Hmmm...

After some thought, and a little pestering from friends and family, I decided that maybe I should blog about my summer one last time. Let me confess that while life in Montana was without its technological advances there are other reasons I didn't blog much. Truth be told, this summer was extremely hard for me. There are a lot of things that fed into that, none of which are really mentioning because time has passed, and some of those wounds have healed. I do, however, feel like there are a few things worth mentioning, especially regarding the last week, so here goes.

We received a new team member the Wednesday before our group arrived, so we had about 3 days to get him acclimated to life on the res, and help him help us get projects and work for the team lined up. So we spent those three days awkwardly getting to know each other, testing levels of sarcasm and figuring out how we work best together as a team. On Friday we made our special trip to Billings, to reconnect with humanity, as well as get groceries and miscellaneous supplies needed for our group. Now, funny story- we were driving an open bed truck filled with our groceries, etc... things were going fine when all of a sudden, a bag of the polyfill stuffing we purchased flew out of the back end of the truck. We drove several blocks before reaching a stoplight in which we as a team were debating whether or not we should go back for it. I chose to be the daring one, so I ran down the median towards the renegade bag of fluff, while my team found a place to turn around and come pick me up. It was very exciting and a little adrenaline rushing!

The next day we had a few different things that needed to be done in preparation for the group, so we decided to split up. The other two made their way to Birney, in search of what supplies were needed, as well as what work might need to be done. I decided to stay back at the house and *gasp* CLEAN! Haha- I barely do that at my own house let alone offering to do it at someone elses... Anyway, they took off and I cranked my iTunes and rocked the house, broom in hand. After a couple of hours or so, I wondered what might have happened to my cohorts, so I decided to take the chance that they had gone "into town" to pick up supplies, so I tried their cell phones. They answered and told me that they had decided to go to Sheridan, which was a town that some of the people living in Birney had told us about. It was a real treat, cell service AND a Wal-Mart! So I chatted with them for a minute about how long they'd be and what all they'd found, etc... So, after talking with them I finished up cleaning and decided that I wanted to rent a movie and go for a walk. So, I rented the movie (Book of Eli- didn't even end up watching it that night) and my "walk" turned into a 7 mile trek down the road and back. At which time, I ran into (not literally) my partners in crime on their way back from Sheridan. Oh yeah, funny story about Sheridan-- It's in WYOMING! So, sad day... I missed out on the opportunity to cross the state line, but ended up having a really great walk. The time alone was really great, and it gave me the opportunity to put everything away, the summer, all the things we still had left to do to get ready for the group, even myself, and just spend time in God's creation. Looking around at the majesty and wonder of this funny little town of Lame Deer and just revel in His glory. I even got turned around and headed back home in time to see the beautiful sunset. God really knows how to show off out there in Montana. =) Sure my feet hurt, and I got cold eventually, but that moment reminded me that I have to force myself to stop, take a breath and get away from life every once in awhile in order to really take time for my Savior. It's hard to appreciate the beauty in life if you're going 100 miles an hour- I've learned that it just passes you by.

Now we skip to the groups' arrival. We had three different churches arriving at the same time to do work in Lame Deer. One church was prepared to do the Kidz Club in Birney, and the other two churches were going to help out with miscellaneous work projects within the community. Truth is, we couldn't have asked for better groups to close out our summer. They were all great groups who worked really hard, and served their hearts out. There was one group in particular that I spent majority of the week with- they had been to the community before, in fact for the past 10 years or so they had been coming, but this year they partnered with EM. And they were great. They were flexible when things didn't always go really well, they were enthusiastic, they embraced me as a member of their group, even started referring to me with the affectionate title of "Momma Mandie". But because of having three groups, and minimal housing space, this group was located at a secondary housing site. There was hope that I'd be able to move and stay with them, but do to logistics I was unable to. So, the guy in our group stayed with the group, I stayed back at the other housing site, and then every morning, I would wake up early, drive to the other housing site, and help set out breakfast and eat with that group, while the other guy would take the truck and drive back to the Healing Tree house and do the same with the other two groups. It was crazy... and needless to say, very little sleep was had by most that week, but the time spent hanging out late at night after dinner and worship is where a lot of relationships are built. During the course of evenings we sat around a basketball court singing worship songs, sat by and watched herds of energetic teenagers run around a little church building in search of markers (ultimate spoons), played Euchre (killed it, btw, best 2 out of 3), and Auto-tuned with a friend. I also managed to make 4 trips to the local IGA in one day... talk about exciting!

