Post LP

Hey guys! I just wanted to update anyone interested in my spiritual growth after Leadership Project. I faced a hard start to school and keeping up with reading through Philippians after the summer since we didn't finish the book while in Myrtle. I have finally finished studying Philippians and I really enjoyed reading through it deeply and breaking it down. It was the first time that I really broke down an entire book of the Bible word for word. I've been reading through 1 Corinthians without using the OIA study method that we learned this summer. But I recently came across a verse 2 Corinthians 4:16-18: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving us for an eternal glory. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal." It was a really great verse and I have it posted in the shower so I can be reminded of it daily.

This past weekend I went on a trip to Table Rock to go "Glamping" with Campus Outreach (the same ministry that I did Leadership Project with) and it was really great to see a lot of the girls I spent my entire summer with. A lot of them I had seen once or twice because they were all very supportive in coming to my soccer games but it was really great to have Christ-centered conversations and live in tents and go hiking. I truly loved it, even through the almost tears of cold pain at 3am. One thing that really hit me was that sometimes God has to prune us and take away things we love out of our lives. This can be people or tangible objects or activities. Isaiah 43:2-3 just explains that Christ is right there with us through that pain of losing those things and in the end it is all for our good. It was just awesome to have that affirmation that we're not alone through anything but God knows how hard it is for us to lose the things we love the most.

I am still growing in my relationship and he is pushing me right along to be closer with him. I try to spend as much time as I can in his word or journal daily if I can. Today I came across Romans 8:26 which says: "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."  Truth. I can tell you that half the time I don't even know what to pray for. Sometimes I just sit there in silence and feel the pain and hope that God feels it too. Which comes back to Isaiah 43:2-3 because he does feel that pain. And so I mumble at my words or lose thought and sometimes I pray for the wrong things. It's prayer yes, but is it holy? Not always. So I am very thankful that I came across all of these verses and I can feel God speaking to me. Lately I really haven't known exactly what to pray for because I don't know what to ask for or what God thinks is best. I just thank God now for opening my eyes to these things and I also thank him for all of the encouragement from my supporters from this summer along with those that experienced every step right there with me at LP.

I'm Home

Leadership Project is over. It was extremely fast and I can't believe I'm sitting on my couch right now. Sunday night there was no curfew and we all packed up our cars and hung out for the night. Several people pulled an all-nighter but I went to bed around 2. The guys were in charge of making sure our cars didn't get broken in to so they were put in pairs to protect them for 1 hour time periods during the night. There were 3 or 4 locations and each one had a pair during all hours of the night. The girls bought boxes of doughnuts to bring to the guys before their shift so around 4:50am my alarm went off and I had to go deliver doughnuts. I woke up to find my friend Steph wide awake listening to her iPod on the steps. She had tried to go for a run but a sketch man was walking around. Typical Dyrtle. The next morning we were up early to be ready to leave at 8:30. I gave out some hugs as I told my roommates and new friends goodbye. I followed Stephanie until Columbia where my friend Hunter and I grabbed lunch before both going home. Then I continued to Augusta to hang with Steph at her house before spending the night with Catherine at her house. I'm really sad it's over but I'm excited to go back to school and be fit for preseason and to see all my friends. Steph, Jordan, and I plan to get the team and some others from campus together to worship during preseason and our friend Shelby from Wofford is going to come visit too. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog over the course of my journey and I really hope you enjoyed getting to be a part of my experience. here's the video from this summer!
http://vimeo.com/46561370

Recent Photos

 Nick, Heather, Julie, Me, and Thomas jumping in on the last day of work!

Nick works at Ridemakerz and the rest of us work at 38th Avenue McDonald's.

 Russell and Hunter, both work at Jimmy John's, jumping in after their last day

 Thomas and I celebrating!

Nick hanging in the pool after jumping in.

