Week 5 and 6

Life here has been so crazy that I didn't even know what week it was! The time here is going by so quickly and honestly I'm having trouble keeping up with all my assignments and responsibilities: hence why I haven't updated my supporters for the past 2 weeks! But I can't express how much I am growing. Spiritually and personally, I am being sharpened and challenged. God is moving in my heart and mind, revealing himself to me and growing my faith and love for him. Intellectually, I'm learning so much about science in general and its relation to my faith in Christ through reading the book. I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. My job is sometimes physically taxing (Some days I'll take over 10,000 steps before 3pm!), and my friendships with my D-group and with other TU students are developing as we seek Christ together. Life is crazy at Kaleo, but it's crazy rewarding and wonderful and amazing. I'm thankful beyond measure for this experience, so here's a little bit about it (of what I can remember haha)

My D-Group on the beach this Sunday! 

Week 5 was pretty normal. On Monday, we went to work, did our inductive study over a passage in Ephesians like normal, and took a trip to Walmart. Tuesday was occupied with work and was followed by Stumo Night, where the message was on fellowship. Never before have I been convicted by the Spirit so strongly for something I thought was super easy! I learned about what true fellowship meant and how to grow into a person that lives out true fellowship. The speaker had us look at the characteristics of love in 1 Corinthians 13 (Love is patient, love is kind...) and examine ourselves to see which characteristics we needed to work on--the characteristics that were getting in the way of us having the fellowship that is talked about in the Bible. We then made applications about how we could intentionally grow in those characteristics. Sometime during the week, all the TU students and staff got together to pray for our campus and to learn about the legacy of Stumo at TU and how we could be a part of its continuation.

One of the slides of prayer points for next semester

We prayed that many people in the different social groups and sports teams we are in would come to SMC, our big conference in OKC in January, and that many people would come to Kaleo next year. We prayed specifically for our friends and for our return to campus. We have high hopes for our future as a ministry. On another day, we had a surprise going -away party for the staff, who were leaving for their vacation time and for time back in Tulsa. It was such a great time of fellowship and loud music and ice cream and fun. We had world prayer, where we prayed for the church in China and for non-religious individuals in China to come to know Christ. We also had our girls/guys time, where the girls learned about Emotional Purity, which is a subject I knew nothing about and was so excited to apply to my life. It's a topic that's hard to explain, but I would love to talk about it further if you're really interested in it! On Friday we had D-group night and had great conversation, Bible Study, book study, world prayer, accountability, and scripture memory like normal. I love my d-group and I grow to love them more each week. Saturday was beach evangelism, and me and Stacey were able to share with 3 ladies, 1 of which was a non-believer whose father was recently diagnosed with cancer, and who said she would consider putting her trust in Christ as Lord. Her name is Robin, so please pray that her father would be healed and comforted, that her family would find security and peace in Christ, that all things would work out for God's glory, and that Robin would be given more opportunities to accept Christ as her savior and Lord. Church on Sunday was great as normal, and a couple in the church named Judy and Greg even took us and another group out for lunch! Praise God for the wonderful people he puts in our path to bless us.

Week 6 was a little different, and extremely exhausting. I procrastinated nearly all of my assignments to Friday, and I felt really bad about it. It was harder for me to do my devotionals throughout the week, and I just felt lazy. Work was alright, but I didn't take any initiative to speak with my coworkers about spiritual things or about the Gospel, except for one brief conversation with someone who was already a believer. Work is getting easier though, and I'm starting to get a lunch break every day. Thank you for everyone who has prayed for McAlister's to treat me nicer! :) On Monday night, we had a mini-conference where we talked about the biblical response to modern media. We discussed how to glorify God with the media we take in, and how to avoid making social media an idol or a point for glorifying ourselves. We learned the importance of seeking holiness and we were given tips for how to decipher what media we should allow in our minds. The entire time, they invited us to voluntarily pass our phones away from us to not be a distraction. Overall, what I learned was that my entire life--not just the life that I physically live but also the life I portray on the internet and my reading, watching, Netflix binging, video game playing lives--belongs to Christ and I must allow Him to have full control over all of it. It was so good to hear that I wasn't the only person that felt convicted by some of the shows I had watched on Netflix, and to know that other followers of Christ were going to join me in seeking holiness. Oh, it was so refreshing and true and good! On Tuesday my D-group spent a good hour learning a stupid-funny dance we saw on the internet, and I was able to Skype my friends from home and catch up on what was happening in their lives. Afterwards I caught up the Bachelorette, as per usual. On Wednesday and Thursday we met up with the Destin Kaleo project (University of Arkansas, Hendrix, and a few other schools that I didn't really know haha) for our Disciple Making conference. It. was. awesome! I saw my Girls State roommate at the conference--small world! It was nice to catch up with her and see that she is following Christ.

Cerelia goes to Hendrix and is a part of the Destin Kaleo project! She was my roommate for a week the summer after my junior year of high school. It's so funny that we ran into each other!

 The speaker was hilarious but so great at portraying the importance of making disciples. The message was to chase the pace of Christ, to run with our whole hearts towards him, and to bring others towards him along the way. We learned so much about pursuing him, about letting go of chasing other things that are idols in our lives. We learned practical things we could do to make disciples on our campus this next school year. It got me like SO pumped to make disciples at TU this next fall. I cannot wait to invite people to Christ and to following him closely and to experience the joy and hope and peace and just love and forgiveness that Christ brings to our lives. Afterwards we shot off a handful of fireworks on the beach to celebrate the Fourth of July since we will be in Seaside for the actual holiday.

