We're here!

24 hours, 2 hours of sleep, 2 plane rides, airport at 4:30 am, orientation all day, and an 11:00 pm ice cream run..and we're ready to go! The plane ride was wonderful, no troubles at all. The Lord blessed me with a wonderful couple (who happened to live not long ago in Hattiesburg, went to Temple, and whose neice lived on my floor in the dorm this year!) who helped me find my way to my second plane. It being my first time flying, I was rather amazed at my Lord's creation. And to think that Heaven will be so much MORE glorious! :)

We arrived around 11:00 am yesterday here in Nashville, and orientation wasn't supposed to begin until like 1, so we got a tour of the Tennessee Baptist Convention building, met lots of people (they're crazy up here!) who work with TBC, and ate lunch with a group who will be traveling all over TN this summer doing VBS. Before we began the information part of orientation yesterday, we enjoyed a sweet time of worship with one another, through singing, signing (the Brentwood people signed our theme song, Love Them Like Jesus!), and Bible study. We were challenged with Hebrews 12:1-2, to throw off the sin and things that entangle us and hold us back, and to run the race the Lord has for us this summer and for our lives, using "veteran runners" (our cloud of witnesses) both from the Bible and people the Lord places in our lives, as tools for wisdom and guidance. It was a wonderful way to begin orientation and the summer!

My partner and I met part of the group we will be working with this summer; the rest of them stayed back in Jefferson City at AO (for future reference, that means Appalachian Outreach, the place I will be all summer!). The group who is here consists of me, one other girl, and a whole herd of crazy guys! We quickly clicked, as most of them have been together for a week or two already. I pray that the Lord will continue to bring us together until we're unified in His love! That's my biggest prayer right now, that we will be focused and that we will be unified. Please join me in that prayer! And please pray also for the people we will be serving, that there will be opportunities to share Christ and that they will be open to receiving it! Pray for us also that we may not rely on our own strength or abilities, but on the Lord's, "which so powerfully works in me."

Now unto Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us! To HIM be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)