Well, I clearly failed at timely wrapping this up. Things happen. I got busy. I got tired. Then I was in denial project was over. And then I got busy again.
And now its almost December.
I have been home from project for a total of 114 days. It is no longer summer, and fall is rapidly drawing to a close. Thanksgiving has come and gone and my Christmas tree will go up tomorrow. I am writing this on a belly full of apple pie because I am an emotional eater and the Gators just lost to the Seminoles, something I hoped to never see in my lifetime, let alone while I was still a student.
But all that aside, I have finally found the time and the courage to write this.
Summer project finished just as it begun- one giant whirlwind. Specifics elude me now, but somewhere between my last entry and our day of departure, true magic took place. Not the pull-the-rabbit-from-the-hat kind. Earthly magic is all an illusion. Somewhere in those 3 weeks, God worked a miracle in the lives of each and every person on that project. The rag-tag group of college kids from twenty something states became an unstoppable force that left its mark on the Magic Kingdom and the Kingdom of Heaven eternally. We became a family bonded by more than just memories. Our hearts are forever entwined, joined not only through common experience but through late night conversations, hours of prayer, and countless things to laugh and cry about. When the bible talks about heaven, it often mentions the community aspect of it, and how finding a true Godly community here on Earth is the closest thing we have to compare to heaven. And when you find that kind of community, it marks your soul forever. I consider myself blessed to have experienced that.
It would be a dramatic understatement to say that our "mission" for the summer was accomplished. We traveled thousands and thousands of miles and raised thousands and thousands of dollars. All 33 of us undeniably experienced life-changing growth this summer. But more importantly, hundreds and hundreds of our coworkers were exposed to what it looks like to live like Christ did.
Another one of our theme verses for the summer was 1 John 3:18 (also one of my faves)
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
Every time each of us smiled instead of cried. Every time we came in early or stayed late. Every pep talk. Every time we did something without complaint. Every ounce of extra effort. Every task done well, not just done. Every shared cookie, every hug, every bad joke, every little thing. It was worth it. Our co-workers got it. They saw we were different.
It was clear all summer that God is doing something amazing at Walt Disney World. It became even clearer as the summer drew to a close.
It was clear when tears were shed on all sides during our last day of work. It was clear when we shared one last sunrise meal at IHOP when dozens of coworkers came to say bye. It was clear when we stood up and shared stories at the end of project banquet. It was clear that our main objective was met- college students from around the world encountered true Christianity. Students from China, South Korea, Italy, France, Germany, Scotland, Mexico, Puerto Rico, England, Morocco, Australia, Egypt, Brazil, Canada, Russia, India and SO many more. But that wasn't everything. We impacted hundreds of American students who go there for the college program. We impacted our managers and coordinators. We impacted cast members who didn't even work in our areas, like my friend Michael. He is one of the Emporium's custodial workers. He has a family and works two jobs to make ends meet. We became friends early on in the summer and said "hi" every night when he came in to clean. He told me that most people ignored his presence unless he was in their way. It broke my heart, and from then on I went out of my way to say hello.
We were also able to make an impact on the Christian community that already existed at WDW. We provided encouragement, community, and support to those who struggled just to hold on to their faith. It was an unexpected but glorious victory that our project multiplied in size. Almost all of our events and things were open to anyone who wanted to come, so that by the end there were dozens of fellow cast members attending bible study or church with us.
I learned so much on this adventure. I learned lessons in humility. My confidence as a leader was shaken, then rebuilt; challenged, then strengthened. Walls that have remained sturdy in my heart for years were broken down as I learned lessons in true friendship and biblical community. I learned the value of hard work and how far a smile can go.
Not a day goes by that I don't wish I could go back. I opened this entry saying that it hurt too much to write this for a while. I really have struggled this semester to (if I may quote my good friend Kristen) "be where my feet are." I desperately miss the community and the excitement of summer project. I get frustrated with monotony and menial tasks that seem to get in my way of sharing God's love with others.
Don't get me wrong, this semester has been awesome. I volunteer at an elementary school in their deaf/hard of hearing class and I am getting ready to go to graduate school and make a career out of bringing language and learning into the world of deaf children. I am interning at my church and helping build a children's ministry that allows kids to truly experience the satisfaction I feel in my heart. Life is great. But its not the same. But that's my fault. There is no reason why I should not be living by faith like I did all summer. I am so lucky that I got that opportunity. Now that I know what it is like to live life in a community of people who are striving to share the love of God, I crave it. I got a taste of something I cannot seem to get enough of.
I miss my roommates. I miss my Team Emporium. I miss Sarah, who worked with us and is now off on her own pursuit of God out there in Cali (her college program ended in August too). I miss Ray and Lulu and Cecilia, our Chinese friends from the Emporium who came to church with us and heard about God for the first time. Cecilia and Lulu cried when we left, and so did I. Cecilia's parting words were "I will never forget you. You will always live in my heart." Same to you girl, same to you. I hope China is treating you well. I miss my bible study, my small group, my discipler, my ministry team, my fellow directors, and my bedmate. I miss every single student and staff member on that project, from Kevin, the director, all the way down to baby Jack, the son of one of the staff members. I miss Mike Ditka resort, the employees with their Bears jerseys, the pool with its annoying fountains, the lake, my condo, the smoking burner, and all the passive-aggressive sticky notes Sam would leave to make us clean up our stuff. I miss eating McDonalds, IHOP, Denny's, waffle house, steak and shake, wendy's, taco bell, and every other bad food you can think of at all hours of the night. I miss crying till I laughed and laughing till I cried. I miss being so tired that I can't stand OR think straight. I miss riding the bus from Cast parking to West Clock. I miss walking underneath Cinderella's castle and talking about God with a half-dressed Princess Tiana in the food court. I miss the kids who came to my store and even their crabby parents. But I am thankful.
I am thankful for each and every single person that got me here. Whether you supported me financially, prayerfully, emotionally, or mentally throughout this entire journey. Thank you for giving, praying, calling, writing, caring, and even for reading this. I miss WDWSP10 terribly, but I am SO blessed to have experienced it. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
I don't yet know what next summer brings. I have applied to graduate school and am anxiously awaiting their decision. Depending on where I go, I would like to return to WDWSP11 as an intern leader. We shall see what God has in store!
Lastly, I am almost finished making a video slideshow with pictures from summer project. I will post it here soon.
So, in the fitting words of a popular piece of Disney merchandise,
Been There. Done That. (hopefully) Going Back!
Signing off (for now),
Kelly
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Pixie Dust
Okay, its 2AM and I am updating. This could be a very bad idea, but I don't like being so out of touch with the world. And in some ways I do. But I really don't.
So, lets see.
I left off hacking my lungs out after getting the summer project plague due to running 25 hours a day and draining my sleep tank.
Things have been an insane roller coaster ride since then. I shall summarize with a list, beginning with the most important/pertinent thing.
~My dad had another cancer scan, which came back negative except for a miniscule spot on his lung. This is really good/ maybe not so good news. The fantastic news is that there is no sign of any cancer left where his kidney used to be. And the spot on his lung may be nothing. So lots of prayers will be said over the next few months. His next scan will be in three months.
~We brought our friend Ray from China to church with us last Sunday. He had never been before and it was really cool to hear him talk about his experience.
~Leadership is hard, but I knew that full well going in. I was not expecting it to be easy and I was right. Good news is that our directors team works really well together. Pat (see previous entry for a visual aid lol) is the female project director and she is basically opposite of me in the best way possible. Obviously if you are reading this you know how very right-brained I am. Big picture, go in guns blazing, jump in headfirst- these are me in a nutshell. I hate details. Pat is fantastic about details and things I forget about and awesome at calming me down when I spill out these extravagant, not thought out plans. I love her. We are quite the dynamic duo if I do say so myself.
~This past Tuesday we went to UCF for campus outreach. Last Tuesday also happened to by my best friend on the planet Jessica Nicole Leeds' 21st birthday. And she happens to go to UCF. Perfect. Except its really hard sometimes when my two worlds collide. I feel like not only do I struggle to keep my heart fully here and not torn between Orlando and home, but I have to figure out how to balance my heart over the whole town of Orlando. It is a struggle that nobody else here faces and not one that I anticipated. I want to be fully and utterly devoted to this summer project but I love my friends and I recognize how important it is to be spending time with them as well. I really think its an amazing blessing that I have this opportunity, whereas the last few months it has seemed like a curse that I had to choose. It is yet another clear beacon that this is exactly where God wanted me for the summer. So, after spending the day with everyone on project on campus, I surprised Jess by joining her and our other friends for birthday dinner. It was so good. I miss everyone so bad.
~It is a really big deal for our store to make budget for the week. It helps determine a lot of stuff, from payroll to how many people they can hire to what hours the store is open. It is also really rare that we make budget. Last night, we were part of the closing crew, meaning we worked until 2:15. At 12:30 or so, just as the store had closed and we had begun our closing assignments, TJ ( one of the managers) came out saying "TIME TO SHOP!!!." Apparently this has happened before, but our budget was 1.5 million dollars for the week and we had made $1,499,582. Which meant that we were about $4o0 away from the golden number. At this point, my coworkers and I each grabbed a basket and began literally shopping. All the things that we have had our eye on were ours for the taking. Well, to buy, not take, but you know what I mean. But it was so ridiculously fun. We raided the candy section with enough sweets to satisfy us for the night and picked up all the little things we had been wanting for weeks. I grabbed this really cute stuffed Eeyore, a car decal, a pen, some candy, etc. It was about $40 worth of stuff I would have bought anyways, but due to all of us shopping, the store made budget for the week and we all got cookies as a reward. It was hilarious, we were all ringing each other up at our registers and joking around pretending to be annoying guests. I think it was my favorite night to date.
I just really love my co-workers, and not just my fellow project-ers from Team Emporium (although I want to brag on us, we are really close and probably the most awesome team that ever existed except perhaps the Justice League). I work with some really really amazing people. One unique thing about working at Disney is that there is pretty much nobody who works there for the money or just because they need a job. I work with people who are willing to work minimum wage night shifts stocking fifty dollar mickey mouse dolls just because they believe that happiness is real and dreams do come true. Sure, we complain and grumble and moan, but at the end of the day, it is evident that there is something unique about each and every cast member. Every night a collective prayer goes up amongst Magic Kingdom cast members that their break ticket comes somewhere between 945 and 10, because no matter how many times you have seen the Summer Night-tastic fireworks, it never gets old. I was one of the lucky ones twice this past week. The first night I got my slip at 10:08 and sprinted backstage to watch the last 5 or so minutes of the show, joining a pod of my coworkers behind the shop. You have a semi-clear view of the castle, and personally I have found few spots better to watch the fireworks than behind the Emporium. Two nights later, I was told to go on break at 9:52. I almost cried from joy. As I stood outside slurping microwave chicken soup with a spork, I looked around and realized how blessed I was. I was standing amongst a group of adults, whether college age or far into their seventies, who were instantly transformed into children the moment the sky began to light up.
No matter how insane the store was that night, no matter how many angry guests you had to deal with that day, all is right with the world when Tinkerbell flies through the sky, forcing the evil pirates to leave (there is this utterly fantastic scene in the Nighttastic fireworks where Captain Hook and his band of hooligans "take over" Cinderellas castle and begin to "blow it up" (fireworks shoot off of the castle to make it look like it is exploding. It is both the most disturbing and the freaking coolest thing ever) all to the tune of Pirates of the Caribbean music). I watched the faces of my co-workers the other night and caught a glimmer of the very thing that lies in each of our hearts: hope. No matter what, we still have hope.
Today I went to church, went swimming with people from all over the world who I consider my dear friends who I didn't even know two months ago, had a ten minute conversation in broken Spanish with a woman from Venezuela who thanked me profusely for even attempting to communicate with her, played football with a boy dressed up as Buzz Lightyear in the middle of a busy store had a spiritual conversation with another Christian girl and two Mormon girls over dinner in the Main Street Break Room, and made a 5 year old girl with Down's Syndrome stop crying and start laughing by giving her a sticker and sprinkling her with Pixie Dust. I am so blessed. This still all feels like a dream.
It is bedtime. But remember, no matter what, God is still good. Good will always win. No matter what circumstances surround you right now, God is greater and more powerful than all of them, and he is also more good and just than all others. So have a little hope. Tinkerbell brings hope to thousands every night. But God brings hope to billions.
I love you all.
Kel
So, lets see.
I left off hacking my lungs out after getting the summer project plague due to running 25 hours a day and draining my sleep tank.
Things have been an insane roller coaster ride since then. I shall summarize with a list, beginning with the most important/pertinent thing.
~My dad had another cancer scan, which came back negative except for a miniscule spot on his lung. This is really good/ maybe not so good news. The fantastic news is that there is no sign of any cancer left where his kidney used to be. And the spot on his lung may be nothing. So lots of prayers will be said over the next few months. His next scan will be in three months.
~We brought our friend Ray from China to church with us last Sunday. He had never been before and it was really cool to hear him talk about his experience.
~Leadership is hard, but I knew that full well going in. I was not expecting it to be easy and I was right. Good news is that our directors team works really well together. Pat (see previous entry for a visual aid lol) is the female project director and she is basically opposite of me in the best way possible. Obviously if you are reading this you know how very right-brained I am. Big picture, go in guns blazing, jump in headfirst- these are me in a nutshell. I hate details. Pat is fantastic about details and things I forget about and awesome at calming me down when I spill out these extravagant, not thought out plans. I love her. We are quite the dynamic duo if I do say so myself.
~This past Tuesday we went to UCF for campus outreach. Last Tuesday also happened to by my best friend on the planet Jessica Nicole Leeds' 21st birthday. And she happens to go to UCF. Perfect. Except its really hard sometimes when my two worlds collide. I feel like not only do I struggle to keep my heart fully here and not torn between Orlando and home, but I have to figure out how to balance my heart over the whole town of Orlando. It is a struggle that nobody else here faces and not one that I anticipated. I want to be fully and utterly devoted to this summer project but I love my friends and I recognize how important it is to be spending time with them as well. I really think its an amazing blessing that I have this opportunity, whereas the last few months it has seemed like a curse that I had to choose. It is yet another clear beacon that this is exactly where God wanted me for the summer. So, after spending the day with everyone on project on campus, I surprised Jess by joining her and our other friends for birthday dinner. It was so good. I miss everyone so bad.
~It is a really big deal for our store to make budget for the week. It helps determine a lot of stuff, from payroll to how many people they can hire to what hours the store is open. It is also really rare that we make budget. Last night, we were part of the closing crew, meaning we worked until 2:15. At 12:30 or so, just as the store had closed and we had begun our closing assignments, TJ ( one of the managers) came out saying "TIME TO SHOP!!!." Apparently this has happened before, but our budget was 1.5 million dollars for the week and we had made $1,499,582. Which meant that we were about $4o0 away from the golden number. At this point, my coworkers and I each grabbed a basket and began literally shopping. All the things that we have had our eye on were ours for the taking. Well, to buy, not take, but you know what I mean. But it was so ridiculously fun. We raided the candy section with enough sweets to satisfy us for the night and picked up all the little things we had been wanting for weeks. I grabbed this really cute stuffed Eeyore, a car decal, a pen, some candy, etc. It was about $40 worth of stuff I would have bought anyways, but due to all of us shopping, the store made budget for the week and we all got cookies as a reward. It was hilarious, we were all ringing each other up at our registers and joking around pretending to be annoying guests. I think it was my favorite night to date.
