The Swing

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. :)

Ketchup

Sorry that it's been three days since I've posted!  Where has time gone?  I've almost been in Charleston for a week.  That's beyond crazy.  Okay, so lets take this day by day.  Saturday we had outreach on the beach. We basically went out there, set up a tent and some cornhole and walked out on the packed-for-Memorial-Day Folly beach and went and talked to people about Jesus.  Two other girls and myself (along with all of the others that walked on the beach) used a Campus Crusade ministry outreach tool known as Soularium (www.mysoularium.com).  It's basically a picture survey.  We sat down with a group of three older women and asked them if they would be interested in taking the survey.  After offering us bean dip and beer, I could tell this was going to be an interesting conversation.  All three of these women were from different places and were getting ready to move out to Spain, Tennessee and Michigan.  Two of the ladies really seemed like they were searching for "something bigger than themselves."  They knew that there was something out there, but it was just out of their reach.  They're thirsty.  They are looking for something.  The other woman, however, just seemed very straight in her ways.  Her heart was guarded against what we were saying.  She said something to the effect of, "Well, there's God and Jesus and Buddha and whoever else, and they can be a god to you."  I walked away from those three feeling enlightened.  That's probably the best word for it.  All that I can hope and pray for is that enough of a seed was planted to make them ask questions, and for them to question their purpose in life.  The Saturday outreach was also a great way for all of us to start building confidence in going out and having a very real conversation with people.  For a lot of people, it was their first time with initiative evangelism.  A dear, dear person in my life recently told me, "Initiative evangelism is scary, but once you start having those conversations with people, you don't want to stop."  Part of me just wants to grab and shake people and tell them how happy they can be if they just accept Jesus as their Savior.  But I know that that's not going to happen to everyone.  It's totally God's will. Saturday after the outreach, we really got a chance to build even greater community.  We had a silly game night (involving dizzy bat - which luckily I got out of) and then had hangout/free time by the pool.  I feel like I am really starting to develop friendships with people.  We all care about each other.  Its so great.
So flash-forward to Sunday.  We went to church here in this beautiful city.  My group went to a church that I really love.  Its small, and gorgeous.  The pastor preached on The Good Shepherd.  We talked about evangelism too.  Which was really great.  I always love hearing a good message.  And I feel like it really was something a lot of us needed to hear after a long day at the beach the day before.  Also, because we're using this summer to serve, we're volunteering within the local churches.  I volunteered to help with the youth group (mostly middle-schoolers, YES!).  I'm really excited about that.  Then, after we got back to the hotel, we had a free day.  Oh, and Sunday nights we have prayer and praise.  We basically just gather together, and pray and sing to Jesus.  Super fabulous.
All that being said, I'm really starting to understand why God wants me here.  Why he wants all of us here.  We're going to look back on this summer and not even recognize who we were at the beginning.  So much has changed in 1 week.  I can't believe I only have 9 weeks left.  I sometimes underestimate the sheer power of the Lord.  I underestimate His plan.  He knows exactly how many breaths I take, how many hair are on my head.  He knows every single feeling I'm going to feel at every moment of the day. It baffles me to think about it.  I can already tell how much more I'm enjoying time in prayer, and my quiet time with God.  I love journaling, and listening to Jesus music (except I think I'm going to buy some more to update my collection).  I could spend hours just reading, journaling, and listening and talking to my God.  He's always there to listen.  A 24-hour hotline for every high and every low, and every in-between.
Okay, so this blog post wasn't very thought-invoking.  Basically just catching you up on how Charleston has been so far.  Oh, and mail is super great if you'd like to send me something!  :)  I reflected today (sorry random side note) of how much money I raised to get here.  I have a small $330 out of the $3050 that I had set out to raise.  God provides so much.  Peace, rest, love.
PS - my address at the great Best Western is 146 Lockwood Drive Charleston, SC 29403.
More updates soon.  All my loveeeeeee.

