and feet of Jesus

I just returned home earlier today from a week long mission trip in Nashville, TN through an organization called Center for Student Missions(CSM).  This trip completely turned my world upside down....for the better of course.  It's kind of funny how I ended up on this trip.  I had heard that a church that goes to Lakeside was going to go about a couple of months ago and I thought about going but decided against going when I realized how much it would cost and that meant I'd have to take off another week of work this summer, and I'd already taken off 3 weeks this summer.  While I was at the second week of senior high lakeside just a few weeks ago, God opened up the opportunity for me to go once again.  After praying about it I knew that I was supposed to go! And just think, I wasn't even planning on going to Lakeside for week 2 but after praying about it literally for months, I knew that I was supposed to go.

In the few short weeks leading up to this mission trip after Lakeside I was not nervous at all and I knew that I was supposed to be there! Never once did I question whether or not I was supposed to be there or not.  I am so thankful that God allowed me the opportunity to go and I'm even happier that I listened to the call of God, because a lot of times I ignore God when He's speaking. 

I'd like to thank Jami and Matt and all the students from Lima Trinity for welcoming me into their youth group and for making feel like one of their own! I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to meet some of you, and to be able to get to know some of you guys even better! We are truly family even if we don't all go to the same church/youth group.  Always remember this awesome experience that we had this week! God brought us all to Nashville for a reason and none of us ended up there by accident! I truly love each one of you!!

Here are some funny quotes that happened during our trip!

What food do they serve at the Ethiopian restaurant? Air? Cause they don't have food!-Alex T.
Don't go to the bathroom in your pants!-Meredith
I was standing beside some guy in line and he was like 'do you think I'm gonna sell crack cocaine to you?'-Meredith

Me-(speaking to Ethan) I'm sorry that must have been a traumatic experience for you! Ethan-It was!! They could have seen my winky!!!

Everyones got a butt! It's like saying poopings not appropriate!-Ethan

Hun-Cal Fro-YO-Meredith

Are you bleeding out of your vagina because you're being really mean right now!-Jami speaking about her son

100 life sized dinosaurs oh my gosh I wanna see that!-Alex T.

Is it awkward if I wanna eat my hands?-Ethan

I like the number 8 because it's curvy and everything-Nicole

When I go to visit my grandpa I have to put on a cloth suit and gloves and a mask so when I was there I took a suit and I put it in my suitcase-Jamee

I gotta find the fresh bread.  Are you making fun of me because I like to make good sandwiches?-Alex T.

Leave! Get out!-Meredith

You can tell a lot about a person when you find out their favorite cheese flavored snack-Meredith

Ethan-I thought you were skyping someone? I was but I couldn't see her face so I just hung up on her!-Jamee

Me-I would never date someone four years younger than me! Ethan- Yeah well I would never date someone who looks three years younger than me!

Me-Ethan would you just shut up! I'm trying to write down everything you say!

It's just Meredith!-Lauren

Lauren- How would you describe Meredith? Ethan-Heaven!

I'm wearing my birthday boots!-Ethan

That was a big a** burp-Darwin(5yrs old NICE participant)

111 reasons why I miss Lakeside already

Everyone says I take way too many pictures, but every picture tells a story, and atleast I'll have the memories=)

Here are the things I miss about Lakeside and the memories I will always have!=)

Senior High Lakeside week #1

1.) I miss the peace you get upon entering Lakeside.  You know that God is present all the time.

2.) I miss my roomies Amanda and Nikki.  God knew what He was doing when He allowed us to be room-mates for the week.

3.) I miss our late night conversations in our bedroom and not being able to fall asleep until 2 in the morning because we had reached our sleep deprived/slap happy stage.

4.) I miss walking around Lakeside with Nikki and Amanda on our first day there....We had a much needed conversation.

5.) I miss playing Apples to Apples and "Things" on the first night for devos.

6.) I miss June and Donna's late night snacks during devos

7.) I miss Rylan and Abby ringing our doorbell nonstop at the girls house

8.) I miss throwing morning watch together almost the night before and having it turn out awesome

9.) I miss hanging out with all the girls after devos.  We were so open with each other about our bodily functions

10.) I miss the "no sex bed" in our bedroom.

