Laughter, Love & Breakthrough
It's only been THREE weeks since my last blog post instead of two months! Progress!!
Funny that SO MUCH has happened in the past three weeks. I'm sitting in Starbucks (the closest place with wifi) with my sweet friends Kara and Salem, and Kara goes, "Wow, you have A LOT you can write about!"
Tell me about it.
For starters, we had the first years Feet Washing Ceremony on October 5th. The day before had been pretty rough, so it was completely intentional that this, of all things, would be the next morning. It took me a while to actually submit and get up to get my feet washed; I kept having all these thoughts that I wasn't worthy enough of it. As I got my feet washed, three of my sweet small group leaders prayed over me. And even though none of them knew how rough the past couple of days had been, or why, they prayed over me as though they knew. They prayed for everything I needed, which was completely a God thing. It was incredible. I know you're shocked to learn I cried the entire time. :)
Over the past couple of weeks, we have served a lot. It's so amazing that we GET to serve! We served at this huge event for the Dream Center called Night of Dreams. It was incredible to see all the funds raised in just a few short hours! Another event every DCLS kid serves in is Saturday morning Adopt-a-Block. I go to Imperial Courts every single Saturday, and just this past weekend a sweet little girl I had never seen before ran up to me, latched onto me, and asked if I would carry her to the playground! (If you were wondering, yes, I did carry her to the playground. How could anybody say no?!)
Another huge thing-- it RAINED here!!! Stormed all night long and into the next morning! It was amazing. I hadn't realized how much I missed rain until I was stomping through all the puddles and giggling at 11 PM!
Just this past week, I had a really awesome day. Twice a week, DCLS has two first year students come on stage during Chapel and give a Devotional. It's to encourage the other DCLS kids. Almost everyone finds it nerve-racking and dreads it. I have never been a great public speaker, so it was funny that I was picked to do one in the very first month of being here...
I prepared for a couple days before, stayed up until 2 AM sorting everything out and listening to God speak in our Prayer Room (not Prairie Room, Dad! :) ). Two nights before my Devotional Day, my sweet friends Kara and Lexi brought me ice cream and flowers as I paced back and forth in my room, practicing. So sweet! I cried... maybe a little. :)
I woke up on the morning I was to give my Devotional pretty calm, which was not like me. I have always had a spirit of fear and anxiety about almost everything. I hadn't even slept great; I had woken up every half hour or so from nerves, I'm assuming. I walked into Chapel before our worship time (I gave my Devo after worship) and all my friends wished me luck, gave me big hugs. and told me how proud they were of me. That encouraged me a lot more than they knew.
And do you know what happened?
I crushed it. I have absolutely no doubt that my friends all heard the shakiness in my voice for the first minute or so, but after that I completely got into the rhythm of it. I made people laugh, I know that for sure. I really hope I made people think. But I did it, all thanks to God for pulling me through. It was absolutely incredible.
I walked off the stage not thinking, "I'm glad that's over with and that I never have to do that again", but instead, wondering, "When can I get back up on that stage and do it again?"
Complete change of heart, I loved it.
Last night, we had a student led worship night for first year girls. It's a little murky as to whose idea it was, but I'm going to place it on Lexi, my roommate. We had almost twenty first year girls show up, which was SO much more than we had ever thought! It was so incredible. We got deep with girls we had barely talked to, built relationships and community, and truly became one as a class. It was incredible to hear girls speak about things they had never shared, to see girls worship like never before, and to witness the breakthrough in that tiny fifth floor prayer room. Needless to say, that will NOT be the last time we have a student-led worship night.
I called my parents yesterday for about an hour. I'm really bad about calling every few days because of the time difference and how busy not only I am but also them as well. I have called, at a minimum, once a week, which is pretty good, but always results in a lot of catching them up on everything and we talk for almost an hour (or more) every time. My Dad had me on Speaker and I was talking to my roommate, or someone that had come in to ask me a question, and I heard my Dad lean over to my Mom and say, "Have you heard how much she's laughed in the past twenty minutes? I love it." It made me smile from my side of the phone because I realized how much I truly love it here. I mean yes, it's hard because I love my family and I'd give anything to have a hand squeeze from my Dad and a hug from my Mama right now. But I'm also growing and living and learning and loving people and everything about this place. I don't think I have taken the smile off my face since our plane landed almost two months ago... This is definitely my place.
I love you all, thank you so much for reading!
