A Matter of Fact

So many exciting things have happened over the last three weeks, my head and heart feel like they are going to bust.  Most of it has been positive, exciting things, yet with a few of the opposite kind of exciting things thrown in.  I’m sitting drinking/eating some Chinese concoction translated “Natural Grain” hoping for clarity of thought now.

A couple weeks ago, Laura came to visit me in the spring break happenin’ place called Daytona Beach!  This presence of my best friend was extremely comforting as she cared for me, prayed with me, made me laugh, explored Florida with me, and enjoyed my friends with me.

 With Laura on our expedition on Hontoon Island State Park

 She helped me to prepare for an exciting trip to Puerto Rico that my fellow staff friend from another campus, Katie, and I took a few days later.  Why Puerto Rico?  Why not?!  This summer we’re going there with about 50 students for our summer project, cleverly called Puerto Rico Project (PRP).  So Katie and I visited our friend Peggy down there for a small vacation and enjoyed surveying the land, getting to know some local friends, hanging out with the church-plant folks, and really getting closer to each other.

Katie, Peggy, and I about to enjoy our cappuccinos con queso (the cheese was a surprise to us - they called it a tradition...) 

Since returning from Puerto Rico, I have been pleasantly surprised with having an abundant amount of extra energy and out-going-ness.  The first day back was rough – I wanted to be anywhere else but where I was.  Thankfully, after a sweet conversation with my mom, my head was screwed back on right by remembering to focus on the only rock I can cling to – the never-wavering fact that God is God and Jesus is my Savior.

This remembrance has given me new freedom to love people and work on tasks assigned to me without feeling a burden of having to reach any kind of standard. 

Last night and this morning, more than 40 students from our Florida campuses gathered in Daytona for training for PRP.  It was so exciting to see all of them in one place – just a glimpse of the community we’ll be having for a month this summer!  For this time, I mostly got to sit with the students while our other staff led the sessions.  But for the last session today, we split up girls and guys to go over clothing guideline type things.  I had the opportunity to lead the girls’ time and it went so well!  It was a heart talk challenging the girls to consider their motivation for why they wear what they wear – to play up their assets or to help others not to sin?   

It’s never fun being the one to lay down the law about things like a dress code.  However, I sensed by the end of our time that there was an air of mutual understanding and a willingness to encourage one another towards being a “woman of discretion”.  Somewhat to my surprise, one of the girls came up to me at the end and expressed how she didn’t want to go to the beach later because all she had was a bikini and she felt so positively convicted that she didn’t want to wear it around her guy friends.  It’s true that lasting change comes not from the outside-in, but from the inside-out.

My “Natural Grain” is almost gone and I hope the reality of the last few weeks of my life is a little bit clearer than mud.  Good thing these kinds of details don’t really matter compared to what really does.  God is God.