11.) I miss the "grandma" blanket

12.) I miss the night we scared the crap outta syd because some of the girls hid in the closet

13.) I miss the night Christy and I were talking on the porch but had to quickly end our convo because we encountered a skunk

14.) I miss the cheese ball trail that Amy and the girls left upstairs that same night

15.) I miss waking up to Amy, Dusty and Taylor sleeping in the hall

16.) I miss us waking Kristi up when she was always the first to fall asleep

17.) I miss syd and I's late night convo

18.) I miss Star Trekin with Jamie.....wait.....i take that back! I do NOT miss that

19.) I miss the day brentlee and Jason came to visit

20.) I miss the ride up to Lakeside when Em said her crotch was cold

21.) I miss the night when White Collar Sideshow performed and I was so freaked out that I thought I was gonna pee myself and I was holding on for dear life to my chair.  I almost had to tell brad to switch me seats.Also that same night the Pig was walking around during the performance and took off his mask and put it on Christy!

22.) I miss Wed night when Heather Williams came and performed and shared her testimony with us! You could tell that the Holy Spirit was working and after she was done it rained big time and that was a sign from God.....its hard to explain unless you were there

23.) I miss seeing brenan dressed up as a gorilla

24.) I miss brian, corey, and brenan yelling "kim......kim.......KIM!"

25.) I miss the auction......nuff said=)

26.) I miss tearing down the prayer path on friday with my youth group.  Seeing all the stations was awesome

27.) I miss eating icecream at the patio with my youth group

28.) I miss eating sloopys with Amanda and Nikki on the first day and trying to decide what topping to get

29.) OF COURSE I MISS THE SHAVING CREAM FIGHT!!!! 

30.) I miss wearing our youth group t-shirts on the wrong day

31.) I miss waking up at the crack dawn

32.) I miss Pastor Todd and Linda coming to our devos on the last night

33.) I miss getting ready for communion with all the girls and of course taking tons and tons of pictures before communion

34.) I miss how "real" we all got with each other on Wed night after hearing heather williams. Great devos that night and people were really sharing things that they were going through

35.) Kill the Pig

36.) No ringy no dingy

37.) I got puppy puddles I got puppy puddles I got puppy puddles!!!!!!!

38.) Having myself as a prayer partner....c'mon now for real how does that even happen???

39.) Donuts from the Patio

40.) Hoping brian would fall off his bike the day we went to sloopys and telling him that someone stole his bike

41.) On the way home from Lakeside alex and I made "honk if you love Jesus" singns

42.) On the way to Lakeside Donna pulled over at the "adult bookstore" as a joke to see if we were paying attention

42.) Watching one of the girls from my youth group and one of the girls from my church accept Christ on friday morning during the altar call!!!=)

Senior High Lakeside week #2

43.) arriving at lakeside a little later than expected, but being completely at ease about it

44.) Dunny's group staying in the same house that we had the week before

45.) Not staying in wohomis but staying in the cabins instead

46.) Ending up in the same cabin with Jami, Karen and her two girls from Lima Trinity

47.) Cracking up and laugning uncontrollable almost every single night at devos

48.) Calling tables with caitlin

49.) eating breakfast with riverside

50.) Caitlin teaching River how to do the "cup dance"

51.) Trying to play viking

52.) learning how to play ninja

53.) watching the two girls in my cabin accept Christ on friday

54.) Eating at sloopys with Kaitlyn

55.) raising enough money to see Kim and Jami do the Bernie on stage

56.) Talking about sharing our testimonies the next night at devos, and then the very next morning one of the youth leaders shared her story and it lined up perfectly with what we had just talked about the night before

57.) Watching the Slow-K

58.) Captain "Merica breaking his leg because Keith, our chaplain told him to jump off the stage

59.) Keith participating in the "whip my hair back n forth" contest

60.) Shanna coming to visit for the day and sending me to the wrong gate

61.) Our Liturgical dance interest group....nuff said=)

62.) Zumba with Jami during free time

63.) Watching neal Zumba

64.) 'MERICA and all its glory

65.) Neal taking some of the kenton guys around in the golf cart one evening (it was decorated too) shouting "who's number one? Jesus!!! Who's number two? 'MERICA!!!!"