Return Training

Today is the first day of return training. Yesterday everyone finished up work and we also had our last day of ADP. We also finished up praise and worship Sunday night along with theme training Monday and evangelism training Tuesday. I missed the last Bible study training while at camp last week. Last night the Campus Outreach students who were doing Urban Project in San Diego arrived in the Dyrtle to join us for return training. This morning we have 2 hours of personal reflection time and I just wanted to spend a few minutes blogging since I haven't I awhile. I'm in the beautiful sanctuary at Trinity Episcopal which is where all of our meetings are. I seriously can't believe how fast this summer has been. We only have 4 days left and I know its gonna seem like time flew whenever I'm leaving Monday morning. We are extremely busy the next few days with campus time meetings and training to help us cope with the situation of going back to a normal environment filled with non-believers. Saturday will be the last concert (Not sure if I mentioned this before. There's concerts every Tues, Thurs, and Sat nights down on the strip and we always go dancing) and I'm sure everyone from project will be there. During the day Saturday girls clean all of the rooms and the guys unbunk all of the beds. Sunday we have church and prayer training and then we pack up our cars. That night we party by the pool until really late and its gonna be a rough Monday morning. We have to leave at like 8:30am. It's all gone so fast. The days are long but the weeks are fast. And now its almost over!

My Little Silver Cross

A couple months ago, back during the spring soccer season, I had just finished my first collegiate game and it was against Anderson University. I left the field in an awkward stage with a little bit of disappointment. Our previous assistant coach is the new head coach at Anderson but she was a part of everything involving my knee and camp last summer and inviting me to be part of the team. Even so, I didn't feel like part of the team after my first game as they all hugged her and spoke with her. We lost that game and it was embarrassing, I won't lie. But if anyone who has seen me play before would have felt fooled if they saw me play that night. My knee brace lobbed around and beat me up. I ran in circles aimlessly and confused. I'm not sure if it was the excitement of stepping on that field or just pure loss of skill over a good 7 months. Either way, I looked to God in that moment in desperate hope for an answer. See, God answers all prayers but he answers them on his time and not ours. He knows what is best and its hard to see as humans that the plans he has set for us are beyond comparison to our own plans.

After the game I trudged to the locker room, dragging the heavy sound system box with me. I sat there waiting for all of the players to return with their laundry so I could start a load. Impatiently waiting for two players to return, I walked outside to drag them back in. I hated to break up their conversation with the former assistant coach but I needed to get my job done. Finally, I had all of the laundry collected in the bin and made my way to the gym laundry room. I put the 2 loads in the washers and departed back to my dorm in the dark.

I began to think deeply into the game. I felt like (at the time) that I hadn't been given a good enough chance to prove myself worthy of playing time on the field. I was upset and I cried in the shower wishing I hadn't screwed up my knee and wanting things to be normal. I was beyond burned out on doing soccer laundry each day and I was ready to actually play. I got my chance and well, I screwed up. So after my shower I walked back to the gym to move everything over to the dryer. I quickly moved everything over so I could get back to Belk and get some much needed sleep. I shut the washer door and began to walk away when I noticed an object left laying inside. I opened it back up to find a small metal cross with 'God Loves You' engraved on it. I suddenly felt a feeling of relief because I felt God surround me, hug me, and remind me that he was listening to my prayers. He was there the whole time but I doubted his placement.

Now, months later I've been living in Myrtle all summer but currently in Panama City for the week. I've been going through a lot in my head and fighting with idolizing soccer and such. Fighting injury after injury (sprained foot, shin splints, busted toe... the list is continuous) I wonder what God's plans are for me, especially this fall for my first season. Then there are other things in my life I've been fighting with and I've been constantly looking to God for answers but they are still yet to come. Today I opened my backpack and pulled out my bag of letters from friends and family that I keep with me. Inside was that hopeful, little silver cross I had once found all lonesome in the washing machine. And so now I feel God is listening as he always is and he reminded me once again that his plans are better than I can even imagine.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Last Day

It was a bittersweet moment walking to my car after work today. Thoughts ran through my head about my summer. It just went so incredibly fast. I truly enjoyed working at McDonald's, I'm not kidding you. Then again I was just ready to get away for a bit and relax. I don't see how people have McDonald's as their main job. I just couldn't be on my feet doing the exact same thing everyday.

