Student Life Mission Camp 2010

Some of you know that i recently went on a mission trip with my youth group to Cleveland, Tennesse. And many of you have been asking for details so i thought i would send out a message to you to elaborate more on what God did in my life and the lives of my youth group. First of all, for the actual mission part my youth group was split into two groups. one group went to an appartment complex and did a backyard bible club and the other half (which i was in) went to the YMCA and basically just joined the program. we got assigned to an age group (mine was 5-6) and we played with them from about 11 until 3ish each day. One of the girls favorite things to do was play with my hair. they did many different crazy hairstyles and it honestly wasnt the most comfortable thing for me to do. I honestly would have rather been out there playing kickball with the boys but after a day of feelin that way I realized how selfish i was being! we had come to serve them, not to have fun although those two things can come hand in hand. so for the rest of the week i let them do whatever they want with my hair and even wore it around even though it drove me crazy bc i hate having my hair all over the place. lol Also, something that was really cool was on thursday, the last day with the kids, we got to make salvation bracelets, bracelets that have six different beads and with them put together explains what salvation is. and after we made them i got to stand up in front of them and explain the gospel to them which was so cool! then a little girl came up to me and said, "I want to know more." which thrilled me to death!! so i got to sit down with her and explain in more detail who Jesus is and what he did. and she was really interested and paying attention!! that was definitely one of the highlights of my week! Throught this i really learner what it means to serve and to lay down my wants and desires and put other before me. I also decided to get a Compassion child (through compassion international). her name is Angel and shes 5 years old. Shes from Indonesia and her birthday is in november, close to mine. :) Also, another super exciting thing that happened was befroe camp i had really felt God calling me to reach out to the junior high girls and to help lead their group but i wasnt for sure whether that was just something I wanted or something that God was actually calling me to, so i prayed about it and basically said, "God if this is your will, show me a sign." then on the way to camp i found out that my youth pastor decided to assign me and two other girls to be student leaders, meaning we would be helping out with the junior high girls which was such and amazing moment and answer to prayer!! and chad my youth pastor offered me a job after high school to actually lead the junior high girls class!! God is amazing!! another awesome moment was during worship. I like to go sit by the wall and just have my own worship bc i get distracted at how other people are noticing me and other random things. so one night i was sitting there and i just sat there for a while and watched my youth group praise God. It was so incredibly amazing!! I watched people lift their hands to God and groups praying for each other and hugging each other and i was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with God. I just started sobbing and said "I'm overwhelmed! I'm overwhelmed!" over and over again. I was overwhelmed with the fact that God loves me so much yet i treat him like trash! I dont understand!! he loves me so perfectly, yet i reject him daily! Overall, it was a great experience! I had some really good talks with alot of my friends and got to know their hearts a little better. God is AMAZING!!