I just really love my co-workers, and not just my fellow project-ers from Team Emporium (although I want to brag on us, we are really close and probably the most awesome team that ever existed except perhaps the Justice League). I work with some really really amazing people. One unique thing about working at Disney is that there is pretty much nobody who works there for the money or just because they need a job. I work with people who are willing to work minimum wage night shifts stocking fifty dollar mickey mouse dolls just because they believe that happiness is real and dreams do come true. Sure, we complain and grumble and moan, but at the end of the day, it is evident that there is something unique about each and every cast member. Every night a collective prayer goes up amongst Magic Kingdom cast members that their break ticket comes somewhere between 945 and 10, because no matter how many times you have seen the Summer Night-tastic fireworks, it never gets old. I was one of the lucky ones twice this past week. The first night I got my slip at 10:08 and sprinted backstage to watch the last 5 or so minutes of the show, joining a pod of my coworkers behind the shop. You have a semi-clear view of the castle, and personally I have found few spots better to watch the fireworks than behind the Emporium. Two nights later, I was told to go on break at 9:52. I almost cried from joy. As I stood outside slurping microwave chicken soup with a spork, I looked around and realized how blessed I was. I was standing amongst a group of adults, whether college age or far into their seventies, who were instantly transformed into children the moment the sky began to light up.
No matter how insane the store was that night, no matter how many angry guests you had to deal with that day, all is right with the world when Tinkerbell flies through the sky, forcing the evil pirates to leave (there is this utterly fantastic scene in the Nighttastic fireworks where Captain Hook and his band of hooligans "take over" Cinderellas castle and begin to "blow it up" (fireworks shoot off of the castle to make it look like it is exploding. It is both the most disturbing and the freaking coolest thing ever) all to the tune of Pirates of the Caribbean music). I watched the faces of my co-workers the other night and caught a glimmer of the very thing that lies in each of our hearts: hope. No matter what, we still have hope.
Today I went to church, went swimming with people from all over the world who I consider my dear friends who I didn't even know two months ago, had a ten minute conversation in broken Spanish with a woman from Venezuela who thanked me profusely for even attempting to communicate with her, played football with a boy dressed up as Buzz Lightyear in the middle of a busy store had a spiritual conversation with another Christian girl and two Mormon girls over dinner in the Main Street Break Room, and made a 5 year old girl with Down's Syndrome stop crying and start laughing by giving her a sticker and sprinkling her with Pixie Dust. I am so blessed. This still all feels like a dream.
It is bedtime. But remember, no matter what, God is still good. Good will always win. No matter what circumstances surround you right now, God is greater and more powerful than all of them, and he is also more good and just than all others. So have a little hope. Tinkerbell brings hope to thousands every night. But God brings hope to billions.
I love you all.
Kel
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Photos? Maybe?
Okay, these are all out of order, but here is a summary of the last 6-ish weeks of my life
(I cannot believe its almost 2/3 over. Seriously.)
Tim, Jamie, Erica & I (collectively known as Team Emporium) outside our place of employment
A bunch of students and staff celebrating Katie's birthday (see here)
Trip to EPCOT after Traditions- our first time using our Cast Member ID to get into a park!!!
The boss himself in the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade
Me, Alexis, Pat, and Jess. These are probably my three closest friends on project :)
The finale of the castle show- Dream Along with Mickey
This is Liz. She is the reason I am sane right now. I miss her terribly already.
This is my LTG- They weren't kidding when they named it that. Liz, me, Laura, Savannah, Sarah, Alicia, and Kelly V. My "moms" were wonderful leaders and now Laura has taken over as the leader!
Team Emporium in costume
Catching a wave at Cocoa
Being taught how to surf
This is where I live!
The parade that passes by my store twice a night
A bunch of people crammed in my living room to watch Princess and the Frog
Campus Crusade International Headquarters and Lake Hart
Movie night with some of the girls
(I cannot believe its almost 2/3 over. Seriously.)
Tim, Jamie, Erica & I (collectively known as Team Emporium) outside our place of employment
A bunch of students and staff celebrating Katie's birthday (see here)
Trip to EPCOT after Traditions- our first time using our Cast Member ID to get into a park!!!
The boss himself in the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade
Me, Alexis, Pat, and Jess. These are probably my three closest friends on project :)
The finale of the castle show- Dream Along with Mickey
This is Liz. She is the reason I am sane right now. I miss her terribly already.
This is my LTG- They weren't kidding when they named it that. Liz, me, Laura, Savannah, Sarah, Alicia, and Kelly V. My "moms" were wonderful leaders and now Laura has taken over as the leader!
Team Emporium in costume
Catching a wave at Cocoa
Being taught how to surf
This is where I live!
The parade that passes by my store twice a night
A bunch of people crammed in my living room to watch Princess and the Frog
Campus Crusade International Headquarters and Lake Hart
Movie night with some of the girls
Thursday, July 8, 2010
This will be long.
Okay, I am back.
I know it has been like ten days since I said I would be back.
Since it is now impossible to give you a blow-by-blow considering I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast, I will hit on the high points.
Two Tuesdays ago we went on an "international journey." We met early in the morning at EPCOT and were divided into teams that represented several of the countries present in World Showcase- Italy, China, Japan, Morrocco, the US, and Mexico. I was in the Mexico group, and we spent the whole morning at the Mexico pavilion learning about Mexican culture and attempting to "assimilate." We talked about how much family was a huge part of Mexican culture and we each were assigned a role. I was given the role of mother. Go figure. All my roommates already call me mom. But we also had a father, a grandmother, and four kids. We had to pray the Hail Mary prayer several dozen times throughout the day. We couldn't do anything unless "Abuela" or Papa said it was okay. At one point, one of my "ninos" was kidnapped by a Mexican drug lord. We talked a lot about Mexican Catholicism and the impact is has on the culture and then related it to our lunch, or at least what we thought would be our lunch. After promising us a grand traditional Mexican lunch all day, we were served two corn tortillas and a spoonful of salsa each, and we shared a one liter bottle of apple soda between the nine of us. This is related to the gospel in mexico because the knowledge of God is easily accessible but very boring, and most are satisfied with just that. After a long deep discussion about this, we were surprised with a lunch reservation in the San Angel Inn restaurant inside the Mexico pavilion, which was the most delicious meal I have had on project to date. It was fabulous authentic Mexican food, but I think it was even more satisfying because I had just spent an hour convincing myself that I was full after a lunch that was probably 150 calories of food. It really hit home for me because before I was a Christian I truly believed that my life was great, but I had no idea what I was missing.
After lunch, we met up with the other groups and shared our experiences. Some other groups had it much worse off than we did, and the American group had been forced to walk around all day and act like ignorant tourists, which was funny, but really representative of how other cultures see us. They had all these luxaries that we pined for when we saw them. They had so much food that they tried to give it away to us when they visited Mexico just because they didn't want to carry it anymore. I really admire our staff, the whole day was so incredibly well thought out. Every action and plan represented something else.
We spent the afternoon walking around and talking to the international students who are there on the college program. We asked them all about their culture and what religion was like there. I got a HUGE rush from this because I am such a history/culture nerd. I loved learning about how my life compares to the life of a 21 year old living in a country like Norway or Mexico. I was shocked at how easy it was to talk to everyone we stumbled upon. After we got done talking to everyone, it was time to watch Illuminations, the firework show at EPCOT. It is all about global culture connecting and how we are all one, which means SOOO much more after spending an entire day talking about it. It was so moving. I think this was my favorite day of project thus far.
We took another one of our days off and spent it at Hollywood studios. It was a lot of fun, we got to see the fireworks there, Fantasmic, which is one of my favorite shows. It was really awesome :)
The next Tuesday was Woman's Day. We all had the day off (we have every Tuesday off for "project day") and we spent the whole day together. One of our staff women, Betsy, just so happens to be a jazzercise instructor, so we started off the morning with Jazzercise, which was a blast. After that we had some much needed "scheduled rest and relaxation" time. We all had the afternoon and had to spend some time doing personal bible study/ quiet time (quiet time is just a fancy way of describing time spent in conversation with God, whether that is prayer, studying the bible, reading a Christian book, listening to worship music, etc). This was so refreshing I can't even describe it. I read through Hebrews 10, 11, and 12. There is a lot of good stuff in there, including my favorite verse- "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."- Hebrews 12:1
We were also "forced" to do one of the following activities: Shop, relax by the pool, watch a chick flik, sleep, or play volleyball. Needless to say, they didn't have to force us very much.
That night, we went out to Macaroni Grill for dinner as a group (there are some pictures on facebook and I have to add mine as well). When we got done with that, the staff women surprised us by taking us mini golfing in our dresses lol. That was a lot of fun, and when we got back we were put in a circle, and one by one our disciplers presented us with a necklace with a single pearl on it to represent the "Pearls of Women" we had been learning about all summer in our weekly woman's time. It was really really wonderful.
The woman who disciples me (discipler=biblical mentor. Jesus had 12 disciples who were his closest friends and associates and who carried on his teachings when he went to heaven) is really amazing. Her name is Liz and I can't remember if I have written about her before and am feeling too lazy to go back and look. We get one on one time every week and she has been so patient and loving and understanding. I really admire her a lot, she is balancing being a staff woman with being a mom (her husband is one of our directors and they have two adorable daughters I have considered kidnapping because they are amazing). I am just so blessed by the people I have encountered here. I feel like with everything that was going on with my dad I came here a hot mess with a broken heart and little faith. But every single person here has, in some way, helped me get back on my feet and helped me continue to remain faithful to God. I know that no matter what, God is still good and He loves me. I am thankful that people here help remind me of that.
Fourth of July weekend was really hard for a lot of us. I was really homesick and worked like 27 hours between friday, saturday, and sunday. Saturday and Sunday Magic Kingdom had their Fourth of July fireworks show, which was apparently the most epic thing in the history of ever. I say apparently because I worked both nights and wasn't allowed to watch it. Everyone else on project besides my work group was able to watch it at least one of the nights. I was just in a horrible mood all weekend and am mad at myself now for acting like a two year old for half of it. But I am over it now, it was just hard. I missed family bbq, swimming all day and almost killing myself with fireworks.
So all summer projects that are in the United States (or "stateside" as we call them) are only led by Campus Crusade staff for the first half of the project. At the midway point, student leaders are appointed to the following positions: Director (one male and one female), Associate director (one male and one female) Woman's time leader, Mens time leader, ministry team leaders (one to two per team, and there are four teams. see previous entries) and one leader per small group, which also leads the group bible studies. I was aware of the leaders being appointed soon, but was totally not thinking about it last week. I had a lot of other stuff on my mind, such as having the closing shift six nights in a row. Jenni, one of the project directors, had a meeting with me one day which I assumed was just gonna be to catch up on life (she had really been helping me through a lot of the stress associated with my dad and family all project long) but when we met she told me that the staff was offering me the role of Associate Project Director and that I had a day to pray about it and then get back to her. I was in total shock because I felt like I had been a mess the whole time I was here, but she told me that the whole staff really admired how hard I had worked to get here and how evident it was that the project was extremely important to me. I prayed about it a lot and decided to take on the new role.
The mid-project dinner was this Tuesday, and it was also the day the staff left. It was really hard to see them go, but we had a good day. We went back to Cocoa beach for more surfing, but the waves were a lot rougher this time, and it was a little discouraging. We all got pretty beat up, but it was still good. We had a banquet at Buca di Beppo that night, and it was delicious and fun but really emotional because each group presented their small group leaders with cards and presents. When the banquet was over we had a dance party, which again was fun, but it was where we said a lot of our final goodbyes. I didn't think I would get that close to the staff in just five weeks, but it was really really emotional to watch them leave Wednesday morning. I am going to miss everyone so much, especially Liz, but I know that everything will be okay.
Work is going well, I have really started to build some great friendships with my co-workers. The hardest part is the hours that I work. I have gotten off at 4 am several times, and most nights it is around two when we finish. It takes a lot of prayer and willpower to drag myself out of bed only a few hours after getting home to go to project time, but it is always worth it. I have been getting home, sleeping 3-5 hours, getting up for project time, then going back to bed after lunch for a few hours before heading right back to work. Sometimes I sleep more during the day than at night. This exhausting schedule has finally caught up with me. I woke up sick this morning and had to call into work. Which is how I had the time to write this haha.
I am sorry I have been slacking on keeping up. I am going to try and be better but I am not making any promises. I will for sure update this weekend, since I have sat. and sun. off, and I will probably talk more then about how the leadership part is going. So far so good though :)
I love you all and never forget you are in my prayers!
Kel
I know it has been like ten days since I said I would be back.
Since it is now impossible to give you a blow-by-blow considering I can barely remember what I ate for breakfast, I will hit on the high points.
Two Tuesdays ago we went on an "international journey." We met early in the morning at EPCOT and were divided into teams that represented several of the countries present in World Showcase- Italy, China, Japan, Morrocco, the US, and Mexico. I was in the Mexico group, and we spent the whole morning at the Mexico pavilion learning about Mexican culture and attempting to "assimilate." We talked about how much family was a huge part of Mexican culture and we each were assigned a role. I was given the role of mother. Go figure. All my roommates already call me mom. But we also had a father, a grandmother, and four kids. We had to pray the Hail Mary prayer several dozen times throughout the day. We couldn't do anything unless "Abuela" or Papa said it was okay. At one point, one of my "ninos" was kidnapped by a Mexican drug lord. We talked a lot about Mexican Catholicism and the impact is has on the culture and then related it to our lunch, or at least what we thought would be our lunch. After promising us a grand traditional Mexican lunch all day, we were served two corn tortillas and a spoonful of salsa each, and we shared a one liter bottle of apple soda between the nine of us. This is related to the gospel in mexico because the knowledge of God is easily accessible but very boring, and most are satisfied with just that. After a long deep discussion about this, we were surprised with a lunch reservation in the San Angel Inn restaurant inside the Mexico pavilion, which was the most delicious meal I have had on project to date. It was fabulous authentic Mexican food, but I think it was even more satisfying because I had just spent an hour convincing myself that I was full after a lunch that was probably 150 calories of food. It really hit home for me because before I was a Christian I truly believed that my life was great, but I had no idea what I was missing.
After lunch, we met up with the other groups and shared our experiences. Some other groups had it much worse off than we did, and the American group had been forced to walk around all day and act like ignorant tourists, which was funny, but really representative of how other cultures see us. They had all these luxaries that we pined for when we saw them. They had so much food that they tried to give it away to us when they visited Mexico just because they didn't want to carry it anymore. I really admire our staff, the whole day was so incredibly well thought out. Every action and plan represented something else.