Yay Independence Day!

On Friday, we did our D-Group time in a little donut shop called the Donut Hole, where we ate key lime pie and donuts :-) We did all of our main points like always, but this time us participants lead each different part of our time. For this week, I lead Bible Study while Cherish lead the book study and Eliza lead world prayer. It was more challenging that I thought to get everything together to have an in depth but still time-conscious Bible study. I really liked it, and I hope to get better at leading Bible studies so I can do them in the future. On Saturday we did our beach evangelism, *Side note: there's some sort of fecal bacteria that is infectious in the waters all around we are living and it's DISGUSTING and there is tons of algae and it's actually hilarious and terrible but mostly hilarious. Anyway, I was partnered with Cherish, who is a Theta at TU like me. Together Cherish and I shared with three pairs of women. I was completely astonished by Cherish this weekend. I hadn't heard her testimony before beach evangelism this weekend, and I seriously almost started crying on the beach in front of the people we were sharing with because it was so wonderful. Seeing Cherish share the illustration with the women made my heart so happy because I have so much hope that together we can impact our sorority this next year. She really impressed me and I am so thankful for her friendship! To everyone who has prayed for unity for our group and for friendships to form, thank you so much. Her friendship blesses me and beach evangelism was so wonderful this week.

Sister in Theta and Sister in Christ--too cute amirite??

Pray for Lindsey, Kylie, Ellie, and Sara that they would choose to follow Christ in the future. 2 of them said that they had never heard the gospel before. Also, pray for Kat and GraceAnn, 2 believers we shared with on the beach who struggled with doubt and assurance in Christ. After the beach, I did laundry and once again forgot all my money so I couldn't dry my clothes and as I'm typing my clothes are STILL air drying back in my condo. Smh. My life isn't perfect. It's really funny. Then we all cleaned up to get ready for our very first D-group date with Stacey's boyfriend's D-group! First, each of us girls received index cards with 2 truths and a lie, and we had to guess which guy matched up with our card, and which statement was the lie. The person on our card was our partner for putt putt! The pair with the best putt putt average won. My partner's name was Conor, and while I had the second lowest scoring game (shout out to my Dad for making us play putt putt too many times on our Tennessee vacation), we unfortunately lost by 1 stroke. It was okay though because there wasn't actually a prize :). We then headed to Sonic, where the boys bought us milk shakes and slushes and we laughed a lot at our D-group leaders burning their mouths on lava-hot  fried cheddar peppers. The group of boys were seriously so sweet and funny. We then headed to a park where Grey (boys' D-group leader) pulled out three blank cookie cakes and an assortment of icing. We split up into three teams based on our favorite childhood TV channels (team Nickelodeon for life) and then decorated our cakes based on something we had in common. After much discussion and getting to know each other, we all concluded that our commonality was our love for Spongebob Squarepants and decorated our cookie cake accordingly.

My cookie-decorating team: Me, Kade, and Eliza. #Spongebob4lyfe

We then headed back to our condos after a great jam session at full volume in the car. Dance moves were created. When we returned home, we spontaneously jumped in the bed of a random Kaleo man's truck and headed to Whattaburger for no reason other than to prolong the fun we were having with their group! It was so much fun, and we were able to meet some more OSU students and eat delicious fries. Since Heath is obviously 15 hours away, I haven't really been on a date for like 6 weeks and so it was super fun to be reminded of how hilarious and ridiculously different the presence of males can be. Today we went to church, the beach, and now I'm at Starbucks typing an update of my past two weeks at Kaleo.

Just a reminder of how beautiful it is here! I'm so thankful.

Oh, how I need your prayer! Please pray for the following, it would mean so much to me.
-Pray that I would be a good steward of my time. Pray that I would make time to do all of my assignments to the best of my ability, that I would make time for further study, and that I would have deep and heart-altering time with God.
-Pray for my workplace. Pray that I would make opportunities to share with my coworkers. Pray that they would accept our invitations to Kaleo events where they will hear about Christ! Pray that the lost at McAlister's would hear the Gospel and respond.
-Pray for our future. Pray that the applications we are making would follow throughout the school year. Pray that we would be bold witnesses on our campus. Pray for the lives we will impact.
-Pray for those in Tulsa. Pray for my grandma. Pray for Swift Myers, a friend of my brother's who is fighting cancer. Pray for the students going to TU. Pray that you personally would see God at work where you live.
-Pray for world. There have been far too many terrorist attacks this week, and God hates it. Pray for restoration, for hope, for the end of groups of people that are causing intentional harm to God's children in Iraq, Turkey, and Bangladesh. Those attack do not glorify God. Pray that God would bring healing to those affected and that he would work in his mysterious way to bring goodness from this tragedy.
-Pray for increased confidence and boldness. I'm nervous about this next year. God is calling me to make a lot of changes in my life to better glorify and see him. There's a lot on the line; pray that Christ would give me discernment this next year as I seek to follow him.

I feel so blessed right now. Once again, thank you to my supporters who have funded Kaleo for me. The investment is already paying off in my life. I'm loving it. Thank you so much.

Continue to lift up my project in your prayers, and continue to seek Christ for yourselves. Our Father is so good.

Karla