Kairos...

last night was the last Kairos service that my sister and i will get to go to in a while...i am going to miss that church so much...i started going to Kairos with my sister while i was still at MTSU..."KAIROS is a come-as-you-are worship experience geared toward energetic young adults who share a passion for growing together in the Word of God!!"...brentwoods pastor mike glenn has challenged me with the urgency to GO...i am amazed each week how vulnerable people can worship in that service...ive never heard people sing more loudly or cry out more passionately!...i love how i cant be still when im worshipping my Savior in that place!!...mike has created a safe place for young adults to come as they are before the Lord...giving all that they have to Him...i am truly going to miss going with my sister!!...her faith is so rare in this world and culture that we live in and im so inspired by her!!...i know that i will have an incredible community this year that ive never had but i will truly miss the 1,200 ive had on tuesday nights...im grateful for podcasts!...i love how God just shows up in EVERYTHING when you are pursuing Him!...i guess its that you finally see it!...the coolest thing about coming home from Dominican was that the first sermon i heard was at Kairos...scott harris is the mission minister who we just happened to fly back on the same plane with from miami with...he spoke about his trip to Haiti!...it was amazing to realize at least im home with some people that will understand where ive been...the hardest thing about going away and working for the Lord is coming home...in the realization that no matter how excited you might be when you tell your stories noone will really understand unless theyve been there...that night i realized that there were people who get it...and not just the ones who have seen the third world countries but the urgency for our generation to go and make disciples!!...it is an incredible feeling to realize that you are not alone!!...scott spoke about jonah and how God never stopped telling him where we was called to go..."we expect nonbelievers not to get it...but what happens when believers dont get it?"...WHAT BETTER THING IN LIFE THAN KNOWING GOD'S LOVE AND GETTING TO SHARE IT?...what are you doing to share God's love wherever you are?...

Albertine...

I am sitting still
I think of Angelique
her mothers voice over me
And the bullets in the wall where it fell silent
And on a thousandth hill, I think of Albertine
there in her eyes what I don't see with my own
Rwanda

now that I have seen, I am responsible
Faith without deeds is dead
now that I have held you in my own arms,
I cannot let go till you are

I am on a plane across a distant sea
But I carry you in me
and the dust on, the dust on, the dust on my feet
Rwanda

I will tell the world, I will tell them where I've been
I will keep my word
I will tell them Albertine

I am on a stage, a thousand eyes on me
I will tell them, Albertine
I will tell them, Albertine

Brooke Fraser

i loved this song but had never really listened to it till i read about it...this is how i feel about the Dominican Republic,,,

i never knew id love something more than kamp...

the best thing about journaling is when you get to a successful point in life and you can see where youve been...
for me the coolest thing is that i had been writing about how badly i wanted to go on an international mission trip when my family and i decided to spend a week in the Dominican...i didnt know where God wanted me to go but knew i was more eager than ever...this trip had been overshadowed though by the excitement of kamp...when we arrived in the dominican on saturday April 17th i knew it was going to be an incredible week...it was such a gorgeous, green place from above and the water was incredible!!...we actually had to make two landings because the runway was soo short and a gust of wind lifted us back up...we landed with our team of 10 with 40 bags!!...it was amazing how many supplies we were about to get through customs without being checked(praise the Lord)...we headed out into the hot, humid city of Sosua...we added 4 more to our team from other states and canada...we got to our hotel which was called Sosua by the Sea...it was super nice and i was excited to have running water and air conditioning...haha...the first night we unloaded all the supplies at the clinic...on sunday we went to the english church and got to hear brandon speak...brandon and nikki james were on our staff at fbch before they moved full time to the DR in january...we were soo excited to see them!!...after church we went to the tent where they have the spanish church to set up our family fun day!!...we had a puppet show and then we set up games and crafts for all the people that lived in the villages in the area...we had about 350 people that came out for the great event...i made balloon animals for 3 hours for children and adults!!...those children were soo precious!!...i made several "sombreros" that day!!...it was really fun!!...each day we went to either a village to give out food/hygiene bags or to a school to tell the story of Daniel with crafts and games...i immediately felt at home down there...i knew that this was exactly where i needed to be that week!!...i fell in love with the city and the people there...the missionaries that brandon and nikki are working with are amazing!!...it was soo refreshing to see people live soo simply after working in retail for the past 9 months seeing people spend way too much on things they didnt even need...my heart started yearning for such a lifestyle...we went to a school that was in the village of bombita where i first gave out food bags to people at their homes...thats when i met this sweet, sweet little boy that had a skin condition but he was the cutest little boy i had ever seen...he and this other little boy followed us door to door as we met and prayed with the people of bombita...they shared a pair of worn out green crocks...at one point they were playing baseball with Dan(one of our team members) when the ball went over the fence...the boy climbed right over that barbwire like it was no big deal...im sure he had done it several times before...im pretty sure his name was derrek and he will forever be in my heart...when we went to the village of policlinica i met a little girl that was soo sweet...we walked hand in hand that whole day...we shared a glass bottle of coke which was super fun to see them light up about!...i ended up getting to sit with her at the spanish church and i saw her truly worship the Lord with all of her heart!!...that night i had to say goodbye and she immediately started crying...i can not even put into words how that moment has changed me...i learned later that her mother had died a few years ago and i did not want to left her go...i was so glad that i was about to leave her a bag of goodies with a picture of us together in it...i can not wait till i get to see all those children again...another amazing person i bonded with was one of our translators named annabelle...she was a beautiful 17 year old girl who i could not get enough time with...she made each day soo much fun!!...im soo glad we are able to be facebook friends...she is someone i will be praying for as she figures out where God wants her after high school...i want her to see the beauty that i see...i can not even express how unbelievable this trip was for me and my family to take before i move away for a year!!...all i could say about the trip when i got home was "I NEVER KNEW ID LOVE SOMETHING MORE THAN KAMP!!"...my parents supported me in this when they told people they were glad i had made a commitment to work at kamp this summer...because they knew i probably wouldnt have come home!!...i love it down there and i know that this is just the start of my time in that country!!...my God is incredible and after many years of waiting to GO He is finally sending me out to the place i love!!...if youve never been out of the country on a mission trip i leave you with one word: GO!!...

The Day that Started the Motion...

this year has been by far the best year for me in so many ways.
in the letting go...in the embrace of a new kind of love...in the faithfulness and desire to want something so badly but not really knowing what that was...but wanting so desperately to just GO!...
well on March 30th everything changed...i received a call from Rachel at kamp...i was simply thinking that she was lettin me know that she would be a reference for me for the Kanakuk Institute...that was only half of it...she preceded to tell me that because of all the change of staff they were still praying about leadership for this summer...it was at that moment that the tears came...i knew that after yearning and seeking my Savior solely over this year that He had been faithful...i had received the phone call i had longed for my whole life-to be on leadership at kamp!!...i knew that it was only by Him alone that i could ever be in such a position...4 days later i received a call from Marissa saying that i had been accepted to the Institute!!...i can not even express the joy that overwhelmed me in those days...and they still are!!...well we had an incredible leadership weekend and i had known for a while that God was telling me that this summer was gonna be one like never before...there was a sudden urgency before i knew that i was gonna be a part of it to fight for that place that i call me summer home...to know that there is every reason in the world that that place is continuing to be so strong...and not by anyone but the Lord!!...His amazing love and restoration that has fallen on that place is incredible and im so so blessed to get to be a part of it!!...so after thinking that i would be in another country by january i realize now that He meant K-Kountry!!...How amazing is He!!...so for the next year i will be living in Branson, Missouri and i can hardly wait!!