In a bit I've got to head back to Project to start packing up for Bigstuf. It's going to be a totally different environment. At LP I'm busy doing something all of the time but it's very relaxed. BigStuf is a bunch of off-the-wall, crazy stuff. I'm excited to be around kids and use what I've learned here at LP all summer. I'll be back for just a week and a half but I won't be working any longer at McDonald's. In fact, I looked at the schedule for next week and I'm not even listed as an employee anymore but I'll come back and visit some of our people who will be around for the 3 days after I return from BigStuf.

This was a good refresher week for me with only 2 days of work and time spent with the family. That nice single bed at home sounds nice along with my good ole shower! Please pray this coming week for me as I lead these kids from my church and that they will be impacted while in Panama City Beach!

The Beach at Pawley's

"I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ." -Phil 2:20-21

Meet the Parents

I'm just chillin' in McDonald's. I was going to sit here and eat lunch and hope that some of the workers would go on break so I could sit and talk to them. We have our employer social Friday so all of the companys workers at LP are invited and we have skits and food and all kinds of stuff planned. I was really hoping to convince some people to come. However, there's only one outlet in the lobby so I'm stuck in the corner. But I've talked to Alberta and another girl and they plan to come. I have the day off (again) and so I'm just hanging out here. I spent some time studying the word earlier and after this I'm going to pick up a friend so we can go visit some of my friends at Ridemakerz. I already know you don't know what that is but their slogan is "It's like Build-A-Bear but with cars." You basically just build a car and pick out detail and stuff. Anywhere from push cars to remote control.

Last night I was able to go to Pawley's with my friends Steph, Danny, and Joe. We had a great time, did laundry, had a real home-cooked meal, and just relaxed for once. It was much needed. It felt great to get away from Project for awhile where everything is so fast-paced. I'm going back tomorrow after ADP to visit again so I can get a chance to see Catherine while she's here.

God certainly answered prayers of support. I paid rent Monday and it was my last payment. Then God came through and provided more support money for me. It was good timing because some of the girls I carpool around don't understand the cost of gas. But I'm thankful for what I do have. Welp, I'm gonna go order a smoothie so I can get a chance to talk to one of the girls I work with and convince her to come to the social. I'd love to see God make some changes in her life. Have a great day!

Week 6

Well it's week 6 and I'm sad to say that I only have this week and then week 8 left at LP. I only got scheduled to work Friday and Saturday this week. Ridiculous scheduling but I have learned from Philippians 2:14, "Do everything without complaining or arguing."

Last week I was partnered with Avery for beach evangelism. We spoke with a mother of 2 boys, Stephanie for the entire time. She had some strong points but a few things were a little off on her beliefs of Christ. She said she had studied a bunch of religions including Buddhism. Then she kind of suggested that I replace the word 'God' with 'love' because God is love. Well, in some ways yes, that's true but then again she way she said it was pushing God away and she also said she didn't like the adjective 'Christian'. It was really weird and seemed like she was shying away from God. But we each told our testimonies and then she offered hers and we accepted. She just said that her parents had gotten divorced and they were shunned from their church so she grew up with a bad view. She kept saying that everytime she is convicted of something she is born again and went through specific examples. She told us she had been praying for two sisters to speak to her today and that we were the two sisters. She also explained how the man in her life, their 2 children, and she were told by a rabbi, a medicine man, and 2 priests told her and husband to only hake $25 on their journey to Jamaica. So they did. And they made it all the way there somehow and went through tough times until one day the man in her life told her to trust him and she did and suddenly the next morning there was $800 in her bank account. That I was a little concerned about. $800 doesn't just appear in your bank account. So while they were there, they studied Rastafarian religions. I'm not sure she knew exactly the gospel or what religion she even pertained to but we were running out of time so I left her with the bridge tract.

Friday we had our Sadie Hawkins and the boys randomly were given girls room assignments. Then they had to perform a skit or dance for each room and everyone watched as our Friday social. We were given Brett's room which included 2 PC guys as well as some others. So we planned a date for them. We decided to make it ninja themed! However, we had a chicken fiasco and Julie and I were over an hour late for the date. Walmart only had 1 rotisserie chicken so we found a Bojangles on my GPS. Too bad when we got there 15 minutes later, it was boarded up and closed. So we went to Piggly Wiggly which didn't serve hot foods in the deli and meat section. Chickfila saved us. Love that place. Anyways, we all wore black and died bandanas over their faces to blindfold them until we got to Market Common. There we had a great dinner/picnic prepared and we played Catch Phrase, Ninja (of course), and these exercise light games in the park. Then we returned back to Project where we served them dessert and then we worshiped on the beach until 12 o'clock curfew. It was a great date even with the chicken problems.

