I'm An Owl

Well, it's official. I am now a registered, on-campus living, owl. Thanks to my packing master mother, I was able to get everything in my car so I only had to make one trip! I have moved in and am now just trying to get my clothes all situated so I don't waste any space!

Yesterday was a very emotional day for me. I was leaving a fantastic summer to come up to a place where I hadn't really met anyone and was hopefully going to have a great year. I was also not going back to a town that has felt like home for the past two years, Athens. That was probably the roughest part for me. I know that I can always go back to Jesup and see my family but my brothers and sisters lived in Athens. I called Aunt Lynn and cried to her for a few minutes but as we kept talking she had me see that while I am going to a place I didn't know anyone, I'd already been blessed beyond measure so why should I worry about meeting new people and making new great friends? She was right.

As I got closer to KSU I felt less and less sadness and more and more excitement. I knew that my roommates were three really solid girls and that even though we hadn't ever met face to face I felt like I knew them already. After getting up here and moving in for a bit, I got to meet all of my roommates and their parents. Thanks to the parents, I actually have pictures and some canvases up on the wall. Can you believe it??

God has continued to show me that I am where I am supposed to be, even if sometimes I feel like I'm alone. I know that only great things are going to come out of me living here in Kennesaw and I can't wait to see what they are. Too often we let doubt and fear overcome what should be excitement and courage in new situations. There's no way to know how things will work out, but after seeing everything that God has provided for you day after day there's no way to doubt that he's going to continue to provide. He has given me everything I could ever need and more, and I know that there is only more to come. 

That is something I can't even wrap my head around. My life has been so blessed and so great so far, how can it get better? And then I think about how my life is still very much unfolding and how in Jeremiah, we are promised a great future. God wants to give us a future better than our present or our past. He believes in ever-continual love and blessings. 

Live Today.

Two Weeks...

It's official. I'm leaving home for KSU in two weeks. The panic is already starting to close in. I have gotten new bedding (because I have a full bed! AH!!), I've even gotten wall decorations, I mean real actual decorations for the wall. If that just doesn't say miracle, I don't know what does because everyone knows that me and wall decorations are just not friends. I am very excited that I have a new place to move into and I am very excited about my new roommates.


One thing that I have noticed about the Atlanta area is how much more expensive it is than Athens. I went looking for an apartment and that was the first things that bounced off the page. I knew that going to there would be a financial stretch for me, but I also knew that God is calling me to go to KSU. Not only is it more expensive but I also don't have a job yet. This is a different circumstance than I have ever encountered. I knew that God would provide for me if I followed but I have struggled time and time again on trusting him with my finances and his timing for my school. This last week, I prayed and prayed and prayed some more about this area and asked for his blessing. His answer couldn't have been more clear.


I went to Orientation and signed up for classes, toured the campus, even ate at the dining hall, and I also got to look at my apartment. I was in awe of the campus and the facilities offered to the students and just how nice the campus was. I continued to pray for finances and nursing school as I went through orientation and got some depressing news. My grades were what prevented me from getting into nursing school. At the time I applied I had 4 A's and 3 B's and those grades just weren't good enough for me to get in. Now for the Spring start I have 5 A's and 2 B's but I don't know if that will be good enough either. We will just have to see. So I am still questioning God and his timing for nursing school, but I welcome the questions rather than demanding answers. 


Earlier this week I got online to do the most dreaded thing in a college student's mind. I went to check the bill and what a surprise I got. My transcript had a glitch and HOPE hadn't reviewed my transcript, yet I still had a negative balance. I called the Financial Aid office and asked what was going on with the negative balance and I was told that was my refund!! I told her that my HOPE hadn't come through yet and we talked about my GPA and she said they'd have my transcript reviewed soon to get me my HOPE award. The next day I got an email and it said I had MORE MONEY coming back to me!! I can't say enough how blessed I have been following God in this journey and I can't wait to see how God continues to bless me!


Please pray for nursing school. I find out in September whether or not I have been accepted into the program and if I haven't there is some serious thinking to do, also pray for a job. I definitely need one, but with my recent financial news I have a month rather than a week to find one. Praise God!!


Live Today.

Wait, What?!

Well, it turns out that it's my last week as the Children's Ministry Intern at FBC Jesup and I can honestly say that I am not ready for this week to go. As tiring as this week has been, I can look back on this summer and see God's hand in everything that happened before, during, and what he is orchestrating to happen at the end of this week. My life has changed since I came home and took a year off from a camp that I love more than almost anything. Would I have accepted the call to Children's Ministry? Probably so. Would I have known how to even go about being a Children's Minister to a group of kids? Absolutely not.


I know now that I needed this summer to see that not only would I accept the call to children's ministry, but also I would get some experience in actually leading a group of kids for more than a week. I was blessed to be able to lead adults and parents for an entire summer as well and their openness, honesty, and willingness to help me with any random request that I had shows their heartbeat behind this summer was to get the kids involved and help them learn what a true relationship and walk with God looks like. 


