Ashley Hall - Serving The Kingdom

Puerto Rico Team

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

So today ended our last training camp of the summer. I said goodbye to Seth tonight and I won't see him for 10 days. I know this is a short trip compared to some of the other ones but it's always hard to say goodbye. His team consists of 28 including the 3 leaders, it's one of the largest teams we have sent out for our ambassador camps! It has been fun these past couple of days getting to interact with team Puerto Rico, they seem like a solid team and they all have fun in whatever they are doing. I'm excited to hear updates while they are gone and I pray that God will use them in their ministry times.

Check out this video that was made of training camp, it's fun!

Summer Training Camps

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Ambassador Training Camp 2009 - Registration Table

For most people, summer is a time to sit back and relax, enjoy the weather and hang out with friends. For me, summer is crazy and hectic, it means long days at AIM prepping for all the training camps and getting ready to send all of the participants out on the field.

Yesterday, our last training camp for the summer arrived and we are wrapping up our summer trips. We have college aged teams that are out right now, some have come back and some are still there for another month. We have high school teams that just left for a month and will be returning mid July and we also have two week high school trips that are getting ready to fly out on Friday morning. Seth is among one of the two week trips that are getting ready to go out and he is helping lead the Puerto Rico trip.

It is so fun to have the opportunity to take part in the training camps and be able to see the participants engage into their teams, the speakers, and most importantly their walk with Christ. You never know what these kids have gone through or are going through but to see them come to camp and lay it all down is amazing!

Here is a quote from a participant who just got back from our Kenya one month trip.

Mary Grace
So today we are leaving Eburru. We are heading to Nairobi for the weekend before we fly back to America. This has been the most amazing trip I have ever taken. I have learned so much about myself and the Lord through this journey. While we were in Eburru we had our little Kenyan family, made up of our translators and people we have met in the community. The people here are filled with the joy and strength of the Lord. Everywhere we go we hear the people greeting us, saying "habari" (or "hello! how are you?) and little kids flocking to us, yelling and wanting to walk with us everywhere. This goodbye is probably the hardest one I have ever had to do, but I am such at peace knowing that the Lord is moving in Eburru and that those people are going to spread the love of Christ even after we are gone. The next couple of days is going to be all about processing the trip and spending some time with the team. See everyone soon!

Take a look at this video of our one month high school trips that we just sent out. You will get to see some of the stuff that went on at training camp.

Guatemala Update.

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

It has been a week since I have been back from Guatemala and I want to give you all a little taste of what my trip was like!

We spent five days in the unfamiliar town of El Estor. Throughout the town we went to four different churches (a good amount of distance between them) and we did a medical clinic at each church. Mary Ellen, a surgical nurse from Georgia, accompanied us on the trip and acted as one of the doctors for the four days and Byron, a medical doctor in Guatemala, also joined us during this time. We had two differnt stations, one with Mary Ellen and the other with Bryon, we had the patients come in one at a time (or families at a time) and we asked them their symptoms and then diagnosed their problems. We then had a "pharmacy" for them to go to once they were done seeing the doctor and we handed them what the doctor prescribed. The system that we had for this worked really well and we were able to see A LOT of people!

The people in El Estor are very poor and do not have very much at all. We had people come to us with worms, people who were dehydrated, people with sore limbs or bad back pains, and people who were just in pain but kept pushing through day to day. We gave out a lot of vitamins, pain killers, and also had shampoos, conditioners, and lotions to hand out. These things are things that we have at our finger tips whenever we need them and for me it was hard to see how in need of these items they were.

During the time of the clinic there were many people waiting outside the church for a chance to see the doctors so that is where my part came in mostly. Myself, Seth, Don, and Connie spent a majority of the time with the kids that were there. Some kids were waiting to see the doctors and some kids were there because of their parents. We played games with them, watched movies with them, painted their faces, painted the girls' finger nails, handed out coloring pages, and also blew up animal balloons for them.

The first day of clinics was the day that stood out to me the most. We had just arrived and there were already so many people lined up to see us. I remember the kids getting really excited to play with us and the looks on their faces showed me that they were SO HAPPY. There were a few girls who came up to me and had asked me my name (now keep in mind they all speak Spanish and I speak VERY little spanish, just enough to understand what they were asking me) and so I would say, "Me llamo Ashley", and the rest of the day more and more kids kept asking me my name. I would continue to tell them and then whenever I wasn't out playing with them they would be right outside the window saying, "Ashley, Ashley, Ashley". My first initial thought was, oh man I told them my name and that is all they keep saying, but as the day went on I saw how much the kids needed a friend and they just wanted someone to play with them. It didn't even matter to them that I couldn't communicate with them, they just wanted to feel love. It was hard for me at the end of that day to have to say bye to all of the kids that I had met and that my heart grew close to and as they walked away they had smiles on their faces, their hand was up in the air waiving, and they were still saying my name.

This time that we had in El Estor was very profitable. I felt like we were able to help so many people while we were there and yet there are still so many more that need a helping hand. I am thankful for the people that I met and the relationships that I made while I was there. God has placed Guatemala on my heart, especially the children that I encountered and I continue to be in prayer for them every day.

I want to thank all of you who prayed for me while I was gone, the trip was a huge success!!

Guatemala.

