Christmas Break is here!

I don't think I have ever looked forward to a Christmas break so much in my entire life! This semester was absolutely crazy! It was very busy, and required a lot of hard work. But, the good news is, I SURVIVED! It was a miracle, but I made it. Now just waiting for those grades to be posted!

Now, I only have one semester standing between me and graduation. Well, technically 2. At Erskine, we do something unique called J-term, or January Term. This is a "semester" where we take one class for the entire month of January, for 3 hours a day. Now to some of you, that may sound awful. But actually, its quite fun. Usually it is a fun class. This year I am taking Personal Finance, which should hopefully be helpful considering next year I'll be out on my own managing all of my own money. But last year, I took The History of Music Videos. It was such a fun class. Part of that class was we got to make our own music video. 

***You can watch it here..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6jbGGbzIBo. ***

You should definitely watch it. It is hilarious. Its a parody of the "Party Rock Anthem." Anyways, this year I will be taking a much more practical class. But I am very much looking forward to J-term because it is a much more relaxed time in the school year. It gives you time to enjoy the other aspects of college, you know, the non-academic ones. It is a great time to just relax while having plenty of time to hang out with all of your friends.

After J-term, comes my last semester of my undergraduate college career. It is absolutely crazy to think about that. This last semester will consist of me doing my Student Teaching. I will be in a classroom every day all day, getting to work with students. I am very excited about this! It is going to be great, I just know it!

And after that, comes graduation. I can't believe its almost here. As cliché as this is about to sound, it feels like just yesterday I was graduating high school. Part of me is very ready to graduate, very ready to move on to the next step of life, finding my own job, having my own place, and taking that next step. But the other part of me is going to miss college a lot, always being surrounded by my best friends, and just having a good time. But I know that all good things can't last forever, so I am ready to move on. But first, one more semester of college.

This past semester was great. I did some awesome things, and I can't wait to do so many more fun things in my last semester of college. I don't want to let it waste away, because I know there will never be another time in my life like this. So goodbye first semester of senior year, and hello to second semester. Its going to be awesome!

Here are some highlights of my first semester:

Go to go to the Clemson vs. Georgia Tech Game. Even though my Yellow Jackets lost, it was still a good time!

Also got to go to the South Carolina vs. Wofford Game. Had a great weekend chilling with my brother, Kevin!

Got to be a part of my friend Bryan's, aka Beans Wedding! This was a great time!

Got to see Lee Brice in concert. It was awesome!

And went to the ACC Championship game, to watch my Yellow Jackets play. They lost, but it was an awesome time!

I got to march in the Greenwood Christmas Parade with some of my students that I have had the pleasure of working with this past semester! It was a very neat experience!

It was a great semester! And I am so ready for the next one! I can't wait to get to hang out with all of my friends at Erskine again! But first, time to enjoy Christmas Break and all the time I get to spend with my family!

Purple Rain, Purple Rain

So this past weekend was absolutely incredible. I got to go as a Chaperone on Team Survival Challenge (TSC) with the Bethel United Methodist Students (BUMS), which is the group I interned for this summer. I was so excited for this trip, not only becasue I would get to see some of my best friends, but also because I was excited about a good chance to get a break from school and just go enjoy myself for a weekend.

Team Survival Challenge is a trip in which the youth, and parents of the youth, come together at Awanita Valley to compete in fun, silly, and sometimes strenuous games, competing against each other to win the coveted prize, which is 12 lbs of candy and getting to sign the box! This was my 4th TSC, but my first as a chaperone. College Students who are BUMS alumni come back to be the captains of the youth teams. Every year I have been on this trip, I have always been on the purple team. It all started the very first year, when I was team Purple Nurple, and we had a blast. So I have pretty much begged every year to be the Purple Team since then, and Chad complied. So I came back this year, and we were team Purple Rain.

The weekend started off quite well, as my team won the first three events to jump out to an early lead. This kind of set the tone for the whole weekend, and every team kind of had it out for us in game number 4, in which we came in last. But it was all good, my team was out there, having a blast, just doing our thing. One thing I stressed to my team all weekend was that no matter what, win or loss, we were going to have fun, and be happy about it. My team complied, and we did have an absolute blast.

The weekend continued with many more fun games, including the annual boat race, a home run derby with a spatula as a bat and marshmallows as a baseball, torpedo, warball, bucket ball, and many many more. My team kept competing, and we pretty much stayed middle of the road for the weekend. Placing somewhere between 2nd to 4th for about every game. It came down to the last game, and we knew we were close on the score. We finished tied for 1st in the last game, but we still were not sure where that left us for the weekend.

