(Kelsie) This summer

So it has obviously taken me a while to post this because i have had so much i have wanted to say! Like normal in the dewzoo this summer has been full of surprises!  As yall know i left for uganda on May 19th... on the way over there i was so excited but so scared.  i realized my heart was still at home.  i knew my mom was starting chemo while i was gone and i wanted to be home with her helping her as she started this battle.  i prayed almost the entire way from amsterdam to entebee for the Lord to focus my heart and if it took him making me completely uncomfortable to teach me then i was willing. i was reassured that he had a huge plan for me in uganda and that it was not a mistake that i was there. 

I LOVE kids and i knew my heart would break for the kids in the orphanage. I figured i would get to africa and just feel depressed for the life they were living, and the little they had.. but soon after being in uganda i realized the Lord had a much bigger truth to teach me. The Lord changed my heart to be more like the children in Bethany Village.  Their satisfaction was only found in the Lord. As my thoughts were consumed by what was going on at home with my mom, a little girl in the house i worked in came up at clung to my leg. With the biggest smile on her face she would run and play but at the end of the day go back to her house with no mom and dad and worship God through music and prayer. She was 5 years old but was no afraid to pray aloud and proclaim what the Lord has done for her.  Her prayer struck me hard.. with her eyes closed so tight and a little green dress that was ripped down the side, she thanked the Lord for blessing her with EVERYTHING she needed. She thanked him for life, protection and a house to live in. She had no parents, a couple of outfits and when it came time to eat a little bowl of food. Wow was i convicted. This little girl was teaching me truths i thought i would teach them. I thought i would tell them over and over that Jesus loves them and has a plan for each one of their lives, but she taught me with the way she lived that the Lord was completely in control and she didn't doubt that the least bit. I was immediately reminded of the verse where we are called to be like children.  (Matthew 18) Unless we turn and and humble ourselves to become like children we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  The week and a half that we had with the kids flew by.. it was so hard to leave them, but it was so amazing to observe what the Lord was doing through each of the auburn students there and the children in Bethany Village. 

After leaving Bethany Village i got sick with little did i know, parasites.  I was miserable the entire last week there, but i realized there was still a purpose for the last week there.  Passion Kampala was about to start and i had to refocus. When first getting there i experienced something that i was not planning on feeling. Walking through the field where thousands of college students would be the very next morning, i caught sight of the stage where Louis Gigglio and Francis Chan would share the gospel with the students, my eye also caught a scaffold that huge over the stage.  I felt immediately paralyzed. I couldn't walk or talk. All i felt like i could do was breath, but my breathing was fast and abnormal.  I started getting weak and had to just sit and think.  I was thankful that my doctor had made me go through some post-traumatic counseling because i remember what they told me to do when i felt paniced. I prayed and conviced myself that what happend the year before would never happen again. I was already weak from not eating and my stomach was still hurting, but it was totally a God thing that when the conference started i felt fine. The conference was such a huge thing to grasp.  It was the biggest conference that Passion had ever put on.  There were so many chances that we had to love on the people and just get to know them and pour into them. 

It was hard to make the most of the rest of the time i had in africa when i was constantly getting sick. but i got back to the states alive =) and with more that i had ever expected to learn.

sorry it took me so long, i wish i could tell yall every story! 

i love yall and cant wait to see yall so soon!!

(Patrick) Where do I start?

So like most, I am having probally the best summer of my life. I feel like I have grown up a lot and I continually grow closer to God everyday. I have the best youth group in the world to work with. We went to student life camp at the beginning of June and it was so refreshing to see God work in every single youth we had on that trip. Our youth really struggles with worshiping God and Rush of Fools did and excellent job making everyone feel comfortable with worshiping our most Awesome God. Our speaker was Darren Whitehead who was fantastic. Second night there he decided to have the sex talk with 1200 students. It was very interesting but very good and benefitial. I was able to expierence God in ways I had never expierened Him. I could feel Him working in people worshiping next to me. Our youth group after Student Life were absolutely on fire. I was really happy they were but i wanted to remain realistic and i can honestly say 4 weeks later they still desire that close relationship with Christ. I have had the chance to speak at our wednesday night a few weeks back and it went pretty well. I am also helping to lead a mens bible study with another guy and its been a real blessing to do that and teach sunday school. I really love seeing middle schoolers desiring God and high schoolers for that matter. So two weeks ago i was in Hoover and i got a call to go help teach/speak at a vacation bible school...in the bahamas so i was like yeah whoop whoop bahamas(ask taylor i was in his car when i got the call). So i of course say yes.....one problem patrick doesnt have a passport. So like im worrying because i want to go to the bahamas. So like 30 min later im like you know what God i would love to go. Simply because its the bahamas but i was like whatever You have planned im cool. If i dont get to go okay no problem i wasnt meant to go and i had a real sense of peace about it after i gave it over. I got the phonecall about 5 in the afternoon on friday so i get back home and i go to the post office at 8 o clock monday morning. I first off totally forgot my birth certificate so i had to run home and get that. So im at the post office everything i need and shes like it will take 2-3 weeks to get the passport even if you expedite it. So i am like okay im ordering it i have 15 business days to get it so we shall see. Long story short i get my passport in 7 DAYS!! God totally performed a miracle for me. So sunday I am leaving for the Bahamas. Recently i feel like God wants me to pursue another major/career and i feel like God is going to reveal that while im in the Bahamas so if you would just pray that He will reveal my future. Right now i think im suppose to be a missionary pastor. So we shall see, goodbye to the fisheries hello i dunno. I will be speaking the 20th of july so be praying my message will plant seeds and God will move me out of the way. Sorry this was so long. Just alot has happend and i barely told the half of it. So thats whats going on in Montgomery. I miss all of yall and I am praying for everyone.
Peace.

