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!