Finally the time came, and they announced the winners, and it was Team Purple Rain!!!! It was so cool to finally win, after every other year, I had not had that happen. But regardless, as always, the candy was shared among the entire youth group. After all, who could eat 12 lbs of candy anyways? It was a such a great weekend. Shout out to my team, which consisted of Sam, Erin, Jordan, Jillian, Alex, Kent, Patrick and Sally. They were all absolutely awesome, and I had a blast hanging out with you guys this weekend. And thank you for finally letting me get my name on that box. Its been a long time coming! Also, shout out to Chad Deetz for continuing to be the awesome youth pastor that he is, and leading great trips like this. It was so great to spend some more time with the BUMS, which are pretty much my second family.

This weekend once again emphasized how important it is to be surrounded by a solid body of believers around you. I was so encouraged by not only my team this past weekend, but also all of the other youth on this trip, as well as the parents who came out and competed all weekend as well!

Colossians 3:14-16: And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 

Yea....I know, its been a while

So my Senior Year here at Erskine college has been off to a crazy busy start. That would explain why I haven't written a blog post in like a month! But I have been up to some pretty cool things, so here we go:

I have really enjoyed getting to hang out with all of my friends this semester. College is the only time  in your life where you are in such close proximity to your friends at all times. So it makes it so easy to be able to enjoy quality time with your friends.

I have taken a couple of cool trips this semester. I took a crazy 10 hour drive to go to Blacksburg, VA to see my boy Cade, and get to see my favorite team Georgia Tech take on Virginia Tech. Unfortunately, Georgia Tech lost, which made for a really long and sad drive home. But it was still totally worth it, and I would do it again in a heartbeat (maybe not on a school night though.)

                        Here is a picture from my seats at the VT vs. GT game!

I have also been holding down my reputation as the Intramural Champion of Erskine. What is ironic about this, is I have never actually won an intramural championship. However, I play every single sport. Usually, I just get together a bunch of my friends to go out there and have a blast, no matter how bad we lose (and yes, we do typically lose.) Right now, Intramural Frisbee is going on right now, and my team name is A + for Effort (insert points for the creative name.) I got the name because our team consists of a lot of education majors, but also, and most importantly, because we all go out there, every single game, and try our hardest and have fun doing it. Sure, losing every game 11-2 isn't always great, but we always have a good time.

I also got to go up to Presbyterian College with my boys Josh (aka Tim) and Matt (aka Deegs) to go to a football game as well. We had an amazing tailgate with some very delicious grub. It was a good day just to kind of get away from all the business of Erskine and all the school work that goes along with it.

Speaking of that schoolwork, that is where I have been spending most of my time. I have been very busy with all of my work. From papers, to tests, to you name it. School has been the dominating part of my life so far this semester. But so far, I have been keeping on track of things, and everything is going pretty well. Below is a picture of one of my beautiful creations for the semester, my bulletin board. I am pretty proud of it, I'm not going to lie.

I believe I mentioned in my last post that I was worried about being motivated to continue to learn about special education even though I believe that I now want to pursue Youth Ministry for my career. Sure, I have struggled at times, but I have also grown a rejuvenance and passion for Special Education, and I have really loved this semester so far. I guess that may make it a little bit harder to choose my path after I graduate.

This semester has been kind of crazy, and definitely hard. But it has been good, and God has continued to bless me this semester. Sure, I have made some mistakes this semester, and some things haven't exactly gone my way, but God still loves me no matter what, and will continue to guide me and take care of me.

Matthew 11:28 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."

The Start of Senior Year

Wait...hold on a second. Let me read my own title again. WHAT? I am a senior now, in COLLEGE, when did that happen. It seems like just yesterday I was starting my senior year of high school. But now 4 years later, my last year of schooling has begun. There are a couple of emotions running through my mind.

First of all, I am very happy to be back. I absolutely loved this summer, and I would go back to it in a heart beat. I miss the BUMS very much. But I am also so glad to be back among all my friends here at Erskine and just be able to get the ball rolling on what is going to be an incredible senior year. I am, as always on a first day of school, a little bit nervous. I don't really know fully yet what this year is going to entail. But that also brings along some excitement of the unknown, and ready to embrace what ever God presents me with this school year. 