This is my last week of ADP :( Definitely sad. Morgan Bentley and Meagan Snyder from PC came to visit for a few days and tomorrow I'm going to Pawley's to visit the family and have dinner with them and some friends from LP. Well, I'm off to a dinner date with my roomie Julie!

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others." Phil 2:3-4

 Back L to R: Turner, Brett, Nick, Danny, Julie

 Front L to R: Teresa, Avery, Me, Allie Jo, Clif

PC Soccer Girls on the 4th!

What You've All Been Waiting For...

L to R: Alison, Heather, Julie

Surf Lessons

Sunday afternoon my friend Chap and I went surfing. This was my very first time ever getting to surf and it's been something I've always wanted to try... if you know me well you know I love board sports. But it was awesome! I really enjoyed it and plan to go out again to surf. I've also started longboarding which is super fun too. If I had the money, I'd buy a longboard and use it on campus but right now it's just not worth my money.
Things have been great at McDonald's! However, I only worked Wednesday 1-5pm and I took part of Heather's hours 1-4pm yesterday. This weekend is parents weekend and my mom is coming down so I asked off for Saturday. A girl, Jamie, is taking my Saturday shift 8am-4pm so I hope she shows up. Basically I had a poor week of working though because I'm only going to get $50. I spend almost that much in food every week. It's kind of unfortunate because I need to be making more money to stay here. Next week I work Thursday 1-5pm and all day Saturday so I'll get a little more which will be good. The managers just seem to be giving me less and less hours.
July 16-20 I'm actually going home. I'll be going to Bigstuf with my church, First Presbyterian. Usually I have been a camper but this year I get the honor of being a chaperone and I'm SO excited to minister to these kids. So I won't be at LP that week and the week after that is our last full week and we just have return training (training to prepare for when we return to campus... how to adjust back to campus life). It's crazy how time has flown because I really only have 2 weeks left of work.
This week we had evangelism training again and we actually went out on the beach. My partner this week was my roomie, Teresa. We saw some girls sitting under a pier and we talked with them for about 45 minutes about their spiritual lives as well as the social aspect of their lives. It was really cool to be able to talk to complete strangers about their faith. All three of the girls said they feel forced to go to church but don't actually consider themselves Christians. It was kind of sad because their church is really judgemental and it has turned them away from the Lord. But I gotta go but I'll post again soon!
"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Hebrews 3:13

Almost Over

Finally it is Saturday and the week is almost over! I'm in McDonald's this morning. I had to bring in Avery who works at 6am, Julie and Thomas who work at 7am, and then I don't start until 8am. It's going to be a long 10 hours in this McDonald's. Thomas chose to nap in my car which may have been the best choice.

So as I mentioned, the fire marshall came and basically he said only 4 people per room, fix the garage, no George Formans in the room, and no extension cords of any sort. So someone in our room had to leave and so Teresa got moved into a room with 3 other girls who also got removed from their rooms. She is still included in everything involved in our room--group dates, D-group, church, host mother, etc... she just sleeps in a separate room. The garage was "paved" but really they just filled in the spots where the boards were with rocks and tar. I accidentally stepped on it while it was still drying and had it stuck all over my feet. So now they removed the twin bunk from our room. Allie Jo and I are top bunk and Julie and Avery are bottom bunk.

Today after work we have dessert with Allie Jo's family to celebrate her birthday which is Sunday. Then after we have our group date with Joey's room which has been rescheduled many times. I'm not sure exactly what the plans are for it but I'm sure it will be a blast.