Sun, 1 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Friends, it has been a long time since some of you have heard from me, I have not been good with keeping up with my blog page and I am so sorry about that. I am going to try and get a post up at least once a month this year.

As some of you may already know, I am currently in Guatemala right now serving with a team from AIM. God has provided for me in a big way leading up to this trip and He has made it very clear to myself and Seth that this is a trip we needed to be on. Neither one of us were in a financial state of being able to go when we were asked about joining the team to Guatemala but God has since then made it clear to the both of us that this is where He wants us for the next week. Someone anonymously donated $1000 to each of us in order for us to take part in this trip and it has blessed us SO much! It is so amazing to see how He works and I am so thankful that I am sitting here in Guatemala being able to share this experience.

I don't have a lot of internet access but I want to share with you some pictures of what has been going on so far. I will post an update of all that went on and what I did each day when I get home. For now, take care and I appreciate all of your continued prayers for me, you guys are great!

Fall Training Camp 2008

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This past Monday I said goodbye to really close friends, new friends and a group of people who are going to make a difference in the world. That Monday finished off another week of training camp at AIM. This was such a great group of kids and the passion that they had for God was truly amazing! They lit up with joy every evening during the times of worship and you could feel the presence of God.

If you are not familiar with what training camp looks like, it is a time for the teams to come together a week before their trip and get personal and intimate with each other. During this time they give their personal time line (testimony of their life) to their team, they go through different teachings each day of things that are going to prepare them for the field, they spend time worshiping together, and they go through a number of team builders together in order to find out how they work together as a team. This is the most important time for them to get to know each other and this is also the time when the team truly units as one.

We sent out a team five different teams:

Swaziland, who will be out for 2 months

India and Kenya, who will be out for 3 months

South Africa and Nicaragua, who will be out for 9 months

I hope that you will join in prayer with me and pray for these people who are laying down their lives for Christ and for the people all around the world.

Here is a video of the week:

My favorite part of this video is that the last song is actually a song that was sung by everyone there that night, it's awesome!

Ireland Trip-Week One

Tue, 5 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I am just now settling down and getting back into the swing of things since being back from Ireland. I wanted to give you all an update of what happened during my trip and how God moved. I will start with week one when we were in Sutton, Ireland (the far east coast of Ireland).

During this week we worked with two churches and put on a Vacation Bible School program for the kids in the church and in the area. Our first VBS we started out with 4 kids and near the end we had 11 kids show up. The highlight of the first VBS for me was the 6 kids that received Christ into their lives. It was so neat to think about these young kids who were so interested in knowing how to have a relationship with Christ and they wanted to know more and strive for more. This was a day that the Lord used our team to make an impact in their lives and it is a moment that those kids will never forget.

Our second VBS was much more of a challenge for the team but God opened up doors through it. We only had 2 kids the entire time and it was tough at first because there were 12 of us to 2 kids. At times we were a little overwhelming for them but we learned how to spread ourselves during different elements of the VBS. The 2 kids that attended were brother and sister and we got to know their mom very well. They were such a sweet family and it was so fun to get to know them better. Their mom was so thankful for us being there each day and she said that the kids in Ireland love these kind of things but it is something that never happens.

Our two VBS programs were very different but God used our team in each one of them. There were definitely struggles at times but God showed us that the kids in Ireland strive for this stuff and we were able to bring it to them that week. My heart goes out to them and I pray that God will place people in Ireland that can open up more opportunities for them.

Quick Update

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hey Friends and Family!

My time in Ireland is going great! The team is coming together and they are pouring out their hearts to God and we are uniting as a team! Please check out the blog that I posted on our team page http://08ir0614amb1.myadventures.org for more of an update on our ministries. Internet access is very limited for me so I am trying to keep this short and simple. Thank you so much for your prayers for me. I am feeling them each and every day. I miss all of you and I can't wait to tell you all of my stories from the trip. I will try and post once a week but I can't promise that :D

Love you guys!

Ashley

Training Camp

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Today wraps up our training camp and we are heading off to the airport in about an hour. This week has been such a week of growth for all of the kids and it has been really cool to watch them step out in faith and let God take control. I will be updating our team blog page while we are in Ireland so you can check that out at http://08ir0614amb1.myadventures.org . I will try to update my blog as well but will have very limited internet access.

Here are some pictures of the week:

The End of the Beginning

Mon, 2 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Today is the start of my last week in the office before I get ready to leave for debrief with my team. This year has flown by and I can't believe that it's almost over. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was moving into my apartment and meeting all of my roommates. It has been a journey together from day one and it will be sad to say goodbye.

This Sunday my team will leave to go to debrief and we are going to be staying at a cabin on the lake. During this time we will talk about our year and tell of the good and of the bad. We will share about our personal relationship with Christ and how it has grown. It will also be a time to just hang out with each other one last time. We will play games, go kayaking and canoeing on the lake, and just spend time with each other and enjoy each others company.

Then, next Wednesday (June 11) I will begin my leader training for my Ireland trip. What happens during this time is all of the leaders leading a trip for the ambassador kids for the June 14th trip come into Gainesville and we start our training. This is a time for us to spend in prayer for our trip and for our students that are going to be on our team. We will also get last minute preparations done for the trip and start finalizing things. This is going to be a sweet time for us to bond together as leaders, please keep us in your prayers.

