I'm Moving to Memphis

It's been three weeks since I left Memphis.  Things back at Cedarville are a little different than inner city Memphis.  It's a lot quieter here.  I don't hear gunshots anymore.  I don't see homeless people everywhere anymore.  I don't spend five days of the weeks working next to a drug house run by the Crips anymore.  Random guys don't ask me out when they walk by.  But all jokes aside, it really is a different culture here.  Truth is, I miss Memphis.  Memphis was broken.  It was dark.  It was evident that Satan was at work in that city.  But it was also a place that God was redeeming.  God was calling people in that city to Himself.  God was moving.  I was such a small part of that this summer, and I saw God do amazing things.

When I drove out of Memphis at the end of July, I started praying. There was something that I prayed for my campers every week, and I began to pray that same prayer for myself.  I prayed every week that my campers would not have a once-in-a-lifetime experience at SOS.  I prayed that they wouldn't look back at the one week they spent in Memphis and think about how cool it was, but that they would look back at that one week and think about how God changed them that week and used that one week to set the trajectory for the rest of their lives.  I began to pray that same prayer for myself.  I prayed that God would use this summer to change my heart for good.

The longer I spend away from Memphis, I think that I can honestly say that this summer was not just another summer.  It is going to set the trajectory for the rest of my life.  I can already see the different ways that I am responding to people around me and dealing with situations with more love and grace.  I can also see that my eyes have been opened to the unspeakable brokenness in Memphis.  I saw pain that I will never forget.  But I don't want to just come back to "real life" and be unchanged.  I want what I saw this summer to motivate me to make a difference in Memphis.  I am already searching and looking for options of what I can do in Memphis when I graduate.  I don't know how that is going to play out after I graduate in two years, but I have never felt so strongly that God is calling me somewhere.  I have no doubt in my mind that at this point in my life, God is calling me to Memphis, and I can't wait to grow and learn more as I pursue that calling.

Today I Met Christ

Today I met Christ.  No, I didn’t become a Christian today, I’ve actually been a Christian since I was a little girl, but today I met someone whose life was so centered on Christ that it showed through and I saw Christ in him.  Today wasn’t going so well.  It was just one of those days where I was feeling particularly lonely and incompetent for no good reason.  I was exhausted after roofing for the past few days, and to add to all of that I ran over a nail yesterday, got a flat tire, and I had to go get that tire patched on my afternoon off.

When I entered the tire shop, the man at the desk helped me out, and after getting my information and sending my car into the shop to be looked at, he asked me about Service Over Self, the urban home repair camp that I’m working at this summer.  I was still wearing my staff shirt and was still caked in dirt from the day’s work, so he was naturally a little curious what I was doing.  After I told him a little bit about SOS, he started telling me about his church.  He is a pastor at a church not too far away, and he was telling me of this vision that he had to build a place where teens can come hang out as an alternative to spending time getting into trouble, where prostitutes can come to be safe, and for so many other people to be shown love.  We talked for probably fifteen minutes, sharing how God had worked in each of our lives and how God brought us to where we were today.  At this point, one of the guys who worked in the shop came out front and informed me that because the nail had punctured my tire in the perfectly wrong place, he couldn’t make a patch that would last for more than a week.  I turned around to look at the wall full of tires behind me, and as I looked at the prices on the tires, I tried not to cry, but when I realized that what I thought was going to be a $30 tire patch would actually be a new $130 tire, I felt tears of frustration welling up in my eyes.  The kind man asked me to come back over to the counter, and when he saw the tears, he asked me if buying a new tire was going to be a problem for me.  I told him that it would be fine, but what he did next was completely unexpected.  He reached into his pocket, pulled out some money, and told me, “I’m going to pay for half your tire.”  I tried to tell him that it was fine and that I could pay for the tire, but he insisted.  My eyes widened in surprise and the tears of frustration turned into tears of joy and complete surprise.  It was the kindest, most unexpected thing that someone has ever done for me.

I expressed my thankfulness and my surprise that a complete stranger would do something so kind, he told me something so profound.  He told me, “Hey, if I can live my life in such a way that I can bless other people and share God’s love that way, I think that’s all I really need in life.”  He spent the next half hour or so talking with me and my friend who had come with me, sharing his testimony, encouraging us, and sharing Scripture with us.  Today, God truly blessed me by showing me one of His children living out the gospel in such a clear way by showing  so much kindness to me, a complete stranger.  God truly sends blessings in the most unforeseen ways in the most random place.  We serve a great and powerful God who knows just when we need encouragement.  I continue to stand amazed at His provision every day.