We spent the afternoon walking around and talking to the international students who are there on the college program. We asked them all about their culture and what religion was like there. I got a HUGE rush from this because I am such a history/culture nerd. I loved learning about how my life compares to the life of a 21 year old living in a country like Norway or Mexico. I was shocked at how easy it was to talk to everyone we stumbled upon. After we got done talking to everyone, it was time to watch Illuminations, the firework show at EPCOT. It is all about global culture connecting and how we are all one, which means SOOO much more after spending an entire day talking about it. It was so moving. I think this was my favorite day of project thus far.
We took another one of our days off and spent it at Hollywood studios. It was a lot of fun, we got to see the fireworks there, Fantasmic, which is one of my favorite shows. It was really awesome :)
The next Tuesday was Woman's Day. We all had the day off (we have every Tuesday off for "project day") and we spent the whole day together. One of our staff women, Betsy, just so happens to be a jazzercise instructor, so we started off the morning with Jazzercise, which was a blast. After that we had some much needed "scheduled rest and relaxation" time. We all had the afternoon and had to spend some time doing personal bible study/ quiet time (quiet time is just a fancy way of describing time spent in conversation with God, whether that is prayer, studying the bible, reading a Christian book, listening to worship music, etc). This was so refreshing I can't even describe it. I read through Hebrews 10, 11, and 12. There is a lot of good stuff in there, including my favorite verse- "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."- Hebrews 12:1
We were also "forced" to do one of the following activities: Shop, relax by the pool, watch a chick flik, sleep, or play volleyball. Needless to say, they didn't have to force us very much.
That night, we went out to Macaroni Grill for dinner as a group (there are some pictures on facebook and I have to add mine as well). When we got done with that, the staff women surprised us by taking us mini golfing in our dresses lol. That was a lot of fun, and when we got back we were put in a circle, and one by one our disciplers presented us with a necklace with a single pearl on it to represent the "Pearls of Women" we had been learning about all summer in our weekly woman's time. It was really really wonderful.
The woman who disciples me (discipler=biblical mentor. Jesus had 12 disciples who were his closest friends and associates and who carried on his teachings when he went to heaven) is really amazing. Her name is Liz and I can't remember if I have written about her before and am feeling too lazy to go back and look. We get one on one time every week and she has been so patient and loving and understanding. I really admire her a lot, she is balancing being a staff woman with being a mom (her husband is one of our directors and they have two adorable daughters I have considered kidnapping because they are amazing). I am just so blessed by the people I have encountered here. I feel like with everything that was going on with my dad I came here a hot mess with a broken heart and little faith. But every single person here has, in some way, helped me get back on my feet and helped me continue to remain faithful to God. I know that no matter what, God is still good and He loves me. I am thankful that people here help remind me of that.
Fourth of July weekend was really hard for a lot of us. I was really homesick and worked like 27 hours between friday, saturday, and sunday. Saturday and Sunday Magic Kingdom had their Fourth of July fireworks show, which was apparently the most epic thing in the history of ever. I say apparently because I worked both nights and wasn't allowed to watch it. Everyone else on project besides my work group was able to watch it at least one of the nights. I was just in a horrible mood all weekend and am mad at myself now for acting like a two year old for half of it. But I am over it now, it was just hard. I missed family bbq, swimming all day and almost killing myself with fireworks.
So all summer projects that are in the United States (or "stateside" as we call them) are only led by Campus Crusade staff for the first half of the project. At the midway point, student leaders are appointed to the following positions: Director (one male and one female), Associate director (one male and one female) Woman's time leader, Mens time leader, ministry team leaders (one to two per team, and there are four teams. see previous entries) and one leader per small group, which also leads the group bible studies. I was aware of the leaders being appointed soon, but was totally not thinking about it last week. I had a lot of other stuff on my mind, such as having the closing shift six nights in a row. Jenni, one of the project directors, had a meeting with me one day which I assumed was just gonna be to catch up on life (she had really been helping me through a lot of the stress associated with my dad and family all project long) but when we met she told me that the staff was offering me the role of Associate Project Director and that I had a day to pray about it and then get back to her. I was in total shock because I felt like I had been a mess the whole time I was here, but she told me that the whole staff really admired how hard I had worked to get here and how evident it was that the project was extremely important to me. I prayed about it a lot and decided to take on the new role.
The mid-project dinner was this Tuesday, and it was also the day the staff left. It was really hard to see them go, but we had a good day. We went back to Cocoa beach for more surfing, but the waves were a lot rougher this time, and it was a little discouraging. We all got pretty beat up, but it was still good. We had a banquet at Buca di Beppo that night, and it was delicious and fun but really emotional because each group presented their small group leaders with cards and presents. When the banquet was over we had a dance party, which again was fun, but it was where we said a lot of our final goodbyes. I didn't think I would get that close to the staff in just five weeks, but it was really really emotional to watch them leave Wednesday morning. I am going to miss everyone so much, especially Liz, but I know that everything will be okay.
Work is going well, I have really started to build some great friendships with my co-workers. The hardest part is the hours that I work. I have gotten off at 4 am several times, and most nights it is around two when we finish. It takes a lot of prayer and willpower to drag myself out of bed only a few hours after getting home to go to project time, but it is always worth it. I have been getting home, sleeping 3-5 hours, getting up for project time, then going back to bed after lunch for a few hours before heading right back to work. Sometimes I sleep more during the day than at night. This exhausting schedule has finally caught up with me. I woke up sick this morning and had to call into work. Which is how I had the time to write this haha.
I am sorry I have been slacking on keeping up. I am going to try and be better but I am not making any promises. I will for sure update this weekend, since I have sat. and sun. off, and I will probably talk more then about how the leadership part is going. So far so good though :)
I love you all and never forget you are in my prayers!
Kel
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Se Habla Espanol?
Someone needs to be holding me more accountable to blogging. I fail.
Alrighty then.
Last time I updated was last Wednesday.
Beginning where my last entry left off, I have since bought insoles for my shoes, which cost about the same as the shoes haha. But my whole body is thanking me. Last Thursday was my last official day of training. My trainer was a Colombian man named Eddie who loved to tell stories about the guests he has encountered in the last thirty years, most of which he couldn't even finish telling because he would laugh so hard. It was quite amusing.
Friday was my first day of work without a trainer, and it was also the first day of my family's Fathers Day vacation. I had spent the morning (after Holly's bible study- we talked about being humble. SO convicting) seeing the Karate Kid with some other project kids. We had tried to see Toy Story 3, but it was sold out. On Wednesday and Thursday nights the Disney Beach Club Resort had showed the first two Toy Story movies and we had a lot of fun going to watch those.
So yeah, Friday was my first day all by my onesies. I worked till 130. My parents got to briefly see me before the night time rush came in. Magic Kingdom has night parades at 9pm and 11pm and fireworks at 10pm, and in between all those the store is INCREDIBLY crowded. Like its exhausting just to look at. But it wasn't too terrible. The title of this entry relates to the fact that I have used my spanish skillz (or lack thereof) more in the last two weeks than I have in the last five years. At least three or four times a night I use bits and pieces of the few words I remember from la clase de espanol to try and communicate something to our latino guests. I give directions to the bathroom, read off prices and totals, and try to tell them where to find things. It is probably very entertaining for them.
Saturday I had my LTG meeting at 815 and then headed to Typhoon Lagoon to spend the day with my dad and brother (my mom doesn't enjoy waterparks too much). It is tradition for my family- fathers day weekend we go to Typhoon Lagoon and take photo in the Family raft ride. My dad has the last 7 years or so lined up on his desk (although in the middle there is a picture of us in Colorado, which is where we spent the fathers day after my senior year of h.s.) It was really awesome to spend time with my dad after everything that has happened this year. I consider myself so blessed, and it was ridiculously hard not to get overwhelmed emotionally in front of him. I did that in private later. God has been so faithful in answering prayers- prayers that came from literally all ends of the globe as people who I don't even know prayed for my dad. It is so humbling. After the waterpark we went back to the hotel where I spent some time with my mom. It was wonderful.
Saturday night I worked until 1215, which is probably the earliest I will ever get off again. It was a good night, just rather boring. I was in the back corner of the store where nobody ever shops. But, this gave me more time to make a little magic. We have this phone number that you can call to hear a pre-recorded message of Goofy singing Happy Birthday to little kids. It is fun to find kids with Happy Birthday pins on and give them the phone to listen to. We also have these little certificates where you can fill in the kid's name and their honor for the night. I crowned one little girl princess of the Emporium and made a little boy an Honorary Astronaut (he had just ridden Space Mountain for the first time)
Sunday I joined my family one more time at Hollywood Studios. We went on Tower of Terror and the Toy Story ride and ate lunch before they headed home. It was so good to spend some time with them once more. After that I went home and took a nap, because Sunday night I worked from 8pm-4am. In-freaking-sane. The park was open until 2 for Disney Resort guests and we have to stock and such for two hours after the last guest leaves. It is insane. I was so delirious that everything was funny. You get assigned a different area to close every night, and mine was bobbleheads, Magic Kingdom shirts, and 2010 merchandise. Lets just say that bobbleheads are really amusing at 4am.
Monday was good too. We had group bible study, where we once again talked about being too proud and competitive. Seems to be a theme in my life lately, so I am listening to whatever God wants to say. I have been kinda journaling through it, which has been helpful. I have some areas of my life where I need to work out my kinks, and that is one of them fo shizzle.
Monday night I worked till 315, which was exhausting after just closing the night before. My normal assignments were great, two of my favorite register areas. But I also had Cash Wrap for my closing assignment, which meant I went around to each of the 35 registered and restocked tissue paper, boxes, bags, pens, tape, delivery slips, and so on. Definitely the most tedious and least favorite assignment yet.
okay, I know I still have a few days to update, but its time for bed. I will update again tomorrow and pick up where I left off.
Hasta la vista!
Alrighty then.
Last time I updated was last Wednesday.
Beginning where my last entry left off, I have since bought insoles for my shoes, which cost about the same as the shoes haha. But my whole body is thanking me. Last Thursday was my last official day of training. My trainer was a Colombian man named Eddie who loved to tell stories about the guests he has encountered in the last thirty years, most of which he couldn't even finish telling because he would laugh so hard. It was quite amusing.
Friday was my first day of work without a trainer, and it was also the first day of my family's Fathers Day vacation. I had spent the morning (after Holly's bible study- we talked about being humble. SO convicting) seeing the Karate Kid with some other project kids. We had tried to see Toy Story 3, but it was sold out. On Wednesday and Thursday nights the Disney Beach Club Resort had showed the first two Toy Story movies and we had a lot of fun going to watch those.
So yeah, Friday was my first day all by my onesies. I worked till 130. My parents got to briefly see me before the night time rush came in. Magic Kingdom has night parades at 9pm and 11pm and fireworks at 10pm, and in between all those the store is INCREDIBLY crowded. Like its exhausting just to look at. But it wasn't too terrible. The title of this entry relates to the fact that I have used my spanish skillz (or lack thereof) more in the last two weeks than I have in the last five years. At least three or four times a night I use bits and pieces of the few words I remember from la clase de espanol to try and communicate something to our latino guests. I give directions to the bathroom, read off prices and totals, and try to tell them where to find things. It is probably very entertaining for them.
Saturday I had my LTG meeting at 815 and then headed to Typhoon Lagoon to spend the day with my dad and brother (my mom doesn't enjoy waterparks too much). It is tradition for my family- fathers day weekend we go to Typhoon Lagoon and take photo in the Family raft ride. My dad has the last 7 years or so lined up on his desk (although in the middle there is a picture of us in Colorado, which is where we spent the fathers day after my senior year of h.s.) It was really awesome to spend time with my dad after everything that has happened this year. I consider myself so blessed, and it was ridiculously hard not to get overwhelmed emotionally in front of him. I did that in private later. God has been so faithful in answering prayers- prayers that came from literally all ends of the globe as people who I don't even know prayed for my dad. It is so humbling. After the waterpark we went back to the hotel where I spent some time with my mom. It was wonderful.
Saturday night I worked until 1215, which is probably the earliest I will ever get off again. It was a good night, just rather boring. I was in the back corner of the store where nobody ever shops. But, this gave me more time to make a little magic. We have this phone number that you can call to hear a pre-recorded message of Goofy singing Happy Birthday to little kids. It is fun to find kids with Happy Birthday pins on and give them the phone to listen to. We also have these little certificates where you can fill in the kid's name and their honor for the night. I crowned one little girl princess of the Emporium and made a little boy an Honorary Astronaut (he had just ridden Space Mountain for the first time)
Sunday I joined my family one more time at Hollywood Studios. We went on Tower of Terror and the Toy Story ride and ate lunch before they headed home. It was so good to spend some time with them once more. After that I went home and took a nap, because Sunday night I worked from 8pm-4am. In-freaking-sane. The park was open until 2 for Disney Resort guests and we have to stock and such for two hours after the last guest leaves. It is insane. I was so delirious that everything was funny. You get assigned a different area to close every night, and mine was bobbleheads, Magic Kingdom shirts, and 2010 merchandise. Lets just say that bobbleheads are really amusing at 4am.
Monday was good too. We had group bible study, where we once again talked about being too proud and competitive. Seems to be a theme in my life lately, so I am listening to whatever God wants to say. I have been kinda journaling through it, which has been helpful. I have some areas of my life where I need to work out my kinks, and that is one of them fo shizzle.
Monday night I worked till 315, which was exhausting after just closing the night before. My normal assignments were great, two of my favorite register areas. But I also had Cash Wrap for my closing assignment, which meant I went around to each of the 35 registered and restocked tissue paper, boxes, bags, pens, tape, delivery slips, and so on. Definitely the most tedious and least favorite assignment yet.
okay, I know I still have a few days to update, but its time for bed. I will update again tomorrow and pick up where I left off.
Hasta la vista!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
How to hang ten and cause cash register malfunction
Hi friends.
I wish I had the energy to update more often. Lets see, I left off thursday night. I am doing really bad at updating often, I apologize.
Last Friday morning we had an optional bible study as a project activity, which I went to since I have been forced to miss a lot of activities due to a crazy training schedule. It was awesome. It was led by one of my fellow project-ers, Holly. After that, we grabbed a quick lunch and headed to Blizzard Beach for the day. It was a lot of fun. I somehow found the courage (a.k.a I was forced against my will) to ride Summit Plummet. It was amazing. And terrifying. I don't know if I have ever been that scared in my life. I screamed really loud for the first few seconds and then I was worried I would drown so I stopped. If I was not so tired, I would probably spin this into some analogy about life and faith, considering the worst part was waiting in line for 35 minutes, building up anticipation. But I am tired, so it wouldn't have the full effect. I need to be awake to analogize.
Friday night we did something else, but I can't remember what it was.
Saturday I had more training, this time back at Disney University. 6+ hours of learning how to use a cash register. It was fun. Sorta. Then we had another movie night I think. I am really having a hard time keeping all the movie nights straight.
Sunday I went back to Celebration Community Church, which I still really really like. The pastor talked about how when we don't have much, when we do give, it means a lot. He was speaking monetarily (the church meets in a high school auditorium and is trying to build an actual church) but it is very applicable to life. You don't need to have a lot to make it count. It was awesome. A bunch of us went to Wendy's for lunch, then our small groups met. After that, we played more sand volleyball, went on yet another Super Walmart run (I am really starting to hate that place) and then spent the night at Magic Kingdom. They have a new fireworks show for the summer. It was wonderful. I don't want to give too much away, but lets just say one of my favorite movies ever was well represented. Arrrg.