On June 14th the kids arrive and we will go and pick them up from the airport. This is such an exciting time! I am really looking forward to this. I have spent a lot of time talking to my kids prior to this day and I look forward to actually meeting them. Once they arrive back here at the office our training camp begins. We will be here for 5 days doing training sessions and team builders with our team. This is a time to get to really know the team and prepare them for going to Ireland.

After training camp is done we fly out on June 19th! My team and I fly out around 8:30 at night and arrive in Dublin around 9:30am. This is a night flight which means that we will need to get our sleep. Please keep us in your prayers as many of us will be excited and won't want to sleep!

As you can see, I am really busy this whole month of June getting prepared to say goodbye to my team of interns this year and saying hello to all of my high school kids that will be coming in for our Ireland trip. As I am sad to leave my team that I have grown so close to this year I am excited to start new relationships with all of my Ireland team.

Thank you so much for your prayers for me this year during my internship. I have felt all of them so much. God has provided for me through all of you and He has opened up so many doors for me for this summer and for next year. I will update during my trip and I will let you know about all of the ministries that God is doing through us in Ireland.

My Generation

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This past week has been the most powerful week that I have ever experienced in my entire life. Our God is so big and He works in miraculous ways. He is moving through me, He is moving through my team, and most importantly He is moving through my generation!

On Monday night our team met for our small group time and God worked through us in various ways. We prayed, we listened, and we shared. Driver opened us up in prayer and then we spent a good amount of time in silence with the Lord just listening to Him and seeing what He wanted us to do with it. We then went around and shared what we heard from God. Later that night we had an intense time with the Lord and we were filled with the Holy Spirit. There was so much of the Holy Spirit in the room and everyone was showing their emotions towards the Lord in all different ways. There was some crying, there were some laughing, and there were some who felt completely at peace. We all were filled with the Holy Spirit but our emotions showed our excitement in different ways.

On Wednesday night, my team and I went to Unicoi State Park for the night because the World Racers were staying there for part of their training. A little while after we got there they had started their debriefing time around a huge campfire. Walking into that circle of people, you could feel the presence of God. I stood there and I looked around me and I saw the generation of people that were laying down thing after thing for God, it encouraged me and it made me want to lay down all the stuff in my life for him as well. After they were done Driver brought all of us together along with other really awesome AIM staff and they all stood around us and one by one we started laying down the things in our past and we gave them over to God. They prayed over us and they helped us get rid of the junk in our lives, they helped us give it over to God. It was powerful, prophetic, and releasing! God prayed through me to other people, if He wasn't speaking through me I wouldn't have been able to do it. We spent so much time praying and prophesying over one another all night. I am so thankful to be in the generation that I am in today; I believe that God is going to use us and He is going to change the world through us!

This blog does not do justice compared to what my team and I actually experienced this week. I hope and pray that every single one of you will be able to experience what I did this week. If there is one thing I have learned out of the past couple of days it is do not fear what God can do with your life, nothing bad can come out of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Please keep my team and I in your prayers as we continue to live out or lives for Christ.

Community Life

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Community Life: An apprenticeship for Christ-followers

Give the next year of your life to community, spiritual growth, and ministry.

We're excited to introduce a new opportunity that many of you will love. We're taking our best coaches and disciplers and matching them up for a year in community with our most passionate young people.

At Adventures In Missions (AIM), we love the next generation. We want to see people launched into a whole new way of doing life. In a culture that esteems independence, we want to restore the value of interdependence that was so prevalent in the Early Church. By living in an authentic faith community, disciples of Jesus learn how to be "salt" and "light" in a way that transforms the world around them. It's a year of learning to live like Christ with the support of mentors and peers.

Community Life is a place where you can continue to grow in your identity and role in the kingdom of God. Our leaders will train and hang out with you, helping you sharpen your life focus and call to ministry. We provide housing in Gainesville, GA, where a select group of 30 young people will live together in several houses in a neighborhood with easy access to the surrounding community. There are five major aspects involved in ComLife:

Mentoring: You will be paired up with a leader at AIM that will regularly meet one-on-one with you to provide coaching, encouragement, and discipleship.

Skill development: You will expand your life skills. Many of you will have an internship with AIM that fits your passions.

Ministry: You will partner with a local outreach to 60,000 marginalized Hispanics, as well as with camping and sports ministries.

Travel: You will have a chance to put into action what you are learning, including opportunities to lead various discipleship programs for high school and college students around the world.

Click here for more information on Community Life

There are scholarships available! Apply by April 30th.

To apply, click here to fill out a Quick App.