I can't even begin to thank people individually because I know that this post would turn into one that spanned about six pages minimum. But, I have to thank my awesome staff that I got to work with this summer. Whether it was a staff meeting, seeking counsel, or simply joking around, this staff up here at the church have become more like my family rather than my boss and coworkers. They are seeking after God and his plan with everything they have for their own lives and more importantly for the life of this church. Sometimes we forget that ministers are people too, so remember to encourage them as they have encouraged you and this church. Next, shout out to my fellow intern PARKER WAYNE!! We have worked together for 10 weeks and haven't killed each other, in face we've only grown closer. You're the bomb. I know you're going to do some pretty awesome things. Hey Mom, I haven't forgotten about you. You have been such an asset to my organization and the small details of this summer getting taken care of and completed. I know that I wouldn't have been able to do half of what I've done without your help. 


For next summer, some questions are still around but I'm pretty sure I know where I'll be headed. I am still deep in prayer about it but I know that God has put a deep longing on my heart to go to where I am supposed to be next summer. I pray that God puts key people into my life that help guide me to where I'm supposed to be and that I take every chance I get to go thru an opened door. 


There are things that I'll never forget and I know that this is one of them. 


Live Today.

Day Tres: Take A Stand, A 33 Year Old, and The 3 L's.

So Day 3 has come and gone and we are all in tact and haven't even gotten lost yet. We have had such a great day and it wasn't even OMC Day. Just like any morning we got up and let the kids go to breakfast and do quiet times, but today was even more of a blessing to watch because the kids were really really into camp. They are diving deeper and deeper into the word with every chance they get and that is the joy of camp. After quiet time we went into I Can't Wait and when the Gold Medal Group Leader competition camp up I saw my name up there! Well at the end of the game I was told that I had won and was the Gold Medal Group Leader of the Day! THAT was super exciting!! 

I walked down to the Recreation Field and got some awesome pictures of our kids playing some games and they were SO into recreation, it was absolutely an intense thing to watch. I even got to play some games myself! (Although playing the game where you tuck a flag in your pocket and run away from people wasn't exactly the most relaxed game in the world.) The amazing staff we have working with us has tied the Bible into every single thing we do here at camp and that is one of the great things about CentriKid. The Bible is the book of the week and it is preached all day every day. 

At track times I got to help with No Boys Allowed again and actually got to work with the girls through coming up with questions they wanted answered about life. I got to share bits a pieces of my story thru the girls asking me different questions about my life (I didn't tell them my age so they all decided that I'm 33) and it was awesome to watch them get excited to share parts of their testimony after they watched me give a snippet of mine. 


Worship tonight was AWESOME. Our kids learned so much on taking a stand for God and that it's not always going to turn out pretty and nice but it will always be right. Like the boys in Daniel, we will be thrown into an extremely hot furnace but our furnace it the world. We talked about how following God in your life involves three L's.

• Listening
• Loving
• Letting Go

Sometimes we can listen and love but letting go of our lives and things we want to cling to no matter if there may be something better in store for us is definitely the hardest L to live by. I would never imagine that I would be the place that I am right now and I know that if I had not conquered my fear of completely letting go there is no way that I could be enjoying the millions of blessings that God has given me. 

Live Today.

Making the Wise Choice

Well Day 2 has come to a close and you can actually hear some of our kids' joints aching. I'm not joking. Overall it has been another FANTASTIC day at camp! We have had our first full 24 hours here and all the kids seem to really be enjoying it. Our church group host, Coach Colby, is super awesome and super talented at loving on our kids and being intentional with them to get to know their hearts more and minister to them in that way. 


We got to start out the day doing quiet times and it was such a joy to get to watch these kids pray and dive into the word of God early in the morning and start their day off talking to their creator. After that we went into I Can't Wait and of course the pastor asked the lovely question of "How much sleep did you get?" This one poor child had stayed up the entire night and actually had to be woken up to raise his hand to win the least sleep competition. Now my roomie and I have solved our not being able to wake up problem... we brought a coffee pot for the room. Some people say it's nuts, I say it's completely genius. 


My roomie and I braved Anderson, SC today (which is actually bigger than some people give it credit for) to go to our Mecca to pick up some supplies. This place is otherwise known as Target. Our directions were sound, we made it back in plenty of time to fill the coolers with new ice so our drinks were sitting in ice rather than floating like life preservers in water... Now filling up coolers with ice doesn't sound, nor is it actually that interesting; however, driving with coolers full of ice in the back of a church van is the interesting part. After we had manned up to get this large cooler and the smaller styrofoam filled, stacked on top of each other, and taken to the van we left our parking lot and headed around a corner. Then, a calamitous sound filled the van. That sound being one of ice flying EVERYWHERE. We stopped traffic, I hopped out, saved what ice I could and got to ride in the van the rest of the way to the boys dorm... it brought back a lot of memories from last summer. 


