Time sure flies when your heart is convicted...

Guys! I'm so sorry for this ridiculously belated post! Like the title alludes to... time sure flies when you're learning a lot and feeling convicted.

To avoid flooding you with every little detail of the past month... I'm just going to do things in a topical format.

Job:
I'm still at Alvin's Island and still enjoying it. My hours got cut a little bit since sales are so down because of the oil, but I'm still getting about 30 hours a week and there's only a week of work left - crazy!

Relationships conference:
In June we had a weekend devoted to just talking about relationships and what it looks like to engage in them in a godly way. We talked a lot about contentment in our singleness, guarding our hearts, and knowing when you're ready to start dating and even pursuing marriage. I learned a ton and was really able to strengthen some of my convictions on the topic. That weekend my D-Group talked about what we learned and watched Fireproof, which is a phenomenal movie about relationships. Watch it if you haven't already.

Missions conference:
Last weekend all 150 of us at Gulf Shores roadtripped over to the Kaleo in Destin, FL along with the Panama City Kaleo-ites for the Missions Conference. Todd Ahrend spoke about the biblical basis for missions, the need for laborers, and what it could look like for us to go to the missions field after college. In talking about the biblical basis for missions, Todd said something that really got me thinking and made missions more real to me. "God's heart from the world is apparent from Genesis to the maps in the back of the Bible." It's so true. The whole Bible is about God's people, how they strayed from him, and the process of redeeming those people all over the world. Why shouldn't we want to take part in spreading the gospel to people who've never heard it and glorifying God and fulfilling his vision for the world???
He also asked each of us to give 10 years to missions after we graduate. Initialky I was taken aback and really didn't know what to think of that... I thought he was being a little extreme, but then he said something so elementary, yet so convicting, that it's been on my mind all week. "I don't know if you all know this, but you're going to spend the next 10 years doing SOMETHING." It's really just a matter of what I want that something to be and being careful not to value my own ambitions over obedience to God and the great commission.
Africa has been a continent that's been laid heavy on my heart since high school, since before I was even a believer, and now it's been on my heart for different reasons. The tribal people of Africa and the women in the middle east have definitely been on my heart this summer and the missions conference definitely gave me different perspective about it.

What I've been learning:
1) I feel like my theme verse for the summer has been 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 just been learning a lot about the importance of discipline in every aspect of my life, not just spiritually, but especially spiritually. I think I've come to recognize that if I'm disciplined in one area of my life then I will be in all of them. It's been really hard, but it's something that I know is important enough to struggle with and to pursue.
2) Recognizing that anything bad I face is nothing compared to what Jesus faced. Sometimes at work I get frustrated with being blamed for things I didn't do or getting in trouble for not doing something I was never told to do, etc. Then it dawned on me... Jesus faced much worse than I ever will for things that he never did either. He didn't sin, I do. He didn't deserve death, I do. Yet he got blamed and put to death for a crime he didn't commit. I should be rejoicing in the fact that I have a relationship with God at all, not moping about something insignificant like work.
3) The importance of prayer has really been laid on my heart lately. I've grown more disciplined and consistent in my prayer life this summer and it's been cool to see the fruit of that in my every day life, especially when sharing my faith at work or on the beach. It's always really apparent that God desires to answer prayer, because he constantly has been.
4) The importance of scripture memory has also been huge in my life this summer. It's been so helpful to be memorizing scripture to meditate on while I'm at work or doing something else in my every day life. Memorizing has really just helped me understand the Bible better as I turn it over and over again in my head, and it's been cool to pray that back to God, and to be connecting with God through his words. It's been phenomenal.

Prayer requests:
~Thank God that He's used Kaleo to grow me and others so very much this summer.
~For opportunities to share my faith at the work place and the boldness to capitalize on those opportunities.
~For each of us as we close up Kaleo in the next 2 weeks to really be left with a desire to labor back on campus, and that each of us would be changed for a lifetime.
~That beach evangelism would continue to be fruitful.
~For me personally to really continue to develop convictions about discipline and improve in various areas of my life.

Thanks so much! Love you all.

Kelsey