forever You are faithful
forever You are strong
forever You are with us
forever
tonight we had prayer and worship corporately as counselors. sweet time.
tonight the Lord just reminded me who I am and who HE is. He's forever guys-like never failing, never going away, longer than a 65 year old marriage, longer than a life of 102 years-always present. No matter how many times i'm unfaithful to him and try to take all the credit and do things my way, it doesnt matter, He's the True Constant, when the world we live in is completely inconsistent. in the midst of the craziness, ever changing ways of life i'm experience, i can rest assured the Lord is with me and will not let go-thats the peace that passes all understanding!!
thats all..just thought i'd share, so many times we say how the Lord is faithful, but do we really stop to think about what that means? its infathomable to understand why when we are so flaky the Lord calls to us time and time again saying "I will never leave you Alisha"
its almost curfew...love you guys
grace & peace,
lish
so this was a great weekend! days and nights off are glorious! friday night me, michelle and david (all JAM counselors) and Marissa, she is a former counselor & lives here in Brenham, went to Casa Ole and then headed out for a spontaneous roadtrip to H-town. we went into downtown and then wandered around a Barnes & Noble sipping our Starbucks...nothing fancy-but tons of fun and relaxing! then Saturday was spend bumming around the house until about lunch then michelle and i headed to College Station to lounge by my pool! later we met up with David and then Vern came along too..McAllister's was delightful and Shakes was sure yummy. All the other counselors at JAM were in Dallas for YEC, so me, Michell and David got some quality bonding time in! today was a great day too-i started helping lead worship this sunday...singing that is, which was quite interesting seeing as my voice is just about gone from the yelling & cheers i do during the week. after church i bummed around the house for a bit and then met Marissa at the pool-it ended up being a party as i saw a lot of JAM kids and then some other counselors came up.
the most kids i had this week was 12 so that was a break...our stomp was amazing, yet we didnt win, which that was kinda dissapointing for the girls cause they worked really hard on it-i mean the competition is rigged...we will win:-) on the flip side, i've been able to have some really good conversations with my girls and getting to know them and their families is so encouraging and challenging. theres this one family that i think the Lord is opening a door with..they have 3 kids and one of them is in my group and i pick them up in the mornings..super sweet kids, totally rough home life, but theyve been coming to church every week so thats really encouraging! also another praise was that i was able to share the gospel with my girls on Friday while we were eatting lunch at our field trip..none of them made any committments or anything, but they were full of questions. so that was really exciting
not so great news of the week but definitely a praise:
friday the youth group went to Dallas for the Youth Evangelisim Conference, meaning there was a total of 3 JAM counselors to end JAM on Friday, thus my skills as a bus drvier were used...so Thursday chris takes me out in the charter bus so i can practice for taking the kids home on Friday afternoon since he wasnt going to be there..it was smooth sailing. i didnt hit any crubs, no problems-i have great confidence for the next day cause all week i had been really nervous..cause it s a HUGE bus! so Friday comes and drop off in the first neighborhood-no problems..head to the second: major problem..there is a car parked on the corner of a street, another truck parked paralle to it on the other curb and a third truck parked probably a cars length behind it...there is no physical way to manuver the bus without hitting one of the cars parked on the street...BUt somehow..meaning no way but DIVINE INTERVENTION i am able to leave the scene with a small scratch on the car, no damage to the bus whatsoever..i'm telling you, it was all Jesus-because i know i'm not that great of a bus driver (just read previous posts)..the owners of the car werent upset and nither was marcus and all the kids were in one piece..quite an eventful afternoon though with that incident and only having one counselor to bounce the bus (when usually there are two)
so i'll admit, going into college station for fun is quite funny to me! but the past two times i've been, its been weird, cause the majority of my friends dont live there anymore and i just end up chilling with the family cause since i really dont keep in constant contact with my friends that do live in college station, i end up not seeing anyone-cause i never know what they are up to..i know its probably a lame excuse cause i could easily call any of them up.
its crazy that the summer is almost halfway over. if any of you guys would like to come visit me, feel free. i'd love for yall to see what my life looks like here-JAM is where its at. The Lord is alive and at work in a mighty way. I love that the simplest things can totally change your peception, this summer i feel as though i'm able to clearly minister through Jesus's eyes. While a lot of the time i'm constantly praying for focus and sensitivity, i am planting the seeds for the harvest and just the knowledge of that sets my spirit on fire. I am constantly being reminded of Isaiah and his willingness and astuteness..knowing he was unclean and confessing that to the Lord, being made pure and going to do the Lord's work-he was gentle and humble, something i'm usually not,yet i know that i'm being refined.
its about time for bed.
please call me or send me mal or an email if youd like to hear more or schedule a time to visit! i love and miss you guys!
grace & peace,
lish
well, i thought with internet at the house i'd post more often, but it doesnt look like i will :) really though, supposedly our summer is gonna start slowing down a bit now that the major stuff is out of the way and we're moving to a more routine schedule. a lot of you are probably wondering what my "crazy" days consist of well..here we go:
6:15-wake up, quiet time, by 6:35 i'm getting ready/showering/breakfast & fixing my lunch. since i'm 22 i dont qualify for the free meal program all the other counselors get!
