Hibachi, Target, and The Bachelorette

Hey y'all!

I've already told y'all how much I love food. I really believe that it is my love language. I love to make it, and I love to eat it. I like to eat it with friends or alone. I like to eat when I'm happy, sad, excited, mad, annoyed, etc. My current guilty/not-so-guilty pleasures include hummus and pita chips or green bell pepper, peanut butter and apple slices, and iced coffee. Let's be real though... I could also mention a million other things that I crave constantly.

Anyway, last night I got to hang out with two extremely entertaining Jhi girls. We went and got hibachi food at Kani House. YUM! I've been to hibachi places multiple times before but the jokes never fail to make me laugh. When the chef was cooking the eggs he pulled out a rubber chicken and made it squeak looking over the eggs. So terrible, but so funny! (I'm a terrible person.) Then he made the fried rice into a heart and made it beat which is one of my favorite parts. Then he spread it out everywhere to which I said, "You broke my heart!" I've never heard one of the hibachi chefs laugh so hard! It was definitely a boost for my confidence :) (And I have leftovers to eat today!! Yay!!)

Then, after stuffing ourselves so full that I thought I might die (dramatic much?) we headed to one of my favorite places! Target. Oh the time and money that I could spend in Target if I had it. We ended up in the movie section, and who knew that Target had such great DVD's for so cheap! I got Pride and Prejudice (the old one that's like 12 hours long), While You Were Sleeping, and Newsies for about $24! Oh so exciting. And that was me using self control.

Then we ventured back to my house to watch The Bachelorette! I'm not afraid to admit it. I love this show. There's something about hearing all of the drama but not having to be involved in it that's just wonderful. Also, I don't think it's a good idea at all, but it shows us what not to do in relationships, right?!

Anyway, we had a marvelous time and I love these girls! I'm sure there will be many more of these fun little parties/girl-dates. 

Y'all can pray for opportunities for me to serve these girls and wisdom to know how to best show them love.

Side note: A big group of us also went to see Monsters University yesterday afternoon and it was hilarious! I totally recommend it!

A Badly Needed Vacation and Precious Friends

This past week I was able to take a vacation which was marvelous. I went to Gulf Shores with my mom and dad. No, you didn't read that wrong. It was just my parents and me. This absolutely never happens as one of six kids. But it was fun! I've also been learning in my internship that I have a hard time stopping working. I never understood workaholics before but I'm realizing that I am one. It's hard to stop a project in the middle of it and pick it up later, so I usually just keep going. Needless to say, this vacation was exactly what I needed! I took lots of book expecting to have time to sit and bask in the sun while reading. Nope. But my time was filled with some great memories!

One of the things that my family enjoys most is food, so I was very excited to remember that there was a place called "Lamberts: Home of the Throwed Rolls" in Gulf Shores. I had eaten there once before and knew that I had to stop by this time as well. This place is incredible! You sit down, they immediately take your order, and they start bringing you food. I ordered chicken and dumplin's and sweet tea like a good southern girl. It came with creamed corn and a sweet potato. Yes, yes, yes. It just keeps getting better. Then they bring around tons of food and don't stop! Things like fried okra, fried potatoes and onions, black eyed peas, macaroni and tomatoes (not a fan),  and rolls. Oh my, the rolls! They are life changing. And they quite literally throw them at you. And if you're across the room from the man throwing them (like I happened to be), he balls the roll up in his hands and pitches it to you! Pitches! (Side note: I've grown up with a dad and younger brother, so I know how to catch a ball. This was ridiculous though.) Sadly, I didn't catch it, but it fell on the booth right next to me and I snatched it up. (God made dirt and dirt don't hurt, right?) Then someone comes around with homemade apple butter and molasses. The apple butter was heavenly, but I wasn't brave enough to try the molasses. Maybe next time. Please just try to sympathize with how full I was at this point. I thought that someone might have to roll me out of there. (Get it? Roll? Throwed rolls? Terrible joke... Moving on...)

As I explained to my sister that night, "It's a great experience. It's one of those feelings that goes from great to horrible real fast." I had to get something to remember this occasion so I decided to start my Gamma Chi pin collection! (See some post in the future to find out what the heck a Gamma Chi is.)