Bad News

So today around 10am my friend Amanda and I were heading out the door to go to the coffee shop (I'm finally there now). We walk outside and as we do a fire marshall approaches Ellis who is part of LP and is the leader for the ADP group. The fire marshall "heard there were bunk beds" in our rooms and that we were overcrowding. Soon enough another marshall shows up, a policewoman on a bike, a policeman on a segway, and 2 people from construction services. So at this point they are pretty pissed because our the rooming situations. Matt Bradner, a staff guy, gets called down to settle things and the people start checking the rooms. Of course they pick the worst room first. There's a room connected to the garage that houses a room of guys PLUS all of the single staff guys in another separate room. they just use the same entrance door. Needless to say, there's about 20 guys in there. No bueno. Then they come upstairs and check a girls room. Then they checked 2 other girls rooms on the second floor. This is when they notice the small 3rd floor where I live. Luckily we told them there was a baby sleeping up there and they avoided those rooms. Overall, they said we only can have 4 people in each room, we needs shelves for our suitcases, and the wooden floor boards in the garage have to be fixed within a week. I don't know all the details but I just want to send out a prayer request for us all because it's literally impossible for only 4 to a room. Most have 5 or 6 as it is but some of the staff rooms told 10 or more. Keep us in your thoughts!

Weekend

Saturday at work was a struggle. There were moments in those 8 hours that I wanted to break down in tears. There's this lady named Alberta who we are all assuming is trying to become a manager. She thinks she knows everything, she thinks she's in charge of everyone, and she thinks she has more power than she actually does. Before I even clocked in she grabbed my sleeve and pulled me outside and told me I was going to learn how to do a car pull-up. Okay, I had been working for almost 3 weeks. I had already done a bunch of car pull-ups and plus, its obvious and common sense on what to do. Then, this lady taught Teresa how to set down a cup on the counter. Pointless information. So this lady keeps yelling at me to get my time lower while I was running and its peak lunch hour. No way that thing was getting to 106 seconds. That's almost impossible. So then since she has nothing else to do, she decides she's going to mop the kitchen DURING LUNCH. This frustrated me so much because she took up all of the walking space  and was mopping the floor during lunch. I was annoyed already and then she yells at me because I'm "tracking grease" all over her clean floor. I'm sorry but everyone in McDonald's is covered in grease so there's no stopping that. She shouts, "wipe your feet on the mop!" So as she demanded, I awkwardly step on her mop which is still in her hand. So I'm stuck behind the registers as I wait for the floor so dry (my screen is now on the 2nd page of orders) and she tells me and Amber to stay put. If she wants those times down, shes gonna have to either stop mopping or let me walk on her clean floor. To make matters worse, I'm making a coffee and I pressed the sugar button which has actually been broken and suddenly appeared Saturday. So I press the button and the whole machine of creamer, sugar, splenda, and equal off the back of the counter into the grill area. It's hanging on and I'm struggling to hold it up. It was pinching my finger and the Hispanic ladies in the kitchen didn't seem to care. Merritt came to the rescue and pulled it up. That was a moment I almost cried. It was just one thing after another. Later that afternoon, the lady got sick in the bathroom for a good hour and ended up going home. I think everyone was glad to have her out of sight. No more pestering, no more yelling in horrible Spanish, and the restaurant was less chaotic. It isn't best to talk badly about someone but everyone is sick and tired of her and we don't know how to treat her or how to comment when she treats us rudely. It's getting to that point where we don't know what to say.
Sunday my room met our host mother. She allowed us to do our laundry (FOR FREE!) at her house. Then she fed us dinner and dessert and we headed back to the Aquarius to get ready for Sunday night worship at Trinity.
Praying for a great week. The next 2 nights we're learning about relationships (friends, Christ, husband/boyfriend, etc).
Psalm 16:11
"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures forevermore."

