this right here is a jar of clay.

Today was day 1 of Up2Hope, the summer program for girls 9 and up that we are doing.

I had an absolute blast.
I love these girls so much.
Already!

There was eatin’, devotions, dancing, crafting, game-ing, more eatin’, a lesson on Honduras that Kendall and I gave (we have both been), making art journals, snacks, more dancin’ and having fun.

That’s pretty much a Monday. The Honduras deal is something we do every Monday – a lesson on another culture to show these girls that there are other places and that we have more in common with others than we think – that sort of deal. Many of them hadn’t even seen the Mississippi River and they have grown up in New Orleans. They are confined a lot of times to their ward… the city is split into sections called wards. I guess that’s how you spell it.

We’ll use our art journals every week and it is a super cool way to just put thoughts onto paper through different types of art. I think the girls really liked it.

Today was so good. The girls are already so clingy and loving and it makes me so excited to see these relationships form and see the girls open up over the summer.

OH MY GOSH I CAN’T WAIT

… that was a little excitement coming forth.

So we got our groups and I have a group of older (12-15) year olds. I am super excited about having this group and I’m sure other girls will be added.

I feel so blessed, so so so humbled.

Last night I was reading in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 and Paul is talking about the ministry he is a part of and how he preaches the word of God and he says that we have this treasure in jars of clay… and I feel exactly like that. It is so real in my life lately, this feeling of being a jar of clay – a worthless, dirty, undeserving nothing, but I have this treasure – the word of God planted inside of me. And grace is so real.

I was reading it and got kind of emotional because that is exactly what we are as believers, as ministers of the gospel. Of ourselves, we are nothing – just ugly clay jars. But what we have inside of us is Christ, and this is what gives me my worth and my meaning.

As he says, I carry around the death of Christ in order that life may abound.

Gah, I can’t believe I get to serve such an incredible God!

So I rambled a lot and none of this may make any sense, but whatever.
I really can’t wait to see what the Lord does this summer… I just pray I’m faithful. I want these girls to see the Lord so badly.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling now. Good day.

ESL and not much more

Let me tell you, I have been feeling so incredible blessed lately. Like, the Lord’s grace is just so overwhelming.

I got up at 7 this morning with one of the other girls here and we went to teach ESL with a couple of the staffers. They do that every Saturday morning at the Omni Hotel about a mile down the road.

We were walking down the streets and I’m looking around and it is beautiful (in most parts). And the Holy Spirit really just hit me and I feel so undeserving to be here, in New Orleans for the summer, working with the people I’m working with, and about to fall in love with some girls that I get to hang out with and share the gospel with for two months.
And I absolutely deserve none of it.
And then in the larger scheme of things, I think of my family and my friends and my boyfriend, and the Lord has shown me so much grace in my life. And once again, I have done absolutely nothing to deserve it. And it is so overwhelming. And I start a lot of sentences with and. And I’m an English major.

But seriously, I serve such an amazing God to give me so much and I am nothing, you know?

So I helped with ESL this morning and they have two students right now, both who work at the hotel. One is Mariosa, and she does housekeeping, and Sandor (who has the coolest name of all time) and he is 72! … he does maintenance at the hotel. I worked with Sandor… he’ll be 72 Monday and he is still working AND gets up every Saturday to learn English.

Can I just tell you how much I LOVED it… we are supposed to trade off and go different weeks but I asked her if I could go every week. I just loved Sandor so much, and he was so super nice and they both just gave hugs and he kept asking me if I would keep coming and stuff. It was so great. So worth early Saturday mornings.

And once again – the grace of God is so good… what have I done to get to hang out with these people and love them and teach English (and learn Spanish in the process…), you know? I’m so overwhelmed by what he has given me.

Gosh! Good morning.

After taking a nap and such, we had a super chill day. Got lunch made, did some planning, made another afternoon coffee trip to Rose Nicauld’s (I will become a regular, I assure you…), came back and chilled with the girls (who are becoming very good friends), put together some BBQ sandwiches and cheese dip (courtesy of Nealy) for dinner, watched the Princess and the Frog and now I’m heading to bed soon because it’s gonna be an early morning (like 6 early) for church tomorrow.

I gotta learn to shorten these. I’m just so excited!

Annnnnnnnd goodnight.

anotha day anotha dolla

I'm not real sure why I chose that title.

Day 2 in NOLA was awesome... of course.

We started with our orientation meeting, which consisted of us missionaries and the staffers sitting around the table going over schedules, what to expect, rules for the girls, etc. A lot of information, but we have the weekend to read over the stuff they have given us and it'll be good.

I'm SUPER pumped to start the program and get to know these girls.

So after lunch we had the rest of the day free. We just kind of hung out around here for a while... we went to a coffee shop called Rose Nicaud a couple of blocks away. The coffee is great there. It's named after the first woman to sale coffee in New Orleans... she was a slave and she sold coffee and sold her way out of slavery until she got a permanent coffee stand and now this place is named in honor of her. Pretty cool.