My best friend from high school, Kiley, also happened to be there at the same time doing a show called Jubilee! She goes to The University of Alabama (but we still love her) and is a musical theater major there. They have a program called SummerTide which is where students audition for a show and then take it to a theater in Gulf Shores. They do the show 6 days a week and have a musical theater camp in the mornings for kids that live in the area. I was able to go see her show once and it was adorable! There were 4 girls and 4 guys in the show. The whole show used songs that were about the state of Alabama or mentioned a county in Alabama. I also got to meet the other students in the show and they were great! Such a fun opportunity!

Kiley and I were able to hang out almost the entire time I was at the beach which was wonderful. I don't get to see this precious friend enough! She's one of those friends who I can not see for a long time and then as soon as we're back together, we start back just where we left off. I cannot even say how much of a blessing she has been in my life. Her life radiates with the love of the Lord. Needless to say, I am incredibly thankful for her! She also loves baking, crafting, and Netflix as much as I do so we always have something to do. Also, she loves coffee more than anyone I've ever met! So of course we had to make our own caramel frappes. Delicious!

I also found out that another friend was in Gulf Shores at the same time! They invited Kiley and I over to their house and we were able to hang out with their precious, hospitable family. And we played in the water! I can't remember the last time that I actually played in the water at the beach but it was great! (Only downer that I forgot about till this week: salt water in your eyes. The memories came flooding back of getting water in my eyes as a kid and running out of the water, eyes close, arms stretched out, screaming for my mom to give me a towel. Oh the pain.) I love that God perfectly planned for these friends to be at the beach at the same time as my family! Such a blessing.

Sorry that this wasn't actually about my internship at all. Oops!

God Knew When He Put Me Here: Crafts!

Hey y'all!

I could list a hundred reasons that God has placed me in this internship right off the top of my head, but this is one of my favorites. I love crafts. Everyone who knows me to any degree knows that. And the great thing is that God especially knows that! He created my mind. He knows how it works. He knows which areas He made me more talented (and which areas are better left to other people...) I also recently heard an incredible quote (I don't know who said it, sorry) that said something like "It's God that gives you the desire to do that which pleases Him." Beautiful quote, right? He has created me to love crafting and baking specifically and in turn, when I use those talents, it pleases the Lord. *shivers*

Anyway, my amazing internship has given me the opportunity to do both of these things so far (crafting and baking). The first opportunity started with our normal Tuesday Jhi meetings. We were working on planning the theme for our summer program called Jhi Summer Nights. One of the other interns came up with the idea of "Despicable Me, Glorious God". I could not have been more excited. Despicable Me is one of my all time favorite kids movies! I could quote it for days. "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" and "It was your cousins' idea! ... Whaaaaa???" being two of my favorites.

Different people were assigned to be in charge of different aspects of the program such as games, ice cream truck (so exciting, I know!), and tech. This was one of my first meetings with the staff so I assumed that I would just be helping other people with their jobs. To my surprise, I was assigned to be in charge of the decor for the program! My mind immediately began to race. I also have to take a moment to point out that my mom has always taught me to dream big on projects so I started to do just that. I dreamt BIG! I had no idea how much time, effort, and tears (yes, tears. Sometimes breakdowns are necessary) would go into this project.

My first thought: I want a minion version of me!

My second thought: EVERYONE needs a minion version of themselves!! (Note: I work on the Jhi staff with eight other people. EIGHT. That means nine minions, okay? Okay, glad that got cleared up.)

Never did the thought come into my head, "Oh Rachel, honey. You are biting off WAY more than you can chew. Why don't we think about this realistically and keep brainstorming." Nope. Another thing that everyone knows about me. I'm stubborn. I don't change my brilliant ideas easily.

So here began the project! I brainstormed with one of my brilliant, craft-minded sisters and we decided on a list of what I would need to create the project. I then visited my FAVORITE store: Hobby Lobby and went nuts. I bought paint, paint brushes, and NINE foam poster boards. I started by making a list (I LOVE lists) of characteristics to portray for each staff member and then did my first sketch on a random piece of paper. I thought, "Hmm, that's pretty cute. No way is that going to look very good full size though." I then sketched it out and went about painting it. Let me just tell you how excited I was when I finished! It was adorable. (Yes, I'm bragging. Just wait.)

