mynameistownsend

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reblog and make a wish! this was removed from tumbrl due to “violating one or more of Tumblr’s Community Guidelines”, but since my wish came true the first time, I’m putting it back. :)

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"Soli Deo Gloria" translation: Glory to God alone. Designed by Nick D’Amico (@designbydiamond).

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How I got to Kairos?

Since my first summer at Illahee, I always said I would own camp. I started going to Camp Illahee the summer of 2003, when I was going into 4th grade. I went to the August 2-week session for 4 years (2003, 2004, 2005, 2007) before moving up to the July 4-week session (2008, 2009, 2010), where I received my 5-year pinetree pin in 2008. After my first summer at Illahee, I knew I wanted to be a counselor, so I continued on with my Illahee years and became a JC (2011). In 2012, I resisted the typical "spend your summer before college at home" and was a counselor for 6 weeks, and received my second-year staff CI pin. I came back for my third year on staff, tenth year all together, in 2013 and was a counselor on Heigh-Ho for 7 weeks!

After receiving my CI ring at final campfire, I left the next day with my campers for a new adventure, serving on Summer Staff at Young Life's Castaway Club for a month. At this point, I consider that month at Castaway to be THE best month of my life. It was an experience in which I got to see Christ's love and purpose for us in pure form - serving his children and shining his light! It was an incredible experience and it led to my first thoughts of a career in ministry. 

Since the end of last summer, I've been through a lot of change. I struggled for a long time with my membership in Kappa Delta, my roommate and best friend decided to transfer schools, I felt lonely a lot, I grew close to people who just graduated, I struggled with a lot of friendship issues... It was a hard year.

In about October, after talking with the director of Illahee, I decided not to apply for a counselor position that summer. I had already applied for internships at YL camps before I talked to her, but it was more because I didn't know what I wanted to do. Not being at Illahee for a summer is one of the hardest decisions I have ever made. Illahee has such a special place in my heart - I am a camp girl, born and raised. Camp broke my shell, taught me things I wouldn't have learned anywhere else, instilled in me a love for mountains, and helped me to grow in so many ways. It took me a long time to actually accept that I wouldn't be back in the Heavenly this summer.

Over Christmas break this past year, I met up for coffee with my friend, Taylor (who I met through Illahee - she was a counselor when I was a camper). Taylor works in the Culturally Engaged (missions) department at Grace Church. We talked a lot about college, entering the real world, life adventures, and she told me about her experience with Kairos. At the end of our Coffee Underground date, she said "I'll send you the link for Kairos! Just take a look at it!"

A few weeks later, I received the link and decided to apply.

At this point, I was still waiting to hear back from one YL camp internship and also from summer staff opportunities. I submitted my application for Kairos overly-eager in the beginning of February. A few weeks later, I found out that I was declined by all of the YL internships, and was a little bit nervous not knowing what I was doing in the summer. However, the more time went on, the more I wanted to do Kairos. I actually had to start really praying that I would be okay and happy if I didn't get the internship at Grace. 

About the middle of February, I got an email with the subject line Summer Staff position available! I started reading this email while I was at work at Fike pool and I think my heart literally skipped a beat. I was offered a summer staff position at Young Life's Malibu Club. If you're not involved with young life, let me tell you about Malibu. It's a Young Life camp in British Columbia and it's the camp that pretty much every young-life-er wants to go to. It's incredibly beautiful, in the middle of a lake, in the mountains. It's a dream. As I continued to read, it said, If you are unable to serve during this time, please let us know within 24 hours of receiving this email. Cue the skipping heart beat again. I had not heard from Grace at all, except for the fact that they received my application, and if I accepted this summer staff position I wouldn't be able to do the Kairos internship. 

I was in high-stress mode the entire rest of the day, going over every possible situation, praying constantly, and trying to get in touch with friends/mentors/Grace staff that could potentially help me out. After talking with my friend, Bekah (who is involved with Young Life and did Kairos last summer), my roommate, and some family members, I had come to a decision - one that I really had felt in my gut the whole time. 

I decided to turn down Malibu. Every YL person I told (tell) that to thinks I'm crazy, especially since that was a for-sure opportunity and Kairos was still just a hope. But I knew that if I was offered both right then and there, I would without a doubt pick Kairos over Malibu. Kairos just seemed like such an incredible experience, a summer full of growth and learning, and like nothing I had ever done before. 

About a week later, I received an email from Kelly Muth, telling me I had an interview for Kairos! I drove from Clemson to Grace Church one afternoon to hang out with Chrystie Cole for an hour. It was awesome and I just felt really calm during the whole time I was talking to her. All I could do then was wait.

About a month later, and the day before my birthday, I unexpectedly got an email on my way to class - I was offered a position with the Kairos internship at Grace!

Looking back on the past year - my decision of not returning to Illahee, declination from Young Life camps, and turning down Malibu - I am so confident that the Lord really wants me at Grace this summer! He has been so faithful in my summer plans over the past year, and I feel affirmation from Him daily that this is where I'm supposed to be. 