66.) Nick sleeping in a hammock outside the boys cabin and zak sleeping in a one person person tent because they thought the cabin smelled like "man stink"

67.) Shelley steam  cleaning all the mattresses in her cabin

68.) Zak hiding in the rafters in our cabin and jumping down and scaring Jami and I

69.) becoming like family with everyone in the cabins

70.) Coming up with a pretty sweet morning watch

71.) Zak talking his way outta a golf cart ticket

72.) Sharing our testimonies at devos

73.) White Collar Sideshow being such a powerful night

74.)Spending time with WCSS in Wesley before they left

75.) Trying to play mafia on the last night during devos

76.) Not being able to say 'MERICA at devos or else you'd owe $2 to missions

77.) Playing "if you really knew me" that same night at devos and Zak says "If you really knew me you'd know that 'MERICA is my favorite country!!" Everyone just lost it!!

78.) Jenna and Christy coming up for communion and spending the night and our adventures on the way home

79.) Spending the afternoon with Rylan at the yellow house making crafts

80.) The night Trisha, Vickie and Kassidee came up for the day we went to the patio for icecream and we took ridiculous pics and then trisha kicked my icecream=(

Junior High Lakeside

81.) Rushing upstairs so we could get the bed we wanted

82.) staying in wohomis

83.) pizza at sloopy's with the girls

84.) going to the park with the girls

85.) FIREWORKS

86.) spending the week with my best friend Nichole

87.) Being able to feel God's presence and knowing that he was up to something

88.) Teaching the dance IG all by myself

89.) Having brittany tell me that we had almost the exact same story

90.) SHORT PEOPLE

91.) Being able to pray with my girls

92.) Icecream with Jeff and Mel

93.) Being able to pray with people in the community

94.) seeing so much talent at the talent show

95.) Alathea

96.) the "ooooo ooooo ooooo oooooo" song

97.) Star Trekin

98.) Cupid shuffle

99.) Taking communion with my girls

100.) being able to dance at communion with some of the girls who learned the "hallelujah" dance

101.) "shower time with shelley" (inside joke)

102.) paige ethan and lauren came up for communion

103.) seeing some of my fav kenton guys from sr high week 2 come up and visit

104.) Being a part of the most stylish youth group ever bc we rocked those glasses from maryilans and those masks on the last day

105.) Coffee and Cream

106.) Pastor Todd

107.) Not wanting to leave

108.) Zak sleeping in the hammock in south

109.) the friendships made with our CITs(they rocked)

110.) Nichole taking way too many pics of herself on my camera

111.) laughing so hard i almost cried

Ohhhh Lakeside I miss you already and cant wait til next year!!!

What time is it? Lakeside time ya'all

I can't believe that Lakeside has finally come to an end for this year!=( If I could relive these last 3 weeks forever and ever I would, but I know that's not possible.  I have absolutely had a blast and I wouldn't take back anything that has happened over the last 3 weeks and I've gotten to experience so much.  God has allowed me to experience Him in many different ways over the last 3 weeks.  As hard as it is to be back home and not in my "holy huddle", I'm ready to take my faith to the next level and I'm ready to "make" my town and community Lakeside!  We here all the time at Lakeside that teens don't wanna go home and face the "real world", but the truth is Lakeside is the "real world" and we need to share Christ's love when we get back home.  So for those of you struggling right now because you aren't at Lakeside anymore, remember this:  Lakeside is just a place. It doesn't matter whether we are at home, or at Lakeside, we need to be sharing the love of Jesus with other people, and we need to worship God wherever we are....Not just one week out of the year.