This is my minion pre-cut out. Yes, it's a bow, side bangs, and a tutu :)

Then I had to make eight others which, like I said before, included tons of time, effort, and tears. Thankfully my precious mother was there to calm me down as I worked everyday after I got off work until I went to bed on those stupid... I mean...cute...minions. She helped me to cut them out which was a huge help and saved a lot of my sanity.

I then had the wonderful (read: dreadful, embarrassing, humbling) experience of going to Home Depot for the more functional part of the project. I approached an older man that worked there thinking that he would pity me and just go ahead and help me. He was great. We collected some wood (no idea the dimensions), 2 foam insulation boards (massive), a 2x4 (see, I'm not too helpless!), paint, and some angle things? I finally got back to the church, painted those dang boards, put the letters on, added the minions and was set to go. (Note: we still haven't figured out how to make the wooden stands we were going to create to work. Fail. Oh well, God provides!)

Here is the finished product! I didn't get any good pictures (really, this one is terrible), but I'll work on that later. Praise the Lord that I finished this massive product!

ALSO, I haven't forgotten the baking part. We had a staff BBQ and I volunteered to make a dessert. This thing was heavenly. It's a Chocolate Nutella Strawberry Cake (recipe courtesy of The Pioneer Woman). You're welcome! (Note: Next time I make it, and there WILL be a next time, I'll make it as a trifle. The strawberries were so heavy on the whipped cream that it eventually fell. :( No worries, it still tasted delicious!)

A Thoughtful Friend and a Book Review: Quest for Love by Elizabeth Elliot

The other day I came home from work and saw a package on my front porch. Since my brother just graduated from high school, I assumed that it was a present from him. What a nice surprise when I discovered that it was for me! It was a sweet note along with a book from one of my mom's best friends. The note said that she had been doing some spring cleaning and found that she had two copies of this book Quest for Love. My name came to her mind when she found the book and hoped that I would read it. (These days I'm doing as much reading as I possibly can since I don't have any reading to do for school so I was very excited to acquire a new book.) I love when God uses people in my life to suggest books, friends, restaurants, etc. It's such a powerful reminder that we are on His mind when He puts us on the minds of others.

Anyway, I immediately picked the book up to start reading it. I was hooked. I had never read a book by  Elizabeth Elliot before, though I had heard of her incredible story and God-given wisdom. I absolutely love her style of writing and her wisdom that bleeds through every page. She's also incredibly blunt, which I appreciate. This book is actually the sequel to another one of her books called Passion and Purity (which I hope to read soon). It contains letters that people have written to Elliot about their quests to find spouses and her responses to them. At the end of each chapter, she bullet points some key parts of the stories: things to imitate, things to avoid, and questions to think about.

When I began the book, all of the ideas presented sounded very archaic. Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe that I should have lived during the 50's. I love poodle skirts, can't wait to be a stay at home mom one day, love cooking, and feel very uncomfortable talking about inappropriate things. Therefore, this should not have been so strange to me. Elliot firmly believes in men pursuing women, men making the first move, God's will being the first thing thought of, etc. As the book went on, I found myself agreeing with most of the things she said, if not all.

I would definitely suggest this book to other people to read. It's not a self-help, "you will find your soul-mate after you read it", "single girls' Bible" kind of book. It's purely the story of how God has placed couples together when they sought his will and wisdom in their lives.

Missions Week: A Recap

Hey y'all! So last time, I just talked about the first three days of missions week. Now I am both happy and sad to say that the week is over. It has been incredibly exhausting but also wonderful and rewarding. I was able to create friendships with 7 great middle school girls and 19 interesting/entertaining middle school boys. (The fact that there were more boys on the trip was both shocking and encouraging. We are praying that they will continue to lead and serve as they grow up in the church.)

