Looking back...2011

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

With it being the end of 2011, I was thinking back over the past year and where I was one year ago.  Let me tell you as I think back, I never ever would have thought that I would be where I am now.  One year ago I was working at the same place I had since my senior year in high school.  I felt stuck there after working there four and a half and not knowing what I was supposed to do.  It still amazes me God’s hand on every part of my life even when I didn’t know what was going on.  It’s funny how sometimes we think we know what is going on and God has a totally different plan for us.  Some of you might already know the story but I have a feeling some of you might not.  So here is the story on how I got to where I am.  It still amazes me sometimes on how God worked it all out.

In April or May I decided I wanted to do something different this year.  I thought about going on a mission trip but the one through my church did not work so I tried to come up with something else.  My dad suggested helping out at a camp.  So I decided to help out at Camp Conquest, the camp I went to when I was a kid.  After I applied and got accepted, I realized that the same week I was going to be helping out in the kitchen at camp was the same weekend that my family was taking our annual trip up to New York.  Well I decided to go to camp, and boy I am glad I did.  After Camp, in July, was the first time ever that I thought I might want to do something related to camp or a retreat center. 

I believe God put it on my heart and then he took me to Sandy Cove’s website. That is where I saw the page for Converge.  On the Friday after camp, I find out about Converge and that same day I find out that they were closing our other book store.  On Wed, I go down to Sandy Cove and meet Lindy and take a tour around the property.  One week later, I find out that my manager was going to be losing her job. Also, I get an email from Stephen asking to set up a phone interview.  So basically when something bad was happening with my job, I was finding out great information about Converge.  Now a couple months later I am apart of converge and I am learning so much.  I never ever would have thought a year ago that I would be where I am now.  I love how God had a hand in everything. 

12 Things I am learning

12 things I am continually learning during Converge

1.       Balance

2.       Dealing with conflict

3.       To enjoy the current moment

4.       If God brings you to it…He will bring you through it

5.       Mistakes are good…as long as you learn from them

6.       Stepping out of your comfort zone just helps/makes you grow

7.       9x out of 10… first impressions are always wrong

8.       Life is full of different adventures…it is a matter of if we will take advantage of them

9.       Hard times just make you stronger

10.   God brings certain people into your life to make you learn certain things

11.   Christ died for our sins and rose again…that is all that matters

12.   I am so incredibly blessed

I figure because there is less than a week until Christmas I would do something a little different in my blog post.  The first thing I thought of was the 12 days of Christmas…So I figured I wanted to list the 12 things I am learning during Converge. I am on break right now until the day after Christmas and let me tell you this was a much needed break and I am enjoying it so far.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season!! Don’t forget the real reason for the season, it is so easy to forget about our Savior’s birth.

"For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6 (NLT)

Fasting Part 2

The fast I chose for the past six weeks was movies and TV.  Let me tell you it was kind of hard. I am the type of person who if I am in my room cleaning or just relaxing I like to stick in a movie and even if I am not sitting there and watching it I like to listen to it.  Then there are also times where if I have a stressful or down day I liked to put a movie in to get into a different world.  One of the hardest things for me was one night I had gotten back to our house at Sandy Cove at about 3 after a couple days at home. Well I ended up being there until about 9 by myself.  Let me tell you all I wanted to do was watch a movie.  I was feeling a little down and wanted to get in my little world of movies.  I almost broke my fast…I almost went to a movie theater also.  Sad, I know but thinking back on that night and other times that I had gone to see movies I realize that I use it as my crutch to not think about life and its hardships. 

I am not going to lie…I technically broke my fast for Thanksgiving.   With the agreement of the other Convergers, I watched the Macy’s Day Parade.  Every year my family watches the parade and even this year my sister and brother-in-law came over just to watch the parade.  I realized that if I correctly used movies and TV it can be good.  It is a relaxing mechanism and can be used for socialization.  It is all a matter of balance, balance, balance. 

During this time of fasting, I did use my spare time more effectively.  I listened to more music instead of movies.  I also got a chance to actually read a non-fiction and found that I like to relax by working on some jigsaw puzzles.