By faith

So I woke up bright and early at 6:45 this morning, put on my Chick-fil-A uniform, and headed down to the lobby for the continental breakfast sure to fill my stomach.  While eating my dry Cheerios and drinking delicious coffee (pretty close to Corinth, Tera) I was filled by something so much greater.  The Word of God.  Hebrews 11:1 is one of my all-time favorite verses.  But I had never thoroughly read the entire chapter.  It basically gives examples of people in the Bible, who did things purely off of faith.  Abraham, Enoch, Noah, Rahab, and so forth.  These people literally dropped every single thing they had that was familiar to them, and walked somewhere.  They didn't know where they were going.  All they knew was that God was telling them that wherever they were going, it was in His best plan.  The clause "by faith" is mentioned 22 times in that chapter.  Chad, one of the project directors, told us last night that if something is repeated in the Bible two or three times, its usually something work remembering.  How about TWENTY-TWO times?  How ridiculous is it for me to not have faith that God's going to change my life this summer? He did so much greater things in the lives of those in the first books of the Old Testament, and is still doing beyond amazing things.
One of the last verses of the chapter reads, "These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised."  At first when I read it, I was taken aback.  What?  But after continuing: "God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."  Something BETTER?  This might sound really sacrilegious, but from the four hours of Chick-fil-A training videos I watched, something that they emphasized was going beyond expectations. Doing what people expect of you, and then taking it a step further.  And while God isn't in the business of helping you decide if you want to upgrade your number one combo for a small 40 cents more (yes, I've already learned the Chick-fil-A "verbage"), He is there to go so much farther beyond our expectations than we've ever imagined.  Yes, I know God's going to change my life this summer.  But no matter how much I sit and think about it, I'll never be able to have near the expectations that will be anywhere close to the reality of what is going to happen before August 2nd.  I'm making such great friends here.  The community of 40 believers and 10 staff who have such a heart for the Lord, always makes you feel welcome.  Whether its hanging out by the pool or over a meal of low country shrimp boil, you can always find a Jesus conversation going on.  If you have a bad day, you can run to any person here and talk.  Its so amazing.
They're there to help you through hard times.  Last night and today were really tough for me.  Today it was really with missing my family.  Mom, I know you're reading this.  I saved the voicemail you sent me yesterday.  I cried when I got it.  I know you love me so much and are really proud of me.  Thanks for calling.  I didn't call you back last night, cause I knew I would just start crying.  I'm so okay though. :)   I miss all 5 of you crazy Feimster's a whole lot.  But my summer and your summer is going to be so great cause God is watching out for all of us.
Okay, so that last part was a tangent/shoutout.  But its really just how I feel about project at the moment. I'm so excited to be here, and see what finally putting ALL I have into my relationship with the Lord will look like.  It's super exciting.  Tomorrow we have an outreach.  Aka, we walk down the beach and talk to people about Jesus.  Super scary.  But I'm sure I'll have lots of great experiences, and therefore blog posts when I return.

Persevere

Hebrews 10:36-39.  One of the many pieces of Scripture that I've read at just the right time.  Going into a new city, with new people, and a new job is extremely overwhelming as I've learned in the past two days.  Nobody said summer project would be easy.  One of my last nights forcing Matt to drive my car around Hickory, we went past a church with a lit sign.  It was a simple saying, but extremely true: "Faith makes things possible, not easy."  Nobody ever said that being a Christian paved the way for you to have an amazing life.  Yes, as Christians, we always have eternal hope knowing that Jesus died for us and that we are saved from our sinful nature as humans.  But the walk getting to the end of our lives is going to be plagued by trials and suffering.  But its in those times, that we even more so learn to lean on God with all that we have.  As I understand through the Word, we know "that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope."  Its like a great circle of things Jesus has promised us as his people.  Yes, we'll be given trials and hard times, but as cliche as it sounds, it truly is all for a reason.  Tough times call us closer to the Lord.  Tough times cause us to band together as a community.  Not only do we have a Holy, everlasting support in God, but our friends and family have been given to us by Jesus.  He wants us to talk to them.  They are in our lives for a very specific reason.  The 40 other college students I'm on project with, are all here with different backgrounds and experiences, but we are all here for each other.  Even though we still don't know everyone's names yet, I know that these people understand the trials and glories that come with being a follower of the Lord.  And that, is beyond amazing.

I'm here!

It came SO fast.  I can't believe its actually here.  I'm sitting in my bed in the hotel room that will be my home for the next 10 weeks.  Its so overwhelming (not to mention extremely hot and humid) but I'm SOOOO excited.  We have dinner with our d-groups tonight and then our orientation to this amazing summer begins.  I have such a peace about being here.  It was hard leaving my friends and family, but, as a really good friend put it, "The growth is worth the goodbyes."  So to everyone reading, I'll see you in 10 weeks (some sooner).  Be praying for me.  :)  All my love.

Countdown

Its t-minus NINETEEN DAYS, until I leave for the lovely Charleston.  I'm super excited, but I'm also really nervous.  I've never been away from my family or friends anywhere near to ten weeks.  But I know its going to be so great.  Before I'm even going on project, I'm already placing my trust in the Lord.  I've been praying for my heart to really be open and prepared for every aspect of this summer.  I know I'm going to be pushed out of my comfort zone between living with complete strangers (which they won't be for long), having very little communication with people back home, and talking to people about Jesus.  It's so intimidating, but yet again, I'm really excited.  I hope to keep this blog updated fairly frequently, especially for all of my supporters.  Thanks so much for making this trip possible for me.  And no worries, God is going to do amazing things this summer.