Late Night Early Morning SUAH

So it's currently 330 in the morning and I am laying in a fort built by Josh and Evan in our living room as Evan and Jordan are asleep on either side of me. Josh is attempting to study at the table for his final at eight in the morning.
Words can not describe how much I love these three friends of mine. Don't get me wrong, I am so blessed to have the entire community I have in Arkansas and every one of them is a reason why I have thought of the possibility of planting roots down here but there is something that happened with the four of us that will hold us together for quite some time.
We call it SUAH. It stands for Super Ultimate Adventure Hoodrats. We don't really know how it happened but it did. We like to go on adventures and for some reason it always ends up being the 4 of us. So we made a club. 'Cause we're cool. We're not trying to leave anyone out, if you ever want to come on an adventure with us, you are more than welcome to. It just happens. Usually spontaneously.
These adventures have bonded us though. Bonded us in conversation, bonded us in adventure and bonded us in friendship. We are sisters and brothers in Christ and I believe that is a huge component to us being such great friends. It's completely normal to find one of the boys asleep on our living room floor at 3 in the morning.
I know the rest of this is going to sound super sappy but right now I would consider these three my best friends. Friends who shoot guns together stay together right?

Our Last YL Club of the Year

Our friend put together this video of our last club Monday night. It's a window into the world that we as Young Life leaders step into every day. We choose to because we believe in this ministry, we believe in these kids and most of all we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  John Evans, our ArkLaMiss Young Life Regional Director said it in no better way at our Arkansas/NE Texas leadership weekend this year ...

"Love BIG... 

and ENTER the mess."

Enjoy!

The Spirit Fills in the Blanks

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. 

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us 

with groanings too deep for words. 

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, 

because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God

 And we know that for those who love God 

all things work together for good, 

for those who are called according to his purpose."  

 [Romans 8: 26-28]

     The last part of this section of verses has always been a verse that I carried around with me since even before I really became a believer and follower of Christ. Lately I have been focusing on the first part. 

     Even when we are broken to our core and don't know what to pray for past our last breath, the Spirit takes our prayer and helplessness and fills in the blanks. Most people think the "Christian life" gets easier when you decide to "follow Christ" but if you are REALLY following Him in everything you have you will soon learn that this is not the case... pretty much ever. Things get harder and it is crucial in every thing to lean hard on Him, the Spirit, and the Community he surrounds you with. Trust me when I say I am learning this the hard way right now. I hope this was just a little bit of encouragement and reminder to some of us that I think forget frequently. But always know that if you are truly trying to follow... it will be worked out for your GOOD. 
God wants us to succeed, but we can't always see the right race to run. 

A Walking Day

     Due to some interesting circumstances the last couple days I was forced to use my feet as my primary mode of transportation rather than driving. Being from the NW this isn't something that is uncommon to me at all. I use to walk everywhere, all the time. I would take me about 45 minutes to get from one end of Corvallis to the other. I loved walking to and from campus at Oregon State and we lived right by a park where I use to go run. Even in growing up in Washington I walked to school from 7th grade on and it wasn't uncommon for me to walk "downtown" (or at least what they liked to call "downtown Covington" which I have learned has grown quite a bit since I left 4 or 5 years ago. I didn't even have my license til I was almost 18 years old. Regardless, I like walking, I use to do it a lot more, and the other day I got to enjoy it a little.
     It's funny what you see when you are walking that you don't see when you're driving. Or when someone else is driving, or you're riding public transportation (which Conway doesn't have btw). Conway however is a lot bigger than Corvallis, and lacking sidewalks in a lot of places and it took me a lot longer to get from one side of the town to another and I may have had my roommate come pick me up later but I did enjoy it.
     Walking gives me time to think. Time to process what's going on. Time to talk to God and rest in the beauty He made around me. Yesterday made me a little homesick though. It brought back memories of walking around Corvallis to and from campus, going to meet Hannah or walking by my friends houses and stopping in to see what they were up to. I did get to see two of them on Skype which made my whole day, and a voice mail from another brought so much happy to my heart. I do miss them on a daily basis and look forward to seeing all of them again so so soon!! But I am grateful for the community I am surrounded with in Conway. They have and are helping me through a lot and a lot of just being away from home. I say all the time that I don't know how long I'll be here but for now I'm right where I need to be.

Til the next new day ♥ ,