Busy as a Bee.

Hey y'all sorry I haven't posted in a while. I feel like I have so much to say to you. Let's see. I've had a busy few weeks. So here I'll highlight the specifics.
Mexico Mission Trip
               So here I am, back from my mission trip to Mexico with too many words on my tongue and far too many memories in my head to fathom, let alone put on a page. How can I write everything I've experienced in one single blog post? Its impossible. But I'll try. So we arrived in Cancun Mexico. We then visited the Calvary Chapel Church started there and was blessed and sent out by the pastor. Our team then divided into several groups and began to head separate ways for the next week. As we continued through our trip, we visited 4 different Calvary Chapels started in different locations and villages throughout Mexico(Hocaba, San Felipe, Merida, and Tizimin). At each of the churches we helped out through service projects or VBS for the children at the church. It was amazing to see the joy of the faces of those who we touched. While at Calvary Chapel Tizimin I encountered a new circumstance. After working on the church, we were divided into smaller groups to go on visitation to meet and pray for some of the church members.
            The house I visited belonged to an elderly woman. She had been living by herself in a small home with trash speckled across her front lawn and dirt plastering her red cement floor. Some of my group picked up trash while my friend and I scrubbed her floors clean. It didn't take long to clean the small living room and kitchen of her house, however right when I thought it was over, my leader asked me to step inside her bathroom and clean it. I had walked by it before and keeled over its smell, so this was a stretch for me. As I stepped inside the dimly lit small bathroom I looked around for a toilet, sink, and shower, but what I found was quite different. There was nothing but a whole in the ground for a toilet and a drain for a shower. How blessed we are. A shower and a toilet is not a need as we believe it is. It is a luxury. Do we ever realize that? When we're on a mission trip we live among the people and even experience a bit of destitution ourselves. Of course, we complain as well. And then after a week we're gone and back to our luxuries. It hurts me to know how spoiled I've become. How comfortable I am in my own air-conditioned room and sleeping on my pillow-topped bed. Mexico was liberating.
           You know what I've found about mission trips? When I drive in the back of pick-up trucks or big white vans down dusty bumpy roads, I feel at home. When I look and see old beat-up buildings on my left and my right. It makes so much sense. I feel happy. It feels real. Its nice to see such beautiful imperfection. Its nice to see lawns covered in weeds and natural landscapes. I love seeing wildflowers on the side of the road and vines taking over homes. Its so natural. To see thousands of stars covering the night sky. No light pollution is present, only the stars and the moon shine through the night. Only God's glory is seen. Fulfilling Christ's very words is what we did. His natural beauty was seen. And it was His presence I felt all through the trip.

Church Outreach Retreat
              I'm going to try to cover this in one paragraph considering my last "highlight" probably has exhausted your reading skills. So, this past weekend I went with a group of kids that are involved in the same church outreach as me. We went up to northern Florida to stay in a friend's lake house. While up there we went through some of the book "Radical Together." It was amazing to see my team and I grow closer spiritually and relationally. Empowering worship on the dock under the stars or by the campfire grew us closer in Christ. We also enjoyed recreational activities such as kayaking and going on walks through nature trails. It was an amazing trip. God was and always is so good.
Root Canal
              Right at the end of my retreat I had some unbearable toothaches. My front tooth would throb on and off and by the end of the trip my entire top lip was swollen. Finally, the day after I came back I got to the dentist and found out I had an abscess in my front tooth. Surely enough I went in and got a root canal. I'm still a bit swollen yet the pain is leaving me. It hasn't been fun, but I've learned a lot through the pain.
School Play Rehearsal
             Lastly... I have been quite busy lately with our school's play rehearsal for the musical "Beauty and the Beast." I am part of the ensemble group and in the opening scene I am a milkmaid and during the song "Be Our Guest" I am a feather duster! Its quite riveting. However, soon rehearsal shall be picking up and I may not be able to write as often, but until then, I shall be here faithfully writing my thoughts out to my faithful readers.


P.S. I realize this post is mainly a summary of my life and I apologize for possibly making you all feel like you're reading my diary. That's not my intention. But it happens. Sometimes.