All summer I didn't laugh as hard as I did in that last week and a half. I also didn't cry as much, because for the first time all summer I felt God ever present in what was going on. There were so many God-moments in that week, but also a lot of moments where Satan refused to let us forget that he was still around. We had some snags with work projects, some miscommunications, some conflicts, and of course the break-in. But all the while, God was surrounding us and caring for us, and revealing Himself to us in some truly beautiful ways.

I have one last piece of news/information for you. Something that many of you might already know, but for those of you who don't, I want you to. I'm moving to Michigan for a year. God's been answering prayers of mine in some really powerful ways, and at this point, I've been all over. 6 weeks in San Francisco, California, 3 weeks in New Orleans, Louisiana, 4 weeks in *ahem* Lame Deer, Montana, and now 12 months in St. Joe, Michigan. It's an exciting time for me. I've always wanted to travel, and while this may not be exactly what I'd wanted in "traveling" I get to spend fairly significant time in all these different places. Places I probably never would have been to on my own. And it's been great. I've made some really great friends along the way, and God's been preparing my heart for this next leg of my journey.

So, now for what I'll be doing there. I am going to be doing a year long internship with the youth ministry at First Church of God in St. Joe, Michigan. Truth be told, that's about all I know. I don't know what all God has in store for me there, but He's been planting seeds and paving the way for me to get there. And I'm pumped! And a little scared. But one night during our evening worship with the groups in Lame Deer, I shared my testimony. And I reminded myself that I need to see myself through God's eyes, and that He doesn't call the equipped or the qualified, He calls regular, old, people like me, and gives them what they need to succeed.

*yawn*

Hey ya'll. Life here on the range has been pretty quiet the last few days. We're coming to a close of week one of our break, and quite frankly we haven't done much. We made a trip into Birney and met with some of the kids and finished up painting the jungle gym. Then we made a trip into Billings, which meant cell phone reception and some internet time at Barnes and Noble. We attended a block party the church was throwing, and got to meet a team of adults and students that has also been working here in the community this week.

I'm sad to say that I don't have much else to share in the way of ministry or things I'm doing to further the kingdom, which quite frankly kind of bums me out. I know that we all have our quiet periods, and I can't help but wonder if this is time for me to be filled back up, so that when our last team comes in a week and a half, that I'll be refreshed, spiritually and emotionally rested and ready to pour into them. I'm also sad to say that I don't feel rested. From a sleep perspective I do, but from an emotional and spiritual standpoint I don't.

To be honest with you, God has felt kind of distant, and I know well enough that it usually means I'm pulling away from God, not him pulling away from me, but that doesn't make it any less hard. I know that God's calling me to do big things with my life, and thusfar I'm doing everything I can to follow him and stay within his will so I know that I'll be blessed. I listened to an interesting sermon online this week, regarding the beattitudes and how they are a progression. We start out as poor in spirit because we surrender ourselves and the things of this world to a life of following God's will, and from there we tend to mourn our loss, then we become meek- allowing ourselves and our powers and strengths to be harnessed and used by God. That's where the sermon stopped, because it was on the third beattitude, but just reading through them I can see how it does continue to progress. I also personally think that sometimes we can repeat stages. There are several things in life we have to give up and surrender, when we are at different places in our lives we are asked to surrender things, even good things.

A couple of years ago I was doing a study that included a 40 day fast. I chose to fast from secular music when the study began, mostly because I couldn't really think of anything else to give up. A few days into the study I felt like God was asking me to surrender a friendship that I was in, because I had turned this friendship into more than it should be- and in some ways allowed it to replace my relationship with Christ. I spent the next 40 days refocusing my life on Christ and becoming more committed to putting his will and desire for my life above my own. Well, that friend has kind of popped back into my mind over the past few days. And it really made me think about how that (and many other of my friendships and relationships) have turned out. The past two internships I've had have sort of been "love em and leave em" jobs- I get to hang out with, build relationships, and share life with groups of people for a week, and then they go home and continue on life as it was before- hopefully, not exactly as before, with the hope that God used me, or some experience from the week to change them. In a lot of ways many of my friendships and relationships are the same way. I have been a part of people's lives for a time, hoping that in some way I made a difference (positive, hopefully) and then we went our separate ways. It amazes me how God has used my friendships, and experiences to prepare me for a job in which I build mostly short-term relationships. I just hope that doesn't mean I'm not able to maintain a long-term relationship, but that's another topic for another blog... maybe.

Anyway. Thanks for following me in this silly little adventure I'm calling life right now. And for my random ramblings of what I think God is trying to teach me and show me over the next few weeks. All my love...

