WOW! What a week! Sorry that it's been awhile, but I decided not to use the internet this last week just to wean myself off of relying on it, etc... so no updates were possible!
Well... I won't bore you with every little detail, but this week has been amazing! Work has been really good and it's been cool to see the interest of my coworkers in spiritual things and how challenging it's been to converse with them on that level through language barriers and culture differences and such.
As a sidenote, the oil is indeed here, but it's not nearly as bad as the media is making it sound. There is oil on the beaches in patches, and the water is oily... but the beach itself is enjoyable... and the severity varies by location. I've been on a few areas of beach with no sight of oil. People are losing jobs/having hours cut, but hopefully this pattern stops.
World prayer yesterday was the BOMB. This week my group talked about tribal people/animism and it was just so interesting to learn about their practices and beliefs and to talk about their spiritual need. It's crazy to think about the fact that there are people out there who have never even heard the name of Jesus in passing. It was super convicting and definitely broke my heart.
Today, my brother and his roommates did the sweetest thing ever! They all invited my DGroup over for dinner to celebrate my birthday on Friday and it was delicious! They did such a great job, and had a little slideshow of pictures of Jordan and I and were just so kind and welcoming... and I loved our conversation! It was just the most pleasant surprise, so thoughtful and nice :)
A few more highlights/things I've been learning:
~1 Corinthians 9:27 - "No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." I've been learning a lot about the importance of discipline in my daily life and being in control of my body rather than my body controlling me.
~I am my own greatest barrier in knowing God more. If I want to know God more then it's up to me to deny myself, and to get rid of my own self-interest and really desire to know God and to glorify Him.
Prayer points:
~Just praise God for who he is and for sending his son to die so that we can enter in to a relationship with him if we just trust in him
~Thank God for the amazing opportunity that Kaleo is and how much everyone has already grown.
~Pray that jobs for the whole project would be secure and that the oil spill wouldn't affect tourism to the point of needing to lay off workers or cut hours any more.
~Pray that I personally would continue to grow in my relationship with God and in my daily discipline
~Thank God for the spiritual hunger that's evident at Alvin's Island and for the conversations we've had, but also just pray that we'd overcome the language barrier and the common dislike for workers to be talking with each other at work.
~That the tribal people and animistic people would come to a knowledge of God through creation and through missions work
Thanks so much!
Let me know if there's anything I can be praying for for you!
~Kelsey
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
I have a job!
Wow guys! Yesterday was really a low point on my job search and I was feeling super discouraged, and today, just one day later, I have a job! We have several people from Kaleo working at Alvin's Island (a surf, souvenir, etc. type shop) both in Gulf Shores and in Orange Beach... and the manager at the Orange Beach location let one of our girls know that he was looking to hire a couple more people! She let Jordan know... who let me and Tiffany (another girl without a job) know... so we went in to apply. Well... the application consisted of the usual - name, number, references, job experience... then suddenly the application turned in to tax forms. We filled out our part, he filled out his part, and voila, we were hired! Tiffany and I start at 9am tomorrow morning and I couldn't be any more excited about it!
I feel like I've never truly appreciated a job before, and even felt entitled to them, so I really feel like God used this to humble me and to make me thankful for a job, rather than feeling like I deserve one. I seriously am soooooo thankful that this was able to happen, and that my job search, though frustrating, was brief.
Praise God! He truly does provide :)
~Kelsey
I feel like I've never truly appreciated a job before, and even felt entitled to them, so I really feel like God used this to humble me and to make me thankful for a job, rather than feeling like I deserve one. I seriously am soooooo thankful that this was able to happen, and that my job search, though frustrating, was brief.
Praise God! He truly does provide :)
~Kelsey
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
GULF SHORES!!
Hey all!
I'm so very sorry it's taken me so long to update - things have been kind of hectic and the only internet here at the hotel has been in their business center, but their wireless just started working so I thought I'd hop on and update y'all!
The caravan left Monday morning around 9 and I went with Caitlin and Jennifer which was a blast! We caravaned with two other cars so it was a fun day. We drove until 7 when we stopped in Memphis to stay the night at a HUGE church there. It was so very generous of the church to let us use their building for the night and even give us breakfast in the morning! We left the church at 6:30am on Tuesday and drove drove drove until we hit rain in Mobile. Then around 3pm we got to Gulf Shores! While driving we did a lot of sleeping...
It wasn't raining there so we dropped by the beach to see the gulf before we could check in to the hotel and before any oil could taint it! We definitely looked like crazy people who'd never seen water before... guess that's what happens when you get a bunch of people around water when they're from landlocked states.
I met my DGroup! Sarah K, who I already knew, Nicole W who is incredible, and Sarah S who is our leader and who is just amazing. I'm so blessed to be around such incredible women with such big hearts for God and people. It's been so fun getting to know them. PS We have LOTS of DGroup pictures because we decided to take one every day of Kaleo - intense, but fun!)
