wonderful days

Me and co-intern Chet!


I've had so many long days, but so full of such good things! That's how I've felt about basically the whole summer so far, and it is so inspiring to know that this is an actual job that people have! Youth ministry was something that I considered for a second when I was actually in high school, and as soon as I got out, wrote it off as something that I was only interested in because it was like my whole life at the time and I couldn't imagine my life without it! ha! But now that I am seeing more of the behind the scenes/ organizational side of it, and am more drawn to certain aspects of the way the whole thing works as I learn more and more about it.

Pictures of the new Youth Mission (taken by Jess Terry)

One of my responsibilities for the summer has been to plan Sunday night activities for the youth group. Two Sundays ago, we went bowling! I am not awesome at bowling, but it's surprisingly a game that I like (!) and compared to a lot of middle and high schoolers, I am actually pretty good. Ha! That was a fun thing to do and I haven't done it in years!

The Monday after bowling, we started setting up for Memphis Workcamp. White Station church of Christ hosts it ever since Highland moved buildings, but it is directed by Highland. We met on Monday mornings at 8:00 for pump-up songs/games and to meet with our work crews (about 13 kids on each crew, varying ages and churches). We scraped/painted/worked on houses til about 3, and came back together each night for dinner and worship. The camp started Monday night and it was just awesome. 428 teams from 20 churches from 7 states came together and made 64 houses new across Memphis neighborhoods. Praise God for that!!

Workcamp is always such a fun experience because 1. we are not taking God into the Orange Mound community, but revealing him there. 2. teenagers get to meet complete strangers and share God with them. 3. Memphis heat and humidity is just fun. 4. a couple coats of paint can totally transform a house. It is always so neat to see the homeowners' faces when they are so full of pride for their home! So many said how the teenagers were angels sent by God, that they had been praying that He would send someone to paint their houses. So cool. Also, one of my favorite parts is when we all worship together at night and hear amazing speakers! So cool, and definitely a life shaping experience for teenagers serving God by serving people. There were a couple of girls from our youth group on my work crew, so it was great to get to spend time with them! Oh also, I got the chance to get breakfast with Anna Wade one morning before workcamp, which totally made my day!!! She spent second semester studying abroad in Greece, was home for a second, and then spent 3 weeks in Rwanda! What a great connection we have!!!! Oh my goodness. So so good to connect with old friends, if even for an hour, and share life and our maturing worldviews! gah!

The Sunday after workcamp was a busy but fun day. I started out that morning teaching my 8th grade class about James. It is getting a little better, but teaching is definitely my biggest challenge! After church we had meetings for our mission trips. I think I have written that in July I am taking a group of 30 kids (and a couple adults) to Houston to work at a VBS at Impact Church. We are preparing lessons, crafts, puppet shows, songs, games, devotional journals, and more! It is a little crazy trying to focus on 30 kids (big group!) but I am definitely excited about the trip. Over 3/4 of the group have been before, and there are 5 or 6 guys who just graduated from high school and this is their 6th time to go! Even though they have had chances to go other places instead, even Belize! They love it SO much and that makes me even more excited!

After our TIME trip meetings, we had a camp counselor meeting. Everyone knows that Camp is the greatest week of the year! The teenagers have LITERALLY been counting down 51 weeks. I was a "teen counselor" 2 years ago with the 5th graders, but this year I am a legit counselor, and get to be in the nice lodge with the senior girls! Woohoo! It is going to be awesome. Most of my best and most meaningful memories of my life (that took place in this country) happened at camp! It has been a little stressful, personally, preparing for camp in the position of a Bible class teacher, and being in charge of SHAFT. I guess since camp was always such a big deal for me, I feel pressure to make it that good for everyone else who is experiencing it now! But then I remember that I am just a dumb intern and do not have THAT much weight on making or breaking camp! HA! What a joke! Anyway, let me just say that SHAFT stands for super happy action fun time. It happens every day after lunch. We sing VBS songs a la Father Abraham, play dumb games, and have gross eating competitions. Sick! IF you know me at all, you probably know that this is not my favorite thing. It has taught me that my ideal career would never have me in charge of anything fun or funny!