Howdy

Howdy-doody, y'all... Haha, just kidding. I don't talk like that now. But it's been quite a fight between spending three weeks in the south, and the past week in Montana. It's been such an amazing time though. My last group in NOLA was a great way to end my time there, and my first week in Montana included many adventures. Okay, here goes... (I hope I can remember them all...)

I had quite a time getting here with delayed flights, and waiting on others before our flight could take off. So, that being said, I didn't arrive to my "home" in Montana until 3AM. Which meant the majority of my first day was spent sleeping, and not seeing many sights. Once I woke up, Saturday afternoon, we got ready and went to dinner at a *gasp* CASINO! HAHA... and much to my father's dismay (just kidding) I did not play the slots. I did however, have an Indian Taco, which includes all the "taco things" just served on frybread instead of a tortilla. Frybread is kind of like a beignet only not covered in powdered sugar, is a little less sweet, and is flat like a pancake.

The group arrived on Sunday evening, and we had burgers and dogs... and guess who grilled them... MWAH! And I rocked it! They were super yummy, and I only dropped one on the ground. =) During the course of the week I was able to help cook every night. We did spaghetti (I helped make the sauce), we grilled chicken (Oh yeah, rocked that too), we made Indian tacos with homemade frybread (I did not get to help make the bread, but was advised that I would learn before I leave), and finished out the week with chili and cornbread (I didn't make the chili, but my partner in crime, made the best "everything but the kitchen sink" chili, which included everything from leftover grilled burgers, spaghetti sauce, barbecue sauce, onion, and taco seasoning- and let me just say that it was some of the best chili I've ever had!).

For our work projects, we continued work on a family's house pulling up old tile, laying down laminate, and painting their family room. We also helped to set up a camp called "Crazy Head", worked at the Boy's and Girl's Club, painted the equipment at a park in Birney, which is also where we lead our Kid's Club (aka: VBS) program.

Also during the course of this week I: killed a wasp, killed a bumble-bee, climbed through a window at our house (still have the bruises to prove that one), drove an old van with bad breaks, been eaten alive by mass amounts of mosquitoes, and got to experience God's presence on the top of a mountain.

There are these beautiful lightning storms that happen almost every night here, and as I look over and saw the sky light up with the fiery illumination of lightning behind the clouds, I couldn't help but see the God of Israel who showed his power to the recently freed Israelites with fire and thunder on the mountain of God. It was a beautiful reminder that even though I may not have cell service, God is still alive and well in the mountains of Lame Deer, Montana.

WoW

So, to fill you in a little bit on what's been going on... group 3 arrived on Sunday. They are a smaller group that feels more like a family. There are a total of 7 of them, 3 of them are a dad and his two kids, 2 of them are brother and sister, and the other two are not related at all, or to anyone else in the group. But let me just tell you that they are working just as hard as our previous groups of 40 and 20. We are at the stage on floor two where we are demolishing walls and stuff. As I previously explained, we are working at Lindy Boggs Medical Center, and it is being remodeled to house residents of a state run nursing home. The stages for each floor go like this: remove all of the debris and trash and stuff, bag it up and throw it into the dumpster, then we remove the floating ceilings- including ceiling tiles, light fixtures, and cutting down the metal framing, then we start removing the duct work and metal conduit attached to the ceiling, then we pull up the carpet, then remove the wallpaper, then start removing the sheet rock and metal studs. The last two weeks of groups started on the cleaning up stages and removing the carpet and stuff in the ceiling. This week's group has had the pleasure of busting out the sheet rock and studs and framing. They started working yesterday, and put in another full day today, and they are rocking the house by removing walls and walls of stuff. The other cool thing is that we've had the privilege of working with a group of guys from "Joyzee" or Jersey, as us Midwestern folk call it. =) They have been doing such a great job of working together and helping each other out despite the fact that they were kind of thrown together on this floor.

Today was also a great day for me, because it was my turn to lead the "evening program" or our evening worship service. We learned from last night's acapella experience that we needed a little help, so David Crowder helped lead worship, as well as another worship group- we're not too proud to use some "CD worship" like they used to in the olden days... =) Alex (my partner in crime for the week) and I decided to take the first two evening programs to share our stories and talk about our favorite scriptures and how they've helped us. Alex did a great job last night, and I really felt like God spoke through her about her life, and how she views her relationship with God. Today I had the opportunity of sharing a little of my story with the group. I talked about my life through college, my call to ministry, and my searching journey right now. I teared up a little when I talked about the difficulties of my high school career, and some of the constant struggles I have regarding my self-worth. I also shared the "song"- Everybody's Free [To Wear Sunscreen], which if you haven't heard it you need to YouTube it... It's a "song" of spoken words of wisdom from a guy named "Baz Luhrmann". After sharing his words of wisdom I shared Romans 12 with the group. I've always associated Romans 12 with the beginning verses that talk about being transformed, and giving our bodies as living sacrifices as our spiritual act of worship, but if you keep reading, God offers (through Paul) some amazing words of wisdom on how to live a life that glorifies God and in some ways, how to make our lives "easier". I read this scripture with new eyes tonight. My favorite part, that is really resonating with me right now is verse 16b and c: "Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!" I love that. It was a friendly, emphatic reminder that I needed to hear.