I can not express how amazing it was to be a part of Junior High Lakeside for youth once again this past week.  Junior High Lakeside is so special and near to my heart because that's where "it all" began for me.  I can't tell you the exact day, time, or occasion that I got saved because I've always for the most part believed in God, but the summer before my 7th grade year I came to Lakeside for the first time and that's when I started to really take my faith and relationship with my savior seriously.  There is just something about young people experiencing God in such a powerful way that keeps me coming back year after year to help for the past 5 years.

I brought up a group of 8 girls this year and it was such an amazing experience to watch them grow in there faith over the week and to hear them ask the tough questions.  I just can not get over how amazing our God is and I'm still in awe of everything that I have experienced.  i'm still trying to take it all in and process everything.

I was asked to be an Interest group leader for junior high lakeside and teach dance.  To be honest I was a little nervous at first because I was going to be teaching by myself and I had never taught and IG by myself before.  I prayed about it and things went great! God is so good!!! Each day I taught two sessions of dance and the kids learned a dance to "hallelujah" by Heather Williams(who was at senior high lakeside).  The kids only had 35 mins so I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to teach them all of the dance but each group picked it up really fast. It was amazing that God had given me the opportunity to share my passion of dance with them.  I started off each session by introducing myself, praying, and then telling them how I became involved with Liturgical dance, or what I like to refer to as Worship dance.

Yesterday I had the best "God moment" during my IG.  All week long I kept feeling like I needed to share just a little bit of my testimony with the kids as to why the song "hallelujah" was so powerful to me.  During my second IG yesterday I felt God tugging at my heart telling me It was finally time for me to open up and share just a little bit.  I told them that they were the first group all week that I was going to share what I was about to share with them and I hadn't told any of the other groups.  I shared briefly about my brother and why the dance/song meant so much to me.  After I shared, one of the counselors came up to me and told me that we were almost the same person.  She said that we had had a lot of the same experiences, her brother had passed away too, and she too had a passion for dance and she even started a dance ministry at her church(where she is the youth director) How cool is that? What an amazing God moment! Someone who has experienced some of the same things I have and who loves dance!

The coolest thing with this IG was that some of the girls and myself were able to "perform" the "hallelujah" dance last night during communion.  It turned out great and God showed up big time!!

Each day we set aside a few hours for servant time.  We divided the kids up into groups and each day they would participate in something new.  We had a walking choir with pastor Todd, a prayer walk, and a card making station to send out thank you's for everyone who works in Lakeside( over 300 employees WOW!!!!).  I was so blessed by each group.  On Tuesday my table group participated in the prayer walk.  it was awesome to be able to go out into the community and go door to door and ask people if they needed prayer, and then being able to pray for them right on the spot.  One house we approached, the lady told us her prayer request and then asked if we were taking donations.  I was then able to tell her about our mission project which was Mexico.  She ended up giving a small donation and i dropped it in the mission bucket at dinner that night.

Wed afternoon my group participated in the walking choir.  That was fun because we got to walk around lakeside, sing for people, and you could tell that people were blessed by us.  Yesterday my table was a part of the "thank you" cards group.  Each person made 2 thank you cards and then we hand delivered them to the different people.  They recipients of the cards were mostly shocked because no one ever thanks them for what they are doing.

Last night during communion each one of us filled out a question/answer paper with questions such as "Where did you see God working the most this week?" It was so cool because when we were all done we were told to put it in the envelope, seal it, write our addresses on it and then in a couple months they would send them back to us in the mail so that we could remember or time at lakeside.  i thought that was so cool because life isn't always going to be easy just because we went to Lakeside, but hopefully these papers will be a reminder of how awesome our time at Lakeside was.

I am truly BLESSEd!!!!

Are you transformed?

I just returned home from my second week at Lakeside a few hours ago. I can honestly say that I have never been so tired and exhausted physically, mentally and spiritually in my life! But it's not a bad thing because so many awesome and amazing things happened in my life and lives of many around me over the last 6 days.

To be honest I wasn't planning on going to Lakeside the second week this year because I knew how exhausting it was and how much it cost, and it also meant that I would have to take off another week from work.  I prayed about it for months and decided about two months ago that I was going to go.  I'm so thankful that God allowed me the opportunity to go again.  I think I would have been sad had I decided not to go.