Also, I learned that everything you do affects others in some degree.  With TV/movies, there were a couple times when I walked in to the room, people had to turn the TV off, or I had to be anti-social because the TV was on so I couldn’t go into the room.  I also got to experience the other end of it also.   Renee fasted from listening to music and we had to be considerate of her and not listen to music while she was in the vehicle.  It was hard especially when I was driving to River Valley Ranch the week or so before. So part of what I learned through this experience was learning to be considerate of others.

So for those of you who are on this journey with me I would like to challenge you to think of something that you feel you can't live without and actually live without it for a couple of weeks.  It doesnt have to be 6 weeks like we have done but it def. is rewarding.  I have actually been off of my fast for just under a week and now I am more careful with what I watch and how much I watch it.  I have more time to do other more productive things with my life :)

RVR and Breaks!

I was able to be home for the past 9 days with it being Thanksgiving.  I never really knew how tired and warn out I was until I had a week of relaxing, sleeping in, and time with family and friends.  The week before break was kind of a crazy week.  We worked the weekend before and then instead of having two days off and chill time, we went on a retreat to River Valley Ranch in Manchester, Md.  Then when we returned back to Sandy Cove we had two days of classes and then a hard weekend of working.  So thinking back over the last two weeks, I have come to realize and appreciate the need for breaks.  I also realized how important it is for people specifically in ministries to make sure they spend time for themselves and take that time needed to rejuvenate.  If you do not take the time to rejuvenate, you are not going to be able to serve God with all you are worth, so He only ends up getting about half of what we are capable of doing. 

Anyway, our retreat to River Valley Ranch was good.  We had a mixture of class time, fun time, and team building fun. J  We got the chance to go horseback riding and on a 1700 ft zip line (my first zip line ever).  It was def. a crazy experience and a ton of firsts for a lot of us.  I had also never been on a horse other then when I was little and it was a pony and it went around in circles.  My horse was Duke and he was a well experienced horse been on many trail rides.  I did not even need to tell him when to turn or start or stop, he just kind of did his own thing and followed the guy in front of him.  It was kind of interesting when I would try to make him go in to the center of the path (cause he mainly stayed on the outside) it was almost like he was glaring at me saying “I know what I am doing”.  So half the time I just sat back and let him do what he wanted.  It was interesting trusting the horse that he knew what he was doing. 

I guess I learned a lot about trust that weekend (looking back).  Anyone who knows me really well knows that I am scared of heights.  But I figured out from a couple different activities that if I do it once I am fine then.  For the zip line, the first time I went I screamed the first time I went down and was terrified but then second time I went down I was able to look around and enjoy the scenery.

I am looking forward to what else God is going to teach me these next few weeks before we have our Christmas break!

Psalm 16:11

“You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.”  Psalm 16:11 (NLT)

David writes in Psalm 16 about the joys and benefits of a live lived in companion with God.  The beginning of the chapter talks about the benefits now-a-day and the last couple verses talk about the eternal benefits.

In verse eleven, David has explains the secret to joy.  David finds “joy in [God’s] presence and the pleasure of living with [Him] forever”.  If our eyes are on God, our hearts will always rejoice in him.  The world is full of sorrow and thankfully in Heaven there is joy.  All of our earthly sorrow will end with Heavenly joy.  Death does not conquer us.  In verse ten it says “for [God] will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave”.  I think these couple of verses are a great reminder that we have hope, when we are following Christ we will find great joy and we will live with God eternally in Heaven!!!!!!  

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star...

Every time I go to blog I sit in front of my computer for about ten minutes just trying to decide which learning moment I should write about.  There is always so many different things going through my head and different things I am learning through being here at Sandy Cove.  So if anyone has any specific questions for me just Facebook me. J

So our weekends can be pretty crazy.   Since that is when we have the majority of groups come in we tend to only work on the weekends.  Some weeks we have hard work schedules and others are a little easier.  Because there are six of us here we tend to rotate our schedules.  The one schedule that all of us seem to dread is the 6:30am shift in the kitchen on Saturday mornings.  Well this morning it happened to be Renee’ and me.  I know sometimes I have a hard time having a good attitude that early in the morning especially when my alarm goes off at 5:30 and we leave the house by 6:15 because we have to walk down to the lodge.  Let me tell you this specific morning it was so cold and so dark.  But as soon as we left our driveway we both looked up and we saw the most beautiful sky.  The stars were so bright and so defined that you could see so many constellations.  It felt and looked like it was 10 in the evening. There was no moon this morning but those stars…it is just hard to describe if you were not there.  It was really cool to see that even if most of the world was not up at 6 in the morning those stars still shine there as bright as they do during the evening.  Which reminded me how our God never sleeps and that even when we are asleep during the night he is still there watching us and protecting us.  Also, the God who created me and you is the same God that created those amazing stars.  That was my revelation from this morning walk to the kitchen. 