If I Was Choosing, I Wouldn't Pick Me.

Two weeks of camp are done.  This summer is flying by at warp speed.  I have never had so much fun, learned so much, and felt so close to God as I do right now.  There are so many, many things I've learned in the past several weeks.  I've learned how to use power tools, how to share my testimony of what God has done in my life, how to navigate around Memphis, how to salsa dance, how to politely refuse to give my number out to junior high boy campers, and how to love people out of the overflow of God's love for me.

But in all of that, I think the biggest lesson that I've learned in the past month is this:  God doesn't call those who are equipped; He equips those whom He calls.  I'm really bad at construction.  Most days, I have no idea what I'm doing.  Before this summer, I'd never laid a shingle, never installed drip edge, and never used a jigsaw or a reciprocating saw.  I didn't even know what those things were!  If you had told me six months ago that I'd be spending my summer on a roof in the inner city of Memphis, I would have laughed at you.  But every day, I am reminded of God's grace for all of my shortcomings.

Despite my inadequacy, I've seen God do amazing things.  The first week that campers were here, I had the opportunity to work with a really amazing group.  They were all from a school here in Memphis, and several of them were from the very neighborhoods that we are working in.  They all grew so much during the week.  Despite the fact that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, they all shared with me at the end of the week what God had done in their lives.  One girl opened up and shared with us some struggles that she had never told anyone in her whole life.  Another girl told us about her broken family and all of the hardships that came with growing up in a home like that.  And they all came away from SOS with a better understanding of the gospel, of who Jesus is, and of who they are in Christ.  After hearing those stories at the end of the week, it was so obvious to me that God had worked in their lives despite me.  He didn't need me in order to change them, but He allowed me to spend a week with them.  He equipped me to have those conversations.

If I was choosing, I wouldn't pick me.  I would be the last person I wanted on a team to go roof a house.  I would be the last person I wanted on a team to go share the gospel with people who are lost.  But God picked me.  He didn't pick me because I'm good at talking with people, and He most certainly didn't pick me for this job because I'm good at construction.  He picked me because He knew that He is powerful enough to equip me to do whatever He needed me to do.

So this is my challenge to whoever is reading this:  don't say no to God because you feel inadequate to do what He wants you do.  Follow wherever God is leading, and hold on for the amazing ride that will follow.  When you let go of all the ideas and plans that you have for your life and just allow God to equip you to do what He wants you to do, your fears melt away and you are filled with such joy that can only come from being in the center of God's will.

Here We Go!

I arrived in Memphis at SOS on Wednesday.  It's been a whirlwind of a week!  After being welcomed to the building and meeting my six new roommates, we spent the week getting acquainted with the other staff members and with the neighborhood that we will be working in.  This involved learning to square dance in a pavilion a few blocks away, playing silly icebreaker games like finger jousting, having some Memphis BBQ together, and so many other things.  My highlight of the week was what we did on Friday.  On Friday, we had the opportunity to travel through the neighborhood of Binghampton getting to know some of the people who live there and how they are using where they live as an opportunity to share the gospel with their neighbors.  There are so many people who have moved into this neighborhood as an opportunity to serve, and it was incredible to hear them share about how much they have been blessed by taking this step of obedience.  These people are living in some of the roughest neighborhoods in one of the most dangerous cities in the United States, and yet they have such a peace about the work that God has called them to.  It really made me realize that there is so much for me to learn and so many ways for me to grow.

Another highlight of my week has been getting to talk with my coworkers and hearing their stories.  There are people from all over the country and from all sorts of different denominations working here this summer.  It's been such a blessing and an encouragement to hear other people's stories of how God brought them to SOS this summer and how He has been working in their lives, and I love getting to interact with people who may have slightly different beliefs than I do but still love and serve the same God.  I really appreciate that here at SOS, it is completely normal and acceptable to walk up to another staff member and ask them what God has been doing in their life.

Next week will bring so many new experiences.  I will get to meet the family that I am partnering with for the first time, I will start to learn the basics of roofing, and I will get to know my coworkers even better.  I am looking forward to the new relationships and new adventures that the upcoming summer holds!  I appreciate all of you who are praying for me!