Day Four: We went for the last time to The Corners for Camp Outreach. We sang songs, played, and had a wonderful time. I decided that day that we should make masks out of paper plates (example pictured below) which turned out interesting... Some of the girls really enjoyed it and created beautiful butterflies, dogs, lions, etc. The boys mostly created monsters, scary pigs with bloody fangs, or angry birds. But whatever. They had a great time which is all that matters, right? Right.

Don't judge my butterfly too harshly! I was creating an example as fast as I could to help the kids! Grace people! Give me grace!

As always, after lunch we were able to just play with the kids and spend time with them. This precious girl went around and got pictures with everyone. I mean, how cute is she?? Both the kids and our Jhi students were incredibly sad that we had to leave, but thankfully some of them will be going back in a couple of weeks during Goldrush! (Goldrush is a completely student lead week-long retreat for middle school and high school students at Perimeter. Lots of other churches from around the US attend and we usually have about 1,000 students attend. You'll be hearing LOTS about this later. Oh, and that's another thing you can be praying for: the preparation for Goldrush!)

Day Five: Oh. My. Goodness. Today we took our Jhi students to White Water, the water park. We started the morning with devotions, like we did every other day this week. It was obvious, as I talked to three of the girls, that they were very effected by their experiences this week. Then we left for the park! I walked around with three of the girls which made for a perfect group. (Most rides are for 2 or 4 people.) We had a wonderful time, but I forgot how boy crazy middle school girls are! I don't know if there were 15 minutes together that we didn't talk about boys. They had code names, rankings, and loved to find them to ride rides. I was never like that, right...? Oh the things I'm learning. We arrived back at the church exhausted and I think everyone will get a great night's sleep tonight. Thanks for any prayers that y'all sent up for us!

ALSO: It was supposed to rain this entire week, and we had no plans for if it did. The Lord provided! A couple of the mornings it sprinkled a little bit, but it was just enough to keep the day cool. Then, today at White Water, at the exact time that we started heading to the vans to go home, it began to rain. Such a huge blessing!

Book Review: The Prodigal God by Tim Keller

Like I said in my post a little while ago, I was able to take a "God Day" two weeks ago, and in that time I read The Prodigal God by Tim Keller. Growing up in the church, I've heard people talk about this book for a long time so I put it on my "to read" list. Well, having the day specifically designed for me to spend time with the Lord and do things that I enjoy was the perfect time to pull that book out.

Thankfully, I've been incredibly blessed to grow up in a church focussed on teaching the gospel and not just "feel good" sermons. This includes the sermon on "The Prodigal Son" but not just the story of the first son. Our pastor includes the second son who, according to the book, is just as crucial to the parable as the first son. The parable is a story that Jesus told to the people surrounding him at the time which included the hated/sinful tax collectors as well as the religious leaders of the day who thought of themselves very highly.

The story goes that there was a father that had two sons. The younger son asked the father for his inheritance to be given to him early. This is the equivalent of the son wishing that his father was already dead so that he could have his money. He wanted the money, not his father. The father gave his son the money, and he spent all of it on extravagant living. Eventually the money ran out and the son was to the point that he was feeding pigs and longed for the food that they were getting. At that point, the son realized that his father treated his servants way better than this, so he devised a plan. He would go and beg his father to allow him to be a servant in his house. When he returned, before the son could even start to plead with his father, the father embraced him. He gave the son his finest rings and robe and threw a party for him.

This is when the older son comes into the story.

This son had worked for his father his entire life. He expected to receive everything after the father died, but since his brother came home, his inheritance would be severely diminished. Again. He was angry that his brother was being celebrated while he had been perfect his entire life and wasn't ever celebrated. He too had the attitude of using his father and not enjoying him. He wanted the money, not his father.

Back to the book. The younger brother represented the sinners and tax collectors while the older represented the religious leaders. Some of the things that Keller points out in his book were incredibly convicting. He wrote the book for people looking into Christianity, new Christians, and old/seasoned Christians. For each group there is something to learn.

Some of the most convicting parts were when Keller was talking about the older brother. I've realized that I am very much an older brother in that I am a rule follower and seek approval of my authorities all too often. I often live in fear of not being good enough even though I know in my head that I don't have to be "good enough". That's why Jesus came. Because I can't be good enough. But He was. Praise the Lord! 