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I'm back in America and I have my priorities straight. Hooray for the Lord's chicken!

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in my natural state (at red light district)

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Weekend 2: Adventures in PARIS

Upon booking a train and hostel for Paris, I had already judged Paris. I knew Paris would be great and so fun, but I honestly thought it was overrated and just another tourist destination. It’s definitely a tourist destination, but boy oh boy I did not know what I was getting into with Paris! It was such a wonderful, exciting adventure and what made it more fun was getting it done in TWO days.

DAY ONE IN PARIS! Chandler, Rachel, Olivia, Brynne and I began our trip departing from the Citadines at 5:30am and headed to the train station. We easily found our platform and were aboard our 1 hour and 22 minute journey to Paris! When we arrived in Paris, we took our luggage to the St. Christopher’s Inn hostel that we stayed in and bought a locker to store our packs until we could check in at 2pm. We stayed at St. Christopher’s in Barcelona, and knew that they served free breakfast until 10… Seeing that it was only 8:30 and we are poor college kids, we obviously enjoyed the free breakfast – this St. Christopher’s even had tiny packets of Nutella (Me and Olivia’s favorite)! We bought a 2-day metro pass and all “accidentally” bought children’s passes… whoops? We quickly decided our first destination had to be the Eiffel Tower, so we eagerly boarded the metro (our other new best friend in every city) and practically ran off of our stop. One of the funniest moments of Paris was every one of us fan-girl screaming as we rounded the corner and saw the incredible monument for the first time! Of course, right when we unloaded cameras and cell phones to take pictures, it started raining on us. We quickly found shelter in a nearby café, however after deciding only one of us was getting something, they kicked us out. Yes, they literally told us to leave. We decided to go back and get a discounted lunch at the hostel, and wait out our check with free wi-fi. We enjoyed a delicious lunch, quickly checked in, unloaded and finally left the hostel for the day around 2:30pm, map in tow (the map was our BEST FRIEND in Paris, no lie). We went back to the Eiffel tower, and got to see it in all it’s sunshiny state – beautiful as ever. It still doesn’t feel real that I saw the Eiffel tower in person. After standing in awe and taking pictures and walking all around for about 45 minutes, we headed toward the Arch de Triomphe on foot. In hindsight, we decided we should have just hopped on the metro real quick, but we’ll come back to that. The arch de triomphe was awesome – Possibly my favorite view in Paris, and definitely one I want to know more about! It was incredible and so big and just really really awesome.

We then ventured down Avenue des Champs Élysées (great for window shopping). We stopped in two stores: the Disney store (I mean, how could you not? They were playing Frozen…) and McDonalds. McDonalds, you ask? We had heard that McDonalds sells macaroons, and why would you not try a McDonalds macaroon? Olivia and I got chocolate (our first macaroon), and for McDonalds they were good!!!

 We continued walking and passed the Grand and Petite palaces, walked by the Seine River, and found the Jardin de Tuilières (suggestion of Roland). We casually strolled through the gardens, which brought us to the Louvre! It was around 6:30, so we didn’t go inside, but we saw it in the most beautiful light and it’s HUGE. After lots of selfies with the Louvre, we were in search for the Ponts de Arts, commonly known as the lock bridge. This bridge has THOUSANDS of locks covering the sides with people’s names and honestly there are all kinds of crazy things on that bridge. At this point, we were all past the hangry stage and bickering to decide where to eat (everything is expensive in Paris). We finally picked a pizza/pasta place. I got some lasagna – so good. The waiter was weirdly flirting with us the whole time (he called Rachel “amore” and meowed at her, and called Olivia “Barbie,” and asked us all if we had boyfriends) and we think he may have ripped us off a few bucks – adding to our tired and grumpy states as we left the restaurant. We made one last night stop at the Eiffel tower – SO SO BEAUTIFUL at night. It was amazing. We were all cold and tired, and it was around 10:30pm – keep in mind we had been walking all day long. We made it back to the hostel and headed straight to bed.

DAY TWO IN PARIS! We started our day with another free hostel breakfast, where I stole about 10 packets of Nutella… Anyways, we started our day hopping on the metro, like always. After going through the gate, there were police checking metro tickets… Remember how I said we “accidentally” bought children’s metro passes? Well, we all made it through the ticket check, except for Rachel. Thankfully, the officer let her slide with the “I’m an American, I can’t read French” excuse. Without thoughts of turning back, we scurried onto the metro and headed to Notre Dame Cathedral. It was so beautiful on the outside, and the inside of it was stunning. The stained glass was enchanting and the images of different bible stories were hauntingly beautiful. My favorite part of the cathedral was the small pool of water in the back of the chapel that said, “I am the way which seeks travelers” in English, French, Spanish, and Latin on the sides. Like I said, hauntingly beautiful. We then set out to find Pierre Hermé, which is said to be the best macaroon shop in Paris. I was going to bring a box home to my family, but they told us it only lasted 4 days refrigerated (sorry fam). I tried three flavors – milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and salted caramel.