Good-Bye

Today I said good-bye to some really great people... some of those good-byes might mean I never see them again, and some of those good-byes are more of see ya laters... The leader from my existing group (which was also the leader from last week's group) had to fly out today, with another leader for a wedding. She has been an amazing woman of God who has been a great mentor and leader in the two short weeks I've known her. We couldn't have asked for a better leader for our first two weeks on the job. She helped correct us when needed, she was super flexible when housing didn't work out as planned, and she encouraged us all along the way. I love how God chooses to put people in our lives just when we need them. Like I said, I may never see her again, but I'm priveleged to have been a part of her life, even if only for a couple of weeks.

My "see ya later" good-byes went to my teammates. They are flying off to Montana, while I kick it here in NOLA for one more week. They get to go off on their own adventure that doesn't include me, and I couldn't be more excited for them. They're gonna ROCK IT IN MONTANA!!! =)

I have the privilege of making a new friend to help lead the incoming group that will arrive sometime on Sunday. The existing group is still here with us for one more day so we're finishing up the week at the Lindy Boggs Hospital I mentioned before. And if my memory serves me right I owe you a story about this building.

The Lindy Boggs Memorial Hospital was a working hospital when Hurricane Katrina hit. The hospital itself encompassed two buildings, and then there was a building of doctor's offices also a part of this hospital. It is located on the bayou so when the flood waters rose, much of the hospital was affected by it. The two buildings that were the actual hospital were tested and found to house aesbestos so naturally, we aren't able to work in those buildings. We are working in the doctor's office building to help basically gut it to the studs so it can be remodeled and renovated to house St. Margaret's nursing home residents. St. Margaret's Nursing Home is a state run facility that serves people who have a net worth of $2500 and are on medicaid. But the unique thing about this facility is that the residents receive such an amazing level of quality care that exceeds most privately run facilities. So the fact that we get to be a part of something like this is absolutely amazing. What's more, is some of our students have had the privelege of going to the current, temporary housing site for St. Margaret's to allow them the opportunity to connect the faces with the work they are doing. It's been a great experience and everyone has met some really extraordinary people with some awesome stories to tell.

It’s Been Awhile…

For those of you who may or may not have thought that I was dead in a ditch somewhere, or had run off and joined a Creole band, let me reassure you that neither of those things are the case. Life here in NOLA has been super busy and this is about one of the first opportunities I’ve had some time to catch my breath. That being said, there’s so much to fill you in on, so prepare yourself, it’s gonna be a long one…

Last week we had our first group, and they were nothing short of awesome. It was a group of high school students from a church in Atlanta- for a few of them, this was their first mission trip, but for most of them, a summer mission trip was just part of their summer routine. The days typically went like this: get up pre-six o’ clock (in the morning), have a quick breakfast, make our lunches, then depart for the worksites, break for lunch, work a few more hours, pack up and head back to our housing site, clean up, eat dinner, have a little bit of time to chill, then we would finish our night with an evening devotion- led by the group. Each night as a part of their evening devotion they debriefed the day by doing something they called “joy, junk, and Jesus”. This gave everyone an opportunity to talk about their joys of the day, the stuff that wasn’t so joyful, and the ways that they saw Jesus and God at work. It was so cool to hear everyone talk through their days in such an interesting and unique way.

