Further Up and Further In...

And so I stand on the precipice of a glorious adventure- my heart is ablaze with joy as I answer the call of my King and jump off! In two days, I will begin my trip to Africa!!

I will be living in Pemba, Mozambique as a student at Iris Harvest School of Missions (www.irisministries.org), a place where the Spirit has already been poured out in torrents, blowing in fierce gales, changing lives. After graduation, I will be spending ten days in the bush bush of Mozambique, and then returning to Pemba to spend Christmas at the base. I will start my return journey on the 28th of December.

There are no words to describe how excited and full of joy I am to be taking on this grand adventure. God has already shown Himself to be my faithful provider, and the everlasting lover of my soul. He has gently wooed me, and urged me to trust Him more and more; I praise Him for what He's done, for who He is, for the way He lives in me. HE LIVES IN ME! I feel His presence physically weighing on me, I smell the sweet perfume of His breath. I am freely and willingly  His witness to the nations- He has sent me, and I go. Thank you Jesus!!

And thank you, my dear friends, my family, for your prayers and support. Love and blessings to you all.

Oh people of God, put you hope in the Lord both now

and forever more.

Alonzo King Lines Ballet company. *sigh*

Mmmhmm. Enough said. Enooooough said.

We are officially 75% finished with Legacy Camps this summer! I'm afraid I haven't been the most dedicated blogger lately (or ever), so for those who were expecting or wanting regular updates every day, I sincerely apologize. I have updates here for the first two camps, both of which were held out of town at homeless shelters, and some pictures of the camp in Kansas City.
Oklahoma City Camp:
We left for OKC Sunday, June 19, and got settled into family rooms in the homeless shelter. The room the girls stayed in was small-ish, with a cold, concrete floor, and stuffed with 4 sets of bunk beds. We found the mattresses plasticky and loud, and could feel the springs poking through. We talked about how it wasn't a bad stay for people like us, who had nice homes to go home to with comfortable beds and a wardrobe of clothes, but it would be an awfully sucky living situation for families of seven or eight, with all their worldly possessions crammed into that small concrete room along with all those children and babies for months at a time. The food at the shelter was almost decent, but came in ridiculous proportions, and didn't make for a remotely healthy diet for the children. On Monday the first day of camp, we found, upon meeting the kids, that it would be a week-long struggle to maintain any as-semblance of order, not that we were trying to run a boot camp or anything, but we just found it so difficult to build any kind of meaningful relationships while we were so focused on disciplining the kids. As the camp progressed, we found that the kids truly were grateful to have us there, and didn't want us to leave, no matter how badly they misbehaved or refused to listen. They were grateful that for once, someone cared enough to tell them what wasn't acceptable, or what words were inappropriate, or why attitudes are ugly. I believe that by the end of the week, they felt the love in our firm words of discipline, as well as in our willing arms and laps, and our affirmation for the beautiful things they created during the week.
Kansas City Camp:
Our recovery time between the OKC camp and the KC camp was exactly one day, and was definitely not sufficient. We headed out the next Sunday, nevertheless, and when we arrived at the same shelter we had camp at the summer before, it felt like we were just continuing that same camp. It was such an incredible blessing to see some of the kids from last year, and although there were more children than in OKC, it seemed easier because of the more organized discipline system already in place, which the kids already knew about and followed. We did, however, find it challenging to build any meaningful relationships sometimes because of that discipline system. Even still, I personally left with a strong sense that God did mighty work through us in the kids' hearts, and was so thankful for the relationships I was able to build, and miss the kids so much.

I Heard Your Hair Stands on End Before Lightning Strikes

OOOOOH BOY! Tomorrow is the big day! We, Legacy staff, leave for Oklahoma City tomorrow to have our first Legacy camp of the summer. Words cannot express how excited I am, and how much I anticipate the thundering Kingdom to explode and shine in glory. I feel a strong sense of calling- this is where I am supposed to be.

Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

Is is not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--

when you see the naked, to clothe him,

and to not turn away from your own flesh and blood?

THEN YOUR LIGHT WILL BREAK FORTH LIKE THE DAWN

and your healing will quickly appear;

then your righteousness will go before you,

and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Then you will call and the Lord will answer,

you will cry for help and he will say:

Here Am I.