Monday we had group bible study (an actual project coordinated one, the other one we kinda made up on our own) and it was really really cool. I have never been in a co-ed bible study before and I liked it. We are going through material this summer called the Gospel Centered Life, and we talked a lot about the ways we judge people this week. First impressions or not, we got down and dirty with every person's tendency to judge others, which can all be related back to certain standards that we hold ourselves to. For example, we may judge someone on their body type because deep down, whether we know it or not, we hold ourselves to a high standard in regards to body type. I had never really thought about it that way before.
After bible study, we went to Hollywood Studios. I ended up just sticking with a group of four other girls the whole time, which was nice because we did a lot of girly stuff, like the Little Mermaid show and the Beauty and the Beast show, stuff I never usually get to do in big groups due to being vetoed by men (usually my dad and brother). We had a lot of fun.
Tuesday was amazing. We drove to Cocoa beach and spent a few hours just talking to people vacationing there and using a tool called Soularium to talk about things concerning faith. It is a box of fifty photographs and a set of questions like "which three images best describe your life?" "which three images represent what you WISH your life was like?" "which image best represents your view of God?" etc. The photos are all beautiful and range from a baby bird to a barbed wire fence to a fishing hook to mountains to an old couple holding hands and walking down the path. It is such a cool way to find out more about people. We buddied off, and Alex and I talked to this older couple who were adorable. They both said that true happiness was living the rest of their lives together. So sweet.
Annnnd, after that, we all went to Ron Jon Surf Shop and rented surfboards and went surfing! IT WAS SO AMAZING!!!! I had a blast. I was in the second group to go. Our staff team went a few weeks ago and was able to help us learn and give us a push when we were out there. The weather was kinda gloomy but the waves were apparently perfect for learning- 1-2 feet. I got up three times!!! I felt like I was flying. It was incredible addicting, I can't wait to get back out there. A bunch of people are talking about going again before the summer is over.
Today was my second day of training in the store. We started at 10 and got off around 630, so it was a long day. I was on a register most of the day and cannot even begin to list the ways that one can screw up on that machine. It is really high tech, which is sometimes awesome, but sometimes really complicated. One time I meant to key in the price of $4.95 and ended up keying in the quantity as 495. My guest nearly fainted from what came up as a $2,600+ total. The manager had to come over and fix the cash register, which had a meltdown when I tried to void 494 of them. I almost had a meltdown too, but luckily utter disaster was narrowly avoided. There is so much to remember with every single transaction that sometimes I forget to do things like breathe. I made change so people could press pennies in the machines outside, searched through a maze of a stockroom for items I knew we didn't carry, and almost took my finger off trying to cut the plastic wrap off of an autograph book so a kid could get Goofy's signature before he went away. I also taught some Norwegian men how to use American money. That stuff was interesting.
But the best part of the day was definitely when I got to just walk around the store or stand at the doors and greet/entertain/ interact with guests. I stood at the front of the store with Mickey gloves on and gave kids High-5, or High-4's since Mickey only has four fingers. I gave crying kids stickers and thought their parents were going to crown me queen of the universe for quieting their sunburnt, exhausted children. All the little girls came in wearing princess costumes and I would say "Hi Princess!!" and tell them how pretty they were. One little boy came in wearing a full out pirate costume and I pretended to be scared and hid behind a display. He looked at me like I was insane. Clearly I got more of a kick out of that game then he did. I also embarrassed a dad by making the whole store sing Happy Birthday to him. I love people.
Tonight a bunch of us went to one of the resorts that was showing Toy Story on a big screen TV in honor of Toy Story 3 opening Friday. They are showing the second one tomorrow night.
Tomorrow I work again. My feet hurt really bad from my $7 Walmart work appropriate shoes. I may need some insoles. But I can't wait to get back to work. How often can someone say that? I can't wait to go stand on my feet wearing an itchy polyester costume and deal with cranky parents who ask when the rain will stop and why it is so hot and why everything is so expensive. I can't wait for that because along with all the bad stuff comes little girls whose faces light up when you call them princess and sweet old ladies who find the perfect shirt for their grandson and little babies who giggle when I contort my face for them. That makes it all worthwhile.
That was long. Thanks for reading. Love you all.
Kel
I wish I had the energy to update more often. Lets see, I left off thursday night. I am doing really bad at updating often, I apologize.
Last Friday morning we had an optional bible study as a project activity, which I went to since I have been forced to miss a lot of activities due to a crazy training schedule. It was awesome. It was led by one of my fellow project-ers, Holly. After that, we grabbed a quick lunch and headed to Blizzard Beach for the day. It was a lot of fun. I somehow found the courage (a.k.a I was forced against my will) to ride Summit Plummet. It was amazing. And terrifying. I don't know if I have ever been that scared in my life. I screamed really loud for the first few seconds and then I was worried I would drown so I stopped. If I was not so tired, I would probably spin this into some analogy about life and faith, considering the worst part was waiting in line for 35 minutes, building up anticipation. But I am tired, so it wouldn't have the full effect. I need to be awake to analogize.
Friday night we did something else, but I can't remember what it was.
Saturday I had more training, this time back at Disney University. 6+ hours of learning how to use a cash register. It was fun. Sorta. Then we had another movie night I think. I am really having a hard time keeping all the movie nights straight.
Sunday I went back to Celebration Community Church, which I still really really like. The pastor talked about how when we don't have much, when we do give, it means a lot. He was speaking monetarily (the church meets in a high school auditorium and is trying to build an actual church) but it is very applicable to life. You don't need to have a lot to make it count. It was awesome. A bunch of us went to Wendy's for lunch, then our small groups met. After that, we played more sand volleyball, went on yet another Super Walmart run (I am really starting to hate that place) and then spent the night at Magic Kingdom. They have a new fireworks show for the summer. It was wonderful. I don't want to give too much away, but lets just say one of my favorite movies ever was well represented. Arrrg.
Monday we had group bible study (an actual project coordinated one, the other one we kinda made up on our own) and it was really really cool. I have never been in a co-ed bible study before and I liked it. We are going through material this summer called the Gospel Centered Life, and we talked a lot about the ways we judge people this week. First impressions or not, we got down and dirty with every person's tendency to judge others, which can all be related back to certain standards that we hold ourselves to. For example, we may judge someone on their body type because deep down, whether we know it or not, we hold ourselves to a high standard in regards to body type. I had never really thought about it that way before.
After bible study, we went to Hollywood Studios. I ended up just sticking with a group of four other girls the whole time, which was nice because we did a lot of girly stuff, like the Little Mermaid show and the Beauty and the Beast show, stuff I never usually get to do in big groups due to being vetoed by men (usually my dad and brother). We had a lot of fun.
Tuesday was amazing. We drove to Cocoa beach and spent a few hours just talking to people vacationing there and using a tool called Soularium to talk about things concerning faith. It is a box of fifty photographs and a set of questions like "which three images best describe your life?" "which three images represent what you WISH your life was like?" "which image best represents your view of God?" etc. The photos are all beautiful and range from a baby bird to a barbed wire fence to a fishing hook to mountains to an old couple holding hands and walking down the path. It is such a cool way to find out more about people. We buddied off, and Alex and I talked to this older couple who were adorable. They both said that true happiness was living the rest of their lives together. So sweet.
Annnnd, after that, we all went to Ron Jon Surf Shop and rented surfboards and went surfing! IT WAS SO AMAZING!!!! I had a blast. I was in the second group to go. Our staff team went a few weeks ago and was able to help us learn and give us a push when we were out there. The weather was kinda gloomy but the waves were apparently perfect for learning- 1-2 feet. I got up three times!!! I felt like I was flying. It was incredible addicting, I can't wait to get back out there. A bunch of people are talking about going again before the summer is over.
Today was my second day of training in the store. We started at 10 and got off around 630, so it was a long day. I was on a register most of the day and cannot even begin to list the ways that one can screw up on that machine. It is really high tech, which is sometimes awesome, but sometimes really complicated. One time I meant to key in the price of $4.95 and ended up keying in the quantity as 495. My guest nearly fainted from what came up as a $2,600+ total. The manager had to come over and fix the cash register, which had a meltdown when I tried to void 494 of them. I almost had a meltdown too, but luckily utter disaster was narrowly avoided. There is so much to remember with every single transaction that sometimes I forget to do things like breathe. I made change so people could press pennies in the machines outside, searched through a maze of a stockroom for items I knew we didn't carry, and almost took my finger off trying to cut the plastic wrap off of an autograph book so a kid could get Goofy's signature before he went away. I also taught some Norwegian men how to use American money. That stuff was interesting.
But the best part of the day was definitely when I got to just walk around the store or stand at the doors and greet/entertain/ interact with guests. I stood at the front of the store with Mickey gloves on and gave kids High-5, or High-4's since Mickey only has four fingers. I gave crying kids stickers and thought their parents were going to crown me queen of the universe for quieting their sunburnt, exhausted children. All the little girls came in wearing princess costumes and I would say "Hi Princess!!" and tell them how pretty they were. One little boy came in wearing a full out pirate costume and I pretended to be scared and hid behind a display. He looked at me like I was insane. Clearly I got more of a kick out of that game then he did. I also embarrassed a dad by making the whole store sing Happy Birthday to him. I love people.
Tonight a bunch of us went to one of the resorts that was showing Toy Story on a big screen TV in honor of Toy Story 3 opening Friday. They are showing the second one tomorrow night.
Tomorrow I work again. My feet hurt really bad from my $7 Walmart work appropriate shoes. I may need some insoles. But I can't wait to get back to work. How often can someone say that? I can't wait to go stand on my feet wearing an itchy polyester costume and deal with cranky parents who ask when the rain will stop and why it is so hot and why everything is so expensive. I can't wait for that because along with all the bad stuff comes little girls whose faces light up when you call them princess and sweet old ladies who find the perfect shirt for their grandson and little babies who giggle when I contort my face for them. That makes it all worthwhile.
That was long. Thanks for reading. Love you all.
Kel
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Popcorn and Polyester
Hola mis amigos!
So, I definitely owe an update. I left off on Sunday night, so be prepared for a long one.
Monday morning began with a successful birthday bamboozlement for Katie, my Texas Longhorns lovin' roommate. Kayleigh, Liz and I made pancakes that spelled out "Happy Bday Katie" in them, and it was wonderful. After our morning Quiet Time (we have this book called Four Sevens that has four weeks worth of daily devotionals- individual bible studies that have you read a passage and answer questions and apply it to your life. This particular one goes through Luke), we began reading this amazing book called God Space. It is about how to talk about and share your faith in every day conversation. It is pretty freaking awesome.
After lunch, we all piled into the car and headed to Lake Hart, Campus Crusade for Christ's international headquarters. It was an incredible privilege and so amazing to see where it all goes on. They have a HUGE amount of property with many enormous buildings. We got to see offices of the top leadership, including the offices of founder Bill Bright and his wife Vonette. Dr. Bright's office has been left the way it was when he died, and it was really cool to see it. We toured the international and national office buildings and took a pit stop in the prayer tower, which was my favorite part of the day. They had different rooms set up dedicated to different parts of the world, complete with large map tapestries and prayer requests from missionaries in those parts of the world.
When we were done at headquarters, we headed to the house of one of the national campus director and his family. They invite the project over every year after HQ tour and invite them swimming and grill us dinner. It was so splendid. I got to talk to their daughter who just graduated high school (she is going to UCF, Go Knights!). It was so sweet, I have met so many amazing people already.
So Tuesday was Traditions, which is Disney orientation. I felt like I was back at UF preview. We went to "Disney University" and learned cast member basics and other park information, some history, etc. We also got to walk around the Magic Kingdom wearing closed circuit FM radio headsets so that our leader could give us a tour but still be heard by 75 people. I felt like a secret agent with my little earpiece. haha. 8 long hours after we started, we graduated by getting our nametags! I was quite thrilled, it felt like a childhood dream coming true. After Traditions was over our whole project went to EPCOT to walk around and then watched the fireworks. It was total confirmation that all my hard work and prayer was paying off- God is so cool. He deserves all the glory for this. Watching the fireworks with people who already feel like family a week after meeting, knowing what we were there for- it was truly magical. Before we went in the park, there was a group of 11 of us who stood outside in a circle and prayed for the project and also for the world, since EPCOT is the perfect place for that.
Wednesday morning was my first training day, and I showed up and was immediately fitted for my ridiculous costume, which includes a waist high, ankle length plaid polyester skirt and a poofy sleeved, ruffly blouse, and little necktie. Not too terrible, and highly entertaining. Comfort is clearly not Disney's priority as far as costumes go, but it is very very doable. I loved it in all honesty. They also gave us a lanyard and let us pick out pins so that we can trade with guests. Pin Trading is a big deal here. I am sure I will talk more about it later. But so yeah, after taking some computer tests on safety, I was walked up and basically turned loose in the Emporium, Magic Kingdom's largest store. It runs the entire length of Main Street USA on the West side. My trainer, Pam, was wonderful. She was training Jaime, Erica, Tim and I, the four people on project who work in the Emporium. She was so sweet and kept insisting on how much of a family everyone is and how we will all cry when we leave because everyone is so close. I cannot wait. We also got to meet our first international buddy on our job site, his name is Emelien and he is from France and is here on the International College Program. He is new too, so he stuck with us on our breaks and it was great to start getting to know him. We got to learn about customer service and such, not much actual store training. We got to do a lot of "merchentaining" (merchandise+entertaining=merchantaining) which will undoubtedly be my favorite part of the job- interacting with guests and their kids. I had a swordfight with a 6 year old pirate and knew immediately that I have the best job in the world.
When we got back yesterday we had a movie night and watched Princess and the Frog and about 20 other people from project came, including some of the boys. We made home made popcorn (like in a pot with oil) and it was wonderful. I have not had popcorn in SO long- one time I went to a circus and ate popcorn (my mom had given it to me to take with me, dairy-free) and cotton candy and afterwards I got the stomach flu and was horribly sick. Consequently, I have not liked popcorn, cotton candy, or circuses for a very very long time. But I got over my fear and tried it again and loved it.
Today I had theme park orientation called Once Upon A Time Is Now! It was an introduction to the Magic Kingdom basically, and it was slightly pointless since I worked all day yesterday. It was sorta backtracking. Anyways, we had to be there at 715 which meant that my feet hit the floor at 5:45 this morning, a full 16 hours ago. I got marched around Magic Kingdom in dress shoes, hosiery, a skirt and a nice top, which is hopefully a once in a lifetime experience. It was really cool to see some of the stuff I won't normally get to see, such as the back of the Haunted Mansion. They even let us ride Haunted Mansion and Buzz Lightyear, two of my favorites. It was all in all a fun morning, but it was quite exhausting. I came home, totally prepared to nap, and somehow found myself at Animal Kingdom an hour and a half later. Ten of us spent the evening there and had a blast. Pictures will come. Then I just spent some time with a few girls relaxing my aching feet in the jacuzzi here at the hotel. When I got home from that, I Skyped with Jessie, who was joined by Betsy and Cait. No matter how much I love it here, it was so wonderful to see some familiar loving faces. It was another awesome day, but I am so incredibly exhausted. I also got my first piece of mail today! A card from Amanda :-) I did the happy dance in our living room and then I put it on my nightstand.
