Intern 2010!

Hey guys!
So this is my first post of the new year! I hope that I will be better about it this year! I have a couple of hours on Friday mornings that I plan to write these on! Along with Wesley I work with a home schooled child who goes to a special program in Atlanta on Fridays. This means that I get to sit in a room with children all being individually taught, and I listen for any misbehavior or medical problems. So, if these posts seem a little scattered sometime, blame the environment!! :)
This year is going well so far!! We have had two Wednesday night services, two Freshman services, and the CrossTrainer's training! The services have been more packed than before (about 1,600 students on a Wednesday night and 500 students at a Freshley service)and the students just seem so on fire for the Lord! It is so neat to look around and see so many college students really seeking after God. At the beginning of the school year,the headlines read UGA as the number one party school, that is really something to have to combat! Often headed home from the Wesley service, I see freshman girls headed from the dorms to the downtown bars, very scantily clad and eager to enjoy "college". It reminds me of how important my job is, and why I'm still here!!
The ministry that I work with, CrossTrainers, is getting everything well underway!! We had Coaches Training yesterday and have the Kick-Off this coming Thursday! I went into the community to get kids signed up and got really excited! The other intern, Zach, and I were bombarded with kids and parents asking when CT was going to start again and how to sign up! They were so glad to see us! They really like us! It is so nice to hear that!!!

Check out our leadership blog also! There are usually funny videos and pictures and inspirational thoughts...simply a day in the life! :)

http://ugaweslead.tumblr.com/
Almost time to drive back to Athens! Look for weekly updates!
I pray God bless you and keep you all!!

P.S. Go Dawgs! :)

L.A. MIssion Trip!!

Hey guys! Thanks for following my blog! I know I haven't been the best about keeping up with it so far, but I really, really and going to try and get better!! If you all click on follow, I will be better about it because I know you are reading! Here is a much more detailed description of my trip! Thank you SOO much for your support and prayers. It really makes such a huge difference!

Saturday- We left for Atlanta around 2pm and had a fun, long time of travel! Once we finally landed in LA, we headed toward the Rental place. Luckily we made the last bus and got there right before closing time. This is where we met our first “Southern Cal” person! This guy was just like something off of a TV show! After a lot of confusion, he couldn’t find the key to the van, so we ended up with a Suburban. It turned out to be perfect! Just the right amount of space and way cooler than a 15 passenger van!! We finally got to the Dream Center at about 3am EST!

Sunday- Two church services! We got to go on stage and “Call the Dogs” for everyone to hear, it was fun to share a little bit of Georgia with them! The services were great, but a lot different from church here. The band was like a rock concert and the preaching was for a much different crowd. The DC sends our buses to Skid Row and other places to pick up people from the streets to bring them to church. Along with them, there are also some Hollywood producers and actors and actresses who you would recognize! The main actor from Everybody Hates Chris even got on the stage and rapped!

Sunday Afternoon- Free Time! We headed out to get some lunch and In and Out Burger, right down the street from the Oscars!! We tried to get as close as possible and see famous people, but sadly, we didn’t find any. Next, we headed to Venice Beach and spent a long, long time just enjoying the beach and taking lots of fun pictures! I got to touch the Pacific Ocean for the first time too!! 

Monday- Our full Free Day! We began the morning on Hollywood Blvd. where we saw all of the Oscar leftovers at the Kodak Theater. It was neat to see everything, but it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. Next we checked out the L.A. Ink Tattoo Parlor from TLC (very small, not as exciting as you would think!), then headed to Muscle Beach. We had a great time playing on all of the equipment, and seeing how much we didn’t belong!! There are some strong people there! We hung out for a long time on the swings and enjoying the view on the pier. That night we ate dinner at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles and went to the Griffith Observatory and saw the lights of the city, very neat!

Tuesday- Our first real working day! In the morning we went on a facility tour where we got to see all of the cool stuff that they do at the Dream Center. One of our girls realized that maybe this is exactly her calling in life! She is getting a music business degree from UGA and wants to intern at the DC in their Studio! (Look for the bands “I’m OK, You’re OK” and “Press Play”) She talked to some of the musicians and did an informal interview! Talk about cool stuff happening in our student’s lives!! After some tears of joy and unbelief, we were able to rejoin the tour and see everything! After lunch, we went to a high school and invited the students to the youth service that night. We had a great time and all found a new, loud voice inside of us! We enjoyed the youth service that night and some of our team participated in the dance contest afterwards, classic LA!

Wednesday- We spent the morning cleaning the Dream Center! We probably had the most fun any group of people could possibly have cleaning bathrooms and 16 flights of stairs!! After lunch, we went did the Food Truck Ministry! It was so fun!! We took food to a poor neighborhood where most of the people spoke Spanish. The families lined up along the sidewalk and received bags of food. I wish I could speak Spanish, but it was a lot of fun trying to interact with the kids. They were all so precious. That night we did an outreach to Santa Monica. We took food out to a park (where it was FREEZING COLD!), and were told to talk to the people. I found some of my teammates in conversation with this young man named Sean. We found out that he had lived on the streets for a while, but had the biggest spirit I had ever seen. He trusted and loved the Lord in a time where he had nothing. He stayed away from the drugs and alcohol that are so abundant. That night, Sean got to come home. He came back to the Dream Center and began in the Hope for the Homeless Youth Program. We saw him the next day and he had the biggest smile and already made friends! He was also going to a job interview that afternoon to work at the Dream Center. This was such a wonderful thing to see. It is easy to see the people that already live at the Dream Center and hear their stories, but so much different seeing the whole process in action!