But most of all, I am scared. This year is going to be very interesting to me. I absolutely love Special Education, which is what my major is here at Erskine. It has always had a very special place in my heart, thanks to the influences I have had on my life. It will always have a special place in my heart. However, now, that I am also influenced by this past summer, and a desire to do youth ministry, I am worried that I may lose that passion and fire I have for doing special education. So I ask you, my blog readers, to pray for me, that I will continue to do my best in my major here at Erskine, and be able to complete this senior year and the years of teaching after that with a heart full of joy, and worry about crossing the bridge into youth ministry once it gets here.

There is going to be one bible verse that I am going to live by this school year:

1 Corinthians 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it ALL for the glory of God."

I am going to do my student teaching and everything else to the glory of God this school year, because I know that is what he would want me to do. I am very excited to be a senior at Erskine College!

Leaving a Legacy

I can't even begin to describe how much of an impact this summer has made my life. And now, it has come to an end. I literally can't believe it. It seems like yesterday I was just starting this internship. Yet 14 weeks ago today, I was just beginning the journey of this summer that would truly be life changing. And even though I only got paid for 10 of those 14 weeks (which was what I signed up for) I wouldn't trade back any of those 14 weeks.  And now I am about to go start my senior year of college (How crazy is that, that's a whole different blog post.) I am honestly struggling to write this blog post because I am literally at a loss for words to try and describe this summer. Ill try: Amazing, God-filled, super-blessed, incredible. I don't what else to say. It was awesome!

I have grown so close with so many of the kids in my youth group. And so many of them have impacted my life in ways that I will never forget. I never even thought that I would gain so much from this summer when I first began way back in May. I thought this summer was going to be so much more about me making an impact on the youth. And I know part of it was. But I seriously ended up making some great friends this summer in the youth group. I hope and pray to God that I did make an impact to these youth this summer. But I do know for sure that each and every one of them made an impact on my life this. But that's the hard part about ministry. You don't always get to see the fruit that is produced after you planted the seeds. I hope that I planted a seed in these youth this summer, a seed that wants to grow closer to the Lord. But I don't know for sure. Now, I do have an advantage since Bethel is my home church, so I know I will be back for frequent visits over the next year in school.

But it wasn't just the youth who made such a strong impact on my life this summer.  Probably the biggest influence came from my boss, who was also my youth minister, Chad Deetz. Chad has always had a special place in my heart. And he always will. He always seems to know what to say to me, and help me out through hard times. And even though I may not always listen to him, I know he still loves me all the same. Chad displays one of the best examples of unconditional love I have EVER seen in my life. People have made jokes all this summer about me being Chad's "mini-me". But I have constantly blown it off, as if I didn't enjoy it. But in all honestly, if I turn out to be half the man that Chad is today, I will be very happy with myself, and where I am. Chad has literally changed my life this summer. He has changed who I am, and what I want to do with my life. If it wasn't for him, I know there is no way I would feel the strong calling towards Youth Ministry that I am now ready to pursue.

Tonight, as it was my last night at youth, I taught the lesson. I talked about leaving a legacy. Everywhere we go, everything we do, we leave a little part of us.  We are leaving our mark on this world everyday. But how we do that is what makes it different among everyone. Many people in this world have left being remembered well. But just because someone is remembered as being a good person, doesn't mean that they have left a positive legacy on this world. God calls us to leave our legacy through Him.

There is a great song called Legacy, by Nichole Nordeman. It talks about how we all want to hear good job while we are hear on this Earth, or an "atta boy or atta girl" as it says in the song. But the song goes on to say that stuff doesn't really end up mattering in this world. What truly matters is that when we get to Heaven, we hear God say to us "Well done, my good and faithful servant." We need to live our lives to God so that when people remember what we are all about here on this Earth, they will remember us by the Godly lives we lived, that were dedicated to him, and loving on others here on this Earth, so that our lives may impact the lives of others.

I have definitely been impacted by many others this summer. And I hope that I made an impact on at least one youth, if not many more. I thank God so much for this amazing opportunity he blessed me with this summer. And now I know that he is really calling me into Youth Ministry. What kind of legacy are you leaving on this Earth? What will people remember you by?

Here are some pictures to recap my summer:

 Having fun during some Sing and Play on the Mission Trip!

 Hanging out at one of the Block Parties!

 Helping out with the Praise Band (which I did a lot of on the Mission Trip.)