Okay, I love you all but my body aches in places that should never ache. I will update more later! Tomorrow a bunch of us have the day off, which I believe will be spent in group bible study and a trip to Blizzard Beach. So I will update on that later.
Mucho amor,
One tired, aching, ecstatic cast member :-)
So, I definitely owe an update. I left off on Sunday night, so be prepared for a long one.
Monday morning began with a successful birthday bamboozlement for Katie, my Texas Longhorns lovin' roommate. Kayleigh, Liz and I made pancakes that spelled out "Happy Bday Katie" in them, and it was wonderful. After our morning Quiet Time (we have this book called Four Sevens that has four weeks worth of daily devotionals- individual bible studies that have you read a passage and answer questions and apply it to your life. This particular one goes through Luke), we began reading this amazing book called God Space. It is about how to talk about and share your faith in every day conversation. It is pretty freaking awesome.
After lunch, we all piled into the car and headed to Lake Hart, Campus Crusade for Christ's international headquarters. It was an incredible privilege and so amazing to see where it all goes on. They have a HUGE amount of property with many enormous buildings. We got to see offices of the top leadership, including the offices of founder Bill Bright and his wife Vonette. Dr. Bright's office has been left the way it was when he died, and it was really cool to see it. We toured the international and national office buildings and took a pit stop in the prayer tower, which was my favorite part of the day. They had different rooms set up dedicated to different parts of the world, complete with large map tapestries and prayer requests from missionaries in those parts of the world.
When we were done at headquarters, we headed to the house of one of the national campus director and his family. They invite the project over every year after HQ tour and invite them swimming and grill us dinner. It was so splendid. I got to talk to their daughter who just graduated high school (she is going to UCF, Go Knights!). It was so sweet, I have met so many amazing people already.
So Tuesday was Traditions, which is Disney orientation. I felt like I was back at UF preview. We went to "Disney University" and learned cast member basics and other park information, some history, etc. We also got to walk around the Magic Kingdom wearing closed circuit FM radio headsets so that our leader could give us a tour but still be heard by 75 people. I felt like a secret agent with my little earpiece. haha. 8 long hours after we started, we graduated by getting our nametags! I was quite thrilled, it felt like a childhood dream coming true. After Traditions was over our whole project went to EPCOT to walk around and then watched the fireworks. It was total confirmation that all my hard work and prayer was paying off- God is so cool. He deserves all the glory for this. Watching the fireworks with people who already feel like family a week after meeting, knowing what we were there for- it was truly magical. Before we went in the park, there was a group of 11 of us who stood outside in a circle and prayed for the project and also for the world, since EPCOT is the perfect place for that.
Wednesday morning was my first training day, and I showed up and was immediately fitted for my ridiculous costume, which includes a waist high, ankle length plaid polyester skirt and a poofy sleeved, ruffly blouse, and little necktie. Not too terrible, and highly entertaining. Comfort is clearly not Disney's priority as far as costumes go, but it is very very doable. I loved it in all honesty. They also gave us a lanyard and let us pick out pins so that we can trade with guests. Pin Trading is a big deal here. I am sure I will talk more about it later. But so yeah, after taking some computer tests on safety, I was walked up and basically turned loose in the Emporium, Magic Kingdom's largest store. It runs the entire length of Main Street USA on the West side. My trainer, Pam, was wonderful. She was training Jaime, Erica, Tim and I, the four people on project who work in the Emporium. She was so sweet and kept insisting on how much of a family everyone is and how we will all cry when we leave because everyone is so close. I cannot wait. We also got to meet our first international buddy on our job site, his name is Emelien and he is from France and is here on the International College Program. He is new too, so he stuck with us on our breaks and it was great to start getting to know him. We got to learn about customer service and such, not much actual store training. We got to do a lot of "merchentaining" (merchandise+entertaining=merchantaining) which will undoubtedly be my favorite part of the job- interacting with guests and their kids. I had a swordfight with a 6 year old pirate and knew immediately that I have the best job in the world.
When we got back yesterday we had a movie night and watched Princess and the Frog and about 20 other people from project came, including some of the boys. We made home made popcorn (like in a pot with oil) and it was wonderful. I have not had popcorn in SO long- one time I went to a circus and ate popcorn (my mom had given it to me to take with me, dairy-free) and cotton candy and afterwards I got the stomach flu and was horribly sick. Consequently, I have not liked popcorn, cotton candy, or circuses for a very very long time. But I got over my fear and tried it again and loved it.
Today I had theme park orientation called Once Upon A Time Is Now! It was an introduction to the Magic Kingdom basically, and it was slightly pointless since I worked all day yesterday. It was sorta backtracking. Anyways, we had to be there at 715 which meant that my feet hit the floor at 5:45 this morning, a full 16 hours ago. I got marched around Magic Kingdom in dress shoes, hosiery, a skirt and a nice top, which is hopefully a once in a lifetime experience. It was really cool to see some of the stuff I won't normally get to see, such as the back of the Haunted Mansion. They even let us ride Haunted Mansion and Buzz Lightyear, two of my favorites. It was all in all a fun morning, but it was quite exhausting. I came home, totally prepared to nap, and somehow found myself at Animal Kingdom an hour and a half later. Ten of us spent the evening there and had a blast. Pictures will come. Then I just spent some time with a few girls relaxing my aching feet in the jacuzzi here at the hotel. When I got home from that, I Skyped with Jessie, who was joined by Betsy and Cait. No matter how much I love it here, it was so wonderful to see some familiar loving faces. It was another awesome day, but I am so incredibly exhausted. I also got my first piece of mail today! A card from Amanda :-) I did the happy dance in our living room and then I put it on my nightstand.
Okay, I love you all but my body aches in places that should never ache. I will update more later! Tomorrow a bunch of us have the day off, which I believe will be spent in group bible study and a trip to Blizzard Beach. So I will update on that later.
Mucho amor,
One tired, aching, ecstatic cast member :-)
Sunday, June 6, 2010
No Scheme of Man
Hiiiiiiii
So I know I just updated last night/this morning but I figured I would give you as many updates as I could while I could, meaning before working what will be 60 hour work weeks (between Disney and project activities). Also, I want to stay up till midnight so I can go pounce on my roommate Katie, who turns 20 today ;-)
This morning we went to church, and I realized just how much I missed worship. It has literally been almost a month since I sang worship songs with a group of people; I went to church the first week I was home then just tuned into Northpoint Live every other Sunday, which has the worship, but lets be real. My parents already think I am strange as it is, I don't know what would happen if I started randomly singing worship sets in my bedroom.
I went to Celebration Community church this morning. Celebration is this little Stepford-esque town that a lot of Disney employees live in. The service was really good, the pastor preached on Deuteronomy 8 and how we should always acknowledge God. We sang the song "In Christ Alone My Hope is Found," which is one of my favorite songs. There is one stanza in particular that always gets me, and this morning was no different-
"No power of hell,
no scheme of man,
could ever pluck me
from His hand."
It is just such a good reminder to me that people will always try and prevent you from where you need to go, no matter what kind of faith you have. Our greatest obstacle is rarely a lack of money or ability, it is a lack of faith in ourselves due to others lack of faith in us.
time out, its midnight. Time to go wish Katie a happy birthday.
Okay, I'm back.
But yeah, there were a lot of obstacles that tried to keep me from getting here, but the most difficult ones to overcome were ones that others put in the way. But it is becoming so clear to me that I am supposed to be here. It is wonderful.
After the church service ended, one of the Celebration Community bible study groups put on this HUGE free lunch for us and a big group from Campus Outreach (they are doing the same thing at SeaWorld and Universal) and talked to us about how grateful they are for us and how we bring life into their town every summer and how much they loved when we came. The one older woman Edie gave us her phone number and told us to come over anytime we were homesick and she would bake for us and help us with laundry. I love church ladies. I sat at a table with four girls from Campus Outreach, one of whom went to UNF. It was nice to talk to another Floridian.
When we got back from that we played sand volleyball for like an hour and then spent three more hours in the pool playing insane games. I am so exhausted, and I even took an hour long nap. Tonight we had Womens time, and we talked about modesty and how its rarely practiced anymore and how we can honor God with the way we dress, but that doesn't mean we need to wear turtlenecks and floor length skirts either. One of our staff guys, Jonathan, came and talked to us about how guys perceive things and what modesty means to them. It was so awesome to hear it from a guy who is only a few years older than us. I haven't put too much thought into the guy's perspective, so it was really cool to hear that.
Okay, its bedtime. I am getting up early with a few girls to make birthday pancakes for Katie lol.
I will close with the main verses we talked about tonight (one of my favorites- I memorized it in discipleship this past year, but I never thought about it in the sense of modesty)
Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to the Lord- this is your spiritual act of worship. Conform no longer to the patterns of this world but instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Gods will is- His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Romans 12: 1-2
So I know I just updated last night/this morning but I figured I would give you as many updates as I could while I could, meaning before working what will be 60 hour work weeks (between Disney and project activities). Also, I want to stay up till midnight so I can go pounce on my roommate Katie, who turns 20 today ;-)
This morning we went to church, and I realized just how much I missed worship. It has literally been almost a month since I sang worship songs with a group of people; I went to church the first week I was home then just tuned into Northpoint Live every other Sunday, which has the worship, but lets be real. My parents already think I am strange as it is, I don't know what would happen if I started randomly singing worship sets in my bedroom.
I went to Celebration Community church this morning. Celebration is this little Stepford-esque town that a lot of Disney employees live in. The service was really good, the pastor preached on Deuteronomy 8 and how we should always acknowledge God. We sang the song "In Christ Alone My Hope is Found," which is one of my favorite songs. There is one stanza in particular that always gets me, and this morning was no different-
"No power of hell,
no scheme of man,
could ever pluck me
from His hand."
It is just such a good reminder to me that people will always try and prevent you from where you need to go, no matter what kind of faith you have. Our greatest obstacle is rarely a lack of money or ability, it is a lack of faith in ourselves due to others lack of faith in us.
time out, its midnight. Time to go wish Katie a happy birthday.
Okay, I'm back.
But yeah, there were a lot of obstacles that tried to keep me from getting here, but the most difficult ones to overcome were ones that others put in the way. But it is becoming so clear to me that I am supposed to be here. It is wonderful.
After the church service ended, one of the Celebration Community bible study groups put on this HUGE free lunch for us and a big group from Campus Outreach (they are doing the same thing at SeaWorld and Universal) and talked to us about how grateful they are for us and how we bring life into their town every summer and how much they loved when we came. The one older woman Edie gave us her phone number and told us to come over anytime we were homesick and she would bake for us and help us with laundry. I love church ladies. I sat at a table with four girls from Campus Outreach, one of whom went to UNF. It was nice to talk to another Floridian.
When we got back from that we played sand volleyball for like an hour and then spent three more hours in the pool playing insane games. I am so exhausted, and I even took an hour long nap. Tonight we had Womens time, and we talked about modesty and how its rarely practiced anymore and how we can honor God with the way we dress, but that doesn't mean we need to wear turtlenecks and floor length skirts either. One of our staff guys, Jonathan, came and talked to us about how guys perceive things and what modesty means to them. It was so awesome to hear it from a guy who is only a few years older than us. I haven't put too much thought into the guy's perspective, so it was really cool to hear that.
Okay, its bedtime. I am getting up early with a few girls to make birthday pancakes for Katie lol.
I will close with the main verses we talked about tonight (one of my favorites- I memorized it in discipleship this past year, but I never thought about it in the sense of modesty)
Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to the Lord- this is your spiritual act of worship. Conform no longer to the patterns of this world but instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Gods will is- His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Romans 12: 1-2
Saturday, June 5, 2010
on a Quest
Howdy folks.
Things are still going swell here in the Happiest Place on Earth. We actually have yet to make it to any of the parks yet, but we have made it to some of the resorts. It is wonderful.
I am really starting to feel at home here, even though I am still struggling to be 100% here. Sometimes my heart and mind wander back to home or Gainesville, but I really think that once I get on the job and into a routine it will be easier to focus.
Speaking of which, I have a job!! I went to Disney casting on Thursday and I will be working sales on Main Street!!! There are four of us with that assignment, two other girls and a boy. I cannot wait for the job to start. I go to Traditions on Tuesday, which is Disney's orientation. Then on Wednesday, its off to work!!
Yesterday was day 2 of "surf instructors training" and we all graduated!! We talked a lot about how to build friendships with international students and how much of an impact we can make, because the people we impact can make an impact on others who impact others, etc. After that we went swimming for several hours and got to know each other even better. I feel like I have known some of these people forever already!!
One of the greatest things about this project is that there are so many ways we get to interact with each other. We have Life Transformation Groups or "LTG's" which are the summer project equivalent of Theta Alpha's accountability groups- four girls plus staff women who meet weekly and basically live life with each other. We had "Soul to Souls" on Thursday as well, which is where we took an hour or so each and told our life stories- major events in our lives, how we came to know God, whats going on in our life right now... it was really awesome. Our leaders are the "staff moms." All of the other groups only have one leader, but all three of our leaders are mothers, so its going to be very rare that more than one of them will be able to meet with us at the same time. Three staff moms= 1 staff woman. Haha.
We also have ministry teams, which are teams that lead different parts of the project. There is a prayer/world vision team, communications, evangelism, and communities. I find out which one I will be on soon. We also have co-ed bible studies and Womens and Mens time. So, I think we will get to know everyone really well through all our different divisions.
Today we met with our LTGs in the morning and went through a lot of material about doubting God, and we went through a lot of Romans 8, which is one of my favorite passages in the whole bible. Then, after a yummy ham sandwich and some blueberries we had some training in how to share our faith with people. We learned how to use the Quest survey, which is a short survey that can lead to spiritual conversations with people. After that, we took a trip to Lake Eola, which is this gorgeous lake/park smack in the middle of downtown O-town. We walked around and talked to people using the survey, which was really awesome. Lake Eola park has a large homeless population and it was really awesome to get to know the people there and to talk to them about God and pray for them. I have held a special place in my heart ever since I worked at the homeless shelter in Gainesville a year and a half ago, so I loved getting to serve them.
After leaving there, my LTG went to good ole McDonalds for dinner and then took a trip to Walmart for some things we forgot the first time around/ things that our condo is missing- potholders, hand soap, gum, antibiotic cream for the gash on my leg from an intense game of sharks and minnows last night. After that, a few of the girls in my condo and I rented the movie Fireproof and baked cookies and made popcorn the old fashioned way. When the movie was over, we spent an hour or so talking about where we have come from and where we are now in our walk with God. It was amazing.
Tomorrow we are going to church for the first time in Orlando. We had two choices, one that was very contemporary (Mosaic) and one that was contemporary but slightly more traditional, Celebration Community. I think I will try Celebration Community because I am here to get new experiences and, although I miss Anthem Church with every heartstring, I feel like Mosaic would be just like it. After that, we have Women's time, which I am excited about.