If you are an AIM alumni, please call 1-800-881-2461 ext. 270 or email admissions@adventures.org

Bronx: Bad Place, Not Bad People

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

THE BRONX: We spent two days in the Bronx doing local ministry there. Our first day was spent at a senior center and Ashley, Becca, and I helped serve lunch to them and when we were done serving them we sat around and talked to them. I talked to two women, Eleanor and Sylvia. They were great ladies, they were so fun to talk to and the things they were talking about were really funny! Later on in the day we went to LPAC (Latino Pastoral Action Center). LPAC is a place where kids can be instead of being on the streets. It is a charter school, an after care program, and a church all in one place. We took part in the after care program as well as with part of the church. The aftercare program is for students K-5^th grade that are at school until their parents can pick them up. I was able to work with some of the kindergartners; I helped them with their homework and also did crafts with them. I also let a bunch of the girls braid my hair; at one point I had five girls doing my hair. It was really fun hanging out with them! Later that evening we sat in on their youth service at the church called Holy Hood. It was an experience that I had never had before but it was amazing! They had a time where the kids could come up and recite poetry if they had anything that came to them and there was this one girl who came up and started off saying stuff and it ended up turning into a song. It was amazing! It all related to God and how he was working in her life and it was so neat to see how God spoke through her. Caleb was able to share his testimony that night and I have heard it a few times already from various places that we have been to and he has shared it at. That night when he shared his testimony you could completely tell that it was God speaking through Caleb, he did a great job! The kids took in what he was saying and they responded to him. It was really neat to see someone on my team being able to reach out to these kids.

The second day we went and served food to a homeless shelter nearby. After serving the food to them we sat and talked to the people at the shelter. I think it's always great talking to the homeless because in some sense people think that they are bad people. I know that I have thought that at times. When I was there talking to two of the men I realized that these men are normal people just like me. They have no place to live and some of them may have been down the wrong paths at times but that doesn't make them bad people. They are humans and all humans make mistakes. I know I do. We talked about movies and music and we just hung out. It was really fun interacting with them and getting to know them as people, not homeless people.

My time in the Bronx was really good. I was nervous going in there because I had heard of all the bad stories and all the drug deals and gun shots that go on within blocks of the place that we were staying. I ended up not being scared of the Bronx but instead really liking it. The thing that most stuck out to me was we were walking down the street one night on our way home and some guy said "Hey! This may be a bad place, but were not bad people". I then thought to myself, wow, he's right. So many people put a bad image on the Bronx but is it really that bad? Experience it for yourself, I did!


                                           At Holy Hood In Front Of Their Graffiti Wall

                                  Our Group In The Bronx (the people we stayed with)

                               Me and one of the girls from LPAC

Disciple Now Weekend

Sun, 9 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In Georgia (or in the south) they have these weekends called Disciple Now weekends. It's where kids in the youth group split up into groups according to their grade and they go to host homes for the weekend. The church brings college aged kids in and they are put with a group of kids and they spend the weekend with them discipling to them and hanging out with them.

As you know, my team and I have been involved with the youth group at Lanier Hills Church and we hang out with the kids every Wednesday and Sunday. J.K. who is the in charge of the youth asked the six of us interns if we would like to head up D-Now weekend and be with the kids that we have been teaching all year since they already know us and feel connected to us. We all jumped on the opportunity and said yes to her right away!

Today my team and I just finished up D-Now. I was with the middle school girls along with my teammate Becca. She and I have been teaching their class on Sunday mornings and we have really enjoyed getting to know the girls. This weekend was amazing for me and I felt God's presence 100% of the time. There were 11 middle school girls that came and we went through five different sessions throughout the weekend talking about filling ourselves up with God. We spent most of the weekend at our host home and Friday and Saturday night we met at the church for a time of worship and also a message from Jamie (a leader of the youth).

I went into the weekend being hesitant about it and I was doubting myself when it came to thinking I wasn't good enough to teach the girls. I was afraid that they weren't going to have fun and I was scared that they wouldn't take anything away from it. The first night I lead our session and God completely revealed himself to me. I was seeing the nods from some of the girls while I was talking, agreeing with what I had to say about God and how we need to be our own person no matter what the world tells us. They were interacting with me and they were enjoying the lesson. It made sense to them and it all became clear to me that God put me there this past weekend to pour into them and feed them what other people have fed me. I got to know some girls that I had never met before and I was able to build stronger relationships with the ones that I had already known. Becca and I poured into these girls so much this weekend and she was an amazing help to me and she built me up when I was hesitant about being able to teach the girls. At the end of our weekend we went around the room and we spoke words of encouragement to each other one by one and it was absolutely amazing. The bonds that I have with these girls now will never break and no matter how far away we may be from each other we are still going to encourage each other and lift one another up. Spending time with the middle school girls opened my eyes to how wonderful God really is. Those girls have such a heart for the Lord and seeing that in them made me want to be so much more like them in that area of my life. I am so proud of them! I am so glad that God put me with those 11 girls this weekend because I truly believe that this is just the beginning of the work that God has planned for me!

New York City

Tue, 4 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In a little more than a week my team and I will be heading for New York City. We are all very excited about this upcoming trip. We will be there for a short time but we are looking forward to our time there. We are going to be leaving on March 13th and we will return on March 18th. We will be staying with a family who are members of the Church that Uncle Dave and Aunt Vicki used to work with in Montvale, New Jersey (about 30 minutes from the city). We are going to be involved with their Sunday morning service in some sort of way but right now we don't know the exact details. Some of us may get to share our testimonies or we may be able to do a drime. Also, we are going to be spending 2 days in the Broncs and we will be teaming up with someone who coordinates ministry with AIM for some of the youth trips that we send to N.Y.C. and we will have opportunities to reach out to different people. On Monday which is St. Patrick's Day, Josh (my cousin) is going to be playing in the St. Patrick's Day parade with his high school marching band and we are going to spend the day in the city getting to see the parade as well as see the city. I would really appreciate your prayers for my team and I as we get ready to prepare for this upcoming trip and that you would pray for our hearts to be in the right places and that you would pray for our safety as we are on the road. Also, a praise, this trip is being completely paid for because of our hard work that we have been doing in the office. God is awesome! I will keep all of you posted on what happens in N.Y.C. when I return, I hope to have lots of pictures and great stories!