Now that I’ve given you the general overview of last week, let’s get into the nitty, gritty, details of it all.
The group arrived on Sunday evening, and we started our week at a housing site called Camp Hope- it was a great setup, it was an old school that had been abandoned after the storm so they did some renovations and turned it into a housing site for volunteers. They took all of the classrooms on the second floor and turned one side of the hallway into boys’ rooms, and the other side into girls’ rooms. Then on each side of the hallway they created walkways into each of the rooms so they were all connected. We were able to have all the girls stay in one room, and the guys in one room (each on their respective side of the hallway, of course). What was also great about Camp Hope was the fact that they provided all of our meals, so we didn’t need to worry about cooking- all we had to worry about was making sure we arrived to dinner on time. Things were going really well, until Tuesday afternoon when I get a frantic call from the group leader because she had been informed by Camp Hope that they had to move out immediately. Do what now?!!? Longer story a little shorter- Camp Hope had been bought out by BP to house their clean up crew from the oil spill so now we were being displaced. So, we found another place to stay. It was an old Methodist church that had also been renovated into volunteer housing- called Camp Noah. There was already another group staying there, so they had enough rooms to house either the boys or the girls, but not both. They also had a huge warehouse area that had previously been the sanctuary, that was not occupied. So the girls bit the bullet, and took one for the team and slept in the warehouse on cots, while the boys got to live the high life in rooms of about 8, in bunk beds. We moved in Wednesday afternoon, once we had completed our days work. This also meant that we were now responsible for cooking meals, so we had to make a grocery store run on Wednesday while the group was at the worksite. The rest of the week went off without a hitch. The group took a half day on Friday to take in some of the culture of New Orleans, ride a street car, eat beignets, walk around the French Quarter, and then we went to dinner at Acme Oysterhouse, where I enjoyed a sampler platter of many New Orleans’ delicacies, including: jambalaya, gumbo, and red beans and rice. During the course of the week I also consumed a “snowball”- which is basically an awesome snowcone. I had a tootsie roll flavored snowball with condensed milk on top. What I learned from that experience is in order to fake the taste of a tootsie roll you combine grape and chocolate. It sounds gross, but it definitely tasted like a tootsie roll! =)

Last week included a few little projects and one large project. For the little projects we split the groups up and part of the group went to a gentleman’s house to install windows and help him with some renovations and the other part of the group went to an area of NOLA called “Broadmore” in which they helped to clear out some empty lots that had been overrun by weeds, grass, ivy, and trees. The reason we did this is because lots that are overrun will be cleared out by the state, but the owner of the property will be charged $400 for this service, and if they don’t pay (which many of the people can’t- either because they can’t afford it, or because they were displaced after the storm and haven’t returned home) then a lien is put on the property and after so long the state then takes ownership of the property. By cleaning up these lots we are helping to keep the neighborhood look nice, as well as helping these people who might be in need for whatever reason. The larger project we worked on is at a hospital called the Lindy Boggs Memorial Hospital. There is a really cool story that goes behind this hospital, but due to the length of this blog, already, we’ll save it for another time.

I’ll try to update this blog more than once every couple of weeks, but life has been a lot busier and harder than I thought it would be. I’d appreciate your continued prayers throughout the remainder of the summer. I love you all and I miss you lots!

It's Almost Just Begun

Hello, hello, and welcome back to a peek into the life of a cross country traveler. Okay, not exactly, but kind of. Yesterday was an interesting day. We headed back to Slidell to pick up our old buddy "Silver Bullet", when much to our dismay we found out that the brakes are about shot on our dear friend. So, it's almost safe to say that he will be condemned or shipped off to an old truck farm somewhere to spend his last days. Unfortunately for me, I did not get any pictures of it before our departure so I may not be able to share the monstrosity with my friends. After loading up our little Kia with miscellaneous supplies from the bullet- did I mention that EM rented a car, and I'm the one driving around NOLA... eep! Look out drivers and pedestrians... =) Then, we ate lunch and then made our way back to the French Quarter for a little more site seeing before our group arrives later tonight. We were able to consume a "world famous" snowball- mine was chocolate and coconut, and take a ride on the St. Charles streetcar before needing to call it a night. I know it may seem like a lot of fun, what with Vanna White, snowballs, and streetcar rides and all, but don't be fooled, we're working our little tails off. And every little bit of work we do feels like 10 times as much because of the heat and humidity. Indiana's got nothin on Louisiana as far as that goes. Before 10AM the heat and humidity has reached the mid to high 80's and it just keeps on rising until about 4PM when it finally starts to cool down. Fortunately our "roughing it" Camp Hope has air conditioning on the 2nd floor, where are rooms are located, so we aren't smothered by the suffocating humidity.

Today we went to church at Victory Fellowship, which much to our intrigue was a charismatic/pentecostal church. It was so neat to look around and see people my parent's age, and grandparent's age dancing and raising their hands and worshiping God in such a unique way. I'm not saying the way I would worship God on a typical Sunday morning back home is wrong, but there was something so freeing about the way they worshiped. We were singing a song where the words repeated, "set me free", and I realized in that moment, that I'm not free. Or at least I don't feel that way when I worship. I feel stifled and trapped by feelings of fear, and looking around at the people around me, instead of focusing on the reason for my worship. I couldn't help but weep at the sight around me of people who were genuinely worshiping a God who frees them from the worries or cares of other's thoughts and allows them to praise their creator with everything they are. Hallelujah, that I may one day feel that free.