Day 1-
Got up early for pancakes and bacon. Aka: the pan-less morning. I was so glad to have spent time with my [camp]family, but exhausted from so many late nights. I had to say goodbye to the campgrounds and to the "all-summer every-summer for the past 6 yrs" experience that I am so familiar with and love. I said goodbye to my friends and to my biggest cheerleaders (Eric & Paige). The summer will be strange not being there, but I am excited to see how this experience changes my view of myself and the world. But I must say, I will miss Neverland.
I fell in and out of sleep while Stacie asked me questions on the way to the airport. Mom and Stacie walked me around for a while until we got to security. Leaving the two most beautiful and influential women in my life was a strange and scary experience, but at the same time very empowering.
I go on the plane and sat next to a guy that looked like he was going to throw up before we even left the ground (needless to say...not very comforting) but sleep overcame me 5 minutes after take off and I slept until they announced we were landing. The Springfield airport is much less intimidating than Hartsfeild-Jackson, so I was pleasantly surprised.
We met up with the other girls and went to Convoy of Hopes office/distribution center. We spent the rest of the day touring and meeting people. The night ended with all of us at the intern house discussing rules and regulations of the house/COH and sharing the dream for the weeks ahead. The intern house is amazing. We are living it up. There is so much food here. They have muscle milk and whey protein shake mix (stuff I can't afford to buy at home), crunchy peanut butter, and all the pineapple I could ever ask for! It was a long day, but SO amazing. Needless to say, I slept very well last night. Hopefully my snoring didn't wake the other girls.
Day 2-
We got to COH and had some personal devo time. Afterwards we met up with Matt and Shannon to tour the facility and meet everyone around the office (who are amazing by the way.) The entire office has such a positive energy about it! Afterwards we spent the afternoon going over plans for the next few weeks, discussing what we'll be doing in which cities and what's expected of us. We discussed what it means to have God's heart for the world.k
We talked about committing ourselves to His purpose. Letting him use us to show His righteousness, justice, love, compassion and faithfulness. Matt used a quote from John Pieper that says: "Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church, worship is. Missions exists where worship doesn't." Powerful stuff. We broke from there and had a little free time. Made a walmart run, then headed to Matt's house for AWESOME enchiladas (kudos Mrs. Wilkie) and an intense game of spoons (or, for all intensive purposes, "chopsticks"). We came back to the house and watched you tube videos to end the night.
So far, this experience has well exceeded my expectations. I expected to be excited to be here, but nothing like I am experiencing now. I have such an amazing peace right now. It's really indescribable. As we sat around the table today in the training room I felt so at home. I felt like I was made to do this. I can't describe how natural it feel to be apart of this experience. Its truly astounding.
I'm excited for the days to come, but even more excited for the next few hours of sleep. I look forward to these next few weeks. They will be some of the most life changing days I have ever experienced.