That night we had a luau thrown for us by the hotel (these people are SO generous!) so we could socialize and kick off the summer!
Wednesday we got all settled in and had a meeting to go through expectations and more of what the summer will look like. THEN, that afternoon we got settled in before heading to dinner at LuLu's with the rest of the project! It was such a great time :)
Our schedule is something like this:
Monday nights - Inductive Bible Study Training
Tuesday nights - DGroup Bible Study and World Prayer
Wednesday nights - Free! Probably going to be used for one-to-ones with my AMAZING DGroup leader SNELLS!
Thursday nights - Stumo large group meeting!
Friday nights - group dates! such a blast!
Saturday mornings - evangelism training and beach evangelism
Sunday mornings - church
So Thursday we went job hunting for those of us without jobs, which, sadly, includes myself. Big O's still isn't letting our staff know if they're still going to hire any of us, so I've been on the hunt for something else. This oil spill is really affecting businesses here and a lot of places aren't hiring at all. The ones that are need people on nights and weekends... which I can't work. Boo. Still perservering through that. Good news is that I'm one of the very very few who doesn't have a job! God worked in amazing ways and almost all 150 of us have jobs. INCREDIBLE!
And then Thursday night was our first stumo night where we learned about some practical steps to get the most we can out of Kaleo!
Friday - more job hunting. THEN, we had our first group date! Each DGroup was given a specific theme and then we all went to the beach and found the guys group with our same theme and hung out with them for the night! We were hippies - how fun :). The guys were so fun to hang out with and even got us drinks at sonic afterwards :)
Saturday was our first day of evangelism here. We spent the morning looking at God's role in evangelism and our personal responsibilities in evangelism and went over the illustration we share on the beach. Then Nicole W (Nic-Dubs) and I went to the beach and got to share the gospel with three groups of women! Some were believers, but they definitely seemed encouraged by the fact that we were boldly sharing God's word! AND two teenage girls accepted Christ - so great :)
Sunday was church which was really good. The pastor had a really good message about choosing to stand for Christ. Wonderful. And the people there were so welcoming and kind to us!
Sunday night we made puppy chow to thank the guys group we went on the group date with and made some chicken for monday dinner. Boy was that an experience... cooking is definitely going to be an area of growth for a lot of us this summer!
Monday - job searching. Then we had the dinner we so wonderfully prepared - chicken quesadillas! They were so good and that recipe is a definite keeper! Easy to make and relatively inexpensive. After that was inductive training which was soooo great. I'm basically in love with the inductive method and it was so great to go over.
Tuesday/today - job searching, following up my applications, a 30 second interview before being told my hours don't work for them, applied at over 20 places by this point, feeling discouraged... then some hope! I called Coldstone to make sure they got my online application and VOILA - interview scheduled for tomorrow. Then at world prayer tonight some guys came up and said that their manager is hiring two more full time employees and that I should go in to apply tomorrow. One other place is really excited about the prospect of hiring... so things are looking good! Tonight we made Mac&Cheese with hotdogs for dinner (and don't laugh, we're proud of our meals!!!) and Betsy B came over to eat with us and brought an amazing dessert! She's so fun to be around and she's such a wealth of wisdom. After that was our first DGroup and World Prayer night. I enjoyed tonight so much and I feel like I've already begun to learn a lot. We're going through 2 Timothy for our bible study and reading through The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer as a book study. I can't wait to see how God grows me through this!
Prayer praises:
-That God is who He is and that He sent His son so that we could be in a relationship with Him
-That God's word is perfect and eternal and is transformative in nature, and that we have the opportunity to intensely study it here at Kaleo
-That 150 students have the opportunity to attend Kaleo and grow in their walks with God
-That almost all of the students have jobs!
-That my DGroup is so amazing and that we've bonded SO quickly!
Prayer requests:
-That myself and the others looking for jobs would find one full-time job or two part-time jobs in an environment that's understanding of our hours
-That the oil spill wouldn't affect anyone's employment status
-That we learn more from God and each other every single day!
Thank you all so much!
Sorry for the NOVEL, I'll update more frequently so I can avoid such a lengthy post! :)
~Kelsey
I'm so very sorry it's taken me so long to update - things have been kind of hectic and the only internet here at the hotel has been in their business center, but their wireless just started working so I thought I'd hop on and update y'all!
The caravan left Monday morning around 9 and I went with Caitlin and Jennifer which was a blast! We caravaned with two other cars so it was a fun day. We drove until 7 when we stopped in Memphis to stay the night at a HUGE church there. It was so very generous of the church to let us use their building for the night and even give us breakfast in the morning! We left the church at 6:30am on Tuesday and drove drove drove until we hit rain in Mobile. Then around 3pm we got to Gulf Shores! While driving we did a lot of sleeping...
It wasn't raining there so we dropped by the beach to see the gulf before we could check in to the hotel and before any oil could taint it! We definitely looked like crazy people who'd never seen water before... guess that's what happens when you get a bunch of people around water when they're from landlocked states.