If you have any time on your hands or are looking to pick up a book, please read this one! I'm praying that through what was revealed to me, that God will change me to be more like Him.

Love y'all!

Missions Week!

Hello all! This week Jhi is attempting something that we've never done before. In the past, Jhi has taken students on missions trips to such places as New York and Guatemala. After I graduated eighth grade, I was privileged to be able to go on the trip to Guatemala, and my mom was a chaperone. It was one of the best experiences in my life, and I constantly wish that I could go back. This year they decided to do a missions trip but stay in good old GA. This allowed the trip to be less expensive AND for the kids to see the poverty that is so close to them. We don't have to go to another country to be able to serve people in need.

The kids arrived Monday morning excited as well as the staff. I was put in charge of check-in (as you can see below) and got to meet everyone first! It's always funny to see the different ways the kids react to their parents saying goodbye: hugging, eye-rolling, ignoring, etc. Anyway, after a short training and devotions, we loaded the vans and headed to The Corners. The Corners is a trailer park kind of area, but we are partnering with a ministry called Corners Outreach. During the school year, they have tutoring after school everyday and a camp on Saturdays. During the summer though, they have a camp for Kindergarten-5th graders. Then 6th-8th graders who live in The Corners are allowed to be counselors. They have the camp for about 9 weeks during the summer and many other churches partner with them to help put the camp on. Obviously Jhi is helping this week. One of their main purposes in having this camp is so that the kids will not learn all of the progress that they've made over the school year in math and reading. It is proven that if students can't read by the 3rd grade that they are SEVEN times more likely to be incarcerated or be involved in prostitution. That's why we have the Reading station that I mention later, just in case you were wondering.

We arrived at The Corners and as soon as we got out of the vans, we were greeted with loud camp songs. All of the kids, led by Mr. Terry, were singing and dancing to songs at the top of their lungs, and we were able to join them! The kids were then split into three groups: Kindergarten and 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and 4th and 5th. Each group went to one of our four stations: Reading, Crafts, Games, and Gospel Sharing. Okay fine, they went to three and one of the stations was open (which gave an awesome break to each of us at a different time). I am in charge of the Crafts station because of other projects I've been doing for Jhi so far, but it's been fun! The first day we had birdhouses that were almost like a 3D puzzle that they could color and then put together. We all ate lunch and then played some random games until it was time to go. Then we packed up and headed back to the church. We had a quick debrief with our students, planned for the next day, had a staff meeting, and then went home! Yay! I was exhausted so I definitely had no problems falling asleep.

Day two was very similar to the first except that we started with doughnuts for the other girl intern's birthday! Side note: her name is Rachel also. It makes for some very confusing conversations. Anyway, back to the kids. The kids signed in, met, blah blah blah. With the kids that day we decided to use foam crosses, crumple up small squares of tissue paper, and glue them on in a pattern. Some kids took a painstakingly long amount of time while others *cough: the boys: cough, cough* sped through the craft. Thankfully, I had thought ahead and printed out some coloring sheets just in case that happened. The rest of the day went on without a hitch. I feel like the kids had a better handle on how things went and were able to really engage with the other kids. Repeat the first day's activities when we left The Corners. 

Day three was great as well. It was supposed to rain and all it did was sprinkle a little bit! Praise the Lord! Crafts today consisted of using scrapbook paper to make cards for the kids' parents. They enjoyed it for a while, but it quickly turned into origami (which I was totally okay with). I made so many airplanes and cranes! The picture below shows how much fun we've been having. We were playing freeze tag but in order to unfreeze someone, you were supposed to jump over them. I was tagged, so I bent down for someone to jump over me. This is what happened instead. These kids are precious. Each of us on staff as well as our Jhi students have created some incredible relationships with these kids and I hope that Jhi can do this again next year!

Prayer Requests: 

It's supposed to rain for the next two days so PLEASE pray that it doesn't! And if it does, that we'll make the most of it anyway :)

Prayers are always needed for servants' hearts and joyful spirits!

Friday we're taking our Jhi students to White Water so you can pray for safety through that as well as anything else that you can possibly think of.