Oh my word. Where has the time gone? Its been a while since I've posted.. SORRY. This crazy schedule in Charleston is just about all I can handle. But now its Sunday, so a very relaxed day. Let me tell you about my week. So Tuesday we had dinner and Bible study with our d-groups. They are so amazing. I love talking to them about our weeks (popsicles and poopsicles) and discussing our Bible study. We're reading the book of Ephesians this summer.. real legit. So then Wednesdays we have meetings with our ministry teams. I'm on Development team so we are in charge of orchestrating the Cru meetings that we have on Thursdays. Overwhelmed yet? Anyways, after those meetings on Wednesdays we have Reflection night, aka my favorite. We basically have three hours to ourselves. We can go anywhere we like, and do whatever we want, but we spend that time with God. This week I just stayed at the hotel. I was in one of those moods where I didn't really want to go out anywhere. I spend three hours journaling, praying and reading. It's so amazing how refreshed you feel after spending that amount of time just alone. Work has picked up a lot for pretty much everyone on project and people are starting to get tired. Honestly when I'm ready to leave work, I think about the amazing community that I get to come back to at the hotel. Most of the students here are pulling over 30 hours a week, plus all of the things we do after work, that community is super necessary. However, I've also came to understand that it's also really important to keep in touch with the community back home. I've got to talk to my family for a while at least once a week. It's always great hearing from them. :)
So Friday was a free day for me. I was off work and Fridays we don't have any activities planned for after work. I spent my morning sitting by the pool, and then went out with two of my favorite ladies and got pedicures. Something that I think I've done one other time in my life. It was great to treat myself. To just get away from the hotel for a little bit. And then Friday night a big group of us went out to dinner. It was soooo much fun. And Charleston is absolutely gorgeous. Saturday... that's another story.
Unknowingly, apparently North Charleston is one of the unsafest places in America in terms of murders and such. It was ranked 2nd in the US at one point. Saturday morning we volunteered with a local church organization in this part of town called the Dream Center. They offer tutoring and after-school programs for these kids in North Charleston that are in this really sketchy community. So Saturday morning we had outreach. We were going door-to-door handing out information about hurricane readiness and just saying we were from the church. The most shocking experience I had was before we even started. First off, the guy leading my group was about 300 pounds with tattoos, a torn up tank top, long wavy gray hair and a navy bandana. We eventually found out he had lived in Compton for a majority of his life where he was a drug dealer for Hell's Angels. Yeah. And now he loves Jesus. So anyways our leader has to tell the other groups how to get to where we're going. His description: "You know, the apartment complex where there was a triple-homicide last month." I think all the color drained from my face. Right then I began praying for protection. That's beyond scary. But I knew we were safe. So as we go door-to-door handing out these packets, we found families crammed in two bedroom houses. With three, four, and SEVEN kids. It was horrible to see the condition that these people lived in. We walked up on one house where we're pretty sure there was a toddler left alone in the house. I almost cried. After we circled the block, we prayed. For a long time. Its amazing to hear the stories about how the Dream Center has changed the community. That area of North Charleston's crime rate has dropped a huge amount since it was placed there. Our leader's story was also crazy. Something you'd see in the movies, or on the TV show 'Gangland'. (Two of his cousins were actually depicted on the show.) Everyone definitely had some interesting stories to share when we got back to the hotel before we got to go rollerskating - which was super fun.
Oh, and I met my adoptive family at church today. They're really great. She's cooking shrimp and grits for us next week, so I'm pretty excited. And she's already started talking about us doing laundry. PTL.
So basically, we're now officially in the swing of things. The regular schedule. And its a lot to take in, but we definitely have many fun times that will turn into many fun memories.
And I'm starting to get paid from my pleasure-filled times at Chick-fil-A. I'm only $330 short on support. I've raised over $2,500 which is ridiculously insane. That's a lot of money. A whole lot.
ANDDDD if you want to send me encouraging letters (which I feel like I always ask for, but I would really love) the address for the B-West is:
146 Lockwood Drive
Charleston, SC 29403
I look forward to hearing from all of you! Thanks so much for all your support, and for reading all of this. Hopefully it was half as interesting to me as it was you. :)