Pictures

 #LP12 Injoy

 Huge Roo Cup Sand Castle

 Patrice on the beach

 Hillbilly Theme Night

 View from the top of the parking garage on our group date

Sunset on our balcony

Another Week of Glory

I've hurt myself again but that figures. I'm accident prone! I got hot in the face with a frisbee 2 minutes before curfew the other night and possibly broke my nose. It still hurts when I smile. Haha which is hard to not do.
I wasn't actually supposed to work today but got called to work an hour and a half. I'm pretty much stuck being a runner but I don't mind at all. I've been working alongside Merritt and another employee, Amber. I'm really hoping to make a positive impact on Amber's life and we get along great and have a great time together so I think this can be a great opportunity.
Our room got asked on a group date Saturday night. The boys filled my car with balloons and in one of them, there was a poem asking us to dinner. Last night we had the date and it got rained out so we had dinner at the top of the parking garage. Hands down best dinner at LP so far. Then as the sun went down we worshipped together. It was an awesome experience.
Of course my favorite part of the night was our trick shot battle. We had to kick a soccer ball over a wall, across the pool and into a basketball hoop. Nobody ever got it in after 2 hours but we had a lot of close shots.
I'm still enjoying what God is doing in my life here. Only 2 days until I can play again with my injured foot. Just laying on the beach blogging you guys. Beautiful! I'll post pictures on the blog as soon as I get internet on my laptop.
In Christ's Love,
Alison

Laundromat

So I'm just sitting here at the laundromat... life of an LP kid. I completed my first week of work! Yesterday I worked 1-4pm and I got off am hour early. Today I worked 6am-1pm and also got off an hour early. I've been a runner the past few days working with my friend Merritt who is in the guys room at LP. He makes it so much easier and enjoyable. Some of the McDonald's workers are just so rude and it makes work so slow. Today was the first day I served breakfast but got the hang of it easily. I've learned that most of the customers who are rude are older men which was surprising to me because they are also some of the nicest and most polite.
My foot is well on its way to healing! It's a little sore after 7 hours straight working on it. But for the most part, it feels great. Hopefully next Friday I can participate in ADP and we will be scrimmaging so it will be just a chill day. So pumped!
Keep praying for the project and for a safe and healthy weekend and don't forget to thank the Lord for this beautiful day!

Thankful

God has been so loving today. I went to the doctor and found out my foot is sprained. He told me to rest and elevate it for at least 10 days. This is making it hard for athlete training, work, and the other activities.
Tonight we had a group dinner with the guys we work with from LP. They were all so supportive as well as my room. They showed me so much love. Love like I've never experienced in my life. They sincerely cared for me and spent some time praying.
Unfortunately I'm testing and using the crutches as much as possible. It's often really difficult because of things like evangelising and I missed the walk on the beach. There's a lot of sacrifices that I have to make to get my foot healed. It only seems to be getting worse so just pray that God heals me.
Today we had our first day of evangelism training. Afterwards, we went to the Tanger Outlets in groups of 2 and had to approach random strangers and let them know somehow in the conversation about Leadership Project. It was kinda our first step before we actually spread the gospel. The lady Julie and I spoke with told us all about her pow-wows she attends and about the jewelry she makes. I still have no clue what these pow-wows are but its something Native American. At one point I could have sworn the lady said the people in Jerusalem murder their cousins. Turns out after 5 minutes of listening, she was saying marry their cousins. I could barely understand the poor lady but we were able to successfully tell her about LP. She told us about how she was Baptist and loves going to church. In fact, she strongly encouraged us to get involved with the Missions for Women in Asheville. It was a great experience and God led us through the conversation with courage and commitment.
Guys, please keep praying for my foot so I can get back out there and work hard with my team on the field. Right now working hard for me is resting but I'd rather be kicking a ball. Just keep me in your thoughts and pray I continue to serve the Lord in everything I do.

Hi, how may I help you?

I said the phrase "hi, how may I help you?" over 200 times today. It was my first day of work and I worked at the registers inside and took orders. Some customers were impatient and others were understanding for a worker's first day. I rocked my Mickey D's polo and non-slip shoes like no other. Overall though, it was a blast! Loved every minute of it!
However guys, please pray for me. As I think I mentioned the other day, I injured my foot somehow on the beach. I was unable to participate in ADP with the athletes this morning and tomorrow I have to set up a doctors appointment to get it checked out. I told my coach and he wants me to come home but if I do that, I will be missing so much. Tomorrow afternoon will be my first real experience evangelizing. And right now its not a good time to miss when I will be learning so much.
The theme training tonight was about idols. This has helped me to realize a lot of idols that I have first in my life over Christ. Things like my image and soccer and entertainment. Think about it for awhile and ask yourself what consumes your thoughts and actions the most during the day.
Continue praying for all of the students on project, Keep it real, and come visit me at McDonald's like my girl Erin Taylor who was my 3rd customer. Holla!

