New Horizons to Pursue

Oh boy friends, the time is drawing near.
Chapters of my life are coming to a close despite my best attempts at stretching out time. But there is a cheesy quote from the end of a Tarzan song (the Broadway version of Two Worlds) which says "with every ending comes a new beginning."

I honestly can do nothing but shake my head in disbelief at how fast time has gone this semester. Actually, I feel like it was just yesterday that I was accepting my high school diploma, let alone my college diploma. Yesterday I walked down the aisle in front of one of the most amazing girls who I have ever been blessed to know and could barely find it in me to let go of her train and let her run after the man of her dreams and drive off into the sunset. My precious Sadie is now married and this weekend has been a neverending stream of goodbyes. They haven't quite sunk in yet because something else has been pressing on my mind...

I will be on Summer Project in four days. Oh my goodness gracious, four nights from now I will be back in those tacky colored condos getting ready to lead students into the craziest adventure of their lives to date. Oh my goodness. I am so excited and nervous and excited and terrified and excited. I feel totally unequipped to do this, but hey, that feeling was pretty common for me this year, and I somehow survived by the grace of God. And I will be depending a lot on the grace of God in the next six weeks. Oh boy.

So yeah, I have been couch surfing since Wednesday (some wedding events took place in Orlando and some in Gainesville, where a girl is subleasing my room, leaving me homeless) and I will be continuing to do so until Thursday when I get to project, so I haven't updated in a while and may not be able to update again until this weekend.

Oh boy. Please pray for me as I make final preparations for my trip. My support is basically raised, I still need to check my mail here in Gainesville, but once again, God has kept true to his promises and I have the minimum amount that I need for this summer. I am still raising support for travel expenses, so if you are still interested in donating, you can either use the link from the two posts below or you can send a donation directly to the place I will be staying this summer, I will post the address as soon as I know it.

I spent a lot of time on the phone last week speaking with students who will be coming on the project, seeing how their semesters were going and checking up on their support raising. It made me so excited and took me back to the weeks before project began last summer when I had no idea what was coming for me. I cannot wait to meet the students and I hope that they don't get tired of me starting off sentences with "when I was on project...." or "last summer..."

Oh gosh guys, this is crazy. I know this is where God wants me, there is no way I could have made it this far without Him. I found a subleaser for my room and by some miracle I don't need to take summer classes for grad school, which is apparently very strange when you get a Master's degree in something other than what you got your undergrad in. I basically knew I wanted to do this since last summer, and this battle, though uphill, was not nearly as steep as I expected. Crazy. God is awesome. Please pray for me.

"How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me."
Psalm 13:2-6

So, to conclude this entry (which has been extremely scatterbrained, my apologies), I will quote a record THIRD Disney movie (the title is from A Whole New World from Aladdin).

In the words of Captain Jack Sparrow,

Bring me that horizon.

Kelly

So close, and still, so far

It is hard to believe that in less than two weeks, I will be in Orlando getting ready to meet the 40 students who are going to take part in the next chapter of the Walt Disney World Summer Project. I wish I would have known last summer just how much those 10 weeks would change my life.

Whether I am ready for it or not, the next two weeks are going to pass by faster than I can possibly imagine. Tomorrow morning I am headed to Orlando to celebrate the birthday of a good friend who moved to North Carolina two years ago for vet school. Sunday I get to reunite with some old Emporium friends from last year for breakfast before headed to play at a park with Sam, one of my roommates from project who made me laugh harder and think deeper than anyone else.

This Wednesday marks the start of a four day celebration for one of my best friends on the planet, Sadie. She is getting married to her Prince Charming on Saturday the 21st and I am incredibly excited for her. However, I am battling an especially evil nagging sense of dread for that weekend. I know in my last post I briefly mentioned how much my church, Anthem, means to me, but that doesn't even begin to describe the depth of my love for the people there. On Saturday as I wave goodbye to my best friend and her husband as they head off for new adventures, it will be like a massive door in my life closing, one that I am not ready for. That weekend will be my last with my church family as a whole, and I don't even want to think about the hole that it will leave in my heart.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Sadie and I, taken this Christmas at Disney. Sadie also works there as a Pirate in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Soon though I won't have much time to dwell on that, which is probably a good thing. Because the Thursday after that, I will be back at the same hideously bright colored vacation condo getting ready to welcome the new recruits. Oh, the memories.

It is still no easy task to describe the heart behind this project. It is really two hearts that beat as one unit- the first is to establish a Campus Crusade community at the Walt Disney World resort. Thousands and thousands of college students from across the US come to Disney to take part in the
College Program, which is a semester where you work full time at any of the Disney properties while taking classes to receive college credit. A lot of these students are accustomed to having endless resources at their fingertips at their campus back at school, like Campus Crusade, FCA, and other ministries. WDWCRU is set up to fill that void while they are in Orlando.

This is a picture of Team Emporium with a bunch of college program kids after work one night at IHOP

The other purpose, perhaps more important, is that it exists because thousands and thousands of international students also come to take part in the International College Program. I personally met students from China, South Korea, England, France, Italy, South Africa, Mexico, Haiti, Poland, Austrailia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, Sweden, and probably a lot of other places I have probably forgotten. Depending on where the students are from, their view of church, God, and Christians is either skewed or non-existant. It is the heart of the project to let students from other countries and cultures experience what it is like to truly follow God so that they can return to their home as ambassadors for Christ.