 Having fun on the Bus Ride!

 The Man himself, Chad Deetz! Thanks for everything dude!

Our entire Youth Group having Worship on the Beach!

Our Entire Youth Group on the final day of our Mission Trip!

Thank you Bethel United Methodist Church for an amazing summer and thank you BUMS for an awesome time this summer. I am going to miss you guys like crazy, and I will be back to visit soon!

An EPIC Mission Trip!

DISCLAIMER: This blog post is going to be long. Because God did so many amazing things this past week in Vero Beach, FL. So only my most dedicated followers will read this blog.

So I just got back from the BUMS (Bethel United Methodist Students) Mission Trip to Vero Beach, FL. I am exhausted, tired, but also extremely blessed. So here is what went down. Last Saturday, we spent right around 12 hours in the car on the way down and arrived at EPIC Missions and were greeted by a delicious dinner, and then we were treated to Rita's Italian Ice. EPIC Missions is an organization that brings in mission teams from all across the nation to do God's work in the area. We were by far the largest group they have ever seen, but they did such an awesome job hosting us and making us feel right at home the entire week.

On Sunday we worshiped at Northside Christian Fellowship. This was the church that I would be in charge of overseeing the VBS. Worship was quite an experience, and I really enjoyed it. After the worship service, the church treated our entire team to a delicious lunch, which was so kind. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon decorating the church getting ready for VBS that upcoming week. After we finished decorating, we were supposed to go door to door in the local neighborhoods to hopefully round up some kids for VBS. Unfortunately, there was a bad thunderstorm and we were prevented from doing that. So we just went back to EPIC missions and enjoyed ourselves for the evening.

              Here is a picture of  our group having worship as we did every night!

Monday morning rolled around, and it was time for VBS. Unfortunately, we had a problem. We had no kids. Not a single child showed up for VBS. I was literally crushed, heartbroken, and didn't really know what to do. But we weren't gonna let that stop us. So we went door to door and gathered up some kids for VBS for the rest of the week. On Monday afternoon, we went to the Gifford Youth Center, which is where our other VBS was going on, and just hang out with the kids. It was such a blast.

                                          Here is a picture of one of the VBS sites

And another one.....

On Tuesday, we arrived back at Northside, ready for kids to show up. 9 am rolled around, and again no kids. So myself, my youth minister Chad, and one of my youth Sam, got together and prayed. No sooner then as we finished praying, I looked up, and there stood a woman with 2 young girls. I really dont think I have ever been more excited in my entire life. I literally jumped for joy. It was so amazing, and it was such a God moment. So we ran our VBS for those two girls, and it was awesome. On Tuesday afternoon, we got to go to an amazing place called the Harvest which is a grocery store with much cheaper prices to help those in need. It was so cool to be able to help them out and serve there for an entire day.

Tuesday night we went down to enjoy God's beautiful creation at the beach. It was beautiful.

Wednesday rolled around, and we became even more blessed at VBS at Northside. We had 6 children on this day. It was so amazing, and VBS continued to go very well. It was so great to see all the youth who had worked so hard to prepare for this trip actually get a chance to show off what they had been working so hard for. God continued to bless our VBS. On Wednesday afternoon, we had our first block party at EPIC Missions, the place that hosted us. It went well, and we had somewhere around 60 people come out. It was a lot of fun, and I know some lives were touched. At our block parties, the praise band played, we had free food for everyone, as well as snow cones, popcorn, and games. As well as this year, the Youth Choir presented their musical Flashback, which was a very unique but powerful way to witness to people. Wednesday night, we had our senior night, in which we honor all of our seniors by giving anyone who wants a chance to say something to them in front of the whole group. Its a great way to honor the seniors of the youth group.

Here is a picture of our youth choir doing their musical at one of the Block Parties. 

On Thursday, our last and final day of VBS, we had 9 kids. Such an awesome thing. God went from there being 0 kids at our VBS to 9 kids. Sure, its not a lot. But it was so amazing. And I loved it. It was such a great day at VBS, and it was hard to say goodbye to the kids we had spent time with this week. Thursday afternoon we had our second block party at Northside Christian Fellowship. We once again had a pretty good crowd at the block party It was a lot of fun.