I met my DGroup! Sarah K, who I already knew, Nicole W who is incredible, and Sarah S who is our leader and who is just amazing. I'm so blessed to be around such incredible women with such big hearts for God and people. It's been so fun getting to know them. PS We have LOTS of DGroup pictures because we decided to take one every day of Kaleo - intense, but fun!)
That night we had a luau thrown for us by the hotel (these people are SO generous!) so we could socialize and kick off the summer!
Nicole, Sarah S, Me, and Sarah K at the Luau!
Wednesday we got all settled in and had a meeting to go through expectations and more of what the summer will look like. THEN, that afternoon we got settled in before heading to dinner at LuLu's with the rest of the project! It was such a great time :)
MTad and myself at LuLu's!
Our schedule is something like this:
Monday nights - Inductive Bible Study Training
Tuesday nights - DGroup Bible Study and World Prayer
Wednesday nights - Free! Probably going to be used for one-to-ones with my AMAZING DGroup leader SNELLS!
Thursday nights - Stumo large group meeting!
Friday nights - group dates! such a blast!
Saturday mornings - evangelism training and beach evangelism
Sunday mornings - church
So Thursday we went job hunting for those of us without jobs, which, sadly, includes myself. Big O's still isn't letting our staff know if they're still going to hire any of us, so I've been on the hunt for something else. This oil spill is really affecting businesses here and a lot of places aren't hiring at all. The ones that are need people on nights and weekends... which I can't work. Boo. Still perservering through that. Good news is that I'm one of the very very few who doesn't have a job! God worked in amazing ways and almost all 150 of us have jobs. INCREDIBLE!
And then Thursday night was our first stumo night where we learned about some practical steps to get the most we can out of Kaleo!
The girls from our carpool at Stumo night! Myself, Caitlin, Jennifer
Friday - more job hunting. THEN, we had our first group date! Each DGroup was given a specific theme and then we all went to the beach and found the guys group with our same theme and hung out with them for the night! We were hippies - how fun :). The guys were so fun to hang out with and even got us drinks at sonic afterwards :)
Steph and I! Her group went as runners!
Me and Caitlin!! Her group's theme was "monochromatic"
Jordan and I - He's Zack from Saved by the Bell... that's what the Staff's theme was :)
Our groovy group!
Saturday was our first day of evangelism here. We spent the morning looking at God's role in evangelism and our personal responsibilities in evangelism and went over the illustration we share on the beach. Then Nicole W (Nic-Dubs) and I went to the beach and got to share the gospel with three groups of women! Some were believers, but they definitely seemed encouraged by the fact that we were boldly sharing God's word! AND two teenage girls accepted Christ - so great :)
Sunday was church which was really good. The pastor had a really good message about choosing to stand for Christ. Wonderful. And the people there were so welcoming and kind to us!
Sunday night we made puppy chow to thank the guys group we went on the group date with and made some chicken for monday dinner. Boy was that an experience... cooking is definitely going to be an area of growth for a lot of us this summer!
Monday - job searching. Then we had the dinner we so wonderfully prepared - chicken quesadillas! They were so good and that recipe is a definite keeper! Easy to make and relatively inexpensive. After that was inductive training which was soooo great. I'm basically in love with the inductive method and it was so great to go over.
Tuesday/today - job searching, following up my applications, a 30 second interview before being told my hours don't work for them, applied at over 20 places by this point, feeling discouraged... then some hope! I called Coldstone to make sure they got my online application and VOILA - interview scheduled for tomorrow. Then at world prayer tonight some guys came up and said that their manager is hiring two more full time employees and that I should go in to apply tomorrow. One other place is really excited about the prospect of hiring... so things are looking good! Tonight we made Mac&Cheese with hotdogs for dinner (and don't laugh, we're proud of our meals!!!) and Betsy B came over to eat with us and brought an amazing dessert! She's so fun to be around and she's such a wealth of wisdom. After that was our first DGroup and World Prayer night. I enjoyed tonight so much and I feel like I've already begun to learn a lot. We're going through 2 Timothy for our bible study and reading through The Pursuit of God by AW Tozer as a book study. I can't wait to see how God grows me through this!
Prayer praises:
-That God is who He is and that He sent His son so that we could be in a relationship with Him
-That God's word is perfect and eternal and is transformative in nature, and that we have the opportunity to intensely study it here at Kaleo
-That 150 students have the opportunity to attend Kaleo and grow in their walks with God
-That almost all of the students have jobs!
-That my DGroup is so amazing and that we've bonded SO quickly!
Prayer requests:
-That myself and the others looking for jobs would find one full-time job or two part-time jobs in an environment that's understanding of our hours
-That the oil spill wouldn't affect anyone's employment status
-That we learn more from God and each other every single day!
Thank you all so much!
Sorry for the NOVEL, I'll update more frequently so I can avoid such a lengthy post! :)
~Kelsey
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