This is Lulu, Ray, Ceclia and I at one of our outreach pool parties. All three of them worked at the Emporium with us. They are all from China. By the end of the summer, all three of them came to church with us at least once (Lulu came three times, she loved the singing and the enthusiasm of the South African pastor) and all three of them returned to China with a bible.

My story from last summer would take days to write and would fill thousands of pages of paper. And mine is one story of thousands. I came into contact with over 200 cast members who knew exactly why I was there and where I stood by the end of the summer. So did each of my 32 other project mates. So did each of the four dozen students from the two projects before me, and so will each of the 40 students who haven't started to pen their story yet. God is always at work in a bigger way than we could ever imagine. That comforts me and excites me and sometimes intimidates me. It reminds me how little control I actually have. Not that I want that control.

These next two weeks are going to be difficult and wonderful. I ask that you join me in praying for the staff team I will be a part of, the students who will be sharing God's word beneath a magical castle, and for the thousands of people who will come into contact with the gospel this summer.

Also, I am at 90% with support raising! I am so close to being finished, but I still need your help to get to 100%. The option is still there for you to mail a tax-deductable donation in the form of a check, made out to Campus Crusade for Christ, to

Kelly Wood

6946 Finamore Circle

Lake Worth, FL, 33467

OR, even easier, you can make a donation online at

https://give.ccci.org/give/View/5559770?pp=Search+Results

Again, thank you for taking part in this journey with me. I am eternally grateful for each and every one of you.

Kelly



Here we go again!!

"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!

So, in the fitting words of a popular piece of Disney merchandise,

Been There. Done That. (hopefully) Going Back!

Signing off (for now),
Kelly"

These are the words I left you with in November. Well, it is May, and as you have probably heard, God has worked in some crazy ways in my life and in less than three weeks I am headed back to Orlando for a seven week adventure. Here is a quick recap of this year.

I started my senior year at the University of Florida. Fall brought about a lot of the same things I have been experiencing over the past four years.

Gator football- We may not have won the national championship this year, but it is still great to be a Florida Gator :)

My fall schedule made it difficult to dance as much as I usually do, but I managed to find a little time in my schedule for my Dancin' Gators :)

Fall also brought about some new, amazing changes in my life

I was a part of the Leadership Development program at my church, Anthem. It basically a leadership internship for college kids where we get to lead in an area of ministry while receiving group and one-on-one discipleship. The people I spent my Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings with quickly became my family, and I am forever grateful for everything I have learned and the love I have received <3

I got a chance to lead the UpStreet ministry, which is for K-5th graders. The team I volunteered with was amazing and the kids I worked with will forever leave their little handprints on my heart

Some more kids found their way into my heart in a BIG way. In September, I started doing volunteer work for school. My major, Communication Sciences and Disorders, required me to do work in my field of interest, which was deaf education. I started working 10 hours a week at Norton Elementary with ten hearing impaired children. I immediately knew that this was what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing- giving a voice to those who can't hear.

I applied in fall to graduate schools and in December, I got accepted to Washington University in St. Louis, MO on full academic scholarship. I honestly can't attribute this to anything besides God. It was even further proof that I am pursuing the degree that God created me for.

Winter was amazing. I got to work a few shifts back at the good ole' Emporium and catch up with some of the friends I made last summer, as well as friends who came to visit.

I spent a wonderful Christmas with my family

Spring was a welcome time where my class load lightened a little, allowing me to spend more time doing the things I love with the people I love.

Spring also gave me more time to travel back to the Happiest Place on Earth and my future home, St. Louis, which brought about many WDWSP10 reunions. My heart soared as my family from last summer was reunited, piece by piece.

I also got to dance more than I have in the past, including performing in a multicultural talent show, where Dancin' Gators raised over $400 in donations for Haiti

On April 30th, after four years of hard work and lots of fun, I graduated from the University of Florida alongside my three closest friends in my program. We have been through a lot together and four years ago as little freshman, we made a pact to be sitting together four years later at graduation. That pact was fulfilled.

I am so blessed by an amazing family who has loved me more than I ever could have asked for

So, that is my year in photographs. In early spring, I was accepted to come back on WDWSP11 as a student staff intern. One of my favorite things about last summer was the amount of spiritual growth I experienced, inspired by enthusiastic. loving, and supportive staff members. I wanted to be able to give back to the project that changed my life and threw me headfirst into a relentless, passionate pursuit of Christ. In February, with my parents, friends, and church family looking on, I was baptized at Anthem church. I will never forget that day as long as I live. WDWSP10 taught me to trust God and led me to take leaps of faith like apply to grad schools far from home and love people that the rest of the world seemed to look past. So I am headed back. I won't be working at the Emporium full time this time. My full time job will be planning the project for the 40 students headed to Orlando in the same position I was last year. I will be leading bible studies and a ministry team and discipling a small group of girls and pouring into their lives the same way my discipler, Liz, did last year.

I am doing really well with raising support, but I am still about $200 short of my fundraising goal. I need to raise $1400 total in order to cover living expenses for this summer. If you want to donate, you can do so in two ways. First (and easiest), you can donate online! Here is the link to my online account:
https://give.ccci.org/give/View/5559770?pp=Search+Results

OR

You can email a check made out to Campus Crusade for Christ to
Kelly Wood
6946 Finamore Circle
Lake Worth, FL
33467


I love you all and can't wait to keep you posted over the next few months. I am so appreciative of each and every one of you and pray for you daily. Thanks for getting me where I am today.

In Christ Alone,
Kelly