The kids are having almost as much fun as the adults are! During the time they had to call home today I got a lot of "Miss Taylor, do I really have to?" The answer was always, "YES." It's been such a relief to see that the kids are truly enjoying themselves and soaking up every minute of camp. Track times have been adventure for campers, staff, and adults alike. Today I volunteered to help with an all girls track, only to find out that the original staffer had become ill and was replaced with a girl that took over like a pro. I got to help her teach and figure out what to do with the track. (We always have to act like we know exactly what we're doing during track times, and this girl made her transition as seamless as it could possibly be.)


Our study today was about Daniel and how he decided to not eat the King's food. Thinking about the punishment he could've suffered makes me question whether or not I would have been able to stand up like that. We also talked about how Jesus made a determined choice to go into Jerusalem in his last days on Earth even though he knew that he was going to be turned over and sacrificed for our mistakes. That word sacrifice is our key word for the week and I pray that the kids come to truly know what it means. Sacrificing our lives doesn't sound fun (and it really isn't) but once we do give up our lives we discover everything we have been missing out on. And that is a reward greater than anything we could ever imagine.


I got to have some down time with the girls that came to camp with me tonight after church group time and their grasp on the Lord is just amazing. We talked about how to follow where God leads us whenever he's not actually in front of us, and let me tell you these girls have an understanding far beyond their years. All I can say to that is this, "Praise God! Praise God! Praise God!" He has blessed us beyond our imagination in our lives and the one and a half days we've been at camp. I can only imagine what will be in store for us tomorrow. 


Live Today.

Game On!

Well the first day of camp has come and gone and suffice it to say that I am in one awesome transitional phase. It was so strange to actually see camp from a Group Leader and a camper's perspective today and actually walk thru what they walk thru without having to guide them personally thru it. Whenever we pulled up, I was super surprised to see on of my friends jumping up and down! I was so surprised that I actually hung out the window and gave her a hug and squealed and all that girly stuff. After giving a big hug to her and some more people, I went in and registered our group and did the whole grown up thing of getting keys and such, which again was super strange. 


We got the kids separated into different rooms and let them unpack and rest for a little before the camp day began so it was nice to just have a little down time before I literally hit the ground running tomorrow. I am not used to not being in the aisles jumping up and down all while screaming and having a huge smile on my face, but at the same time I absolutely love it. 


Please pray for us as we go throughout the week. We will be learning and taking to heart the word sacrifice and what it means for us to present our lives as a living sacrifice and that can be a tough concept to fully grasp at this age in life. Shoot, it's even a tough concept for me to fully follow through with sometimes. Pray also for the kids. We have traveled far away from home and are in a different place; it's easy to get overwhelmed with the newness of it all so please just be in prayer that they will soak up each moment that they can and just enjoy being at a great camp. Lastly pray for our awesome staff and chaperones to have emotional/physical strength and tons of energy. I can already tell that we have an amazing group of staffers doing camp for us this week and am even more excited that I have the chaperones that I do with me. 


I will try to post a little something every single night but hey, it's camp so I can't make any promises. These kids are hopefully going to have a time that they can always remember with people they will never forget. Their hearts are ready to learn and their ears are ready to listen, so all we have to do now is just tell them the Word of God. I hope that their lives will be changed as much as mine was because of this camp.


Live Today.

Loud And Clear

In my previous post I asked for prayer to keep looking up and to focus my sight on God and not necessarily where he's leading me, but to just rest and become equipped to walk down the path that he is making me ready for more and more everyday. That hasn't been easy and there have been some direct sacrifices along the way, but I can say that I have a peace and a joy that comes from being alone with God without having my attentions diverted. Sad as it is to admit, that is exactly what I needed to happen this moment in my life. 


With that being said, my alone time with God has allowed me to come face to face and full on to a call that he put on my heart. I know that God has gifted me in many areas of being a nurse and that is what I will continue my schooling in, but after I graduate with my B.S.N. I will be following God to seminary. While God has blessed me with a gift in nursing, he has also blessed me with a gift and a strong love for children's ministry. I thought for so long that the two had to be mutually exclusive but after much research, talking to other nurses and children's ministers, and prayer I just don't see how or why I will need to separate the two. 


I have talked with my mom about this and she is behind me all the way and I am so excited to finally have a little glimpse of where I'm supposed to go. We have joked about different places but I know that if I make any plans right now, they more than likely won't pan out. I don't know which seminary I will be headed to because that will come after more prayer and searching but I just know that God's calling me so I will go. 


This calls for another pick up and move right after graduation (which I have a little while so obviously there's no rush) but I can't say I'm surprised. Asking God to run ahead of me wherever he wants me to go doesn't exactly sound like an invitation for him to keep me in the same place. He knows how to get me out of my comfort zone and has no trouble yanking me away from it. However, I now am getting a more complete understanding of blind faith and more full knowledge of his amazing ability to bring things together that we never even began to plan in the first place. 


My journey has begun and God and I will walk it together.


Live Today.