So, this was a long entry, but it covered three days, so yeah. I miss everyone so much. I will update more soon!!
Love, Kelly
Things are still going swell here in the Happiest Place on Earth. We actually have yet to make it to any of the parks yet, but we have made it to some of the resorts. It is wonderful.
I am really starting to feel at home here, even though I am still struggling to be 100% here. Sometimes my heart and mind wander back to home or Gainesville, but I really think that once I get on the job and into a routine it will be easier to focus.
Speaking of which, I have a job!! I went to Disney casting on Thursday and I will be working sales on Main Street!!! There are four of us with that assignment, two other girls and a boy. I cannot wait for the job to start. I go to Traditions on Tuesday, which is Disney's orientation. Then on Wednesday, its off to work!!
Yesterday was day 2 of "surf instructors training" and we all graduated!! We talked a lot about how to build friendships with international students and how much of an impact we can make, because the people we impact can make an impact on others who impact others, etc. After that we went swimming for several hours and got to know each other even better. I feel like I have known some of these people forever already!!
One of the greatest things about this project is that there are so many ways we get to interact with each other. We have Life Transformation Groups or "LTG's" which are the summer project equivalent of Theta Alpha's accountability groups- four girls plus staff women who meet weekly and basically live life with each other. We had "Soul to Souls" on Thursday as well, which is where we took an hour or so each and told our life stories- major events in our lives, how we came to know God, whats going on in our life right now... it was really awesome. Our leaders are the "staff moms." All of the other groups only have one leader, but all three of our leaders are mothers, so its going to be very rare that more than one of them will be able to meet with us at the same time. Three staff moms= 1 staff woman. Haha.
We also have ministry teams, which are teams that lead different parts of the project. There is a prayer/world vision team, communications, evangelism, and communities. I find out which one I will be on soon. We also have co-ed bible studies and Womens and Mens time. So, I think we will get to know everyone really well through all our different divisions.
Today we met with our LTGs in the morning and went through a lot of material about doubting God, and we went through a lot of Romans 8, which is one of my favorite passages in the whole bible. Then, after a yummy ham sandwich and some blueberries we had some training in how to share our faith with people. We learned how to use the Quest survey, which is a short survey that can lead to spiritual conversations with people. After that, we took a trip to Lake Eola, which is this gorgeous lake/park smack in the middle of downtown O-town. We walked around and talked to people using the survey, which was really awesome. Lake Eola park has a large homeless population and it was really awesome to get to know the people there and to talk to them about God and pray for them. I have held a special place in my heart ever since I worked at the homeless shelter in Gainesville a year and a half ago, so I loved getting to serve them.
After leaving there, my LTG went to good ole McDonalds for dinner and then took a trip to Walmart for some things we forgot the first time around/ things that our condo is missing- potholders, hand soap, gum, antibiotic cream for the gash on my leg from an intense game of sharks and minnows last night. After that, a few of the girls in my condo and I rented the movie Fireproof and baked cookies and made popcorn the old fashioned way. When the movie was over, we spent an hour or so talking about where we have come from and where we are now in our walk with God. It was amazing.
Tomorrow we are going to church for the first time in Orlando. We had two choices, one that was very contemporary (Mosaic) and one that was contemporary but slightly more traditional, Celebration Community. I think I will try Celebration Community because I am here to get new experiences and, although I miss Anthem Church with every heartstring, I feel like Mosaic would be just like it. After that, we have Women's time, which I am excited about.
So, this was a long entry, but it covered three days, so yeah. I miss everyone so much. I will update more soon!!
Love, Kelly
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
A pathetic/glorious confession of how much of a Disney nerd I am
Hello dear friends :-)
As day two of project comes to a close, I cannot even begin to tell you how stoked I am for the summer. First off, the theme of the summer is Surfing. I just wrapped up day one of "Surf Instructors Training." Never in my life would I think that I would be describing God as "tubular" or "gnarly." But I guess until recently I never would have imagined myself as a missionary at Disney. So the point is moot. (I have always wanted to say that).
This summer I am committing myself to riding the big waves- going out every day, focusing on my task, finding the courage to just go, and hanging on for the ride. I am scared, but thrilled out of my mind. And guess what? We get to actually go surfing. Like on surfboards with real waves and stuff. We have a trip to Cocoa Beach scheduled soon. I will let you know how that turns out. If it is anything like my skimboarding, sea kayaking, or kneeboarding adventures it will probably end with lots of bruises but fantastic memories and plenty of chances to laugh.
I have been coined the Local on the trip, at least as far as the students go. The next closest person is from S.Carolina. It's really funny when people ask me questions that seem common sense to me, particularly about hurricanes (Jessie, if you are reading this, I am sorry for not believing you last summer when you said everyone in Chicago asked you about hurricanes all the time). Hopefully they are not all expecting me to be a pro surfer as well.
So here is the first of what is sure to be many Disney-isms that I will encounter in my own head this summer and probably for the rest of my life:
So this afternoon we were talking about the Holy Spirit and how it flows through us like "streams of living water." We began by contrasting it to dead water- stagnant, murky, not moving, smelly, gross, and inhospitable were some of the words used to describe "dead water." So then Kevin (one of the directors) asked us to describe what we thought "living water" was like- and my mind jumped immediately to one of my favorite Disney songs EVER and a personal theme song of mine:
"What I love most about rivers is you can't step in the same water twice; the water's always changing always flowing"
Shame on you if you don't know what thats from.
Anyways, my roommates and I raided super walmart after training today and literally bought so much food it almost didn't fit in my car. But it was good times, and now our condo is well stocked with the essentials (and popsicles). I absolutely adore the girls I am rooming with and cannot wait to grow closer as a "family."
Tomorrow we go to Disney casting to fill out more paperwork and such, which I am excited about (not the paperwork, the trip to the casting center). I will fill you in more when I know more- probably tomorrow but maybe the next day. I pinky swear I am going to update as often as I can.
Thanks for surfing with me :) I love you all!!
<3 Kelly
As day two of project comes to a close, I cannot even begin to tell you how stoked I am for the summer. First off, the theme of the summer is Surfing. I just wrapped up day one of "Surf Instructors Training." Never in my life would I think that I would be describing God as "tubular" or "gnarly." But I guess until recently I never would have imagined myself as a missionary at Disney. So the point is moot. (I have always wanted to say that).
This summer I am committing myself to riding the big waves- going out every day, focusing on my task, finding the courage to just go, and hanging on for the ride. I am scared, but thrilled out of my mind. And guess what? We get to actually go surfing. Like on surfboards with real waves and stuff. We have a trip to Cocoa Beach scheduled soon. I will let you know how that turns out. If it is anything like my skimboarding, sea kayaking, or kneeboarding adventures it will probably end with lots of bruises but fantastic memories and plenty of chances to laugh.
I have been coined the Local on the trip, at least as far as the students go. The next closest person is from S.Carolina. It's really funny when people ask me questions that seem common sense to me, particularly about hurricanes (Jessie, if you are reading this, I am sorry for not believing you last summer when you said everyone in Chicago asked you about hurricanes all the time). Hopefully they are not all expecting me to be a pro surfer as well.
So here is the first of what is sure to be many Disney-isms that I will encounter in my own head this summer and probably for the rest of my life:
So this afternoon we were talking about the Holy Spirit and how it flows through us like "streams of living water." We began by contrasting it to dead water- stagnant, murky, not moving, smelly, gross, and inhospitable were some of the words used to describe "dead water." So then Kevin (one of the directors) asked us to describe what we thought "living water" was like- and my mind jumped immediately to one of my favorite Disney songs EVER and a personal theme song of mine:
"What I love most about rivers is you can't step in the same water twice; the water's always changing always flowing"
Shame on you if you don't know what thats from.
Anyways, my roommates and I raided super walmart after training today and literally bought so much food it almost didn't fit in my car. But it was good times, and now our condo is well stocked with the essentials (and popsicles). I absolutely adore the girls I am rooming with and cannot wait to grow closer as a "family."
Tomorrow we go to Disney casting to fill out more paperwork and such, which I am excited about (not the paperwork, the trip to the casting center). I will fill you in more when I know more- probably tomorrow but maybe the next day. I pinky swear I am going to update as often as I can.
Thanks for surfing with me :) I love you all!!
<3 Kelly
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
I'm here!
Hey everyone!!
I am exhausted so this will be short but I wanted to post anyways.
I made it here! My project is officially started!!
I made it here around 1:30, feeling utterly guilty about my 2.5 hour drive after most of my fellow project-ers (I need to figure out what to call everyone) drove cross country or took half a dozen planes to get here. Anyways, me and Wanda the Honda and Henrietta the Second (my GPS) made it safe and sound. I checked in with the staff and was sent off to my "condo" for the summer, which is wonderful. We are staying at the Runaway Beach resort which is less than ten minutes from Disney. It is gorgeous! All touristy and tropically but still adorable. I am staying in a three bedroom condo with 6 other girls. We have a full kitchen, big living room, washer/dryer, everything you could ever want! I am gonna post pictures later. My roommates are from all over the US- Illinois, Loiusiana, Missouri, Colorado, Minnesota, and Texas. I am the only Florida kid on the whole project! There are 33 students and 13 staff.
We had a good old fashioned summer cookout for dinner- burgers, hotdogs, watermelon, chips- the works. It was delicious! After that we headed to Downtown Disney for a surprise- a scavenger hunt all over Disney property!! It was really fun, my team tied for first place. We won Mike 'n' Ikes and Sour Patch kids haha.
Anyways, I am here, everyone is already exhausted, everyone is awesome, and I know about 5 names. I will work on that and get back to you. Tomorrow we have project orientation, so I will update after that.
Love you all!
Kelly
I am exhausted so this will be short but I wanted to post anyways.
I made it here! My project is officially started!!
I made it here around 1:30, feeling utterly guilty about my 2.5 hour drive after most of my fellow project-ers (I need to figure out what to call everyone) drove cross country or took half a dozen planes to get here. Anyways, me and Wanda the Honda and Henrietta the Second (my GPS) made it safe and sound. I checked in with the staff and was sent off to my "condo" for the summer, which is wonderful. We are staying at the Runaway Beach resort which is less than ten minutes from Disney. It is gorgeous! All touristy and tropically but still adorable. I am staying in a three bedroom condo with 6 other girls. We have a full kitchen, big living room, washer/dryer, everything you could ever want! I am gonna post pictures later. My roommates are from all over the US- Illinois, Loiusiana, Missouri, Colorado, Minnesota, and Texas. I am the only Florida kid on the whole project! There are 33 students and 13 staff.
We had a good old fashioned summer cookout for dinner- burgers, hotdogs, watermelon, chips- the works. It was delicious! After that we headed to Downtown Disney for a surprise- a scavenger hunt all over Disney property!! It was really fun, my team tied for first place. We won Mike 'n' Ikes and Sour Patch kids haha.
Anyways, I am here, everyone is already exhausted, everyone is awesome, and I know about 5 names. I will work on that and get back to you. Tomorrow we have project orientation, so I will update after that.
Love you all!
Kelly
Monday, May 31, 2010
Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Its off to work I go!
This keeps getting cornier and cornier. And it will get worse before it gets better, trust me ;-)
Alrighty guys, this is it
I am all packed, and as always, I know I am forgetting something. I know I overpacked. Oh well, its not like I can't just head to the store in the next few days.
In all honesty, as the minutes tick by, fear is starting to creep itself in. I am not too fond of change. I am very stuck in my ways. I have basically eaten the same thing for lunch since kindergarten. I tend to date boys named Adam and both of my best friends are named Jessica. I have gone through a half dozen pairs of Rainbows and several pairs of Nike Shox, and thats about all that graces my feet. Just the other day I went swimming and thought it would be fun to try breathing on my left side instead of the right. It wasnt fun. I almost drowned. I have been swimming since I was an infant and I almost drowned in my own backyard, in four feet of water. Change is just not fun sometimes.
So this is crazy for me. I have never done anything like this in my life, it will be my first (but definitely not last) mission trip. I will literally be spending the next nine weeks of my life with 45 total strangers. That is so out of my comfort zone its shocking. I have never been the independent one among my friends, I can only pull off confidence if I have someone next to me to back me up. Ever since I decided to live my life for God and not myself (freshman year of college) I have struggled with finding my confidence in Him and not others. So this is literally a leap of faith for me.
God has really proven himself faithful through this process. I have heard absolute horror stories about raising support. Some of the most Godly people I know have had their faith shaken when support raising efforts failed. So I went in with an attitude that my experience would be the same.
WRONG.
For those of you who don't know, less than 24 hours after I sent my support letters out, my dad was diagnosed with renal and testicular cancer. My dad is my hero and my best friend. My world crashed down around me. Just last summer, my mom almost died from a blockage in her carotid artery caused by a long-undiagnosed genetic condition which makes her liver produce way too much cholesterol even though she weighs like 90 pounds and eats like a rabbit. It was terrifying and I had basically just regained my strength from that when my dads diagnosis tore my heart in two. I spent so many nights in bed basically yelling at God and asking how he could do that to us again. My dad was in and out of the hospital for all of march and april, having surgery after surgery. Complications from each surgery led to several very very scary nights where I basically waited up all night waiting for a phone call.
Instead of God shaking my faith with a lack of support, every time that I would reach a breaking point, a check would come in the mail. It was almost scary- God used this experience to constantly remind me that He was there and He loved me. I unarguably have the best support system in the world. Regardless of religion, my friends are the most encouraging, loving, and supportive friends and I never would have survived without them. (My friends actually made up over half of the money that I was able to raise, which is unexplainable. That never happens. Its crazy.) My dad was declared cancer free a few weeks ago, but he has a long road ahead of him- renal cancer has one of the highest recurrance rates, so prayer is still needed and much appreciated. But God is bigger and more powerful and I know that no matter what, everything will all work out.
So, lets do this thing. I think its almost better for me to go in knowing that I am in no way, shape, or form ready for what God has in store for me. Usually (like 99.999% of the time) when I go in knowing what to expect, I am wrong, and then not only do I have to start over but I have to swallow my pride and deal with being wrong, which is not fun. Yeah, I struggle with pride a lot. I am workin on that.
So heres to one last supporter shoutout:
Thank you so much!
My great aunt Fay (again!)
Sharon Brown
Janice and Paul Libbey
Kristen Marks
And I am so happy to announce I have raised 100% of my support for this summer (my mom gave me the last $24 lol) I literally would not have been able to do anything this semester without you guys, but as always, all the glory goes to God. After all, He put you guys in my life at this time for a reason. Its pretty awesome.
So, I will post often. I cannot wait to post pictures of my new home, my new job, and my new "family." I will send postcards too. I love you all and feel free to write me while I am at project! I will have my computer but come on, who doesnt love mail? My summer address will be:
Mike Ditka Resort
Kelly Wood
Campus Crusade for Christ
3000 Bonfire Beach Drive
Kissimmee, FL 34746
I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!!!
