Bring It On

This week has been absolutely amazing. I have learned more lessons this week than I thought I would learn all summer. It has also been a series of unfortunate events. The crazy part is, I wouldn't have traded it for the world. Everything that happened was so bizarre that it was hysterical. Let me explain :)

Sunday-Before we had finished our orientation, our dinner got cancelled. CSM plans to bring groups to different ethnic restaurants every night they're here. We ended up at IHOP. To top it all of...we got lost on our prayer tour that night. My van ended up 45 minutes into Virginia.

Monday-We got stuck outside in (literal) downpours. While we were stuck outside, we got a call that we had no power at our apartment.

Tuesday-One of our work sites cancelled, so we found out our whole schedule had to be changed for Wednesday, but it wasn't anything we couldn't handle :)

Wednesday-One of our two 12 passenger vans was stolen. I'm not kidding. I ended up watching 10 high school kids while leaders figured insurance-issues out. While me and the 10 kids were standing on a street corner waiting to get picked up, our group witnessed a homeless man being beaten and mugged a couple feet away from us. Fortunately, by the grace of God, between these two incidents, no one was harmed and everyone was ok.

Thursday-I had to work on a farm. Enough said.

I wouldn't exchange this past week for the world. As each trial arose, I was able to watch the 'true colors' of our group, as well as my co-host come out. Everyone handled each obstacle with grace and patience. There were times where I felt shaken up, or nervous, but I never felt stressed, and I can fully credit my group with that. They were so wonderful.

My other blessing was that my Dad provided me with such strong words of encouragement. He patiently worked through all of my questions and answered any issues I had. I'll write more later...for now I'm tired. But at the very least, I can say that I learned two lessons.
1.) As dad said-"The more I let God work through me, the more God will work in me :)" and
2.) The Lord is absolutely my refuge, no matter where I am :)