My God's Enough!

Sun, 2 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This past week I have been reflecting on a lot of different things. Right now Satan is here attacking and he is trying to get into the lives of my team and into the lives of my leaders and I am not going to take it! So many times I want to know why this world we live in is so messy and why is it that people think they can do whatever they want and that they can get away with anything they wish. Why do we say we believe in something but then are hypocritical towards it and turn our backs on it? I'm sick of people wanting what the world offers them and I'm sick of wanting what the world has to offer me. I am done living my life for me and for the world, my God is enough for me! This world has nothing for me, God has continued to be there for me when I have betrayed him and that's as much as I can say for the world. I'm not going to ride a roller coaster anymore and have a high with God one day and then a low with Satan the next, I'm not going to let him bring me down so fast. Sure, I'm still going to get attacked by Satan because that is part of my walk with the Lord but I am going to put up a fight this time unlike in the past where I let him bring me down. I want to make a difference and I want the world to know that I am different than everyone else out there.

Psalms 73:23-25
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

The Awakening: Discipleship & Missions

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Awaken to the Adventure

Disciples aren't born; they're made. It's a process that takes time, discipline, and God. In reality, it looks more like waking up than attending a class.

As part of The Awakening, you can undergo a discipleship program like no other, experiencing four months of intense training in another country to prepare you for the ministry that awaits you for the rest of the year.

Join The Awakening

Your mornings will be spent in training and your afternoons ministering in local communities, activating what you've learned. In the context of experiential learning, you will be discipled by mentors who want to see you grow deeply in your faith.

You will be part of a community of other individuals who share your passion and desire to come alive in Christ. This time will challenge and stretch you in new ways, and you will never be the same.

Become a part of The Awakening in either Latin America or Africa and discover your role in the kingdom of God.

You were made for greatness, to experience the abundant life and freedom that Jesus promised. As they awaken, current participants are saying:

I don't think that I will ever have such an opportunity to give up all of myself and all of my expectations as I do here. (Emily Tissot, Latin America)

The Bible study has... turned into a church. So, we have church at noon Tuesday-Friday under the tree in front of the market. I love watching as people just bring their stool/chair/water container... and join in the singing. We are going through the book of Galatians, and it is cool to see how freedom is effecting their hearts. (Denise Eckert, Africa)

For more on The Awakening, visit the First-Year Missionary website.

God's Presence

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Since coming back after Christmas for the second semester I have been struggling with being attacked by Satan. I believe that my whole team has been struggling with the same thing in different areas of their life and we have all been tired and worn out and are all sick of it.

Last night we met for our small group time that we meet for every Monday night and we spent the first part of the night in John 15. In John 15 it talks about God being the vine and us being the branches. It's like a tree, God is the foundation of the whole entire tree and the different branches on the tree are different parts of our lives, some good and some bad. We need to cut off the bad branches from our life and in doing that God will continue to let us grow and he will make us clean. He says in verse 3 that we are already clean because of the word he has spoken to us. I never really looked further into that verse until last night. I took from it that God has already made us clean even when we do have bad branches and through those bad branches he teaches us a lesson and he has already forgiven us of those areas in our lives. God has unending love for us and no matter what we have been through he is by our side. Something that I struggled with was actually taking this passage and applying to my life. Everything is always easier said than done. After last night I am eager to apply this to my life and I am ready to cut off those bad branches in my life.

We spent lots of time in prayer last night just praying for each other and it was amazing! God was absolutely in the room with us and I could feel his presence. I feel so much closer to each and every person on my team and I am so excited to see how much closer we become over the next 5 months! God is working in all of us and I can't wait to see the results! I love you Ashley, Becca, Caleb, Driver, Em, Robin, and Seth!

Swaziland

Fri, 8 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Becca has been working on videos for all of the different locations that we have to offer and is putting informations and pictures together for them about the locations. Here is the Swaziland video, this has been my favorite one so far and I wanted to share it with all of you!

Discussing God's Love With Friends

Thu, 7 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Ashley, Connie, and I are going through the Bible in a year and then we are discussing it as we go along. Today we all got together and we drove to Buford and ate lunch at Olive Garden and got to stop at Krispy Kreme to get some yummy donuts for dessert. It is a lot of fun being able to enjoy the company of other believers and discuss the stories throughout the Bible. We were discussing Genesis and talking about how cool it is to see all the "firsts" that happen. Like the first time someone is killed when Cain kills Abel and the first time God split our languages up during the Tower of Babel. It is very interesting to read through all the stories in Genesis that I grew up learning and knowing so well and then re-reading them today, I get such a different perspective on them. They are stories that I felt like I knew so well and in reading them it seemed kind of funny to read them again but I have taken so much more out of them than ever before, I love how God shows me something new out of things that I have read several times. God's love is so amazing and I am so thankful for him more and more each day. He gives me things to think about and question and I love being on the edge of my seat waiting to see what more God has to offer. I am anxious to keep reading and getting together with Ashley and Connie and talk about it again. It's fun to see all our different thoughts on the passages!