Kelly
Alrighty guys, this is it
I am all packed, and as always, I know I am forgetting something. I know I overpacked. Oh well, its not like I can't just head to the store in the next few days.
In all honesty, as the minutes tick by, fear is starting to creep itself in. I am not too fond of change. I am very stuck in my ways. I have basically eaten the same thing for lunch since kindergarten. I tend to date boys named Adam and both of my best friends are named Jessica. I have gone through a half dozen pairs of Rainbows and several pairs of Nike Shox, and thats about all that graces my feet. Just the other day I went swimming and thought it would be fun to try breathing on my left side instead of the right. It wasnt fun. I almost drowned. I have been swimming since I was an infant and I almost drowned in my own backyard, in four feet of water. Change is just not fun sometimes.
So this is crazy for me. I have never done anything like this in my life, it will be my first (but definitely not last) mission trip. I will literally be spending the next nine weeks of my life with 45 total strangers. That is so out of my comfort zone its shocking. I have never been the independent one among my friends, I can only pull off confidence if I have someone next to me to back me up. Ever since I decided to live my life for God and not myself (freshman year of college) I have struggled with finding my confidence in Him and not others. So this is literally a leap of faith for me.
God has really proven himself faithful through this process. I have heard absolute horror stories about raising support. Some of the most Godly people I know have had their faith shaken when support raising efforts failed. So I went in with an attitude that my experience would be the same.
WRONG.
For those of you who don't know, less than 24 hours after I sent my support letters out, my dad was diagnosed with renal and testicular cancer. My dad is my hero and my best friend. My world crashed down around me. Just last summer, my mom almost died from a blockage in her carotid artery caused by a long-undiagnosed genetic condition which makes her liver produce way too much cholesterol even though she weighs like 90 pounds and eats like a rabbit. It was terrifying and I had basically just regained my strength from that when my dads diagnosis tore my heart in two. I spent so many nights in bed basically yelling at God and asking how he could do that to us again. My dad was in and out of the hospital for all of march and april, having surgery after surgery. Complications from each surgery led to several very very scary nights where I basically waited up all night waiting for a phone call.
Instead of God shaking my faith with a lack of support, every time that I would reach a breaking point, a check would come in the mail. It was almost scary- God used this experience to constantly remind me that He was there and He loved me. I unarguably have the best support system in the world. Regardless of religion, my friends are the most encouraging, loving, and supportive friends and I never would have survived without them. (My friends actually made up over half of the money that I was able to raise, which is unexplainable. That never happens. Its crazy.) My dad was declared cancer free a few weeks ago, but he has a long road ahead of him- renal cancer has one of the highest recurrance rates, so prayer is still needed and much appreciated. But God is bigger and more powerful and I know that no matter what, everything will all work out.
So, lets do this thing. I think its almost better for me to go in knowing that I am in no way, shape, or form ready for what God has in store for me. Usually (like 99.999% of the time) when I go in knowing what to expect, I am wrong, and then not only do I have to start over but I have to swallow my pride and deal with being wrong, which is not fun. Yeah, I struggle with pride a lot. I am workin on that.
So heres to one last supporter shoutout:
Thank you so much!
My great aunt Fay (again!)
Sharon Brown
Janice and Paul Libbey
Kristen Marks
And I am so happy to announce I have raised 100% of my support for this summer (my mom gave me the last $24 lol) I literally would not have been able to do anything this semester without you guys, but as always, all the glory goes to God. After all, He put you guys in my life at this time for a reason. Its pretty awesome.
So, I will post often. I cannot wait to post pictures of my new home, my new job, and my new "family." I will send postcards too. I love you all and feel free to write me while I am at project! I will have my computer but come on, who doesnt love mail? My summer address will be:
Mike Ditka Resort
Kelly Wood
Campus Crusade for Christ
3000 Bonfire Beach Drive
Kissimmee, FL 34746
I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!!!
Kelly
Friday, May 14, 2010
Let's Get Down to Business
.... to defeat... the Huns....
Just kidding.
I tried to make a tap dance routine to that song for the 5th grade talent show but my mom wouldn't let me because she said people would think I was weird if I danced to a song called "Be a Man."
I know I have sucked it up with updates, but this post is my attempt at redemption.
I am SO stoked to report the current standings- I have reached 92% of my support raising goal!! God has been so faithful throughout all of this and has shown me how truly generous some people are. It is so easy to get discouraged when trying to complete a task like this, but it is further proof to me that nothing is impossible when God is in control.
I would like to thank:
David Peterson
Kristy Simmons
Rachel Snowden
Brittany Trimble
I love that all four of those people are my college friends. I honestly cannot even begin to count my blessings. I really think I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. Sure, this has been the crappiest year of my life. My whole world has been turned upside down so many times that I have no idea which way is up anymore, I just know I have to keep swimming. I think that a lot of times when we go through trials, we try and admit that we come out "stronger" on the other side. But that is totally not the case right now. I am not stronger. I am not necessarily "weaker" in the way most see it either, but I am definitely not stronger. So often as we grow up we become more and more independent until we reach a stage we consider "self-sufficiency." Well, quite frankly, self sufficiency sucks. Sure, its nice to not depend on someone else for food, transportation, major decision making, etc. But the more broken you are, the less able you are to pick yourself back up.
This year I have relied more on God than ever before. This has always been hard, I don't like giving up control (see my entry on "surrender") I have always been worried that if I put all my hope in God, He would take away the amazing people in my life because I wouldn't need them. But on the contrary, I found that when I turned it all over to Him, whether that was a whisper in my head during my daily routine or practically shouted as I lay face down in bed, angry at the world, there was someone there with the right words. When I prayed for an opportunity to just express the crazy emotions I felt, I would arrive at dance to find that we were working on a particularly emotional section of the piece. When I just needed to smile to feel like everything would be okay, I would walk into Sign Language class and see the beautiful faces of my friends who could make me laugh if it was the last thing I wanted to do. When I needed to cry, I would stumble upon someone from Theta Alpha who just happened to have tissues, an encouraging word, and, to the benefit of my soul but the detriment of my waistline, some sort of comfort food. When I needed encouragement, my community group was there. I had people holding me accountable for everything from actually attending class (although we all know thats the least important thing in college) to spending time with God every day even when I was pissed beyond recognition at Him.
No matter how hard I tried to escape, someone blocked my exit. And I am so thankful.
So here I stand. 18 days before my biggest adventure to date. Not strong enough to do it on my own. But wise enough to know thats not the way to go anyways.
"It's waiting for you, knocking at your door
In the moment of truth when your heart hits the floor,
and you're on your knees...
Love will hold us together,
make us a shelter to weather the storm.
And I'll be my brother's keeper
And the whole world will know that we're not alone"
-Hold Us Together by Matt Maher
In Christ,
Kelly
Just kidding.
I tried to make a tap dance routine to that song for the 5th grade talent show but my mom wouldn't let me because she said people would think I was weird if I danced to a song called "Be a Man."
I know I have sucked it up with updates, but this post is my attempt at redemption.
I am SO stoked to report the current standings- I have reached 92% of my support raising goal!! God has been so faithful throughout all of this and has shown me how truly generous some people are. It is so easy to get discouraged when trying to complete a task like this, but it is further proof to me that nothing is impossible when God is in control.
I would like to thank:
David Peterson
Kristy Simmons
Rachel Snowden
Brittany Trimble
I love that all four of those people are my college friends. I honestly cannot even begin to count my blessings. I really think I am one of the luckiest people on the planet. Sure, this has been the crappiest year of my life. My whole world has been turned upside down so many times that I have no idea which way is up anymore, I just know I have to keep swimming. I think that a lot of times when we go through trials, we try and admit that we come out "stronger" on the other side. But that is totally not the case right now. I am not stronger. I am not necessarily "weaker" in the way most see it either, but I am definitely not stronger. So often as we grow up we become more and more independent until we reach a stage we consider "self-sufficiency." Well, quite frankly, self sufficiency sucks. Sure, its nice to not depend on someone else for food, transportation, major decision making, etc. But the more broken you are, the less able you are to pick yourself back up.
This year I have relied more on God than ever before. This has always been hard, I don't like giving up control (see my entry on "surrender") I have always been worried that if I put all my hope in God, He would take away the amazing people in my life because I wouldn't need them. But on the contrary, I found that when I turned it all over to Him, whether that was a whisper in my head during my daily routine or practically shouted as I lay face down in bed, angry at the world, there was someone there with the right words. When I prayed for an opportunity to just express the crazy emotions I felt, I would arrive at dance to find that we were working on a particularly emotional section of the piece. When I just needed to smile to feel like everything would be okay, I would walk into Sign Language class and see the beautiful faces of my friends who could make me laugh if it was the last thing I wanted to do. When I needed to cry, I would stumble upon someone from Theta Alpha who just happened to have tissues, an encouraging word, and, to the benefit of my soul but the detriment of my waistline, some sort of comfort food. When I needed encouragement, my community group was there. I had people holding me accountable for everything from actually attending class (although we all know thats the least important thing in college) to spending time with God every day even when I was pissed beyond recognition at Him.
No matter how hard I tried to escape, someone blocked my exit. And I am so thankful.
So here I stand. 18 days before my biggest adventure to date. Not strong enough to do it on my own. But wise enough to know thats not the way to go anyways.
"It's waiting for you, knocking at your door
In the moment of truth when your heart hits the floor,
and you're on your knees...
Love will hold us together,
make us a shelter to weather the storm.
And I'll be my brother's keeper
And the whole world will know that we're not alone"
-Hold Us Together by Matt Maher
In Christ,
Kelly
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Oooh, we're three-quarters of the way there, ooh ooh! Still livin on a prayer!!
So I honestly thought it would be waaaay later than April 15th that I would be saying this, but yesterday, approximately 46 days before the start of my adventure, I hit 75% of my support!! I have had so many crazy big donations that I have to start with my supporter shoutout first:
Aunt Faye
Stacy Efstathiou
Lauren Vivar
Caroline Burns
Ali Grace Lovelady
:-)
I just cannot get over how blessed I am. Seriously. In a typical day, I literally do everything that I love. I am getting an education at the greatest school ever, and for the most part, I love my classes. Go gata. I get to dance with some of the most amazing, hardworking, loving, hysterical girls ever as a member of Dancin Gators. I get to teach kids about God every Sunday morning while playing rediculous games and dressing up and telling stories and building forts and coloring. I get to teach sign language with some of the most awesome women I have ever met under the direction of the most inspiring man I have ever met.
I am basically living a dream. Life has its ups and downs for sure, but my troubles are nothing compared to those of most of the world.
One thing God has broken my heart over this semester especially is injustice. It is everywhere. America is basically the least corrupt country in the world. We are also the best complainers. One thing goes wrong and we basically do one of three things
1) Complain loudly
2) Grumble under our breath and then gossip about it
3) throw in the towel
It breaks my heart how complacent we are. I would be bold but probably not wrong to say that anyone reading this is among the top 1% of the luckiest people in the world. Injustice is everywhere.
God is the only one who knows what the outcome of this summer will be. All I know is that I am mere weeks away from encountering students whose college experience has been far, far, far different from mine. And it is my prayer that God puts me in their path and uses me as a tool in their lives so that they can leave at the end of the summer and go back to their home nation as ambassadors and leaders for their generation. I know it can happen.
Please continue to pray for me as I raise the rest of my support and begin to spiritually, emotionally, and mentally prepare myself for this summer. I can do nothing alone, it is only because of God that I am who, where, and what I am. It is a daily surrender. Over and over and over again. God's plans are way better than mine. My summer plans as of December look very, very stupid compared to this. Its all a matter of letting go.
If you still want to donate, you can make a tax deductable donation by writing a check out to Campus Crusade for Christ and sending it to
Kelly Wood
422 SW 10th street
Gainesville, FL
32601
Love you all!!!
SOOOOO FREAKING MUCH!!!
AHHHHH
Aunt Faye
Stacy Efstathiou
Lauren Vivar
Caroline Burns
Ali Grace Lovelady
:-)
I just cannot get over how blessed I am. Seriously. In a typical day, I literally do everything that I love. I am getting an education at the greatest school ever, and for the most part, I love my classes. Go gata. I get to dance with some of the most amazing, hardworking, loving, hysterical girls ever as a member of Dancin Gators. I get to teach kids about God every Sunday morning while playing rediculous games and dressing up and telling stories and building forts and coloring. I get to teach sign language with some of the most awesome women I have ever met under the direction of the most inspiring man I have ever met.
I am basically living a dream. Life has its ups and downs for sure, but my troubles are nothing compared to those of most of the world.
One thing God has broken my heart over this semester especially is injustice. It is everywhere. America is basically the least corrupt country in the world. We are also the best complainers. One thing goes wrong and we basically do one of three things
1) Complain loudly
2) Grumble under our breath and then gossip about it
3) throw in the towel
It breaks my heart how complacent we are. I would be bold but probably not wrong to say that anyone reading this is among the top 1% of the luckiest people in the world. Injustice is everywhere.
God is the only one who knows what the outcome of this summer will be. All I know is that I am mere weeks away from encountering students whose college experience has been far, far, far different from mine. And it is my prayer that God puts me in their path and uses me as a tool in their lives so that they can leave at the end of the summer and go back to their home nation as ambassadors and leaders for their generation. I know it can happen.
Please continue to pray for me as I raise the rest of my support and begin to spiritually, emotionally, and mentally prepare myself for this summer. I can do nothing alone, it is only because of God that I am who, where, and what I am. It is a daily surrender. Over and over and over again. God's plans are way better than mine. My summer plans as of December look very, very stupid compared to this. Its all a matter of letting go.
If you still want to donate, you can make a tax deductable donation by writing a check out to Campus Crusade for Christ and sending it to
Kelly Wood
422 SW 10th street
Gainesville, FL
32601
Love you all!!!
SOOOOO FREAKING MUCH!!!
AHHHHH
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Two Worlds, One Family
Oh Tarzan. Nothing beats the Tarzan soundtrack for putting me in a a better mood.
So, I admit to slacking. Its Wednesday. Last post: last wednesday. So much for every 2-3 days. I am learning though.
Quick blurb regarding the title of this entry- it is not random. It is significant. One thing that I have struggled with since freshman year and my decision to live my life for Christ and not myself (after 19 years of trying really hard, I was failing at that) I feel like I live in some strange halfway house. Half of my friends and family believe in what I do. And half do not. The "two worlds" collide constantly, and its the most amazing, exhausting, beautiful, terrifying, heartbreaking, and rewarding sight when they do. God is working so much in my life and the lives of those around me that I don't even know what to do with it sometimes. So I just go with the flow and pray for the words to come from God and not me when I open my big fat mouth.
Raising support for Summer Project has been one giant collision of every world that I am involved in, and I am so unbelievably stoked for that to continue. Its scary. Believe me. I tried (thinking it would be in vain) to explain to some atheist friends the other day what I would be doing this summer. Their response blew me away. "I don't agree with what you are doing. But I love you. And loving you means supporting you no matter what crazy thing you decide to do next." They gave me a few dollars each.
SO. COOL.