7:15-sr. counselor devotional at the SHAPe center (aka the church/House of Worship)
7:50-i leave to pick up 3 jr counselors and kids that dont live in the projects...usually theres anywherer from 5 to 10
8:20 arrive at the highschool, pass out my name tags to my 12-17 7&8 yr old girls. do the Good Morning Cheer and then
8:30 is breakfast
9:00 is large assembly where we do worship, a large group game-today it was a boy and a girl racing to see who could eat a jar of baby food the fastest
9:30 we load the charter bus and go to the middle school for activites
9:45 is small group lesson/bible study
on Mondays and wednesdays we have reading for 20 minutes, then crafts and then free time on Tuesdays and Thursdays we have sports, then reading then free time
at 10:58 we are loading the bus to go back to the higschool for lunch
11:20 we are eatting lunch and by 11:45 we are in the courtyard practicing our stomp rountine. competitions are on fridays before we leave for the field trips
at 12:00 i take my kids home and then head back to the highschool "Whats UP" time (debreifing)
the afternoons are filled with different errands including going to sr ladies bible study, cleaning vans, the church, visiting kids, playing in the neighborhoods, study tyime for Bible Study on Fridays, going to youth girls bible study, being chris gaines secretary :)
the Lord has been so faithful in providing me rest in any way He can, so i've had a really encouraging week with my girls and the families i've gotten to hang out with. the counselors and i are getting along well. the longer i'm here in Brenham, the more i think the Lord has a much bigger plan for me than i thought. Back in April I just applied because i really didnt have any direction and it seemed like a new, neat, challenging thing to do-but now i think i've been given glimpses of the "Bigger Picture"...who really knows except our wonderful Father.
exciting news for the week: i get to help lead worship on sundays at the church...i'm just singing-no guitar yet ;)
for all you in college station, i will be in town sometime Saturday for most of the afternoon and evening most likely-i'd love to see yall! gimme a ring
thats it for now.
peace, alisha
hey friends, up at the good old public library in Brenham. its the second week and man, Satan is really wearing on me. my precious little girls have been horrible all week, none of my jr high and highschool helpers have been showing up, then today i woke up not feeling well at all-meaning throwup sick...but i trek on, knowing my strength and the ability to carry on comes from my Father, the Great Physican. on a good note, i've been quasi filling the role as Chris Gaines' s secretary, so thats been fun. he's like one of the most unorganized people i've met-so its pretty insane considering he's the one in charge since the director is on vacation. anyways, my parents are coming to visit me Saturday-im so excited, yeah i saw them this past weekend, but to have vistors is way cool..even cooler would be mail..hint hint (1405 Church St. Brenham, TX 77833)!!!
keep me in your prayers por favor.
i miss you guys like crazy.
i gotta run, internet time is coming to an end.
hopefully i'll write more on saturday...
grace & peace, lish
so i actually surprisingly got some freetime today :) JAM is going great. my girls are really precious. we are the Lady Lightweights, if i didnt mention that already, 7&8 yr old girls. AND we've got our STOMP routine down! yes, me with no rhythm or any amount of "soul" has to come up with stomp routines to perform on Friday mornings-we use them to teach our kids the scripture memory verse for the week..so this week, its a little boring, we're just stomping & clapping in place but i thought i'd start basic..cause thats pretty much all i can do :) last night we had a family bring us dinner, which is HUGE, considering most of the families cant even afford their own dinners. all day yesterday we cleaned out rooms for remodeling..my mom would definitely be proud of me-so it was a great blessing to get the free food for dinner! next week i get to start driving the tour bus..yeah, not school bus, tour bus. somebody randomly donated to mission brenham, the big organization that puts on JAM so i get to help out with that..i'm a little nervous-but its all good. i've been put in charge of teaching the lessons for the next 4 weeks to the jr counselors..which is cool, but a lot more work on my part..aka less free time :)
thats about it for now. i have some emailing i need to do. so peace out kids!
love, lish
wow..it seems like a million years have gone by since the last time i was at the computer, whats sad is its only been a little over a week. training/orientation week at camp was insane. there way of camp life is one heck of a whirlwind of craziness. for example camp started today and 75% of the decorations and posters still aren't up, but its whatever.
for those of you not completely familiar with what i'm doing, heres the scoop. I'm in Brenham, Texas working with 8 other Aggies at an inner city day camp for the next eight weeks. I'm leading the 7&8 year old girls..we are the Lady Lightweights :) this years theme is Soul Trainin'..the battle belongs to the Lord..kinda a boxing/training motif :) anyways, one thing i definitely learned is that i'm more Type A than i thought I was...get put in a situation wherer NO one will make a decision and you brainstorm for 4 hours instead of actually do something..you realize you kinda life order and decisiveness :) but its cool, i've got the assertion thing down-leading is what i know :) hmm, what else..well i'm living in a missionary house with the other 3 girl counselors..and when i say missionary house, i mean a family is gone being missionaries and they left us their house..ie-i'm sleeping in a king size in what we like to call "the honeymoon suite" its all floraled out, with white everywhere..the room is definitely bigger than my apartment :) yes, suffering for the Lord :)
i miss you guys like crazy & i hate not feeling connected to the outside world. my phone works about 40% of the day & interent access isnt the greatest. yet, the counselors are neat kids-i'm the oldest, thats why i got the master bedroom..isnt that hysterical?
Time with the Lord has been so sweet. He has proven himself so close & faithful through prayers and Scripture. Time with Him at night has been incredibly encouraging and we start our leader bible study on Friday, i'm real excited, we'r'e going to be studying spiritual disiciplines!
Please keep my family in your prayers, my great grandmother, whom i shared my birthday with passed away on saturday, i actually had to leave camp today to come to the funeral in Sealy & am at the public library here checking email & such. Kirk Grandma, was 95 years old. I have lots of sweet memories with her. she loved the Lord so much and her family almost as much. As sad as it is, I rejoice because I know she isnt in anymore pain and she's with our Almighty Father celebrating with him.
I hate having to end on that sad note, but I've got to head back to Brenham. Please send letters or gimme a call sometime-i'll try to respond as quickly as i can. know i'm thinking of you guys and i love yall a whole lot!
grace, lish