That night, we had a girls swimming party at one of our 10th graders, Chandler's house! Over 30 girls came and we had dinner and swimming and a small devo/prayer time. So special! Love those girls!

This past week was VBS at Highland. The youth group doesn't really have anything to do with it except many of the teenagers volunteer to help out in the different age group classes, transporting them from classrooms to the puppet show to the drama to crafts to snacks, etc! I decided to go two of the nights. First of all let me just say that the puppets are HILARIOUS. I am not kidding. Also, the same people have been doing the puppets' voices since I was a small child. They must have so much fun because they throw in so many jokes that just the adults get. Pretty much the kids just laugh at the dumb stuff. Typical. Haha just kidding. But anyway, "Brother Jay," (my friend Chris Shappley's dad) is the emcee, and the night I went, I was innocently sitting on the floor with my class of super hilarious three year olds, and Cool Ray (one of the puppets) said, "Is Rachel O'Connor in the house?" HAha! What a joke! He had me come up to the front, and all of the puppets sang a song. Chet wasn't there, but the song was written for the two of us. Something along the lines of "they're our favorite youth interns, doo da, doo da, they're our favorite youth interns, oh doo da day. one's a pretty girl, one has a beard, they're our favorite youth interns, oh doo da day." Such a classic. And obviously I love being the center of attention. Haha what?

On Tuesdays our youth group does something called Power Hour. We go to Raleigh and put on a small VBS for neighborhood kids! About 65 kids from Highland showed up (amazing) when we met at the building at 8 AM to prepare. We split up into two groups. I went to a neighborhood where we knocked on doors, gathered kids, and met outside in a grassy park and had songs, games, a lesson about Abraham, a craft, and snacks. Chet's group went to a day camp that was inside Raleigh Community church. Power hour is super fun... and hot. It always amazes me the enthusiasm our youth groupers have, though! I see God so much not only in the precious little kids, but also our compassionate, smart, and loving teenagers.

On Wednesday night after work and before VBS I get to grab dinner with Rebekah (12th), Kristen (11th), Ellie (8th), Katelyn (8th), and Karli (7th). It was awesome!!! I loved it! I ran into several of their parents last night, who thanked me for doing that. What?? It was too much fun and a highlight of my week. Also, without talking too much about it, a bigg lesson that I have learned is to not focus so much/not make the ultimate goal of making people like me. It is seriously not that important. I'm not just talking about this summer, but in general - it's been a good lesson to learn. The ultimate goal is not being liked, but showing people Jesus. Again, not just as an intern, but in the day to day. Ding ding ding! Hi maturity.

Tonight I got to have dinner with Patrick (brother) and catch up. I haven't seen him in like 2 weeks! What!? We are such busy grown ups! Anyway, it's so good to have my big brother in town! He's so cool! We ate at S.O.B. (South of Beale) down town and afterward I pulled over and watched the sun go down because it was just beautiful. I've said it before and I'll say it again that the sky just amazes me, and I cannot get over how God paints a different sunset every. single. day. and gives it to me/us as a gift. How cool!

I was hoping to get to drive down to Cleveland, Mississippi today to see Thiersten and maybe Blake, two of the best people I know!! who are in the middle of Teach for America training! Obviously I have been packing for camp and doing random important things all day and didn't get to, but really hope I will be able to at some point this summer. I am soo proud of them!

Also, Hannah Perrin and I just solidified plans for her to come visit me in Memphis in August, and then we are going to drive out to Malibu together! IT WILL BE AMAZING!

Also, it is 11:30 PM, I have to finish planning my James class for the morning, and am leaving for camp in the afternoon, and will not be getting much sleep in the next week! :) not to mention I have already written 239087 pages. Love everyone! Please pray:

For my Pepp friend Sandy who is really sick in the hospital in London!

For me to have confidence/not worry/let God speak through me/relax about teaching

For kids and teenagers this week to be able to focus, leave behind distractions, have fun, be safe, build relationships, create unity, learn things about God, be able to apply what they learn to their lives

For all the directors in charge of camp

For kids and teenagers thinking about getting baptized this week

For everyone including me to invest in not only the people who are easy to love

Everything to go smoothly overall

So. much. love. Talk to y'all in a week!