Chitown to Charlotte

Last week we went on our first annual (yes, we're hoping for more to come!), Charlotte spring break trip! One of our staff members at Sunshine, Sean Murphy, used to live and work in Charlotte.  Through many of his connections and friendships we headed down there for a week of fun!  7 of our teen girls and 5 teen guys loaded up two vans with 3 of us leaders.  The 15 hour trip was long and exhausting but as we arrived that night we were welcomed with open arms by our 4 host families.

The week consisted of many activities.  We went to the U.S. Whitewater Center where we conquered our fears on ziplines, high ropes courses, and rock climbing.  We took trip to a ranch to ride on a safari-like vehicle through a zoo that animals walk right up to your wagon.  We fed and touched zebras, buffalo, giraffe, cows, camels, ostriches, and many more.  It was a sight to see city kids react to wild animals!  We went on a scavenger hunt in downtown Charlotte, went to a baseball game, had an Easter Egg hunt, served at a ministry, met with other kids in Charlotte who are involved in the arts, enjoyed many cookouts and dinners, and had many other laughs and adventures along the way!

God is Surely Growing Your Girl

Growth hurts sometimes.  Sometimes He strips things away from us only to show us how powerful He is and how out of control we are.  At times He lets our hearts break, lets us be confused, allows us to feel lost only to have us release our grip on what we want and fall back at His feet.  I'm at his feet now, and the only pull I want to feel is that of His hand guiding down the path of His will.

This past year and a half have been... well, just about any adjective you can imagine.  Crazy, exciting, life-giving, tiring, frustrating, heart-breaking, lonely, nourishing, painful, etc... (See what I mean by any adjective!)  The path that Christ has led me on has been a wild journey.  The highs and lows of ministry, life, and love have not always been fun.  Sometimes, truth be told, it has sucked.  Yet, in the midst of that God has worked in my heart in amazing ways.

This past week, though our North Carolina trip and coming back home, God has truly opened my eyes to all that He has done and is doing in me.  I had a close friend come to me and commend and encourage me for the patience she sees me show with our girls. What!  That's a compliment I don't think I have ever received.  Only by God's grace because before, I have been known as one of the most impatient people alive.  He changes us.  Another friend recently told me, "Be careful in praying for patience, because He will put you in the middle of situations to really make you patient."  Prayers like this have been hard to pray but as I have prayed them, and been put in the middle of those growing situations (even through the extreme drama of my teen girls!), He is changing me.  Slowly but surely.

Surrender and Faith.  As a single woman, coming up on 25 years, I wonder what God has for this next phase of my life.  I have thought before that I had that figured out.  I tried to figure it out.  I fought to figure it out.  Yet I have been chiseled down to the ground by heartache and discontentment over the past year, only to have Christ chip away every last ugly piece of that in me.  I stand here today knowing that nothing, and as a woman waiting for a man to lead, TRULY nothing, I desire or fight for is going to happen unless the Lord puts that into play.  As I have reached this place of healing and peace, even over the past week, I see that God truly has this in control.  Restoration and progress happen when we rest in Him, allow Him to work in His timing, and enjoy what He lays out for us.

Corteasia

"They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him." (2 Corinthians 3:17, 18 MSG)


As many of you know, we just returned from North Carolina for a spring break trip (another post to come).  One of the 7 girls that we took was Corteasia.  Corteasia had never been any further than Indiana and definitely had never been on a trip taking her out of her comfort zone like this one. 


Throughout the week I could tell that God was chipping away at her heart.  On the last night at our host family's home, I huddled the girls up on the bed and we sat and debriefed the week.  They all went around sharing what their highlights were, what they learned, and how they experienced Christ.  As Corteasia's turn came around, she shared how she was beginning to feel Christ work in her our first day at church.  As we talked, I, along with 3 of our girls, were able to share the gospel with her from beginning to end.  She had been around Sunshine for about a year, long enough to have heard bits and pieces, but this time it clicked.  As I shared about the resurrection and the Holy Spirit filling us, her face lit up.  She accepted Christ that night and we had a great celebration party right then and there as the angels looked down and rejoiced with us!  


Pray for Corteasia.  Her joy is so overflowing right now and the faith of a new believer is so contagious.  Pray she stands strong and even as she is placed back in her world in Chicago, her light will shine bright.