Update #3 from #kaleo12!

First of all, I can’t believe that two weeks has passed since my last blog!  Sorry it has taken me this long to send an update, so much has happened at the project!  Instead of trying to go day by day (because that would make a pretty long blog), this time I’ll give you a few highlights of the past few weeks!

1. D-Group weekend

The purpose of D-Group weekend is for every D-Group to go on an adventure somewhere away from Gulf Shores!  A few of the popular places for groups to go are Destin, Savannah, or Atlanta, but naturally our group decided to break the mold for our weekend.  The girls in the group each made a few suggestions, but I decided it would be more fun to plan the trip and surprise them with the details as the weekend progressed!  We set out driving west Friday evening, and they finally realized that we were headed to New Orleans when we crossed the Louisiana state line!  The first night, we checked into our hotel room and got some (very) much needed sleep.  That next morning, I had planned on taking them on a swamp tour that morning, but a tropical depression brought a ton a rain to the entire gulf, so we had to reroute our plans!  We discovered a cute little pizza restaurant and went searching for a big, historic church to get some extended time with God. 

After driving around in the rain for a while, we finally decided to try out a Catholic church close to the French Quarter that looked pretty promising.  As we walked in, we were greeted by a nice Hispanic man with a name tag on, and we couldn’t help but think that was a little strange given that mass was still 3 hours away.  When we sat down in a back pew, we realized that the entire church was filled with many nice Hispanic men, and the priest kindly approached us and informed us that they were having their Spanish men’s retreat!  He so graciously offered us the side chapel to get some un-interrupted time with God. We knew that this would just be the beginning of a hilarious weekend!

We found our way to Bourbon Street and spent some time just walking in silence down the street taking in the atmosphere.  We explored Royal Street, and then decided that we would challenge ourselves by having spiritual conversations with people on Bourbon Street like we would back on the beach in Gulf Shores.  After some interesting conversations, we headed back to the hotel and went out for some delicious creole food that night and after topping it off with ice cream, we returned to the hotel and finished a great day with an episode of “Swamp People” to go with our culture-filled day!

Sunday morning we went to a contemporary church called Celebrations and headed back east through a huge rainstorm!  On the way home, Jordan wrote a song so we would never forget our incredible weekend together!

    2. Chopping off our hair

   This one only applies to Libby and I, although the entire group was present for the show. The past few weeks, Libby and I have been scheming about what it would be like to cut off several inches of our hair, and up until D-Group weekend we had never taken action on making it happen. On the way to pick Melat up from the airport, we had a sudden burst of courage when we saw a "Sports Cuts" by the Starbucks we were headed to. We knew that if we didn't do this spontaneously, we would never get it done, so that afternoon Libby lost about 10 inches and I lost 6 of our beautiful long locks! The best part was, Sports Clips usually only does men's hair, so they couldn't even style it for us. We were happy about the deal we got and were glad we brought along some hairspray and product in the car!

     3.    Kennon Vaughn (guest speaker)

Last week, we welcomed Pastor Kennon Vaughn from Memphis to our project to teach us more about Jesus’ heart for spiritual multiplication and how we can implement this in our lives. It was cool to think about all of the Biblical examples of men and women pouring into another individual’s life until they were ready to “disciple” someone else. Even applying this principle to my own life, I would have definitely not developed many of the deep convictions for sharing my faith regularly and making continual growth a priority if not for Bethany’s guidance in my life over the past few years! Kennon urged us not to make having our own disciples our god, but to intensely follow Christ like the hardworking farmer, devoted soldier, and competitive athlete in 2 Timothy 2 and we will get to see other’s lives impacted through our deep personal relationship with Christ.  Jordan, Libby, Cherie, Melat, and I definitely talked about Kennon’s remarks for days after the week was over.  

    4.    Energy Drinks

On our second training over inductive Bible study, I knew we could all use a little extra motivation to focus on some intense (but awesome) content, so I surprised the girls with their favorite energy drinks (notice Libby’s Sprite- she doesn’t drink pop)!  It was definitely easier for us to get more excited about what we were learning that night!

    5.    World Prayer

One of the biggest highlights of our weekly activities in our group is Tuesday night world prayer!  Each week after Bible study, we go to a different room in the StayBridge and pray for a specific group or religion in the world.  The past three weeks, we have been to China, Hindu, and International Students world prayer rooms.  Our favorite part is getting to learn more specific things we can pray for, and also knowing that the hour we spend trusting big things to God will be worth it as he answers our prayers!  It’s really cool to hear stories from older people at the project about how many of the people they spent their first summer or two praying with became the answers to many of their prayers as God had sent them to these places! We continually ask God to let our lives be used to impact these groups while we’re still in college and beyond!

   6.     Fire Alarm

Leave it to our group to be the first of Kaleo to set off our fire alarm!  Thanks to the dishwasher melting a plastic-handled spoon, it took us, StayBridge staff, and Heath 30 minutes to figure out how to turn it off!

   7.     Seeing the Hull’s

So this one is more of a personal highlight... but I was so excited to get to see my Aunt Susan, Uncle Wayne, and cousins Trevor, Haleigh, and Callie!  They graciously took me out for dinner, ice cream, and a fun evening at the park while they were here!  They also got to experience a TNT night with our group, which was a blast! Thanks for all of your love and support!

   8.     Relationships Conference

Who knew this would be a highlight for me? Actually, even though none of us girls are focused on relationships with guys at this season of our life, the relationships conference was a huge blessing in each of our lives.  We welcomed David and Lisa Burns, who are on staff with Campus Outreach in Indiana to speak on fellowship and also a godly perspective on singleness, dating, and marriage.  David actually led our StuMo campus director Joel to Christ while in college and has discipled him over the years, so it was really cool to welcome a very monumental individual in our ministry into the project! Some of the biggest highlights from the weekend were looking at developing deep, lasting friendships with other girls that would last for a lifetime, learning how to view our singleness as a gift rather than a waiting period, and that the purpose of dating and marriage is to make us even more like Christ! After staying focused all weekend, we finished off Saturday night in true Kansas style with a Hoedown Throwdown (dance!)

These are just a few of the many adventures of room 208 during the past few weeks! Here are a few things we would love your partnership in prayer with:

-That our group would develop deep friendships that will push us closer to Christ much longer than this summer.

-That we would each put in the discipline necessary to develop a deep walk with Christ so we can pour into others.

-That we would continually have application on our hearts so we can best prepare for maximum impact when we return to campus in the fall in the places that each of us will live.

(Specifically, Jordan, Libby, and I will live in Alpha Xi Delta Sorority, Cherie will live in West Hall, and Melat will live off campus!)

-That God would continue to develop our hearts for the world!

Thanks for your continual support and prayers! Until next time!