3 weeks down, 3 to go!

Um, is this real?! My time spent in OC this summer is half way over? Already?? Wow. Time sure does fly.

This past week was week #2 for the students - the week the real schedule begins, work starts for some, job hunting continues for others, and "appointments" with Bible study leaders become a weekly thing. This is the week when students are really thrown into the busyness of the fast paced summer project schedule. For staff, this begins the schedule of 9am staff meetings every morning, meeting with students whenever they have a second to breathe, and leading Bible study and ministry teams. This week we really set the pace for the rest of project and lead by example. Whew! It's been a long, busy, fun, somewhat stressful, challenging, and eye-opening week, but I am ready for Friday! Friday = day off. Fridays are even better now than they were in high school. Fridays are a day of rest, reflection, and rejuvenation. (thought I would stick with the "r" thing)

This Friday (TODAY!) my mom comes :) My mom and her great friend, Maxine, love to take road trips together. They are two grandmothers who look, act, and feel like they are in their twenties! I genuinely have so much fun hanging out with them and look forward to spending the day with them today. Last year when I was in Ocean City, my mom and Max would make a trip here just about every other week!! They love road trips, the beach, junk food on the boardwalk, and each other. So today I will join in on the fun they have together and live it up in OCMD. I'm sure we'll eat tons of food, walk the boardwalk like we're tourists, and sit at the beach for hours.

Now to actually update you on week 2!
Sundays are great. We really do reserve it as our day of rest; our sabbath. Sunday morning our life group headed to the adorable town of Berlin, MD for church. After the later service there was a cookout at a nearby park that we were planning to go to, so we decided to kill some time by walking around Berlin. I had my heart set on a really cute coffee shop I had discovered the week before, which is typically appealing to college students who love coffee. Yes, I sadly fall into this category. One of my favorite parts of this coffee shop is that everything is ALL NATURAL! I don't really know what that means when it comes to the ice cream (coffee ice cream with chocolate covered espresso beans...oh my goodness) but I do know that it's delicious and gives me a false sense of it being good for me. Anyway, we got some great all natural coffee, ice cream, and smoothies and then headed to the park! I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the church we go to has a community that LOVES Cru students. They are just so so so sweet and take us in as if we're their own children. We spent a few hours getting to know our new church community, eating a LOT of delicious home cooked food, and indulging in delicious desserts they provided. Our church spoils us.

Monday nights Jon leads TNT (Teaching aNd Training). During this time we are going over a really helpful tool used by Cru called CoJourners. The students loved it this week! The material is really challenging and leaves you with many "aha!" moments, and Jon adds a lot of character and personality to anything and everything he does. His sense of humor instantly grabs the audiences attention. After that the men have men's time and the women go to reflection. Reflection is just two hours of silence - you and God. It is so vital and so refreshing.

Tuesday nights we have Bible study and ministry team planning. Bible study was awesome - God has provided some great girls to be in my group and I am so thankful for that. We made friendship bracelets (it's kind of cheesy, but they all said they love girly crafts and I can't deny my love for them, either), talked about our highlights so far, and studied the book of Jonah. Jonah is so much more than a Sunday school story, it's a book that shows us so much of God's character. The book starts with "The word of the Lord came to Jonah"....THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO JONAH. How awesome is that?! He comes to us...He isn't a passive, hidden, secretive God. He comes to us. We also see that God is patient, provides, doesn't NEED us to bring people to Him, is in control of everything, and is compassionate. After Bible study we have ministry team planning, which means planning Family Night for my team. Family Night is on Wednesday nights, so we have a lot to plan in less than 24 hours! It was a little hectic planning this week, but hey, now is the time to fail and lessons can come from that.

Wednesday night we have dinner with life groups and Family Night. Long story short, nothing went as we planned this week at Family Night....and it was so good. Through the last minute technical difficulties and many other unexpected things that happened between 7:15 and 7:30 (when we start), our team bonded and showed grace, love, and compassion to one another. It was beautiful. It's not about how we plan an hour and a half long period of time. The night isn't about the "flow", us, the worship, the slides, the intro game...it's about the message and how God uses it to speak to each of us individually.

Thursday night is working dinner and women's time/men's reflection time. Working dinner consists of the staff team making dinner for everyone and then the students discussing questions on different topics that they could bring back to campus. After that, the women went upstairs and had women's time. We discussed the lies women believe and replaced them with TRUTH. It was definitely powerful and good for us to identify areas that we are believing lies and are too hard on ourselves. We wrapped up the night with a great game of "prisoner", which is a more violent form of volleyball/dodgeball/capture the flag. It was so fun, but I'm definitely feeling it today haha.

This week I met with each of the girls in my Bible study - Alaina, Emma, Brooke, and Callie. My one on one time with each of them is so different and so good. This week we mostly just processed through a bit of what has been going on and talked about how they are feeling with so much going on. I love how honest they can be and how I learn so much through them. I'm excited to see how God will work in each of their lives this summer and how He will continue to teach them. They each have already learned so much about themselves and God. So cool.

Sorry for another long post :) I will probably continue to just post once a week and give a little summary of how things are going in OC! Thank you all for your support!!