I knew it would be different without my youth group and it was, but it was a good kind of different.  Even though I arrived a little later then most of the campers (about an hour before dinner) I entered Lakeside with such peace. I wasn't upset or stressed out because I was running late and at times had no idea what was going on.  I was just kinda on lakeside time.

I ended up switching cabins because there wasn't enough beds in cabin 2.  It was such a blessing staying with Jami and her 2 girls from Lima Trinity.  I really missed Jami and i guess you could say I just needed those conversations with her.

Having experienced Lakeside the first week I was even more excited to come back and fully serve this camp with all my heart.  I dealt with my "junk" the first week and was ready to watch everyone else "kill the pig" I missed White Collar Sideshow on Monday night because I was babysitting staff kids but when I walked back into south you could tell that God had been working in the lives of everyone in the room. It was so powerful.  I guess you could say that was our "wed night" from week 1.  

I saw the power of Jesus Christ so many times throughout this last week!! On Wed night during devos, Jami told us that our "homework" was that for Thursday night we had to write out our testimony, and then we would read someone else's out loud to the group.  A few people were nervous about sharing and some thought that they didn't have a good enough testimony. Jami stayed after and told them that everyone has a testimony.  Even if you don't have something life shattering you still have a story.  Everyone has a story to share.  The very next morning before morning impact one of the counselors got up and shared her testimony.  It was so crazy because we had just talked about that the night before.  

In her testimony she shared that she had never drank, done drugs, or had sex before marriage.  Basically she was a 'good kid" growing up.  She shared that she had never had a boyfriend in high school or college and that she prayed that God would send her the person that she was suppose to marry and she prayed that God would only allow her to date the person that she was going to marry.  God was faithful and brought that person into her life and now they are married and have 2 kids.

I was blown away by her testimony and thankful that she shared her story with us! I'll be honest in saying that sometimes I feel like the only Christian who doesn't drink, doesn't do drugs and doesn't have sex.  But after hearing her story I was relieved to know that I'm not alone and that there are people out there that have the same morals as I do.  If you follow God's plan for your life, He will reward you.

Later on Thursday night we shared our testimonies during devos.  It took 3 hours to get through everyone's but it was so amazing. It was one of the most amazing devos I have ever experienced in my 11 yrs at Lakeside. People were sharing there hurts and the "junk" in there lives. We were all being real with each other even though we didn't know who's testimony we were reading.  It was nice to know that I'm not alone and that people are going through some of the same things I am.  My heart also ached that night because I heard some pretty aweful things that some of these teens are dealing with.  I guess you could say that at times I'm a pretty niave person and I wanna believe that teens aren't dealing with some of this stuff but in reality they are=(

Friday morning brought two more altar calls.  A first time commitment and a rededication.  That morning things got really intense.  I was sitting next to the girls in my cabin and all of a sudden one of them looks over at me and says "I need to go up there!" I got up outta my seat and walked forward with her, as well as the other girl in my cabin, to the altar.  When we got up there I immediately began praying for both of them! That was so awesome to see two of the girls I had gotten to know pretty well over the week accept Jesus Christ as there Lord and Savior!!! During that same altar call another girl that had been coming to our devos also accepted Christ!!! Soooooo amazing!!!!

During the first week of Lakeside I kept saying that something BIG was gonna happen with me at lakeside during the second week and it did!  I think it was Wed night when Jami said she had several spots left for her mission trip the end of July.  I had thought about going back in May or whenever I had first heard about it but I decided not to. But Wed night I had been given the opportunity again and I prayed about it Wed and I knew I was supposed to go! I called home to make sure I could get more time off work and everything worked out so I'm sooooo excited I get to go to nashville the end of this month for an inner-city mission trip! God is sooooooooo GOOD!!! I feel like if I hadnt been at lakeside this week I would have missed out on this opportunity so Im soooo thankful God brought me there!

I've learned so much these past two week and I'm still trying to soak everything up! I feel like a zombie due to lack of sleep and exhaustion, but I'm ready to head back to Lakeside for one more time this summer on Monday for junior high lakeside! Please keep us all in your prayers=)