Have the best week ever, and hug your Mama if you can. :)
People I missed most this week: Libs, Ken, and Lima
Song of the week: Known // Tauren Wells
Xoxo,
Ry
Funny that SO MUCH has happened in the past three weeks. I'm sitting in Starbucks (the closest place with wifi) with my sweet friends Kara and Salem, and Kara goes, "Wow, you have A LOT you can write about!"
Tell me about it.
For starters, we had the first years Feet Washing Ceremony on October 5th. The day before had been pretty rough, so it was completely intentional that this, of all things, would be the next morning. It took me a while to actually submit and get up to get my feet washed; I kept having all these thoughts that I wasn't worthy enough of it. As I got my feet washed, three of my sweet small group leaders prayed over me. And even though none of them knew how rough the past couple of days had been, or why, they prayed over me as though they knew. They prayed for everything I needed, which was completely a God thing. It was incredible. I know you're shocked to learn I cried the entire time. :)
Over the past couple of weeks, we have served a lot. It's so amazing that we GET to serve! We served at this huge event for the Dream Center called Night of Dreams. It was incredible to see all the funds raised in just a few short hours! Another event every DCLS kid serves in is Saturday morning Adopt-a-Block. I go to Imperial Courts every single Saturday, and just this past weekend a sweet little girl I had never seen before ran up to me, latched onto me, and asked if I would carry her to the playground! (If you were wondering, yes, I did carry her to the playground. How could anybody say no?!)
Another huge thing-- it RAINED here!!! Stormed all night long and into the next morning! It was amazing. I hadn't realized how much I missed rain until I was stomping through all the puddles and giggling at 11 PM!
Just this past week, I had a really awesome day. Twice a week, DCLS has two first year students come on stage during Chapel and give a Devotional. It's to encourage the other DCLS kids. Almost everyone finds it nerve-racking and dreads it. I have never been a great public speaker, so it was funny that I was picked to do one in the very first month of being here...
I prepared for a couple days before, stayed up until 2 AM sorting everything out and listening to God speak in our Prayer Room (not Prairie Room, Dad! :) ). Two nights before my Devotional Day, my sweet friends Kara and Lexi brought me ice cream and flowers as I paced back and forth in my room, practicing. So sweet! I cried... maybe a little. :)
I woke up on the morning I was to give my Devotional pretty calm, which was not like me. I have always had a spirit of fear and anxiety about almost everything. I hadn't even slept great; I had woken up every half hour or so from nerves, I'm assuming. I walked into Chapel before our worship time (I gave my Devo after worship) and all my friends wished me luck, gave me big hugs. and told me how proud they were of me. That encouraged me a lot more than they knew.
And do you know what happened?
I crushed it. I have absolutely no doubt that my friends all heard the shakiness in my voice for the first minute or so, but after that I completely got into the rhythm of it. I made people laugh, I know that for sure. I really hope I made people think. But I did it, all thanks to God for pulling me through. It was absolutely incredible.
I walked off the stage not thinking, "I'm glad that's over with and that I never have to do that again", but instead, wondering, "When can I get back up on that stage and do it again?"
Complete change of heart, I loved it.
Last night, we had a student led worship night for first year girls. It's a little murky as to whose idea it was, but I'm going to place it on Lexi, my roommate. We had almost twenty first year girls show up, which was SO much more than we had ever thought! It was so incredible. We got deep with girls we had barely talked to, built relationships and community, and truly became one as a class. It was incredible to hear girls speak about things they had never shared, to see girls worship like never before, and to witness the breakthrough in that tiny fifth floor prayer room. Needless to say, that will NOT be the last time we have a student-led worship night.
I called my parents yesterday for about an hour. I'm really bad about calling every few days because of the time difference and how busy not only I am but also them as well. I have called, at a minimum, once a week, which is pretty good, but always results in a lot of catching them up on everything and we talk for almost an hour (or more) every time. My Dad had me on Speaker and I was talking to my roommate, or someone that had come in to ask me a question, and I heard my Dad lean over to my Mom and say, "Have you heard how much she's laughed in the past twenty minutes? I love it." It made me smile from my side of the phone because I realized how much I truly love it here. I mean yes, it's hard because I love my family and I'd give anything to have a hand squeeze from my Dad and a hug from my Mama right now. But I'm also growing and living and learning and loving people and everything about this place. I don't think I have taken the smile off my face since our plane landed almost two months ago... This is definitely my place.
I love you all, thank you so much for reading!
Have the best week ever, and hug your Mama if you can. :)
People I missed most this week: Libs, Ken, and Lima
Song of the week: Known // Tauren Wells
Xoxo,
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