Lord prepare me as I begin this summer, strengthen me, and help me to see the Church as it should be: unified and one body. This was my prayer for the summer and little did I know how quickly God would begin to answer this prayer. Even as I was boarding my plane, God was beginning to strengthen and prepare me for this great adventure. As I sat in my airline seat next to a rather quiet man who much preferred to sit in silence, I enjoyed reading
A million miles in a thousand years by Donald Miller; as I read about how we need inciting incidents to give the story of our lives meaning, I was mentally preparing for what this new job would have in store.
From the first day at RAMP, our training week, I knew I had made the right choice to be there. There were challenging times where I felt out of my comfort zone, some boring workshops, and many very important sessions; through it all I met some people that I hope to keep in contact with after this summer and so many of those people reminded me of someone I used to know but I could never put my finger on who. My thought was that it was Gods way of showing me that He wants me to be here this summer. As I got to know my team members we immediately clicked; we all had things in common, but there was something else there too. It was as if God had led each and everyone one of us to this summer to be a part of this team. So by the end of the week we were ready to head to our site and develop more as a family in Christ.
After driving 9 hours from Alabama to St. Louis we finally arrived at our summer home. A nice, large urban baptist church filled with hidden doors and attics; it's the kind of place I had always wanted to explore as a child. From day 1 of arriving we began the dreaded week known as prep week. It was in this week I learned how I need to get used to city driving, how my team reacts under stress, what it's like to prepare for 49 people staying in one area for a week. In other words I saw the pros and cons of communal living and I will still say that I could enjoy living as such. Our team had our first conflict at the beginning of this week over a doctrinal issue and it really showed how we all deal with conflict: I was the mediator, Tonia was the quiet one, Jake got heated, and Abi got upset. I learned rather quickly that we all respond to conflict differently and the best way to work as a unified body of Christ is to be open about our ways of communication. We struggled through many trials during this prep week: from basement floods to tornado watches, but through it all we grew closer as a team. By the end of this week we were all relying on the humility and grace that God has given us to bring us through.
After a stressful, busy week we departed for Louisville to have our first week with participants all together along with 8 other staff members. This week went by wonderfully and we really clicked with the teens and adult leaders. Although this was a learning experience, by the end of it adult leaders were hugging us,thanking us, and wishing we would not leave. This has shown me what I will learn all summer, it is hard to say goodbye when you serve with the bride of Christ for a week. As we returned to our St. Louis home we began the late nights and long hours making sure that everything was ready for our first group on site.The day of the participants arrival we were up bright and early for church and then afterwards planned a short staff meeting before we finished our work. In the midst of our meeting one of the congregation members came in and pointed directly at Tonia and told her that God was going to use her this summer and proceeded to tell her specifics that she was struggling with and how God wanted her to know it was going to be okay. Normally I am skeptic when it comes to prophecy, but this time was so specific and exactly what Tonia needed to hear I felt deep within me that it was from God. From that moment on I knew that this first week was going to be good.
Our first group, of 49 participants arrived as we were in the midst of finishing preparations. We had gotten very little sleep and were rushing to make the place feel like a home to them as it had already felt like our own little home. As we began our program, aspects of it went well and others felt rushed and as the week went on we realized mistakes that needed correcting. The entire week was a journey of learning, but we were blessed with a group of adult leaders who were willing to be our "Guinea pigs" and give critiques so we would know what we could do better. As we progressed through the week we got to connect with the teenagers and we witnessed change among them and watched the two church groups bond and unify. I will never forget the words from Father Marty when he said "Let's have the foot washing together, we've worked together all week; we're all Christians so why not?" That is how the body of Christ was meant to be. That made tears begin to well in me, but they fell stronger when I witnessed the beauty of the foot washing. Adult leaders were crying as they washed their teens feet and I felt overwhelmed with Gods love; this feeling increased as the adult leader I had worked with all week offered to wash my feet. That was not a part of our plan, but he washed my feet and prayed over me and I felt as if I was hugging Christ. We are called to mirror Christ and that adult leader was showing me Christ by doing this simple act of service. Needless to say it was a rather emotional ordeal to say goodbye to them and begin our weekend of rest and small amounts of work.
The Lord is using my team and I while helping us to grow in unity and humility. I pray The Lord will continue to bless this team as we work towards being missionaries to this community for 7 more weeks. I pray for strength, humility, and a servants heart to come into these flawed humans' hearts made from dust.
