Gnarliness

God amazes me constantly. But there are those days where He is just showing off. Today was one of those days.

I apologize profusely for my lack of updates over the past two weeks. I can make excuses, but since most of you who know this already know that I am a procrastinator, it would be useless.

First of all, address. PLEASE send me mail here. I will be here till July 6th. I would love you forever. I just love getting mail.

Mike Ditka Resort
Campus Crusade for Christ
Kelly Wood
3000 Bonfire Beach Drive
Kissimmee, FL 34746

Last Thursday, almost a week ago, I finally ended my couch surfing excursion and began to get ready for a real surfing excursion (metaphorical AND actual..). I made it to Mike Ditkas in the early afternoon along with the rest of the staff team and we spent that first night bonding over a great dinner. I am in LOVE with my staff team and I am so excited to spend the next month and a half serving God with such amazing people.

We spent the next few days continuing to get to know one another on a deeper level and work out the details for the project as far as who was leading what. I will be discipling four girls- Rachel, Jen, Amanda, and Brittany. Please pray for us, I am incredibly excited to be able to pour out the love that God showers me with daily, but I am still nervous. I sometimes get intimidated trying to lead people who have know God longer than me. I know that those feelings do NOT come from God and I am praying to not be consumed with worry or those feelings of not being good enough. If I let them have power over me, they eat away at my confidence and leave me cowering in the corner. I battle this daily, and I humbly ask you, dear friends, to pray alongside of me that I will be filled with the kind of confidence that only comes from God working through me.

I will also be co-leading the World Vision team with Lee, one of the staff guys. I am really excited about this and passionate about the world and the gospel reaching the far corners of it. I am also just a social studies nerd and LOVE learning about different cultures and how people live in other parts of the world. Last summer I was a part of this team (it was combined with the prayer team last year) and I am really thrilled that I get to be a part of it again.

In addition to these two things, I will also be leading a bible study with two other staff members and helping lead Women's time, as well as helping out with other project activities.

We did some really awesome bonding activities on Monday, which I will tell you more about soon, because right now they are a secret for the students, some of whom may be creeping on this blog ;-)

I can't remember if I wrote this in a previous entry, but Pat, who was on project with me last year, is back with me this year as the other student staff intern!! We are sharing a two bedroom condo, which is insane considering there were 7-8 girls per condo last year. I have my own bathroom, which has actually never happened in my life, but I guess that will be good in preparing me for living in a 1/1 apartment in St. Louis next year.

It is SO strange being back at Mike Ditka's. Especially the first two days we were here or so, before new memories began to form, it was like a constant bombardment of deja vu. I keep expecting to walk into the condo and find Jess and Alexis and Sarah P and everyone waiting for me. It is really hard because as much as I am excited for the new adventures to come, my heart is longing for the community that was knitted together last year. We got to see some old friends who returned to WDW for the College Program/ semester project- Kyle, Liz, Jamie, and Michelle. For a while, Pat, Michelle, Jamie and I hung out on the floor of our condo and it was a bittersweet reminder of how vast the canyon between what was and what is has begun to grow. All of the feelings I felt last summer have been flooding me and leaving me with a constant emotional hangover. Fear and excitement dance around my heart like Russian ballerinas, spinning and weaving and swaying in beautiful, terrifying chaos. It is hard to remember that God is in control, but He has definitely made his presence known countless times already.

The students arrived yesterday!! 39 guys and gals from across the nation made their way here safely. We had a bbq and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner as everyone began to get aquainted with the strangers who will quickly become their family. After the bbq, we went on a scavenger hunt around Downtown Disney to begin the team bonding. Today was the first day of project orientation (known here as Surf Instructers training). They learned, just as I did last year, some of the heart behind the project as we began to unpack the analogy of surfing the waves that God has started here at Walt Disney World and around the globe. It was a long but wonderful day that concluded in some more bonding with staff and students. I really do enjoy getting to know new people. People just fascinate me.

This post is getting long. Please pray for my time with my discipleship group tomorrow afternoon. We will be sharing our testimonies with each other, or basically our life stories. Pray that we can engage emotionally and develop a bond of trust that will enable us to be vulnerable with one another. I am already feeling my heart grow to the point of bursting with love for these girls that I have barely met.

One more thing before I go. I am still trying to raise support for travel and living expenses this summer. If you are still interested in helping me on my journey, you can either mail a check made out to Campus Crusade for Christ to the address above OR, even easier, make a donation online at

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

Thanks for surfing with me. Love you all
Kelly