Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases.

Howdy bloglings! It's been a while. I've been sitting on a plane back from Spain for the past 5 hours. I have 4 to go. The Lord has blessed me with some serious time of reflection. Being alone with your own thoughts can suck, but I'm taking an attempt to use this time constructively. We'll see how this blog flows...

At the end of June, I got to go to Student Life Camp with the middle schoolers from my home church. It was cool to see the camp from the prospective of a leader. I had gone six times as a camper before, and now the student was becoming the teacher. I had my very own family group of 11 middle school whipper snappers. I learned a lot from them, first being that they're in junior high and deep down inside they just want to be crazy, which is a beautiful thing, but we worked on channeling that craziness towards the Lord. The Lord shows me every time I see those cool kids that He has planted a seed in them, and I am to be there to help nurture it through prayer, being a good mentor, and making an effort to live and preach the Gospel constantly. It's been good to see these seeds God has planted. Many of these seeds don't seem to be growing at all, but "the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Luke 17:6

Beauty is never gone.

After Student Life I worked Vacation Bible School  a muse for 1,000 elementary schoolers, doing skits and dressing up as a goat daily. Immediately following this week, I got to spend a weekend with the absolute greatest people I know. Shout out AFC Staff 11.12! Man oh man. That road trip was desperately needed. I was letting Flower Mound take hold of me. I was showering regularly, and wearing make up everyday! It was awful. On top of that, I was just in a place emotionally where I really needed to be around encouragement, and people who kept my mind set on fruitful things...such as that much anticipated Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2015! Also, after spending time with AFC people around, my mom and dad pointed out to me that they had never seen a group of students our age that are so encouraging towards each other and authentically interested in investing in one another.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17

When one of us has a burden to bare or something exciting happen, those stellar former fish of AFC 10/11 are always first to lend a sympathetic ear of let out a cheer! (I didn't plan on that rhyming but I've thought about this and I'm keeping it that way.) Seriously, I needed to be around people that I could just feel nurtured by, and they were that for me, and then some. Hey staff 11.12, I love you. A lot.

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2 (staff was ministering to me without even knowing it! ha!)

I left directly from the road trip running on about 9 hours of sleep for a 3-4 day time span to be a "rec leader" at a camp in Bryan, Texas (whoop) with FBC Magnolia to help out mah gurl Kasey "k-sawg" Shelton. (shout out) I went out assuming I'd be leading a few games of dodge ball, human pretzel, and perhaps some gorilla, man, gun. You know, all of the youth group staple games that are easy to link to a theme or a memory verse. I have never been more grateful to be wrong about something in my entire life. The week I spent with those high schoolers, along with k-sawg, Megan Perez and Allison Krauska was the most encouraging week of my entire life. The games were actually fun, the worship was authentic, small group time was real and raw, the camp was completely spirit led and scripture driven, and the students actually all got along and liked each other! All of these things were what I always knew that a youth group should be, but I never have seen it be that way so brilliantly. It was the receptiveness of Taco, the church's youth minister that made this possible. He led the camp on a schedule, but had no real agenda; the agenda belonged to the Lord and was followed by being obedient to the spirit.

That week was huge. It the Lord completely broke me and filled me up in a week that I was expecting to be a completely drained servant. The Lord had me there with a clear purpose. He gave me community with believers that week, new friends, and a renewal in faith in Him that I was desperately due for. I came away from camp in awe if the Lord's complete sovereignty. I mean. I knew Kasey, but not super well, she was my co-chair when I was a freshman! She blessed me beyond belief by asking me to work and randomly selecting me out of her Christian roledex. The Lord met me that week and reminded me where home really is. It's not in the spiritual desert of Flower Mound or in the wonderful oasis of Aggieland, my home is with Him in heaven. He is all that I need to answer to ever. He is the lover of my soul, and no one else.

“My beloved is mine, and I am his; he grazes among the lilies.”

King of the Monastery

Song of Solomon 2:16

Right after camp ended I was blessed with the opportunity to be surround with some great Ags in college station. Looking back, I am amazed once again at God's sovereignty in His plans. I needed a time with my Ags prior to camp to kind of serve as a buffer between where I was and where I needed to be, and the time I spend with my people in Aggieland after camp served the same purpose. They were a nice buffer between spiritual paradise and the real world that I was about to re-enter. ILOVEYOURYANBRYANNIBSANDSCOOTER.

“Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases.” Psalm 115:3

Two days after I got back mi amiga mejor Hillary hilldog Hamilton joined my family on a nine day Spain trek. It was full of ham, calamari, and Catholicism. The opportunity to see the world (especially if you live in the Bible Belt) should always be jumped at. It can remind you how much the rest of the world differs from your little happy Christian patch or it can be an encouragement that the kingdom thrives globally. For me, this trip a weird mix of was both. You can't swing a dead squid in Spain without hitting a Cathedral, and people clearly take their religion seriously. But, for a place that is so abundant in spiritual resources, it was depressingly full of depravity. Prostitution, alcoholism, homelessness, poverty, and secularism, the list goes on. I'm currently considering being a missionary in Spain instead of Latin America. We'll see what the Lord has for me. I enjoyed what might be of my last big family vacations, but I'm excited to travel the world with friends and people with my interests and outlooks on things. It has definitely not gone unnoticed that seeing a whole new culture and some Spanish immersion has been a blessing.

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." -- St. Augustine

 Oh. Also. I just FINISHED A BOOK called Authentic Beauty that has completely changed my life. It’s by Leslie Ludy. If you're a lady, read it. If you’re a guy, read every book that Eric Ludy has ever written.