I dunno if you can see this well...but here are 5/6 girls! :)Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Better late than never...
My wonderful, amazing camp!!
First of all, I know I suck (to put it bluntly). I am SO sorry that I am just now posting a blog. I have no excuse. We are are all busy so that is not a good one. Jesus is breaking me of my inability to sit down at a computer for more than a few minutes to "creep" on Facebook; but, it's a slow process. So pray for me. haha just kidding...sort of.
Anyways, where to start?! I remember meeting with a mentor of mine the day before my last exam before summer and one of the things that she prayed over me was "Jesus, I just pray that you would rock Rachel's summer." And as funny/cliche as that sounds, He totally has.
Upon coming home for the summer, I wasn't really sure all that I would be doing. I knew that I would be taking my last semester of Spanish (thank you, Jesus, I'm finished!) and that I would possibly be interning at my church at home (Lake Pointe). But I still wasn't quite sure what that was going to look like. So needless to say, coming home was something that I was looking forward to as far as a "break" from school and time with the family and seeing old friends, but I was a little disappointed because I didn't think I was going to be doing anything "big" like going to Sky Ranch or Pine Cove or a mission trip to China like so many of my friends were going to be doing. But, boy did God show me that He can prune branches from me and do a work in me right from my home town of Rockwall, TX.
My second week of summer, I met with the Director of Community Missions from my home church, and by the end of the meeting, Enid, my boss, put me in charge of a new "project" they were going to be doing with Lake Rockwall Estates. Lake Rockwall Estates is a poor community in Rockwall that is heavily populated with mainly Hispanics. And the "project" I would be heading up was called "Bridge to College". So... I worked with 6 Hispanic girls-teaching them how to apply for college, scholarships, informing them on SAT/ACT/FAFSA but also doing a Bible Study with them called "The Freshman 15" and basically teaching them ''life skills" as Enid calls it. So, naturally, I got all excited(intense) about it-planning out the program, what I would do with the girls, when we would meet, etc., etc. And a lot of what I "planned" worked and went great!... And others still "worked" but didn't look how I envisioned it would. But as a Pastor told me three quarters of the way through the program's completion was, "Rachel, stop envisioning. It's never going to look how we envisioned it would." Wow, was he right! I went in to meet and "help" these girls full force, and God totally broke me of my tendency to plan and perfect and produced lifelong relationships with 6 lower income, first generation Hispanic girls that just needed someone to cast a vision for them of a future. And with God's grace and mercy, He chose me. But chose to teach me flexibility. I went in to "teach" these girls, but I said good-bye to them last Thursday with them having taught me. It can be real easy to plan our lives, our goals, or our "projects" that someone places us in charge of...But at least for me, so many times I can miss out on the people and the Holy Spirit. Because at the end of this summer, my plan didn't matter but His did. So that was the big learning experience of the summer. But, it was also so much fun!
First of all, I know I suck (to put it bluntly). I am SO sorry that I am just now posting a blog. I have no excuse. We are are all busy so that is not a good one. Jesus is breaking me of my inability to sit down at a computer for more than a few minutes to "creep" on Facebook; but, it's a slow process. So pray for me. haha just kidding...sort of.
Anyways, where to start?! I remember meeting with a mentor of mine the day before my last exam before summer and one of the things that she prayed over me was "Jesus, I just pray that you would rock Rachel's summer." And as funny/cliche as that sounds, He totally has.
Upon coming home for the summer, I wasn't really sure all that I would be doing. I knew that I would be taking my last semester of Spanish (thank you, Jesus, I'm finished!) and that I would possibly be interning at my church at home (Lake Pointe). But I still wasn't quite sure what that was going to look like. So needless to say, coming home was something that I was looking forward to as far as a "break" from school and time with the family and seeing old friends, but I was a little disappointed because I didn't think I was going to be doing anything "big" like going to Sky Ranch or Pine Cove or a mission trip to China like so many of my friends were going to be doing. But, boy did God show me that He can prune branches from me and do a work in me right from my home town of Rockwall, TX.
My second week of summer, I met with the Director of Community Missions from my home church, and by the end of the meeting, Enid, my boss, put me in charge of a new "project" they were going to be doing with Lake Rockwall Estates. Lake Rockwall Estates is a poor community in Rockwall that is heavily populated with mainly Hispanics. And the "project" I would be heading up was called "Bridge to College". So... I worked with 6 Hispanic girls-teaching them how to apply for college, scholarships, informing them on SAT/ACT/FAFSA but also doing a Bible Study with them called "The Freshman 15" and basically teaching them ''life skills" as Enid calls it. So, naturally, I got all excited(intense) about it-planning out the program, what I would do with the girls, when we would meet, etc., etc. And a lot of what I "planned" worked and went great!... And others still "worked" but didn't look how I envisioned it would. But as a Pastor told me three quarters of the way through the program's completion was, "Rachel, stop envisioning. It's never going to look how we envisioned it would." Wow, was he right! I went in to meet and "help" these girls full force, and God totally broke me of my tendency to plan and perfect and produced lifelong relationships with 6 lower income, first generation Hispanic girls that just needed someone to cast a vision for them of a future. And with God's grace and mercy, He chose me. But chose to teach me flexibility. I went in to "teach" these girls, but I said good-bye to them last Thursday with them having taught me. It can be real easy to plan our lives, our goals, or our "projects" that someone places us in charge of...But at least for me, so many times I can miss out on the people and the Holy Spirit. Because at the end of this summer, my plan didn't matter but His did. So that was the big learning experience of the summer. But, it was also so much fun!
It's been fun seeing some friends from college during the summer. Some of you know Anne Freer and Marissa Smith who are in Ignite. Anne was able to come up for about a 24 hour window on some weekends for her breaks from Sky Ranch, and I got to go visit her in Houston last weekend. I visited Marissa a couple of weeks ago in Amarillo, and she got to go on a family vacation with my family and me in Sea Side, Florida. My brother got to come down from Minnesota, which was a HUGE blessing. We haven't had all four of our family members together in quite awhile so that was really fun! There's no place that I can relax more or "Be still and know that He is God" than the beach. Man, Jesus was creative when He created the ocean. I mean, for realz! :)
Anywho...besides having a week of screw-ups last week with denting Marissa's car and trying to flush paper towels down the toilet (I know, dumb!) which led to an expensive carpet cleaning bill (my parents are ready for me to go back to school due to the expensive week), my summer has been pretty smooth...:)
Even though, I have been "Blog MIA", it doesn't mean I have been "Prayer MIA", I promise. I've been praying/thinking about you guys all summer!! I can't wait to see you very soon!!
Much much love!
Rachel :)
Anywho...besides having a week of screw-ups last week with denting Marissa's car and trying to flush paper towels down the toilet (I know, dumb!) which led to an expensive carpet cleaning bill (my parents are ready for me to go back to school due to the expensive week), my summer has been pretty smooth...:)
Even though, I have been "Blog MIA", it doesn't mean I have been "Prayer MIA", I promise. I've been praying/thinking about you guys all summer!! I can't wait to see you very soon!!
Much much love!
Rachel :)
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