What/Who Are You Worshiping?

We are currently reading Wired: For a Life of Worship by Louie Giglio for a class here at Sandy Cove.  I really love this book because there are so many wonderful points.  I wanted to share some of the highlights that really hit home with me, I am hoping they will make you think and reexamine your life as it did mine.  So here are some of my favorite quotes from the book…

“We become what we worship.  If you don’t like who you’re becoming, take a quick inventory of the things on the throne of your heart.”

“Our words mean most when they’re amplified by the way we choose to live our lives when we are faced with various opportunities and temptations.”

We are supposed to be worshiping continually because God says… “Everything you are—is Me.  Everything you have—is Mine.  The life you live is My life that I’ve freely given you.  And I want worshipers who will be constantly reflecting My goodness and grace with that life.”

“You can worship God wherever you are…doing whatever it is you do!”

Mr. Giglio also wrote about the time that he used to work a photocopying machine.   He wrote in the book about his experience and how he would spend hours with the copying machine doing the same thing over and over and over again.  God worked with Mr. Giglio because eventually the copy room turned into a place he loved.  He was able to improve his workmanship, but mainly he loved it because he got to spend that time with God. “Time to talk to Him.  Time to worship. Time to listen. Time to pray.”  This got me to thinking specifically when I am doing housekeeping on weekends.  It can be very repetitious.   We can either be folding sheets and towels for hours or making beds for hours.  I know I kind of blogged about this before but this story kind of brought it home for me.  My witness (can be) my work…and my work (can be) my worship.”  So I want to challenge those of you who are reading this blog to think about it. How can you “turn your place in life into a place of true worship”?

“Everything on earth (except sin) can be done as an act of worship to God

To Eat or Not to Eat

When we first arrived here at Sandy Cove we were asked to pick something to fast, and then fast from it for six weeks.  We were supposed to pick something that whenever we thought about it we were supposed to pray or spend time reading the Bible.  Well I decided on desserts along with Meghan and Renee.  You know how girls are, we like our desserts and our Chocolate. I am going to be honest, I didn't really take the fast serious at first.  It was a way for us to connect with each other as a group because three of us were doing the same fast and then the others were teasing us at first.  At the beginning of the six weeks we had kind of decided that to break our fast we would go to the Cheesecake Factory!!! So on the night of our fast I ate a huge piece of the Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake Cheesecake, and boy was it A-MAZING!!!

Anyway it sounds like I didn't learn a thing during the fast but I really did.  There were so many times were we had to flee from the temptation of having dessert and there were other times were we couldnt flee we had to just deal with the temptation right in front of us.  For example: we baked cupcakes at Camp Sandy Cove, there were two times where we were handing out s'mores, and we were putting out cookies and cakes for different groups.  But the one thing I learned the most happened at the very end.  We were breaking our fast Thursday night and Wednesday night we happened to be up past midnight where it was technically Thursday and technically we could have breaken our fast.  And I was going to do it with a cookie.  But then I thought about it and I decided I didnt want to settle for a lousy cookie from our freezer I wanted to CHOOSE to wait and have the real thing at the Cheesecake Factory.  So basically I learned that dessert doesnt own me/I dont need it I CAN CHOOSE TO EAT IT OR NOT TO EAT IT!!!!! 

Acts 17

We have been going through Acts the past week or two for class.  It has been cool to learn about the birth and the growth of the Christian Church.  This week we were studying Acts 17:16-34, which Paul shows us about how to evangelize.  Paul basically went into a city and saw a need and met it right away. He saw the idolatry in the city and decided to confront it. (Why was it so easy for Paul to confront people way back when and we can’t confront other, even fellow believers, in their sin?)  Paul used every moment to share the gospel he went to the public square daily to speak to anyone who would listen.  Why do we get so caught up in our everyday life and not take time to help the lost?  I know why…we are afraid of rejection. 

Acts 17: 32- When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.”