Amazon Jungle...Are You Crazy?!

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I have been given the opportunity to be a servant leader on one of our Ambassador trips in either June or July. The Ambassador trips are the one month high school trips. This year I have been the location rep. for all of Peru, Nicaragua, and Dominican Republic. There are two trips going to Peru, one to the Amazon Jungle and the other to the Highlands. Peru is a place that I have really been interested in and since I have gotten to know a lot of the kids from being their location rep. I feel like if I were to go as a servant leader I would go to one of the locations in Peru.

About a week ago I heard a little bit about what the Amazon Jungle is like. After hearing that your houses were on stilts because there were tons and tons of snakes everywhere, the spiders were as big as your hands and you slept in a mosquito net at night because when you woke up there would be tons of the spiders on your net, made me not so interested in the Amazon anymore. I was completely sure that I was not going there! Well, as soon as the opportunity came for me to be a servant leader I said I was not going to the Amazon and the very next day I had two or three people tell me that if I decide to go, that is the location that I should go to. Don't get me wrong, I thought everyone was crazy but now when I think about it, I really feel like God is speaking to me through this.

God knows if I am going to be in the Amazon Jungle at the end of the year or not and right now I am trying to pray about it and hear what he has to say. I would really appreciate your prayers as well as I try and seek out God's direction for my life.

I Am Christ's Friend

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Right now we are going through a book called Who I Am In Christ. We are just getting into it but it has already caught my attention in so many ways. Last week we were discussing the first three chapters and the third chapter really stuck out to me. It talks about how we are Christ's friend. He is always going to be our friend and stick by our side in every circumstance. The author talks about how so many times we see someone who we really wish was our friend and how we do everything to try and make him/her like us. We end up being disappointed because that person didn't have time for us like we wanted them to. Instead, we need to feel that way about God. He is a true friend and He is always going to be there when we need him. God chose us and He loves us! Christ is always there as a friend to us but are we a friend to him?

I have been trying to spend a lot more time with God and be a friend back to Him just as He is a friend to me. I want to pour myself into Him and spend every waking moment pleasing Him. He is the greatest friend that I will ever have, is he yours?

Christmas God's Way

Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I have not updated in a while and I am so sorry, here is a little bit about my Christmas break:

Before I left Georgia to come home to Indiana I had all these plans of what I was going to be doing once I got home for break. I would be home for a couple of days and then I would head up to Michigan to have Christmas with my dad's side of the family. Then I would come home for about a week and do Christmas with my family, then Christmas with my mom's side of the family, and then find some time to spend with friends that I haven't seen in a while. Then I was planning on going up to Minnesota to go snowboarding and celebrate New Years with Seth's family, then I would come back and spend a little more time with my family before I had to go back to Georgia.

Well, I'm sure you know where I am going with this; God had different things in store for me over break.

Here's what He had planned for me:
Two days before I was leaving Georgia I stepped on a Christmas light and it broke and went into my foot. It was very painful when I would walk and I had several people digging around in my foot trying to get it out of there. It hurt when they were trying to get it out but I just kept telling myself it doesn't matter how much it hurts now it's going to feel better when they get it out. Well, no luck with them getting the glass out of my foot. On Thursday when I finally arrived home I went right to my doctor to have him take a look at it. He gave me several options of what I could do with it that day. I chose just to take the pain and have him numb my foot up and make an incision and take the glass right out of there. I thought it sounded simple but nope, he couldn't find anything. He sent me to go have an x-ray done on it and he would call me the next morning to let me know if it showed anything. Apparently glass is really hard to see on an x-ray, it may or may not show up. The doctor also said that there may not be anything in there and that it could be sore from everyone picking at it and it could have fallen out and we just didn't see it. The next morning we got a call from the doctor and the glass showed up on the x-ray. He referred me to a foot specialist and that same day I got an appointment and went and saw her. By this time I really just wanted the glass out of my foot and I didn't want any more pain, I am not good with pain or needles or anything like that. My foot doctor took more x-rays and scrapped my skin in the area of the glass; she also couldn't get it out of my foot but could see it on the x-ray. She wanted to see me back again the day after Christmas. So I went back in and she took more x-rays and looked at it and said that she wanted me to go to surgery to have it removed. So the following day I was had surgery on it and the glass came right out. I followed up with her a week later and she said it was healing well; she wanted me to have the stitches removed in another week to two weeks. On January 7^th I had to be back in Gainesville so I was going to get the stitches taken out while I was there. Well, on Thursday Aunt Vicki called around for me to get someone to take out my stitches and no one would touch my foot because I had surgery and it was to remove glass! We must have tried about 4 to 5 options and finally her and I made the decision that it was best for me to fly home and get them removed. So today I am in Indiana again and first thing tomorrow morning I will hopefully be getting my stitches taken out.

I was unable to go snowboarding over break however; I did manage to make it up to Minnesota for a few days. I spent a lot of the time at home laying around and watching movies after my surgery. I realized that God had these plans for me and this is how He wanted me to spend my time at home. As much as this whole foot thing has been a pain, God did all of this for a reason and I am trying to stay positive about it. Through all of this I was able to spend more time with my family than I probably would have if I was able to be up and around.

Fun Times!

Thu, 3 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This is a video of Kari (Seth's mom) and I having fun with her computer!! This was her first video from the web cam on her computer and I got to be in it!! It is pretty funny!! Well I thought it was...

