family weekend

next weekend is family weekend.  the majority of the "littles" parents and siblings come to Shelterwood for the weekend.  this is an awesome opportunity for the parents and the kids and for us to meet their families, but also can be extremely challenging and stressful for them.  i just wanted to ask for prayers for this week that our girls would not get anxious about their families coming and that the weekend would be a great opportunity for them to bond and grow closer with their families, that it would spur their growth, rather than set it back.  

also if you could pray for the bigs, that we would give our anxieties about the weekend to the Lord, and rely on His words and His strength as we have the opportunity to minister to their families.

we talked about ecclesiastes 3:1-8 during our devos today. i just thought i would share it because it was a good reminder for me about time and seasons and that God is in control no matter what season it is.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
I guess I was just reminded about how God is in all of these times and apart of all of these seasons.

g-rap

for those who do not know, i was able to go home this weekend to suprise my mom for her 50th birthday (she was definitely suprised)! it was a lot of fun and such a blessing to be able to see my family and friends and just be reminded about how much they love me and i them. i was also able to bring my friend Jenn home with me!! let's just say it was a pretty amazing weekend off!

i had other things to write about, but they seem to be slipping my mind now. i guess it'll have to wait until another day!

shalom

running

hey there everyone!

it has been one crazy but good week! i never thought i would have to run after one of the girls, it was a good thing i had my chacos on!!!  it made for an interesting day to say the least.  plus last night another visit to the er and we didn't get back until 3am. 

i think it is finally settling in that i am going to be here for awhile. i am beginning to feel at home here and am really getting to know the littles and the bigs. God is teaching me a lot.  I still am trying to figure out good management of my time though.  i am enjoying our classes and what not.   

monday is going to be crazy too....i am getting a new girl in my room!!  i am super excited because i know God is putting her in our room for a reason.  but if you all could be in prayer for her and for the room dynamics, that would be great.  

monday i also have a staffing, which is where we have the counselor, house director, and bigs (me and my co big abby) share with our little strengths and weaknesses, and conflict resolution and other insights into their attitude and behavior.  it is basically a time for us to encourage and give feedback on how they are doing here in the program and what not, but it is a pretty formal process.  

i guess that's all for now, i should get to bed...big day tomorrow.

mercies

it is such a rollar coaster ride here.  everyday there are so many ups and downs with the girls.  nothing is constant, nothing that is except God.  

it is definitely a struggle to not get depressed here because there is always someone who is having a rough day or is down, and a lot of times it brings the whole house down.  i'm definitely learning that i need to be constantly leaning on God.  these girls are weighing on my heart and my heart is breaking for them.  

in one of my classes we discussed the difference between the red sea and the dead sea...

...the red sea....has water flowing into it, and is also has water flowing out of it...

...the dead sea...has water flowing into it, but has nothing flowing out of it...

relating that to here/and life...as disciples of Christ we need to be filled (flowing in), but also we need to overflow into others lives (flowing out) otherwise, we become stale and dead...like the dead sea.

i had this past weekend off, it was fun to hang out with my mentor, watch some movies and stay in a real house!  also i was able to try out a different church which was good. also i had a good jam session with my house director's!

i have come down with a cold/cough or something so if you could be praying for health that would be sweet!  

also prayer for my room, that we would connect and grow more as a room

and for the unity of the bigs

:)

shalom

classes

sorry it has been awhile since my last post, i just did not really know what to write about.
we've finally started actually having our classes regularly, because we have been doing training and life stories up until now! we have discipleship class, leadership groups, counseling class, perspectives class, process group, girls bible study/guys bible study. the leadership groups are small groups in which we are going through a book about leadership. the counseling class is taught by the counselors and is about parenting styles - love and logic. process group we meet with the director of Shelterwood and just kind of process through things with him as a group. discipleship class is a class about disciples and is taught by the COO of Doulos. the girls bible study we are doing is "Breaking Free" by Beth Moore. the building of the school/rec center is now done so we now have actual classrooms for the kids and we for us! (they were meeting in the basement of the boy's lodge in office type areas.)

there's just some general knowledge of what else happens here.
soon i will post some more about what God is doing in my life, and what He is teaching me. i have to go for now though.

God is faithful

God is so faithful! our roomtime today was amazing, both of our girls shared their life stories with us. i was excited that they trusted us and opened up with us about what they have gone through and what they have learned in their lives. i can't even imagine going through some of the things they have been through and it breaks my heart. but what was a God thing tonight was that there was another girl who joined our room time (God thing cause she normally would not be in our room at this time) who hasn't been here too long, and i could see that God was planting a seed of hope in her heart when she heard what these girls have been through, but how they have hope in Christ. one of the girls encouraged the other that God can use the crap she has been through for good. it just touched my heart so much to see God using the girls to minister to each other and it reminded me of His faithfulness in my life.

originally i was very anxious about coming here to take part in LeadTime, even pulling into the parking lot that first day i really wanted to turn around and drive back to MI. i am SO glad i didn't! God has been blessing me in so many ways just being here. my girls have been a blessing to me, and are teaching me sooo much. it has definitely been humbling being here as well. it's so awesome to see God at work here!

today in our house meeting, our sweet :) house director shared a passage with us from 1 Peter that pretty much sums up what is happening here at Shelterwood and i thought i would share it for those that are interested...

1 Peter 5:2-3
"Be shepards of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers--not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock."

I guess this would just be a prayer request, that this would be true in my life, and in the lives of others here. Also, if you continue reading that chapter there is some more prayer requests for me in there, that I would humble myself, cast my anxieties on Him because he cares for me, be self-controlled and alert of satan, that I resist satan and stand firm in Christ.