Occasionally I snore....Really loud.

So I am coming out of my closet.

I snore.

Hard.

I have been compared to a freight train and once, I was camping, and someone mistook me for a wild animal.

I have been compared to a chain saw.

A jet plane.

An old man.

A leaf blower. 

And my favorite, a dragon.

Many people have slept in the same room and they can all tell you, it is crazy.

I need you all to know that this is mortifying telling you all this.

But this summer is about being open and honest, and not sweating the small stuff.

So this past week I was in training for my summer adventure.

I was met at the airport in Birmingham Alabama by someone I didn't know.

Driven to a church I had never been to.

And then slept in the same room with 12 girls I had never met.

And they all heard me snore.

And some how everything is still okay.

But from what it sounds like, this is just the beginning.  

Youthworks! Check it out at Youthworks.com It's a little glimpse at what I will be experiencing this week.

 So I drove down to New Orleans, (pronounced literally any way EXCEPT New Orleeeens.) with my team on Saturday.

Emily is 21 and from Minnesota. And someone once told her she had no personality. That person was dumb.

Sarah, is 21 from Boston. And is just the biggest ray of sunshine. When she plays basketball, she runs around just like you might suspect a character on Downton Abby might run. =)

Then there is Chris. Chris is 25. I am 2 months and 7 day's older than him. And he makes my side split. I really don't know if I am going to live through the whole summer. His greatest worries for the summer is us girls getting snatched up and also getting roofied at church. 

Many people ask what our job entails and mostly we have just said Mission trips, but this training week has taught us that it is so much more than that.

We will be giving brief talks about why we serve where we serve.

We will be wrangling highschoolers all summer being in relationship with them, and teaching them how to make biscuits and gravy.

We will be sleeping in this tiny conference room in a church on an air mattress with 2 other girls all summer.

We will be working with and supporting the 3 other people on my team.

And mostly importantly we will be creating and maintaining significant relationships with the community members around us.  

This summer is going to be an adventure.

We're going to have to keep everything honest and open.

We're going to have to be a unit.

We're going to have to be gracious.

We are going to have to be patient.

And Prayerful.

We are going to have to be able to live with the metaphorical snoring of each other, and find our compromising super powers with each other. 

This summer, has high expectations for us, and tall orders.

Ones we might not be able to fill on our own.

So we're going to need some prayer.

I am going to need some encouragement.

And Someone is going to need to remind me who I am.

And who Jesus is in me.

We're talking about "The Kingdom" this summer to our youth.

And what Jesus established when he was here on earth.

In Mark 12 we learn that Jesus was asked what the most important rules were.

He say's "Love me with every part of you. And love everyone else just like you love yourself."

I keep thinking that, no matter what you believe, that is our most important human characteristis.

Love Others.

We aren't made to live alone.

We aren't made to struggle through the punches life throws at us by ourselves.

I was not made to go through this summer on my own.

That is why we are a team.

That is why we are a unit.

That is why honesty and openness is so important.

We have to keep our relationships strong so that we can have the others to lean on when we start forgetting that we are going to make it.

I once read a saying that said...

"A Friend is someone who knows your song, and sings it when you have forgotten it."

 We need each other.

When we live in isolation we might have as well given ourselves a death sentence.

Darkness brews more darkness, but the good news is darkness cannot be where Light exists.

There are so many insecurities going into this summer.

And I am just walking through each one owning them and reminding myself self to keep moving forward.

And I am so grateful I have this team of people with me to help remind me and sing my song with me.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to move forward into community with the people who live in the area and teach people through my own mistakes and hurts. 

My life might be the greatest adventure ever lived.

I would love to hear from you friends! So don't be strangers! Message me and Let me know how you are doing and I can't promise immediate response but I will keep up!

Love to you all!