Orientation

So I got to the Dyrtle yesterday. I was greeted by a bunch of guys who took all of my stuff upstairs to my room. Started off great... no work for the ladiessss. Eventually everyone got on the LP campus and I was able to meet Avery who is the only girl in my room who I hadn't met in person (only on Facebook). Turns out that we actually had another girl who joined us in our room, Julie. For those wondering (mainly my family) about the queen bunk beds. IT IS POSSIBLE! There is a queen bunk and a twin bunk in our room and I'm on the top of the twin. It's extremely shaky but I don't think it's going to fall. Our air was broken when we got here so it was actually hotter in our room than outside. I'm guessing around 90 degrees... and yes I slept in that last night. So I met a ton of new people, played some soccer in the street by the motel, and just hung out all afternoon. Then we went to Wal-Mart last night for some grocery shopping. I'm stocked up for at least the next week on food.

Today we woke up and had meetings at a church at 9 about orientation and rules and the basic stuff. Then we had lunch, a small talk, then McDonald's training! WOOOHOOO! We actually just watched some interactive videos as a group for like 2 hours. I start work on Monday along with ADP. Things are starting to get going. Right now it's a bunch of busy stuff but once things get on regular schedule, I'll be fine. Can't wait to show you guys my awesome McD's polo. I'll post pictures soon! Also, our air was fixed today and it felt great for the first hour but we got back from work training and well it still feels like 80 degrees. Hopefully the air really starts to kick in. I don't know if I can take another night sweating without blankets.

I'm so excited to be here. I've already met what feels like 400 people. I only remember half the names. But I'm loving every minute of it. I'm chillin' in a Christian based coffee house grabbing some Wi-Fi so I don't know how long it will be before my next post but hopefully I'll have some good stories soon!

Packing Up

Tomorrow is the start of my crazy journey. I'm about to get into some insane stuff! Shoot, I don't even know what to completely expect. I'm nervous, excited, and a bunch of other emotions all at one time. But I'm beyond ready to be there. Everyday I keep thinking, "What about next year? What will I do just sitting at home if I'm not at LP?" But I know God has a plan and that's light years away from now. I gotta focus on what God has planned for me tomorrow, Friday, next week, and the next 2 months in Myrtle Beach.

If you don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Here's the lowdown:
I'm participating in Campus Outreach Leadership Project which is an 8 week program in Myrtle Beach. I'll be part of ADP (Athlete Development Program) which is for NCAA athletes. We'll be working in the weight room and on the field to better ourselves but also, we'll also learn how to exemplify God every second on the field. Then, in the afternoons all of the students are assigned jobs and lucky me, I'm at McDonald's! At first I was hesitant because McDonald's was literally the last place I wanted to work. Now, I've had a change of heart and this is one the parts I'm most excited about. While we're there we participate in bible studies, we're taught A LOT about evangelism, and of course how to play sports for the glory of God! It's hard to explain in words and a lot of people don't get it. But this video is from last year's project and it's perfect and really shows what we do at LP.>>>>>> Leadership Project 2011 Video

I have some goals set for myself for the summer and here is my list:

1. I want to create a desire to spend time with the Lord daily. A few years ago I was very consistent with this but lately I have not had this desire as much as I used to.
2. I want to gain strength and courage to speak openly about my faith.
3. I want to return to PC and be a leader for the girls on my team so that they may get to know Christ through me.
4. I want to be able to bench press 100 lbs, squat 135lbs, and complete the Manchester United test. (This is a fitness goal.)


So much is going on at LP and I can't wait to continue to share my stories with you. If you're not already part of my prayer team, I would love to have you pray with me and my other supporters this summer as I face all kinds of challenges. It's not all fun and games and sometimes living in such a strict Christian environment can be hard. Please continue to pray with me over the next 8 weeks for the entire Leadership Project community. Stay tuned for more blog posts because it's about to go down in the Dyrtle!

Alison