Sunday was Easter and was filled with more than just the miracle of Jesus' resurrection. Among other things which will be explained at a later date, I had an unbelivably blessed week when it comes to raising support. I carted around what was left of my bake sale to some of my Dancin Gators practices this week and watched in amazement as dollar after dollar was stuck in the shoebox I cart around to hold donations. I guess its true- the quickest way to someones heart is through their stomach.
Supporter shoutout:
My Dancin Gators girls, who are so supportive of all my insane ventures
My dear fellow TA's (no worries- more cupcakes to come)
Jan and Dennis Edwardson
Aunt Kay and Uncle Lou
The worlds awesomest sister Krissy
The worlds coolest brother Robbie
Leanne and Lanie Ferraro, one of my many "second families"
Rick and Maryann Howell
My cousin Robin
My mothers coin bag, which was dumped ceremoniously into the $$ box
Thank you all again sooooo much for your generosity, it blows me away.
Anyone wanna take a guess at how faithful God has been this week? Anyone? Anyone??
59%
FIFTY-NINE PERCENT!!!!
More than halfway. A little less than 2/3. Approximately 3/5.
Speaking of numbers, I have apparently forgotten how to add. I triple check all of my numbers with a calculator now. Pretty sad for someone formerly known as the Human Calculator.
And speaking of failures, if you have sent in a donation and not received a thank-you note yet, it is because I got three of them returned to me yesterday because I put the stamp on the left side and my return address on the right. EPIC FAIL. I have no idea where my head was that day. Hmm.
Okay, more later.
p.s.- Phil Wickhams Canons cd has been on replay in my car, in my computer, and in my head. Its quite encouraging.
<3 Kelly
So, I admit to slacking. Its Wednesday. Last post: last wednesday. So much for every 2-3 days. I am learning though.
Quick blurb regarding the title of this entry- it is not random. It is significant. One thing that I have struggled with since freshman year and my decision to live my life for Christ and not myself (after 19 years of trying really hard, I was failing at that) I feel like I live in some strange halfway house. Half of my friends and family believe in what I do. And half do not. The "two worlds" collide constantly, and its the most amazing, exhausting, beautiful, terrifying, heartbreaking, and rewarding sight when they do. God is working so much in my life and the lives of those around me that I don't even know what to do with it sometimes. So I just go with the flow and pray for the words to come from God and not me when I open my big fat mouth.
Raising support for Summer Project has been one giant collision of every world that I am involved in, and I am so unbelievably stoked for that to continue. Its scary. Believe me. I tried (thinking it would be in vain) to explain to some atheist friends the other day what I would be doing this summer. Their response blew me away. "I don't agree with what you are doing. But I love you. And loving you means supporting you no matter what crazy thing you decide to do next." They gave me a few dollars each.
SO. COOL.
Sunday was Easter and was filled with more than just the miracle of Jesus' resurrection. Among other things which will be explained at a later date, I had an unbelivably blessed week when it comes to raising support. I carted around what was left of my bake sale to some of my Dancin Gators practices this week and watched in amazement as dollar after dollar was stuck in the shoebox I cart around to hold donations. I guess its true- the quickest way to someones heart is through their stomach.
Supporter shoutout:
My Dancin Gators girls, who are so supportive of all my insane ventures
My dear fellow TA's (no worries- more cupcakes to come)
Jan and Dennis Edwardson
Aunt Kay and Uncle Lou
The worlds awesomest sister Krissy
The worlds coolest brother Robbie
Leanne and Lanie Ferraro, one of my many "second families"
Rick and Maryann Howell
My cousin Robin
My mothers coin bag, which was dumped ceremoniously into the $$ box
Thank you all again sooooo much for your generosity, it blows me away.
Anyone wanna take a guess at how faithful God has been this week? Anyone? Anyone??
59%
FIFTY-NINE PERCENT!!!!
More than halfway. A little less than 2/3. Approximately 3/5.
Speaking of numbers, I have apparently forgotten how to add. I triple check all of my numbers with a calculator now. Pretty sad for someone formerly known as the Human Calculator.
And speaking of failures, if you have sent in a donation and not received a thank-you note yet, it is because I got three of them returned to me yesterday because I put the stamp on the left side and my return address on the right. EPIC FAIL. I have no idea where my head was that day. Hmm.
Okay, more later.
p.s.- Phil Wickhams Canons cd has been on replay in my car, in my computer, and in my head. Its quite encouraging.
<3 Kelly
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Control
Hello friends.
I always feel like my semesters have a theme. Sometimes when I am procrastinating life, I try and take it even further. Theme songs, theme bible verses, theme photos... etc.
For example:
Fall 2009
Theme: Stick it to the Man
Song: Eye of the Tiger
Verse:....
Okay I don't really remember the verse. I just know I walked around with the Rocky theme in my head all the time as I simultaneously fought injustice in the world, in the college of public health, and all the way down to Dancin Gators.
My point:
This semesters theme is surrender. Totally and heartbreakingly opposite of last semester. It was a high cloud to fall from. From day one, God has been showing me that I am not in control. It started off small with things like my car breaking down and ruining what would have been my most epic Dinsey adventure to date. Moved on to other things, and then CRU womens retreat was themed around surrender and brought up a whole lot of internal crap that I have been working through as to WHY surrender is such a hard thing for me to do. Things began to spin out of control and I tried again and again to let go of the wheel but always ended up grabbing back on at the last second and still crashing the car.
This summer project support raising business, among other recent trials, is truly and honestly only going to happen when I daily surrender my plans, my agenda, my will, my everything to God. Tomorrow is so incredibly uncertain. But I am trusting God with it. Every day, I surrender it again. Every minute, I have to remember that God is in control.
"Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed."
Joshua 23:14
I most often associate surrender with retreat. An army that surrenders does not surge forward. But this is the opposite. Every single time I surrender my white-knuckle grip on my plans and dreams, I take one step closer to the perfect plan God has laid before me.
I have officially hit 30%. One penny at a time. One day at a time. One surrender at a time.
Supporter Shoutout:
Taryn McEachrane, who was actually my first ever supporter and I never put her on the list and am dreadfully sorry and love dearly.
Sarah "strange" Obarowski
Bob and Linda Cannon
Kaitlin Clark and Renee Berens, who besides B.Clark were especially generous at the bake sale :)
I love you all and cannot wait to keep you posted more.
Keep me in your prayers!
Kelly
I always feel like my semesters have a theme. Sometimes when I am procrastinating life, I try and take it even further. Theme songs, theme bible verses, theme photos... etc.
For example:
Fall 2009
Theme: Stick it to the Man
Song: Eye of the Tiger
Verse:....
Okay I don't really remember the verse. I just know I walked around with the Rocky theme in my head all the time as I simultaneously fought injustice in the world, in the college of public health, and all the way down to Dancin Gators.
My point:
This semesters theme is surrender. Totally and heartbreakingly opposite of last semester. It was a high cloud to fall from. From day one, God has been showing me that I am not in control. It started off small with things like my car breaking down and ruining what would have been my most epic Dinsey adventure to date. Moved on to other things, and then CRU womens retreat was themed around surrender and brought up a whole lot of internal crap that I have been working through as to WHY surrender is such a hard thing for me to do. Things began to spin out of control and I tried again and again to let go of the wheel but always ended up grabbing back on at the last second and still crashing the car.
This summer project support raising business, among other recent trials, is truly and honestly only going to happen when I daily surrender my plans, my agenda, my will, my everything to God. Tomorrow is so incredibly uncertain. But I am trusting God with it. Every day, I surrender it again. Every minute, I have to remember that God is in control.
"Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed."
Joshua 23:14
I most often associate surrender with retreat. An army that surrenders does not surge forward. But this is the opposite. Every single time I surrender my white-knuckle grip on my plans and dreams, I take one step closer to the perfect plan God has laid before me.
I have officially hit 30%. One penny at a time. One day at a time. One surrender at a time.
Supporter Shoutout:
Taryn McEachrane, who was actually my first ever supporter and I never put her on the list and am dreadfully sorry and love dearly.
Sarah "strange" Obarowski
Bob and Linda Cannon
Kaitlin Clark and Renee Berens, who besides B.Clark were especially generous at the bake sale :)
I love you all and cannot wait to keep you posted more.
Keep me in your prayers!
Kelly
Monday, March 29, 2010
One cupcake at a time....
I am keeping up with my promise to write often :)
These past few weeks have been some of the most spiritually/physically/mentally/emotionally trying times of my life, and not just in the area of support raising. I knew going into this that it would not be easy, and I was ready to face that, but in preparing myself for this journey I sorta forgot that life tends to get in the way. More on that later.
I have been struggling a lot with discouragement coming from all sides on support raising. The day before I wrote my first blog post I had raised exactly $50. In three weeks. A start, but not exactly blowing out of the water. Then I got a large check in the mail and was highly encouraged, which inspired me to start this blog. But still... I get discouraged really easily, especially when people who I really look up to are pessimistic about my support raising.
I have spent some time the past few months helping Dancin Gators get ready for Relay for Life, which was this past weekend. One of my greatest discouragements for raising support for summer project came from my inability to get people to donate to my account for Relay for Life... my thought process was "If people don't even want to donate to cancer research how are they gonna want to send me money to go to Disney World?"
Anyways, I ended up not doing Relay for Life. Also, more on that at a later date. One of my best friends on the planet came up and surprised me this weekend and it meant the world to me. It was just what I needed to get back on track. I had a bake sale at Theta Alpha chapter last night (shoutout to my ladies!) and was knocked off my feet at the generosity of my poor college friends. But thats probably where most of my support is going to come from. One dollar at a time. Who would have thought that a few baked goods could get me $168.88???
God is so good. I am up to 28%.
A friend who is also trying to raise support sent out a message the other day saying that God is so faithful even when we are faithless. And its so true.
Supporter shoutout:
Jessie Fairfax
Lisa Coraci
Brittany Clark
Theta Alpha :)
Special shoutouts to Megan Fleming and Lexis Strobel, who helped me bake (I am a disaster in the kitchen) and to the amazing Caroline Burns who has been pretty much guiding me through this process and had the great idea of the bakesale.
I love you all!!
Kelly
These past few weeks have been some of the most spiritually/physically/mentally/emotionally trying times of my life, and not just in the area of support raising. I knew going into this that it would not be easy, and I was ready to face that, but in preparing myself for this journey I sorta forgot that life tends to get in the way. More on that later.
I have been struggling a lot with discouragement coming from all sides on support raising. The day before I wrote my first blog post I had raised exactly $50. In three weeks. A start, but not exactly blowing out of the water. Then I got a large check in the mail and was highly encouraged, which inspired me to start this blog. But still... I get discouraged really easily, especially when people who I really look up to are pessimistic about my support raising.
I have spent some time the past few months helping Dancin Gators get ready for Relay for Life, which was this past weekend. One of my greatest discouragements for raising support for summer project came from my inability to get people to donate to my account for Relay for Life... my thought process was "If people don't even want to donate to cancer research how are they gonna want to send me money to go to Disney World?"
Anyways, I ended up not doing Relay for Life. Also, more on that at a later date. One of my best friends on the planet came up and surprised me this weekend and it meant the world to me. It was just what I needed to get back on track. I had a bake sale at Theta Alpha chapter last night (shoutout to my ladies!) and was knocked off my feet at the generosity of my poor college friends. But thats probably where most of my support is going to come from. One dollar at a time. Who would have thought that a few baked goods could get me $168.88???
God is so good. I am up to 28%.
A friend who is also trying to raise support sent out a message the other day saying that God is so faithful even when we are faithless. And its so true.
Supporter shoutout:
Jessie Fairfax
Lisa Coraci
Brittany Clark
Theta Alpha :)
Special shoutouts to Megan Fleming and Lexis Strobel, who helped me bake (I am a disaster in the kitchen) and to the amazing Caroline Burns who has been pretty much guiding me through this process and had the great idea of the bakesale.
I love you all!!
Kelly
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Hello world!
Hello friends and family!!
I started this blog so that I could continually keep everyone updated with the journey God has me on for this summer. I am assuming everyone knows about the trip because you have either received a support letter or are part of my facebook group (If you want a letter, email me (dance912@ufl.edu) or facebook me your address and I will mail you one!)
I am three weeks into raising support and I am at 20%! This is a great start, but I am praying rediculously hard that the rest will start to come in. Its uncomfortable asking friends and family for money, especially with the state of the economy, but God has proven himself faithful no matter what the NASDAQ is for the day. I am gonna try and do supporter shout out on here every time I update.
First ever supporter shout out-
Mom & Pops
Trung Vo
Sarah Connolly
Mark Mappes
Thank you guys so much!!!
The closer I get to the project start date, the more excited I become (current countdown: 65 days!!). I have been meeting some of my fellow project-ers via facebook and I am so stoked to spend my summer with them. Not only am I the only person from UF going, I am the only one from the state of Florida! Everyone else is coming from just about every other state out there- New Mexico, Colorado, North Carolina, Louisiana, Kansas.... I cannot wait.
This is the first of many many many updates to come, and I am going to try and update at least twice a week while I am on project. I am still desperate for support, and literally every penny counts. If you can give $5, thats great. If every single person in my facebook group gave only $5, I would be almost halfway to my goal!! I am so blessed with the most amazing friends and family God could ask for, and I thank God for all of you every night. Please help me on my way to the most amazing summer of my life! If you feel any inkling in your mind or heart right now, go get your checkbook1 This is not only an opportunity for me to trust God with money, it can be an opportunity for you too! If you need it again, my address is
422 SW 10th Street
Gainesville, FL
32601
Have a magical day!!
Kelly
I started this blog so that I could continually keep everyone updated with the journey God has me on for this summer. I am assuming everyone knows about the trip because you have either received a support letter or are part of my facebook group (If you want a letter, email me (dance912@ufl.edu) or facebook me your address and I will mail you one!)
I am three weeks into raising support and I am at 20%! This is a great start, but I am praying rediculously hard that the rest will start to come in. Its uncomfortable asking friends and family for money, especially with the state of the economy, but God has proven himself faithful no matter what the NASDAQ is for the day. I am gonna try and do supporter shout out on here every time I update.
First ever supporter shout out-
Mom & Pops
Trung Vo
Sarah Connolly
Mark Mappes
Thank you guys so much!!!
The closer I get to the project start date, the more excited I become (current countdown: 65 days!!). I have been meeting some of my fellow project-ers via facebook and I am so stoked to spend my summer with them. Not only am I the only person from UF going, I am the only one from the state of Florida! Everyone else is coming from just about every other state out there- New Mexico, Colorado, North Carolina, Louisiana, Kansas.... I cannot wait.
This is the first of many many many updates to come, and I am going to try and update at least twice a week while I am on project. I am still desperate for support, and literally every penny counts. If you can give $5, thats great. If every single person in my facebook group gave only $5, I would be almost halfway to my goal!! I am so blessed with the most amazing friends and family God could ask for, and I thank God for all of you every night. Please help me on my way to the most amazing summer of my life! If you feel any inkling in your mind or heart right now, go get your checkbook1 This is not only an opportunity for me to trust God with money, it can be an opportunity for you too! If you need it again, my address is
422 SW 10th Street
Gainesville, FL
32601
Have a magical day!!
Kelly
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