Thursday- Food Truck again in the morning. Another great time!! That afternoon we went out with a guy from the DC on a Hollywood Blvd. outreach. We took sack lunches to people who live on the streets. We meet a guy who we think had been doing heroin and another guy who was sitting on the exit ramp. Unfortunately, there were not many people out where we were, but we sure did walk a whole lot!! We went past the Capitol Records building and the Hollywood Tower Hotel (Disney world!!).  That night, we had another church service, very similar to the two on Sunday, but with a guest speaker .

Friday- We spent the morning at Nursing Homes. The first one was a place that you could tell was very expensive. The view was magnificent and the people pretty charming.  We sang a couple of songs with them and listened to a little lesson. Next, we went to one very different. This one was much worse, and the people seemed to be a lot more sad. We had a wonderful compliment that we were the only group to ever all be involved and all try our best. What a great thing to hear!  That afternoon, we served food at the Volunteers of America Courtyard on Skid Row. Wow, words hardly describe what we saw when we got there. I served water to all of the people coming through the line, while some other team members served other things and some just talked with the people.  There were people from all walks of life there.  People that were just laying around, with all they own within an arms reach. So sad. It was very emotionally draining.

Friday Night- This was the night we were all looking forward to. We were going out to Skid Row at night to minister to people, give them candy, and invite them to church. This was one of the things I “forgot” to mention to my parents until we got back, so they wouldn’t worry so much!  We went with a large group of people, and the DC goes every Friday. We were given the rules before we headed out, and when things such as, “If you hear us say GO, then you need to GO ask questions later and follow us,” you get a little nervous! On the car ride there, we spent some time sharing and praying as a group. The boys were great and confident and the girls scared. As we were getting out of the car, one of our girls became very scared.  I was able to get her out of the car, and get her to calm down. One of our boys promised to hold her hand the whole time and stay beside her. By about 10 ft down the road, she was having a blast. I saw her praying for a stranger on the street and heard her sadness when it was almost time to leave! Skid row is one of those places that you hear about, but don’t really understand. There was so much devastation, and just a sad, sad spirit.

Saturday- Adopt-a-Block! We gathered with about 1000 others to go to different communities in LA for the morning. We went to South Central, which is the main origin of gangs in LA. You would have never known! We gave out some food and played with the kids. They were precious and just excited they had people to play with! After that, we packed up and do some more exploring. We stood in line at Pink’s Hotdogs for over an hour to eat some crazy hotdogs. I got a Martha Stewart, which included sour cream and bacon! After that, we ran to a few other places and then towards the airport. We stopped at Randy’s Donuts and ate lots and lots! Then off to the airport where we boarded at 11:59pm!!!

Women's Retreat

This weekend we had the Wesley Women's Retreat! I have to admit, at first, I wasn't too excited about being busy all weekend and missing out on my much needed catch-up-sleep!Luckily on Friday that changed. As I drove up to the camp in Jasper, GA with my friend Stephanie, I remembered the joy of a GPS, and the joy of great conversation! Stephanie's husband was driving up to the Men's Retreat late after work, so he had their GPS and we had to rely on the "old-school" google directions! We found more small town Georgia than we asked for, took a few wrong turns, found a scary dumpster with children's toys, and cheered louder than I've ever heard when we finally found the Wesley sign through the sleet!! Needless to say, getting there was a wonderful adventure!
Once we arrived, we met the speaker for the weekend, Leigh Ann. She was incredible! One of those ladies you don't want to stop talking, and you really hope that if you listen well enough some part of her will rub off on you! It was really wonderful to go into the weekend and be there totally for myself. I wasn't in charge of anything, I had no responsibilities, no one else to be praying over and for- really a time to spend one on one with the Lord and be filled up! I don't know what part was the kicker, but I certainly felt like I had an open telephone line straight to God! His voice was so clear and sweet and wonderful from the very first worship set! The topic of the weekend was "Released" and that is what we did! We came to a place to release ourselves into God's goodness and freedom. We learned how to hear the Lord's voice, and about dreams and promises and intercession and even how to have a secular job and still influence the Kingdom.
Mix in all of that Jesus, a few possible alien ships landing in our room, gale force winds, four silly girls and lots and lots of laughter- and you've got the perfect weekend! I'm excited to start my week released and refreshed and rested! (Let's just pray I feel that way tomorrow morning too! :) )

The first of many...

Hi Friends!
This is my first shot at "blogging", so bear with me! I think this is a great way to share with you all what is happening in my life! I love your prayers for me and want you to tell you about life at Wesley so you can pray even more specifically!

We started back to work on Tuesday with a retreat in Atlanta. Luckily, we have some wonderful connections that got us all free rooms at a super nice hotel! It was wonderful to be back in the swing of things. This weekend, we are having a conference for our leaders. MorningStar University students are leading the conference as a chance to teach our students more about the Lord's heart! We also have personal encouragement times for each of our students. We have one more session tonight and another tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store!

I look forward to posting pictures and sharing everything that is happening. I would love to hear from each of you too!

God Bless!