(catherine) chaotic weeks never end in Virginia:

Hey y'all!!!

So as trey said, super summer was just phenomenal! it was such a great week and we were able to make impacts in so many lives. I got to be the one to pray with the little girl that came down on monday night (treys night). She was just precious and i felt blessed to be the one to get to pray with her. It was such a wonderful experience! I think we should talk to the edge realtors about investing in a mud-volleyball court! it was awesome! really really gross afterwards but so much fun! the kids loved it and all the leaders did too! Well you would think after a week as stressful as super summer we would get some time to just relax and breathe and clear our heads but this week is VBS and trey and i are supposed to be "helping in rec" but we also have to write camp curriculum and trey has to edit 7 camp videos and we have to call like 150 kids for the baptism service we will be having in a couple of weeks! So, no time for rest. We are also leaving next monday for Orlando where we will be participating in SLU which is a leadership conference. I'm really really excited about it! Apparently we will be going into all the underbellies of sea world and things like that to see how it all works and stuff! I'm pumped. Pluse we get to spend like a whole lot of free time just at the theme parks hanging out and having fun! Camp is quickly approaching and we still need kids to sign up so keep that in y'alls prayers! Well that about sums up life here! I miss y'all so so soooooo much and cant wait til our joyous rejoining!!!!!

Love y'all!
catherine

(trey): Exhausted from an Exciting Week

Well it is Thursday afternoon and I am just plain tired. Last night was the last night of our Super Summer event. Let me just say that it was an incredible week. I will give you a quick synopsis of what the event is. Basically it is a three night event of team competitions and worship services and fun. There are ten color teams competing for points. Teams earn points by winning competition and games, team spirit, bribing the judges (we are the judges and our offices are overflowing with goodies and snacks), and the points were earned by bringing first time guests. We had prizes for team and individual winners. Every member of the team with the most of the points at the end of the week received a $50 gift card to the mall. For every guest a student brought their name went in a drawing for a iPod Touch and $100 iTunes gift card. And the student who brought the most friends won a brand new iMac Laptop computer. (I know, crazy right.) Monday night was water games and it was also the night that I was speaking. We had about 150ish students show up (that was about what we had the last night of super summer last year). I was really excited about getting to deliver the gospel to so many kids that night. One girl came forward at the end of the night to accept salvation. (I was pumped!) Tuesday night was Wiener Thon. Tuesday is also the night we have parent prayer meeting in the morning. This meant that I came in to work at 6:30 and did not leave until about 11:30. The third rendition of the Wiener Thon was the best one yet. The kids loved it. As much as I love the Wiener Thon, it is very stressful to put together. Wednesday is our finale where we have a giant Mud Volley Ball Tournament. The Last night we had around 285 students in attendance (which is incredible). We had 150 first time visitors and 14 public professions of faith. So all in all I will say that it was a huge success that I was proud to be apart of. But now am just exhausted.
I hope all is well for each of you. I miss all of you and am really looking forward to the fall.

surrendered to Grace
trey

(griffin) here i go

Hey this is gonna be really short, but i will try to tell some more next week...
But i am leaving now to go back to Texas. i will be there for 9 weeks.

Here's my address:

Soapy's Friend (that's my camp name)
Pine Cove Outback Camp
1123 Creekwood Lane
Columbus, TX 78934

i love y'all and will see you in AU!
griff

I finally got a job (byrd)

i wasnt going to write till i finally settled in. so three weeks into summer i finally found a full time job in construction. Its with Russo Corperation. My dad's brother grew up with  the owner an somehow he knows Bill Sanford real well. Im excited they do site prep work and drilling pilons. for the girls that means that they get the land ready for the building to go up, and they also drill big holes that they fill with concrete for the foundation. Im going to be working 8 to 10 hours a day monday through friday. i also am working on the weekends at west marine. Its a boating, watersports, and fishing store. its fun i get a good discount on stuff. which leads me to the important part.

THE BOAT

Shes coming along quite nicely. weve got the frame completely done hope fully will start the plywood planking soon. its made some changes in design so it will look better. i cant wait to get back t auburn and go off the first weekend on lake martin. the pictures are on facebook if you want to see what it looks like now. Its going to be fun. 

But good luck to everyone one that im not going to see till august and to those in town im hungry lets go eat.

im going to pull a taylor and end this post in greek

      

to God be the glory

William Byrd

(catherine) Prayers and updates

Hey guys! I know it wasn't that long ago that I left a post, but we are here at work already because we have Tuesday morning (6am) parents prayer meeting! Keep in mind I live 30 minutes away so on a normal Tuesday I'm up at 4:30! (this was not the case today because I forgot to set my alarm!) But anyways! How is everyone? I miss y'all soooooo much! Girls I really miss y'all because I have NO girls my own age to hangout with during my free time. I can say that listening to the drama of all the middle school girls just reminds me how much I do not miss those years! hahah! I taught the 8th grade girls on Sunday morning and they are all so sweet and just eager to learn but apparently just don't have anyone to model after (because all of the leaders are parents) but I've really been able to get connected with some of the girls and I'm so pumped to see how our relationships over the summer help them (and me) grow in Christ. Trey is speaking tomorrow night so everyone be in prayer for him! Our kids are extremely apathetic and maybe Trey can just ignite a spark in them. We'll see! We are starting preparations for Super Summer which is three nights of games and fun and Trey, Ben, and John Paul will each speak one night. Pray that lots of kids show up so that they will get excited about our ministry here and will want to come to camp! Anyways.....I hope everyone is doing well! I can't wait to hear about everyone's adventures and such! I love y'all!