Best Summer Job Ever.

Yeah, so, being a Legacy intern is pretty much the best job ever. Basically, my job as an intern is to help plan for and put into action this year's Legacy camps. I get to learn new and crazy dances for the dance class I'm teaching at three of the camps, recruit people to be volunteers and teachers, and just generally be surrounded by awesome people all the time. I work from 9am to 3pm for five days out of the week, and every morning someone is assigned to give a devotional first thing in the morning. Yesterday morning, it was my friend Amanda's turn, and she had us pick a passage of scripture to memorize, which, by the way, was glorious seeing as I can't remember when I've actually gotten to choose what I wanted to memorize myself, and NOT for a grade! I chose to memorize Psalm 121, a song about God's never-ending love and protection and providence. This morning Calvin Wang brought the devotional, which was an exercise called Psalm writing. Each of us had a sheet of paper and picked a short passage to write at the top. We then passed all our papers to the right and continued whatever the person before had written. This was repeated until everybody got the paper with their original passage at the top. This is my completed, collaborative psalm:

Everything exposed to the light becomes visible,

for it is the light that makes everything visible-

wake up, O sleeper

rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.

Let the light wash over you and cleanse your soul.

For it is only through the light of Christ that we are cleansed.

Let the light brighten the dark places of your heart 

so that you may become a bearer of light.

Keep not your own light hidden but let it shine forth in the glory of Christ.

In the glory of Christ, sing out to the nations!

Sing out the wonders of the Lord, our greatest hope,

our brightest light and guide.

Arise and bathe in sunlight.

Go and dance beneath the meteors

And Christ will shine on you.

Mmm hmm. I bet you wish you could have a summer job as cool as mine. Peace!

Legacy!!!!!!!!!

It's about that time! This year, Church of the Savior is running four Legacy camps- which is way more than we've ever done before! For those of you who have no clue what Legacy is, its an organization of sorts that was started by Christian artist Rich Mullins and carried on to this day, years after his tragic death in a car accident. Legacy camp reaches out to broken, at-risk youth who desperately need to be told that they are loved, valuable, and precious both to us, the staff, and to God. These truths are spoken to the kids through week-long day camps during which the kids take different art, dance, and music classes. We've done these camps for almost eight years now, and here's what's super cool about them: as a teacher/small group leader/Legacy intern, I find myself being stretched and grown during the camps as much as, if not more than the kids I work with. God speaks and moves in incredibly beautiful ways through art and creativity- I can attest to the fact that this ministry works, and is explosive and exciting. It's something that I'm so passionate about, and having the opportunity to be an intern in the Legacy ministries staff just means the world to me. I highly encourage anyone to get involved with this at some point- call me at 316-616-8309, or send me an email at missbn@att.net, and ask me for more information- I would be absolutely stoked to tell you whatever you need to know. OK, pay attention- these are the dates for the camps this summer:
Camp #1- homeless shelter in OK city: June 20-24
Camp #2- homeless shelter in KS city: June 27-July1
Camp #3- teen girls camp at Church of the Savior: July11-15
Camp #4- teen guys camp at Church of the Savior: July 18-22
Don't be afraid to contact me about the camps if you're the least bit interested. Regardless, prayer would be so greatly appreciated- our Father works in mighty mind-blowing ways through prayer.

Good Friday

Mmmm. Good Friday. I just came home from the Good Friday service at my church. How great and amazing our Jesus is. My heart broke tonight a hundred times over for what my Jesus did for me- the anguish, the unspeakable pain, not only physically, but the incredible spiritual pain and sorrow of being separated from the Father. My Jesus drank my suffering and my humanity to the dregs. My Jesus took the blows of betrayal, the taunting, the loneliness, all because of his love for me. All because he loved his children so much, he was willing to be crucified alongside of us, and to be crucified with us every day. It blows my mind. How do I even go about thanking him for what he's done? This is all I can do: I will give him my life, my very being is his. And though its not enough, my Jesus looks on me with pride, and with a deep love in his eyes. He is delighted with me; he says, "My darling, how could I do any different? There was no question about what I would choose- oh, how I love you." Good Friday. Good, good Friday, the day my Jesus saved me.