She's home

My sister got back Sunday night from her excursion in the city of brotherly love!

She seemed to have had a great week and learned SO much! She is continuing to amaze me how she is growing so fast! Since she was there I will let her tell you how it went. This is an e-mail she sent out when she got back!

Hello family!
I am writing to share with all of you about my trip this past week to Philadelphia. First, and most importantly, it's hats off to God. He is Everything. In this trip, our youth got to see him as the Giver, Provider, Guider, Comforter, and so much more.

Number 1, the Giver. God was working in every area before we left. On Monday Morning, we were to be at the church at 7, having packed, eaten, and ready to jump into the vans and drive. Instead...God decided our youth group, needed to chill, to relax before we go. We ended up not leaving until about 10. If you know me well, you know I'm not good with being "flexible". But already, I could see God was going to bend me. And it was my job to either snap in two, or bend with Him. Praise God that he gave me the strength to bend. God was like that all week, changing everybody’s' plans, and giving us the strength to go with the new ones. He is amazing.

Number 2, the Provider. God provided in ways, I never thought he would. it was little things. The youth are addicted to Sourpach kids. We love them. we had enough for every person to get sick on them. We were dead tired by Wednesday, and he provided his ultimate strength through each other. We all grew so much closer that any of us ever expected to. We became a family.
It's one thing to call somebody a brother or sister in Christ, and another to experience it first hand. God gave me big brothers, i never had before. he really provided so much for us. He also provided a day of fun and rest for us on Saturday. We went out to Philadelphia City. I got to see several older sights, and go on a scavenger hunt. It was a lot of fun.

Number 3, the Guider. Hmhhmm...God is such a good Guider, isn't he? When things got sticky, (as they often do when on a trip), God really clearly guided our leaders. He by no means gave them the blue prints of the trip, but he defiantly was guiding them. In addition to our leaders, He gave me a very clear direction for the life he's given me to live. I am very seriously praying about starting a Bible study among the teens in my neighborhood. He's got a pretty awesome plan for everybody.

Number 4, the Comforter. This is the one that makes me feel warm and cozy, like I’m right in his arms. There were three nights, in specific that I was blessed to be a part of or hear about, where we worshipped God in different ways. On Thursday night, I was very frustrated. I was dealing with a lot in my mind, and just couldn't shake it. It was several things really, that had all piled up into one big though in my mind. I had learned a lot, and felt God's direction for my life very clearly, and I was working through how I was going to do those things exactly. I also have a friend who has a very rare form of cancer, and he has begun chemo for it. Both of these thoughts and more just kind of spilled out to a good girlfriend of mine, and we both began crying as we realized we were dealing with some of the same things, and didn't realize it until then. We began challenging, and encouraging each other when three other girls came out and joined in prayer, praise, and Scripture. God was working among us. The next night, one of the girls played guitar, and until about 220 in the morning, we were singing and dancing to Jesus, praising him in the hallway of an old dorm. We were singing our hearts out to him. After we sang, we talked about all the He had done among us. Then on Saturday night, we stayed at a Hilton. The rooms were quite different in comparison to our dorm rooms ;). On Sunday morning, one of my closer guy friends told me that his room had stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, doing the exact same thing: Praising Christ. They didn't sing, (If you know them, they are NOT singers, they make joyful noises), they poured over the word of God sharpening one another like iron. Seeking out God in their lives. One of the other guys came up to me later and broke down telling me how on fire some of these, mellow, quiet guys were when they were gushing in God's word. God comforted me with His way of providing encouragement. I have never felt so in His arms.
Now on to the actual trip. As I stated above, we left 2 and a half hours late, and missed two meetings on the first night. Ha! But it was great. We got settled into some less than desirable rooms. From the outside, the building are BEAUTIFUL! They looked like castles. But on the inside, it smelled like something had dies. No lie, it was terrible. The rooms were small, and had two beds, (for the most part) in them. But on the upside, the girls had the hallway to ourselves, and did not have to share our bathroom with the other churches. That was nice for us. But the guys were not so fortunate. Their rooms, were hot, (they did not all have air conditioning), and most of them were molded. They also had to share their bathroom. Their living quarters, were pretty gross all around. In fact, our youth pastor had a cockroach crawl across his face in his one night. EW!!!! We began our ministry work on Tuesday. We were working with a church that started early fall '09. We prayer walked with them on Tuesday, and did sports camp Wednesday-Friday. Basically, we just kept the kids going: kickball, basketball, volleyball, baseball, soccer, dodge ball, and all those great games I’m not good at. We had about 16 kids the first day, 20 the second, and 24 the last day. The kids had a good time, I think, and really enjoyed it. We also made some bracelets, and had face painting. God also gave me the opportunity to witness to a girl. She was Hindu, 14, and very set in her religion. Please keep her, (her name is Jess), and her siblings, Kripa and Jay, in your prayers. She did not pray, or ask very many questions, however, she did listen, and God gave her a thought to chew on.
We had many late nights and early mornings. God drained us, and filled us with himself. On Saturday, as I said, we went "touring". The hotel had a pool, and that was very nice to relax in. Again, God provided even little things. On Sunday, we went to the church we worked with, and one of the guys that came to the camp's dad was being baptized.
That was very cool to me. Then we trekked home.

Thank all of you for praying for the trip. God has been in it since the beginning. The book I just wrote you, only scratches the surface of my week. Thanks to God for doing so much!

This is my sister and her touring team in front of the Philadelphia Sky line!