Side note

This is a rando I just thought of:

8:00 class=not so great

BUT

a huge cup of coffee and learning from a sweet little old man teacher who genuinely cares about special needs children and changing the school systems to accommodate their needs= pretty great

Part 1: Just doin what I love

So, what do you get when you combine 3 american girls, 2 body guards, 8 sweet children, and 1 "papa" interpreting between all of us? A great time in Honduras. Legit. I LOVED being there.

Well, as you saw in my last post, camp was THE BEST. But my summer adventure did not end there. (I know, how can it get better right?) I got home from camp on a saturday night and flew out at 6:00 am 1 day later to meet Kimberlee and Indi (two close friends from college) in Honduras.

From the moment I got there, I loved it. The smallest mission trip out of the country I had been on before this consisted of probably 15 people. So going with just me and 2 other girls was different but SO refreshing. A completely new experience. I arrived in Tegucigalpa (the capital where we were working) before lunch and headed straight to one of the neighborhoods to deliver medical supplies. That's just to show you that from the moment I got in the country, I did not stop feeling useful for the purpose that the Lord sent us there for- to love on the kids and just be there to serve them and help.

Since this post would literally be 12 pages if I told you every detail (and I know some of you love me but not THAT much), ill just hit the main points of the ministry and good times we had while in Tegucigalpa.

From my experience bullet points are the easiest to read/ most enjoyable (and they dont look as intimidating as a straight up paragraph).

Memories (or mems as I like to call them):

-One of the first things I see in the city is, believe it or not, a Chilis. Life is good.
-Working with a week old orphanage with only 8 precious, love needing children
-Visiting 3 neighboorhood schools/centers near by and getting to help with lessons for the children
-Seeing, from our balcony, a huge mob of protesters in front of the president's palace. legit.
-Painting, cleaning, and fixing anythings, and I mean anything that needed some work (even a baptismal).
-Having about 12 awkward pictures taken of me throughout the trip. Compliments of Kimberlee herself.
-Going grocery shopping and desperately trying to communicate the words "peanut butter" and "cookie dough" to the Hondurans working at the grocery store
-Improving my spanish BIG TIME, on account of me and kim and our papa were the only ones probablly in the 10 mile vicinity that could speak both english and spanish.
-Playing soccer with the little neighborhood kids, and getting beat.
-Taking the orphanage kids to the zoo....and seeing monkeys loose just chillin
-Spending hours daily with Julia and Eduardo(our body guards)
-Listening to (hours) of 90's cheesy music with Julia and Eduardo. I dunno why...rando.
-Leading a women's conference on saturdays for girls and women in the neighborhoods
-Taking part in a baking class learning from the women how to make pastries and sweets
-Sharing my testimony at church to well over 70 people (It was SO great. I love telling it)
-Going to chilis multiple times. It's better in Honduras than U.S. Believe it.
-Wearing Hawaiian shirts and sneaking down to the lobby to find things....then setting off the fire alarm...yeah...
-Going to a bilingual church in Honduras
-Praising the Lord in Spanish
-Eating lunch at our papa's house. Listening to him and gaining wisdom from his life experiences and testimony.
-Loving on children- legit this was the BEST part. They needed love and care. That's why we were there. To serve them and love them.

Well, you made it through. The Lord did GREAT things through me and in me while I was in Tegucigalpa. I am so thankful that He called me to be there this summer. It was an awesme 2 1/2 weeks. Doing ministry beside close close friends is something special. I wouldn't trade it at all. It is going to happen much more often. that's for sure.

Stay tuned for next post which is dedicated to...Pictures!!

A big part of my heart is at CVP

Cvp is the camp in Soddy Daisy, TN (right outside Chatt) that i have worked at the past two summers. I LOVE it. There's just something great and right about spending a month or so on the lake, in the mountains, with kids, loving on people and praising the Lord. I love camp. That being said, I feel like some pictures could do a better job at showing camp than my words. And i just love pictures.

this is the Union crew that worked this summer and last. I am SO thankful to have grown close to them.

This is me and Kelsey's (my sweet co) first cabin together. They were FUN girls.
ME AND KELSEY :) She was SO encouraging. We were able to open up to each other ALOT and grow close to each other by loving on our girls and spending time in the word together.
Kristin Mardis. I love her. She makes me laugh so much and is a great friend to me. She's probablly, no, definitely my favorite college grad so far.
This is a typical ho down night. All dressed up in the typical things. Lookin right. Feelin right. Dancin. You know. Ho down night is THE BEST. It is so much fun. Many mems made on nights like these (cha cha slide, dumb group dances, Amos Moses, counselor dance, our calves killing us after the night is over, rice krispie treats. you know). This is why I miss thursday nights at CVP. ho down.Oh the dock. I love the dock. This is waterfront orientation. And this is only a few of the kids. The waterfront is where it's at. Thanks to Kristin, Clay, and Ryan. They are the best waterfront staff. Seriously, i would like to be sitting on the side of the dock, swimming, or blobbing with friends right now. I miss this.

This is what camps all about. Fun times. Fun friends. Just living life well in the summer. And spending a crazy amount of time with the Lord. That's the best part for me. This was a GREAT kick off to my summer. Mems were made. Good times good times.

I'm just so thankful that I am still close to so many of the people I have met at camp this summer and last. It really is a family. And one i like to be a part of!

The honduras post is next, so keep checkin back for it, it's gonna be a good one!!

Home again...and again.

Has it seriously been two months almost since my last update? Unbelievable. They shouldn't allow lazy, uninteresting people like me to blog.

So, many things have happened since my last one (that was about my blog and time in Honduras). I'll need several posts to be able to fully tell about my summer from end of June til now. Well I got home from Honduras on July 15th, and I got home to Union on the 17th. I feel at home at my parent's house in Memphis and here at school. It's nice to have to comfort places- something I feel like I haven't had in a while.

Things are good but weird here. Know that. I am thrilled to be back with close friends. But this semester is going to be interesting. And it scares me some, for many reasons. But for now, Ill leave you with the hopes of a few more updates to come about 1.)Honduras 2.) Time home in Memphis 3.) Family and , 4.) Life at home at Union.

Pictures always make things more interesting... so here's all I've got for now. I want more of this in my life. It makes me feel like everything is going to be ok and that I can just slow down and be me. I dont know why. It's just beautiful.