Month 2

We finished our second month in good ole Montana! There have been hard days, stressful days, chill days, good days, and days that have an element that just blows me away. I’m sorry it has taken me a bit to update. I do love to procrastinate!!😂 Let‘s recap how month #2 went!!

Well, to start off where I left off in my last blog, our time with our gap team director, Jill Johnson, was so wonderful!! I’m so very thankful she was able to come to Montana for a week amidst these crazy times. That was a huge blessing! It was good to have one on one time with her. It was really refreshing! I love you Jill!

We had the chance to grow together as a team as well! We learned how to approach conflicts well with one another and addressed some problems we were having. It was great to learn and grow closer together as a team in that area.

Since our COVID cases are going up, we have resorted back to zoom. It is a challenge some days to not be in person for our Cru weekly meetings every Wednesday night and Bible studies on Tuesday and Thursday nights. We are making it work though! My team and I have assigned ourselves to many different college students to stay in contact with them and inviting them to Cru‘s weekly meetings, Bible studies, or just going out for coffee and chatting. I had thought the main plan was to interact, develop a relationship, and share Christ with mainly high school students. Yes, we are doing that once a week with Young Life, but the majority of our work is directed towards college students. For at least our time here in Montana, that is how it will be. It has been wonderful bonding with some college students and following up with them. Just that I could be part of their path and helping them get plugged into Cru while in college, means a lot to me. It‘s nice to know they have a community of fellow students and believers behind them. Praise God that He is drawing them into Cru, and that our team can be a part of that! I admire these Christian groups on college campuses that care so much about students and want to encourage them while in college. It is really impactful! Praise God!!

We have done some outreach on campus. Tabling is a type of outreach. Some of you may be wondering what tabling is, and believe me, I was in the same boat as you. I understand!! It’s where we invite college students to grab something free if they take a survey for Cru. It’s where we see who is interested in Cru on campus, and who wants to be contacted and met for coffee. It’s a great opportunity to ask good questions and get to know them better.

We had the chance to tutor some Congolese boys, but they were put back in school. So that fell through after the one time some of my teammates did tutor. We recently were given the opportunity to tutor two young girls. We have a plan to do that twice a week. Monday and Wednesday from 1-3pm. We are teaching them how to read, write, and do math. It’s a great challenge! I’m excited to see it play out! Hoping that this one will last longer than the first one did.

I have met up with a few college students with my teammates. It’s nice being there for them and letting them know how much we care and God cares about them. I’m sharing my testimony on November 4th at our Cru meeting that is over zoom. Maybe one of these times I can share it with you all!

As a team, we are all growing closer together like family. I love them all so much! There are struggles and joys. Things that annoy or anger us and things that make us smile and laugh. No family is perfect. Struggle and conflict should be expected as we grow closer together. There is the hard truth that we screw up, let people down, and sin. There is also grace in our failings. Through it all, we still love one another and so does God. God helps us overcome. He helps us see a victory.

Also, one thing that I’ve been telling people my whole life is God meets you where you are. I didn’t believe that was the case in my own life until like last week. I finally realized after so long that God meets me right where I’m at. I don’t have to finish with my pain in order to experience Him. I don’t have to finish this chapter in my life to experience joy. I don’t have to move on in order to experience peace and healing. I just have to be willing to spend time with Him and develop a relationship with Him. By choosing Him, choosing to make an effort with Him, choosing joy( though it may be hard), choosing to share with Him my pain, I let Him in and slowly start releasing my control. This has been the hardest thing for me. I love to be in control. I don’t like choosing joy or making an effort with Him. Even though we have a step to take and a choice to make, we never stop needing Him or relying on Him as our source in life.

We need Him every hour, every moment. Please pray that I choose Him, choose joy and that as I take that first step, I rely on Him and not hold myself back from Him.

Please pray for my team that we would love each other well, and that as we grow closer to God, we would grow closer to one another.

Thank you so much for reading my late night blog!😂 Hopefully it all made sense! I really need to start writing blogs during the day!😂 Thank you all for your prayers and support through all of this. No words could describe how thankful I am for all of you! I love you all so much!

Here are some pictures!!

This is when Jill was here

Oh Jill, this is great!

She doesn’t get this down in Florida! Exciting!! The fall colors were gorgeous!

Jill our gap team director!

Team photo

Tabling on campus

The snow we had gotten! This was before Halloween by the way!

Ira and I together

Gabriel, Ira, and Sully after getting haircuts

Dani, me, and Ira

Me and Dani

Me and Esther

Dani, me, and Esther

Waiting to get started on our prayer walk on campus

Cru’s weekly meeting over zoom every Wednesday night

Sorry thought this was funny!! Someone left a hard boiled egg on the counter. So one of my teammates writes in sharpe “You Left Me,” puts a face on the egg, and sticks the egg back in the fridge. It was hilarious!

Some random selfies! 😂