Hello! c :
I was just looking at my last blog post. The date on it is May 31st. Yikes!
So I thought, perhaps I should post something now, while I have the chance. And then I thought, but I have nothing to post about. Then I thought about all the things I've done this summer and why I haven't had time to post...and my next thought was, I have way too much to post about!
Long story short, I'm going to breif you, just incase ou were interested. c ;
I've been away from home for about two months if you add all the time together. And no one feels it more than my eight year old little sister ( seriously I don't think I've ever been missed so much in my life! ) and possibly me...
It started with an opportunity to work at a summer camp as a junior counselor/nanny for a month or so. I learned so much while I was there that if I tried to tell you about it, you'd probably get bored and leave your computer for something more interesting. So I'll sum it up for you :
I didn't realise before going how much I loved working with children, but I do. And not just because their sweet and loving and little angels all the time, because they certainly are not always so. Who is?
I love the ups and downs of the job : the challenges, the sweet moments, the times when you want to pull your hair out... but mostly I love that they're so open to being influenced by you. Not only is it an amazing opportunity to teach and help equip them for the job that God has for them one day, but there is also this huge burden of accountability on your shoulders. To know that every move I make is being watched and most likely mimicked makes me one hundred times more aware of how I act, talk, think, etc. In teaching them, they teach me.
So I think either God is going to give me a house full of kids one day or I'll work in some kind of children's ministry.
That's what I gathered from my four weeks spent at Ponderosa Bible Camp.
After that...and I mean right after that ( literally I had about 48 hours to unpack, wash clothes and repack..I'm not even sure if I stopped to breathe ) my sister and I headed off to a worldview conferance at Bryan College in Tn. for two weeks, hosted by Summit Ministries.
Here's what our schedule looked like : Wake up at 6:00, breakfast at 7:15, sessions from 8:05 until lunch, lunch, another session, free time until dinner, dinner, open forum, worship at 7, another session, small group time, and bed.
As you can imagine, by the end of the second week we were all as tired as we've ever been. I literally survived on caffiene for the last week.
But, we learned so much that if I tried to explain it all to you, you wouldn't leave because it's too interesting...but it would take a realy, realy long time. So I'll sum this up for you too :
We learned about six different categories of worldview which all belief systems fall into in some way. We learned how to effectively defend our beleifs, not with blind faith or a drive to only prove someone else wrong. But with love and compassion, remembering that the one were debating with is a person who is most likely not just lost but mislead and needs to hear the truth, just like we once did.
We learned about the importance of good mentors, how to ask good questions and how to seek good advice. We felt the effect of being a part of the body of Christ and being surrounded by our brothers and sisters and Christ. Who are daily striving right along side eachother to search for the truth. We grew closer to God and to eachother.
But even though we crammed our brains so full of all those good things, I felt like we only scraped the surface of all that we could learn. And so now, I come to the main reason for this post.
While I was at Summit I heard about an opportunity to go to another conferance of the same likeness. It's called Summit Semester, and it's a lot like what we just went through, only it lasts longer ( a whole semester, that's three months in Colorodo ), there are less people involved ( so it's a closer setting ), and you dive deeper into all the truths we learned about while in Tn.
I want to ask for your prayers, because this is the kind of opportunity I've been waiting for. I know I want it to be a part of my plans, but I'm not sure if it is a part of God's plans for me. But I also know that if it is, He will provide a way for me to get there, and to be honest, the biggest obstacle is money. But what seems big to me, certainly is tiny to God. I know that if God wants me there, He'll most certainly provide the way.
What I need you to pray for, is that I am content with God's will, even if that means not going. I'm learning more and more to trust Him with my future, so pray that I remember that my job here as a sister, daughter and friend is just as important as learning all those truhs that God has to teach at Semester.
My phone interview is tomorrow ( Friday ) afternoon which will most likely decide if I can go or not, so keep me in your prayers.
And don't worry, I'll be blogging more soon!
Your Sister in Christ,
~Chelsey
