Remember when I said I would start blogging again? Seeing as it's been a month since I've blogged, I obviously haven't been too successful in that. Part of the problem may be that I'm really good at making plans but terrible at carrying them out.
Here's a little update on my life though! For the month of September I've also had the privilege to be traveling the A Passion for Jesus, a ministry dedicated to reaching girls through conferences and retreats.
Going into this three week tour, I know that every staff member's prayer was that God would be working through us and that we would not be speaking, acting, counselling, working, or living apart from His power and grace. Now we all praise God for the things that HE has done, because without Him, we cannot have done anything.
The first conference and retreat took place in Tampa, the hometown for most of the staff. We did a camp at the Sputo's house from Monday to Thursday followed by a conference on Saturday. It was the first time that I had shared my testimony of how God has worked in my life in the area of forgiveness. It was challenging and exciting; the perfect way to kick-start the tour.
After a couple days of rest, our staff of twenty-three girls, one guy, and three moms left for Georgia and Alabama. We did a conference and retreat in Georgia and a conference in Alabama. Ester Dales [one of my new Aussie friends!] led a team together at the retreat. During the retreat, we kept praying that God would be leading us in the direction He wanted for the team. I love our team and praise God for the things He's done! God's grace carried us through all of the events and once again we saw His power and love displayed.
I wish that I could tell every testimony of what God did in the past couple weeks. I wish that I could describe to you all what it's like to be able to see girls have freedom in Christ after being in bondage for so long. I walk away with this APJ tour with a deeper understand of who God is because of what He has done. The tour was truly a Spiritual journey for all of us staff members and we've all grown closer to God and each other because of it. It unceasingly amazing to me how God takes broken things for His good. The fact is that all of us who are on staff with APJ have past struggles and experiences that have been hard or bad, but to God that's okay! He delights in using broken and scarred people. It's unthinkable but true.
Oh and the memories... oh the memories. Travelling with that many girls is pretty exciting and lends to some fun times. There were long talks, car rides, pranks, encouragement, and MANY giggle 'sessions'. I can't even begin to describe how many times we were left with tired stomach muscles and tears streaming down our cheeks from laughing so much.
But now it's finished. I'm sitting at the Jalbert's house listening to Carrie and Jacinda play the piano together while Ruthann and Laurie go over finances. Shanna and Caitlin are laughing over facebook statuses, Hannah and Hollie are playing in the yard, and everyone else is getting ready to head to the beach for a final goodbye and celebration. I am so blessed by the friendships that have been made and strengthened this month. Looking forward to what God has in the future for all of us and especially A Passion for Jesus!
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