And it's over...

Well as of 1:00 pm yesterday the internship was over.

It was very hard to say goodbye. We woke up and had our last devotion in which we wrote acrostic poems to each other. We can't read them until fridayWe then packed up and cleaned the entire house. I got the bathrooms! Scott( one of the HCM board members) brought us lunch and we had our last meal together.

Steve was the first to leave. He told me not to cry and gave me a hug goodbye. It actually started people were leaving and the summer was officially ending. We went upstairs to tell everyone goodbye(Specifically Kayla Kerry and Sean the kids who live upstairs) Kayla tried to tell us that we were not leaving. She had a rough time with this. So did I. She began to cry as I told her we have to go. She ran to me and threw her arms around me and sobbed. It was seriously the saddest thing. We went downstairs and she followed us, never letting go of me. All she could do was cry and I followed suit. I love how she chose the most emotional intern to cling to. Silly girl. I mean Patti and Brittany could have totally handled it:P. We walked outside and said goodbye to Leah. Me and Brittany hugged and she drove away. So it was me and Patti left so we got in my car and drove to Capen street. (Around the block) I went to say goodbye to Dion. So hard also but I handled it. I am surprised I didn't cry haha.

I dropped Patti off at her house and then drove to Todd and Tegan's house. It's nice here but it's not Hartford. I miss everything about Hartford. I miss everything from the kids to the annoying ice cream truck. I miss Kayla screaming out our window "where patti?" I miss the kids banging on the windows during our evening prayer begging us to come and play. I'm just really missing it.

I prayed for a long time about this last night. I am a little bit more at peace with leaving but everything reminds me of my time in the Northend. As I go through this I know God is my strength and peace.

I really wish that as soon as I ended my time in Hartford I could have made the journey home. Now that it is over I just want to go home. I love spending time with Todd, Tegan and their baby Liam but it is so hard knowing that in 3 days I will be saying goodbye to them also.

My life was changed this summer. I pray that God will continue to keep changing me and keep growing me. I have complete trust that God is going to lead this trip where He wants it. I pray that we can keep Jesus as the foundation of this trip.

Thank you for joining me on this adventure this summer!

I miss you all! I will be home soon friends!

Last Night

Well today felt like the longest day so far. It was also our very last full day of the internship. We woke up this morning and had our devotion. After that we did an activity together that involved us writing/drawing things we learned this summer. We discussed how life before the summer looked like and what life will look like after the summer. We did some other random things like that. It was a really good time of reflection.

Then Jim gave us our next task. We were to write a 5 minute explanation of how our summer was, what we had learned this summer and how what we learned can be applied to our friends and family back home.

After these few things I began to feel pretty sick. It started off with being super cold and then my body aching all over. It was followed by me feeling so sick to my stomach that I couldn't even eat 1 bite of lunch. I went to my room and had Brittany wake me up when it was time for bible study. It was so weird. I never really slept and I didn't really feel much better by resting but as bible study progressed I felt myself feeling almost new again(despite this cold I have)

Tonight we had our HCM end of summer celebration. Wow. I honestly had no idea that saying goodbye would be this hard. After dinner we were split up into groups and we each had to do a skit or song. We made up a song about this community of believers that we live with and called everyone by name and it was just a silly song that meant a lot to us. All of the other groups did skits about us interns. It was great. They were so hilarious and pretty accurate haha.

After that we did the evening prayer that we did every night with everyone(about 20people) It was really good but we didn't get through three seconds without me crying. I honestly thought I was going to be able to make it through that. It was then time to say goodbye to some of the people we have been with this summer. That was really hard. Goodbyes are never easy for me. I am terrible at them. Just thinking about saying goodbye makes me nervous.

Tonight we packed our stuff. Just being in the bedroom with Brittany and Patti was really nice and comforting just to be with people. If I would have been alone I would have been a mess. Actually lets be honest, I already was and still feel like an emotional wreck!

My goodbyes are a little bit different in that I am the one going the furthest away. There is a good chance that I may not see these people for a really long time but I don't want that to happen. I will be back. My Heart is in Hartford. I can here God whisper for me to come back.

Please just pray for me. My heart is heavy and burdened. I don't want tomorrow to come but I just want to get this done and over with at the same time.

My summer was amazing and now it has come to an end. What next?

I love you all. Thank you so much for lifting me up in prayer all summer. I will see you all in a few weeks!

and the goodbyes have started

Today just started off rough. I woke up(and still have a sore throat) everyone else in the house is sick so it was bound to happen.

It just came at the worst time. I really just don't want to be sick right now. haha but who actualy wants to be sick.

So today we had our debrief of camp with our street leaders( High school volunteers) It went really good. It was awesome hearing about how they saw Jesus this summer. It was awesome to hear them just vulnerable with us.We went around the room and told each other good things and what we liked about each other. It was really touching for us all to be bonding in that way.

We prayed and said our goodbyes. Today was hard. I had no idea how hard that would be to say goodbye to them. It just made it more real that summer is basically over. I will be leaving here in a few days. Two full days left.

I can't even think about what it will be like to drive out of Hartford on Friday.

I have been on an emotional rollercoaster all day long.

Tomorrow is our retreat of silence. Please pray that I can just be open to God's voice. Pray that I can stay focused on His plan for the afternoon.

Please also pray for my health and the others.We are pretty drained and weak. We need your prayers.

I love you

1 more week to go!

Well Camp NOAH 2008 is officially over. Its so weird.

I am still taking it all in. I really am just in awe over these past 7 weeks! They flew by!

There was good times and bad times. We had many challenges. There were countless tears from us and the kids. There was anger and dissapointment. There was violence and there were consequnces.

Even though we were always stressed, tired, overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and frustrated at times I would not change a thing. Through every tear and every frustration I just wanted to wrap the kids up in the biggest hug they have ever recieved and let them know that they are loved and they are so valued.

Leaving Dion may have been the hardest. I put so much effort into that kid. I put so much of my heart into him. I know God put him here this summer for a reason. Without even knowing it,Dion really taught me what it is to love.

Tre, his mom and sister all came yesterday. That was fun! I am so glad I got to talk with her and meet her this summer! She took my email address so Tre could email me! I am really excited to keep in touch with this kid! Hes great...but challenging :)

Leishla was pretty hard to leave as well. She was so sad camp was ending and she was so sad that we would be apart. We exchanged addresses so we could write each other.

Last night we (all of the Camp NOAH staff including all of the volunteers, leah, jim and us interns) went out to dinner at this really nice resturaunt downtown. We had a private section in the back and it was really good just to hang out and fellowship!


So from here there is a week of debrief then I head back home! :)
I am pretty happy to catch up with everyone! I am really excited to be back in San Diego but at the same time my heart has a special place here. All of the kids and parents asked if I was coming back next year and my first thought was yes. I told them I want to be back here for next summer, if not sooner for a visit!

Please pray for a smooth transition. Please pray for us as we reflect about the summer!
Also I have been getting pretty terrible headaches please pray for healing of those. Without insurance I can't really figure out what they are coming from or what I can do for them.

I love you all! And I will see you soon!