 People will reject the good news, but people will also accept it to.   Several years ago I went on a six week mission trip and one of our goals was to share the gospel everywhere we went.  Everywhere from Wal-mart to McDonalds.  It was so hard…because it is uncomfortable.  But it was totally worth it because we did see those certain people accept the Lord.  We never know unless we try. I am preaching/reminding myself just as much as whoever is reading this.    I hope this makes you think.

When all else Fails...try try again!

So apparently you can choose to have a good attitude…I guess I never really thought about it because it is so much easier to have a bad attitude about something.  Today I worked in the kitchen with Kristina and we were preparing salads for a banquet.  We were told that we needed to make 376 salads…so we started going at it.  Well about half way through, another supervisor in the kitchen made a comment about having a banquet of 32 people.  So we had to undo all of the salads we made.  It would have been so easy to just grumble and complain (Phil. 2:14) but we chose to have a positive attitude.  When something bad happens, 9x out of 10 it could have been worse.  In this case, we could have made all 376 salads and then have to undo all of those, instead it was half.

The first day we arrived here at Sandy Cove we received a devotional book, The Message//Remix: Solo, and we are supposed to be doing it every day.  Basically, you read a passage from the Message and then have to think and pray about it.  Well for some odd reason I felt like I wasn’t getting anything out of it so I was a little discouraged which made me in the long run have a bad attitude about it. Well after we discussed it in our class the other day I tried having a better attitude about it, because even if sometimes I don’t get something out of it, it is still God’s Word.  Anyway the next couple days the girls and I decided to make it a little more interesting, so we decided to do it together.  Of course we got a little silly.   The one time we were supposed to read the passage 5x.  So the one time we went around and we read it one word at a time, the next time we read it very dramatically, then in 3 different versions.  After reading it we took time to discuss it and kind of take it apart.  Last night we even got to apply what we were learning in our one class about how to study the Bible.

Even though I just was saying that you can choose to have a good attitude, I am having a hard time choosing to have a good attitude when there are people who work different than me. Satan knows that is a weakness of mine and he is putting those people right in my path, so I could use some prayer on that these next several months. 

So much to learn...

Well we are back from Camp Sandy Cove.  We left Sunday afternoon and arrived there around supper time.  Monday morning we worked from 8-6:30 doing all sorts of different things.  In the morning we went around to all of the different cabins and were cleaning the bathrooms (I did showers so lets just say I would be ok with not cleaning showers for awhile).  We also had to move canoes and transport them to the other end of the camp (I was a little sore the next day).  It amazed me everything they had to get done to winterize the camp.  We ended up getting everything done and out of camp by 12:30 on Tuesday (we originally going to be coming back Wed). 

It is so crazy how at some moments I feel like I am not learning very much but then in one day I feel like I have learned so much in which it is hard to put into words.  I have learned so much about myself this past month, it is insane.  I am also learning a lot about others.  With there being six of us in Converge, and all of us being very different, it has been cool learning to work together and to work through our differences.  At Camp Sandy Cove I could really see how we have our different strengths and weaknesses.  One of our weaknesses is someone else’s strength.

Stretching Moments

I have been sitting here thinking back over the past several days and it has been so crazy.  There has been many stretching moments but two of them were I was asked to pray for the offering in front of senior citizens and all of us Convergers are learning the different activities here and so I had the chance swinging on the giant swing (I am so scared of heights).  I also spent eight hours making beds. Let me tell you it is a lot harder and draining then you would expect.  I am just so thankful I got to do that with Meghan and Renee.  There have been so many different opportunities to bond with each and every Converger, the sad thing is that I know I have missed some opportunities also.  The past couple days I have been trying to keep my eyes open, and let me tell you when you are ‘stuck’ in the basement in the housekeeping room, you really have some wonderful bonding moments while folding laundry. 

Through all of these things this week I have also been learning how much Satan tries to mess with us.  He knows our weaknesses and he goes after to try to destroy us.   Thankfully God is so much more powerful then Satan and I have been learning that when I rely on God’s strength, I can conquer anything…even Satan.

We are heading back to Camp Sandy Cove tomorrow afternoon, in which we (Convergers) could use some prayer.  I know Satan is going to be attacking us because we are tired after working this weekend and then we are headed to CSC to help close up camp for the winter. So if you could pray for our attitudes and for our safe trip there.

