Training week in Birmingham, Alabama

Thank you so much for your prayers this week friends! I can tell that God is moving in me because of the amazing prayer warriors that I have as friends and family. This week has been fun, challenging, boring, and exiting all in one. For those of you who have been through RA training week - you know what I mean. Except this job has intimidated me way more than being and RA ever did. This is real world plus Kingdom business all mixed in to 10 weeks of summer. I as the service coordinator for the Atlanta site (with the help of another service coordinator) have to connect youth to service opportunities in the community. We have a lot of paperwork to do, parents and youth to manage and service partners to keep happy. I feel absolutely overwhelmed, but at the same time completely sure that God is going to use this experience to change me for good. For those of you who don't know, the only reason I am hear in this place right now is because of God. Last fall (and into winter) I was very apathetic about my summer plans, so I applied to YouthWorks last minute and half-heartedly at the end of January - near the end of the hiring season for many camps and summer programs. Initially I was received very well, but told that YouthWorks had already sent out the available contracts for female summer staff, so I was put on a waiting list. I waited for awhile and then decided to give-up on YouthWorks and pursue other job opportunities. I searched high and low for jobs, but all the doors were closing on me. One night I was near tears with frustration over not being able to figure out my summer plans, but wouldn't you know it, the Lord came through, and the next day I got a call from YouthWorks asking me if I was still available for the summer. Thankfully I was! This was literally two weeks before I was supposed to go home for the summer... God had a plan the whole time, but I think he wanted to teach me patience and maybe even had to pick after the mess I made by waiting so long to apply. Regardless, it is because of Him that I am here and for as nervous as I am to do this job, I am confident that He has chose me and the people I am working with to be here in this place at this moment in time.

Here are some of the highlights of my week so far:

• I met Dustin Christiansen who told me he worked at camp with Sarah Webb!
• I met a Lindsey Bulger clone named Amy... seriously - same face and mannerisms! We are now pretty good friends :)
• My site staff: Destiny (Site Director), Dominic (Co-Service Coordinator), Micah (Program Staff). They are all super awesome! More info soon to come in the following weeks :)

Verses on my mind: 

• Galatians 1:11 "I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preach is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Rather, I received it by revelation from Christ Jesus."
• 1 Corinthians 1:10-2:5
• Divisions within the church
• Wisdom of the world vs. Wisdom of God
• 1 Corinthians 2:6&7 " We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming from nothing. No we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began." 
• What does it mean to be foolish to the world and poses Christ's wisdom? Can we uses logic to know God? Can philosophy or history tell us anything about Him?

Thanks for your love and support. I hope to have some pictures to show you guys next week!