My 21st Birthday!

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Yesterday was my 21st Birthday! My day started off at 8am when I woke to find a card, flowers, and a present by my bed. It was from Ashley, it was so sweet of her to do that!

Next, Robin wanted to take me and the other girls out for breakfast in the morning for my birthday. So we met her at 9am at Longstreet Cafe, they have amazing breakfast! She also gave me flowers along with a cute wallet that I can slide a picture into. We had a great morning just hanging out together! Oh and right before we left Ashley and I sat on Santa's lap because he was there asking kids what they wanted for Christmas!

After breakfast I went back to the apartment for a little while and then I was headed over to Aunt Vicki and Uncle Dave's for lunch that they had made for me. We had corn beef and carrots and potatoes, it was really good! After lunch, little did I know that I was about to be surprised by everyone. Seth and I had left to go pick some stuff up at Best Buy and when I returned to Aunt Vicki and Uncle Dave's everyone was downstairs in the basement waiting to surprise me (I was telling them that I had always wanted a surprise party and that they should throw me one), well they did! It was fun and we ate some really good dessert, one of which was a cake made by Ashley, it was really cute!

After we left their house I came back to the apartment to rest a little bit, I was really tired! Then, around 6 Seth and I left to go to Buford to go walk around the mall a little bit (which was packed) and then he took me out to dinner at T.G.I. Fridays. It was really nice to get to spend time with him! After a good dinner we were headed back to the apartment. As we were on our way back we got a call from Driver who said that he was going to be headed to the Atlanta airport to go keep two of the FYM kids who got stranded over night there company. Driver wanted to know if any of us wanted to go along. Well Seth and I told him that we were on board and when we got back to the apartment Becca and Em were also on board. So all 5 of us headed off the the Atlanta airport at about 10:30pm. My birthday ended at the airport last night and I just got home this morning at about 6:30am. It was a really fun and busy day!

Christmas Party Planning

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Oh how I love the holiday spirit! Today is our personal ministry day so the girls and I are planning our two Christmas parties that are coming up. Tomorrow we have our own Christmas party with all of us interns and our leaders and Caleb's parents are in town so they are going to be joining us! It will be the first party that we have had at our apartment so we are all excited and looking forward to it. Then next Wednesday night we are having a Christmas party for the youth groups kids, that is going to be very fun as well. We have been baking, shopping, and wrapping today. We have all sorts of fun activities planned for both parties and I am planning on taking lots of pictures both night so I can share all that went on with you guys!

Here are some fun pictures of the day...oh and the pictures of the lights were Becca and I, we really like taking staged pictures of Christmas lights :D

Decorating For Christmas!

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

This year my mom brought down my Christmas tree that I used to put up in my room every year for Christmas. Her and I went shopping and bought some newer ornaments and lights for it, we decided to go with a blue and green theme.

Yesterday my roommates and I put the ornaments on the tree and tried to make our apartment look festive. I am really into the holiday spirit along with my other roommate Ashley. However, the other two (Becca & Em) aren't too crazy about the commercialization of the holiday. Ash and I kind of bug them about it but they know we are just joking...I think! Anyways, as we were decorating I was telling the girls that when I had the tree up in my room as a little kid I always thought the tree was so big and now how tiny it looked in our apartment! I have grown up and I have outgrown the tree. We had a fun day putting up Christmas decorations in our apartment and as crazy as it may seem Becca and Em did most of it! I think I am getting them to like the whole Christmas holiday a lot more!

Back From Mexico

Thu, 6 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Mexico was a really fun but exhausting trip. We left last Thursday at 12am and we drove as far as we could until we had to stop to get some rest. Our original plan was to leave that morning at 5am and we would drive all the way to Louisiana and camp out that night and go the rest of the way in the morning. The guys however had a different plan and they wanted to be adventurous and get there early so we would have time to hang out at the park. Well needless to say it didn't work like that, I actually think it took longer to get their than if we would have just left in the morning.

On Friday night we finally arrived after a REALLY long van ride. We got to meet the team and they were really welcoming towards us. On Saturday morning we went to the prison with the team. The prison in Mexico is very different than in the U.S., it doesn't really look like a prison at all, it looks like a little town. The women are allowed to have their children with them until they are 4 years old. Also, their families basically provide for them while they are in the prison. They bring them food, clothing, blankets, and a lot of other things. I wasn't able to take pictures inside the jail but I wish you could have seen what it looked like. It was really interesting. Saturday afternoon the Mexico team goes to the laundry mat so the six of us were sent out by Driver to do a scavenger hunt. We had a list of things that we had to find throughout Mexico and then we had to take pictures of it.

Sunday during the day we went and did a W.O.W. (walk on water) ministry. I went with one of the groups and we went to different houses and talked to people. I was with Jill and we went to go talk to a women named Elvira. Jill was very helpful and interpreted for us. I know very little Spanish so I could understand some of the words she was saying but it was hard to put it all together. Elvira told us about when she was a little girl and how she got pregnant when she was really young and she had no money or anything and she was very poor. She was telling us this to let us know that now if anyone comes to her house who has a child and is struggling she will open up her house to them. She was a really sweet lady and it was fun listening to her story. Sunday night was church and it was all in Spanish but it was very cool to experience. There were some really cute kids there and there was one boy who I was playing with during the service.