SHO.

We had dinner and then we girls went to the Uptown District... St. Charles and Magazine Streets. Very cool little area... lots of shops... pretty retro/artsy.

I liked it a bunch. I would.

We went to this little bakery type place called Sucre (shopsucre.com) ... it's owned by some dude that has been on Food Network and junk. Anyway, we got gelato. Amazing gelato. Super fancy cakes and stuff... two dollar pieces of chocolate. One of those places.

We rode around St. Charles and the houses were ridiculous. Sandra Bullock owns one of them. They were amazingly gorgeous homes.

Did I mention we saw Brad and Angelina and their kindergarten class's home yesterday in the Quarter? Cause we did.

I'm looking forward to doing some shopping on Magazine sometime.

It's been cool to get a feel for the city before the program starts... to kind of know where these girls are coming from. Although I have a feeling most of them are pretty confined to the few blocks where they live... that is what the Assistant Director of the house was saying today. Sho yeah.

Anyway, can I just tell you how excited I am to meet the girls and be doing this program? It is such a cool opportunity for them to learn that there is a different way of life they can choose and to show them that the Lord desires them, you know?

Also, I'm gonna be learning tae kwon doe. So watch out suckaaaaaas.

One of the girls here from Mississippi and I have a freakish amount of stuff in common.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to be helping with the ESL class they do every Saturday. I am really looking forward to that.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaand goodnight.

(P.S.: We get to cook a lot of our own dinners and stuff. Yes!)

FrenchBourbonMississippiAC360ChicoryBeignet and WELCOME TO NEW ORLEANS

I’m here!!!!!!!!

So yesterday after a day of flight delays and delays and delays, I landed in New Orleans around 5ish. I am staying here in the Baptist Friendship House and I came in and met the staff and the other summer missionaries. Everyone has been super welcoming and down to earth, which is very comforting. I’m living dorm-style with a couple of girls in a room and we share a bathroom and a shower room. We are staying in the rooms that homeless families live in when they are here. Anyway, it is super laid back and chill, which is really nice.

So! For dinner last night we had red beans and rice, which is apparently a New Orleans staple. It was delicious.
After dinner we walked to the French Quarter, which is like a block away. It is so beautiful! We walked down Bourbon Street, which was interesting to say the least.

After we walked around there for a while, we walked up to the Riverwalk, which runs alongside the Mississippi. It is a gorgeous view, let me tell you. We took a ferry across the river (it’s free to pedestrians). That was really one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen, being in the middle of the river with the lights of the city and the bridge and the moon and it was all crazy pretty. So yeah.

THEN we were walking on the Riverwalk and OH MY GOSH WE SAW ANDERSON COOPER filming. And let me just tell you, I think Anderson Cooper is something else. Does he like women? Probably not.Is he about 20 years older than me? More than likely. Does he have awesome hair and is he super attractive? Absolutely yes. So I don’t normally freak out over celebrities but Anderson Cooper is the only reason I ever watch CNN. So that was super exciting for me.

After that we went to Café Du Monde, which is super famous. They have these things called beignets, which are French doughnuts. And let me tell you, the French know how to do doughnuts. It tasted like a funnel cake with powdered sugar in doughnut form. Gah lee, it was kind of evil how good it was. And then they had the best coffee EVER. They put this stuff called chicory in it… I’m not really sure what that is, some kind of root or something. But it was delicious… I gotta get my hands on some of it before I head home.

I’m really looking forward to being part of the city for a couple of months, and getting to go to the cafes and go shopping and do all that good stuff. And I’m looking forward to getting to know the girls who are here well… I think that we’re going to have some good relationships. There is so much lostness here that is so evident from walking down the street, but that is just motivation to be more a part of it, you know?

Our program starts Monday, and we will be working with girls ages 9-14 and we had orientation today, which was just a pretty laid back informative meeting. It’s like a day camp sort of thing and we will be doing crafts and activities and classes (Financial classes, Health, Nutrition, etc.). And just so you know, I will be learning tae kwon doe, so I’m gonna come by kicking butt and breaking some boards and it’s gonna be awesome. I think it’s going to be really relational and I’ll get to know my group really well and I’m super excited about it. My prayer is that the Lord really develops the relationships naturally so that I can really dig into their lives and boldly share Jesus with them. I can’t wait!

So this is really long and I could keep going forever about everything, but I won’t. I think we are making aprons today out of t-shirts… it is going to be a craft we are going to do with the girls next week. And I have to pack and get organized and I think I may go to some part of the city with one of the girls. Okay, I’m going to stop. Hopefully I’ll update this regularly.

CONSENSUS: I ARLREADY LOVE NEW ORLEANS AND CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT GOD’S GONNA DO. IT’S GONNA BE AWESOME.