Wherever Chandler read that this was the best, they were correct. The macaroons literally melted in my mouth and we all wanted more after speedily eating them. Olivia and I wanted to go into Musée D’Orsay (more impressionist museum), so we headed in there to explore, while the other half of our crew started exploring the Louvre. We spent about an hour exploring Musée D’Orsay and decided to cross the canal and go to the Louvre. As Olivia and I walked up and saw the long line to get in, an American couple walked up to us, held up two tickets, and gave them to us for free! The couple told us that they don’t even scan your tickets or anything, so you can just walk in with any ticket – aka we got into the Louvre in 30 seconds, no lines, no money, we just walked in! Talk about a blessing!!!! We couldn’t believe the kindness of those people and wished we had gotten their names or something to thank them!!! We walked straight to the Mona Lisa, which was surrounded by a crowd of people, then met up with the other half of our crew! We went to the French paintings section, then Olivia and I explored the ancient Egyptian art (my favorite). I saw a statue of Ramses II, King Tut, the sphinx, and lots of other cool things I learned about in high school history and latin classes! I actually love history so I very very very much enjoyed this! Our next stop (and top priority for me) was Angelina! Roland suggested Angelina to me before I left for Europe and told me about the old fashioned hot chocolate, and if you know me, you know I was immediately sold. We only had to wait outside for about 10 minutes, and were seated in Angelina just as it started raining. I ordered chocolat l’africain (old fashioned hc) and a ham and cheese omelet (my dinner). They also gave us FREE WATER!!!! This is a rarity in Europe, so we were excited. The hot chocolate came in a small pitcher with teacups and whipped cream, and it literally tasted like chocolate soup. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. Breakfast is my favorite meal, and I could have it at any point in the day, so my omelet was perfect too!

After dining at Angelina, we walked off our chocolate with a stroll down Rue St. Honoré – a suggestion from Mrs. Wagner, “great for window shopping.” After another long day filled with walking around Paris, we headed back to the hostel. Chandler, Brynne, and I grabbed our backpacks, said goodbye for a few days to Rachel and Olivia and headed to the train station to return to Brussels. We were running a little bit late leaving the hostel, so we were hastily walking through the streets of Paris. Our train left at 8:55 and when we got off the metro, it was 8:45 and we had no idea where we were going. I had joked to Chan earlier saying that we should run through the train station just to say we did, but when it came down to it, we had no choice, so we ran. We could not have looked more like tourists than we did at that moment (maybe with the exception of the fan-girl scream at the Eiffel tower). After directions from about 5 different random people, we made it to the platform with 3 minutes to spare, found our seats, and were shortly told that because of technical difficulties the train would be delayed 15 minutes… You could say that we were a little bitter. Dripping with sweat on the small, hot train, we laughed at the irony and decided this was another memory that we would soon be fond of. 

The train ride passed by quickly, thanks to a good ole quality time chat with Chan across the aisle and we were back in Brussels around 10:45. We decided to take it slow back to the Citadines, but arriving in our room crashed. It was great. 

We slept in this morning, showered, and headed out to find a place that had free wifi for a day of basically doing nothing. It’s been great. Chan and I found a church that we may go to in the morning and are enjoying time in a coffee shop? Paint store? We’re not really sure where we are, but they have tea and cappuccinos and free wifi so we are happy. We have until Monday off, so we plan on exploring another city in Belgium at some point this weekend. Updates to come soon. Only 10 days left here – It’s flying by!

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Week 2 in Brussels

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Need your help!

Every spring break, Clemson FCA takes a group of students to a city to do mission work for a week! This year, along with over 400 students, I will be traveling to Cincinnati, OH to do construction work! Please support our trip through prayer and monetary donations. Our goal is $700!!!

Click this link: http://www.gofundme.com/79ei04

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thanks for sharing Wendy with us today, @brittanywilson23! (at The Ridge)

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zeal & reproach

"For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me." - Psalm 69:9

A few days ago, I was reading in John 2 and was referenced to this verse. I had heard the word "zeal" before, but I didn't really know what it meant. So I looked it up (thank you google).

Zeal: enthusiastic devotion, tireless diligence in its furtherance, eager desire or endeavor

Well isn't that just one of the coolest words. And no one uses it anymore. This one word spoke to me so much and filled me with joy for the rest of the day. I wrote in my journal, asking the Lord to fill me with zeal for Him. 

I also looked up "reproach."

Reproach: expression of disapproval or disappointment

So basically, the verse in Psalms says, "Tireless diligence in furtherance of your house has consumed me, and the disapproval towards you is disapproval toward me."

Just some food for thought.

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I spent today climbing boulders with my sister (at Moss Rock)

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as sure as the sun will rise, His mercy will not end (at W Main Street - Walhalla, SC)