On Monday we went to the market and got to barter with the shop owners, it was fun but I was not so good at it, Becca was a pro! On Tuesday and Wednesday morning we did a time of worship and debrief of our quiet time. It was really awesome, I especially loved the worship that we did, it was such a powerful time getting close to God. On Tuesday afternoon we did more W.O.W. ministry and I got to go with a different group. We went to a house of a lady who had 3 kids. The kids were so cute and the mother is expecting her fourth child in January. I loved being at this house because they had so little but they were so happy. It has really made me realize how blessed I am and God has given me so much, stuff that I don't even need. On Wednesday afternoon I went to the hospital with 3 of the girls. It was really awesome! I think that this was my favorite part of the trip. Again, the hospitals in Mexico are very different. The people who are admitted have to bring their own bedding for the beds and they have to pay for all the medicine and surgery's or anything else that they need up front. We spent the day in the children's ward and we talked with the mother of a little girl who has been in there since before Thanksgiving. She has fluid in her lungs and she isn't breathing normally. We also went and hung out with a 12 year old boy who was admitted into the hospital about 2 days ago and they still don't know what is wrong with him. We played war with him and he really enjoyed it! Laura and I walked over to the surgical ward and the internal medicine ward so I could see the rest of the hospital. In the surgical ward there were all these men who were burn victims and they looked like they were in really bad shape. As we walked by their rooms we prayed for them, it was really hard to see.

Wednesday night we left and we drove to Brownsville, Texas to stay the night at an AIM staff's house. That night I got bit by fire ants and I ended up breaking out in hives. They were really bad and I had never had them before so I was a little afraid. The next morning we woke up and drove to Gulfport, Mississippi where we are now staying at a hotel for the night. None of us are feeling very well, I have a fever and Caleb and Seth I think ate some bad tacos in Mexico so they aren't feeling so good either. We are all very tired from our trip and we are ready to get back to Gainesville. Thank you so much for your prayers for me as I was in Mexico, I really enjoyed my time there and I am looking forward to seeing some of the Mexico team when they pass through Georgia for Christmas.

Thanks again Mexico team for inviting us in to your house and being so welcoming!!!

In Mexico

Tue, 4 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I will be leaving Mexico tomorrow evening to head back to the states and then on to New Orleans. My time in Mexico has been really good and I have enjoyed getting to know this culture more. I will update in a few days when I get back and I will put pictures on here along with what I did each day. Internet here is not as easy to access so that is why this is so short. Thank you so much for all of your prayers for me while I have been down here. Like I said I will update as soon as I get back!

Thanksgiving, Now Mexico, Then Christmas...Where has the time Gone?

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Thanksgiving was such a relaxing holiday. It was great to be with my family again and get to spend time with them. We ate lots and lots of food and I feel like I gained about 20 pounds, but then again who didn't eat a lot! That's what Thanksgiving is for, a time to eat lots and spend time with your family thanking God for all He has blessed us with.

On Thursday the team and I are going to be headed to Mexico! We are driving 22 hours in a 15 passenger van with the six of us and Driver. I am very excited about this trip. It will be my first time out of the country! We will arrive in Matamoras, Mexico on Friday night and we will stay with the FYM team that is ministering there. We will do all the ministry that they are involved in and we will help out where help is needed. Then that following Thursday we will leave and we will be headed to New Orleans and we will get to check out all the ministries that are going on down there that are affiliated with AIM. We will then be arriving back in Gainesville on December 8. I am so excited for this trip because like I said it will be my first time out of the country and also it will be the first time that all of us interns will be together on a trip away from the office and away from our everyday routine. Please pray for us and keep us in your prayers as we travel to Mexico and pray that our team will have great experiences there and that we will get to reach out to some amazing people. Also, I am waiting on insurance to go through so I can go out of the country and if I don't have it turned in before I leave I will not be able to go, Caleb and Ashley are waiting on passports and we have 2 more days until we have to leave, and Seth is sick right now, so please keep all of these in your prayers as we prepare to leave on Thursday!

When we get back from Mexico we will only have 8 more days to work in the office before we then leave to go on Christmas break. The time is flying by and this year is almost over! Please also pray for all of us as we have a lot of stuff that we want to get done in the office but we have so little time to do it. Pray that we can prioritize it all and get everything done that we want to accomplish!

God's Grace

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Every Monday night we go to Dave and Vicki's house for a small group Bible study. We have been studying 1 Timothy and we are just entering in to it. This past Monday we looked at 1 Timothy 1:12-20. These verses are all about God showing his Grace to Paul.

As we dug deeper into the verses we pulled out so much information from them. Paul starts off thanking God for giving him strength and thanking him for even thinking about him. Paul had been a blasphemer (speaking against God) and a violent man. Even though he had spoke against God, God showed him mercy because he acted in ignorance and unbelief (he did all this but didn't know that it was wrong when he was doing it, he didn't know God at the time). Paul said in verses 15-17 "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners-whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen."

These three verses are so powerful and they really spoke to me. Paul came and said he was the worst of sinners and God still came and he picked him up off his feet and he showed him grace! God is so patient with us and when you truly start to think about everything He has to be patient with, it is really overwhelming; it just goes to show how amazing God is!