The News

Hello everyone and welcome to the promised blog post. In it is some news, some fundraising stuff, and a look into my life here in Gainesville.

It’s only been about 11 days since being here, but I’ve changed in ways I didn’t expect to. For one, I’ve learned that sleeping outside is preferable to sleeping inside even when it rains; I’ve learned how to knock spiders off my tent.

(It’s easy. Just take a stick and whack them.)

I think so far the biggest thing I’ve learned is that I can find Jesus anywhere. Right now it takes some looking, but in Colorado it was easy. In other countries I’m sure it will also be easy because Jesus is among the poor and destitute and that’s our objective. But here, I don’t know anything other than where I’m allowed to go. I don’t know the paths in the forest (pretty sure I walked onto someone else’s property today) and I don’t know which creatures are poisonous and which are not.

But what I do know is that God has said we will not go anywhere He won’t go. And that brings me immense comfort. Even if it doesn’t feel like it, He’s with me and I’m not alone.

Aside from the fuzzy caterpillars and unknown woods, life here has a routine that I was missing after getting out of school and while I may not enjoy everything on it, I’m glad to have structure to my day.

Here’s what a typical day for me looks like:

7:00AM – wake up, get ready

7:45AM – be at the dining patio for breakfast

8:00AM – breakfast

9:00AM – devotionals

10:00AM – inside for worship together

11:00AM – end worship and go into session for the day

12:00PM – lunch

1:30PM –

Exercise and shower (Monday)

Laundry (Tuesday)

Cleaning and Showers (Wednesday)

Exercise (Thursday)

Shower (Friday)

And free time after these are done until…

5:30PM – Dinner!

6:30PM – Team Time (these can be debriefs about the things we’ve learned during the day, playing games, or learning something new together)

7:30PM – Free time

10:00PM – Quiet hours (we have neighbors, and they aren’t thrilled about having 350 18 year olds on campus and being loud at all hours of the night, so we’ve got to be quiet until 8AM. Everyone takes the hint and goes to bed around this time.)

You’ve noticed that on that list, Sundays and Saturdays aren’t on there! That’s because those are both Sabbath days, to rest and rejuvenate both your body and soul by sleeping in and spending the day with the Lord.

I went on a walk today in the forest and ran with the Lord. Sometimes you don’t need to have a conversation. Being with Him is more than enough.

I did get lost, though, I think, because I don’t know my way around the hiking trails yet, so when it comes to my re-hike on Thursday I’m not sure how I’ll find my way around.

Yep, you read that right. My re-hike is Thursday afternoon, and this time I’m hoping I’ll be better suited to take it and make it this time. Pray for me this week and also Thursday around 3pm EST, cause that’s when it’ll be happening.

I’m really nervous. But this time, I’ll have my entire team with me. Let me introduce you!

The girl in the pink dress on the floor is Alex. Then there’s me on the left in the blue shirt, and then it’s Grace in the red skirt, Esther with the short hair and striped sweater, Hannah next to her, Kate as second-to-last, and Abi with the curly hair. All these girls have been supportive of me from day one, and I love them all so much already.

Collectively, we’ve decided to call our team “Team ζαo”. It’s Greek, because nobody could decide what we wanted in Hebrew, and then the guy’s team took a Latin name, and then another girl’s team took a Spanish name, and then the last team is regular English.

Our team name means ‘to enjoy real life: active, blessed, and endless in the kingdom of God.” I thought it was pretty cool! It’s pronounced ‘zoh’ and spelled as Zao in English.

The guy’s team is Quo Vadis, meaning ‘where are you going?’ Then we’ve got team Mesa, which means table and it’s got a meaning to it that I don’t know yet, then the last is team Fervent.

I have pictures of my leaders, but my camera won’t connect to my laptop so I can’t upload the photos of them. But when I get it working, they’ll be in the next blog post.

Last night, we got to sleep inside since there was a huge rainstorm coming in. And then, it turned out to be just a normal rainstorm. But I’m not complaining about getting to sleep in a bug-free, air conditioned environment.

The thing the Lord has been teaching me recently is that I need to be more vulnerable with Him. I’ve made some pretty bad mistakes recently and I was really feeling guilty about it and was subsequently searching for God here even though He’s been with me the whole time. So, He’s been teaching me that I am still wholly loved and wanted past all that I’ve done. He doesn’t give His heart to me in pieces.

I even danced with Him earlier during worship today. ?? A legitimate slow dance. It was really cool, and made me feel super loved. He even dressed up! (But I think He always does that.)

And that’s about it for the update on how life is going. Now, onto the fundraising!! I have some good news for you all!

Literally!

As of right now, I am selling shirts and sweaters I’ve designed in order to help out some more with fundraising. The link can be found here! -> https://www.bonfire.com/proclaim-the-good-news/

I designed them myself with input from the On High- obviously.

A shirt is $25 and a sweatshirt is $36 and they come in a variety of different colors.

Some other news is that my Keys for the Journey fundraiser is still going on for the entire month of September. I know when I last talked about this I said it was only for the month of August but there were some empty slots left and I was offered a continuation for this month. If you haven’t gotten yours, be sure to check it out!

I’ll update you all on what happens after Thursday’s re-hike. Please pray for me about that specifically because that’s probably the thing I’m most worried about right now.

If anyone wants to send me letters and not packages, email me and I’ll hit you up with the mailing address.

Otherwise, I’ll catch you later!

– Sophia