My Summer Plans

 Hello Everyone!

I've never had a blog before, so I have no idea what I'm doing, but I guess I have to learn sooner or later.  I decided to start a blog to keep everyone who wants to know updated with what I will be doing over the summer without spamming everyone else on facebook with dozens of posts.  :)  I probably won't be posting for a while until the summer, but once the summer starts, I'm going to try to post once a week.

By now, you are probably wondering what I'm doing over the summer and why I think that it's so important that I wanted to blog about it.  I'm so glad you asked;  I've just been itching to tell you.  :)  I will be moving to Memphis, TN at the end of May and will be staying there through the end of July.  I am going to be working for an organization that I heard about over spring break just a few weeks ago.  I went on a missions trip through my college, and it changed the trajectory of my summer.

I had little expectation of what I was getting myself into when I signed up for the trip through my college, Cedarville University.  Some of my friends had gone of the trip in previous years, and not really knowing what I was getting myself into, I signed up to go.  The group from Cedarville was going to partner with an Christian outreach organization in Memphis called Service Over Self (SOS) which ministers to those in the inner city by building intentional relationships with the homeowners through home repair.  They mainly work on roofing projects, and they have two target neighborhoods, Binghampton, and Orange Mound.

Our group of 22 students drove two 12 passenger vans from Cedarville, Ohio all the way down to Memphis on the first Sunday of our break.  We started out the week with a brief tour of the neighborhoods.  I was shocked with the sheer volume of abandoned homes that were boarded up and falling apart.  I was even more surprised by the amount of houses that were falling apart that were actually occupied.  The next day, our team split up into four smaller teams, and we went out into the neighborhood of Orange Mound to specific houses where we would be working for the rest of the week.  It was cold and cloudy, but not raining, so we started to work on the roof.  About the time that we had taken all of the shingles off one side of the roof, it started raining!  We quickly covered it with a tarp and avoided a catastrophe, but it didn't stop raining until just before the end of the week....when it started snowing!  We only got to spend that one morning working on the roof.

Needless to say, everyone was a little bit disappointed that the weather was ruining our grand plans to serve the people in Orange Mound.  But the more we started talking, the more we all  realized that God wasn't working despite the weather, He was working through the weather.  We had so many more opportunities to serve.  We got to help at a homeless shelter, and we got to help at a community center.  Also, one of the teams' homeowner really opened up about what was going on in her life.  I can't help but think that maybe that specific opportunity wouldn't have opened up if the weather would have been warm and sunny.

SOS really makes sure that they are pouring their hearts into the lives of everyone who walks through their doors, which meant that they had chapels and devotional times planned for us.  It was amazing to see how I came with plans to serve, yet I walked away feeling like SOS had left a bigger impact on me than I had left on the community.

I went back to Cedarville, but I left my heart in Memphis.  I was so amazed by the ways that God was and is working in those neighborhoods.  The presence and work of God is almost tangible, and I wanted to be a part of that, even if it was in such a small way.  Early in the week, I heard about their summer internship program.  At first I dismissed it, thinking about how I needed to find a job that would be relevant to my degree in chemistry, but as the week went on, God starting working on my heart.  I fell more deeply in love with God and with what He is doing in the inner city of Memphis, and by the end of the week, I couldn't think of any other way that I would want to spend my summer.  Our team got back to campus late on Friday night, we watched a movie until about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, and then I stayed up to apply for the internship program.  I can't say that I'd advise anyone to apply for anything at that time of the night, but despite my lack of common sense, God is still working. :)  I went through the interview process, and today, I was offered a job at SOS for the summer.  I am happy to say that I will be mailing them my acceptance letter in the morning and that I will be moving to Memphis at the end of May!  I will be a team leader for the summer.  This means that I will be paired with a specific homeowner for the summer and that every week, I will get a new group of high school and/or junior high students who come from all over the country to spend a week doing urban ministry.

I'm so excited to see how God is going to reveal Himself this summer to the residents of Binghampton, to the high school and junior high students who come to work at SOS, and to me.  It's going to be a learning experience (I don't know the first thing about roofing or urban ministry), but I'm eager to learn, and I'm trusting that God will provide me with whatever I need for the summer.

I would really appreciate all of your prayers as I go into this summer!  I'm so excited to see what God has to teach me!  If you want to talk to me about the summer, my email is listed on my page!  I'd love to hear your thoughts! :)