Also, I really appreciate all of you who are taking time out of your busy schedule to read this.  I don’t know who reads this but it does mean a lot knowing that people care about what is going on with my life here at Sandy Cove.

Working with a purpose...

So this weekend was so tiring and (mostly) fun.  So Friday morning I worked with 3 other Convergers and we chipped wood. I think that is what it called, basically we put small trees and limbs into this machine and it made it ‘chipped’ it (haha).  The fun thing about it was not the fact that we were picking up the trees and putting them thru the machine; it was why we were doing it.  The maintenance guys have been clearing some brush and trees along the road from the front of property to the back to make a 4 ft wide path for people to walk on.  It is partly about safety, but mainly it is so people can take walks together and connect with each other.  It made the job a lot more enjoyable because we knew we were doing something with a purpose!!!

Friday and Saturday night, I had the pleasure of working in the dining room learning to bus tables. It was cool to see the guests and serve them.   Also, yesterday I worked housekeeping.  I am not going to lie, I was not looking forward to it.  I had heard stories of people just sitting there and folding laundry, and I am the type of person who likes to be up and doing things.  So when we got there Renee, Meghan and I were taken to a room and taught how to make beds.  I was so excited to not be just sitting there folding. So instead of sitting there for 8 hours folding laundry, I got to make beds for 8 hours, we also got to listen to music while we did it so that made it more fun.  Let’s just say I’ve never made so many beds in my life.  I was so blessed to work with Renee and Meghan. I never knew that making beds could be so tiring, we were so dead afterwards. I am starting to learn to just go with the flow of things, because it is not worth worrying or dreading something because it could be completely different then what I expect.

Spiritual Leadership

For class are learning about Spiritual Leadership. We just read an article about the American Bible Society (ABS), a nonprofit organization who has had the opportunity to share the gospel and the love of Christ where it is desperately needed.  They have been around for 195 years and in 2011 they became the Best Christian Workplace. It was very interesting learning about how they got to that point. They had to reexamine what they were doing, why they were doing it, and how they were doing it.  Also, their purpose has always been “‘sharing the truth is not the same as ‘living’ the truth.  Unless we live the vision, we really don’t have a vision.” I love James 1:22, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” It is so true, we need to live the word.

ABS wants their employees to be successful, personal and professional.  They mentor and devote time into their best leaders.  “One of our generation’s greatest needs is the opportunity to interact with people who will openly and honestly share their journey of faith”.  I am so excited for this year to be mentored and to be able to be ‘strengthened in this journey’.

2 weeks down...

2.5 weeks done and so much has happened.  This past weekend we went to Camp Sandy Cove in West Virginia to help out at Man Camp which is a weekend for fathers and sons to get away.  That was quite the experience.  I cleaned like I have never cleaned before in my life (even compared to WOL).  We also helped out with different activities during Saturday and Sunday.  It was really cool to see during the worship times all of the men and sons singing and worshiping together.  It encourages me so much see those Men care enough about their relationship with their son to get away and spend the weekend together.

Today was the first day of classes, we learned more about the History of Sandy Cove, got a tour of the kitchen, and learned about opening and closing the pool.  One of the hardest things I did today was Stephen had us write our testimony in 10 minutes and it had to be 5 minutes long.  That was not the easiest thing for me to do.  And when we were doing that all I could think of is that God is just stretching me.  I knew these 9 months were going to be very stretching, but I never thought it would hit me in this little activity (especially since I've written my testimony out before several times). Also, tomorrow I am going to be giving my testimony to a small group of volunteers.  For those of you who know me well know that words/spelling and speaking in front of people are not my strongest thing, and for those who are getting to know me you will find that out more and more as you read this.  So just like today, tomorrow is going to be very stretching also, but thankfully I have God on my side.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)

Strength for the Journey

For those of you who do not know, I am participating in a 9 month internship program called Converge at Sandy Cove in North East, MD.  There are six of us participating in this program and each of us will be creating a blog so you can follow this journey we are on.  We've been here about a week now and let me tell you, this has been one busy and crazy week. I found this quote and I am kind of basing my blog on this quote because during this past week I've seen God give me the strength to get through this journey.

"Don't worry that you're not strong enough before you begin.  It is in the journey that God makes you strong."