Thursday night, we got to share in one of my most favorite things to do ever. Its called the Heart Ceremony. This is a time in which you get a paper heart and you go around to one another and tear off a piece of your heart and give it to people and you share with them why they will always have a place in your heart. It is such a cool event, and has become such a staple on the mission trip. It is just a great opportunity to share and grow in your relationships with others. But this heart ceremony was a special one for me. I had a great conversation with my youth minister during this time. He has been strongly encouraging me for quite some time to become a youth minister. But now, I think I finally had the breakthrough I have been looking for.

I had a great time this past week, and this entire summer. I have loved working with youth so much. So now, comes a hard decision in  my life. I love special ed, but I also love youth ministry. But I am definitely thinking I want to work with youth now after this week and summer. So I plan to still teach for a little while, for 3 years or so after I graduate. But I could definitely see myself going into youth ministry at some point during my life. I absolutely love it.

On Friday, we had our fun day, in which is a good time to relax and enjoy ourselves after a long hard week of work. We jumped over to Tampa, FL to enjoy the day at Busch Gardens. It was such a good day. Then on Saturday, we hit the road back home. It was such an amazing week, and I was so glad I got to be a part of it.

Determining God's will for your life can be hard to do. And its something that I have struggled with my entire life. But this week really helped me figure things out. Here are a couple of scriptures that have been on my heart this week:

Proverbs 3:5-6"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."

This verse is great because it shows that as long as you trust in God, and depend on him, he will guide you. And the second verse:

Matthew 4:19-20 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." So at once, they left their nets and followed him.

This was our verse for the entire week. God is calling us to minister to others. But not only that, but to drop everything we have, and do his work. That doesn't mean that we need to quit everything we are doing, but instead, do everything for the glory of God. This was an eye opening verse for me. I'm now, from this moment on, letting God control where my life is headed. It's in his control. If God wants me to be a special ed teacher, then so be it. Or if God is calling me to be a Youth Minister, then so be it. Hear I am Lord, Send me.

One Week

You know, One Week of time is actually a good bit of time. Sure, it doesn't seem like it in the long scheme of things, but it really is. A lot can change in one week. But the reason one week of time is important to me right now, is because that is exactly how long until I leave with my youth group on our mission trip. 

It's kind of an unusual feeling. It has always seemed that the mission trip has always been so far away since the beginning of the summer. It was always that thought in my mind that would come eventually, but not too soon. And what's crazier even about that, is I only have 10 official days of work left after we return from the mission trip. But now is not the time to worry or focus on that, it is time to get all those last minute preparations ready for the mission trip. I am very excited about this opportunity. I know it is going to be so great next Saturday morning, at 5 am, when we load up the buses for a 12 hour drive down to Vero Beach, FL. I am excited about it for many reasons. One, I can't wait to see the youth I have been working with do their work that they have been preparing for for the past 2 months. I am also excited because I always loved the mission trip when I was a part of this youth group, and I can't wait to have those experiences again. But I am also a little nervous. 

Its always a fear of mine that I am going to be rejected. Sharing your faith in the Gospel can be a hard thing, especially if the people you are sharing it with do not accept it. I am also scared a little bit because I am going to be in charge. We do Vacation Bible School at two different locations. Obviously, Chad, cannot be at both locations at once. So, on the first day, he is going to the second location with the other Intern, Emily. This is because there are going to be a lot more little kids at the second location, so he is needed there to help manage the almost guaranteed chaos. So knowing that I am going to be the person that everyone comes to if there is a problem at the first location is a little scary.

So I write this blog to ask for prayer from my faithful blog readers. Pray for a few things: 1) Pray for the people down in Vero Beach, FL, that they will receive our love and accept us with open arms. 2) Pray for the students in the youth group that they will be able to go with confidence into Vero Beach, FL and share their faith, their love for Jesus Christ, and their experiences so that they may help others come to know and love Jesus as much as they do. 3) Finally, pray for myself, Chad, Emily, and all of the other adults that are going on this mission trip that we me have the strength and patience to do as God instructs us to do by setting a good example for the students, as well as just allowing us to sit back and watch the amazing things God will do through these students.

Matthew 28:18-20: "Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

This is the only verse that ever comes to mind when I think of doing mission work, mainly because I first heard it when I was on a mission trip myself to St. Lucia. God instructs us to go and make fellow disciples, so that we can share in the love and fellowship of Jesus Christ. And that no matter what we go through, God is going to be with us through it all, no matter what. One Week. That's all I have left till I leave for what is going to be one of the greatest weeks of my entire life. I can't wait.

This is a picture from the last mission trip I went on with the BUMS, in 2009 to New Orleans.